Date: 28 Sep 2013 20:33 Title: Chapter 1
Now this is a very different Mirror Pike & Scotty story. It show the pain of losing Number one and just how much Mirror Scotty is indeed a collection of shards.
Flow smoothly this story and despite not been what I might normally read, I’m glad I did as you paint a clear picture of the mirror Pike rampaging ego control still by his high intelligence and how having lose number one, he just need a living machine to obey him and satisfactory his own needs.
The false logic as he start sharing dinner with Scotty and try to say he just been efficient shows that ever as twisted as this version of Pike is, he still has a hole in his soul from losing number one.
An excellent tie up ending with Pike realising the importance/meaning of the scars and realising the risk he took only after the event.
Author's Response: Thank you, Bill. And yes, Pike's justifications were definitely him as broken.
Date: 28 Sep 2013 16:54 Title: Chapter 1
I had to do a double take on the date...
Wow.
It makes sense to me, now, that Scott wouldn't have as large a problem following his Captain's orders and providing to him, but I can see the shift in him, just like Pike, as Pike starts to get more and more comfortable with him. And then I realized what Pike missed in that discomfort at the end. And then my heart just wrenched again. The warmth he thought he saw, then that realization it was just him shattered.
Windows to the soul. And after Andy, I imagine Scott's soul is even more shattered than before. Still the same silent shadow, but now detached almost completely. Not willing to feel the same thing he had felt with Andy, because of what had happened to him. Perhaps even haunted by Pike's very similar behavior in bed; starting off as nothing more than a game, and gradually turning into something softer, until he's now draping his arm over him like Andy did.
I got shivers seeing the similarities in the way Scott was treated by Pike with the way he was by Andy, and it just hurt to read that last line.
Author's Response: You basically got it. Pike shifting tactics and turning it into something more than just using his faithful lieutenant there really messed Scott up. Because of Andy. His body's just a body, and while it's still rape, he still functions as is because it is just a body, he doesn't care so much what happens to it, so long as he lives. But when Pike shifts tactics there, it's not just a body anymore; Pike's pushing on open wounds. This is a really, really layered story. Whatever Andy did to Scott, it was still consensual, even back in the beginning when sometimes that was violence. Because at any point, Scott could end their association. What Pike did wasn't consensual. And Scott has no escape from it. And Andy is always and forever the ghost at his shoulder.
Date: 08 Apr 2009 20:10 Title: Chapter 1
Ok I just went from reading some of your warmer fuzzy stuff to this! Talk about a change of perspective!
Very dark and troubling. What's more scary and dark is that this creature that is Pike is disturbed and troubled by what he sees in Scott. I have to say, this is one scary ass universe you've imagined. [Shudders]
Author's Response: It is. I would really, strongly suggest reading this series in its proper order, if only because it only makes sense when you do it that way. It's very carefully plotted: http://www.adastrafanfic.com/viewseries.php?seriesid=3 Just start at the beginning. But thank you, thank you so much for reading it -- very few people have been brave enough to start.