Date: 28 Sep 2013 13:28 Title: Part III
O what a final ending scene for those two as ISS Enterprise Scotty, give Andy one final minute before dispatching him, so he can’t reveal anything that compromise Scotty or the rebellion.
I like how someone burn to embers by the empire can inspires someone to change the course of there life and try to do more good.
The scenes on the Bearclaw that final happy time together is such a beautiful echo of the prime verse scene and I did just like Andy wanted to laugh at the ice-assassin been seasick on day one.
You were right it was worth reading this heart breaking story and it is deserving of it’s award winning status.
Author's Response: It wasn't actually the secrets they were protecting. It was Andy. Scott killed him because it was that or let him be tortured. "They can't take me from you now." "I know." But yes, it even broke its author's heart.
Date: 10 Sep 2013 11:00 Title: Part III
I had thought about leaving multiple reviews but...I don't know. The way you write, it's hard to comment on one section at a time because all three parts are so tied together that it's hard to go back and comment on pieces here and there and not think about where they all led.
First off; I am still very new to your Scotty writing. While I *think* I know who Andy is from other smaller writings, the fact that you never say who Andy is was the first frustrating and insanely incredible thing I noticed about this. The entire first part of the story, I had no idea who the narrator was. And the use of a first person style literally threw me into the action; *I* could have been telling the story, for all I knew. A few things here or there made me think woman, a few things here or there made me think guy. Whatever. Then we learn the person's name.
Andy. Really? Just when I think you're giving us something to work with...I *still* have no idea who is speaking. Other than a different name, I still feel like it could be me in that story, seeing these things, doing these things.
And I'm not entirely sure if that was what you meant to do in the first place, but you did it. You didn't make me just connect to Andy and Scotty emotionally, you made me emotionally invested in the action and feels. I'm watching Scotty rip the walls down trying to escape and I can feel my heart breaking for him. I feel that need to escape, to get away by whatever means, and then that anger at being denied when Scotty comes in and rescues me from myself. I feel that need to learn more about my shadow, to know everything I can about this young man that I loved, to do my best to comfort him for all the despicable things that I learn happened to him.
And then, to not necessarily resurrect him...but to at show him some small measure of love in this incredibly dangerous universe.
And then the ending...to know that whatever I...err...Andy did for him, it worked. That that shadow had a light that he showed, even for that one minute...I agree fully with Andy's last thought.
"Yes, he was worth it."
Like I said, I have no idea if that was intentional, or if I'm just reading way too deep into this, but wow. It was frustrating, I won't lie, not knowing who the narrator was, but like I said, the way you wrote this completely drowned me in the story, to where I could have believed the entire way through that it was me doing all of this, that I was Andy. The emotions, the images, the thoughts...
Yeah, you were right. I did enjoy this a lot. Bittersweet ending, too, and certainly makes Inevitable make a bit more sense. Really amazing job.
Author's Response: Thank you. It's the first story I ever typed through tears on. Many I have cried before or after writing, but this was the first one I ever sobbed while I was writing, and predictably, that entire final scene wrecked me. Andy is Andrew Corrigan of the Mirror Universe. In the Arc of the Wolf, the man who has that name is called Corry. Hence the warning at the beginning -- they and their respective Scotts are different, and have vastly different relationships. I'm glad it drew you in. And that it held you there. Thank you again; this one took three days to write and tears on a keyboard.
Date: 13 Jun 2013 02:21 Title: Part III
The tragedy of a lot of the MU, I feel, is that there are people who can see that there just might be a better life. But they have no way to get to it, and they don't even really have a means of proving to themselve (or to anyone else, really) that it exists at all. Yet they go on believing it, hoping for it, and might even give their lives for this ideal, this idea, of something out there.
Exquisitely captured and utterly believable.
Date: 31 May 2013 18:27 Title: Part III
This line sums up everything they did to him; what the Empire and Starfleet took from him:Â
"Care about nothin' they can use against you," he says. Then he closes his eyes for a moment, and I hear and see that sad certainty and it hurts so bad. Then he looks at me again, and quieter says, "Love nothin' they can take from you."
As much as I hate it I was right - nothing or no one can rekindle that ember. It's all cold ashes now, just as my heart is at this moment...
Author's Response: Except, you weren't quite. ;)
And I know he's explaining why. And my eyes are burning, and I'm scared, I'm terrified, but I cling to that, just like I clung to him that last night on the Bearclaw, and I have to swallow before I can reply, "They can't take me from you now."
He tips his head to the side, regards me, and that sorrow's for me. That warmth is for me.
He nods once. "I know."
Andy did get to him. There was nothing they left of Scott, after Jenna, but in the end, in Andy's last minutes, he had that warmth in the ash, that warmth he revived, and it was his. And Scott never, ever forgot him. Thanks so much for reading; I ken this isn't usually your kind of thing, but I definitely appreciate it.
Date: 28 May 2013 01:11 Title: Part III
Again, wow. This one was a gutpunch. I didn’t take Andy’s meaning literally when this story started, about how Scott just killed him. But I was mistaken not to take that I guess. Or maybe, like Andy himself, I was attached to the hope Scott made me feel, a hope I wished could carry me on. That hope was so fully realized in this chapter in the way Andy took Scott everywhere, enjoyed every minute of his company. I adored the way that the two ended up sailing on the water for a week.
Aye, what a week it must have been. Like their Primeverse counterparts, the two are just bound together and meant for at least one great excursion on the water. The joy Andy felt is in every word he says and Scott, bless him, seems to be enjoying it in his own way, finding just a small part of life he can actually live. But the scene in the cabin, where Andy is so desperate for their bliss to continue, is heartbreaking. “It’s too late,” is by far three words that are filled with so much resignation I can’t blame Andy for crying.
He’s right, partly, that it shows how far Scott has come in the years they’ve known one another that he would say that willingly. But it hurts all the same because Scott has known it the whole time. He may have left himself believe otherwise for a short period but I feel that Scott just let Andy believe it for as long as he could.
And then the final scene of this story arrives and the hope, the dreams, the bliss, all the past … it all boils down to one minute. In a beautiful call back to the beginning of this story, Scott gives Andy one minute and the two share years of experiences with one another in that one minute. Andy wasn’t sorry. Nor should he have been.
For Scott’s sake, I hope those embers Andy worked so hard to bring back continue to smolder. It would mean Andy’s death was not in vain.
What a read, worth for more than one minute. Well done.
[Report This]Date: 10 Feb 2009 23:42 Title: Part III
As masochistic as it may be of me, I never tire of re-reading this story. You used tears and blood for ink to write it. It is unlike anything else you have ever written, it stands alone and it is undoubtedly the gem-stone of the Mirror Arc. It has almost supernatural inevitability to it, while still remaining an inherit tragedy of a human heart. It is dark, and it is truthful, and it slices to the bones.
I can't even say thank you. But if anyone wonders whether they will be sorry they have read this, I can only say one thing.
I'm not.
Author's Response: Thank you, Anna.