Chapter 1 of the sequel is up.

[tocryabout]

Summary: Five years after the end of The Aphanes, Joel and his friend Paul are working with homeless mutants in Montreal. When they meet Jeanne-Marie Beaubier, who is offered work with the Canadian government, Joel and his friends become embroiled in a system that may not be as benevolent to mutants as it appears.

Chapter 1 is The Pretty Girl in Santropol, but do go to the contents page first, if only to read the note on language.

Hope you enjoy.

(P.S., man, that summary sounds Sue-ish. It's not, I swear to God! I promise the sort of spazzy bitchy incompetence you're accustomed to from my characters.)

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

This is a great start and I loved your last chapter. And I love Paul/Joel. I read some of you old posts and remember you sayin that originally Joel was going to have a crush on Rogue. So I'm guessing origanally Joel was straight. Is it okay if I ask what made you decide to go in this direction. Again I really enjoyed this chapter. You are obviously a talented writer and I look forward to reading more.

[to-cry-about.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

It's basically just something that swam up to the surface as I was writing scenes with them together. I don't know if they're going to consummate it or anything, but they like each other. They have a David/Jonathan thing going on, and it's relevant to some other themes in the story, so I'm playing with it.

I think it's actually too early to say whether Joel's gay or straight. (With "gay" here meaning "on the whole prefers relationships with men", not necessarily "would never ever touch a woman.") Having emotional problems in adolescence, and being institutionalised and sick, he never had much of a chance to date or otherwise "figure things out" the way healthy kids of that age will. He likes Paul, he has crushes on girls that he can't have, and he spends more time thinking about the barriers to relationships than about what he actually wants from other people. That's a sexuality in transition; it needs to solidify.

Labels make things more confusing rather than less, a lot of the time.