I was going through the notes my beta readers left me, and one mentioned “you have a tendency to monologue”, among a few other things that I won’t mention. I realized that in two cases this was actually true, but at the time it felt like it fits (and it still does, so there). So that’s a rewrite that needs to happen.
Re-reading the story after leaving it alone for three days made me realize that the ending could use a little more vim and vigor. So I brought out the Big Knife and whacked off a chunk, using the parts to craft an additional scene that I feel makes the story even better. So now I’m off to merge all the changes and suggestions, and do some rewrites to bring all of this into alignment.