Cane23

Charming, lovely, optimistic. Sometimes, we need just a dash of normality - and you did it beautifully @Page Scrawler!

Bottoming here is not about sexual position or preference, it is about control. Lyn releasing his control and bottoming for Alexander would be the best step forward for his psychological integration (if he doesn't make defeat and drama out of it).

Amazing scene...this, epic dominance battle! On the surface, it's a mutual jerk-off session between two old college 'friends'. Beneath it - it’s a war of power, denial, and identity. Emotional and physical explosion of years of unresolved tension. Both characters are pretending this is casual, but everything about it screams unfinished business, emotional risk, and latent longing. “Later, then?” Alexander asked, sounding, for some reason, pitifully hopeful. It says that maybe Alexander isn’t just using Lyn. That maybe he’s a little lost, a little bruised, and seeking connection in the only way he knows how. @akascrubber nailed it with his comment: "And turn over a new leaf, he had. If even the arrogant Alexander Montgomery III acted like that around him, it was clear as day that, in this life, Lyn had managed to become a winner." Lyn, blind and delusional, believes he is in control! He thinks this was all proof of power, that he’s won some long-standing competition. But he’s wrong, he didn’t win. He just opened a door that will now refuse to close.

"I can see my family, they are all here, friends too. I can see that my wishes have been honoured. No one is in black. It's such a dreary colour. Everyone is wearing brighter clothes, ready for a party, which is so much better. Just like I wanted, the service is short and includes songs that have meaning for me. Now celebrate the times that we had, and carry forward those memories. I can see that they are sad. There are a few moist eyes and others crying. I wish they wouldn't. The body laying between us is just a shell. I'm still alive in their hearts and always will be as long as they love and remember me. I will always watch over them, even if they do forget me. It's time, time for me and everyone to move on." The Last Goodbye - Mancunian

There is no conventional, there's only casual!

I didn't know this. Very sad news! RIP mancunian!

I'm humbled to be mentioned with such amazing company! Honestly, I'm not sure how big my contribution is... Sometimes, my insecurities make me overthink - is my English good enough, did I express my thought well, was my humor offensive... Nevertheless, I've got nothing but the support from GA members, I've learnt a lot and had some great fun. Cheers to all!

All of my alarms are screaming red alert - Blake is a danger! I'm still deeply in love with your love story Our Summer Rhapsody and I'm still waiting for a love story that will manage to outshine it. With every new 'psychological' story @CasualWanderer82, you achieve new literature, philosophical and intellectual highs!

Man plans, and God laughs...to paraphrase - readers say conventional, and @CasualWanderer82 laughs! 😉

Yes, in expressing emotions, we are very much southerners - the Mediterranean sort of mentality (as Greeks for example). 😁

Very touching chapter. In an English restrained way, without big emotional scenes with hugging, tears and drama...still, very tender and heartwarming.

WOW, what a magnificent chapter! Dark, with lot of tension and action packed! Finaly, crowned with triumph of love! I could say - this chapter is a story within a story! @mastershakeme, you've outdone yourself!

I like this chapter very much because it shows there are always consequences for our deeds, but these consequences don't have to be a punishment. If Jonah learns from this, mature and get some experience, he'll come back to NYC much stronger and, maybe, a little bit wiser!

Aww, a Wolf's Sleeping Beauty! I like it! 🐺🐺

Great thing about fiction is that it can describe sex as not just a passionate, sensual experience but also a transcendental - metaphysical. Their bodies know what their minds are still not aware of - they are absolutely the mates. It makes not just a good sex, it makes this two, rather inexperienced lovers, sexual beasts! The only 'human' thing in their encounter is overthinking. In the moment of bliss, they think of Theodore, curse... Just relax guys and enjoy the moment! 😉

Dear friend, this story is so inspiring, I don't know how I'm going to write concise Review!

Put yourself in Brad's position. Entering the library and see your best friend, your admirer, your loyal puppy ... sitting very, almost intimately close with extremely handsome, hot, good looking, well dressed, self-confident guy... The same Lyn, who hardly make any friends, whose only window to the world is you! What to do, put your best smile and make a 'hay bro' show!

Brad is glue, everybody says... Well, he’s the social glue, but he doesn’t feel the heat between the other two. In this scene, Brad is intruder. Brad brings laughter and lightness, but he’s also the mask that covers the deeper emotional plot. Alexander has seen Lyn first. His choice is deliberate. He doesn't sit across from Lyn, but next to him, an intimate position—subtly aggressive and psychologically intrusive. He watches Lyn with assessing, unblinking eyes, something predators or lovers do. “I don’t mind. Exchanging saliva boosts the immune system.” This is hardly medical explanation on hygiene - it is invitation, sexual allusion wrapped in medical, scientific fact. “I will call you Lynton” - is territorial. It's not just arrogance; it's claiming. When Lyn describes Alexander’s wealth, style, and self-assurance, we see envy, hostility, and erotic curiosity braided tightly together. He pretends to despise Alexander, but is also mesmerized by his body, clothes, name, confidence. Lyn is angry because he's intrigued. All that Lyn see is Alexander's mask - handsome face, hot body, wealth, status symbols... Now that I think of previous chapter, I'm wondering, did Lyn dressed expensive clothes to impress Brad...or maybe Alexander?! Which was, obviously, wrong tactics towards the both men - Brad is oblivious to such things, Alexander see through it! So, what's happening here... Lyn thinks Brad and Alexander are connecting and leaving him out. Alexander may feel Brad has “stolen” his moment with Lyn. Brad has no idea anything is happening under the surface- he’s just being friendly, inclusive, funny. But his behavior actually prevents deeper connections from forming.

I had to 'google translate' anchovies (it was never important to know ) ... But anchovies on pizza!!!!

Another deeply emotional scene - this time with Elio, Emilio and Henry. Liberty academy - lost boys can invite them even subconsciously! As for the Turd, his biggest problem is not going to be police of FBI...or assassin himself! Lioness is awaking to protect her children. She is going to tear him apart!

Have you all noticed that Adrian is mentioned is this chapter only once? Even then, his name is one sentence, no adjective, no emotions, no dialogue about it. No concern, no anger, no longing. The sentence is clinical, devoid of affect. Nobody asks about him, his health condition, (non)recovery, status... And that’s exactly how he feared he’d be forgotten. Not hated. It is his true punishment - not to be destroyed but to be left behind. Bobby and nick's silence about Adrian is not cruel, it is final, and it means - this is no longer your story! Bobby and Nick are in the ocean. Ocean the mirror, painted as Tarkovsky’s recurring water motif. For Jung, Ocean is unconscious: vast, unknowable, terrifying and beautiful. It is where the ego dissolves, where individuation begins. Both Nick and Bobby went through their own ritual cleaning and catharsis in the ocean. They are together now. This is the integration - not of one man into another, but of both men into themselves. Shadows didn't disappear; they are finally integrated, and self became whole. We can see them as Jungian Mermaids. Mermaids have this mistic duality - not fully human, not fully beast. They belong to both land and sea, surface and depth, desire and danger. And what is wonderful in this story, our integrated protagonists, can finally breath - both in the water and in the air. In the beautiful kitchen scene, when Bobby says, "Can I help?" he’s asking to help, but he’s also, at a deeper level, asking for help. This is someone (Bobby), not used to being safe in intimacy, learning to ask for it and emotional closeness in the only way he knows how. Nick doesn't make orders, he is guiding Bobby, teaching him. There is no criticism, even imperfection of the work done is commented with humor devoid of sarcasm. In this quiet choreography of slicing tomatoes and flipping toast, Nick is teaching Bobby how to trust again - not through grand declarations, but through rhythm, silence, presence. And Bobby is learning it, one tomato slice at a time. Follows one of the most beautiful and emotional scenes in the story. One, that brought tears to my eyes! in this moment, when Nick says simply, “Go get dressed,” Bobby hears something deeper: you are remembered, you are not a burden, I want you there... Attention received without begging or 'paying' for it. It’s the child in him, long buried under layers of adult coping, finally getting permission to surface. No longer having to be guarded, mature, composed. Just happy. Just wanted. This child, happily running up the stairs is the happy child receiving his first Christmas gift. Bobby becomes the child he never got to be. And in doing so, begins to become whole. The Video Vault as a symbol of emotional refuge and growth, a safe space where past and present meet. But there is a serious question of guilt here. Now we know Nick has seen beneath the Bobby's mask all the time, he was seeing a real Bobby. Does Nick's inability to react earlier make him unconsciously, in indirect way, Adrian's accomplice? Maybe it was not the time for both of them to integrate but now, Nick is rebuilding Bobby with tenderness, patience, safety. It’s reparation. He might never say it aloud - but every soft instruction, every coffee cup, every glance toward Bobby is a quiet apology. Not for what he did. But for what he didn’t do. Final scene is the culmination! Bobby and Nick have crossed the border from longing to embodiment. The silence that ends the chapter is not absence - it’s sacred stillness. The staircase - a visual and symbolic spine of Bobby’s individuation. Every time he climbs it, we’re seeing another phase in his becoming, from boy to broken boy, to haunted man, to integrated Self. In this scene, he leads someone else through the shadows. He becomes the one who can carry love up the stairs. Symbolically, the first Bobby (angry, sarcastic, crushed) is going up to the stairs into the jail. Second Bobby (reborn child, happy) is going home. The third Bobby (integrated, the leading one) is going up to the stair into the heaven. Finally, he is not just climbing, he leads. A bookstore, five years later. "Let me tell you something about fiction," he said. "It is a mirror, yes, but it is also a wound. It shows what we are and what we hide. What we ache for and what we fear. And sometimes, if you're very lucky, it shows you who you used to be, so that you may forgive him." This is @CasualWanderer82 testament, a message to us. Fiction doesn’t just expose the Shadow—it helps the self-integrate it. That last part, “forgive him” implies that Nick sees fiction not as redemption. Storytelling becomes a sacred act of reconciliation with one's past self. Seen through cinematic prism our author using so nicely in this story - we can see the touch of old masters as Bergman and Tarkovsky, but some contemporary as Lynch and Tarantino, too. But, overall, @CasualWanderer82' story has the most of Hitchcock in itself. Lynch directs the mood, Bergman writes the script, Tarkovsky edits the imagery, and Hitchcock supervises the structure—with flashes of Tarantino heat when the gloves come off.

@J LeRoy @The Donling now I remember where I know you from!!! 😁 @CasualWanderer82 - are you gathering a fan club?!

Thank you for your praise. I like your comments very much. You never miss to underline the most important clues of the story!

Thank you, my dear @CasualWanderer82! I'm really humbled by your words. Such a high praise from such a talented author makes my heart tremble! Your work is endless inspiration - a "weightlift" for my brain!