Ah, yes... We wrote Kota's interaction in Chpater 17 with his hangouts in mind. We had good reasons to have him as the "matchmaker" rather than Luke.
I will also say that it really hit me when I saw in action the whole scene where everyone gathers around Kota. It and the string of haikus really hit me.
Fun fact about the Hinterlands skip: For the longest time I had this idea in my mind of P and the player character talking. Sometimes (not always) I even toyed with the idea that the Hinterlands are narrated by P to the MC in a future part of the story. I don't know if we will ever go for that, but it came to mind when nanoff proposed the idea of the skip.
I like to think that there was at least half a dozen lines there that really expressed Pedro's and Oscar's relation. Writing them was a joy.