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: 28 Sep 2013 13:10 Title: Part II
The thing that matter in life are never easy, so true, it echo through this chapter and to open the sentiment to open and close the chapter and not feel forced in anyway is a testement to your prose work here.
I’m not sure I’ve got the words to describe how good I think this chapter is, you’ve built on the first chapter and you’ve manage to get more depth. So Mirror Andy/A-Jay has come to admire that young renegade engineer and understand the pain. They to realise that if that burnt out young engineer can become this super efficient assassin, then perhaps after his low point and de-tox scene, he can become some thing with his fisherman boat assistance scheme.
You broke both of then and then rebuilt them believable fashion, the staring at he drug kit or the booze store, feel so painful for the few words that you use to describe it.
Author's Response: If you want to know the truth, I never expected Andy to clean himself up and get himself on track. But at his core, the nature he shares with Cor is the same and I guess their innate humanity shines when it has a chance. Even if born in pain. Thank you very much.
Date: 28 Sep 2013 12:54 Title: Part I
Well I can see why this is an award winning story, Mirror Corry still has hints of his prime verse self and yet he so clearly an creation of the brutal Mirror Universe Terran Empire. The way the get fascinated by the emotionless Scotty, and then start to take losses just to trade with him. Then the whole using him as a bodyguard thing than ends with him being the coward under the table. With a viewpoint of the brutal pub knife battle from under the table.
Then the breaking moment as he thinks about leaving him to die of the poison and then takes him to no questions ask motel. Then his emotional death as Scotty relives trying to break through the wall to save Jenna from George Kirk actions. Living his helplessness with him and been unable to do anything to help.
That last line brought a tear to my eye, a very well crafted opening chapter.
Author's Response: Thank you, Bill. Andy was an exceptionally strong narrator and One Minute sprang pretty much right from head to keys. And yet somehow I didn't know what would happen myself.
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: 13 Jun 2013 02:11 Title: Part II
So there is hope after all.
And exasperating Andy holds the key.
Date: 01 Jun 2013 22:16 Title: Part I
Intriguing and incredibly immediate and believable.
I want to get to the rest of this story when I have the time, but did want to drop the first review to the first chapter.
No names - very, very telling, no location, just ... experiences. Hard, painful, ugly, nasty experiences.
You can draw people into a world very quickly. This is a gift.
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: 31 May 2013 18:09 Title: Part II
This was heart-wrenching. To learn the history behind what turned Scott into the shadow, and to see Andy's desperate (albeit hopeless) bid, to reach the echoes of the man Scott once was.
He's trying so hard - stayed clean and sober, because it almost seemed like Andy knew that's what Scott wanted, and expected of him, but the cool detachment is still there. Despite his screwed up family life in this universe it seems that Andy is craving that familial closeness and is hoping to recapture it with Scott - when Andy says he loves him, I get the vibe of brotherly, platonic love, not physical love. Andy wants to share that with Scott, and give back the familial love Scott lost when members of his family were killed, and others sent into hiding for their own protection.
But I get the feeling Andy is fooling himself. I think that capacity for love was burnt out of Scott at age seventeen, and nothing (or no one) will be able to rekindle it again. I could be wrong though...there's only one way to find out.
Author's Response: ::chuckles:: It was an unconditional love, no doubt. But it definitely wasn't a platonic one in this universe. Andy did want him, absolutely physically. Andy wanted him as a lover, an equal, as something bright to burn alongside of, to pull him out of the ashes, and you know, I think if he'd had the time, he might have even been able to. But your review was definitely fascinating, in its speculations, and thank you for it!
Date: 31 May 2013 17:41 Title: Part I
Oh Steff! This was so painful to read. No wonder it wrecked you.
These absolutely aren't the guys from Arc of the Wolf...and yet they are. Shadow versions of those men we know and love, but so very messed up. Yet we see elements of those men - Corry's tremendous capacity for love; his care and concern for someone who's become important to him, even if the feelings aren't reciprocated. And Scotty's stand-offishness, taken to the Nth degree.
But that's what makes this so gut-wrenching - are they? The Shadow doesn't show any feeling, any emotion, but why else would he have agreed to Corry's demands - the one minute, the one night, being his bodyguard? And yet, he still maintains distance (he wouldn't allow himself to be comrpomised). The implication here is physical compromise, but I really believe it's emotional compromise. After he lost Jenna it destroyed him; destroyed the man he once was, morphing him into this cold, calculating, emotionless, unsentimental automaton, more for his own emotional stability and sanity than anything else. He would never allow himself to go down that road of caring for someone ever again - be it in the capacity of friend, brother, lover, etc.
And yet, Corry has seen this emotional side The Shadow keeps hidden so well. And Corry is a lover, a protector (at least emotionally if not physically) so where will this take his feelings for The Shadow now? And more importantly, will The Shadow allow it? Powerful, gripping stuff...
Author's Response: The ending hurt so bad that every single piece I wrote after it, about anything in this universe, felt like a knife to the heart. And initially, Scott agreed to the demands because they cost him very little, and Andy was, frankly, a good courier and useful. Nothing more than that. He weighed Andy's measure, and decided he wasn't a threat, but he was useful. The time was just time. So, it was a fair price to pay. Scott turned himself into this for a singular purpose; that's what happens in the Main Arc. It really wasn't Scott clawing that wall, it was the ghost of the boy who died there, screaming for George Kirk to quit, pleading, begging, until he broke. There wasn't any hidden well-spring of warmth in him. Until Andy.
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.
Date: 28 May 2013 00:48 Title: Part II
And now we have Andy-not Corry (different nicknames, different universes), having to deal with his own ghosts that have been reawakened since Scott’s horrid night in that motel. God, what a way to get kicked in the head … but everyone’s life has one of those moments when they realize they can’t outrun their demons. When they realize that the demons are part of them and no amount of drug use, booze, or anything else will make a damned bit of difference. This is what Andy realizes here in the wake of Scott’s moment of confronting his tortured past.
Andy goes off the deep end but Scott is there to pull him back in. He’s not as overtly sweet about as Andy, not quite as loud about it, but he’s there and there’s not a damned reason he has to be. Andy hates him because Scott has made him face the demons and, somehow, Scott has made Andy a better man because of it. He’s straightened out and not because it’s the right thing to do or because someone forced him to.
It’s because he wants to. It’s because that’s what’s best for him in his life. Andy gets a hold of his ghosts, gets a hold of his demons, and becomes a legitimate person. The details he’s learned on Scott’s life, how everything that was dear to him was ripped away and killed, is saddening. But it just emboldens Andy because he knows that, at one time, someone existed in that shadow.
And he wants Scott, the person to come back. The ending made me smile because it showed that Scott was still there, just a little bit … that the keen engineering mind he had was still there and that it could still be engaging with others if he let it. I wish Andy had laughed but I’m glad he was able to reach Scott.
Date: 28 May 2013 00:31 Title: Part I
Wow. Man, I'm calling Corry and Scotty (a safe bet) mirror versions here. And man, Corry here is one really messed up individual. The Mirror universe is a messed up place but Corry’s doing drugs, hanging out with bad people … he’s not the Corry I’ve come to know in the Primeverse. But he’s certainly got one thing in common with his Primeverse counterpart and that when he loves, when he cares, he cares unconditionally.
And for some reason beyond his own comprehension, he cares for this Mirror Scott. This cold, calculating, weapon … this walking tool that will gladly exchange anything for Corry’s services as messenger, that will let Corry have one minute or one night with him (as long as it doesn’t compromise his safety) seems to be the type of person you pity, but don’t really want to deal with in any long term way. But Corry is attracted to him on first sight and he’s got it bad.
He tries every way he knows how to get a rise out of Scott, to get some sort of bearing on what goes on under the expressionless, emotionless mask he wears but Scott is well practiced in making sure no one can get close to him like that.
Then the bar fight happens and what a scene it is. Fast and furious, I loved how Corry fully admits he’s not fighter and just dives under the table. He’s not Scott. Scott owns those guys but gets pricked, just a little, and then that’s when the real fight begins. The fight for Scott to hang onto what he is and not revert back to the emotional hurricane that he was before he became this tool.
The way he loses that battle and reverts back to the ghost of his former self is painful to watch. He claws at the wall, screams, like some sort of tortured animal and Corry just sits there and watches it all. It kills him because he cares and when you care about someone, it hurts to see them hurt, small ways and large ways. This would qualify as a large way and Corry was smart not to try and stop Scott.
Once that’s played out, the pure confusion Corry feels about what he should and how he should do it leaps off the page. He has no clue what to do and I like that. I like Corry here, just trying to keep his head above water and keep Scott alive.
He cares for Scott and he saved him. I’m glad he did but I don’t know if Scott can ever fulfill Corry the way Corry needs him to. What was left of Scott’s humanity is all but gone and only his mangled soul remains. I feel Corry is desperately gonna try and revive Scott’s humanity. His soul. But I don’t know if he’ll ever be able to. It’s going to be a tough task and as I read this I wonder if Corry is going to love Scott despite Scott’s inability to love him back. It looks that way and that kind of love is the toughest kind of all.
[Report This]Date: 22 Mar 2009 03:02 Title: Part I
Sometimes I can be over emotional, but I don´t cry. No, sir. It´s not my way.I always manage to find something silly to distract my thoughts from it. But with this story, I had to surrender and go finding a handkerchief.
::::shrugs:::: I am only human, after all.
Author's Response: That's a high honor you give; thank you.
[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.