Mattyboy

I was just thinking it had been a while since I'd read a nice story with overlapping love triangles and a bunch of named chickens and was wondering if you had anything for me

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Thank you, Fry, for continuing to wave this flag.

This incident was recently described in The Globe and Mail as Hudson Williams trying to "climb him like a koala in a eucalyptus tree" which I thought was a nice turn of phrase.

That one goes right down to the deep foundations of how Comicality structured the Billyverse stories. There are a few pieces on GA in which Comsie explained his projects. He liked limited narration and the tightly-coiled springs of indecision, and one of his biggest things was maintaining tension. From Chandler's story we have evidence that Brandon's Dad would likely be accepting. But Brandon hasn't put the puzzle pieces together (and he doesn't even know about some of those pieces) so he's trapped with his many moods and his teen-closet-angst.

And she's had absolutely her full attention on puzzling out exactly what's going on all week. Elias might have done a bit more to try to persuade Rowan to cooperate, but there wasn't a future where some version of this didn't happen.

This can't last but that turned out . . . well? Sort of ? for now?

Not quite as isolated a site as Alex seems to have hoped. Figuring it out as they go gets another test!

Sean seems nice. I thought of Sean and Alice as wildcards, but didn't see "take the midnight train to Wales" as the next off the top of the deck.

A comments-section squabble about whether something was foreshadowed or not in an earlier chapter can also spin up the views count in a hurry as people go back and forth. I'm usually one-and-done (I think) with most chapters, but that can spike way up in some circumstances.

Yeah, could well be a trainwreck. But lots of open futures here. For instance, if Matty is done with Alex and tells him to get lost. This would be plenty of tears for Alex, (and maybe a few readers), but then he could go home and not start in on the very bad "let's try being together in the north of England with no resources" plan.

This chapter has an interesting balance. Elias spending most of a week on introspection and working through his thoughts, and Rowan on stage for three minutes and 15 words, and those two paths have kinda wound up at the same destination. (Which is certainly a novelty for these guys, being at the same place).

Maybe? Sean's a wildcard. Alice is a wildcard. Matty is a wildcard. Strong yes on the "Alex isn't thinking clearly" but the rest seems pretty up in the air.

This is fairly saintly (elder gay variety) of Jonathan. And fun about Sean. Seems rather less doomed to end in tears than it did at this plans conception.

Both of these seem likely true (ooh, there's new chapter up, I guess we're about to find out!)

"Time May Change Me" indeed. There's been a lot of development in these characters. Matty's parents may also have been told some stories about local adult Jake's apartment for which Alex has a key and in which Matty gets tickled in his underwear. That seemed to be a charming moment of freedom and authenticity when it happened, but I can see a parent of a 14-year old raising the red flag over that.

What a huge chapter. Rowan came so far, but from such a point both low and sort of compressed that he has a long way to go yet. The line of "Something that lived below horror and above need, in the strata where the self does things it can't explain and the explanation, when it comes, arrives not as a thought but as a reckoning" seems to have been a coda for the whole chapter Elias was on the right track when he told Camille it didn't matter if Rowan had thanked him. And Camille was smart to restrain herself about it too. The whole thing would have been ruined if Rowan was supposed to be grateful for Elias' intervention. It wouldn't have been worth anything anyhow if it was something he had to pay for. Rowan need that Elias for "You looked at me like I was worth being angry about, " but also excellent for Elias to set some boundaries about stowing away on his boat. So fascinated to see where this goes next!

There's a brand called "peeps" in some parts of the US. Marshmallow-like stuff is easy to form into fun shapes and easily colored. And, no, they're not something that most adult palates are interested in, but there's lots of stuff other than peeps in that category.

The pacing of this is excellent. Not over-ornamented, but it's got a pulse.

You haven't missed much on Matty's parents: they seemed to like Alex but were only in the story in passing. Yeah, they don't seem to be taking it well.

Excellent on how teens fumble around with their first relationships. Good for Alex coming clean about Jake, at least.

I guess we don't really know much about Jake, do we?

Yeah, sure, suspicious is better than being a chump. But it's front loading this to call Jeff a cheater, when Jeff and Alex are still in the "before the first date" stage. An interesting weekend of developments, though

I think most people do consider Minnesota midwestern, but that might not be @Flip-Flop's home state.

Will we ever get a kilt-oriented spinoff on Jeff, Brody, and Will's sartorial competition?