u/MetaNightmare

I always considered Vapor Trails a bottom 3 album because I always had trouble listening to it.

It’s still lower on the list but I’ve come around on the songs a lot. I think the issue I had was that I started with track one. I skipped straight to “How It Is” and let it play from there and WOW.

The title track, Sweet Miracle, Nocturne, Freeze, really solid tracks. The title track and Sweet Miracle made it into my “best of Rush” playlist.

I bought a CD of the original mix on eBay so I could have it and I think I prefer the original. It’s worse from a technical perspective but it’s almost an aesthetic thing, like with Death Magnetic it’s just a funny quirk that’s maybe not technically better but has texture. I like the Remix too but if I put the record on in the car I’m putting the CD on.

Just a positive Vapor Trails post. Did you have a similar experience?

I can't believe I'm actually typing this but it's done. I gotta edit the chapters as they're gonna come out for SPAG and stuff but the actual story and all the prose is done. At my current rate of releasing chapters I've got a while before everything's uploaded to AO3 but I might start posting twice a week.

But HOLY FUCKING SHIT IT'S DONE. 79,564 words. 36 Chapters. I started on a total impulse in Google Docs on January 11th 2026 and I had no idea that writing this was going to completely consume my entire life. There were days off that I literally did nothing but write. I made playlists, agonized over individual lines, read other fics, rewatched the show for research. I'm normally a big gamer but Steam says I've played only 4.7 hours of games over the past two weeks. Writing has literally taken over my life but I've had a fucking blast doing it.

Even if I never finish another fic I am insanely proud of this one. I have no idea whether this actually counts as long but it's nearly the length of a commercially publishable novel so I'm calling it long.

I didn't compromise either! I made a plan starting like half way through writing and executed on it completely. I hit every beat I wanted to. It's done!

That's all I'm just hyped for myself and I needed to share it.