"My mother was a frigid **, my father an abusive drunk. They had a hateful marriage, which is probably why I am unwilling or unable to perform a long term, committed relationship of my own. The fact that I drink like a fish, abuse drugs, and have more or less redefined promiscuous sex doesn’t help, much. As a result, I've lost the two people in my life that mean the most to me."

It's great that you have obviously watched ** as Folk, but don't you think you should give the show some credit, and if that's not possible, be a bit more original? Of course this is in all, but you are being credited for a story that is, in a small part, not yours. =)

;;TACKLE HUG!;; my ** as folk soul mate! i just watched that epasoide this morning! i love brian.

Dude... I swear, I thought it was Roger the whole time. Well, at the beginning I thought it was Mark, then I thought Roger, then I was like OH MY GOD MARK DID DRUGS!

This is very convincing somehow. I really like it... the sex thing is a little creepy. Men or women? ...erm.

Kudos, kudos.

Wow. That was an awesome story. And really angsty. But good.

Wow.

Just... wow.

Words don't really aptly describe my reaction to this piece, though. I am impressed, amazed, delighted, horrified, and surprised, all at once and more.

Not only is this piece well and clearly written, but it is also is full of all these little details, which really, really add to it. Mark's little side comments, his little tangents give this story a bit of a steam-of-consciousness feel, but at the same time lend more credibility to the narration.

My favorite part, though, is that you never reveal who the narrator is until the very end, and it is /that/ ending that makes this story unique and marvelous. Honestly, for most of this story, I thought that the narrator was Roger, that this was just a slightly different take on Roger, but then parts of it just... weren't Roger, and that made me wonder. Never once, though, did it occur to me that oh! Duh! This is Mark, until the end, and I really, really like that. It's unexpected, and that's the best part (well, the fact that this is Mark and the way he mentions his lies to Roger).

Lots of people write about how Roger's family sucks, or how Mark's father is abusive, but this is definately the first one I've seen with both of Mark's parents being bastards/**, and one of the very, very few abusive family stories that is told /well/, and that deals with how having such an upbringing (or lack thereof) affects the kid.

There are issues/questions I have with this story, though.

1) The drug bit. This is the one part that does not, to me, seem very realistic. The doing of various drugs is fine, as lots of drug users tend to try different types, no matter what the reason. However, the lack of addictin, the ability to just stop is what I've a problem with. Sure, for some of the drugs, like pot, they're not particularly addicting for casual use anyway, so it is entirely possible to stop after taking them for a while.However, with other drugs, one's body gets physically addicted, which means that even if one is not mentally craving the drug, one's body is going to react to a sudden cessation of the drug. So, to me, Mark being able to just stop with little effect (despite the catch) seems to be stretching it a bit.

Though, this is fiction, so you've liscence to do what you want, so don't mind me. Heh.

2) Er... What about Cindy? I would think Mark might make mention of her. Or... are you going with the assumption that Cindy isn't actually his sister (because, if I recall, nowhere in the musical or movie do they state her relation to anyeone)?

3) In the beginning, Mark mentions that he's lost the two people in his life who mean the most to him. Who are those two people, then?

4) It's been a while since I've read through the script and whatnot, but I seem to recall that Benny and Mark knew each other from Brown University. Are you just ignoring that, then?

Otherwise, excellent job. -nodnod-

Love, Snarky

ps: It'd be a wonder, then, if Mark didn't have some lovely STD, wouldn't it? Heh.