Danners

Professor Stomps: “This sh*t is bananas, Grace.” When things get heavy in this race against time, how about a chapter from the stuffed animal’s perspective? An adventure where he teaches Grace how to kneecap Rachel. Fingers crossed Ben can plead with his family and ask — no, demand — for one thing for himself. It’s clear Julian makes him happy, so why not? And if they say no, trigger the Professor Stomps Protocol.

I’m sure she thinks the world of him . . . once she’s unboxed and inflated.

Too bad Julian can’t fork his memories, etc. to a secondary storage and keep it synced as a backup in case something happens. Or maybe he can.

Part of me wonders if that bigger creature isn’t the progenitor and what they encountered earlier was one of its young. If it strayed from the nest, then there’s a good chance that nest is what Our Heroes will find in the valley between those peaks. Having the extra bodies, weapons, and powers isn’t a bad idea in that case. Maybe they’ll happen upon the air user on the way.

Julian at family dinner: That couldn’t have gone better in my opinion. Ben’s family absolutely needed to hear about their negative impact on his life, and so what if that truth was inconvenient. My mom had a friend just like Diane. She’d gather opinions like vegetables from a garden and pelted you with them. And if you dissented or countered her with cold, hard facts, suddenly you were attacking her and how could you. Ben’s mother needs a different hobby, something less dangerous like taste testing cyanide.

Mason doesn’t need new boots; he needs a boot to the ass. Preferably steel toed as requested. As hummingbird hearted as Ben is for Julian after one day, I can only imagine how enamored he’ll be once his companion starts putting his family in line. And, I dare say, with dinner and the movie and putting the girls to bed, you gave us wholesome as advertised!

Personally, I can’t wait for Julian to meet Vera. The other adults (aside from Ben himself) can take a flying leap, preferably somewhere without cell reception … While he’s got that sewing kit out, maybe Julian can slap together a muzzle for one of the siblings. Or both. He’s crafty!

Could Emmett live with the guilt of breaking such a sweet man’s heart? Especially after Mo literally tore a hole in Ben’s soul by leaving him. Not that I’d blame him. As you said, he had no say in becoming Finley’s and that could very well be a point of contention. If there has to a meltdown, I nominate Tony to talk some sense into him. Or even Mo. *gasp* In this one not, I'm afraid, though I found quite some different versions, even like everytime they heal someone, they give part of their life(time). Here’s a thought: Bomb’s ritual. Give Emmett half of Finley’s life force, share it with him. . . or rip it out of Bomb. (Yeah, I said it.)

Poor Emmett — so accustomed to having decisions made for him and against his wishes that the conclusion he immediately jumped to was being ousted instead included in Finley’s plans. Think about how happy to be wrong he’ll be when his boyfriend finally explain himself. That should balance things out, right? I get the sense that, as far as its intentions go, a big part of Fin’s dragon selecting this place — the cabin and the land — is due to Emmett’s own feelings. I mean, if the cornerstone of your hoard is a sentient creature, you’re going to want to find a lair where they’ll feel the most welcome and as comfortable as possible. So, a cozy cabin that Emmett loves + an isolated parcel of land where he’ll be protected and where he and Finley can be themselves = MINE NOW. Of course our plushie’s dragon spoke up. Loudly. Here’s hoping Finley can muzzle that beast long enough to have that very important conversation with his boyfriend — y’know, the one that’ll explain why he suddenly yearns for a mortgage.

Everyone needs an Italian Mama in their corner. She’ll not only help hide the body, she’ll make sure you have an alibi and name a handful of witnesses who absolutely were with you at the time. (I’m looking at you, Grabby Hands.) Warren could be exactly who Calvin needs to calm down his overly complicated life. I am curious, though, about what caused the rift between Warren and his former friends and whether it's a proverbial storm on the horizon. I’m hoping it’s a non-issue. Now that Kyle vaguely knows about what Draven did, maybe a chemistry accident isn’t out of the question. It isn’t like his track record with listening to Cal is great, so … goodbye curls, hello bald spot? Eh? Eh?

When do we find out that Warren is Draven’s older brother? Because, y’know, the CW. (Also the matching hair and eyes, similar skin tone, and a taste in rings his boorish little brother tried to emulate … poorly.) Kyle could come around when faced with actually losing Cal but I’m not holding my breath. An accident involving Draven’s curls and a Bunsen burner is a more likely outcome. Hey, there’s a thought …

Well, it isn’t a cave buried deep inside a mountain but I’d say Finley found himself (and his hoard) a dragon’s lair. I wonder if it smells of Emmett.

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Er … I mean, Jamie tripped and clocked Angus with his full body weight. No one got that on tape, right?

I’d like to think he already has … and their constant bickering is basically schoolyard flirtation. With a side of Vince because Jack’s like the Energizer Bunny.

Look at Hearst playing the long(ish) game, and with recorded evidence too. No matter how the details get edited and skewed, he has the original conversation saved in full. I bet, smart as Hearst is, he also got the juiciest bit: Angus discussing the NDA or, in particular, pressing Hearst to sign it blindly. At this point Wen deserves to be a speed bump but who’s driving the bus — Jamie or his brother — remains to be seen. Whoever it is will hopefully swerve and bowl over Angus as well. I’m sitting under a plastic tarp from here on out ‘cause this is gonna get Gallagher-level messy.

Fingers crossed that Jamie leads Wencel to the back of the bus and …

I wonder if they’ll try painting Jamie as a chip off the old block and that he’s nothing but a conman himself. It could explain why LiveFeed went to the trouble of staging that reunion video with his former band mates and all but declaring he faked his drum skills. Could also be why they’re holding on to his cam work — y’know, so they can label him a deviant scamming men online for money. Top it off with a family reveal and/or reunion and they have themselves a villain. A villain who can deny or try to spin their claims until he’s blue in the face and nobody will believe him because of the damage is already done. Worst case scenario, but that seems to be the direction Wencel is steering things. Hearst better hop to it before his man puts his brother through the windshield (not that I’d mind). On a semi-related note, my soap opera brain — which looooooves to connect the dots in the most salacious way possible — has me imagining the Smiths being one of the Wicklows’ victims. Hearst would’ve been too young to remember but not his spiteful older brother … Improbable, I know, but fun!

Too bad Jamie can’t take a page from his bunny boy’s playbook and wear a mask when he performs. Adopt an alter ego as his public persona and keep his private non-musical life private — sort of like he already did with his career online. Add to his mystique. Where are you with that advice, Arthur? I’m no agent and even I can hear the money rolling in. (Plus, then a certain bunny can manage him in public and be there when he comes home.) Good for Jamie standing his ground. Arthur clearly wants to have his cake and eat it too, and I can’t help thinking he’d literally pimp his client out if it made him a dollar.

This is probably the first time I’ve ever wished for a condom to break.

Cue conveniently candid snapshots of Arthur holding Jamie’s hand during a “romantic” dinner date. That’s one way to allege Jamie will do anything to get ahead. My main concern is whether or not Arthur is in on it.

Typical abuser, that Anduin — doing his able best to cut off his brother’s support system and break him down emotionally. He won’t even deny it, I bet. Instead he’ll try to twist it around like he’s doing Remy a favor so they can spend more time together. The sooner Remy figures out how to help Marc, the better. I don’t think he can handle Anduin on his own and Marc’s the only potential ally who already knows most of the truth, removing Anduin’s ability to threaten to tell him. If anyone can put the fear of [insert deity of choice] in Anduin, it’s him. Here’s an idea: switch Claire’s lube for super glue, then she and her personal slave can truly be stuck with one another. Tee hee.

Just when I thought there’d be a happy ending . . .

But oh, what a pleasant surprise it was! In this case, I enjoyed being wrong.

It was everything I’d hoped for since chapter one. I like that we never learn exactly what happened to Jacques’ hand, just the proverbial black cat crossing his path and the reason I like it is because the precise details don’t really matter, it just happened. Jacques lost his hand, that’s a fact. The magic didn’t care about the minutia and, in reality, neither did Jacque. He only cared that it happened. Both boys faced their demons in this chapter and handled themselves admirably. They accepted themselves and came into their own as a result. Alex the conduit, not the one dimensional battery others told him he was. He’s so much more than a power source, he’s the power flow itself — or that’s how I view him anyway. He’s the colon in the equation if that makes sense. Jacques is the man he is — no more and certainly no less. He finally believes it. He let go of a loss that literally kept him anchored to the past, always comparing his present with what should have been. He lost his hand but it paved the way for this and this is just about perfect. So proud of these two! (And you, Mr Author.)