I Can Fix Him (Complete story, 1/16/23, Bonus Material added 1/23/23)

[Shahrazad2]

25 minutes ago, jwood said:

I like to think of bias as the shortcuts I have learned or have been taught to draw conclusions (mostly false) about something or someone.  They are usually negative, but some of them can have positive connotations, like the concept that someone looks "smarter" wearing glasses or a really big guy gives great hugs.

Even the concept of marriage can be that way, and that's what I disliked about Auggie.  It wasn't the thought that he had to have sex to be "complete."  He had to be MARRIED to be "complete."  The idea that we have to either be with one person for the rest of our lives or be alone is an incredibly difficult duality to break, and Auggie would not take any alternative.

He did not think it was possible to love more than one person at the same time, but this is something almost everybody experiences in their life!  He did not have to force marriage upon Gabriel, nor did he have to move out.  Both Douglas and Gabriel offered the option of a polyamorous relationship, but Auggie was obstinately set on having sex before marriage and then getting married, no ifs, ands, or buts.  One person could have been more fulfilling of his physical needs, and the other fulfilling his intellectual and emotional needs, but, of course, this kind of relationship would need an incredible amount of communication and understanding.  Alas, they broke up, and Auggie was still single months after, despite Gabriel being sure he would find someone in days.

Ultimately, to me, it seemed like marriage was the thing Auggie felt would make himself whole, not sex.  As a result, I thought he was the person who actually needed to be "fixed."  If he had considered an alternative, his relationship with Gabriel could have turned out more positive... but we'll just have to imagine the what ifs!

You're right... Auggie wasn't great with communication and kept trying to fix something about Gabriel even while protesting that he didn't need to be fixed. Even Gabriel jumped to a lot of conclusions as well. 

Also, I'm reminded of a webcomic called Spare Keys for Strange Doors, the first chapter of which deals with a woman who has a list of the qualities of her perfect idealized boyfriend, and gets a mystic to teach her to make a golem out of clay and put the list in his head, turning the clay into a supermodel-man who was aggravatingly perfect. The story ends tragically with the woman's worried best friend pointing out that the woman herself wasn't perfect and was, in fact, the problem, but she couldn't see it. Auggie reminds me of that lesson.

[arpeejay]

Well, you know my p.o.v.: It's perfectly possible for a couple, one of whom is (de facto) ace, the other a horndog, to have a happy, committed, emotionally intimate marriage. So I was disappointed (but not surprised.)

I was more perturbed by deeply negative comments attributing emotional manipulation to Gabriel. Sorry, if doing stuff to make your partner happy even when it's not necessarily your cup of tea is emotionally manipulative then I am not sure I know a married couple that isn't. And having wasted five months of my life once upon a time on a psycho con artist roommate who gaslighted and lied to me while taking me for $10,000 and a car I have experience in that department, too. It's not the same.

I am thankful that there was an epilogue for both of them.

Thanks again for yet another truly wonderful story.

[ploder4]

This is one of those times where you find the author wrote the story so well that you even get fooled as to who the actual protagonist is.  You also hold dearly to one character only to find out how truly corrupted they are and be completely thrown off by it. 

For this story, that explains to me why Gabriel got a much more positive ending than Auggie did. 

Auggie had to go through a sort of purgatory, while Gabriel although he had challenges, seemed to quickly recover and almost completely move on. 

Auggie still hasn't completely learned his lesson I think.  He will probably still end up finding flaws with every person he meets in the future and constantly leaning on Gabriel to bolster him up. 

I have Heart's "Who Will You Run To" playing in my head now.  Sorry I was a child of the 80s.

[jwood]

17 hours ago, ploder4 said:

This is one of those times where you find the author wrote the story so well that you even get fooled as to who the actual protagonist is.  You also hold dearly to one character only to find out how truly corrupted they are and be completely thrown off by it. 

For this story, that explains to me why Gabriel got a much more positive ending than Auggie did. 

Auggie had to go through a sort of purgatory, while Gabriel although he had challenges, seemed to quickly recover and almost completely move on. 

Auggie still hasn't completely learned his lesson I think.  He will probably still end up finding flaws with every person he meets in the future and constantly leaning on Gabriel to bolster him up. 

I have Heart's "Who Will You Run To" playing in my head now.  Sorry I was a child of the 80s.

I love the music choice!  At the end of the story, I had both "Could've Been" by Tiffany and "Don't Shed a Tear" by Paul Carrack playing in my head.  I'm a child of the '90s, but imagining a soundtrack from any decade to these stories is just another fun thing to do

[n2Hoss]

@TQuintA, I was late to the story, but reading the last several chapters, I have to hand it to you for writing real complex characters, struggling with who they are, and what they desire.  You are a great writer and I’m hooked.   I’m looking forward to reading the entire story.