Mattyboy

Fortunately, for Matty, Rusty, the Amazing Four, and the entire readership here: catboys don't take commands. Well, unless you get a collar on them. What else could go wrong for Rusty? Matty running would be a big fat #1 at this point. Stop trying to break Matty and Rusty up. We're almost together. As soon as I . . . um . . . gjihkgffytfytd

Turning point indeed! It's sort of amazing how you've shown us the fun of the costumed "secret" identities, and all the acting and masking Rusty and Matty do when they're not in costume. That's pretty some fancy plot-work, @Laura S. Fox These lines in particular feels very meta for me: "He needed to be patient. The choice was made [ . . . ] What followed after… he would just have to wait and see. If only it weren’t so nerve-wracking to wait."

That was searing. A lot of your chapters have a mix of tones; heavy, light, sexy, analytic, bits of comic relief. No comedy would have relieved the last scene, though. Right choice, but wow.

It's a stroke of luck then, that the formidable Aunt Marie seems capable and even likely to do just that.

We seem to have pulled over on the Road to Chaos. Marie is an absolutely superstar aunt, but we've been on the road for a while now, and it looks like the boys' lives are getting back in order. 🤔 where is the chaos, @Ronyx ? I WANT MOAR CHAOS It is nice to see Blake getting a nice home, though, so 💖 for that.

Well done Otis! And this plot twist is certainly some fresh ground for you, @Laura S. Fox ! I'm much more used to your characters dancing past each other in complicated spirals for twenty-plus chapters of delicious tension. These guys are snapping a collar on and getting at it by chapter 8 ! I'm here for it, though.

Shoulda kissed Josh before bringing out the fireballs. I mean, it'll probably be fine, but weird priorities! And what happened to Josh's pool?

This. To add; constructive isn't that hard. Even if something's a C+ story, did something make you laugh? a scene evoked an emotion? was there a clever turn-of-phrase? did you recognize the obscure (or niche) reference? supporting character did something interesting? a setting you know well? or that's new to you? Because how could we know if new author is brass-balls confident or has nervously overcome self-doubt? Or is an established author experimenting under a pseudonym? Further, I'm following a few stories here that have a smallish group of commenters; but they're the right group of commenters. People that know the setting, like the tempo, get the references, and appreciate the genre. That's pretty awesome, and sometimes you can have a better conversation with six than with 300. So that's cool, too. I'm very much with @Krista and @Mark Arbour that I'm here for what GA is, and I don't think I'd like change that wasn't organic growth.

That first kiss better be from JJ.

well, that's confounding! (I do like the push forward to the present and the new set up. fun!)

And stop trying to break me and Rusty up.

“Mom!” Matty protested. “He doesn’t even know he’s my boyfriend.” Now that just came out wrong. “I mean, we are just getting to know each other, and I like him very much.” Technically true, and a pretty good call on the state of affairs 15 chapters ago.

Hmm, maybe. Yes, there's a lot of history structuring those choices, alright. Rusty's relationship with Roy is strained, but is within rather broad bounds of normal (and Rusty wants to keep a line in to his brother as well). August has been read-in on this nonsense (a little, it seems), and Rusty's right about her capacity for emotional support (and smarts to recognize the situation). Bringing Maddox would have turned this into a visit-with-the-Kingsley's which wasn't the main point. Rusty is also choosing not to expose Matty to toxic behavior. Rusty's mother didn't say anything really awful on that front, but Rusty might have intuited that bringing Matty would have been a coming-out moment and might have triggered a gusher of narcissitic venom. August is a shield from that, but not exposing Matty to that is the right thing to do. Sure, it's also a ruse, but his mother isn't entitled to know if she's going immediately weaponize it.

This is excellent progress. The "are-we-doing-this?" shenanigans have been excellent, but it is time for Matty to say "I want this." Also, this seems like an excellent night for a stray cat strut for Slicky

oh absolutely. @The_Jordanator wrote something cool and fun, and doesn't owe anybody anything. I just got here. But if you're open to DMing me the plot line you had in mind, I'd be fascinated to see it.

"The blocks he’d placed in Travis’s mind were weakening, and eventually, Pro wouldn’t be able to contain those memories" So, at some point, Travis is going to be sitting around some middle school classroom and he'll remember he's the champ at Booker's on the east side? He should be able to handle that, no problem. Although the 12k oughta come in handy.

I really want to give Oblivion the benefit of the doubt, because he makes some good points and Prometheus is kind of a dick. But the "skin made of writhing souls" is a bit of a red flag.

The puppies-and-collars theme got an excellent workout today . 🐕🦮🐕‍🦺

Stacy is absolute fountain of chaos, but perhaps a bit beyond even Mrs. Reinhart's skills and Marie's formidable aunting. Not many of Blake's problems are really Stacy's fault, but most everyone else's are.

@Ronyx channeling the apocalyptic chaos in three lines: Seth: "the curtain had been pulled back, and the real Craig had been revealed. I’m not sure he’s strong enough to survive that." Blake giggled and said, “This is kind of fucked up.” Craig: “We should have sex" Marie is a very fine aunt, but this figures to reduce the chaos. I was okay with another loop or two.

Over the hump? into the hump? I generally don't trust Prometheus, but he seems to be a git'er done kinda guy.

In the end, we all self-medicate. Pepto-Bismol comes in bottles, too, remember. All sorts of things could go wrong at a sleepover, but maybe something can go right. I'm almost hoping for a Prometheus takeover to get Travis over the hump.

Didn't Travis have healing powers as a little kid? Is that locked up somewhere, or somehow not applicable to this? You'd think someone who can teleport could get rid of some lung-crud.

It is always thus