Davi Medrade

This must be one of the best story chapters I've ever read. I don't mean only on GayAuthors either, I mean in general. @C James is definitely a master storyteller. I've lost count of how many times I've read this story.

Dammit, now I'm late for work! Thanks, Ronyx! — The part about being late for work, though true, was meant as a joke. The thanks, though, is 100% sincere.

I usually skip short stories, but I decided to read this one, and I don't regret it. It was cute and left me with a smile. Thank you.

Considering how much I dislike pushy people, I'm extremely uncomfortable with Nash's and Penn's family's actions in this chapter. They keep acting as if they know better than Penn how Penn should live his life, and that's just not how you should treat an adult, as much as you might disagree with their choices. Yes, sometimes it works, specially in fiction, but in real life, more often than not, it just makes people frustrated. Nish's “I'll fight for you” (regardless of whether he means it romantically or just platonically) sounds both disrespectful and juvenile. The few times I've had to deal with people trying to push me into doing things I didn't want to do because they thought they knew me better than myself, I eventually exploded, and it wasn't pretty.

The title led me to assume things about this chapter that were entirely wrong. Good one.

The one thing I didn't like about this story is how they brush off what was essentially an instance of rape that Jack did to Joey in the past, and Joey goes as far as telling Jack that he didn't to anything wrong (then he backtracks but dismisses it anyway and even claims that in a similar situation he would do the same). I understand, teenagers sometimes do things without fully realizing the consequences (not only teenagers, even), but that doesn't change the fact that Joey did not consent to what happened. One thing that a lot of people still have trouble seeing even today is the fact that you don't get to force or mislead people into sex just because you're convinced that once you get past their initial resistance they'll grow to like it and give you retroactive consent. That's because, unlike what often happens in fiction, in reality there is a good chance that the person won't like it, and once that becomes clear you can't go back in time and undo the trauma you inflicted on them. I'm not saying Jack is irredeemable or anything like that. I just think a bigger deal could have been made, to make it unambiguous that what he did was bad, and it was serious. Then, he could have been shown to understand the seriousness of his actions and sincerely apologize, and that would have been that. What I'm trying to say is that acknowledging it for what it was wouldn't have to doom their relationship, so it could have been done. The incest thing, on the other hand, I think was a bit overblown. For a guy who sees no problem blowing a guy when he knows this guy is being misled into thinking he is being blown by a woman, he was pretty quick to jump to abuse as soon as he heard about Roman and Joey, without any indication that that's what happened. It seems like a bit of a contradiction to me. All that being said, the story is good. I'm sure I'll be reading it again soon, and I'll definitely read the sequel.

Is Shaun into guys in general, or only those who have shown an interest in Joey? Right? Will he ever get to be with someone with friends like these?

That's exactly what happened to me. I've read Morningstar a couple of times before, and I just started reading it again. In fact after I read it for the first time it was such a pleasant experience that I even read a few other shifter stories that I had avoided before.

Oh! Phew! I'm sorry if this sounds weird, but I'm just so relieved to hear that she is fine. I don't know her, but I feel a kind of connection from reading her stories. Sure, I would like for her to write more, but even if she had decided to give up writing I'd still be relieved to know that she is all right.

Is Ethan… a waterbender?

I wonder if Linda didn't know that Richie wouldn't be pleased about her moving into his dead mother's house mere days after the funeral, or if she just didn't care. Maybe there's more to the story, I don't know, but based on the information Richie currently has, I see his reaction towards her as completely understandable. And although I feel sorry for Freddy, his situation is not Richie's fault nor is it Richie's job to fix it, specially if the way for him to fix it would essentially amount, in his mind, to betraying his mother's memory.

Did Tracy just suggest that Jack should mislead Jeff and just use him to win points with his mother?

I'm not a big fan of Tracy so far. From all he went through, I would expect him to be a lot more cautious than he is, specially towards Jack, whom he seems to almost deliberately be setting up to go through the same thing. The way he outed Jack to Jeff, right after telling Jack he wouldn't say anything, really doesn't sit well with me. Yes, Jeff is gay and wouldn't have reacted badly, but it still wasn't Tracy's place to do that.

“Let’s just call it... leverage” My inner voice read that in Nate Ford's voice.

Preying on vulnerable people and giving them something they want or need in exchange for their “services” is what a predator does. They are pretty good at rationalizing their actions so that they portray (or even see) themselves as the good guys. So no, I for one won't pat Mike in the head and praise him for what he's doing.

Ha! I finally get to share a birthday with a character. Though Dustin would be one year older than me.

I've read this story several times, and it's still one of my favorites.

A lot of stories seem to imply if not outright state that you can't be happy unless you are in a romantic relationship. I didn't feel that vibe from this ending, and for that I'm thankful. I mean, I love a romantic story with an HEA as much as the next guy, but it's nice to break from the mold every once in a while. Specially when it's done as well as it was in this case.

I want to rant about Richard, but I can't. I see too much of my teenage self in him, making a meal out of breadcrumbs. I mean, there is being optimistic, and then there is this. Hopefully he'll come to his senses soon enough.

So, now that the child rapist–torturer–murderer is finally dead… He will be brought back? I don't know if I have the stomach for that.

I'm going to be very disappointed if Julian doesn't face a gruesome death. Regardless of how interesting his character may be, some things you just don't get to walk away from. Or shouldn't, anyway. Then again, the more I read the less of a fuck I give to these two in particular, so I'm not even sure if I'm going to finish this one.

I probably should mention that “nojo” in Portuguese means “disgust”.

I'm glad they are together. I was rooting for them. I hope it's for good. Now, if Noah had accidentally fallen face-first on a bucket of superglue sealing his mouth shut so he couldn't tell Jordan that he came out to his parents throughout that day, it would probably have been just a bit more conspicuous than how things played out in this chapter.

Everyone has already said what I think about Noah and what's happening in this chapter. I thought I didn't care that much about him, but it seems that I do. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but, while this back and forth between viewpoints is fair enough, when it mixes with a back and forth between different times, it starts to get confusing, frustrating, and distracting, specially when used like this, just to draw out the revelation of how their conversation ended. It feels like a gimmick. I ended up taking a lot longer to read this chapter than the previous ones, because every time the flow was broken the frustration made me lose focus and end up having a 10 to 20-minute Facebook break. Obviously a lot of that is the fault of my ADHD, but still… Of course, I'm not trying to speak for anyone other than me. I don't know if anyone else felt the same way reading this chapter, but I thought I'd let you know.

Noah dealing with conflict sounds a lot like my sister's boyfriend. Whenever he is backed into a corner in an argument he panics and starts going for the jugular, saying things he doesn't even mean in a frantic attempt to win the argument, and blaming the other party for things he did and/or decisions he made himself.