Date: 28 Sep 2013 13:10 Title: Part II
The thing that matter in life are never easy, so true, it echo through this chapter and to open the sentiment to open and close the chapter and not feel forced in anyway is a testement to your prose work here.
I’m not sure I’ve got the words to describe how good I think this chapter is, you’ve built on the first chapter and you’ve manage to get more depth. So Mirror Andy/A-Jay has come to admire that young renegade engineer and understand the pain. They to realise that if that burnt out young engineer can become this super efficient assassin, then perhaps after his low point and de-tox scene, he can become some thing with his fisherman boat assistance scheme.
You broke both of then and then rebuilt them believable fashion, the staring at he drug kit or the booze store, feel so painful for the few words that you use to describe it.
Author's Response: If you want to know the truth, I never expected Andy to clean himself up and get himself on track. But at his core, the nature he shares with Cor is the same and I guess their innate humanity shines when it has a chance. Even if born in pain. Thank you very much.
Date: 13 Jun 2013 02:11 Title: Part II
So there is hope after all.
And exasperating Andy holds the key.
Date: 31 May 2013 18:09 Title: Part II
This was heart-wrenching. To learn the history behind what turned Scott into the shadow, and to see Andy's desperate (albeit hopeless) bid, to reach the echoes of the man Scott once was.
He's trying so hard - stayed clean and sober, because it almost seemed like Andy knew that's what Scott wanted, and expected of him, but the cool detachment is still there. Despite his screwed up family life in this universe it seems that Andy is craving that familial closeness and is hoping to recapture it with Scott - when Andy says he loves him, I get the vibe of brotherly, platonic love, not physical love. Andy wants to share that with Scott, and give back the familial love Scott lost when members of his family were killed, and others sent into hiding for their own protection.
But I get the feeling Andy is fooling himself. I think that capacity for love was burnt out of Scott at age seventeen, and nothing (or no one) will be able to rekindle it again. I could be wrong though...there's only one way to find out.
Author's Response: ::chuckles:: It was an unconditional love, no doubt. But it definitely wasn't a platonic one in this universe. Andy did want him, absolutely physically. Andy wanted him as a lover, an equal, as something bright to burn alongside of, to pull him out of the ashes, and you know, I think if he'd had the time, he might have even been able to. But your review was definitely fascinating, in its speculations, and thank you for it!
Date: 28 May 2013 00:48 Title: Part II
And now we have Andy-not Corry (different nicknames, different universes), having to deal with his own ghosts that have been reawakened since Scott’s horrid night in that motel. God, what a way to get kicked in the head … but everyone’s life has one of those moments when they realize they can’t outrun their demons. When they realize that the demons are part of them and no amount of drug use, booze, or anything else will make a damned bit of difference. This is what Andy realizes here in the wake of Scott’s moment of confronting his tortured past.
Andy goes off the deep end but Scott is there to pull him back in. He’s not as overtly sweet about as Andy, not quite as loud about it, but he’s there and there’s not a damned reason he has to be. Andy hates him because Scott has made him face the demons and, somehow, Scott has made Andy a better man because of it. He’s straightened out and not because it’s the right thing to do or because someone forced him to.
It’s because he wants to. It’s because that’s what’s best for him in his life. Andy gets a hold of his ghosts, gets a hold of his demons, and becomes a legitimate person. The details he’s learned on Scott’s life, how everything that was dear to him was ripped away and killed, is saddening. But it just emboldens Andy because he knows that, at one time, someone existed in that shadow.
And he wants Scott, the person to come back. The ending made me smile because it showed that Scott was still there, just a little bit … that the keen engineering mind he had was still there and that it could still be engaging with others if he let it. I wish Andy had laughed but I’m glad he was able to reach Scott.