On behalf of a friend: Big Damn Rec Post.
After a rather frightening and aggravating conversation with ancient_leah today (no, she wasn't aggravating me, the topic was), I decided to do something I should have done a long while ago: rec her stories to the world of LiveJournal. Because she's the goddamn best OC author in German fandom. The stories are all in German, but maybe some of you actually read German and if you do, please go and read leah's stories and most of all review them. So here you've got them all recced:
Story title: Human of the Week
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: no
Why this is a must read: Human introduces Lieutenant Jenna Wells - the main OC from whose POV the series is mainly told - Lieutenant Jason Ferrier, Jenna's best friend since the Academy, Sergeant Adam Faraday, the only NCO and Marine of the team and, lo and behold, a certain Lieutenant Matthew Kemp (known best from the episodes Tabula Rasa and Be All My Sins Remember'd and whoa, was I surprised that someone else shared my assessment that Kemp did not die there). From the first paragraph, I loved Jenna and her voice, sarcastic with an underlying vulnerability and the very special power of being able to try and make herself believe almost anything and I loved Jenna's team mates and yeah, I really loved the rather aggressive stand Jenna had towards her new team leader, Matthew Kemp. Those two... well. Well. :D
Story title: News of the Week
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: no
Why this is a must read: News gives Team kemp a little reprieve after Human... or not. Because it heralds the arrival of someone very important in Jenna's life: Major General Jonathan Wells. It gives us a first real glimpse into the rather... complicates relationship Jenna has with her father and a glimpse into what she'll probably have to deal with in the next story.
Story title: Team of the Week
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: no
Why this is a must read: Here Jenna Wells and Matthew Kemp need to learn to at least barely tolerate each other and we meet Jenna's nemesis... her father, a certain General Jonathan Wells (and boy, do Evan Lorne and John Sheppard in my Protect and Survive series wish leah and I never joined 'verses...). I think I learned to love to hate General Wells in there and I kept wishing Jenna would just kick his goddamn ass and stop reaching for his appreciation and love... but then again, she wouldn't be Jenna if things were easy for her so yes, that story is awesome, too.
Story title: Episodes of the Week
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: no
Why this is a must read: Episodes gives us POVs other than Jenna's, too (her team mates', that is) and making me go "YAY!" at the end because of something I won't tell you because that would be spoiling and I do want you to read those stories so I can't tell you everything!
Story title: Freitag
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: no
Why this is a must read: a nice little one shot following Jenna after Episodes and introducing someone new to her life... her private life and showing a somewhat different side of her than just her sharp tongue and hedgehog side. She was kinda cute in this and don't tell her I said that because I'm sure she's gonna do something ugly to me... such as inspiring a really evil plot bunny or something...
Story title: Deception of the Week
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: WIP
Why this is a must read: her current story, with a really intricate and elaborate plot and some shocking events (such as Jenna starting to get an inkling her eager beaver team leader might be kind of human after all...) and the reason why Thomas Moore from Minor Characters hated me for lending him to leah. What I love about this story (aside from the amazing plot) is that it's a big step in Jenna's character development and challenging her and her team and I think it's leah's yet best story in the canon timeline. This is awesome!
leah also took a step at the TLM timeline, just like I did in the Defining Moments series (actually, the joining of our 'verses started when we decided to join our TLM verses... so since Defining Moments is the TLM AU to Protect and Survive/Minor Characters, leah's and my canon timeline verses are also joined). Her TLM stories veer off after Episodes/TLM and just hurt so good:
Story title: Worst Case of the Year
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: off-screen canon character death, on-screen OC death
Why this is a must read:takes off sometime after TLM and deals with a devastating event for Jenna's team, leaving her traumatized, sealing herself off from the remaining people in her life and just plain lonely. I knew what would happen when leah started posting chapters for this story but I was still shocked (and quite frankly, I never really touched a couple of the chapters again because of what happened was just so terrible and sad). Jenna gets her heart broken, in probably the worst way possible and I honestly didn't know for whom on her team I felt sorriest. Definitely not a happy story but oh so worth the read.
Story title: Encounter of the Year
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: past canon character death and OC death, trauma
Why this is a must read: takes place roughly four years after Worst Case. Jenna has been back on Earth for four years, having quit her active service in the Air Force almost right after coming back from Pegasus and just having returned from four years in Europe for a new job at NASA. In a chance encounter in Washington, D.C. she meets Matthew Kemp again and suddenly all the stuff she tried to burry deep down is back. I loved the roller coaster of Jenna's and Matt's reacquaintance and Jenna's painful process of realization that you just can't run away from trauma. leah's extensive research into PTSD and coping mechanisms is stunning and works so well in this story. I actually go back to reading it every few months just because it's so good.
Story title: Lessons of the Year
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: past canon character death and OC death, trauma
Why this is a must read: intended to be a collection of one-shots from the 'verse. Currently, leah's got one story posted and I've read another three that she will hopefully post as well because they're all great, detailing important steps for Jenna and Matt to find a way back from trauma and hurt to something that might even pass as Life After Pegasus.
Last but not least, she also gave us a Christmas story last year, Nicht in Stimmung, that was a lot of fun and inspiring me to write and post a Protect and Survive Christmas story, taking place a year later, being told from Laura's and Evan's POV, respectively.
Story title: Human of the Week
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: no
Why this is a must read: Human introduces Lieutenant Jenna Wells - the main OC from whose POV the series is mainly told - Lieutenant Jason Ferrier, Jenna's best friend since the Academy, Sergeant Adam Faraday, the only NCO and Marine of the team and, lo and behold, a certain Lieutenant Matthew Kemp (known best from the episodes Tabula Rasa and Be All My Sins Remember'd and whoa, was I surprised that someone else shared my assessment that Kemp did not die there). From the first paragraph, I loved Jenna and her voice, sarcastic with an underlying vulnerability and the very special power of being able to try and make herself believe almost anything and I loved Jenna's team mates and yeah, I really loved the rather aggressive stand Jenna had towards her new team leader, Matthew Kemp. Those two... well. Well. :D
Story title: News of the Week
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: no
Why this is a must read: News gives Team kemp a little reprieve after Human... or not. Because it heralds the arrival of someone very important in Jenna's life: Major General Jonathan Wells. It gives us a first real glimpse into the rather... complicates relationship Jenna has with her father and a glimpse into what she'll probably have to deal with in the next story.
Story title: Team of the Week
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: no
Why this is a must read: Here Jenna Wells and Matthew Kemp need to learn to at least barely tolerate each other and we meet Jenna's nemesis... her father, a certain General Jonathan Wells (and boy, do Evan Lorne and John Sheppard in my Protect and Survive series wish leah and I never joined 'verses...). I think I learned to love to hate General Wells in there and I kept wishing Jenna would just kick his goddamn ass and stop reaching for his appreciation and love... but then again, she wouldn't be Jenna if things were easy for her so yes, that story is awesome, too.
Story title: Episodes of the Week
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: no
Why this is a must read: Episodes gives us POVs other than Jenna's, too (her team mates', that is) and making me go "YAY!" at the end because of something I won't tell you because that would be spoiling and I do want you to read those stories so I can't tell you everything!
Story title: Freitag
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: no
Why this is a must read: a nice little one shot following Jenna after Episodes and introducing someone new to her life... her private life and showing a somewhat different side of her than just her sharp tongue and hedgehog side. She was kinda cute in this and don't tell her I said that because I'm sure she's gonna do something ugly to me... such as inspiring a really evil plot bunny or something...
Story title: Deception of the Week
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: WIP
Why this is a must read: her current story, with a really intricate and elaborate plot and some shocking events (such as Jenna starting to get an inkling her eager beaver team leader might be kind of human after all...) and the reason why Thomas Moore from Minor Characters hated me for lending him to leah. What I love about this story (aside from the amazing plot) is that it's a big step in Jenna's character development and challenging her and her team and I think it's leah's yet best story in the canon timeline. This is awesome!
leah also took a step at the TLM timeline, just like I did in the Defining Moments series (actually, the joining of our 'verses started when we decided to join our TLM verses... so since Defining Moments is the TLM AU to Protect and Survive/Minor Characters, leah's and my canon timeline verses are also joined). Her TLM stories veer off after Episodes/TLM and just hurt so good:
Story title: Worst Case of the Year
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: off-screen canon character death, on-screen OC death
Why this is a must read:takes off sometime after TLM and deals with a devastating event for Jenna's team, leaving her traumatized, sealing herself off from the remaining people in her life and just plain lonely. I knew what would happen when leah started posting chapters for this story but I was still shocked (and quite frankly, I never really touched a couple of the chapters again because of what happened was just so terrible and sad). Jenna gets her heart broken, in probably the worst way possible and I honestly didn't know for whom on her team I felt sorriest. Definitely not a happy story but oh so worth the read.
Story title: Encounter of the Year
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: past canon character death and OC death, trauma
Why this is a must read: takes place roughly four years after Worst Case. Jenna has been back on Earth for four years, having quit her active service in the Air Force almost right after coming back from Pegasus and just having returned from four years in Europe for a new job at NASA. In a chance encounter in Washington, D.C. she meets Matthew Kemp again and suddenly all the stuff she tried to burry deep down is back. I loved the roller coaster of Jenna's and Matt's reacquaintance and Jenna's painful process of realization that you just can't run away from trauma. leah's extensive research into PTSD and coping mechanisms is stunning and works so well in this story. I actually go back to reading it every few months just because it's so good.
Story title: Lessons of the Year
Author: ancient_leah
Author's website/journal: leah's ff.de profile
WIP/death!fic/other warnings: past canon character death and OC death, trauma
Why this is a must read: intended to be a collection of one-shots from the 'verse. Currently, leah's got one story posted and I've read another three that she will hopefully post as well because they're all great, detailing important steps for Jenna and Matt to find a way back from trauma and hurt to something that might even pass as Life After Pegasus.
Last but not least, she also gave us a Christmas story last year, Nicht in Stimmung, that was a lot of fun and inspiring me to write and post a Protect and Survive Christmas story, taking place a year later, being told from Laura's and Evan's POV, respectively.