Davide

My previous post doesn't actually comment on the chapter, so here goes. This is a very heavy thing for Josh to learn about, the possibility that this version of him may stop existing. Regardless of what his foggy self says, he needed for some people to know this to have them as emotional support. Plus, while I'm not saying foggy Josh is evil, his interests are probably not fully aligned with the post crash Josh. That foggy guy seems to have some kind of purpose as part of a mission, with his actions and opinions probably being based on that goal. Meanwhile, our Josh just wants to be able to live a regular life and get to explore the normal things about the world that he only remembers when he sees them. And not because of regular amnesia, his lack of memory is clearly caused by this whole weird dynamic on his head, maybe to keep some information safe by even himself not knowing it.

I just finished binging the story so far, so I didn't experience this wait. But it seems very complex to handle, I understand needing more time, I'll be patient in future waits. Take your time when you need it, but please don't abandon this story. It's way too good, that would be a shame.

Wow, the mystery keeps getting more intriguing and complex. I don't know how you keep everything straight in your head, or maybe that's part of why it took you so long to write another chapter after this one. The biometric data in the device is probably from Josh, which is probably not even his real name, btw. Other than that, I don't know where to even begin guessing.

You were having too much fun in that conversations with the Hastings. That whole back and forth was too funny. And Reed got what he deserved from Josh at the end.

I know Walter told Josh, or whatever is inside him, to keep things private. But we don't know if we can trust him or if he has Josh's best interests in mind. Whatever experiment it seems they did on Josh probably makes him a tool for something, maybe to decrypt Cerberus. Whether it's that or not, Walter's warning to keep it private may be with the interests of some mission Josh is part of in mind, which don't necessarily align with the interests of Josh on a personal level. So I think it was good idea to tell Dan, for his own sanity.

I guess nevermind the dissociative identity disorder stuff I mentioned in the previous chapter. Whatever's inside Josh's mind talking to him seems like it was put there, something programmed. And Walter is the same name as that CIA guy who's been there for ages, there's no way that's a coincidence. We've had chapters dealing with the side of things that involve the CIA stuff and chapters dealing with normal life stuff. It was nice seeing both of those in this chapter, I like the strangeness of the contrast.

I was thinking back to how Josh looked like a completely different person during that situation in the previous chapter, and now we've seen him talk to someone or himself in his head. That made wonder if Josh has dissociative identity disorder. I'll admit that most of what I know about it is from the Marvel tv show Moon Knight and I don't know how accurate it is, but the condition is real. In that show, the character has one personality that's in control most of the time, but another personality takes over sometimes. The two personalities have different skills and different knowledges, which seems similar to what we saw from Josh when he wasn't in control. So I wonder if that's what's going on in Josh's head. As for what's going on in reality in relation to the night of the incident, I have no clue, but I'm intrigued.

Wow! This changes everything.That complete shift in Josh triggered by the situation that presented itself asks so many questions. He clearly has some kind of professional level of training that's not normal for his age. And, despite his amnesia, that part of him that came out when the situation needed it remembers all that training. This story is starting to feel like a Lost type situation where we keep getting questions and answers, but then even the answers have questions. This is very much a compliment, a big one if you pull it off.

Like multiple people said, reading "Langley VA, CIA Headquarters – Morning Crisis Briefing" at the top of the chapter was a big surprise. This chapter means this is a very different story than what I initially expected. We obviously know which car that was, but the CIA will have a problem in that everything on it burned down and the only person who survive is a teenager who lost all his memories. He probably already didn't know much about whatever they were doing to begin with, but now he knows nothing. Although he may slowly start to remember things.

Between this chapter and the previous one, Josh seems to always be surprised when people do anything kind to him. It feels like he doesn't expect people to treat him well, like maybe he didn't get much of that in his life before the accident.

Your writing makes me feel the difficulty of the recovery, they was very well done. I'm raising an eyebrow on the name feeling like it doesn't fit. That combined with the lack of pictures makes it feel like there's more to it than normal amnesia feelings. I'm glad he found a family that are accepting oof gay people and even already have a gay son.

They way his internal thoughts work during this chapter was really cool. And a cute male nurse triggering a whole rainbow parade in his brain was funny.

(No one will see this comment months later and on the second page, but anyway.) Wow! That way that beginning part was written was so unique, I love it. The rest was great too, the writing was gripping. And, after later learning the extent of this teenager's injuries, it took a incredible mental strength for him to manage to drag himself out of there. The amnesia and the mystery of what lead to the accident is an interesting premise, let's see what you do with it.

What Olly did to Mack in the previous chapter was definitely wrong, he thought Mack was asleep, which would have made him unable to decide on whether to give consent. I just hope you all realize a main character doing something wrong doesn't mean the author thinks it's not wrong. Beyond this, it's hard for me to comment without giving spoilers for a later chapter.

I'm really sorry to hear about what happened to that guy, getting beaten up is awful. But I think Olly's situation is different because he didn't do this out of nowhere. Back in chapter 4, in a way that came natural in conversation, Olly said "“It’s not a prowl, it’s more like…what’s the worst thing that happens, even if I don’t know if a guy is into dudes…worst case they reject me and I’m embarrassed? Both Mack and Declan agreed with that and Declan went further by saying “I gotta broaden my strategy here, think more about doors opening that maybe I might not expect to…” This didn't guaranteed they'd be open to Olly making an advance, but I'd say it means they'd either say yes or reject him politely. Of course, if Olly got rejected once, he'd need to not make any further attempts with the same guy.

I'm way ahead of this chapter on Patreon, but I'm enjoying reading people's opinions. I also have the comments over there for that, but more is good.