Mattyboy

Yep! I've read a few too many everyone-is-awful stories recently; I really like this mix several characters trying in different ways to do right (and understandable antagonist motivations like a young prosecutor trying to win cases).

"Hmm. So, how did he fuck things up, or was that just an excuse ... ?" The intrigue builds. Intriguingly.

Yes, that was a bit naive of Ludo to figure that Jackie would react well to the news about Arthur. With everyone that it's very weird that what Ludo does matter's for the "work project." And part of the note about "making arrangements" was maybe a bit threatening about custody, but that seems not to be what the cops were there about. Excellent curve ball, @Robert Hugill . I am both befuddled and intrigued.

Maybe Cottontail is the brother of a Mitch.

"You can pull out now" is very much not the most romantic thing anyone has ever said. I'm starting to think that Alan is (maybe a lot) less experienced than he lets on, and is also learning a lot about himself this week.

Maybe, but I'm skeptical about this. John came up for Matty and Rusty because they know him, but I don't recall there was ever any mention that John might have a brother around (and he usually seemed kinda lonely). And I think there was a medium stretch when John knew Slicky's real identity but Xpress didn't. But could be wrong and @Joie J. usually is right on the pulse.

Yay Gus! And this episode adds up to fairly mundane stuff from Alex. It occurs to me that his cash pile might be connected to not having a regular bank account, and the sex-workers to the prison-break mentality. Alex paying to get his fairly old car tuned up was actually a prudent move.

"Relationship drama? Sad bois I don't know how to warn for this exactly" Excellent note, TY, but anybody who's here at chapter 30 has been read-in that Demiurge-content-might-include relationship drama

Alex seems to have lot of hundred-dollar-bills for someone cycling through a transitional housing place.

That's what I thought was going on there (mutually). Ben doesn't have much to go on if Josh is friend or friend yet, and from his perspective it's sensible to not mess anything up by pushing. And Josh knows Ben is fragile and vulnerable, and so same deal.

Does it count as progress for three new problems to turn up? Very fun chapter!

I didn't notice it as an Easter egg it while I was reading the chapter. I only clued in when I looked up Mom's name for my comment. It actually works pretty well as the sort of thing people do when they're living in a bible-suffused culture but don't actually know the stories or what they mean. They figure Seth should have a brother named Kane, but have no idea why they think that. At that level it is a pretty clever jab at the wrathful "Jesus-without-love" set that seem to comprise this town's villains. And as a riff on that bumper-sticker joke, that Adam and Steve are pretty happy and are making it work suits pretty well.

The closet seems a lot safer at the moment (hoping that'll change, but it's where he and Asher are now) Yes, yay for Kane, and maybe he has some new cards to play with his Mom. um, so . . . Adam was married to Eve, and they had sons named Seth and Kane?

Lit-crit profs used to think that gay stories would be inherently stories about people leading miserable lives, chasing the "love that dare not speak its name" and the best that could be hoped for was successfully hiding. And yes, stories like Matthew Shepard's needed (and need) to be told. But it's one of the really cool and positive things that the generation of writers since then have shown that there are some many more kinds of stories that can be told. HEA sometimes gets labelled as lightweight stuff, but it's also signposting the way to better human lives, and that's not lightweight at all.

Some more Aiden would be excellent

"Tyler wasn’t as tight as Doug had been." Well that's quite an interesting little tidbit! Yes, yes you do, Squirrel. and, yes, some A+ mothering from Anna there, with quite a high degree of difficulty

yeah Aiden's all a bit all over the place. But a night with Dustin and Doug sounds like a lot of fun.

This one? No. But I don't know why you'd pretend you don't like being on the border-line.

I love it when writers experiment with multiple perspectives, and also when they clear up exactly when it is by saying something like . . . This chapter corresponds with WAR 6.13 - The Kids Aren't Alright in Commencement. I may comment again after I read this, but I've already been made happy Also, "Knight takes Bishop" is a pretty great chapter title. I hope there's a sex scene.

This? Nothing's happened until now to get you there? It's extremely understandable why he's the way he is, but we know he's physically quite capable and strong, and he has a damaged and twisted soul. Sorry, came out swinging there . . . but Squirrel has done so much work establishing Dustin as a complex, wonderful, and deeply damaged character

"If you suffered in life and want other people to suffer as you did because 'you turned out fine,' you did not in fact turn out fine." Dan Swensen

Well, yes, but it was the orientation and explanation that Aiden needed to hear, using words that had already been uttered in the conversation. And it's great background for the "how is Brett friends with everyone?" thing we learned in Dustin's chapters

When I started that comment I thought I was just bantering with Summerabbacat, but it kinda grew into a full "artist's statement" thing

In chapter one is was Sabrina that kicked off events with her "intervention" So, Todd's art is based on stickers; adding something that changes the appearance and meaning of something a little (at the store) or a lot (the major art pieces), without changing its nature, and in the art (and the band-aid mural) inviting you to see or at least think about what lies underneath. The art stickers are two-sided and removable, so they can appear differently and have different meanings depending on where they are in the three-dimensional space that they're designed to be able to move around in. Todd made the gallery pieces, but everyone who peeled a sticker collectively made the final imago. So Todd is kind of a trickster figure- his art invites change; the grocery store stickers didn't make the changes their politics advertised, but they did change Todd (and probably also Damon, in the end). And Todd's stickery-trickster-trouble catalyzed change in Barrett and Anthony and Dillon, and looks like maybe even Mr Miller.

Even Billy's well-established incredibly bad impulsive decision-making doesn't really explain going over to Joey McKenzie's house. JFC If Dustin's gonna die horribly, I think I'm done with WAR. It was a ride, alright