Title: Paradise Landing
Fandom: Gundam Wing
Pairing: explicit Wufei/Meiran, and Trowa/Quatre if you squint
Categories: drama, angst, horror, some mystery and action elements
Length: Epic [~48,000 words]
Warnings: violent/gory, character death, (technically) necrophilia, body horror, mind-control


Author on LJ: n/a
Website: Lady Bast's Fanwork Index

Review: "On their way back from the outer colonies on board a transport shuttle, the boys stop at an abandoned resource satellite to make repairs. They're not alone."

The author says that this fic is inspired by a classic sci-fi short story, by Ray Bradbury, called "Mars is Heaven!".  I have now been warned - whenever I see a reference to that short story, I will seriously reconsider whether I'm in the mood for a ruthlessly bitter story.  This is one of the few fics I will *ever* rec that doesn't have a happy ending.  Well, unless you think most of the pilots surviving and some of the survivors being sane is a happy ending.

The basic plot is that the Gundam pilots have stopped at what is officially an abandoned satellite, but which appears to be occupied by the ghosts of their loved ones.  Some of the pilots believe this more readily than others.  The truth comes out only after one of the skeptical pilots is isolated and receives a fate worse than death.  The race is on for the other pilots to get off the satellite before they stop wanting to leave, one way or another.  It's an old plot, certainly, but Lady Bast keeps it fresh and horrific.

The pilots are as in-character as they could be, enough so that I could understand why each one approached the question of the "ghosts" the way they did.  The imagery was fantastically awful - for example, I shudder at what Wufei sees his dead wife do.  It's a dark gem of a fic, that I get drawn back to, perhaps once a year, to creep myself out with.  I think that even people unfamiliar with the fandom, but who like horror and/or dark sci-fi, would enjoy this fic.

Paradise Landing     Part 2     Part 3