
> He gets horribly bored
No way, man. Same!
> It's...well. It's terrible
Nice lampshading.
> They laugh and make snide comments
Funny, that's e
xactly what I'm doing to you.
> Can we pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease take a picture?
Can you pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease shut the fuck up?
> They say things like 'slay' and 'awww'
Fucking hell, we've already got teenage IG models on this trip!

> Viktor met Jayce halfway on the size of the wedding. If it were up to Viktor, he'd have it small enough to be in the backyard and have it there
Imagine that. The socialist sticking to his principles - until his bourgeoise, capitalist boyfriend has a say. Then he gets anxiety attacks over frosting and cake.
> They compromised at 50 guests
Now, had you read the first fic as I did, you'd learn that Jayce wasn't even
liked by his fellow faculty members at all. If he's talking about his graduate cohort, it's still weird to invite people you don't actually know outside of a professional setting for an intimate event. Instead, Jayce for some reason loves everybody and wants to invite everybody even though he knows Viktor hates crowd. Some couple!
> But Jayce, Loris is a no-bullshit guy. No incidents like that at the bakery.
Give Viktor some weed and he'll be eating those cakes rather than destroying them. Still, I find it fucking ridiculous that he had a mental breakdown
over how the cake tastes. How autistic can you get?

> It makes him start to think of their battery
The same battery you got back miraculously due to a company's collapse, even though you already sold the rights to said battery? You must've had some good lawyers.
> Carbon nanotubes and making changes to the cathode's catalyst layer
Now, you can tell this girl is Googling stuff and picking up terms that sound the most science-y to her. What she doesn't realize is that
there is a market for advanced cathodes for said electric vehicles, and one of the issues are the cost and poor power output of these devices. But no...they're aiming to use the same tech and processes as a home microwave, and they're still sucking at it.
> It's not necessarily in his wheelhouse of skills, but he needs to give him something, at least
How about some dick?
> Jayce is so good to him, so expressive
I still don't like this sentence.

> His therapist asked him all sorts of invasive questions, which he did not appreciate, even if it was the point
...That literally the point. You can get your gaslighting, neurotic soon-to-be husband into therapy, but you can't? You should be opposed to it on the basis of Big Pharma, anyways, but noooooooo.
> Focusing a bit too aggressively on a very contrived, very heterosexual love triangle between three equally insufferable characters
The author is trying to be tongue in cheek here, but it comes off as breathlessly arrogant. This is an author who wrote a massively contrived, idiotic as fuck fic where the two mains are neurotic, insufferable characters who broke up because one of them s
old out his rights when the other thought he was dying. That entire plot point was dropped and not a single one of those 8k comments pointed that out.
I would not say this is a moment of self-awareness or self-mockery, but one of those, 'See? I can write better stories than those trashy heterosexual pulp books. Aren't I better?' This bitch really needs some humility- and a goddamn mirror.
> A more porous diaphragm could -
Then it's not going to absorb the material. This is your air filtration project, right? Invest more on more nanoparticle output.
> If she doesn't get her priorities straight soon, I'm going to turn this whole thing off
Wish I could say the same. Masochism pushes me forward.

> It is not, in fact, 'just getting good'
Funny, I could say the same about your work, Beth.
> He's sure Jayce will take anything Viktor will give him
Even your dick?
> Better not find out anyway
Shame. I want to see it unfold. See that 'contrived heterosexual romance' fall to pieces.

> It has too many amenities to call a hotel, but it doesn't seem luxurious enough to call it a resort
It has private cabins, private whirlpools and springs, and a mountain view. It's a fucking resort.
> Who is he to take a break when he could be using his time to better lives?
He objectively hasn't improved anyone's lives. I don't know what patents he has developed, what inventions he has invented, which people he has helped. By their own admission, their scrubbers won't be out for years (despite said tech already existing; it's the electrical components and power output and catalyst layers that can be improved), etc. All he's done is teach. WHAT, exactly, has he done?
> A cozy living area with a fireplace and a slightly too large sectional sofa, and a little deck out back with a hot tub
Yeah that's a resort, buddy. That ain't no hotel.
> He can tell Jayce has the mind to explore, but Viktor is sore and tired
I thought he got PTSD from the snow? Now he wants to go exploring? Make it make sense.

>Jayce's touch can feel so consuming; electrifying yet soothing at the same time
> Jayce sits at the edge of the bed, and runs a hand through his hair

> How did they not bring pencils? They must have hundreds
This guy is allergic to pens because what? It's an
American thing? You can get a fancy ink pen from France like ye olde days or get an inkwell. Motherfucker doesn't even have a MECHANICAL pencil, what a rube!
> Thinks, and thinks, and thinks, and -
Me too, man, me too.
> Viktor supposes the woman felt like she had quite the handsome knight in shining armor. He tries not to let that settle strangely in him
A random woman exists and you're already acting petty because
she dared ask for help. Who the fuck are you?

> Comforting. Warm.
Stuff. Thangs.
> Hydrogels themselves
I pointed this out in the prior fic, but Beth here has no idea how hydrogels work. They are mostly used in biomedical engineering and environmental engineering, not as batteries. She is confusing the tech for her static scrubbers for a replacement for the combustion engine.
> But this is what they do
And apparently you can't tell the difference between said combustion engine and what a hydrogel is
because it's the wrong application. You're fusing two different technologies together! Not to mention, these batteries were supposed to operate on
bacteria before it was retconned to
algae, two separate kingdoms!

> What we do can't be all we are, or we'll go insane
You already drove your would-be husband insane by having him have a mental breakdown over a goddamn cake. Maybe it's time to take a look in the mirror.
> But if Viktor isn't devoting every second to it, he feels like a waste
What were you doing for most of your life in the previous fic? Sitting around and bitching and moaning about a guy who sold you out and ruined your life. This man literally did NOTHING and still thinks he's helping people. He couldn't even fight the cops, FFS.

> Dotted with so many stars they seem to take up more of the room than the empty space; faded stars and bright ones (still reads weird because it feels like an incomplete sentence)
> He never understood how the night sky makes people feel small
OK, this is a retcon of what the author wrote in her prior fic. Viktor always wanted to see the night sky and worked tirelessly to invent tech that would clean Zaun's air so he could see it. There was an entire plot point about how Jayce hoped to clean said air with him so he could 'see his soulmate in the moon'. Funny how I can remember all that, and the author,
who created it, doesn't.
>a silky soft
Either it's 'silky soft' or 'a silky smoothness'. Pick one.

> The heat and gentle pressure
...? OK? This seems incomplete?
> Opinions on the papers of their peers into conversations about death and legacy
You're not going to lecture about medical costs and how you bitched at Mel for daring to pay for the experimental medicine that saved your life and allowed you to exist thus far? Strange, that.
> Like I'll never do a 'net good'
He didn't. He sold out Viktor's side of the patent because 'it was in his contract' to do so, and Viktor rightfully hated him for it. Instead of a proper confrontation, Jayce never actually addresses his privileges or the consequences of his actions; Viktor did and does all the emotional labour and was expected to forgive him by Jayce's family and peers. It's pretty twisted when you look at it critically.
> They only get out of the tub hours later, near two in the morning

> Jayce is the first to wake, but he's right in front of Viktor, asleep on his side
> Viktor stares, studies the strong curves of his face
> Like looking at the Milky Way from his little spot on Earth
Too bad an asteroid can't be hurled your way to cure your neuroticism.
> Viktor tries to catalog this sight like he would a breakthrough; stores it and preserves it.
> He looks almost gold where the sunlight hits it, messy and misshapen
Jayce's hair is nearly black, so that light must be strong as hell to make it go gold.

> He is a scholar, he has written thousands and thousands of words on subjects most people couldn't even begin to understand
Despite that, you haven't improved anyone's lives with your genius. Not a single one.
> How much research he had to do
Nice lampshading.
> The very idea makes his heart rate pick up. Husband, Husband. Not yet
Eight months, and hopefully you won't knock over the cake this time.

> Oh um, he just gushed about you the whole time
And Viktor automatically hated your guts because his man dared help a dirty woman.
> He's. Been. Working
Uh oh, drama alert! The man telling him not to work has been working, the hypocrite!
> Viktor doesn't know if he should be enraged or feel terrible for the man
That's the entire struggle session in the first fic. And it should always be the first point. That is a necessary reaction.

> Freshly showered with a towel around his waist, hair still dripping. Some water he didn't catch drips down his chest, that lovely soft stomach and to -
In the previous fic, all Jayce had to do was give Viktor doe eyes to get him to do whatever he wanted and drop any and all grudges. In this one, it's him showing off his body. How shallow do you have to be just to be swayed by a good looking body and a dick?
> smirk gone
Uh oh, someone didn't capitalize, here.
> You...Jayce Talis...have been working
Ellipses really do some heavy lifting here.
> He crumbles a bit, in a way Viktor really didn't expect; a way that chips away at his anger piece by piece
> I just...I couldn't help myself. I couldn't do it.
> Not at this, not when he understands his stress so intimately
So why is the man who gets PTSD over snow, going to a snowed-in resort, with a guy who gets PTSD over wedding cakes?

> Jayce nods fervently, almost comically
> His voice cracks, his eyes shining
> The nape of his neck, his lower back
And here we start with the spicy stuff.

> Viktor tries to catalog all he can see with more light: all those moles and divots and scars.
> Perhaps he's just being mean, but the way Jayce immediately tries to go pliant and breathes
> He takes his time, he takes a lot of time. Half sadistic, half-caring; every time Jayce tries to get more friction, Viktor steadies him
I will give the author this, out of all the shit that tanks her work and skills, she doesn't use the typical 'bottom Viktor' and 'top Jayce' thing, but makes them switches. Too often Viktor is the stereotypical moody bottom who 'needs' Jayce to fuck him to keep him happy. Here, they both top and bottom, which does introduce a little bit of equality. The writing is still shit, but I can give credit where credit is due.

> Accepting the time he's taking, accepting what he's given
> He could do this to Jayce forever; unravel him, unwrap him, tease him, and give him more and more and more.
> I've been ready for like...15 minutes?
> Stay nice and still. He enters him slowly, the heat intoxicating. The sheer pleasure of it rolls through him like a wave. They have nowhere to be, nothing to concern themselves with.
> The oil from the massage gets all over Viktor's chest and stomach, messy and slick
Why does that remind me of crab meat for some reason?
> Completely safe
You know a woman wrote this when:
> There you go...close your eyes. Just focus on my voice.
> Viktor lets that hit him, let himself feel the weight of it
Too bad it doesn't hit the rational part of your brain. You're marrying a neurotic.

> He craves Jayce's pleasure so much that it's both feeding his own want and more important than it
This doesn't make sense at all. :He craves his pleasure so much' works fine on its own.
> Viktor gets an idea, a diabolical one
> Always, always...that's why I'm making you my husband
> Then he plops back down onto the mattress as if completely boneless
He was already laying on his back.
> Jayce looks like a wreck, panting like he just ran a marathon. His eyes are bloodshot, hair a mess.

> He almost feels in a trance with it, watching as his cheeks move under Viktor's touch. His eyelashes flutter, and he runs his fingers through Jayce's hair, trying to smooth it.
> All of this - you, here, the whole trip
> He pulls Jayce closer, because he made it difficult. He almost refused to go. He never would have done this for himself
You still found it within yourself to forgive a neurotic, so...anything is possible, I guess.
Viktor hating saunas when hot tubs involve the same concept is not lost on me. Why does he hate saunas? Is it because he has to wear a towel, or sit on a painful wooden bench? Just write that!
> The water feels incredible - warm and welcoming.

> How on earth did Talis rope you into it?
Gaslighting. Lots and lots of it. And a very nosey, needy Hispanic mother. And a lesbian half-Asian half-sister.
> No the fuck you didn't
Love how the author is trying to make me hate Grindr Greg here when I actually kinda like him. He's saying all the shit Viktor needs to hear; he's literally me but a rich gay man.

> Yes, actually...a tiger is what you're looking for
Both of them have stripes, you asswipe. Tasmanian tigers had them, too.
> I'm just saying, it's a surprise! I thought for sure you'd marry your career, but congrats Viktor
I'm surprised he doesn't bring up what happened between Jayce and Viktor for them to split in the first place. Spoiler: he never does.
> What has happened to this man? He seems...empty
You talking about your former fucktoy or yourself, buddy?
> Do I know you?
Yes, he met him at the restaurant when Viktor was using Greg as a tool to make Jayce jealous.
> It's all ridiculous behaviour. Jayce is a renowned inventor. He's in his mid-30s
If these people actually acted like rational, decent men we wouldn't be there. They are just bitchy gay men diving headlong into the Wall without realizing it.

> Why would you be so childish about a man who I used to sleep with in grad school?
I seem to recall you weaponizing this man in that restaurant as a means to make Jayce jealous after his mama's attempts to get you two together didn't work just yet. It is 100% childish indeed, and I don't think the author knows how men work in general. These people are just stereotypical gay drama queens.
> Jayce has nothing to be jealous of
Clearly he is, because he's afraid of Grindr Greg and his plans to steal his cake-destroying hubby-to-be away. Funny how they focus more on this than the a
ctual crimes Jayce committed against Viktor. Yes, selling away someone's patent against their knowledge can land you in court.
> I gave you the idea to see someone that night, which was the opposite of what I wanted to happen.

> I'm fairly deep in the bottle, and Sky comes in looking for you...Remember, I was young, drunk, and very upset. And I told her, 'Sky, he's gay. He doesn't like you that way. Give it a rest'.
This poor girl. It doesn't have to be JUST Mel, who was the biggest Black Bitch in the previous fic. Sky has to be humiliated because that white dick only gets turned on by fellow dicks. Good on her for talking back to him, though.
> Stoooooop
Stop fucking talking like you're on TikTok. You're in your mid-30s. You aren't a 'cool kid' anymore.
> Jayce and Sky always seemed a bit at odds in a way he couldn't place until they randomly became friendly
Just a sprinkle of that race war, eh? All that for white cock. Damn, that really does make the world go round, eh?

> They go on a scenic drive, where Jayce takes pictures of everything.
> There's a moose outside
Moose don't traverse high altitudes. If you're that high up where you can see the Northern Lights, you would likely see elk or caribou.
> Viktor talks about green hydrogen
Funny how this is the one tech that actually makes sense, vs using hydrogels for the wrong purpose and using outdated static scrubber tech where the weaknesses and limitations of said tech is where they can base their patent on. Someone must've given Beth a tip.
> It's a beautiful day despite the cold, one of the best he's ever had.
> Viktor laughs until his sides hurt, laughs until Jayce silences him with little pleading kisses.
> It's one of the first times he's felt joy without fear; joy without lingering suspicions of its futility.
You should still be suspicious, because this is the guy who r
uined your life by stealing a patent while you were ill. I will never stop bringing that up because the author forgot that was a major plot point and t
he main foil for their relationship. It was the cause for their 'divorce' in the first place.
> He knows it'll return again like Mars is in orbit
Mars isn't in Earth's orbit.
> He knows they'll tend to each other in the meantime; that his bed will never be cold.

>He feared Jayce would get upset; beg him to change his mind
A lot of this universe is based on Viktor not wanting to upset Jayce when Jayce is the fuckup.

Funny how that works.
> A little sad but still genuine
Why is he sad? It's the Current Year. People don't need to take on patronymic lineages. Spanish people use both the names of their mother AND father, you uncultured swine.
> Viktor doesn't need to be a Talis
Note the use of the word NEED vs 'want'. Viktor NEEDS to take that last name because otherwise he will never be part of that family or lineage; him refusing it would be him sticking to his roots and Jayce does not like that. His name carries weight and Viktor's doesn't - just look at how the publishing world treats the two of them. IF Viktor even publishes, that is.
> The ridiculous cartoon cats
I thought they were loaves of bread and the caption was, 'You are all I knead'?

> Yes, though I quite enjoyed last year.
> Jayce was a nervous wreck, and it made Viktor feel oddly cared for.
Can you not take care of yourself, or do you need to base your entire life around a neurotic piece of shit? It's definitely the latter.

> Viktor wonders why sometimes you have to do less of what you love in order to keep loving it, but he understands a bit more now.
Well you are a workaholic; why would you ever take a break? The few times you take breaks you smash cake displays, so it might be better if you stick to your job.
> He remembers the characters were in an office, and they were not happy about it.
Was it 'The Office'? How the turns have tabled.