{"id":170,"date":"2012-06-06T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T12:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/?p=170"},"modified":"2012-06-17T08:39:57","modified_gmt":"2012-06-17T08:39:57","slug":"a-boring-and-predictable-lifetime-in-one-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/?p=170","title":{"rendered":"A (Boring and Predictable) Lifetime in One Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Lifetime in One Night<\/strong>, by Alyson L.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dream sequence week here at SC(WHD)! Not really, but this story is similar to the previous tale, in that it involves a bizarrely true-to-life dream sequence wherein our intrepid Hero and Heroine only discover their deep and abiding love whilst they sleep.<\/p>\n

Oh, wait! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a modern<\/em> story. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s different about this one.<\/p>\n

Why you should read this:<\/strong> dream sequence fics are your sweet spot; you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a really deep sleeper; you love the Eurythmics; you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to erase all of P&P\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s middle plot ground and move straight to resolution.<\/p>\n

Why you might not like it:<\/strong> you appreciate the torment and agony of a long road to happiness; you hate modern stories; you frequently scream \u00e2\u20ac\u0153commas!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at examples of poor writing.<\/p>\n

AU, G, Modern at DWG<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"3<\/a><\/p>\n

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Unlike other dream stories, ALiON<\/em> takes a while to set the background for the Lifechanging Night of Sleep. We spend quite a bit of time watching Elizabeth and Darcy interact, all before Darcy wishes to be able to show Elizabeth just how amazing he really is.<\/p>\n

Reader, his wish is fulfilled. (I mean, of course<\/em> it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fulfilled. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the whole plot.)<\/p>\n

Thus, we are all subjected to what would<\/em> be an incredibly boring tale–if \u00c2\u00a0anyone else<\/em> in the world were the subjects of the story. Darcy and Elizabeth clear up a misunderstanding. Darcy and Elizabeth have lunch dates. Darcy and Elizabeth get married. Darcy and Elizabeth choose weird names for their kids. Darcy and Elizabeth are the very model of boring, married, heteronormative happiness.<\/p>\n

In other words, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly what happened to your college roommate, but this<\/em> time, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like rolling your eyes when their annual Christmas card comes in the mail.<\/p>\n

Except, wait! It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen! Someone Inception<\/em>ed Darcy! And, presumably, Elizabeth! Their lifetime (read: 10 years) of happiness never existed! They are not married at all<\/em>! Gasp!<\/p>\n

This is really the main flaw of any dream sequence plot, as far as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m concerned. Dreams just aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that linear, and they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make that much sense. \u00c2\u00a0It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard for me to believe that anyone would be able to live out a fairly dull courtship and individually name four children while asleep–not to mention have a shared dream wherein these things happened. \u00c2\u00a0(Based upon the screeching and wailing noises it made during reading, our patented SC(WHD) Plausibility Monitor (TM) agrees with my assessment.)<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually at the end of the story that I felt the author showed us her best. That both the main characters are seeking something they feel they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t capture outside of the dream is completely relatable. \u00c2\u00a0When Darcy and Elizabeth meet again, their subsequent interactions have all the awkwardness you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d expect from two people who just had a very detailed dream about (at the very least) making out with each other. \u00c2\u00a0I would have loved more of this–even if the writing could use more emotion in these scenes.<\/p>\n

As for mechanics, there are a few noticeable mistakes throughout the piece, and the writing drags at the beginning. With a pretty thorough edit, though, this could be a really fun story.\u00c2\u00a0 One you wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be afraid to read before bedtime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Lifetime in One Night, by Alyson L. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dream sequence week here at SC(WHD)! Not really, but this story is similar to the previous tale, in that it involves a bizarrely true-to-life dream sequence wherein our intrepid Hero and Heroine only discover their deep and abiding love whilst they sleep. Oh, wait! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[103,26,38,101,55,48,49,17],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miss-kenton","tag-author-alyson-l","tag-era-modern","tag-length-short-story","tag-monthly-theme-alternate-realities","tag-quills-three","tag-rating-general","tag-source-pride-and-prejudice","tag-type-au"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andbirds.org\/sc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}