I just catched up to this on spacebattles, and I just gotta say I damn love it! You're awesome! It's real nice reading a fic where things actually turn right for Alex and co, and it's not just Alex ragging and murdering everything. Not that its bad, but it gets a bit old.

I also really like what you did with Pariah. I eagerly await for more.

Ah... teenagers. Always a handful. I do like Patrick's observation that while they're in this mess together, Alex and Dana are much closer to one another, while he's something of an omnipotent third wheel.

The bit with Alex and Dana was nice exploration of how messed up they were, but still are maybe a net positive. The bit where she has him undisguised himself to take a picture was sweet. The wedding itself, with David's observations also helps underline the situation, mixing genuinely nice sentiments with the screwed-up nature of his bride's family. The bit of worldbuilding with the children of Manhattan, and them reflecting on what could happen when they try for kids, worked rather well, too.

The bit with Runner!Dana and Pariah's so weirdly discordant, and the commentary between Dave and Alex was great. Dana's giving birth was nicely visceral, and teh segment with her son was well done too; the image of Alex just giving up and collapsing, run ragged by a small child, is infinitely amusing. Too bad Jason can't play with his cousin, because Uncle Alex knocked his head off...

*snorts* For a very unstable and mutated family, they sure have their funny moments. This is very good. I look forward to more.

Excellent work. I wonder if young Jason is like a newborn Pariah, born from a female manifestation of Redlight and all. I can imagine Jason becoming the companion that Pariah has longed for, someone like him that also easily confuses modern science, if not right now at his level.

I still think the scene where Dave's bleeding out and Dana is super helpful is wonderfully creepy; the chaos of the situation compared to her serene expression, the killer line ending the scene. It was rather powerful. The sequences in the church were rather well done; Dana meaning the best but pushing buttons that should not have been pushed, and the bit in Penn Station.

The whole thing was rather interesting. I'm curious to see how far you'll go with pushing Patrick/PARIAH, and what the end result will be.

The idea that infected-but-recovering people are still attached to Hives and drawn to each other is so cool! They've got human and Infected instincts/tendencies, but they're not fully one or the other. And that some of them are still waiting for Greene...such a neat idea!

Excellent work! It has been awhile since we last chatted. And I just realized a new way to spin that past idea I once had, if you would be interested in hearing it. Keep up the excellent work!

I liked this chapter! We got some baby Pariah, Dana and Dave being cute, Alex has learned to chill, and adult Pariah is having a midlife crisis.
What /did/ happen to James Heller? Something like the basic events of P2, but with DCode instead of Alex? Are we going to find out?

I didn't know that bit with the rogue supersoldier was going in this fic. Nice to see it again. Pariah and Mercer's interactions were interesting as well, as well as the parallells between the rogue supersolider and Maya and Alex and Dana.

The scene with Dana's eyes changing color in the mirror was well done creepiness. I'm gonna be honest, I was thinking this was going to end very poorly for everyone involved at Thanksgiving. Not saying I'm upset it didn't, I just thought you were foreshadowing something unfortunate happening.

We do get to see a bit more of Dave here, and he's an interesting guy. He's not oblivious to the incredible red flags on display, and his reactions to Alex and Pariah are believable. I like Alex's reflections on his relationship with Dana, and Dana's views on her secret identity, what she was thinking during the outbreak, her ongoing medical conditions, and the situation with Dave. It's all pretty well done.

As you said, it was a lot of exposition, but we did get somewhere, resolving the problems that got raised by the last chapter.

Pariah being a dick at the start was very amusing, nice riff on the bullshit pseudoscience of Prototype, and I like Dave's thoughts about people who viewed the Manhattan Outbreak as caused by aliens. Little details, like what the crazy conspiracy theories people would buy in an already crazy conspiracy universe, add a lot.

Once Dana gets Dave alone to discuss the actual ramifications, I thought it was handled very well. It's a lot to process, and although he's not completely off the deep end, he doesn't just shrug off everything; the inhumanity of Dana and her family, or the fact that Alex Mercer is the worst terrorist ever. The closing conversation was very interesting as well, and the final line was quite effective.

With that said, I think the six-year timeskip, with Dave having just proposed to Dana is a little off. I think he could've used more development than just one previous chapter, and the timeskip doesn't help matters. I get that this ain't a romance fic, but it feels like a lot of missed opportunities, not just to flesh out Dave, but to also go to work on Dana, considering how her last boyfriend had ended up, working her way up to a years-long relationship with someone she doesn't end up nearly killing him in an intimate moment could be interesting.

We were building to Dana losing it for a while, and it was interesting seeing her lose it, albeit I think everything might've been wrapped up a little to nicely. The bit with the hivemind in Manhattan calling to her, and screwing with Mercer while at the same time Patrick has to deal with his dog was well done... too many coincidences, perhaps the hivemind engineered the situation?

I like that bit with the graffiti, I know we've talked about that idea before, and seeing it written out was nice.

Hm... and you're pulling in some faces from P2, huh? I can't complain, it's been a long time since Blackwatch made their presence felt, and I'm curious as to what exactly the situation on New York is at the moment.

I liked the reflections on the holidays.

Also the idea of Dana committing credit card theft against the horrifying abomination is amusing as hell, as is the vengeance wrought upon Dana.

I'm of two minds about the January segment. On the one hand, that's a very visceral reminder that no matter what, Dana will never have a normal life even if she goes through the motions, and the writing as she's panicking and Alex is reacting poorly is well-done. On the other... we know virtually nothing about her boyfriend when it happens, which kinda robs it of impact; I'll admit I wasn't sure it was the same person one as in the Halloween bits until she talks with the EMT and says he's Ben (since he's just "Dana's boyfriend" to both of her "brothers" until that point). Doing something to develop him, or at least Dana's feelings towards him, would do a lot to add punch to it if you're inclined during your revisions.

And it's an utterly pedantic thing, but an EMT wouldn't be assisting in an emergency room; they're first responders who treat at a scene/in an ambulance. That said, the Dave section is interesting... he could be reading too much into a brief interactions, or it could be a hint at something much darker underneath the surface regarding Dana. I assume he's going to play a role in later chapters?

The Omake was hilarious.

Soylent Greene! You kill me

The opening clothes shopping was rather funny. Just the image of Dana herding Alex away with the use of a terrible blazer is amazing. But you mixed in a good bit characterization with that line"Home... Houston has become home to her... Part of him felt like seething at that".

I'm liking this... cancerous domestic comedy? Vibe you have with them. Like the Chekov's gun of the freezer full of meat no one's to touch coming full circle. The conversation between drunk!Dana and Lin was very fun as well, as was PARIAH's reaction to hearing about the topic of conversation.

The hints that he could've stopped it was interesting. It goes back to I don't quite know what to make of it; it's entertaining watching something inhuman go through the motions while rolling his eyes at his brother who does an even worse job, but there's something deeply poisonous running underneath all of that.

One thing I think is you get a little too into explaining things. Like, at times, characters get a little too into the science side of things (discussing XX Chromosomes and viral replication), and it distracts from the rest of the conversation (honestly, I think it'd move along better had that been cut even as they speculate about whether he has the requisite equipment or not). I get that it's rather hard to cut stuff like that, though.