Cane23

The Darcy–Elizabeth parallel has always made sense for early Misaligned - pride, misreading, wounded intelligence, attraction filtered through judgment. Alexander as the “too-controlled, too-superior” figure; Lyn as the sharp observer who thinks he sees through him. That’s very Austen...desire delayed by ego and social armor. But this latest chapter...that’s absolutely Much Ado About Nothing energy - Beatrice and Benedick all over the place. In Much Ado, banter isn’t flirting-lite - it’s foreplay and warfare at once. Beatrice and Benedick only allow themselves closeness through wit. That’s exactly where Lyn and Alexander are now. Talking about furniture in the middle of charged physical proximity isn’t random, it’s - a refusal to be sentimental, shared intellectual language...a way of saying “I see you, and I’m not afraid to stay” without saying it. Only characters who are deeply matched can do that without killing the tension. With anyone else, it would feel absurd - with them, it sharpens it. There’s also something very Shakespearean in how this chapter treats passion - It’s intense, but not sacred, allows humor inside desire, refuses the idea that sex must be hushed, poetic, or solemn to be meaningful. That’s a sign of maturity; they’re not worshipping each other anymore - they’re choosing each other with eyes open. So, Lyn and Alexander being able to debate furniture mid-foreplay - it's basically Beatrice saying she’d rather hear a dog bark than a man swear he loves her - until she meets the one man who can keep up. 😁 This chapter made me think about third relationship in this triangle - Alexander-Brad bond. On the surface, what Lyn sees (and what the narrative allows us to see) is rivalry, contempt, Alexander “bringing Brad down,” intellectual superiority weaponized. From Lyn’s POV, it reads as dominance, even cruelty. But when you step back, a different pattern emerges. Alexander and Brad don’t share a verbal or intellectual intimacy - they don’t have banter, or confessions, or even clarity. What they have is action-based loyalty. Brad bringing food to a sick Alexander - not announcing it, not dramatizing it... is care stripped of self-awareness. He doesn’t name love; he performs it. Alexander choosing the heart over the brain because of Brad is monumental - a life choice shaped by someone else’s existence. That’s real love - just not the kind Lyn would ever recognize easily, because it doesn’t speak his language. Their hostility is actually a sign of intimacy without tools. They are too close, too entangled, too mutually threatening to be polite - they clash constantly, but they never disengage. So, that friendship love between Alexander and Brad is absolutely real. Maybe the most stable love in the book, ironically, because it doesn’t need resolution or consummation - it simply endures, quietly shaping lives.

I just read what you wrote - your writing speaks for itself.

I’m wondering - as the late king’s second son, is Prince Rae an heir to the throne, or is his older sibling still alive?

Time is not infinite for any of them - it is so beautifully said! Brad knows he is dying (or at least knows death is now a real presence). And faced with that, he does something painfully on-brand for him - he refuses complexity and reaches for the last moment when life felt simple, aligned, safe. That moment is before the split, before Lyn’s confession, before the insult about Lyn’s mother...before shame, violence, queerness, and adulthood fractured them. In that frozen frame Lyn is straight, Brad is the center, Alexander is background noise and nothing has been irreversibly said. By insisting Lyn is straight (practically, since the first day at the airport), Brad isn’t denying Lyn - he’s denying the event that ended his life as he understood it. The wedding isn’t a beginning for Brad; it’s a terminal ritual - marriage, illness, adulthood... all of it signals closure, not promise. So, he pulls Lyn back in not to resolve things, but to re-enact 'old times' - banter without consequences, physical proximity without naming desire and emotional intimacy without truth. That also explains why he avoids real conversations, pretends nothing happened, never truly apologizes and collapses into rage when confronted. Truth would move time forward - Brad can’t afford that. Brad doesn’t want Lyn as he is, he wants Lyn as he was, because that version belongs to a world where Brad still had a future. It is a dying man trying to relive the last days when he felt whole, even if that means erasing the truth of the person he loves. Lyn comes back thinking he’s facing the past, but Brad is trying to live inside it. Nevertheless, Lyn is not returning to relive the past - he’s returning to seal it. When he thinks “closure,” what he actually means is not truth, not confrontation, not healing-through-exposure. It’s something much more restrained, almost procedural - I will witness the ending, and then I can finally stop carrying this. That’s why his intention is so modest on the surface - see Brad married, prove to himself that Brad has moved on and confirm that nothing more is required of him. He doesn’t want answers, apologies and... he definitely doesn’t want emotional excavation. For eight years, Lyn has been living around the past, not inside it - useless therapy, relationships without depth, a body built as armor and career built as legitimacy. All of that says... I survived - now please don’t make me reopen the wound. So, when the wedding invitation comes, Lyn’s logic is - if I can attend the wedding without breaking and if I can smile, shake hands, leave...then the past is officially finished. It’s self-preservation, and crucially - Lyn believes closure can happen without speech, he thinks presence alone is enough. Lyn’s desire for closure without digging is also a quiet lie he tells himself, not because he secretly wants Brad back - but because the insult, the punch, the erasure of his love, and the wound around his mother were never metabolized. You can’t put a full stop on a sentence that was never finished. Finally, Alexander is the only one who enters this reunion with a forward-facing logic. Not hopeful, not nostalgic, not frozen - curious, deliberate, and resolved. Unlike Brad and Lyn, Alexander has learned something painful but essential - truth alone doesn’t move Lyn, confrontation shuts him down and moral arguments make him retreat into composure. So, Alexander does something both risky and grown-up - he leads with desire, not accusation. Mature Alexander doesn’t beg, doesn’t demand closure, doesn’t rehash college - he seduces because seduction is permission. “I wanted to see how this is going to end” - Alexander doesn’t need a guaranteed outcome anymore. He’s not chasing the fantasy of “us” - he’s willing to witness the truth, whatever it is. Alexander says - I’m done living inside unfinished sentences. And that’s why, no matter the outcome with Lyn, Alexander is already changed - while Brad collapses, and Lyn is forced, finally, to stop running from the end he thought he could choreograph.

This is the genre I’ve really started enjoying here on GA! The plot is very interesting. I’ll admit, I was a bit confused at first because of the mixed timelines -there was a moment when I thought Willem was talking to the prince in jail. Going back to this chapter, I realized the prince is actually Reamande, and the mysterious voice from the other cell is Richard. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the adventure unfolds!

This chapter already behaves like an ending, just not a chronological one - it’s a terminal image. Most stories end with reconciliation, revelation or loss. This chapter ends with proof. If Misaligned cut to black here, the story wouldn’t feel unfinished because the question wouldn’t be what happened, it would be how did something this real get lost? Cinema loves that kind of ending...three boys on a beach, laughing, sunlit, unburdened - not because it resolves conflict, but because it confirms authenticity. Their friendship was real and that’s all the audience (readers) actually needs. This chapter hurts because it proves the tragedy wasn’t inevitability...it wasn’t incompatibility...it wasn’t lack of love. It was timing, fear, silence - and men too young to understand that some alignments don’t come twice. This chapter doesn’t explain the pain; it invalidates the excuses Lyn has used to live with it.

There is so much more to people than the masks they show. I really like the progression you create in this story - starting with a marriage trapped in routine, moving through a family reunion that helps heal their relationship, and ultimately renewing their intimacy. Another great story, @Boy Mercury X!

Wow, what an exciting chapter! It’s so good to see Altair finally maturing - and Cane… how did he get so smart?! 😁

Brad’s behavior makes sense once we accept he is living with a foreshortened sense of time...not consciously heroic - viscerally urgent: drinking too much, pushing his body (volleyball, hiking...), sexual recklessness and emotional volatility. These are not random flaws - they are symptoms of temporal collapse. Brad is not thinking “I might die” - he is living as if tomorrow is not guaranteed. That’s why his life has always looked like a party teetering on the edge of disaster. Nevertheless, understanding Brad doesn't mean absolving Brad. Bella is still harmed; Lyn is still wounded and Alexander is still destabilized. Brad’s illness contextualizes his recklessness - it does not sanitize it... which is why the chapter doesn’t ask us to forgive Brad fully - it asks us to see him clearly. Once we know this, earlier scenes reframe themselves - cliff hiking stops being carefree masculinity, it becomes flirtation with mortality. Excessive charm becomes a bid to be remembered; cruel jokes become panic attacks in disguise while sexual acting out becomes proof-of-aliveness. Brad wasn’t chasing pleasure; he was outrunning disappearance. But Lyn, being Lyn is doing something he has done his entire life “Were you trying to push her away by doing those things with Luke?” - reframing harm as intention, searching for a noble motive behind cruelty, preferring tragic coherence over moral messiness. This is Lyn’s defense mechanism as an intellectual and as a survivor of emotional chaos. Because if Brad is simply selfish sometimes, Lyn must accept love can coexist with harm, understanding, doesn’t equal safety, affection doesn’t guarantee care. That’s a harder truth than heartbreak. Very important, @Laura S. Fox doesn't use Brad’s cardiomyopathy melodramatically. She avoids countdown theatrics or guilt manipulation. Instead, the illness functions symbolically as the end of Brad’s centrality, and the beginning of his clarity. Brad has always feared being forgotten, now, ironically, he’s the most generous he’s ever been. His confession reframes his past cruelty not as malice, but as panic, fear of irrelevance, terror of joy happening without him. This line is the emotional thesis of Brad as a character “I wanted to be the source of that happiness or else they’d forget me soon.” - that’s a child clinging to light. Brad, the least introspective of the three, becomes the clearest witness. He sees Alexander’s romantic nature (before Lyn ever names it), Lyn’s happiness (before Lyn allows himself to feel it) ...the difference between jealousy and love. And when he says, “I know I care about you, but it’s nothing compared to what he feels for you” - this is Brad stepping out of the triangle. Not in defeat but in acceptance. That’s why the “dying wish” line works emotionally even though it sounds jokey - it’s Brad choosing alignment over rivalry for the first time in his life.

You’ve made me feel like shit for all those comments about Brad (even though I’ve really tried to see him as human). In the end, maybe my comparison to Commedia dell’arte at the beginning wasn’t an exaggeration after all - Ridi, Pagliaccio! 😢

I think it’s because they function more as armor, similar to American football gear, than as standard uniforms. Takes some time to take it off, no easy quckie! 😁

Nope 😁 And it’s not Lynton either!

This chapter is a major psychological and character trial for all three of them. It isn’t only Jake who is forced to confront his fears and insecurities, but also Theodor and Vince - who, unexpectedly, move beyond accusation and find their way to empathy, support, and understanding. They may not be officially mated yet, but the bond between them is already very strong.

Zach Grayson is a soap-opera actor at a crossroads. His career (and his character) hangs in limbo - obey the producers, play it safe, and wait for a coma storyline to revive both his role and his relevance… or walk away, return to his theatrical roots, and risk being quietly erased from the industry altogether. Lost in this uncertainty, Zach travels back to his hometown for the funeral of his former drama teacher - a professor whose faith in him once shaped everything he believed about art, ambition, and himself. What begins as a formal, almost perfunctory goodbye quickly turns into a life-altering reunion. Old assumptions fracture, long-buried emotions resurface, and repulsion gives way to possibility - then to desire, tenderness, and truths long avoided. Is this return merely a detour, or the beginning of something braver and more honest? Charming, romantic, and delightfully witty, this story explores the cost of compromise, the pull of unfinished lives, and the courage it takes to choose authenticity - onstage and off.

After Brad’s drunken cruelty and the mother-insult (a psychic wound), the present-day confrontation and truth spilling out, Lyn’s flight response kicking in again...this chapter functions as a deep breath. Not filler or nostalgia but regulated emotional space. @Laura S. Fox says to the readers - you’re allowed to rest here for a moment. These people were once capable of gentleness. That matters, because without this chapter, the story risks becoming only about damage. This memory insists on capacity for care, which is crucial if a happy, or even humane, ending is going to feel earned. October/November, post-summer, post-mother’s death looming - this is the threshold moment. This is the last time tenderness exists without cost, which makes it soothing and ominous at once. This chapter restores trust after cruelty, reminds us why these people loved each other, prevents Brad from becoming a pure villain, prevents Alexander from becoming a cold manipulator and prevents Lyn from being only a wound-with-legs. For us (the readers), it says - you’re not foolish for caring about them; for @Laura S. Fox, it says - I’m allowed to remember softness without invalidating pain. This is not the calm after resolution; it’s the calm that makes resolution possible. With this chapter the ending can be framed as return, not escape; healing becomes rediscovery, not invention and love is something they once knew how to do. Even if they fail later, and they do - this chapter proves that the system was not always broken and that’s why a hopeful ending is not naïve here. It’s not “they lived happily ever after.” ... it's - they learned how to stop running from what once felt safe. This chapter reframes escape. Present-day Lyn escapes because truth overwhelms him and intimacy threatens his self-story. Memory-Lyn stays in the room, in the bed, in discomfort...in silence. That contrast is healing in itself. It whispers to us - Lyn was capable of staying once, he might be again.

My favorite GA tandem, bravo guys! 👏

Ah, I see - like in Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying, Dennis’ fears are multidimensional. He’s afraid of being authentic, loving freely, being loved in return, and growing emotionally. His fear of flying is just the external manifestation of these internal struggles.

Hint - Cane shares a name with a character from one of @Laura S. Fox's stories. 😉

This chapter happens in October of junior year (ch. 34) - exactly one year before Lyn moved in with Brad, and Alexander started ghosting him (ch. 46/48), which we now understand the reason for. At that time, Lyn's mother was still alive. * Ah, I see now… you mean something like this would be completely out of the question after the deal he made with his family! 👍

Well… should I turn this into a quiz, or stop torturing you? 😁 BTW, for the curious: C is pronounced ‘tz’ - like in tzar, not ‘kay’. 😉

Oh, I know this story - I absolutely love it! So great to see you here @Boy Mercury X!

There’s a sequel set in Florida, but I’ll save that one for summer - a special gift for the @kbois 😄

Just wanted to share a classic Balkan joke we’ve had for years - a diary of an immigrant trying to survive life in Canada 😄 All in good fun - no hard feelings. A Bosnian in Canada – FULL VERSION August 12 We moved into our new house in Canada. I’m so excited. It’s so beautiful here. The mountains are breathtaking. I can’t wait to see them covered in snow. October 14 Canada. It’s the most beautiful country in the world. The leaves have turned all those wonderful shades of yellow and orange. I drove through nature and saw a couple of deer. They are so graceful. The most beautiful animals in the world. This must be paradise. I love Canada. November 11 Remembrance Day (Canadian national holiday). Deer hunting season will start soon. I can’t imagine how anyone could kill such a beautiful animal. I hope it snows soon. It’s so lovely. December 2 It snowed for the first time last night. I woke up and saw everything covered in a white blanket. It looks like the most beautiful postcard. We went outside, cleaned the steps and the driveway, and then had a snowball fight (I won). When the snowplow passed, we had to clean the entrance again. What a wonderful country. I love Canada. December 12 It snowed again last night. The snowplow came again and buried the entrance. It’s beautiful here. December 19 It snowed again last night. I couldn’t take the car to work. It really is wonderful here, I’m just a bit tired of shoveling. That fuc*ing snowplow again. December 22 This white s*it kept falling all night again. I got blisters from shoveling and my back hurts. That monkey in the snowplow seems to hide around the corner and waits for me to clean the entrance before dumping everything back. A***ole. December 25 Merry fing sty Christmas. More fing snow. If I ever get my hands on the guy driving the snowplow, I’ll kill him. F their mothers for not spreading more salt on the roads so this stuff would melt faster. December 27 Snow again last night. I haven’t left the house for three days except to shovel every time the snowplow passes. I can’t go anywhere, the car is stuck on the hill, snow in front of the entrance, and it’s freezing. They say another 30 cm of this sh*t will fall tonight. December 28 The forecast was wrong. Half a meter fell. If this keeps up, it won’t melt until summer. The snowplow got stuck and that aole came to my place asking for a shovel. I told him I already broke six shovels clearing the s he dumped in front of my gate, and I almost broke one over his head. January 4 Finally got out of the house. Went to the store to buy some food and on the way back hit a deer with the car. $3000 damage. Those f***ing beasts should all be killed. They’re everywhere. Why didn’t the hunters kill them all in the fall… May 3 Took the car to the mechanic. Unbelievable how rusted it is from the f***ing salt they spread everywhere. May 10 I’m moving to Florida. I can’t imagine how any normal person can live in this f***ing Canada.

He gave him a home when his mother died. Things are not always black and white. Brad has many flaws, but he is not guilty of failing to be who Lyn thought he was.