sounds good

Anyone else feeling infinity blade vibes from this?

Yeeeeaaah hahaha

So there, we are back onto the present... Still feels like a reckoning to me!

Is this the end?

I don't think our hero is foolish to fall for it.

a real tragedy indeed — as, the other alternative for josé, was death

josé's death, for which how many people at that point would even care?
for how long would víctor, himself, had continued blithely living his life before finally noticing his (former) friend had gone missing?

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i hate that it's come to this.

and it's obviously something deeper than a mere flight of fancy for flores: as, over the intervening years, he's long-since had sex (consensual or "otherwise") with so many other fellows.
yet lupé appears to, in particular, have his eye on shrimpie and, now—even if, only, a little bit,—his kid.

i can relate to falling in deep with a crush — it can really fuckin' hurt.
especially more, i can imagine, when you are, in fact, in a position to be continually up.close.and.personal with that person — like you would be, when you professionally grapple with him.
activities which stop oh-so-short from the engaging in the "real thing."

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for now, i can only trust in the story, to continue seeing where it leads us.