B1ue

You do keep pushing this, but there's more to being in California than surfing. Will and Brad may disagree with that assesment, but we really do have it well here. And, ironically, not being properly Californian is a very strong Californian trait, probably the defining trait in fact. I will partially agree with you that JJ would more likely go out of state for school. He just had a terrible time of it in school, and may see going elsewhere a chance at a fresh start out from his brother's shadows. But...won't his homeschooling make going to university at all pretty difficult? Especially if he's homeschooled all through High School?

Brad has been with Robbie exclusively for how long? And before he met Robbie, AIDS wasn't yet an issue. Of course condoms aren't on the top of his mind. Now, Cody and Kevin have much less reason to forget them, so each of them gets a black mark. The E actually doesn't bother me, at least not more than the pot does. All the same to me, and apparently to them. I did like this chapter, Mark. It's perhaps inevitable that the Drew tangent ended like it did, but I'd have liked to see him one mroe time before he departed. Leaving a note like that is kind of lame. He should have let Jeanine and Will drive him to his parent's house, so they could make sure he was okay.

Thanks for the kind words. I think brother incest doesn't bother me much because I have no brothers of my own, so the idea is not really real to me. Not sure why my mind came up with this particular scenario, but there it is.

When methodwriter said Will was a surfer, he probably should have capitalized it. He is at 13 evaluated to be near professional level by a couple people who know what they're talking about. So surfing, if he kept progressing in skill, wouldn't be a hobby as much as a part-time career by the time he gets into college, and so worthy of consideration in line with the academics of his school. There's always grad school for prestige, after all. And Caltech bears thinking on, though I'm not sure how he'd feel about Pasadena. Edit: to answer completely Tommy, it was Cal. UCLA did reject me, but as it was my last choice school I was not exactly put out by it. I also got into Davis and of course UCSB, and of course several out of state schools. Actually, I somewhat regret not going to Loyola, though Katrina would have placed a slight damper on my senior year anyways. I did not go to Cal ultimately because I took one look at the reccomended schedule they gave me along with the rest of the information about the program I'd been accepted into, and asked my science teacher (who'd been the one pushing me and pushing for me), "This looks great and all, but when will I have time to pee?"

Been a while, eh? I'm actually good for hugging at the moment, but feel a bit down. Work is work, I am being pushed to accept a promotion I don't really want and in the meantime doing a lot of extra work because we're short a trained person. Plus, working the night shift wears me out. Also, there were a lot of somewhat depressing chapters released this week, and the combination of all that has me feeling gloomy. I plan to reread the entirety of The Ordinary Us, in hopes that will get me over it. Tommorow, I will hope for sunnyish weather and possibly a trip to a mall. As you might have guessed, I also had a dream this afternoon that weighs heavy on my mind. I was tempted to try and turn it into a story, but the protagonist needs work. To set the stage, imagine a 16 year old sophomore with two older brothers from different marriages (I think they may have been fraternal twins, but didn't look a lot alike, so here I change things) and a best friend, all four of whom are on the high school wrestling team. Imagine this kid, gay of course, got introduced to gay sex his freshman year when his older brothers took him and his friend aside one afternoon and "initiated" them into their JV captaincy. "The JV team always helps out the varsity, whatever we need," Mike, the eldest brother says, as he enters the boy Peter. The middle brother Aaron just grunts as he enjoys the best friend, whom everyone calls by his last name Larenwood (name is straight from my dream, and was spelled out several times, so I'm going to go with it). This incident has a lasting effect on Peter, who in addition to starting to mess around with Larenwood on an occasional basis, does everything in his power to ensure he is not placed on varsity for his sophomore year. He succeeds brilliantly, and plays it just well enough that he's made co-captain again. Larenwood, however, is placed on varsity, doing so well that the cocaptaincy for the first time is shared by three guys, and I'm betting you can all figure out who they are. None of this is earth shattering, yet, but Peter is a bit put out to be isolated from all three guys he's at all close to. Especially when Larenwood puts a complete stop on their sex games, and further starts coming to their house to be with his older brothers much more often than he wants to be around Peter, and all three begin excluding him more and more. By February, Peter is openly hostile to them all, Mike above all, whom he had openly idolized before all this. They are very confused, but assume whatever it is he'll get over. On Valentines Day, Aaron attempts to reconcile a little bit, partly because of that confusion, but mostly because he's horny and hopes Peter might be up for some fun. "You seemed to enjoy it those times last year." "f**k off." "Aw, come on, don't be like that. Help your brother out, please? I'm hurting bad, and Mike is all off with his boyfriend, so neither of them are interested in anything but each other." Peter snaps his head up, quite surprised, and then realizes what has happened without his noticing. "It's that f**king son of a bitch Larenwood, isn't it?" "Um, duh. They've been dating for months now. Where've you been?" "On my own, since you all dumped me!" "No we didn't, you've just been off on your own." Aaron realizes the stupidity of this statement. "Alright, maybe we have been a bit caught up, but those two have kind of been romancing each other, and all couples go crazy into each other when they first start out. They're opening up, why, they've let me play along since New Years. Mike said he wanted a little variety, and Larenwood is just too sexy to resist." Aaron smiles. "But like I said, they're busy. I was thinking about those times last year though, and how sexy you are too, and I just thought, if you were into it..." Peter punches Aaron. He's actually a fair bot stronger than his older brother, so Aaron goes down cursing, but bright enough not to get up. By the time he's able to see straight again, Peter has already left the room. Thirty minutes later, he's packed up and left the house entirely, not willing to spend another second in a place where the two boys he always loved and always lusted after only have eyes for each other, and didn't even want him for a pity f**k. --- Edited to add: The actual scene in the dream was very quick, almost totally the conversation with Aaron, but with a bit of flashback mixed in. And one scene later, which I didn't explicate, of Peter running away to live with his Aunt and Uncle, and somehow convincing them to put him up without alerting his brothers, though his mom gets a telephone call. Maybe they'd seen he was being excluded, too, and made an offer over Christmas? My actual problem that I had was motivation. What does the character want, but would resolve this conflict? While I was still dreaming, I couldn't see any way for him to win. That frustration truly ruined my morning coffee, let me tell you. I've since teased it out in my head a bit, but I'm still unsure how it would translate into a story. Still got some things to think about, I suppose.

I think after reading The Enchantment Emporium, you can be forgiven for making gross inuendos about your family. I liked it well enough, but you're right the Smoke series was better. My sister has stolen my copy, but I spent much of the book wondering if Allie's best friend had at some point in their past hooked up with her brother. I think Ryan was my favorite character though, nearly tied with Auntie Ruby, and all the Aunties in fact.

Rory from Desert Dropping. A shorter guy with a swimmer's build and an angular face sounds kind of my speed. Not sure how short he'd remain of course, if both of his parent's were tall. I like his voice-cameo in "Hello Stupid" too, suprised though I was that he was still with Seth.

Yeah, that was pretty much the weekend at UCSB. We weren't called the University of Casual Sex and Beer for nothing. And Tommy, I did. I am not a star athlete or Steven Speilberg's kid. I did have high SAT scores, but they weren't off the chart high. It really was a different world ten years ago. It is really difficult to overstate the number of people that have gone into uniform in the last decade. Yes, it's only 1% of the US population, probably closer to .5%, but nearly all of those people come from the same age group. If you're my age, you have to try pretty hard to avoid having at least one acquaintance that's serving or has served. Personally, two of my siblings and nearly all my friends from high school enlisted, and my father plus both my grandfathers are veterans.

Took me forever to find our original discussion about colleges. Time well spent though, and your TMI post cracked me up, Jeremy. You aren't alone. I never said Darius would be going to Berkely. Mark did. The only school I picked was UCSB for Will, because they have a great surf program. If I have to pick for Darius, I'd say UC San Diego or UC Santa Cruz. Possibly San Diego State. Beach schools all, with strong liberal arts programs. But truly, I think he's going to put school off for a bit, and maybe ask Uncle Ace for an internship. A year of that, plus volunteer work with Claire, would beef out a lackluster CV.

Not a bit, actually. At least, none I put on my applications for the most part, those to catholic schools excepted. It didn't occur to me until much later that being an altar boy as a freshman and other activities with my church counted as volunteer work until much later. I had a thought about internation schools, but I can't imagine he'd qualify without some chinacery on Stef or someone's part.

Oh, good. Can't wait to see what happens, Mark.

Pepperdine? Really? I suppose Darius is sufficiently Robbie's child to not worry about Brad glowing a gasket, and Brad is mellowing about religious folk anyways, but still... No arguments with the rest, even though my own experience one year behind Darius sort of refutes Tommy's stance. It's always possible my application essay got me into the various places I did.

Again, public school is more the norm than the exception out here. There were magnet schools they could have gone to (and that JJ probably should have looked into), and some private schools, but off the top of my head I can't think of a single private school in the Los Angeles area that wasn't either for special needs students or is religious based. I won't rule out that there isn't one, but it probably isn't much better than the quality of educaiton available to public school kids in affluent areas.

I don't know that Brad and Mike will form a brotherly relationship. Even if Mike is more or less estranged from his mother, unless he actively hates her, he's not going to be terribly amused by Brad destroying her and all her works. Sort of the sister rule: "I am allowed to call my sister a bitch and a slut. If you call her anything but a lady, best start running." Even knowing Brad is only acting in self-defense, that he did not seek her out, filial loyalty crops up in the oddest moments. Personally, I think that'd make a more interesting character, Mike knows his mom is wrong, and is only getting what's coming to her, she's still his mom. Presumably, she has demonstrated that she cares about him and, in her way, loves him over the years. JP is of corse facing a similar problem with Brian, but the comparison only goes so far. Brian hasn't really done much but leech off JP and cause trouble, and more importantly, JP isn't going to let Brad or Stefen settle the Brian question once and for all. He's going to take on the problem himself, because Brian is family, and his responsibility. Of course, we know I'm wrong better than half the time, so let's see where this goes.

I read on previous comments, and I actually did guess at a threesome. Though not really, it was more a "Brett is a slut and is figuring what Jake + a half-pint of honey could equal" sort of guess, not a real proposal. I still blame Chas's influence.

I had two reactions. The first is, "Hah! Knew Brett had wanted Jake!" So kudos on planting that pretty well in the opening chapters. I would never have predicted a threesome, though. Leave it to Chas to come up with it.

I guess it'll depend on the narrator of the moment. If it's still Brad, he'll be shaken, especially if his new-found family is there, but his world won't be. Kevin, of course, would have a different perspective. If we've returned to Matt or moved to one of the other kids, it'll be a bit larger, as that was really the first big world event for our age group, unless our parent's were unlucky enough to loss big in the tech crash or were affected by the various bombings in the nineties. We were too young to really get the Cold War ending, and spent our childhood as members of the premier and sole world power. 9/11 was a shock to the system beyond the scope of the disaster itself, but I think most everyone older than us remembered well enough the eighties, when children said what they'd be <i>if</i> they grew up, or Vietnam, or nuclear emergency drills. Darius is still the better candidate for that. Not only would his friends be there right from the start, but as you said, Will and JJ would have at least one friend in Iraq. Out of my close friends from high school, I'm the only guy that didn't enlist, and that was because I'm asthmatic and couldn't. And, admittedly, because my mother would have killed me herself. Edited to add: While I doubt Darius will have as high a percentage as I did, I have not doubt it will be high. My reading of him is that he's the type that, if he feels compelled to go to college or trade school, it's because that's what's expected rather than out of some true desire or need. And, probably, not all of his friends even go to school, many jump right into a career, or decided to put it off for one reason or another. These are the people that were most likely to enlist as an immediate response to 9/11, even if they dropped out of school to do it.

Every branch of the military contributed to the Iraqi conflict, though you are correct in that it was mainly Marines and Army, along with as the Coast Guard. Personally, I don't see much point in doing a 9/11 story at all. Acknowledge that it happened, let it affect the characters, as several other historical events have been allowed to influence the story, but it doesn't necessarily have to be about that event. As you've implied, we on the West Coast had a bit of distance to that event. The anger, fear, sorrow, and fierce pride were ours as much as any Americans, but not many had a personal stake in it as far as I could see. One way I could see it affecting the story would be if Darius chooses to enlist or seek officer canidicy, as a hell of a lot of people his age and mine did (if I'm figuring right, I'm one year younger than Darius, class of 2002), but we've been there done that and Brad/JP would kill him himself.

I doubt even that would bother him much. As I pointed out before, he's slept with his own foster brother and is partnered to a man that strongly resembles his other foster brother. What will bother him is that he will never be able to look at Kevin and not be reminded of his past, a past he vehemently hates and would like nothing more than to never think about again. Someone asked why Brad was not more curious about the Carmichaels; the reason is he hates being one of them. That particular origin caused him such pain growing up that is probably akin to people born from rapes, right down to his mother hating his existence. I don't think he is troubled by this anymore on a day-today basis, mostly due to Tonto and JP, but I can't imagine he'd enjoy it being thrown in his face like that. Though is he suddenly does start treating Kevin like a long-lost cousin, which he is of course, I wonder if he'll declare the boy off-limits to Robbie and others, and if he consults with Kevin himself before making such a declaration.

Something random that ocurred to me as I was reading chapter 32, but does anyone else get the sense that we may have wandered off into the sequel? Or part two of the same book, I suppose. I had an inkling of it during the Labor Day posting blitz, but with even the characters echoing the loose end feeling, I'm more an more convinced "Millenium" ended with chapter 29, and now we're on, I don't know, "Millenium, Part 2: My Next Thirty Years." As it isn't my story, I am perfectly willing to go along with Mark's decision to keep this one long story. But I do feel that all the major conflicts, including the initial conflict between Robbie and Brad that drove the story in the first place, hit some kind of resolution by the end of chapter 29. We aren't really there anymore, after all. Robbie has apologized, Brad has accepted that apology. We're in a whole new set of conflicts, where Brad and Robbie try to find a way to fit together again, and Brad goes over the other relationships in his life, to try and find a way to balance their needs, which in some case he only just became aware of, without compromisng his own sense of self or personal integrity. And if that first conflict was mirrored by the rise and political destruction of Amphion, this new looks to be mirrored by the renewal of Claremont, a proud city as savaged by time and neglect as Brad and Robbie's relationship has been. Wow. Usually, when I step ankle deep into an extended metaphor like that, I've at least been drinking. But, perhaps Mark, you might use my flight of fancy to guide where you want Claremont's revitalization to go?

A bit late (as always), but if it makes you feel better, I didn't feel the least sorry for Brandon. If he'd been a dupe, or lied to, or thought on some level that he was doing the right thing, I might have. But he went into that with eyes wide open, and was unable to face the consequences of his actions. And that's what I find unforgivable. Yes, this does not speak well for my own moral compass, but for me the worst thing about Brandon was that he did not foresee this as a possible future. If you commit a crime, you have to prepare for the chance you might be caught. I also have to wonder what exactly he thought would happen even if he wasn't caught. Ruining Stef and Brad would hardly reflect well on himself, and I can't imagine Dan and Cary were paying Brandon enough, in any currency, to make up for the experience and connections he would have made as Stef's assistant. Catching up, I really do like the conversations Robbie and Brad are having now. Sometimes I want to yell at both of them, saying, "You ask his opinion, why are you getting mad at him for expressing it?" but on the whole I think it's going well. Well-ish. In a generally positive, open direction without exactly confirming the destination is one either wants to go. That's human, but really, truly think both guys would benefit from someone sitting them down and saying: "Brad, just because someone disagrees with you, doesn't mean they think you're wrong. Sometimes, they just think you might be. Sometimes, they are willing to change their minds, and sometimes they'd like the opportunity to try and change yours. It never means they want you to ignore them and do whatever regardless, it always means they want you to at least acknowledge they have a right to an opinion. Maybe not a deciding vote, but an opinion." "Robbie, get over it. All of it. That might not be possible or realistic, but do what you can. Yes, part of why you forever dwell in the past is because Brad keep bringing you there, so stop letting him. Ignore his needling as much as he does yours. You've been doing so well with that, find it again. If you find you cannot ignore it, for God's sake stop whining about it. Tell him to f**k off." I am impressed Robbie got through to Brad that he goes to operatic extremes. He's hardly alone there, but itdoes get in the way.

Twilight picture took me a sec to get, as it has been quite some time since I last saw Blade. I do like the newspaper article. It scares me that people so lacking in curiousity about the world around them are able to drive and vote. It's not just that this was a stupid comment. It's that the person never once thought about where food comes from, never bothered to learn about the foundations on which their convictions lied. Crazy world we live in.

Ah, right. I did mix that up.

Depending on the circumstances, yes. I wouldn't be thrilled, and the "look like dad" part would be odd, but it'd really be none of my business. No, it really wouldn't. And yes, I've been in a position where I've had to sit on anger and realize that my family members had the right to f**k up their own lives when it only peripherally involved me, and any indignation I felt was not just misplaced but innappropriate. But I don't think in that case I'd get terribly bent out of shape, not to the point of doom and damnation that others have posisted, anyways. I might be odd, I suppose. I never really understood guys that charged in like a bull into their sibling or other family member's love lives when they weren't asked their opinion. The circumstances to Brad and Matt are, as I can see 1) Matt only briefly lived with Brad, Robbie and the rest. They consider him family, yes, but there's a bit of distance for all involved except for Robbie, 2) there are several guys Brad is sleeping around with, some of whom must have grown quite a bit closer to the kids over the years. I think I'd be more angry at Cody especially, and possibly Max, for fishing in troubled waters. And I'd be even more worried that Brad was turning into the village bicycle, rather than fretting over the details of who he was screwing. That worry would loom even more if I had the emotional maturity to realize Brad was acting like he didn't want to get back together with Robbie. Edited to add: What I see as the really big reprecussion if Matt and Brad go through with sleeping together, and they get found out, is that Brad's role as JP's second in command will be shaken. Brad has always been seen as a man of his convictions and word, and going back on a promise to Robbie to not sleep with Matt, even if it was only an implied, crossed-fingers behind the back promise, is going to damage that credibility. It'll be even worse if he tries to defend himself, as everyone from Claire on down will call him on that bull. That, more than anything, has the possiblity to reform Brad and might get him to wake up to what a jerk he's being and how he's treating Robbie.

Slightly dated, but I missed the hullaballoo a couple days ago. I am just curious why so many think it's a huge deal if Matt and Brad sleep together. Or, more to the point, why people think it is such a huge deal that relationships will explode and the hosues will burn down around them all. It would be one thing if Matt grew up as Brad's son, but he didn't. They've known each other for what, 18 months? And it isn't like inscest is a serious taboo to these people in general or Brad in particular. To date, Brad has had sex with: His adopted brother. His adopted father's half-brother, who bears a striking resemblence to his father. Two people who look exactly like his other adopted brother, one of whom became his partner. These two people were legally his cousins. Of course, JP can top that by having slept with his actual cousins, including Stef. I don't think Stef and JP will be unduly bothered, beyond Brad going back on his word and knowing it would piss off Frank and Robbie. Jeremy, you're right that JJ and the boys might not care for it, but Brad is currently having sex with all kinds of people. Are they really going to dislike Matt more than, say, Cody? Truly, if JJ is pissed at all, I think it'd be at Brad for beating him to Matt. Wade I doubt will be angry. He's never cared about Matt sleeping around before, why start now? He knows whose bed Matt will wind up in at the end. Now, Robbie would have reason to be pissed. Espcially since he specifically told Brad Matt was off-limits. Not really fair, but Brad would certainly be in the wrong for agreeing, or even just letting Robbie think he'd agreed, to that and then going back on his word. So the impact on their reconcilliation will be interesting.