Mattyboy

Tommy has been accepting and is bumping up on active curiosity. "Your school is gay-friendly?" and happily stripping down to CK briefs for the night. We wrapped up some issues and so I guess it's narratively time for a new source of conflict, but perhaps the boys' experience will see them through this one

Joel's bio-mom really did a number on him, and he's trapped by his fears and trauma and can't begin to figure out what he wants, even able to guess at a want. Grady Roy Mason hasn't done anything at all bad on stage, and seems friendly and prepared to be accepting. Lorianne seems pretty alright. The first person PoV and all the introspective analysis of the situations is a jarring contrast with Joel's actions. Maybe Davin could have done a bit more prep with Joel about meeting the team, but ugh. That random flailing at going hardline at being #17 was a weird thing to do right before panicking and running off because the team looked liked they were enjoying their new kit (and away from Davin who I presume is his ride). This is a panic/trauma response, but for an introspective kid who's been conditioned to go with the flow, it seems more dumb than anything else.

And very well deserved for Brian, who got dumped by Kyle for having ambition and making too many cookies. Karma has delivered him a (rather weird) new boyfriend with a cool car. 🏎️🦒🦒🥮

What a contrast between Brian and Alex, and yet they also each have a lot to offer each other (which Alex is just starting to figure out). Fun and fresh variation on the old "opposites attract" story.

🦒🦒🥮

hehe, how's it going over on Reddit?

The disposability of the wet nap is haunted by the non-ferrous im/permanence of the spork (ephemeral at the meal, but eternal in the landfill). You'll have to discuss it with Inkognito, that's a whole 'nother place-setting.

Marty had been very interested in the pics of Aunt Hanna before, and had some sort of fragmentary memory of that New York restaurant Claire took them too. I'd been wondering if There was some Marty-Hanna connection, but maybe not.

Where's that new fancy hearing aid from the sponsor? Feels like it might be waterproof.

It's actually a pretty great double if the sponsor also has a good-looking high-end hearing aid on the market and they can get a product placement in a good-looking ear. I hope Peter can get a freebie of a nice new working-model hearing-aid out of this

The spoon (of course) reifies the yoU/tensility of slash fiction, and arouses the meaningFull absence of the /Knife in the triad of the place setting / setting-in-place. I probably shoulda worked "recursive" in there somewhere.

Interrogating the reflexivity of the comments-section review as a genre-in-itself, Inkognito twists a metafictione into a Moebius structure that inverts as it resets. If narrative collapsing into metalepsis is the kind of thing you like, you'll like this. 10/10. Should probably have its own meta-badge in the rewards system.

Interrogating the reflexivity of the comments-section review as a genre-in-itself, Inkognito twists a metafictional narrative into a Moebius structure that inverts as it resets, as the repeated mise en abyme collapses into metalepsis, asking into the abyss "is irony still possible"? 11/11. Putting down my Frye.

Yeah, this chapter starts with "Come with me to the bedroom" and 12000 words later we get to "you smell like creek water"

I stand by my comments. I don't know what's going on here, but Krista is up to something and is quietly snickering to herself. Wildone knows, probably he's the only one.

Urges? Joel has anxieties, not desires, mostly. I'm starting to think this is Krista's grandest unreliable-narrator-swindle yet; Joel's not really gay, he's just a dumb aro-ace kid and a bit suggestible. He clicked on an AO3 story once because it was tagged "baseball," and got a screen full of porn pop-ups that logged on his browser history. Westley ratted him out right after, and it's never occurred to him to try to defend himself, since if there's ever been anything gay on his laptop, he must be gay too. I feel bad for Davin, though. Trace brought him the boyfriend he's needed for years, and it's this fucking dope who can't even figure out how to take his pants off to go skinny-dipping. Or remember that his bedroom door is lockable.

Great chapter, down to the bottom of the abyss and back out! Jack should send copy of that letter to the Los Angeles Times for publication. Or offer an NDA on the letter for a million-dollar trust fund. As a parental act it's utterly despicable. But as blackmail fuel I figure it's worth at least a mil.

Ooh I see we're up and running! 🍩🥮🧁

🍩🧁🥮 🦒🦒 🦒 👀 Oh no, Brian is Giraffe Daddy and Muffin Boy. This is sad. Tangentially, have you ever seen a giraffe's tongue? They're kind of amazing.

With all the dread-anticipation loaded up, even the best news will be an enormous emotional hit. Long-term good news would be that his Jack's parents signed away their relationship and he's free of them. But that'll still amount to his mother rejecting him for all time. Gotta be a gut-punch, even if he rationally knows he needs it and it's better for him. (And certainly could be that the evil parents are starting a fight and it'll be a summer of injunctions and depositions, which is awful in a different way.)

Great shower scene I'd like to nominate Giraffe Daddy and Muffin Boy as the title of the up-coming sequel.

It's not like they haven't been thinking about this. Both Nick and Jonah have done a few rounds, and the "seeing-it-now-after-getting-it-wrong-last-time" aspect worked for me. This time Nick actually thought through the meaning of that promise to Mom that this can't be the week that Nick hurts Jack. I get the point though being made, though, some of those speeches were very "considered."

ooh Kyle's a Harding!

Is Vera another crossover character from Brian & Gordon?

Hats off for Brian, the Giraffe Daddy overlord, right? Lotta hats for Brian! And some neck.