Topher Lydon

Trust me, expereince a Canadian Winter, and you will understand why a massive amount of Canadians live in Florida in the Winter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowbird_(person)

Riley is tough

or perhaps it's about finding a way to include someone else in your world? Or learning to accept that someone can leave and come home again? I don't think either needs to learn co-dependency, but rather how to stand alongside each other.

Tabby will figure it out, Alvin just has to give him a chance to do so. The more Alvin pushes the more Tabby's going to dig his heels in. Cats domesticated themselves after all.

Chapter Nine: Festival’s, Pumpkins, and a Win Merrickville did not do things by halves. When it came to autumn, the town didn't just observe the season; it grabbed it by the flannel collar, shook it until pumpkins fell out, and then glued googly eyes to them for good measure. The town square, usually a sleepy grid of grass and the occasional judgmental pigeon, had been transformed into a Pinterest board come to life. It was a riot of orange, gold, and a shade of brown that could only

Kieran has started to realize how much he cares about Riley Right-Then

Chapter Nine: Territories and Tributes The couch was a monstrosity. It was a two-seater, upholstered in a fabric that could best be described as "sick-bucket beige," with a floral pattern that looked like a fungal infection. It smelled of damp and someone else’s dog. "Pivot!" Riley shouted, his voice echoing in the narrow hallway. "Pivot, you great lummox!" Tez, sweating profusely in his underwear and socks, grunted and shoved. The couch groaned, wood screeching against t

i need to put that on my wall, my nickname for years was Alvin.

Every lesson Alvin's had, has been a lesson for Tabby as well. Granny knew what she was doing.

I am going to pose a philosophical question to you all, why does he have to stay? In essence, Tabby is a soul who questions conventions, embrace simplicity, respect nature's wildness, and finds true wealth in inner freedom and authentic experiences, not possessions or societal expectations. He owns nothing, asks for nothing, and just loves freely. He's rejected society on a fundamental level because it has already rejected him. The very fact that he's sharing a bed with Alvin speaks volumes about how important Alvin actually is to him. What would have happened if Granny had left him the cottage? He'd have given it away, or wandered off and the Tax man would take it. There'd be no cottage for him to return to. Granny knew she couldn't leave it to him, he simply wasn't able to take care of it. Thus her plan for both her Cats. Two halves of a whole, who need each other equally. Now to teach Tabby that fact.

Not yet, but I am sure Alvin will try if given a chance.

Yeah the Estates replaced the slums, once the areas the slums were in became desirable locations for construction (commercial as well as condo development) It was a massive farce, we even had an entire city sized estate plopped down in record time..... Milton Keynes which to this day is regarded with disdain. When I was little, and I mean very very little, there was an Estate near us called Town Farm, and .... the hate for the place was very real. It ended up a self fulfilling prophecy, as the only people the council could get to live there were the poorest of the poor, and it collapsed in on itself and became a hole. Diplocks and the Holt were two others less or a reputation but... bad.

Alvin's next lesson, the training wheels come off. Tabby's lesson is about to begin, but it takes him some time because we all know he's a bit stubborn Granny knows what she's doing.

Granny has a plan for her Tabby, who still needs to learn his lesson. She's a wiley old bird, with wiles and wisdom.

Follow the sun. It's what you do.

**Chapter 8: The First Chill & The Itchy Feet** The morning arrived with a whisper, not a shout. For the past two months, summer at the Doily Dungeon had been a humid, sticky, riotous affair. The sun had blazed, the cicadas had screamed, and the air had been thick enough to chew, smelling of hot asphalt, blooming phlox, and the faint, ever-present ghost of Tabby’s pond-water scent. But today, something had shifted. Alvin woke up, not because of the heat, but beca

I'm glad it is compelling. It's weird I've written this, gave it a solid ending... and yet I want more of the characters. Right-then Riley pulls me in a weird way, he's got this wonderful charm to him. Ben's dangerous edge and his Obsession over love thing with Kieran.... Kieran's sheer force of will. Lee (who you haven't met yet) strangely yanks you around, and makes you pay attention to him... they are so different from my other characters, broken people in a bleak place, finding something.

ooo Cozy Mystery.... challenge ACCEPTED!

Ben's got an obvious strong attraction to Kieran, but he manifests it with the only language he knows, violence and fear. I think he's projecting onto Kieran almost as much as Kieran does onto him. Riley is so much the antithesis of Ben it confounds Ben as to why Kieran wants him.

Sorry I'm #teamRightthenRiley

I mean, Riley's about as tough as a wet paper bag in a hurricane, but he knows everyone, and as this chapter demonstrates, he's widely liked. And if you upset Riley, there's a lot of people willing to go to bat for him. This is Riley's unique strength that both Ben and Kieran underestimate about him.

I had a cat, funnily enough, called Alvin. He was huge, built like a pitbull. Easilly dwarfed other cats, sheer bull muscle. The meanest cat on the block, he once took on two labradors and kicked the snot out of them both. He wouldn't allow anyone near him, sharp claws, viscious streak, and feral. Yet he would be at my bedroom door every morning when I woke up for that gotta pee before going back to bed, waiting to be let in. once the door was closed he would become the biggest, softest, sweetest pussycat in the world, belly rubs, and curling up till I did my second wake up. Content to be a giant house cat, hiding for his solitude the rest of the morning in my closet, sleeping on my clothes. (I worked afternoons and evening classes, so my mornings were spent writing... funnily enough the Falcon Banner series) And he'd just lay there making my best suit trousers covered in his Tabby cat hair, refusing to be moved no matter what. Two worlds, and only I ever saw them. This, to me, is the essence of Ben. He can't find a way to blend his realities... and Kieran does so with ease.

His two worlds are starting to bleed into each other. And I think Ben is starting to see that Kieren is capable of something he was never able to do. Some people are built to intimidate and terrorize, others are built to rule regardless of domain.