Boots

@BronxWench Ah, I had a feeling that was most likely the case. Thank you for confirming for me, though! I think I’d started running myself in circles, so it’s better to know, and if she’s disappeared and this is where the trail must end for now, I’ll just have to let it be unless/until something changes. @LisaT2525 Another fan! Yay! I’ll for sure let you know if it ever resurfaces. I comb the search engines every few months, just in case she may have decided to post it somewhere again. So if, by chance, it should make a return, I’ll probably find out.

So here’s a total long shot… Probably my favorite story on this site was “It Starts With the Eyes” by CoraDemby (or earlier on, separated like “Cora Demby;” I think she switched it at some point). SUMMARY: We come to understand that prior to the first chapter, the lead of the story, high school student Kelan Rucker, began a drastic downward spiral (cigarettes, school delinquency, sex with older men) when his best friend Sam Kenton was kidnapped without a trace. The story actually begins 4 years later when suddenly, improbably, Sam is found alive, though psychologically and developmentally traumatized. In the midst of efforts to help Sam, broken friendships start to mend, skeletons in the closet come to light, and Kelan finds himself on his own journey of healing. It’s a heavy story filled with intrigue, discovery, heartbreak, and always enough light to keep me hopeful each time as I waited for the next chapter. This was augmented by the author being a talented wordsmith and an apparent expert at relationship and character development. Unfortunately, I’m not aware of this one ever having been finished; I think posting stopped after Chapter 13, though that chapter’s lead-in text seemed to indicate the finale was approaching...but that was probably several years ago. Now it seems to be gone from the site altogether. A year or so ago, the content of several profiles (including hers) seemed to disappear at the same time, so I wonder if this was due to a server issue. Or perhaps she just decided to take her material offline. My thoroughly unlikely fantasy is that the title and author names are totally different now, and the finished product is online waiting for me to read it...but I imagine that’s just a bit of wishful thinking. Anyhow, if anyone knows anything that I don’t, please say the word! I miss this one so much it hurts.

Ooh! I remember this one from...10 years ago or so? (Wow.) Ambrosia Empire by MeLovesYaoi. Very lengthy piece, if I recall. Neither the story nor the profile seem to be on AFF anymore, but if you Google the title, you’ll quickly see the author (now apparently Nitrousyaoi) has put at least a large portion of it up on another site and may continue to add chapters.