frosenblum

What a great chapter. Once again we see how the grands's insistence on holding Sunday dinner is a key part of the glue that holds the family together. The surprise was how powerful, articulate and mature John was. With Will, Marie and Ryan backing him, he tapped into an inner courage we haven't seen before. No whining. No pleading. No childish fantasy. Rather a powerful, passionate declaration of his plans. No wonder Grand is proud of him.

This is looking to be a really great story. So many intriguing puzzle pieces and hints. In "Spirit Wolves," Elijah was immersed in the community of wolf shifters. Now he's interacting with other types of beings, with even more mystery to unfold. The story is being told in a very compelling manor. Brava, @kbois

@Mawgrim It's been a long time since I read the Pern books. Is the "Five Weirs" nickname your brilliant invention or Ms. McCaffrey's?

Great chapter. Jevikal never had enough food at the hold; now he does and his body is filled out. His mind and personality and joy were also suppressed at the hold; now he's starting to bloom and act with confidence. Be could be a good bronze or brown rider.

A fully engaging chapter. Early in Chapter 1, about Elijah: "He was happy to be going home, where everything was familiar and safe. He'd never been gone so long before, and he missed the familiar mundaneness that was his life." Talk about unfilled expectations, poor Elijah. @kbois, really, "the land of Nod" is way too twee for cold-blooded-assassin Kage. Did you suddenly forget you weren't writing a kid's bedtime story?

The plot thickens.

Great chapter, as always. I just spent a few days back east with seven grand nieces and nephews who were eight years old and under. Including a 1yo, 3yo twins and a 4yo. So it was a joy to return home and find this chapter waiting for me.

Welcome back, Hammerhead. Amazing that there's no loss of continuity after the four year break. Looking forward to any more twists and turns. Thank you, James.

Cousin fun! Until one of the littles goes missing during a thunderstorm -- and Loren and Jay have to search the WHOLE castle in the dark because the storm knocked the power out. 👿

That castle is so not Loren or Jay.

so has Jay

Great chapter. I'm enjoying the hiatus from enemies and danger.

Every chapter is intriguing and pulls me a bit more into the story.

Thanks for yet another fun chapter.

I hadn't noticed this story when you started posting it. So I'm binging through it. The story line is that of any standard pulp fiction romance, gay or straight: two destined lovers, obstacles in their way, each one agonizing over whether the other loves them, each one making assumptions about what's going on with the other one. Your mastery in telling this story, and that of The Reluctant Consort, is akin to Shakespeare's in Romeo and Juliet. You create a full, intriguing world. You fill it with fully developed, distinct, interesting people, each with their own motivations. And the lovers are fully realized, fully alive. Brava, Suilan!

This was a hard chapter for me to read because I so identified with Loren. Not at all with the particulars of his situation. Rather with the experience of clinging on for dear life to my identity, to all the habits and thought patterns that had gotten me through thick and thin up to that point in my life. To the feeling that changing would like dying. It felt like what was required for happiness was to let go of who I was. It felt like I was a cat dropped down a deep well, scrambling frantically to grab onto anything with my outstretched claws. It was terrifying. And becoming the person I am now did require the death of who I had been, along with the accompanying mourning and sadness. It was worth it, but it was not easy. So I have a lot of compassion for Loren. Many of the comments were also hard for me to read, for the same reason. I used the Ha-Ha response often when I really felt saddened by the comment.

@Mrsgnomie & @kbois It looks like evil autocorrect slipped a couple by the two of you. "Matt leaves the meeting giddy as fuck. He’s so enduring. It’s refreshing." "We get lost a few times, turn around in a few industrial areas, accidentally leave down, come back again, and pass through a gated community whose gate is being worked on."

Thanks, @manhandle. I realize I'd misunderstood that part of the BN. The epilogue took place in Mexico, so when Jay said “We’ve decided to move here,” I thought he meant moving to Mexico and assumed that's where Matt & Seamus now lived. I completely missed that a few paragraphs later, Seamus said "Denver." 🤓 😕

There is also the 'Oldtimers' being way more experienced and likely expecting to be deferred to. And the The prejudice runs both ways. As you explained in The World of Pern, Chapter 6, 'for the weyrfolk from the past, the world has become a place that looks familiar, but in which so much has changed. The modern Holders don't give them the deference they were used to even though they are giving their lives to protect the ungrateful so-and-so's. Benden Weyr has been alone for so long, many of their customs have altered too.'

In my experience, that's the nature of any relationship. People don't realize that they are using the same words but they might as well be speaking different languages. We each have our own expectations. So when you and I agree about something (like compromising), we actually mean completely different things by it, then get pissed at the other person, while they think they're doing what they said they would. This is why relationships tend to get rocky after a few years -- when we no longer have early love stars in our eyes.

Oops, I haven't figured out how to delete a comment if I decide I really had nothing to say. So I ended up sending an empty comment.

Great advice! I can relate to reverting to being a selfish teenager. In fact, I suspect your advice is something we all could benefit from taking to heart now and then. 😇

I think you're "a trailblazer" rather than "an idiot."

I'm not a fan of pineapple juice. On the other hand, the taqueria a few blocks from me makes aguas frescas that mix pineapple with other fruits: strawberry-pineapple, cantaloupe-pineapple, honeydew-pineapple, mango-pineapple, sometimes three fruits combined. They are all yummy!