Mattyboy

Emilio is very much his brother's twin, and he's learned a lot from (and obviously values and respects) Thomas, but he's grown into his own person with his own voice who's doing this his own way. The possibility of that sort of growth is one of the big messages in Empath's work, and I'd think most of the readers have picked up on that in some way, but if any of you hadn't - THERE IT IS; RIGHT THERE. ⬆️

This is heart-aching that Angelica is right there in the next room and actually thinking about checking up on Henry, but the threads aren't quite weaving together yet. But I feel we can see it from here. So were we told who Henry's namesake is? Does it have a V in it?

Ok, that didn't add up to a 😆rxn from me but Emilio had some pretty great wiseacre lines there. He jumped about 20 spots on my "favorite characters" list in this episode. "We’re going to get caught,” Elio declared, showing no intention of backing down. “Probably. At least we know a good lawyer.” A little. I don’t want to screw it up.” Elio forced himself not to drop his head in shame, even though admitting his perceived weakness made him feel inadequate. “That’s why I’m here!” . . . “Just turn down your brain and turn up your heart. “I feel like a freak who hides in his head whenever life gets too overwhelming. No one else does that.” “We all do that, bro.” Emilio’s heart was dialed all the way up. “It’s just that the rest of us can’t shift into Batman like you can.” “Turn down the brain, El. I can smell smoke.” We’re going to get caught,” Elio declared, showing no intention of backing down. “Probably. At least we know a good lawyer.”

Backup has been called and Silas-not-shooting seems to be happening, so looks like Teyshawn and Devon are getting out. Henry does not seem to be okay.

"Russ gave a grim laugh, “Light the blue touch paper and retire.” " This is a Standard of Huddersfield reference, I take it? Very fun for me.

Hooboy, this is looking tricky. Juan has it right about Wisconsin, but that's gonna be too slow to count as a hot trail. Excellent that Team del Buono is staying the heck away from 624 for now. That Walter is quite this awful is going to be a hard thought to generate for -well- everyone. And nobody but maybe Angelica has even thought to share what puzzle pieces they're holding. Fingers crossed Henry has enough time 🐟🐠🐡🐠🐟 Very finely crafted @empath

How well does Troy know Jake anyhow? I'm staying in camp VBlew until this gets cleared up.

Hmm, maybe. I mean, I know you're the author and all, but Jake's behavior has been sus.

I like chaos, but this seemed weird (which maybe was the point?). Seth says he likes sports but he didn't seem that into either soccer or his teammates in the first chapter. I'm not into Deepak Chopra or crystals, but Chopra does talk about crystals a lot I think. Is Troy dissembling about his interest when it more hypnotism than meditation? I'm intrigued, but I feel I'm bumping up on the limit my interest if the narrator is going to be that unreliable.

"Qian was only now taking inventory of the overwhelming number of things that had gone in his favor," Team Liberty is pretty great, alright. They face some quite nasty opposition, but doing good and being competent has always worked for them in the past.

Yeah, it's a dinosaur thing to say now, but a generation ago I knew coaches who thought they were just being funny or teaching boys about masculinity or something. Coach did start with being encouraging even though Seth, by Seth's account, didn't do much.

Ew, Errol, I get the choice but not very nice.

Coach tried a couple of times and then dropped it. "Sissy" was a crappy thing to say at the end, but still feels like that nets out to maybe-positive?

"The wild where I was free to prowl, bush-walk and investigate the animals and fungi, a solitary untamed creature beyond the perimeters of civilisation but destined to return out of need." I like the contrast between this line and Corey's disinterest in the manufactured but worthless (to Corey, anyhow, but he makes a good case) stuff in the Corey's house. I had a warehouse job once where it was part of my job to manage a huge inventory of crappily-made ceramic flowers that some buyer thought was a good idea (or a way to get revenge on his boss), so I'm familiar with the category

It was a Golden Age. Thanks

What Billy episode are we at now?

14. I really like the way this has unfolded in non-chronological vignettes, but yeah, that makes it hard to place episodes

wow, that closes some open ends from the early chapters (and 14).

Hurray, the boat floats! Basket Maker's Arms sounds nice (and characteristically vernacular).

This was a boat that needed to be pushed out. Good work, Gray, maybe.

And that slipping off quietly to out-of-the-way places where no one ever goes, is a bad idea when you have a stalker who fantasizes about violence. (And I agree about Val and Marina, but I think there's a good chance they'll come around.)

hmm, maybe. I agree they hadn't thought it through deeply enough. Not convinced that Jasper knows for sure what he thinks he's doing stalking Toby, and possibly letting him know that he's been spotted and questions-are-being-asked means that Jasper will know that he'll be suspect #1 if anything happens to Toby. Which might back him off. (or not, because he's an idiot, but it's plausible). The cottage in Derbyshire sounds nice.

If your pilot is ready to go, you gotta go.

There was a local singer who covered this and sang some lyrics that aren't in the recorded versions; "Life on Mars, it's so much better than ours" was part of it I think. On a re-listen the Bowie lyric "fighting in the dance hall, oh, look at those cavemen go" I keep hearing as "look at those gay men go." I stand by my head-canon. And I'll look into My First Trip to Mars

Yeah, seems like that's not what anyone else has ever thought. I've never paid attention to the non-chorus lyrics. Head-canon for me now, though. Yeah, Christine seems nice. They should be friends, at least.