fiercelydreamed

So, if you haven't caught on to this, one of my favorite things about betaing is that it means I get my hands on the good stuff FIRST. Yet again, this policy has worked out well for me. And thus I suggest you-all haul ass back to LJLand and go read A Passage That Sings, brand spankin' new Trek Reboot RPS by the ever-phenomenal dorkorific (who you may remember from other things like, uh, Shoebox Project). I spent most of the time reading this story alternately laughing in a very loud and unsubtle way, turned on, and cringing at the extent to which I may or may not identify with her Zach Quinto. On which note, her Zach Quinto, omg, is the best and the bitchiest thing ever, and I keep wanting to apologize to her Chris on his behalf. Also, Karl Urban and Simon Pegg getting into it over Kelis is worth the price of admission alone.

I had just gotten off of a five-hour phone conversation with one of my favorite people in the world, and then my inbox dinged and I found I had two Yuletide stories waiting for me! Needless to say, I clicked those links as fast as my little thumbs could click.

Changes on the Cusp [Angels in America] picks up a decade back, at the waning edge of 1999. Anonymous #1 has a quietly amazing touch with the tone of the original, and gives us Belize, Harper, and Prior in a way that made my eyes sting and my throat tighten with fondness. There are some lines in there that are breathtakingly Kushnerian, including one of Harper's about happiness that you will know when you get to it. They all keep their honesty, and their clear sight, and as I told Anonymous #1, I love that the story does not attempt to fix the world any more than the original work does. It lets both the hard things and the good things be what they are.

all your heart-melodies [Lilo & Stitch] (titled after "The Dream Keeper" by Langston Hughes) is a perfect vision of Lilo's life after the movie, if we accept that Lilo's world is our world and so the things that are true for us are also true for her. Anonymous #2 provides a deft set of snapshots of Lilo as she grows up, and they showed me all the things I assume that term has to mean; I had to stop halfway through and reread the first half, because I suddenly noticed what I'd taken at face value before. This is a Lilo who grows older, who is changed but who never stops dreaming, or loving, or caring. The world through her eyes is vivid and swirling, and Nani never wavers through all of it, and Stitch feels more real than I would have thought anyone could have made him. When I was a girl, I wanted to do everything, and maybe Anonymous #2 was the same, because she somehow wrote a love letter to who I was when I was six.

This was my first year participating in Yuletide, and I don't think my experience could have possibly made me happier. Thanks again to both (both!) my mystery authors, and to my recipient, and especially to the Yuletide mods and anyone else who helped bring this challenge forward.

Anybody in need of a pick-me-up, you're in luck: shaenie's latest, Ancient Zombies, Brotherly Love, and Other Strange Tales is now up at sga_flashfic. (Yes, I betaed it; yes, I continue to ignore that bizarre rule of etiquette where that makes it somehow suspect for me to rec it.) I've been cackling over this story for days; just go read it, guys, it's the really good crack.

Clearly, this is a week for all-caps in my world. I'm fine with that.


After, like, nine months of shaenie writing like a fiend and me enabling her by flailing and cajoling and doing essentially whatever I thought would make the story happen faster, she's started posting Indelible! I could spend an easy two or three hours waxing rhapsodic about this story, but it earned a permanent spot in my top five fics ever a good three months before she'd even finished it. It's brilliant and unpredictable and refuses to take the cliched way out; it's a look at what life is actually like on Atlantis: i.e. freakish shit happens, and it's impossible to deal with, and you still have to do your job. It's the kind of leader John Sheppard is, and the kind of friend Rodney McKay is; it's Pegasus natives whose culture and values make sense. It's got world-building and insanely intelligent tech, it's got battle scenes, it's got unfortunate choices of underwear, it's got great canon characterization and equally awesome original characters. Really, just go read it already, because it's the only way you're going to get me to shut up about it.

A note on the posting format: she's posting this in one long installment per day, today through early next week. This isn't a WIP, just her breaking this into manageable pieces. For those of you who like to read your epic stories in one long orgy, I'll let you know when the last part goes up.

I have been impatiently straining at the bit with my desire to rec this since I got to beta an earlier rendition this past weekend. And now it's up!

a lieutenant colonel is being beaten, an SGA vid by thingswithwings.

If you have ever referred to John Sheppard as a "beta male," this is the vid for you. If your slash goggles also filter for BDSM content, this is the vid for you. If you've ever thought John Sheppard looks pretty on his knees, this is the vid for you. If you like it when incredibly intelligent women take subtext and make it text, this is the vid for you. And if you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about, then this is definitely the vid for you.


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What are you still doing here? Go watch it now, people!