Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business Goodbye to a Friend - A Loving Tribute to Dannell Lites by Casey

This is a reprint of a tribute to Dannell that is on my site. I just wanted to post it here in the FanFic section as I feel Dannell would have joined us here if she could.

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A large asteroid named Shanghalla in the Archipelago Asteroid belt, far in the future...

"Are you okay?"

The brooding, dark-haired young man stopped only long enough to cast a sideways glance at his visitor before his hands resumed their polishing. The golden monument sparkled before him with the reflected light of a hundred stars.

"I'm fine," he said quietly, his brow knitting as a particularly stubborn smudge refused to vanish.

"Yeah, I can see that," the other young man replied, flipping his cape out behind him as he took a seat on a nearby rock formation. He picked up a pebble and cast it into the starry sky overhead, just as he used to do in the wheat fields of Kansas.

Kal-El stared after the stone, watching as it cleared the asteroid's atmosphere at super-speed and streaked away, becoming a kind of mini-comet.

"Shady's worried about you, you know," he said, turning his head to stare at his friend's back. "She wanted to come, but I thought it would be better if I spoke to you alone."

"Good call," the Daxamite answered, dropping the blue cape that he was using to polish the monument. "I'm not sure she could understand..."

He turned and walked resignedly over to join his friend upon the rocks. Superboy watched quietly as Mon-El leaned back, folded his hands behind his head and stared up at the stars before doing the same. Long moments of silence passed between the two of them, moments that were heavy with regret and unspoken sorrow, yet also with the comfortable understanding that only old friends can share. Finally, one of them spoke.

"You were her favorite," Kal-El said, his eyes never leaving the bright firmament above.

Mon-El grinned. "I know," he answered, his eyes fixed upon the sky as well.

He smiled to himself as he remembered the stories, stories that she had written and that many had enjoyed, including him; stories that were as vibrant, funny, thoughtful and sincere as the woman who wrote them. No matter what the subject or characters, she could always be counted upon to spin a tale of wonder and intricate detail, educating as well as entertaining her many fans. From the dark, brooding vigilantes of Gotham City to the bright, futuristic adventures of the Legion, Dannell Lites could write it all, and write it well. She even managed to find some nice things to say about a certain magnetic mutant.

"He might have sparked her interest once in a while," Mon-El mused with a wry grin, "But I was definitely her favorite."

Superboy smiled at that and leaned forward, pushing himself up off the rocks. He walked over to the newly placed monument and ran his fingertips across the words etched in the gleaming gold plaque; words put there by Mon-El's own enhanced vision.

DANNELL LITES
TAKEN BEFORE HER STORY WAS ENDED

For a moment, Kal lowered his head and said a silent prayer. Then, he turned and walked solemnly over to stand at Mon-El's side. As he did, he could have sworn that he saw something in his teammate's eye, but said nothing of it. He knew that soon the entire Legion and various guests would arrive to pay their last respects, but this was Mon-El's time, his own personal goodbye. He was entitled to it. After all, he was her favorite.

With a heartfelt salute, the two young men turned and flew off, neither of them bothering to wipe the tears from their cheeks.

Rest in Peace, Dannell.

Wow!

Thanks, Scott.

I missed this the first time around I guess. I miss Dannell's distinct messages. She was a favorite from LegionPics.

Thanks for including this, Scott!

lil'rhino

That was beautiful

Casey did a wonderful job and would appreciate everyones comments. I can't believe almost 10 months has passed since we lost Dannell.

Does anyone know if any of her fanfic is still available to read on the web or if her Yahoo group is still open? It would be nice to have a couple of her stories here.

Try this Scott. Seems to be a fairly complete collection of Dannell's fanfic. It also contains a link to another Dannell archive site, set up by her cousin, I believe.

I'd advise anyone wanting to sample Dannell's joyous craft -- and you should -- to follow Loser's link to her full fanfic archive. Another more general archive of Legion-related fanfic, including Dannell's, with an accompanying Legion fan-art collection, is maintained here for all comers by the LegionFiction Yahoo! Group.

The DannFic Group is still open, though I'd say it's not really worthwhile now to join it, unless you want to read about what happened last Fall. With no moderator (obviously) and no substantive traffic for months now, it's gathered much cybergraffiti and is now nearly abandoned.

After much discussion in DannFic, a monument was designed by group consensus -- especially the epitaph -- and ordered for her unmarked county pauper's grave site. Paty Cockrum, Dave's wife, generously chose to pay for it in full, and it was to be installed this Spring. The figure at the center is a Southern belle with umbrella that Dannell used on the home page of her Group. The stone is gray granite on the borders, and has a rose-colored interior, which doesn't show up in this photo.



{Edit, 7 January 2004: See the posting of this date below for a link to a page that shows Dannell's marker in place, as well as the surrounding countryside. Also has journal thoughts by the photographer, Dave Cockrum's friend Jeanette Browning.}

{Edit, 10 January 2004: Broken photo link restored; link to Dannell's "belle," now an avatar}

Thanks for the links Loser and Grey. I had lost them in changing PC's. And I had heard all about the headstone but had not seen a picture of it. Thanks for that Grey.

Glad to pass that along. It's a bit sad to go back to see the DannFic Group once again without Dannell, all cyber-wind-blown, as I did to retrieve it ... so I've unsubscribed from it. I don't need that reminder of both short human lives and eternal bureaucracies.

(Yahoo! won't accept evidence to change the owner or moderator of such a Group, even after the owner dies. They'll just let it wither instead. Sounds strange to me, but it's their server space. In any event, Group owners should take note: Don't leave your passwords unfindable, or your Groups without a second mod if they're of notable size, lest this happen to yours.)

Thanks for posting the picture of the gravestone. I'd wondered how it came out - very nice, the southern belle a lovely touch. I hope Dannell can see it - death like hers makes you want to believe in an afterlife or reincarnation.

I only discovered Dannell's fanfic about a week before her death. I wish I had written right to tell her how much it affected me. That was the first fanfic I had ever read, the first story I found was her tale of Mon-el and Brainy in the lab. Not to sound even more square than I am, but I quit reading part way through. I was stunned, for lack of a better description, to read about those two characters in a sexual encounter. Her story-telling won me over, however - and I was back reading that and the rest of the fanfic stories later that day.

Dannell had a unique voice and opened my eyes to what a wide range of possible stories one can tell with the Legion characters and what a big universe the mind can be. May she be off waltzing with Lar and the others somewhere, somehow.

Yep, the amount of "slash" (generally male/male) sexuality in all types of fanfic can be a bit unsettling at first. It's what drives many writers, though, especially women. Still haven't figured that tendency out.

Dannell's fanfic had far more than sexuality to rely upon, though. It had subtle imagination and a genuine passion for these Legionnaires' inner lives.

She encouraged me to imagine the possibilities, when I floated a notion to her about Dawnstar having affinities to her own favorite, Mon-el -- in their both being Those Who Wander or who yearn to do so.

This story of mine was the result, on line with illustrations by several fan artists (the last of them specifically for this story). And I'm glad Dannell could read it, and my dedication of it to her, long before she took ill the following year.

I just realized last Tuesday (September 16) marked the one year anniversary of Dannell's passing. So I wanted to move this up for those of you who may have missed it here or at my own site.

Dave Cockrum posted the following on the (still defunct otherwise) DannFic Group.

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From: parrotstew2 <parrotstew2@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue Sep 23, 2003 1:47pm
Subject: Dannell's gravestone

To all Dannfic fans--my friend Jeanette Browning has taken photos of Dannell's grave marker which is (finally!) in place. You can see them at:

http://www.sanctuary.rhiannonsaille.com/dannell.html

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The page also has photos of the surrounding countryside for this ancient county-burials cemetery, as well as Browning's thoughts from her LiveJournal.

What a magnificent grave marker. Jeanette Browning and Dave Cockrum (and others) have truly done a wonderful thing.

It's all very beautiful... and her story will go on... It's strange, how something so sad can yield something so beautiful...

A thread about Dannell being made a posthumous Honorary Legion Worlder, member number 400, can be found here . The LW.net founders also used her "Southern belle" as her avatar, which appeared on her tombstone above.