methodwriter85

18-year old Alisdair:

Chapter 62 -When Stefan gets to NYC and tries to talk some sense into JJ. "Head over Heels" by Abba

That's the closest I've ever gotten for approval on a Darius so I'll take it.

I mean, to me, this is Chris Evans: So him being Captain America seemed odd, but it worked, and worked extremely well.

Avan Jogia as Darius? He does have a very cool vibe to him.

This should be interesting. Robert Pattinson reportedly in talks to play Batman in 2021 Batman movie I guess if you finally want people to stop seeing you as Edward Cullen, this is the way to do it?

I'm pretty engaged with all three stories, although I'm really curious to see the fight scene where Becker tells Kevin that his mother pays more than 8k on a dress that she'll wear once from Kevin's perspective because you know how much that had to piss Kevin off. You do a pretty good job here of outlining why Kevin broke up with Becker. It was pretty much asshole behavior that he only visited him like once given that DC and NYC are only about a 4-hour train ride away. I also kind of liked the callback to Kevin saying all 3 names again when describing him as Peter Adam Becker to his friends, because it's this weird identity thing that I'm pretty sure Kevin has picked up on. He might be the only one who has, because Becker REALLY compartmentalizes everybody in his life. The only one from his "Peter" life who has seen it in action in Justine, and I think she's just shrugged it off as a weird quirk in her big brother. As for Kevin's episode of the O.C. (what a great reference given that Kevin would identify with Ryan Atwood), I loved his "mentor" basically telling him the cold hard truth that Nick is a lost cause. It looks like Nick is so much of a loser at 18/19 that he doesn't even seem to roll with the guys he bragged about at 14. Sometimes people are just lost causes. The Matt stuff is fun as well, although we know it's not going to end well. Loved the Abercrombie reference- I don't think I ever see current teenagers wearing that kind of stuff now. As kind of a broader perspective, we are looking at a time right before the Great Recession, so Kevin's class issues are really interesting to look at.

I also wish Private TIm showed up here, because man I want to pick his brain about the USC admissions cheating scandal. I've always gotten the vibe that he has close ties to that school.

TIL that there's a subculture of adults who participate in what they call "Disney Bounding", where they dress up in outfits inpspired by Disney characters but not actual costumes, because Disney bans adults from wearing costumes. (Which makes sense- you don't want kids following strangers in costumes, and you don't want non-employees being thought to be employees.) God, I wish Blue still showed up here. I wonder if he's ever dated a guy who was like super-obsessed with Disneyland.

I don't know if Private Tim still lurks, but I thought he'd enjoy this photo of Downtown Pasadena that someone posted on Reddit:

My condolences.

It doesn't even really feel like anybody does anything with the Malibu house anymore. But I think that's actually kind of realistic- Darius is in college, Will lives in the SF-area house more because he attends school, and JJ's in New York City. I would bet that it was rented out or something in 2018 before it burned down.

It's really interesting to learn just how deep Kevin's psyche goes. He's such a mask but there are so many things about him that he won't reveal because he doesn't want to sound psychotic. Pretty fascinating. It's also interesting how he surrounds himself with rich people but resents them at the same time. I did a lot of that as a teenager and in my early 20's. Weirdly enough, in my mid-20's I wound up going to a university that was in a blue-collar area and I kind of loved being around salf-of-the-Earth types instead of the "Oh, I went to Sallies and I just got back from study abroad in Europe" types.

Mark's gotta be happy that the Rams are going to the Super Bowl. I wanted it to be against the Chiefs, though.

I talked to him a little bit back...he's okay, just busy.

Your boys are having another good season, while my boys are crashing and burning. Since it looks like an Eagles Super Bowl return is out of the question and the Ravens aren't looking that much better, I'm also going to root for the Rams. Again, Sean McVay is pretty hot. The Rams had an extended period of being pretty shitty, so it's awesome that they're starting 10-1 this year. Seriously, that's awesome.

I would have told 24-year old me not to waste money on a master's degree in history, but honestly, even though it didn't lead a professional career, I feel like grad school shaped me into a better person. I didn't have to be slacker party boy when I went to IUP as opposed to my UD years, and there were a lot of things I feel like I "righted" about myself when I was a grad student. If I could further back though, I'd tell my 18-year old self to just go to community college, get my grades up, and transfer into a 4-year college after instead of just going to a mediocre college before getting into UD. I also probably shouldn't have hung out at so many frat parties but honestly, those memories bring a smile to my face. (Even though they didn't lead to illicit sex with straight frat boys like Nifty Archive told me they would. LOL.)

Rogue One was actually really good. I think my biggest problem with Episode 8 is that instead of further developing Poe, Rey, and Finn as a team, the movie split them all up and we don't see them together until the end. Also...*Superman theme*....I mean, really? I didn't think either 7 or 8 were THAT bad, though.

Aww. I think our military kitten is smitten. Also, I'm kinda shocked that Becker isn't short. 5'10" is a pretty good height. The scene earlier where Kevin picks Becker up and swings him side to side suggested he was more than 4 inches shorter. I guess Kevin really is just that strong.

Hey, love your story, but I think you made a mistake with the dates here- you have a date saying that September 2004 is the start of Kevin's junior year, but it shouldn't be. He's class of 2005. (If we go with the idea that he's a year ahead of Becker, who is '06.) His junior year would have started at late August/early September 2003. I'm also the class of 2005 and junior year is pretty vivid for me.

I'm watching American Horror Story right now, and that reminded me of relative acting newcomer Cody Fern. Max Granger (paired up with Paster Tim) was described as looking like Andrew McCarthy with blond hair, and I think this comes pretty damn close. Cody reminds me so much of Andrew, just with a more distinctive eye shape. (His real hair color also reminds me a lot of Andrew's hair- they even curl similarly when grown out.)

Here's a weird thought- Wade's son Riley and Jeanine's daughter Madison would be turning 18. Probably in college or senior year of high school. Weird. I kind of always rooted for them to become a couple. Ace's daughter Courtney would have already turned 23 a week or so ago. A lot of September birthdays in this series.

Holy shit, are we supposed to infer that Kevin's Dad beat the shit out of his mother? THAT I was not expecting. He's had such a saintly characterization thus far. I did like the subtle bit about how boys are only supposed to give Valentine's to girls. As for the current stuff, I had to laugh at Duncan's reaction to Kevin being 9 in 1996. I really think your early 30's are when age really starts to creep up on you. I mean, most college kids now would have been born somewhere in the second half of the 90's. Weird as shit but I kind of like being an oldie now. I was annoying as hell at 21. I did have to laugh at Kevin playing home wrecker, although to be honest it doesn't seem like much of a home to begin with.

I flirted with the idea of joining a fraternity until I hit my (first) junior year, so it's kind of funny to see a window of what things might have been like if I had made a different choice. UD wasn't really frat mandatory, though. We don't even have a frat row, so it really didn't feel worth it. And I found some pretty decent party houses junior year 1 and junior year 1.5 and made some pretty damn fun memories n the process. By the end I was a pretty proud GDI. Anyway, it'll be cool to see Becker continuing (and failing) in his quest to stop thinking about Kevin. LOL.

What I think is interesting about this story is that Kevin's memories jump around and back and forth. It's pretty different from Best 4 Years, which is mostly linear. I wonder if that's because Becker doesn't really live too much in the past, while Kevin has so much emotional baggage and memories that he runs on a constant loop? It really expands on what Kevin said about how he has a thing for dates.