Brain Flotsam V2.007

I have scrapped 1500+ words of fic for 100quills and am starting over.
I just can't get it to work, it keeps moving off into weirder and weirded territory, which would probably be fine except there's no tension or suspense. Rar.
I'm wondering about trying some of the interesting narrative techniques that seem to work so well in fanfic, something that will allow me to do very brief scenes with alternating POV.
I could have chosen an easier rarepair, too.  :P Oh, well.

Back to the drawing board.

People, I'm having a problem.
I posted some art, as per usual.
I got LOTS of Gmail comment reports (thank you!).
Then I went in to reply to some of the more recent ones (I usually do that in batches), and ALL THE COMMENTS  BUT ONE WERE GONE.
Has this happened to anybody else in IJ? Did I accidentally click a box I shouldn't have?  I know that the comments were there once, I have the whole Gmail thread saved!

(It's this post for Trading Places - can anybody else click on it and see more than three comments? Am I going crazy? Is it an extraterrestrial conspiracy?)