Former Member

One of Billy’s one way tickets, perhaps?

An even more effective solution would also include a sensor on the family jewels and a shock collar on the boys. Of course this would mean boys would be getting lots of random shocks throughout the day since everything gives teenaged boys erections! Just one agitated girl could have an entire classroom full of boys rolling on the floor in pain! ;-)

I think Makarovia is already a fusion culture. They’ve adapted to and adopted aspects of their former occupiers in the past. Hopefully they’ll be able to resist the obsessive conspicuous consumption that the US exports so relentlessly. ;-)

Poor Oli is continually being confused by the interactions of everybody around him! Usually he’s only puzzled by Teddy & Ryder’s interactions, but this time it’s Harry and Ryder and their shouting match. Maybe Teddy should be monitoring Oli’s heart rate too! ;-) A huge source of tension in the house has now been dissipated. This alone should help Ryder get better! Now everybody in the Haner household is supporting Ryder! ;-)

I think Ryder is being overly dramatic. He doesn’t see the possibility of getting better. He’s very pessimistic about his health. We don’t know what Teddy really thinks about Ryder’s health condition, but he doesn’t seem to be quite as pessimistic as Ryder is. If he didn’t see Ryder as ever getting better, would he have consented to having sex with Ryder in the first place? I doubt Teddy would do that to Ryder! ;-)

I’m very glad you described Teddy as being in the very normal, very average size range. I’m tired of reading stories where the characters have much larger than average endowments! Size isn’t everything and obsession with that single characteristic can cause perfectly normal men to feel inadequate and become depressed! (And no, I have nothing to be embarrassed about, even compared with Teddy!)

When they both stopped making assumptions, they actually were able to make a connection. As an older person, I see many things that younger LGBTQs are ignorant of in our history. Even as a middle-aged man, it’s still difficult to imagine how much of a struggle it was to be Gay in the past! ;-) At a previous Frameline (San Francisco’s LGBTQ film festival), I saw some early pieces of a documentary where a young Gay man individually interviewed a group of elderly Gay men. They talked about what their lives had been like. The struggles they overcame made life easier for me and all the LGBTQ that followed them. Documenting them is important to show young people why they can live the lives that they do. In the US, we owe so much to the Transwomen of Color who had no choice but to be on the frontline fighting for all of our rights! Less obvious and typically white men were able to pass and hide in the closet. There has been a tendency to whitewash our history to hide or remove the more colorful aspects. This is a disservice to not only the the people erased, but also young People of Color who find themselves marginalized in the LGBTQ community. It is an inditement of the mostly white men who have controlled our organizations, produced our media, and told our stories.

Aiden’s going to found the Denora chapter of Queer Nation at some point in the future! ;-)

You’re going to complete the story for @Dodger? He seems to be preoccupied with Cockney Canuck! That one gets lots of regular updates! ;-)

Nope! Not gonna happen. I’m too extreme even for my region. ;-) Plus, my Depression and Anxiety prevent me from getting out of my apartment more than a few times a month.

How has TJ survived so long without any love in his life? It’s horrible to know that there are kids out there who, like TJ, believe that they are better off suffering abuse at home than letting CPS take them away from violent relatives! It’s terrible to know that there are no good alternatives for many children. There aren’t enough trustworthy foster families. And not enough funding or enough trustworthy and reliable people to run safe group homes. I know from having stayed at homeless shelters, a similar type of supervised living situation, that there are people who care and are capable of dealing with the sometimes chaotic goings on. But they aren’t paid enough for the conditions they work under – and they aren’t trained to deal with the often severe mental health and chemical abuse problems the residents have. It’s difficult to find people who possess the correct balance of intimidation and compassion that the job requires. For better or for worse, most of the people who work in those institutions previously stayed there at some point in their lives. On the one hand, that makes them more likely to understand the clients and for the clients to accept them. On the other hand, that also means that things are less likely to change since they aren’t aware of other possibilities. Too often society, in the form of legislators, want to sweep problems under the carpet and ignore that they exist. It’s not an issue that most constituents ask them about, so they underfund the institutions and programs unless or until there’s a scandal. Somewhat like chronic homelessness, there are no easy answers. And truly solving the problems will be very expensive.

Well Adam is starting to blossom! But bullies don’t usually give up after putting that much effort into attacking people. How will the boys resolve that issue? ;-)

Well Blake & Liz and probably Mike will. ;-) But Ryder & Teddy are definitely Gay! ;-)

From Aiden’s point of view, Billy squandered many chances to make a difference. It sounds like he doesn’t attend that homophobic ‘church’ with Billy’s mother and Joey’s family. Aiden’s got spunk (and Lou Grant hates spunk*)! ;-) It seems like the kids are finally organizing and standing up for themselves. They’re going to need Billy and Aiden! They’re going to need any and everybody they can round up to oppose Jack and his cronies! Maybe the man formerly known as the Vanilla Douche has some hidden talents and resources! ;-) * A Mary Tyler Moore show reference. It was part of a conversation between Lou and Mary, possibly when she’s being interviewed for her job. But in any case, it was almost certainly from the first season! ;-) Mary is initially complimented when Lou tells her, “You’ve got spunk.” [pause] “I hate spunk!”

If I were any of the guys, I’d make sure not to sit within arms reach of Liz! I’m sure she could justify slapping any of them! But poor Blake, as her husband, will probably be the closest target! ;-)

Or Answers, Answers, Answers! ;-)

It seems like all of his friends were at least a little in love with Teddy! He’s kind of flirty with Cait. And adds some perspective to why the odious Nate felt the way he did. Everybody loves Teddy! ;-)

Liz is scary when she’s angry! ;-) While Oli might have been frightened by seeing Ryder in that state, I don’t think he’s too young to have experienced it. Oli’s kind of out of control right now. Getting him to get out of his head sometimes, and helping Ryder could be just what he needs. This will also get him to see that his hero is more than just the Rock Star that he worshiped, that Ryder is a real person with real problems. Helping Oli definitely helps Ryder get out of his head too. ;-) I’m hoping that Teddy’s rant at his father actually penetrated the wall that Harry erected to protect himself from the pain and betrayal he felt when Ryder pretended to cheat on Teddy. The level of Harry’s hurt demonstrates how much he cares about Ryder. He needs to forgive himself before he can forgive Ryder. ;-) These are the sorts of unresolved issues that break up even previously strong marriages. If Harry is unable to forgive himself for what he perceives as his failures as a father, this could cause his wife to ask him to move out. If the Haners divorce, the chances of everyone healing drop significantly! ;-)

I like this question as a writer, and I like seeing what people are saying in response. I've had an interest in this genre since I was an early teen and just cutting my teeth, finding stories "I liked." It's a hard world to make real. Masters like King do it easy, literally. They take the world the reader is used to and begin to introduce discordance gradually. Most of us are familiar with The Shining, so we can see if the book opened with Jack already out his mind, the family would never have gotten to The Overlook. I tried to do it myself with Bound & Bound. The central character is thrust into an unpleasant but relatable scenario (the sudden death of his father), but then things get mysterious and he's slowly drawn into believing the impossible. That process of introducing the paranormal reality for Emeric is mirrored by the reader becoming initiated along side of him. In this book, I think it works and prepares the readers for one hell of an experience. Thanks for posting this excellent thread!

I believe I am a Kinsey 6. I once watched a documentary about a Transman that included a shot panning down his naked body from his face, past his hairy chest, and down to – ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! (No offense to anyone who is, as Mr Rogers described it, ‘fancy on the inside’. I have many friends who have ‘internal plumbing’. I just am not sexually attracted to that sort of equipment.) If you read FlyOnTheWall’s story, ;-) And yes, I want them to be in love! ;-)

So… Robert is finishing Marty’s sentences! Maybe he can get one of Cam’s Gay Passes! Because he’s not Gay! ;-)

At least you’re not emulating GRRM’s two most annoying, yet essential, trademarks: a wildly out-of-control cast of characters and a penchant for killing them off even if they’re popular! In a GRRM version of Hidden Ones, we’d be only be reading about Nate and Oli! Teddy would have been gone a few chapters into the story and Ryder wouldn't have survived the trip to the hospital… ;-)

My real first name has been used very rarely in the Gay fiction stories I’ve read online. But another author chose my real name for one of his secondary characters (one of the good guys) before I revealed my name to him in a PM (I asked him if he named the character after me since I thought I’d already told him). It’s not currently a popular or trendy name, but it’s not unusual. ;-)

Poor @Wesley8890 shares his avatar's name with a villain in this story and his real name with the bad guy in Dodger's The Cockney Canuck @jkwsquirrel’s W.A.R. 6: Commencement! What did you do to the authors to offend them so much? You’re such a nice guy! Did you offend them in your stories? ;-)

So Daniel and Jonathan must love being nekkid too, since they were going to spend the rest of the afternoon at Hippie Hollow! ;-)