Davide

(I wish I could delete comments)

It finally happened. I had been wondering what it would take to make Dean no longer be in denial. In the end, there was a confluence of factors that contributed, including the bonding over opposite, but both sad, father stories. This sucks for Leah, but Kris is who Dean really likes, now that he admits it to himself. But the information she has can mistakenly make it look like he was leading her on from the start to hide he's gay, which would make her feel even worse.

For a moment, near the start of the chapter, I thought I was going to read a straight sex scene. Crisis averted!

Dean is almost there, he knows he's lying to himself. But, despite that, he still clings to the lie. He needs some external factor to give him a push, since it seems he's no capable of breaking through the denial alone. Maybe meeting Kris again will do it, but it could also mess him up more.

What does HRT mean in this context? Because it sure as hell doesn't mean "hormone replacement therapy". I agree with everyone asking for a scene of Elenor getting chewed on. The guys who kidnapped Josh talked to a woman called Officer Park who told them to stop what they were doing, and we saw a Naomi Park, which is presumably the same person. That means there's some kind of communication issue, it could orders that not everyone is aware off, someone impersonating CIA to give orders that fit their agenda, orders wrongly given because of the confusion with the Cerberus situation, or who knows what else.

I was getting worried you'd abandon this story but, with two chapters posted in consecutive, it's nice to see we're back. I'd have understood, although unhappily, if Elenore was simply sceptical. But she went further than that, she isn't unsure, her mind is made up that Josh is a fraud in her eyes. And that enabled him to get kidnapped by the bad guys. "And yesterday afternoon—when you thought no one was watching—you stood up from the couch without bracing yourself. Perfectly smoothly.” I think Elenore probably saw the other Josh take over, but there's no way Josh can explain why he only needs the cane most of the time. Maybe Josh being kidnapped will give us some answers, although answers probably come with more questions.

There's one piece of information that appears on a Medellín story blurb in a @LittleBuddhaTW blog post that's not part of the blurb here in the story itself. I avoided the topic this time but, until it's revealed in the story, I'll resort to spoiler tags later if I want to talk about things where knowing the spoiler can influence my opinion.

That example makes me think of my own country, except for the sex-crazed part. About 80% of the population of Portugal is Catholic (according to a census) but same-sex marriage has been legal here since 2010. And not via a court decision, like in the US, it was approved in the parliament.

Interesting premise, but it's hard to judge until we see more. This episode mostly did the necessary work of setting the stage by telling us about Hunter, Medellín and the school. He's a very different character from Nick from SftF ("I “dated” too many boys, slept with most on the first night, ghosted more than I’ll admit, always chasing the next hit I swore would fix me. It never did."), but similar in some ways in that there's a dead parent and an aspect of mental health ("Deep down, I was running from guilt, anxiety, depression; from the emptiness of wanting something real and wrecking it anyway."). I'm surprised that the word tinto refers to a type of coffee in Colombia, considering the same word refers to red wine in Spain (also in Portugal, my country, but that's not relevant as we don't speak the same language). I like to learn about differences between different versions of a language or similar languages.

A story prologue providing a historical and political background, that's definitely very different from Swing for the Fences. I like it when authors write different things, I'm interested in seeing where this will go. And you definitely have the background knowledge to write about Medellín from personal experience with the city.

That's great news about Tommy, I really like that character. I hope it means he manages to somehow go to Harrison West. It would be funny if he got a scholarship for this year and didn't tell Nick to surprise him when they run into each other there. As for Noah, I'm curious to see him get explored more. He knows he acted wrong, but his attempt at correcting himself was still pretty bad. So he has much to improve, if he's willing to. And of course I'm happy we're getting more Miss Charice. But that's still months away and, in the meantime, I'm interested to see your writing of what's surely a very different story, Medellín.

“'You don’t give yourself enough credit, you know that?' [...] 'Yeah, and that’s the problem,' Ethan said. 'You’re always doing. Never just… being.'” Ethan really has Kris figured out, he should follow that advice. That was already clearly a date, even before Kris found out it's a gay bar. I think he didn't want to believe it because he's so used to good things not happening to him that he doesn't want to hope. That's the same reason he doesn't let himself get excited that the interview went well, life taught him to be cautious until he's certain. "It was easier to be someone you’re not than admit to someone you are. He’d learned that a long time ago from his father, from this town, from every bruise that reminded him that softness was weakness. There were no rewards for honesty, no medals for truth. Only judgment, only pain." Dean's father really did a number on him. He's be afraid to show anything that could lead to a negative reaction, because of his frame of reference is how his father used to react. But he needs to break away from those thoughts for his own good.

I already commented on the chapter, but now I have thoughts about the future. I feel sad for Tommy that he doesn't go to Harrison West. Partially because of the better education, but especially because a long distance relationship with someone at a boarding school is difficult. Also because I'd like to see more of him. Nick avoided picking swimming because Noah is there, but we were told Noah will appear more in the sequel. I wonder if Nick will have the unpleasant discovery that Nick is also in one of his clubs, maybe the Gay Straight Alliance.

This story is about gay teenager going to a new school. But it explores the themes in it's own way, avoiding feeling repetitive of other stories in this genre. The aspects that stand out for me is how introspective the story gets at times and it dealing with mental health.

I like the Tommy-Jonah situation, it's great to see a character who thought he straight be willing to open to going on a date with a guy and see what he feels. I'm looking forward to the Extra Innings focused on them. The section where Nick thinks back to the ways himself and Jack grew throughout this year is perfect for a final chapter. But it's also important that you had a section after that to set up the new year. This is a way to frame this as the ending of one part of the story, not a final ending.

This job interview is an amazing opportunity for Kris, that's a lot of money. But, if he doesn't get the job, I worry about the impact that would have on him mentally. Seeing the hope of escaping the financial issues of his whole life, only to see it slip, could be a lot worse than not being presented with that hope. Meanwhile, Dean in a denial, but it looks like his feelings for Kris are strong enough that he'll be forced to admit them to himself eventually.

So Christian will basically have negative free time next year. Maybe he should look into cloning himself to be able to do all that in the same year.

Good job at conveying how awkward the first time having sex can be, without going too far that the focus moves away fromthe characters' enjoyment. And I'm surprised you had Jonah feature heavily in a chapter without the story ever saying 'tiny butt'.

A gay guy loading his virginity to a gut he knows is straight is unusual. But losing it to James makes sense for Olly, he's is his oldest friend and that makes it special.

while I think what Kris did was a caring gesture, it's not something I can expect people to do, putting your own safety first can't be wrong.

Dean disappointed me in the way he reacted after kissing Kris. But those homophobic feelings were probably drilled into him young, I hope he'll manage to move past them. But Kris surprised me in a good way, most gay people would have yelled back after being called the f word. But he realised there's as aspect of self hate in Dean's sentence and tried to help him, instead, when he said "You don’t have to pretend." It's a bad timing for Kris, while he's already dealing with the emotional and financial impact of his mother being in hospital, even with the help from Ethan practically force him to take days off of work. But I hope he'll try to get through to Dean after giving him time to see if he cools down.

A great day for the group, something Nick and Jack really needed. And it's good to see how much better Jack is doing.

This is so difficult for Kris. The scare of what happened to her, him being questioned to see if he did it and worry of whether he'll be able to afford making the money they need to live by himself. Fuck!

I'm sorry to hear that you went through parts of this. Despite me saying I hoped you hadn't, I suspected writing about it this well probably required some first hand knowledge. I get you on the writing helping you through it, it makes a lot of sense, I'm glad it did. As for this story helping people, I think it can, through seeing a character recover from a hole that he thought impossible to climb out of. And your content warning should be clear enough to stop people who aren't ready to read something like this.

It always baffles me that some people who experience bigotry would themselves be the source of bigotry towards others. They experienced what it's like, that should make them more aware of the damage they can do.