Date: 13 Aug 2013 15:03 Title: Chapter 15
Wow, another emotional one-two in this chapter, giving us a long awaited confrontation between Icheb and John, while also setting the stage for what is to come next in the story.
As usual, you nailed the complex relationship conundrum that you have set up in Tesseract, advancing it further to what seems now to be an inevitable breaking point between these three characters. At this point, I have no clue how you are planning to resolve it and who you are planning to have end up with who, which just makes the scenes here all the more heartbreaking.
Nice to see Icheb have a true revelatory moment as he discovers how John feels, as well as being forced to confront some uncomfortable truths. However, not sure how good a idea it is for him to be injecting him with stuff...
Another great chapter, can't wait for more!
Date: 08 Aug 2013 21:26 Title: Chapter 15
I do hope our boy (I mean Icheb here) realizes how much of a temporary fix this all is.
Band-Aids FTW!
Date: 08 Aug 2013 20:13 Title: Chapter 15
Ok, I'm not reading the other preceding chapters cos just ok. I will in time. It means jumping in to this a little blind but at the same time it is something that has long been on the cards, a long time in the coming. It feels like it should have been a win moment for John but it isn't. It's a guilt trip, it's a slap in the face to a friend who needs him, it's an attempt at catharthsis, it's a cop out on actually facing Maren with the truth, and it's at a time when he is sorely hurt and paining so much he is in a spin. I rahter imagine, that JQ will regret this some. Regret the manner of the telling. The timing of the telling. And thne in time, maybe won't regret the actual telling of the telling.
It remains yet to be seen how this will play into JQ's future dealings with Icheb. Is it going to lead to tension, antagonism, guilt, insubordination, or a ruined friendship. On JQ's own part all those bottled feeling sof guilt are going to play on him again but in a whole new light. And yet his anger and disappointment directed at Icheb is genuine and he'll want to be more proactive in protecting and caring for Maren. But I also imagine he'll feel anger and disappointment at himself - not just for telling Icheb but for having failed Maren over that time, for not being more courageous and doing something that might have eased her pain when Icheb was gone from her life. Truly, with the gumult of emotions he is feeling, JQ could go in lots of different directions and any of them would be feasible and perfectly in character and perfectly natural and normal for any of us given the same situation for so many of us are not readable in what we will do only in what we might do. That's the strength of your characterisation, that you can define a character but not make them a cookie cutter mould of a character.
Then there's Icheb. Damn, you want to root for the guy but then he displays the degree of assholery here. JQ's revelation should be a wake up call. Having Maren in a coma should be a wake up call. Having almost put her there himself should have been a great big bell ringing. But no, at the end, he's willing to self-medicate himself, risk the chances in order to fulfil his own agenda. Under it all there is decency and the underlining cause for undertaking the risks he is willing to take - with the technology addiction, the aligning with the Resistance and meantime expecting Maren and JQ to keep secrets, love him and yet for them not be fully trusted by him in his own plans.
I want to feel sorry for Icheb but at the moment I can't. Next chapter I probably will. That's the way of things here.
These three keep on finding new ways to hurt each other it seems and keeping us readers rivetted. Stellar return to the story.
Date: 08 Aug 2013 18:16 Title: Chapter 15
Oh, Icheb. You've been hit hard by guilt and, objectively, you deserve it. Maren may be in control of her actions, but you had the ability to stop her. The feelings he has are the kind that anyone would feel in this situation and I'm hoping that with this in mind he can finally face Malik.
Team I/M is fully with Icheb in any actions he takes from this point on.
Maren definitely has some tough decisions to make when she wakes up. What Icheb fails to realize here is that his own personal collective, JQ and Maren, is also falling apart around him. This is going to be a tough stretch for these three and their friendship will either get a lot stronger or a lot weaker.
Well done. Looking forward to more.
Date: 08 Aug 2013 16:21 Title: Chapter 15
Egad! And so it is finally confessed.
For all of Icheb's brilliance (for all of their collective brilliance, truth be told), he is awfully obtuse in this area.
Good on John for manning up and handing over a piece of his mind, even if it was hurtful and not done for the best of reasons. But now, of course, the dynamic has changed again. What'll happen when she wakes up? Staying tuned.
Date: 08 Aug 2013 01:57 Title: Chapter 15
FINALLY, JQ! There was a roar of cheers in one section of my head, while there was a smattering of boos in another. My characters are divided on the JQ matter. On one hand, telling the truth about his feelings for Maren is a good thing. On the other, doing it while slamming your best friend for getting her screwed up isn't so great.
But I love him for this and the way he does it. He doesn't pull any punches, he doesn't delude himself into thinking this will change anything, he just puts it out there. It hurt, you can feel that, but he knows it's finally time to come clean. The way Icheb sits there and just takes it, stunned like, is perfect for him.
Now that he's come clean, the next interactions with them are going to be difficult, but it's out there now. They can only grow from this. As John himself states, they're not kids anymore, and I think we'll look back and see this as the beginning of the maturation process in the dynamics between these three.
Well done. :)