Sibylla ti theleis

due South Fanfiction
Title:	Sibylla ti theleis
Author(s):	Hth
Date(s):	24 December 2004
Length:	55k / 8623 words
Genre:	post-CotW
Fandom:	due South
External Links:	Sibylla ti theleis at ds_seekritsanta Sibylla ti theleis at AO3 Sibylla ti theleis at Fierce Flawless (archived version)
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Sibylla ti theleis is a Vecchio/Stella, Fraser/RayK (implied) story by Hth. It was written for ds_seekritsanta.

Author's Comments

In her 2004 "My Year In Fic" review, Hth names Sibylla ti theleis as her best story of the year:

This one is 55k and seems to me much longer than that, because I managed to vacuum-pack it so tight with *stuff* that it seems like you spend forever unwinding it as you read. Which I think is a virtue, at least in this case. I spent about three weeks tinkering with a page of notes for this story, and then due to deadline crunch, I had to sit down and write it in about two days. Sometimes that kills a story, but in this case I think what happened is that I wrote it much more tightly and intensely than usual; I didn't have time to meander around playing with words as I often do because of how under the gun I was. Every single line had to do *something* important, and better yet if I could get it to do two or three things. I often have to edit a story two or three times to get it as clean and effective as I think Sybilla was in that single draft.

She also named it that year's "Holy crap, that's *wrong,* even for you" story, writing:

While there was a dust-up going on in popslash over whether or not it was appropriate to write death-fic for a Secret Santa gift (consensus seemed to be that it was not), there I was over in dS with a SeSa story about Fraser putting his affairs in order while he bleeds to death internally. Fortunately, no one seemed to mind, possibly because I never came right out and sealed Fraser's fate one way or the other. Still, on reflection it was a little warped for the season of peace and joy.

Reactions and Reviews

Hth is one of my favorite authors. I debated for a long time over which Hth story to rec. In the end it came down to this one, or the classic Ray/Ray series, “What It is I See in You” (which you can find on her website and should definitely read as it was one of the first Ray/Ray fics ever and is still one of the best- ahem). I chose this one, finally, because it’s one of the best DS fics I’ve seen recently, and definitely my favorite story to come out of ds_seekritsanta this year.

Sibylla ti theleis (the title’s from T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”, with quotes from it framing the different sections) takes the lovably random RayV/Stella ending from CoTW (a Florida bowling alley? Are you serious?) and puts a twist on it that’s just ingenious. Part Ray Vecchio character sketch, part portrait of a marriage, part day-in-the-life story with an appearance by Fraser and Kowalski - all brilliant. Heartbreakingly, realistically, gorgeously brilliant. I am in awe of Hth’s brain.

[snipped]

And yeah, it’s not a slash fic. And yeah, worse than that, it’s a het fic. But if you let that deter you from reading it, you are missing out. I can’t put it any clearer.