LINKDING

<blockquote>"Ripley." She turned her head slightly. The voice, flat and synthesized, came from a small speaker set into the side of her pod. "Yes," she said, with some difficulty: her tongue felt strange and thick. "Yes, this is Ripley. Who is this?" There was a pause, followed by a click. "This is Bishop, but I'm speaking to you on behalf of the Sulaco. There's been an accident." Under normal circumstances, Ripley knew, this statement would have produced a series of emotional and physiological reactions: alarm, adrenaline, fear, galvanized limbs, dread. But the effects of the hypersleep were still gripping her body, keeping her numb and apathetic, and instead all she felt was a faint curiosity. "What kind of accident?" She sat up. The room seemed to spin. "A fire. I think. It's hard to tell." </blockquote>

<blockquote>When Jupiter woke up, there was a small metal sphere on the pillow beside her. She blinked at it, because it certainly had not been there when she had gone to bed the night before. Then Aunt Nino began to stir and grumble as she too woke up and Jupiter snatched up the sphere, lobbing it hastily into her half-packed suitcase on her way to go and make the coffee.   In which Jupiter is propositioned by a space travel agency (but fancier!) and introduces Caine to her family.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Millie considers her position at Chrestomanci Castle and assists in an investigation.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The problem with owning something is suddenly it becomes your responsibility to take care of it.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Prompt: “missing scenes from Europe…the give and take between them once they’re adults.”</blockquote>

<blockquote>Alianora learns that facing down dragons and wizards is nowhere near as hard as standing up to an overbearing aunt.</blockquote>

<blockquote>“Your majesty—” Leita began.  Queen Sveta laid her hand on the dressmaker’s arm. “I could not, of course, condone anyone breaking our kingdom’s laws. However, my daughter needs a dress almost like magic. Very like magic indeed.” Leita held her counsel, thinking quickly.  She avoided the queen’s gaze, and looked up at the Princess Aina who had slipped off her stool. She cradled a bolt of rose silk, swaying slightly to private music. Over the years, Leita had come to feel affection for the queen and her awkward daughter. She understood the queen’s desperation. She, too, had once borne a child she’d have done anything for.</blockquote>

<blockquote>George had only ever taken one trip without Millie, in the fall of 1951. A letter had arrived from the army asking him to fly to New Mexico.</blockquote> ➤ part 2 http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/in-joy-knowing-the-abyss-behind-part-2/

<blockquote>1. Spend a night in the smuggling compartments of the Millennium Falcon 2. Learn to fire a blaster without closing your eyes 3. Get drunk and go to bed with an unsuitable man 4. Yell at people who ask if you're okay 5. Go to bed with an unsuitable man even when you're sober</blockquote> ➤ from a prompt about how Leia's life changed between eps IV and V, with some focus on grief over losing Alderaan.

<blockquote>When Princess Talia was fourteen, her eldest sister was placed in a tower. Princess Adina was eighteen by then, and so of a marriageable age. She had grown quite beautiful, though she was more willful than winsome, and she did not care for the notion of the tower very much at all. Their mother did her best to persuade her on the subject. After all, the queen herself had been eighteen when her own parents had sent her to live in that very same tower, to be safely tucked away until her husband could be chosen, and then ride out to claim her. A tradition going back ages and ages.</blockquote> ➤ Princesses in towers making their own ultimate choices about their fates, actively

<blockquote>Eight movies Max von Mayerling made with Norma Desmond. Max, Norma, and the camera: their story from the beginning to the end.</blockquote> ➤ interesting, and also rather uncomfortable in places, in ways that are entirely fitting to the story. I was really captivated by the fic

<blockquote>Around the time that Glinda first hears Elphaba's song sung around the palace, she starts having dreams of Elphaba.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Some people say that there were two bloodbaths. There was Jurassic World itself, and then there was what came after. Claire Dearing and the art of survival.</blockquote>

<blockquote>They're both waiting for an awakening.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Catherine really must stop reading horrid novels.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Romantic it might be, but there was a limit to how much you could smile at each other, how many pet names you could find for each other and how many times people could pointedly leave you alone together before it all got a bit.. dull really. And there was a feeling as though that status had to be maintained, as though the first person to break it by speaking a cross word or even voicing a minor annoyance might be breaking something precious.</blockquote> ➤ first married fight

<blockquote>Belle fell in love with the Beast. What if she isn't as into him as a human?</blockquote> ➤ I like that both of them have things they miss about him being a Beast! And they talk about it and stuff!

<blockquote>Three times Sarek and Amanda didn't quite follow Vulcan custom.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"I was referring," said the man, "to the ongoing magical crisis that's threatening to destroy your entire world, and possibly several adjacent worlds as well. There is one, isn't there?" "I hope not!" said Leonard. An annoyed look flickered briefly across the man’s vague expression, and Leonard added apologetically, “You might inquire at the University? I’m afraid that I don’t get much news here." Rufus Drumknott has been in love with his employer for years, and he's sure that Lord Vetinari must know it. But it will take a visit from a couple of enchanters from another world, and a magical toddler running amok with one of Leonard of Quirm's flying machines, to get either of them to do anything about it . . .</blockquote>

<blockquote>Max knows he's dreaming.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"What's your name?" "Second Lieutenant John Sheppard, United States Air Force." He only needs to say it a few more times to make it seem real. Maybe a few more thousand times, just to be safe. Scottish Guy blinks. "What's today's date?" He frowns. It's a little hard to come up with. "The 27th?" "And where are you?" "The Academy, I think," he squints around at the big, high-ceilinged room full of beds and weird-looking equipment, "except this doesn't look like the cadet clinic." The guy sighs and taps at his cheek. John notices he's wearing some kind of slim earpiece. "Doctor Weir," he says, "we may have a small problem."</blockquote>

<blockquote>Before they were anything else, Logan and Veronica were friends. They both loved Lily Kane, and they both had alcoholic mothers.</blockquote>

➤ wip to chapter 3 of 4 as of bookmarking. endgame pairing is Kel/Wyldon

<blockquote>The personal is always political, on Barrayar</blockquote> ➤ cordelia and alys talk about why alys doesn't have a partner

<blockquote>The second Mrs. De Winter reminisces.</blockquote>