Ladystuck reveal!
Mad Science Family Reunion: Rose made sure Roxy's lab would be waiting for her at the end of the world, but she needed a bit of help to set up the equipment. Who better than Jade English, whose explorations of the Medium have given her a better understanding of Sburb's technological artifacts than any other human, to lend a hand? (And maybe steal a kiss in the process.) 3,300 words, written for
whilst.
[This story has also been crossposted to ff.net.]
...
So, thoughts.
First of all, the title has next to nothing to do with the story. It was a working title I stuck on the file when I thought I was going to combine two prompts -- Alpha!Jade & Alpha!Rose interacting in a positive fashion, and Alpha!Rose meeting Beta!Roxy in a relatively canon-compliant fashion -- into one. (This is the reason for the little comment about Jade potentially causing a strange inter-universal paradox if the transmaterializer's power had been on when she sat on one of the buttons, btw. Alas for missed opportunities!) Then Rose changed the story's tone and direction on me (in other words, she got melancholy), so the combination of those prompts became unworkable at anything less than, say, twice the current length, but I was unable to think of anything that usefully described the story as it currently exists and so the title sits there, awkwardly out of place. :-/ Oh well, such is life.
Second, "Mad Science Family Reunion" uses the same background continuity as Every Child a Wanted Child, Food and Cheer and Song, and The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship. Probably also Hollywood Shenanigans, come to think of it; at any rate, there is certainly nothing in that story that contradicts the others. I think I should maybe collate them into a series on AO3 and call it Alpha Timeline Fluff or something to that effect.
Third, the story was basically ignored by readers at large. I am not sure if this is because I was not on-theme with the "deep long!fic" tone of the exchange in general (and did not qualify as crack!fic either), or because I tagged the story Jade English/Rose Lalonde instead of Jade Harley/Rose Lalonde and/or Alpha!Jade/Rose Lalonde and thus got left out of searches since "Jade English" doesn't seem to be a properly wrangled tag. (Which is stupid. It's her name, she's been a known character for ages now, why is she not a drop-down option???) Anyway, I don't think it's because the story is badly written (because, while I am obviously biased as the writer, I think it's a perfectly fine story), or because Jade/Rose is an unpopular pairing (particularly in the context of Ladystuck), so... who knows! Some stories just softly and silently slip into obscurity and no one can ever give a truly satisfactory explanation for why. *shrug*
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P.S. I should mention that after I made my post about my main gift (My Only Daughter a Smoking Gun, by
shellfishDimes, which you should go read because it remains wonderful!), I also received a treat (which had multiple recipients, but I am pretending it was all for me because I love it that much). Just, by
Farla: The first time they meet, Vriska saves Terezi's life. (800 words)
Mad Science Family Reunion: Rose made sure Roxy's lab would be waiting for her at the end of the world, but she needed a bit of help to set up the equipment. Who better than Jade English, whose explorations of the Medium have given her a better understanding of Sburb's technological artifacts than any other human, to lend a hand? (And maybe steal a kiss in the process.) 3,300 words, written for
[This story has also been crossposted to ff.net.]
...
So, thoughts.
First of all, the title has next to nothing to do with the story. It was a working title I stuck on the file when I thought I was going to combine two prompts -- Alpha!Jade & Alpha!Rose interacting in a positive fashion, and Alpha!Rose meeting Beta!Roxy in a relatively canon-compliant fashion -- into one. (This is the reason for the little comment about Jade potentially causing a strange inter-universal paradox if the transmaterializer's power had been on when she sat on one of the buttons, btw. Alas for missed opportunities!) Then Rose changed the story's tone and direction on me (in other words, she got melancholy), so the combination of those prompts became unworkable at anything less than, say, twice the current length, but I was unable to think of anything that usefully described the story as it currently exists and so the title sits there, awkwardly out of place. :-/ Oh well, such is life.
Second, "Mad Science Family Reunion" uses the same background continuity as Every Child a Wanted Child, Food and Cheer and Song, and The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship. Probably also Hollywood Shenanigans, come to think of it; at any rate, there is certainly nothing in that story that contradicts the others. I think I should maybe collate them into a series on AO3 and call it Alpha Timeline Fluff or something to that effect.
Third, the story was basically ignored by readers at large. I am not sure if this is because I was not on-theme with the "deep long!fic" tone of the exchange in general (and did not qualify as crack!fic either), or because I tagged the story Jade English/Rose Lalonde instead of Jade Harley/Rose Lalonde and/or Alpha!Jade/Rose Lalonde and thus got left out of searches since "Jade English" doesn't seem to be a properly wrangled tag. (Which is stupid. It's her name, she's been a known character for ages now, why is she not a drop-down option???) Anyway, I don't think it's because the story is badly written (because, while I am obviously biased as the writer, I think it's a perfectly fine story), or because Jade/Rose is an unpopular pairing (particularly in the context of Ladystuck), so... who knows! Some stories just softly and silently slip into obscurity and no one can ever give a truly satisfactory explanation for why. *shrug*
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P.S. I should mention that after I made my post about my main gift (My Only Daughter a Smoking Gun, by