I really wish I had something more eloquent or constructive to say when you write things like this, but all I can really say is that this is beautiful. I think this is one of the most beautiful things you've ever written. I could see this in my head, I was IN the room, it was all very clear but at the same time it had that capital-M Mystery about it. This seriously feels like a real ritual, and one I've experienced somehow before. (LOL at Xavier's ancestral memories from his father, I suppose.)

And I wish I could just hug you and tell you it's okay, that you're not optional or anything like that, that you aren't being a bargehound or shoehorning yourself in or anything else of that nature. I wish I could show you that you matter to Kupop. Because you prove it every time you write things like this. It's not just a simple matter of you being a really talented writer, even though you definitely are. I read this, and the other bits you've written, and it continually blows me away that these characters have been with me since I was fourteen goddamn years old, and you get them as much as I do. That you've been the missing part of the puzzle this whole time. Because you ARE. Tahran and Chrystalis have always been the ones close to me. Chrystalis moreso, even though Tahran sort of migrated to me once Jon shut the proverbial door and walked away from the 'verse (I'm not really sure why he fell out of touch, other than a very strong feeling that he thought it was time to move on and put away the "childhood" things. I dunno if that even makes sense.). But you understand Thanatos in a way I don't think I ever really did, being so close to the other two and getting him basically filtered through their thoughts and experiences and pain.

You're every bit as important to this 'verse as Trav et al. Probably even more so, because you just get it on a fundamental level that I can't explain. So fucking post to the boards already. I'll lock you in my house when you're here if I have to. :s