This Stephen is definitely less defensive. Part of it is because he's young, and hasn't built up major things like a marriage and kids on top of a facade of heterosexualty. But the biggest thing is that he's modern -- in-fic time is currently 2011, and he's 15. Same-sex marriage came to MA when he was only 8; he's grown up in an era full of happily, successfully out LGBT celebrities; more of his acquaintances are gay-friendly than not. He's never had to marinate in that pervading atmosphere of "if you're gay you will be rejected and unloved and have no success and die alone."
Plus, there are a bunch of traits canon!Stephen would have felt the need to repress just becaue they're stereotypical of gay guys, and would have made people suspicious. Whereas Shout*For!Stephen is free to openly love fashion and musical theater, to be kind of swishy and femme-y at times, to show non-anger emotions. It still makes plenty of people raise their eyebrows, but he's in no danger of turning into a pariah over it, because it isn't such a radical departure from how he's expected to be anyway.
He still has some pressing reasons to stay closeted, namely his Disney contract and his father's approval. But he isn't very motivated to deny it to himself.
And yeah, the drinking made a difference in how relaxed he was about the gay stuff in this chapter, but it also helped that Olivia and Steve were both unsurprised and supportive when the idea came up. He only avoids telling Jon because he's afraid of the news getting back to their bosses, not because he has any doubts that Jon will be cool with it. (Shocking spoiler alert: Jon will be.) As indicated in the start of the chapter, Jimmy already knows. This Stephen won't be forced to develop the canon character's intense vigilance in the first place, growing up with an ever-widening circle of friends with whom he doesn't need to be afraid at all.
Delurk moar! I'd love more excuses to talk about this story =D
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This Stephen is definitely less defensive. Part of it is because he's young, and hasn't built up major things like a marriage and kids on top of a facade of heterosexualty. But the biggest thing is that he's modern -- in-fic time is currently 2011, and he's 15. Same-sex marriage came to MA when he was only 8; he's grown up in an era full of happily, successfully out LGBT celebrities; more of his acquaintances are gay-friendly than not. He's never had to marinate in that pervading atmosphere of "if you're gay you will be rejected and unloved and have no success and die alone."
Plus, there are a bunch of traits canon!Stephen would have felt the need to repress just becaue they're stereotypical of gay guys, and would have made people suspicious. Whereas Shout*For!Stephen is free to openly love fashion and musical theater, to be kind of swishy and femme-y at times, to show non-anger emotions. It still makes plenty of people raise their eyebrows, but he's in no danger of turning into a pariah over it, because it isn't such a radical departure from how he's expected to be anyway.
He still has some pressing reasons to stay closeted, namely his Disney contract and his father's approval. But he isn't very motivated to deny it to himself.
And yeah, the drinking made a difference in how relaxed he was about the gay stuff in this chapter, but it also helped that Olivia and Steve were both unsurprised and supportive when the idea came up. He only avoids telling Jon because he's afraid of the news getting back to their bosses, not because he has any doubts that Jon will be cool with it. (Shocking spoiler alert: Jon will be.) As indicated in the start of the chapter, Jimmy already knows. This Stephen won't be forced to develop the canon character's intense vigilance in the first place, growing up with an ever-widening circle of friends with whom he doesn't need to be afraid at all.
Delurk moar! I'd love more excuses to talk about this story =D