> ... As Vizh suggested earlier, is simply to send other folks a heads-up via e-mail, if you have something significant or potentially status-quo changing that you're planning on doing with their characters. With some stories I've written, I've traded e-mails with half the board, and bouncing ideas off of them has always helped me tell better stories, not just about their characters, but also about my own.
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...there are two problems with that.  First, because Akiko is so widely used I'd pretty much have to email the plot to everyone who will end up reading it, and then nobody will need to read it anymore.
Second, and most important right now, it's too late.  It's like releasing a surprise new product and being forced to pull it because I didn't get FCC approval, then having to apply for it, but then the market doesn't need it anymore by the time it's approved.  I know in most cases I'd have to pull it and scrap the entire thing and blame myself for "not following procedure" and causing it to be a huge failure because of it, taking the hit as the price for lack of vigilance.  I guess we'll see if that's necessary here.
Meanwhile though, ironically the reason why I was writing this story is exactly this problem.  I can't depend on the ability to use characters that both aren't really anyone's, and also have to maintain status quo all the time.  That means the Psychic Samurai will have to weaken or break those ties, and I have to give her a cast of her own that's more flexible.  Otherwise somewhere down the road, a "majority rules" decision between people who do email each other regularly will cause something permanent that will have to affect Chiaki that I have no control over and is irreversible - like she'll be tossed in the Safe with the rest of Akiko's gang someday, or Boss Deadeyes comes back to assassinate them, etc, and I'll be forced to scrap other planned stories because of it.
Anyway I'm still thinking about Part 3.  If it doesn't work out I'll have to start over with something shorter and less complicated I suppose.  We'll see.
