Okay, the thing I'm concerned about here is the fact that, if Althea and Ulysses have already met, then there interactions here will be different -- no need for introductions, most notably. However, if this represents their first meeting, then they would have recognized and reacted to each other differently when they encountered each other in the HQ thread. Perhaps I should ignore this entirely and pretend like these events are happening in another dimension or something?
It's a sort of convention on the boards. It makes speach easy to pick out, but it also identifies the speaker. If we identify a particular color with your character, its easier at a glance to tell who's posted/speaking, as well as what's being said and what's just internal monologue or narration. Take a gander at the HQ IC thread if you want to see what others are doing in terms of post-layout.
EDIT
@ Shades of gray: Sorry, forgot to respond to your post. Yeah, 250 sounds a little more in the range of reasonability. Anyone who has a better suggestion, feel free to speak up -- I don't count myself as the best judge of these things.