I read the other one, too; and although I liked it a lot (especially the end); it wasn't, IMO, as effective as this one. I'm not sure for what reason (I think there might have been several), but the feral quality that SO appeals to me about this story was diluted in the other one. Perhaps it is the absence of John (who, taking the alpha dog role, puts the boys in a much more pack-relevant place), or perhaps it was the lack of intimacy of the observer (Ellen REALLY works in commenting on their dynamic in a way I'm not sure anyone else really would); but whatever it was, the way the boys played as adults in this story hit me SO HARD, whereas the way they played in the other one seemed far less AU, much closer to just a harsher view of the boys rather than the true pack animals you painted here.
Don't know if that makes sense, or if it is helpful to you even if it does; and of course, it is only my opinion, but for me, this story just was just so shiny with a different way of viewing the boys that just blew me away. And honest to fucking pete, this is the ONLY story I've EVER read that involved a wincest angle that I actually bought. And I think it was because you played their relationship as so aggressively fuck you to others ... that the way they were interacting while playing pool was almost more to goad others into trying to call them on it, thus giving them a reason to go to blood, than it was about anything sexual.
And in terms of pack dynamic, that REALLY hit me hard as incredibly powerful; and it equally took the Wincest dynamic out of the perview of incest and into the realm of there only being two people in the entire universe in which these boys have been raised. Everyone else is a different species, so for them, as you've portrayed them here, they are the only possible partners for one another. And you've put it to a very MALE articulation, as well as a feral one.
All that to say ... I'll REALLY be looking forward to seeing what you choose to do with a John perspective. I can't even mentally go there, as the John you have created here is SO not the John I see that it boggles me to even consider him, which makes me want to see where you would go with him. Certainly, my hope would be that there would be no remorse in him at all, and that all the father aspects I see in John would have been turned alpha dog in a feral way the same way the hero aspects of the boys have been turned feral ... something you did in a stunningly effective way, in particular, with Sam, making hims dangerously sly and viscious in a way I totally believe would be the Sam articulation of this feral state of being.
As I mentioned ... awesome. This piece blows me away.
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Don't know if that makes sense, or if it is helpful to you even if it does; and of course, it is only my opinion, but for me, this story just was just so shiny with a different way of viewing the boys that just blew me away. And honest to fucking pete, this is the ONLY story I've EVER read that involved a wincest angle that I actually bought. And I think it was because you played their relationship as so aggressively fuck you to others ... that the way they were interacting while playing pool was almost more to goad others into trying to call them on it, thus giving them a reason to go to blood, than it was about anything sexual.
And in terms of pack dynamic, that REALLY hit me hard as incredibly powerful; and it equally took the Wincest dynamic out of the perview of incest and into the realm of there only being two people in the entire universe in which these boys have been raised. Everyone else is a different species, so for them, as you've portrayed them here, they are the only possible partners for one another. And you've put it to a very MALE articulation, as well as a feral one.
All that to say ... I'll REALLY be looking forward to seeing what you choose to do with a John perspective. I can't even mentally go there, as the John you have created here is SO not the John I see that it boggles me to even consider him, which makes me want to see where you would go with him. Certainly, my hope would be that there would be no remorse in him at all, and that all the father aspects I see in John would have been turned alpha dog in a feral way the same way the hero aspects of the boys have been turned feral ... something you did in a stunningly effective way, in particular, with Sam, making hims dangerously sly and viscious in a way I totally believe would be the Sam articulation of this feral state of being.
As I mentioned ... awesome. This piece blows me away.