peter rietbergen

This is awesome. But those two lines, somewhere hslfwayyvthr chapter: "they were not frightened yet. That would come." Very ominous, very real, very necessary in this tale. In any tale about people who get to know one another. Once you have something to loose, there is fear.

In contrast to do many GA stories that take an entire chapter to spell out sexual intercourse in boring detail, here it is told in a few lines that are far more evocative. Well done.

An emotional disaster is waiting...

It is an eternal question: even if one is not burdened with as many pasts as Christopher separating oneself from one's childhood place is painful. In real life, to sound out a new life elsewhere and then being disappointed, even disoriented is normal. But returning after one day only never can be even the beginning of a solution.... However, for the sake of this story I accept C's decision - for now....😔

An inevitably night/day that changes a lot in both of them, or, rather: heralds a slow change in both of them. Hard to foresee how they'll really accommodate each other, and themselves...

Patronages never was and never will be entirely altruïstic - it's the way of the world. But it is the way great things have been created over the past millennia...

As I suggested before, given the information we now have leaving Penmere as well as Marco seems Cristopher's only way out, an escape from the millennial, constant link to the Tor, i.e. a life of being reborn in Penmere, of finding Marco there, and of once more living with the memories that will inevitably return because they are bound to the place and the person. What kind of life leaving the present C will have is uncertain. He will certainly die. Whether, away from P and M, he will be reborn with a or any memories of his past lives remains to be seen. It is up to the author if another, as yet not foreseeable solution will present itself.

Well, this certainly was a script worthy of a telenovela ...

Will this story ever be finished?

Promising...

I am, after some thought, confessing I would have been satisfied with less sex, though it was well done - as far as such scenes can ever be well done. But call me romantic: I ( still) wonder what they'll do if they're not "seeing" each other naked...

The tale is nearing its end...? A new insight. What will it bring C and M?

This was hilarious indeed. In short: loved it!

I would argue that the issue - at least as presented by Vale - is less complicated that some of the above musings. The question is whether Christopher, now aware of his previous "states", yet in and of his present, dangerously accumulated state can freely choose to love Marco. Vale argues he cannot . What happens if C accepts that the cycle/Vale's interference has predestined him to do so, meaning he is not as free as he thinks he, in his Christopher-state is, or should be. This acceptance will leave him with the eternal question of the possibility of another choice. But what will that do with his love of Marco? And what will Marco feel, knowing that Christopher has made this choice, has consciously renounced his freedom to choose, in order to remain bound to him? Will two "acts of free will" - including the decision not to start looking for each other/find their love of each other again - enable them to find another love? After all, many people, including psychologists, would argue that there is no such person as the one and only love of one's life... I am not one for awarding prizes, but surely, Andy, you must be amongst the few GA contributors to have kindled so much thought-provoking, philosophical/metaphysical discussion...

Simply to keep the story going, we do need to see Richard change a bit, speedily. Unless the Ball changes everything, the self-delusion lasts too long.

Of course the kid provided the turning point - kids always do in M/M stories, otherwise there would be no happy end. But yet: brilliantly done. Every chapter a joy.

I do apologise to Paladin, but I do not think it would be the solution: a few chapters with Marco's PoV would mar the integrity of this story. Let our esteemed and and, indeed, highly appreciated author finish it as he began. I, for one, am glad that GA also gives its readers work that is truly complex.

It is, of course, pleasurable romantic. But let us not forget that, even aboard a commercial vessel, a bosun's mate was the next-but-lowest rank of the entire crew. And definitely not an officer - let alone a person who would be invited to dine with the captain privately. It almost certainly meant that Sam was a boy/man with little education. He might appreciate music, but it is unlikely he would, - on first hearing, too - recognise the Mondschein Sonata. But then, maybe we need to be told far more about his background and upbringing, et cetera

Maybe Richard, instead of, apparently, always being diplomatic, should throw the occasional tantrum: it might shake up things a bit, and help him grow a spine. But then, probably, the fun would be out of this thoroughly enjoyable story.

This is a gentle part - deceptive, of course. For we do not know if C always died gently, as that one time M told him about, when they both grew old. There may have been other deaths, when he was younger, and his death less easily accepted? But with what we now know, one might ask: why did Marco, precisely that one time when both of them had grown old together, and death had come gently, not accept that as the final moment in their cycle- as all people eventually must do, indeed: do. He might have decided that then, after so many lives spent together, it was really enough. True, there would then remain, as always, the memory. But that is what always happens. He would not return to Penmere. Despite the certitude that a "C" would be born again, there. But that C would not remember his past lives - if, that is, the (re-)appearance of Marco always was, is the trigger that awakes the memories of a "C". But even if the memories did return: without a Marco, a "C" would, probably, live on, till the curse took his life again. And yes Marco would live on, too - but he always would with no solution in sight, yet. At least the "C" would be spared the certainty that, reunited with M, he would die sooner than him. Ah, a conundrum .

Very well done, again - albeit, perhaps, a tad too long before the evening with his friends and the implicit confession, to them, to himself. But yet. Despite the obvious -not only physical - attraction: can we imagine a long-term relationship between two such socially, culturally very different men, and the one with a young son, too...?

With all respect I cannot agree. Such a "choice" publicly made, such an open preference - however emotionally understandable - would have been dangerous, precisely in the strictly hierarchical context of a ship. And of course J knows that: it is the very reason he was expelled.

Absolutely brilliant. A journey without physical movement, but a journey nevertheless, and s long one at that, for both. Even if it ended here, I would be entirely satisfied. Should it, perhaps, have ended hete...?whatever: Bravo and thanks.

Obviously - at least to me - our hero is in denial about Nick. But that, of course, is how these stories always work. Few, however, are as entertaining as this one!

Interesting, again. But yet... Isn't it just a tiny bit condescending that Julian, while asking permission to call Samuel Sam, does not offer Sam the same possibility? An innate sense of class? And is it likely Julian takes his meals with the crew, rather than with the captain and any other officers?