23,000

I suppose I took it as a sign that I needed to quit writing for the day when I got to a good stopping point and my word count read precisely 23,000 words. A couple things happened in this installment.

First, I decided to give Aura Man a name: Gerald. This mostly came from a random name generator after discarding several biblical names that came up. With the main good guy being Peter, I wanted to avoid having his adversary be Paul, John or Joseph.

Second, Gerald is a soldier. I knew this from the outset, but I wasn't sure how I would portray him in the story. Soldiers don't tend to check their mouths too much. I have known only a few soldiers who never swore, and they were remarkable people. (John Hamilton, this means you.)

Third, I can see that Peter is going to need some therapy to have a healthy relationship later in life. I wasn't necessarily expecting this, but I'm okay with this. This is a direct outgrowth of a slight redefinition I went through on the main bad guy. You'll find out about it later.