Um, excuse me, he just means Joe is a very convincing negotiator?
No, I couldn't even keep a straight face while typing that.
Like, Nicky is at least AWARE that there is Feelings Stuff Going On here for him (he has, uh, reasons to have developed his self-reflection skills), but he's all tied up in how all his past breakups were contentious (and look, I don't know yet how much detail I'm going to be able to work into the fic itself yet, but he's definitely over-representing his relationship experience, because he thinks it amounts to more than it does). He's like 'I am being a realist, reality is difficult sometimes' and I'm over here just 'Dude, that's logical fallacy and your subconscious self-sabotage talking, have you considered that your terrible ex was just a jerk and not an example of how every relationship fails'. (He has not, in fact, considered that.)
Compare Joe, who's just cheerfully going with the flow, like, 'hey this is neat, I like it, hope we don't have to stop', no further analysis. It has its own pitfalls but he is so much less stressed out.
Anyway, I'm glad you like it! I got attacked with nerves after I posted, so your comment made me super happy. :)
Re: Give An Inch (Fall A Mile): Joe/Nicky, Moving Goalposts (4/?)
No, I couldn't even keep a straight face while typing that.
Like, Nicky is at least AWARE that there is Feelings Stuff Going On here for him (he has, uh, reasons to have developed his self-reflection skills), but he's all tied up in how all his past breakups were contentious (and look, I don't know yet how much detail I'm going to be able to work into the fic itself yet, but he's definitely over-representing his relationship experience, because he thinks it amounts to more than it does). He's like 'I am being a realist, reality is difficult sometimes' and I'm over here just 'Dude, that's logical fallacy and your subconscious self-sabotage talking, have you considered that your terrible ex was just a jerk and not an example of how every relationship fails'. (He has not, in fact, considered that.)
Compare Joe, who's just cheerfully going with the flow, like, 'hey this is neat, I like it, hope we don't have to stop', no further analysis. It has its own pitfalls but he is so much less stressed out.
Anyway, I'm glad you like it! I got attacked with nerves after I posted, so your comment made me super happy. :)