Mattyboy

Be a good dick, not a big dick

Bah, I knew you knew. It was just enjoying the thought and it was fun to type it out loud

hehe. Just thinking about explaining this in an ESL class If you say, "he's a good dick," it totally implies that you like him. But "I like a good dick" means something else entirely.

It's hilarious. It's standard English usage that a dick is an over aggressive person that doesn't care about other people's feelings. But a good dick is a good, honest guy. And it works out to a clever entendre when used by a gay man who likes dick. Maybe someone's used it before, but feels fresh, without the feeling too "literary-device-y"

Hehe : " He was a dick . . . But a good dick."

Congratulations on your wonderful achievement in world-building and this fabulously original cast. So, Lyme, Eon, and Wren solved the three-body problem? That's . . . interesting. Good to know the known nations are at peace. Sort of. By murderprince standards, anyhow.

Ahem

You wound me. Sorry, I got on at the right time today and started feeling catty, and things kinda took off from there. 👿😈

That was an interesting take on Roy this episode. Mom's "What does he tell you? That I was to blame, right?" feels kind of like an admission. And getting married and having a kid seems to stretch the normal usage of "he was leading me on. " Roy consistently paying the bills does check some boxes on the parent scorecard. It stressed Rusty that Roy was turning up at basketball games, but turning up at your son's games is actually usually scored a parenting +1 as well. And (with huge effort on Rusty and Matty's part,) Gabe's birthday seemed okay. Florence Kingsley is right; Rusty needs to call Roy.

Hey, I'm in charge of who's getting Slicky around here. Jamie seems to be on your mind a lot today. You could look for him on Sniffies. I think he's up at Sunny Hill campus now.

My paws are immaculate. And Rusty's out of town, so I haven't need to "grease" (as you crudely put it) anything this weekend anyhow.

Hint: it's a synonym for hiygibhkj 😉 Meow.

Indeed, Jamie is a fun and exciting option. Available now! Literally NOW on campus! An excellent choice, if you don't already have Rusty. Which I do. Well, I mean, I think I do Maybe he doesn't know he's my boyfriend, exactly, but he will after I . . . umm . . . argh . . . hiygibhkj

These plums don't run. 😈😈 Slicky is getting ready to pounce.

@J.El is just trying to make Matty a scaredy-cat, so they can scavenge for rebounds. May I suggest Sniffies while you wait?

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!)