Cynus

Sorry it took so long to get to this review. Nobuyuki certainly has a troubled past in more ways than one, and Masahiro has been the cause of some of them, but he's also received a lot of good things from Masahiro's hand. Unfortunately, the world they're a part of works in that fashion, with cruelty and brutality being handed out along with the love. Vladimir and Viktor both have their roles to play, as does the yet unmentioned one, whom I love and adore and is actually my favorite character in the story. I don't know how far you've made it as of yet, but when you meet him, you'll know. Thank you for the review!

Not at all, dear tim.

There's someone in this world other than me who liked Stargate Universe? Woohoo!

Dammit! You beat me to it, W_L! I was just about to mention Stargate... Although I'm a huge Star Trek fan as well. I have seen every episode, even the weird unaired pilot from the original series...

Most certainly.

This video technically has a political agenda at the end, though it is not mentioned throughout. As such, I felt it improper to place it in the standard forums. I also didn't want to put it in The Pit, because I believe it should be a bit more visible. It's very powerful, and I hope you'll give it a view.

Welcome, Sammcm2014! Welcome, Bosch!

Today will be different. Today will be all right. Today I’ll—fuck it. This is going to suck, and I’ll just have to man up and face it. I brought this on myself, after all. No one will fight my battles for me, and I don’t want them to. Today, I’m going to fuck shit up, and if anyone gives me shit, I’ll throw it back at them. Of course, the hot pink cast will raise some eyebrows. Lifting my arm, I groan at the offensive color shining bright in the morning light. After my Dad insulted the

You have to catch me first, Tiger.

Welcome, Omar!

Right now I'm binge watching "Hell On Wheels". I'm in love with Cullen Bohanon, the main character. I relate to him. The person below me would like to know where to go next with their life.

As the official mongoose of GA, I feel I must post in this thread.

Sometimes I feel like my whole life is a huge mistake... Today really wasn't an exception to that. The person below believes that what goes down will eventually go up.

Aye, or to use hard objects against said people. The person below. The beast at Tanagra. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. Darmok, his eyes shut. Jalad and the Beast at Tanagra? (Feel free to ignore me if you don't understand)

Yes... and pocket sexts people... The other day my pocket texted someone "mmmm up lollipop" The person below me wishes they'd received that text.

Only time and succeeding chapters will tell. This is the most intrigue driven story I've ever written, and I loved every minute of it. I think this is an example of the kind of story I really want to become good at writing, and I hope this at least comes close to that. Glad you liked the ending of the chapter, and I'll let your imagination wander as to whether or not Nobuyuki knew. Lots more to cum . . . er . . . come. Thank you for the review!

Thank you, Dughlas. I love Clint as much as I've loved any main character I've ever written, so I'm glad you like him, too. Thanks for the review!

His Dad has definitely stuck around. For Clint's Dad, there's no other way he could possibly act. He loves his children more than anything, and he'll definitely support them. Clint's as lovable as they come for a roguish boy with a mouth on him. Reminds me a touch of Dante, actually, so I knew you'd like it, too. Thank you for the review, Def.

I'm so happy to see you here! The ride is certainly a bumpy one for a lot of reasons, but you'll get a chance to see those dynamics in play. Viktor and Nobuyuki were meant to be a balancing act, though there are other factors which will arise later to tip the scales. I'm looking forward to your review on later chapters. Thank you so much for reading!

No One Is Alone From the musical “Into The Woods” written by Stephen Sondheim Mother cannot guide you Now you're on your own Only me beside you Still, you're not alone No one is alone Truly No one is alone I wish... I know Mother isn't here now Wrong things, right things Who knows what she'd say? Who can say what's true? Nothing's quite so clear now Do things, fight things Feel you've lost your way? You decide, but You are not alone Believe me No one is alone (No one is alone) Believe me Truly People make mistakes Fathers Mothers People make mistakes Holding to their own Thinking they're alone Honor their mistakes Fight for their mistakes Everybody makes One another's terrible mistakes Witches can be right, giants can be good You decide what's right, you decide what's good Just remember Just remember Someone is on your side (Our side) Our side Someone else is not While we're seeing our side (Our side) Our side Maybe we forgot, they are not alone No one is alone Someone is on your side No one is alone Recent events have reminded me of a lesson I once knew, which I’ve forgotten over the last few years. In truth, I knew this lesson well, even preached it hypocritically from time to time, but I’d forgotten to apply it to myself, even when it was staring me directly in the face. This opinion may be unpopular, and perhaps that’s the way it will always be. I don’t know if I’m really trying to change anyone’s mind with this, or even trying to get under anyone’s skin. Actually, I think I’m writing this to accomplish the opposite. I want to tell you that if you disagree, I acknowledge you, I in fact, welcome you in my life, disagreement and all. The Orlando shooting caught me off guard. As many of you know (and of course you do if you’re reading this at one of those sites) I’m an active member in the LGBTQIA community. We’d covered so much ground over the last few years, and I honestly was breathing a sigh of relief that it seemed we’d finally reached a point of acceptance. Despite what happened on June 12th, 2016, the ground we’ve covered is still behind us, we just have more hurdles to cross still before we’re completely there. Unfortunately, some aren’t happy with the ground we’ve gained, and one of them decided he needed to do something about that. We all know about the 49 people who were killed and 53 who were injured by Omar Mateen that night. I’m not going to try and politicize this for either side of the argument. That’s not what I’m here for today. I’m not going to make a case for gun control, or a case for targeting “radical Islam” or any other such nonsense. No, I’m going to talk about something else, which arose out of this tragedy for me. But first, I’m going to talk a little bit about Omar. One thing I can’t entirely grasp is why we’re unwilling to count him among the dead that night. I’ve heard it said that it’s because we don’t count him with the victims, because that’s not fair to them. Well, maybe it isn’t, but his death should still be accounted for, shouldn’t it? When we talk about why this occurs, don’t we need to consider what broke a man so badly that he felt this was the answer to his problems? A great deal of evidence seems to have suggested that Omar was a gay man himself. Why did he target his own community? What could have driven him to that? You could say it was his religion, or perhaps pressure from his family, or perhaps it was some bad breakup we don’t yet know about, but all of these are rooted in something else, something I’ve been ignoring, and I think a lot of people have. Omar Mateen felt alone, that he, and only he, understood his problems, and that only he could solve them, and that this terrible act was somehow the way to answer that. He hated something so badly about himself (either his sexuality or his unwillingness to accept his sexuality would be my guess) that he felt set him apart enough it was worth destroying everything to end his pain. I’m not excusing his actions. I would never dream of doing that. I’m not trying to insinuate in any way that anything he did was remotely justified. He did something truly horrific, and clearly committed the act out of supreme hatred. But I think we need to acknowledge that the reason he chose his targets was because they had something he wanted, something he wasn’t able to rationalize within himself. Maybe he targeted them because of their sexuality, because they were free to live it and he wasn’t? Maybe he targeted them because they were able to be true to themselves (regardless of sexuality) and he felt he couldn’t? He thought himself apart from them, because they had what he desired. He felt alone, because he couldn’t see how to obtain what they had and become one of them. If you break them down to their base thought patterns, and disregard for just a moment the actions that Omar Mateen committed, is he any different than any other self-loathing homophobe? Or self-loathing happyphobe(I know this isn’t a real word)? Or self-loathing anybody? I don’t believe there is, and I believe therein lies the answer to how we prevent this kind of tragedy. Maybe all the political things will change some things for the better, though they’ll also probably make some things worse. I personally believe these things are symptoms of the greater problem, and it’s one I believe is within our ability to solve. Love. Inclusion. Community. We have to give them what they crave. Movements change minds. Bullies can be reformed. Witches can be right. Giants can be good. In order to find out, we have to show love to those who feel alone. You are not alone, and they are not alone. We need to remind them of that.

A very merry day of existence to you!

Submitted!

Thank you for this review. I had no idea I'd missed all of the reviews on this story, and it gave me a chance to come and reply to them. I swear I've checked through my stories several times, looking for reviews I've missed . . . I don't know how this slipped past me. This is the first story I've ever written from a female perspective. I've always struggled a bit with writing female characters, just because I don't trust myself to write them with any amount of accuracy. I simply don't know what it's like to be a woman. But in this particular case, it was the only move to make, and I didn't struggle with it so much. It really is what first allowed for me to break free from that mentality, and I was able to balance male and female characters in "The Navigator" which I wrote some time later. I appreciate your comments, and I think your insight into how/why the story worked is spot on. Thank you for the insight. Believe it or not, it will help me become better.

How have I never responded to any of these reviews! Wow! I've even gone through and checked all my stories before, making sure I wasn't missing any . . . somehow . . . Apparently it took me this long to return thanks for your lovely act of writing a review . . . Thanks for reading. I'm glad you liked it.

How have I never responded to any of these reviews! Wow! I've even gone through and checked all my stories before, making sure I wasn't missing any . . . somehow . . . Glad the zap had the desired effect! Thank you for the review!