Guest034229

A clever and unique tale, that will seriously challenge everyone's comfort zone, but not in the way that you expect. Yes, it involves a respectful gay youth that opens up to his parents, a father's intolerance and someone else, who judges the young man's actions. But the greatest surprise is when you discover that the most judgmental person in this story, turns out to be you.

"So Evil, you would have to say he was 'Eeeeeevvvvviiilllll'." 😂 I didn't say he was evil but that "he wasn't always the mindlessly, uncaring and abusive bully that he acted, for most of Oli's formative years." After all the heat that Alexander took from commentators, throughout, you certainly gave him a facelift towards the end.

"There was something there that I just didn't quite get - some kind of hesitation - that seemed to be at war with his obvious desire for us to do things together." Was this hesitation just Mark's reticence on his first date? I suspect it's more than that. It resurfaced several times during the day. Could Mark be uncomfortable with the version of events he has told David. Maybe Mark had to leave home once his parents discovered he was gay and he is now homeless wandering the streets. I doubt David will ever get invited to visit Mark's apartment. But why would Mark leave at 9pm? Was that to get to a Shelter before it closed? Anyway, David and Mark are beginning to start cooking, as Craig would say, and the foods not bad either. Roll on second date.

It's intriguing why Mark would want to be living beyond his means to stay located in an area where he doesn't appear to have any friends. It must simply be that he grew up around that area and is familiar with it. My first thought was that he may be the son of the old maintenance guy. That would explain why he appeared familiar to Craig. I suspect that Mark may be living rough and not have an apartment at all. Maybe he has a master key for the Boltfort that his father had not returned. And it would also explain how Mark knew to turn up at the old St. Patrick Cathederal, if he had been following Craig and David around, all morning. So much speculation, but it is a mystery, isn't it?

I like your thinking travlbug.

What a charming chapter as David and Mark find life among the dead. I like how Craig knows his grandson almost as well as David knows himself. He immediately spots the rapport between Mark and David: "Aren't you glad you came?". No pressure whatsoever; just a recognition from kindred spirits. And thanks to Craig, they were able to evade numerous break up points throughout the afternoon, until he left them outside of his apartment, like horses led to water. Of course they would drink. His grandson is no fool. David's trip now promises to be so much more. The mystery has moved onto the back burner. The motion cameras can take care of that. David has bigger fish to fry. One that he has caught and, an inkling, may even want to keep.

A beautiful ending Sasha that became all things positive and left in it's wake, the dross of everything negative, that we had allowed to enter our minds. We were left to wonder who were the real villains of this story: was it Alexander, or any of the other characters or could it possibly be us, the reader, for what we ascribed to the events that unfolded. I found it a thoroughly challenging read that left me with a tinge of shame, as much for myself as for anyone else. But there is so much happiness too. Oli and Boris's life of love together having achieved a career of writer and graphics artist, beyond their wildest expectations. Also, the recognition of everything that was of greatest importance to his son, solidly and lovingly carved as a permanent reminder into his headboard, lest he ever forget. Boris and Oli and and a dog named Ruff, forever.

I find that last scene to be even more disturbing to be presented this late in the game. It means that at some point, Alexander found a strong enough reason to decide to hate his son. He wasn't always the mindlessly, uncaring and abusive bully that he acted, for most of Oli's formative years. I'd like to think we will find out the reason why. I'm not sure that Oli should have mentioned Boris moving in, to Madds. She's obviously going to want to meet them both now. Boris will need to have a job on the road and explain why Oli is never around when he is. So we are at the level of shared masturbation in the shower between man and dog. Is anyone running yet? Only one more chapter to go. I doubt things will get much better than this, for Oli and Boris. But maybe this will be enough of a relationship for them both.

Edit removed. Posted against wrong chapter.🤪

This is certainly going to be a visit to his granddad, that David will remember. A wonderful breakfast and stroll around Central Park. Imagine, passing the place where John Lennon was shot. It will mean little to David but many of us can remember exactly what we were doing, when shocked by that news. Both granddad and grandson were comfortable among the vista of the park's sporadic gay couples and the occasional wayward smiles. Looks like our young friend is beginning to get spooked by the entire mystery. I certainly wouldn't be happy finding out that someone else was showering elsewhere in my apartment, while I had been. A touch reminiscent of Psycho, without the knives. I'm still thinking it's a street urchin getting in through the air ducting which is accessible, though not yet found, in the closet. Maybe an intruder that does do a mean impression of a sqwaking bird as they rush to escape down a chute, perhaps. Anyway, I'm looking forward to whatever else Craig has planned for David's stay, and ultimately, how this whole mystery will unfold.

Among the many attrocities that Alexander had committed, perhaps the greatest was, his inexorable desire, to remove every single one of his son's personal dreams for a happy and fulfilled future. Being a werewolf is a curse, and any deviation from Alexander's small-minded, survivalist, existence, is a challenge that must be crushed. Love or hope have no place in his prison. It is now time for Oli to break free of these suffocating mental shackles, that he's been forced to view as nothing but a curse. To find whatever happiness and love he can get with Boris and with it, the financial independence from his parents, that his artistic career is surely about to provide.

I think you've taken the right approach @unilive. If Mark was showing signs of being psychologically scarred by his ordeal then yes, I would definitely recommend that he needed to confront his parents and get closure. But Marks got a great life now and no longer wastes an ounce of thought on the losers he left behind. That is the most damning indictment for his mother: that she was not worthy of having earned a moment of his thought. And she will know only too well, how successful and happy her son is without them.

I recanted my first response to this chapter. It ended up being a lengthy criticism of Oli for allowing this visit home to his parents when this was the obvious outcome. I concluded that Oli needed to get to grips with his irritation of the Alsation or not go at all. As I say, the rest played out predictably. Interestingly enough, in changing the focus of my response, it leads me to title of this chapter: Consent. Quite rightly, Oli can't accept that a dumb animal, like the Alsation, can consent to sexual relations. Unfortunately, he ends up taking out his frustrations on the animal, because he is too weak to confront his father. The issue is, that Oli has mistakenly equated his own situation with Boris with that of his father's abhorent abuse of the canine, that he now knows his parents bought as a sex object for his father. Oli has two major lessons to learn. One is that he must stay away from his father's house and just invite his mum to his home. But more importantly, he must realise that his own situation with Boris is quite different. There is consent given by both parties even though it may not overlap while they are both in human form. There is a case in British Criminal Law which is of interest to this topic. It was once considered, that for a crime to be committed, you had to have a guilty act and a guilty mind and both had to occur, at the same point in time. But this all changed in a 1960's case, when a group of men set about intending to kill another, by beating him to death. They believed they had succeeded. Later, they disposed of the body, by throwing it over a cliff. However, the victim was not dead and landed on a ledge. Days later, the victim died of exposure. One of the most interesting defences ensued. The defence argued that the accused could not be guilty of manslaughter because when they intended to kill the victim, they failed to complete their act. Later, when the victim actually died, the accused were not of a guilty mind. There was no overlap of the act and state of mind. This Case confirmed that the state of mind could be deemed to be continuing to overlap with the an act that took place at a different point in time. In much the same way, both Oli and Boris have provided their consent, in human form, to intimate acts in their alternative forms, when they are unable to voice their affirmation but still retain their human sentient consciousness. This may not hold up in a Court of law but I doubt that we will find two werewolves, with this genetic misalignment either.

What about one of the Robbie Williams screws Take That numbers. There's loads of vitriolic material in there that's good enough for this task. It's not too late for a directors cut edit @unilive

Of course. Why didn't I think of that. I'm guessing it will be a lad around David's age and the big question will be whether they will be alive or a ghost. Probably a street urchin with upmarket culinary tastes, getting in through the air conditioning ducts in the hall closet. And, of course, he'll have come out of the closet too.

Well what if there isn't some mystical solution to the fact that Oli and Boris are destined to be opposite species to the end of their days. If the permanence of their tragic states is realised, they may very gradually need to take steps to break down the boundaries of what is considered taboo. As long as it remains behind closed doors then they may have no real choice but to accept that what goes on in Vegas, stays in Vegas. I suspect that they may be very happy with a level of sexual interaction that is very mild and doesn't go much beyond petting. Given the circumstances, who are we to judge?

Alexander is learning on the job???

It would have to a fat one, if its eating that much bread each day.

A superbly written chapter Geron, from start to finish. I was thoroughly engaged with all the sights, sounds, tastes and ambiance of the building. So much so, that I envied knowing someone who would invite me there. The shadow in the hallway and not knowing, whether the hallway closet door closed by itself, really added to the mystery. The size and layout of the closet added to the overall grandiose, opulence and heritage, of the apartment. And that final oddity, about where half the loaf of fresh baked bread had disappeared to. Is granddad becoming forgetful or is something more conspicuous afoot? Time's inexorable march, with each beat of the pendulum clock, will tell. Tomorrow, holds a greater promise of adventure, as David considers his desire to meet others. Finding and even wanting to retain a catch, seems such a remote possibility right now.

And they all lived happily ever after but may be, not together. The joy is in the ride and not the destination. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise kids.

So more confirmation, as if it were needed, of Alexander being a self centered, spiteful organism, undeserving of any family. I don't hold Andrea in the same regard as many others here. Yes she was considerate, for today, of her son's good friend Buddy but she must have witnessed how her deadbeat husband denigrated her son throughout his life and yet she never did anything about it, except repeatedly demand that Oli obey his father. What kind of a caring mother does that? I said this in an earlier chapter but I can't understand, how someone intelligent enough to be a vet, decided that the best way to introduce Oli to being a werewolf, was not gradually educate him throughout his childhood but to wait until the final moment and say Oli come down and see what your naked father can do! WTF! She then has the audacity to blame Oli for why she never chatted about werewolves saying he wasn't interested and was a difficult teen. She didn't think that the reason Oli didnt ask about werewolves was because he simply didnt know that he was one. OK, so now that I've said my piece, I'll try to say no more about his deadbeat parents. Andrea, may amount to something, in time. I know the Alsation is a bit creepy always seeking the attention of Alexander but she's an innocent dog, unaware that she has an asshole for an owner. All that aside, I really love this story.

Normally our world is full of black or white choices, and as we mature, we're pretty much settled on which side of the fence, we lie. And then there's this world of Oli and Boris that's many shades of grey. Normally, Oli would be firmly cast as the villain for his disloyalty to Boris. But Stuart's an existing friend and Oli's only real sexual release. A role that Oli and Boris are destined never to experience, it would seem. So can you be committed lifelong mates without the possibility of sex and secondly, has that commitment truly been made between these two? All I can say is don't try to answer that question when testosterone is coursing through your veins and someone is trying to jump your bones. That's definitely is a shade of grey as far as I'm concerned.

Am I missing something? Was Oli still financially dependent on his father at this stage of his life, when his father was humiliating him? Surely he had to be, or Alpha or not, Oli should definitely have told him to take a flying ****, after clearing a path out the front door, of course. 🙂 Lets hope some farmer's kid mistakes his dad for a rabid stray, worrying their sheep. Emotions are running ever deeper for Oli. He's beginning to feel dishonest in not sharing his true feelings with Boris. I sense the dam is about to break, in terms of how he is compelled to reciprocate and a torrent of wildly mixed emotions is about to engulf us all, about the rights and wrongs of his actions.

I'm surprised by Oli in the shower scene. How can he just go back to treating Boris as Buddy the dog, as if he never knew there was a person he very much liked and maybe even loved stood beside him? Oli has created a "never" that resonates every ounce as forcefully as his father's insistence on "ever". I suspect that you may be testing the readers resolve: whether they will ever be accepting of any level of intimacy between Oli and Boris, once it is certain that they will never be the same species at the same time. I have to admit that I'm OK with milder forms of intimacy, given the fantastical circumstances and the fact that they are two people, when all said and done.

It's great that we are getting to examine the minds of Oli and Boris in both their human and canine forms. Especially, as their thoughts and personalities are able to permeate both. You can see their friendship deepening with every act. I'm fascinated with the logistics of everything, and how they can best optimise their communication. In their human form they need to ask or write down a list of more complex questions for the other to answer, as soon as they take on their human form again. Questions beyond the basics of how to cook and clean etc. Questions that will eventually open up into 'do you love me and how?'