From Kris: What never fails to inspire you?
Thorny: Nature. there’s so much inspiration in a tiny plant pushing up into the world from a crack in the sidewalk. It doesn’t know it might not make it to tomorrow, it just wants to reach for the sun today.
From Mary G: Thorny, did you ever imagine, before Jazz, that you’d meet “the one” and be this blissfully happy?
Thorny: Oh, sure, I imagined my prince/rockstar/cowboy, who moonlights as a fireman and is a caped crusader on weekends, coming along to whisk me away someday. Then I met Jazz and pined over him specifically for a few months before realizing my dream man just had to smile at me and that was enough for me to fall in love and stay there.
From Hanne (nordicgirl): If you could save only 1 book, 1 film, 1 album/CD, and 1 other item, which would you choose and why?
Thorny: This is so DIFFICULT. I’m honestly not at all sure what book or film I’d save. Seriously, it’d be like Save the Library! I can’t even say I have a favorite book or movie of all time because there are so many to love for different reasons. Music’s hard too, but the first song that popped into my head is “I Won’t Give Up” by Jason Mraz. Jazz and I have a whole choreographed dance to it that we change around every time when something new occurs to one of us. It’s special like a wedding dance or something like that, so I always want it available. If my one other item can be a person, I’m keeping Grams forever more.
From Carey: If the four of you were stuck on a deserted island, with unlimited amounts of food, clean water, and lube, and you have each other, what are two more items each would have to have?
Thorny: My iPhone and a solar generator to charge it. (Yes, I’m officially addicted.)
Jazz: A hatchet and nails to build us a house on the island.
Alec: He’s only saying that because the lube’s included with the island.
Jazz: Well, yeah.
Carter: I’ll bring sunblock and bug repellent. And one of you better bring unlimited soap or nobody’s going to use that lube.
Alec: Soap it is! And a razor since I’m not into hillbilly beards.
From Natalija: What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to do, but nobody would do it with you (requires a group of people)?
Alec: An orgy with all the brothers and Thorny too.
Thorny: {wide-eyed blushing}
Jazz: Christ, Alec. {ahem} I think paintball might be fun.
Carter: I’m in!
Alec: {snort}
Carter: For paintball, you shit.
Thorny: {imagining the paintball war turning into a porno and…}
Jazz: Thornton, that was not a plot bunny.
From Madison: If you could write and send a letter to your younger self, what advice or words of wisdom would you give yourself?
Thorny: It really will get better, but it’s OK to hurt right now.
Jazz: He’s not underage. Ask him out immediately.
Alec: There’s nothing at the bottom of a bottle but glass. Put it down, get off your ass, and you might meet Carter 6 months earlier.
Carter: You wouldn’t warn yourself about the IED?
Alec: If it hadn’t been me, it would’ve been someone else.
Carter: {mumbling, but it sounded like “I love you”}
From Benjamin: If you could change something about yourself, what would it be and why?
Thorny: I’d like to be taller. Not too much, I don’t want to be 6-foot or anything, but five-nine would be nice. I just don’t like being mistaken for a kid all the time.
From LC: Aside from the love of your life, what one thing always makes you smile?
Thorny: My friends. The ones I have now love me for all my flaws and quirks and they can always help me find my smile.
Jazz: Helping people discover the past and being there for the moment when the lightbulb comes on and they’re hooked.
Alec: It makes me smile to see my parents flirting with each other. They’re in their 60s and I just love knowing they still think the other’s hot stuff.
Carter: There’s other things in the world besides Alec? {giggle}
Alec: Kiss-ass.
Carter: Sure. C’mere.
Jazz: {hangs up the phone at the first porn-sound} We’ll call back later.
From Suze: Thorny, what one thing would you, or you and Jazz, like to achieve in the next 5 years?
Thorny: One think? Just ONE? I have to cheat a little bit: For me, finish school and have started my career. For us, fatherhood.
From Alder: Carter, what did you think of Thorny the first time Jazz introduced you?
Carter: I thought he was the cutest girl I’d ever seen! Then it was like wait, he’s a guy? followed by is he even legal? and then I saw them together and bet I had a new brother. Thankfully, treating Thorny like a girl doesn’t get me hurt or yelled at because it’s just what my instincts seem to tell me to do with him.
Thorny: You’re a dork.
Carter: Bachatcha, Twinkerbell.
Thorny: {snort}
From Cody: Jazz, what is the single most frustrating element in your personal life that you cannot change and have learned to live with?
Jazz: People who scoff at bisexuality. I’ve had people resist accepting its reality and take on an attitude like I’m being somehow dishonest with them or myself. I detest it when someone accuses me of just not admitting I’m actually gay, as though I could be ashamed of it. Sometimes changing their minds is possible, but most often it’s not and that’s cost me friends and caused some tension in the workplace. For the most part, with Thorny in my life now, I don’t correct anyone who identifies me as gay because there’s little reason to rock that boat.
From Veronica: Jazz, being bi, how did you know Thorny was the person you want to spend the rest of your life with and not a woman?
Jazz: My sexual orientation only made it so I’m open to the possibility of falling in love with a man or a woman. That I’ve chosen to commit myself to Thorny for as long as he’ll have me applies more to his qualities and who I am with him than to my being bisexual.
From Parker: Someone said I make you Thorny. Is that a compliment?
Thorny: {snicker} Definitely! 
From CR: What is something you’ve learned about yourself that you would say is important in making a lasting relationship and why?
Thorny: Communication! I won’t say I was terrible at it before I started dating Jazz, but I definitely didn’t realize how important it is before then. Some of our first conversations were the two of us sort of clearing the air about everything we could think of — like Jazz being bi in case I had a problem with that. And now it’s all about honestly saying something when I need to and really listening when he has something he needs to say. We still fight sometimes and say stupid things, but I think communication has saved the day every time.
From Lisa H: Do you want to have kids someday?
Thorny & Jazz: Yes, definitely.
Alec & Carter: Maybe yes. Someday.
From Tam: What is your favorite cheese and how/when do you best enjoy it?
Thorny: Extra sharp cheddar and right off the block!
Jazz: Same.
Carter: Whatever it is that covers nachos.
Alec: Slice of brie, slice of apple, a dash of mustard, on a cracker.
Carter: Who are you and where’s the guy who sucks down Cheez-Wiz?
Alec: {laughing} I’ll suck down–
Jazz: Stop that! We’re nearly done.
From Tj: What is the single greatest lesson you could pass on to another?
Alec: Never give up. You give up and they win. Doesn’t matter if they’re bullies or terrorists or the ones how said you can’t, you staying strong will never let them win and that will defeat them.
From Susan: Thorny, you have been forthcoming about the color of your eyes and your height. May I have the same information about Jazz, Alec and Carter?
Thorny: Jazz has brown eyes and he’s 6-foot even. Alec’s eyes are green and he’s 5’11″. Carter also has brown eyes — all the brothers do — and he’s 6’3″. Interesting side note: Whenever I need to see how my characters in Splinters should line up, I just look at how Jazz and Carter fit together.
Alec: And you guys think I’m the perv…
From Ann Marie: What is your favorite Supernatural episode and why?
Thorny: That episode where they go to the little convention for their books and meet the gay couple who role-play them? That is my favorite! Really, all the ones where they were learning about the books and Chuck and…OMG I’ve forgotten her name…the girl who wrote the slash and liked petting Sam. Anyway, all those episodes were fantastic. OK, and the ones where it was so Desitel 
From Maria: What is your favorite and less than favorite thing about your partner?
Carter: Is she trying to be nice and not say “the thing you can’t stand about him”?
Thorny: Maybe. Want to go with that?
{grumbles and grunts that probably mean yes}
Thorny: OK, my fave about Jazz is his mouth and my least fave is his unrelenting need to leave work an hour late every effing Friday.
Jazz: Favorite is how brave he is and least favorite is that he loves nature but doesn’t want to spend a lot of time in it.
Alec: Favorite, his skills with wood. Least, his obsession with the white tile in the kitchen.
Carter: You’re annoying.
Alec: Is that your favorite?
Carter: My favorite is his strength of spirit, how he keeps getting back up. My least favorite is that he’s only got one foot, but it stinks like four.
Alec: {laughing}
From Chris: Who is on your celebrity freebie list?
Thorny: Christian Bale’s Batman, James Marsden, Jensen Ackles, and Gerard Butler.
Jazz: Halle Berry, Leonardo Di Caprio, and, if they can count, Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor from “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”.
Carter: Beyonce, Halle Berry, Kate Beckinsale, and Ryan Reynolds.
Alec: You won’t give me my orgy fantasy, but you’re OK with a threesome with Halle Berry and your brother?
Carter: It’s Halle Berry.
Alec: Whatever. Ryan Reynolds is on my list to, so prepare yourself if he ever shows up, babe. I’ve also got Bradley Cooper, Beckham and Josh Duhamel.
Carter: You, me and Ryan? I’m in.
Alec: Now let’s talk about this Batman thing. In the suit, I take it?
Thorny: The top half anyway.
Alec: Do the voice, Jazz.
Jazz: Next question! {not in the voice}
From Amanda, who squeaked in while Thorny was writing this up: Favorite comfort food?
Thorny: Mac & cheese.
Jazz: Lazagna.
Alec: Mom’s minestrone.
Carter: Nachos.
Thanks for playing along, everyone! It was fun! And to answer the unasked question, yes, we’ll definitely do this again sometime 
Genesis left home at the age of 16 because he felt his homosexuality was damaging his family’s reputation. He had dropped out of high school after a particularly bad day of bullying and decided it was time to step away from the haters and make his own way. With the help of friends he got his GED, found a job, and made a home for himself. And while it’s not glamorous in any way since his studio apartment is the size of most people’s closets, it’s more than a lot of LGBT youth have.
Alec
Jazz
Thorny
All blue "emotional emoticons" courtesy of LazyCat at 
