"Rain Dances" and "A Million Lightyears from Home"

[meinterrupted]

Big Damn Table of River recs, 4/50

Claim: Firefly, River Tam
Title: Rain Dances
Author: Molly/mollita
Characters: River/Mal, crew
Prompt: AU
Rating: PG
Length: Medium [~7000 words]
Brief summary: mollita's Rain Dances starts out a brilliantly written and complety believeable AU. River is on the run from an abusive boyfriend, and she and Simon end up at Malcom Reynold's ranch in Montana. Serenity is a horse, Badger is a rodeo promoter, and Mal and River have to heal each other's wounds: hers from a man who wanted to use her and change her, his from the war-like rodeo circuit. It sounds like it wouldn't work, but oh it does, it does. The only issue I have with this story is the villification of Jayne, but it's a minor quibble in an otherwise amazing story.

"Why did you let me ride her [Serenity]?" she asked curiously. She could figure so much out, her mind often working too fast to pin down whether her deductions were based in fact or instinct or something else entirely, but she couldn't figure this out. Serenity was special to Mal, she could tell that, and something didn't quite fit about him letting some strange girl ride her.

Mal shrugged. "Don't know. Got a feeling about you, though, since you walked in the door yesterday. Won't surprise me one bit if you ain't willing to leave in two weeks' time, not with how she took to you."

Link to the story: Rain Dances, and its sequels Little Dreamer [PG-13], Theraputic [R], and Ready [R].

Claim: Firefly, River Tam
Title: A Million Lightyears from Home
Author: Victoria P./musesfool
Characters: River, crew, Sirus Black from HP
Prompt: Crossover
Rating: PG
Length: Medium [~6000 words]
Brief summary: Major spoilers for "Order of the Phoenix" and Serenity, so if you haven't read the book and seen the movie, skip this story or ths summary. At the end of OotP, Sirius falls through the veil; but instead of dying, he ended up on Persephone 500 years later, and ensconces himself on Serenity. The story is very well written, and seeing the world of Firefly through the eyes of a magic-user deserves a read all on its own. Victoria's Sirius makes some very astute observations of a crew wracked with loss, and the interactions between the crew members are perfectly IC.

He dozes fitfully, and wakes, surprised, when River slips into his nook with a bowl of water. He's fairly certain no one saw him Apparate onto the ship, but she knows exactly where he's hiding, seems to expect to find him there. He drinks gratefully and then rests his head in her lap.

"You're a long way from home, aren't you?" she says. "And not what you seem." He whines softly, again surprised at how much she seems to know. "Captain's not going to be happy to see you, but he'll come around." She pulls some dumplings out of her pocket and he eats them, then licks her fingers.

Link to the story: A Million Lightyears from Home