Bryan's picks

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"Bryan's picks" is a list of stories on Shifti that I, Bryan, has picked as being of particularly good quality both in terms of technical execution (formatting, spelling, etc) and in terms of writing.

If you've posted a story on Shifti that I haven't included here don't worry, I may have not even read it yet. The gold stars are assigned based on personal taste and are even more subjective, so they shouldn't be taken as anything other than a sign of my own hubris. I may even reassign gold stars at some point as my tastes shift over time. Other users are encouraged to create their own lists and make their own editorial decisions; I'm doing this solely as a user, not as an administrator.

Note that I have high technical standards; a few incorrect "your/you're"s is sufficient to warrant the "needs copyediting" icon and a story that still looks like a rough draft won't be added here at all even if it's otherwise complete. I am happy to provide editing assistance myself, or for general assistance requests try the editor's corner.

New additions

New additions remain in this section for at least a week before being moved into sections by subject.

February 2:

• Jessica's Mouse by Ermine - Andrew doesn't like Jessica's mouse, or Jessica for that matter, but the mouse likes him.

Bryan's picks

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Animal TFs
Canine, lupine and vulpine
	The Effect of Spotted Clothes	by Erastus Centaur	A love story about a boy and his dog. Set in the Barken, Texas universe, but previous knowledge of it isn't needed.
	Free	by Xodiac	Buddhists should learn Morse code.
	Spells of Brigervan	by Virmir	Bryce's life flashes before his eyes.
	Where Wolf	by Bob Stein	Clever werewolf, feral werehuman
Cervine
	Escape	by Jon Buck	The alien invaders have vastly superior technology, but humans have an advantage that the aliens simply don't understand.
	Forest Life	by Bryan	The elevator stopped at a most unexpected floor. A long transformation ensues.
	Hunter's Moon	by Jon Buck	Some types of lycanthrope stalk their prey in an unusual way.
	It's in the Skin	by Michael Bard	A quick little tale showing why one should make sure one can trust one's suppliers.
	Summer Job	by Erastus Centaur	Spending summer in a national park isn't a bad way to earn some money.
	Swift of Foot and Hoof	by Eirik	Morlith discovers a brand new spell of a sort never seen before. The only way to be sure what it does is to cast it, and then the challenge for him and his apprentice becomes figuring out how to reverse its effects.
	Who gets the Dreamers?	by Michael Bard	Team 18 scores a major catch! Go team!
Equine
	Arms and Armor	by Jon Buck	A curator at a museum discovers a peculiar suit of medieval armor, or perhaps barding; it looks like both.
	Baylor's Rein	by Bob Stein	A wayward Prince will do anything to have his own way - even if it means using risky magic.
	Best Laid Plans	by Eirik	Plot and counterplot between old friends - who's fooling who?
	Companion	by Bob Stein	Aaron's life slowly starts to change. Who's responsible?
	Dark Horizons	by Shannon Robertson	A straightforward description of a straightforward bioweapon test.
	Gaia's Rain	by Felix Sagittarius	I believe Gaia's policies are deeply misguided, but at least we get some nice TFs out of them.
	Gypsy Gold	by Bob Stein	A murdered Gypsy's ghost wants his rightful property restored.
	Hoof Beat	by Bob Stein	A human cop insults a pompus elf and gets predictably cursed. But even magic wears down with time.
	Jacked into the System	by Bob Stein	Jake got a 'deal' on his BodMod suit - and finds out that the price tag is a lot higher than expected.
	Lasting Impression	by Bob Stein	A couple of clever thieves run into a cleverer Wizard.
	Long Ride into Morning	by Eirik	A man and his mare get their bodies swapped for a year by a chance encounter with a fay. Both are eager to swap back, but complications arise.
	The Long Shadow	by Jon Buck	A reluctant knight goes off to war and gets tangled up in a battle of magics. An excellent depiction of the equine mind.
	Major Problems	by Eirik	Backpackers in France encounter a cursed abandoned farm. The aftereffects are with them for years.
	No Bull	by Bob Stein	A phooka tries to be helpful, in her own way.
	On The Couch	by Eirik	Post-traumatic TF syndrome? Perhaps. A patient confides in his psychiatrist about the time he spends as a horse.
	Simple Life	by Bob Stein	The King's tax assessor finds he's got a price on his head, and then decides he's fine with what his assassin has in mind.
	Stable Home Life	by Xodiac	On the one hand, it's a trap. On the other hand, rent's cheaper than you thought.
	Totally Pucked	by Bob Stein	Puck has a bit of fun at the expense of an ass.
	Translations	by Eirik	Jack's work on translating the spell was meticulous, the materials of utmost purity. But he got it inside out.
	Tug of War	by Eirik	An overly competitive man loses his title and Edward gets caught in the middle of the plots that ensue.
	An Unexpected Stop	by Charles Matthias	A broken-down car, a stay at a farmhouse, the love of the farmer's daughter; a classic tale well told, and with a nice ending.
	Whicker Man	by Bob Stein	While on a road trip in the back country of Ireland Kevin finds himself an unwilling guest of the locals. An extremely well described and drawn out transformation.
Aquatic
	How did the Ceolocanth REALLY Survive?	by Michael Bard	Thanks to shapeshifting, of course.
	The Power of Suggestion	by Michael Bard	The placebo effect is powerful indeed.
	Whale Jelly	by Jed Curtis	Not only does the spot removal creme fail to work, it causes significant weight gain as a side effect.
	You get what you Wished for	by Michael Bard	Starfleet knows what it's doing when it sends in the redshirts.
Other
	Eyesore	by Eirik	Haunted houses come in many forms and locations.
	Change of Flightplan	by Shannon Robertson	A quick tale illustrating a way to sidestep the bureaucracy at the border.
	Look Before You Leopard	by Shannon Robertson	An undercover agent tries to escape from his current assignment. The outcome is hinted at by the title.
	The Pantry is Bear	by Eirik	A short about the trials and tribulations of a long-suffering husband.
	The Perils of Wereostrichdom	by Michael Bard	A social worker means well, but really, who'd believe the truth?
	Puzzle Box	by Eirik	A memorable and disturbing reptilian TF. A word to the wise; the old cliche of friendship overcoming all doesn't always hold true.
	Testing The Waters	by Viqsi	A subtle magical trap in the woods draws its victims in but at least it's a nice place to settle down.
	Whiner's Dismissal	by Shannon Robertson	A rare and special vintage shared at a wine tasting triggers a detailed change among all involved.
	What You Eat	by Shannon Robertson	Cooking could be considered a form of alchemy, after all. This gingerbread recipe marks an important accidental discovery in the field.
	Witchhunt	by Bryan	Sequel to Xanadu. Someone's gunning for Eric, and his friends Arthur and Felix get caught up in it.
Anthropomorphic
	180 Meters	by Shannon Robertson	A test of a deep-diving suit goes disastrously well.
	Change Lady	by Eirik	Know when to stop asking!
	Colony	by Jon Buck	An alternate history where the New World has no native humans, and the magic of the land keeps it that way.
	Doe's Hoof	by Jon Buck	When a gnomish forest ranger riding a raven advises you not to leave the trail, don't. Origin story for the "Enchanted National Forest" setting.
	Down the Rabbit Hole	by Michael Bard	Evil bunnies! Evil, evil bunnies!
	Far Indeed From Sherwood Forest	by Xodiac	Robin Hood and Maid Mare-ian, now living on the pun in modern Florida. A Xanadu story.
	Historical Revisionism	by Eirik	A man gets a chance to rewrite history, but the result is a bit unexpected.
	A Kind of Paradise	by Jon Buck	What if the world was going furry, and nobody noticed?
	My Name is...	by Michael Bard	Upon gaining superpowers, be extremely thoughtful about how you choose to first introduce yourself to the world.
	Public Domain	by Phil Geusz	The power of perception gets magnified by the Internet until it defines its own reality. Best goldfish transformation I've ever read.
	Rush Hour	by Jon Buck	A Winds of Change short, though you don't need to have read any others to follow this. Contains one of my favorite dino TFs.
	Slip Sliding Around	by Michael Bard	Quick and cute, illustrating a common problem of anthro TFs.
	Stages	by Eirik	The tale of Tim, a typical young man in college who endures a typical year in the life of the Paradise setting.
	Tall Tales	by Jon Buck	Newly-minted furries and old hands alike get together in a furry convention to organize. A kind of critical mass is achieved. Sequel to A Kind of Paradise.
Mythical TFs
	Bottom Up	by Bob Stein	An old partnership from ancient Greece still holds firm to this day.
	Chain Reaction	by Shannon Robertson	The ultimate sexually transmitted disease.
	Cleaning Up	by Bob Stein	A grad student working in a museum cleans up a set of pan pipes sealed over two thousand years ago, and discovers what was sealed within.
	An Early Spring Night's Dream	by Shannon Robertson	Charles and a fairy are both searching for something in the woods. Ill-advisedly, Charles agrees to assist.
	A Faerie Tale	by Michael Bard	Offended fae take terrible vengeance, and then make it worse. A nice bittersweet little story.
	Free Solo Dragon	by Shannon Robertson	A story that's inherently short; a mountain climber loses her grip on the rock face.
	Inspire Me	by Michael Bard	If one can't find inspiration, giving it is not such a bad consolation.
	Keeping Secrets	by Michael Bard	If you have secrets you shouldn't assume you're the only one.
	The Limelight	by Jon Buck	The magic of wisps mix with the magic of the stage. Set in the Wisp-touched universe.
	Mortal Danger	by Bob Stein	A boat trip into the wilds results in a whole passle of shapeshifting, including an interesting version of the satyr/dryad dynamic.
	Mythic Journeys Part 1 and Part 2	by Michael Bard	An epic-length story featuring many Greek myths and transformations, and a few others besides.
	Of Love and Hate	by Michael Bard	Also of good and evil. A bittersweet tale that touches on the concept of absolute and relative morality.
	Olympus	by Bryan	In 1935 magic swept out into the world and devastated civilization. A quarter century later Dalton thinks he's figured out where it came from. Origin story for the Wisp-touched universe.
	Refamiliarization	by Xodiac	He thought he'd got off easy, wearing just a modest pair of horns when the magic struck the convention... (A Xanadu story)
	Three-Fourths	by Shannon Robertson	A witch goes to Africa in search of a familiar and winds up with more than she bargained for.
	Unicorn Dance	by Bob Stein	A beautiful fantasy tale of a young princess and her love for a visiting prince.
	A Walk in the National Enchanted Forest	by Michael Bard	Featuring one of Canada's most famous mythical creatures.
	Wereing on the Moon	by Michael Bard	Another science fiction epic, though not quite as long as Returning Home. Even far in the future an old disease resists a cure.
Transgender
	Corruption	by Shannon Robertson	An evil enchantress wins her war to reshape the world, but by reshaping herself along with it the results are not quite what she expected.
	Femtroopers	by Joysweeper	After the mass transformation of Xanadu, the rivalries and alliances between various groups of cosplayers take on a solid reality of their own.
	Fight the Wind	by Jon Buck	A low-plot but well-described TG tale about a man who's swept up in life changes.
	Joker	by Bob Stein	Prototype teleporters and practical jokers are an interesting combination.
	The Perils of Voice Acting	by Joysweeper	A voice actor receives a visit from a monster from a show he worked on years ago, demanding that he play his part so that it can find resolution to the series. A Xanadu story.
Miscellaneous and multiple
	Everything is Kaput!	by Devin Hallsworth	The bunker survived the apocalypse, but not the apocalypse it was designed for.
	Just the Right Shoes for This Life	by Erastus Centaur	Set in Bob Stein's "Walk-a-Mile" universe, a man tries on a variety of lives to see which one fits best.
	The Last of the Niagaras	by Michael Bard	Creepy-creepy! Makes me glad I'm not a railroad buff. A man goes in search of a long lost model of train locomotive and it finds him. Temporarily offline for paper publishing.
	The Myth of Beetlecat	by Michael Bard	Oberon demands a fursuit for the fairie ball! Not exactly a classic tale, but classically told.
	Once Upon a Country Road	by Eirik	Kidnapped by aliens, but for nontraditional purposes.
	Reality Bites	by Eirik	What would really happen if a common TF plot device was tried.
	Returning Home	by Michael Bard	A science fiction epic. Anita Lei discovers the means to open a gate between universes, and winds up cast through to a world that's been devastated by a war that rendered the land uninhabitable. The only way to survive is to go native.
	Sentinel	by Jon Buck	A small troop of French soldiers, fleeing Napoleon's fall, come upon a manor house abandoned after the French Revolution. Its grounds contain a small pool of magic, in which a number of ghosts still survive.
	Something Fishy	by Michael Bard	How do aquatic aliens invent technology without the ability to make fire? A Xanadu story.
	Something to Remember	by Bob Stein	An uncharted isle, a hate-filled witch, and a well-written take on the legend of Circe.
	Survival and Sacrifice	by Michael Bard	The Thing's journey, told from an interesting perspective.
	The Survivor	by Michael Bard	Far in the future Venus has been terraformed, humanity has passed, and a successor civilization of uplifted animals controls the solar system. A smuggler crash lands and finds that the 'primitive' aboriginals of Venus have retained some fairly advanced knowledge.
	Taint of Chaos	by Bryan	When the gods created the world out of chaos, they left a few bits behind. These have bad effects on their surroundings.
	Taylor Series Tom and Cat	by Jetfire	An odd means of curing cancer, to be sure. First in the Taylor Series.
	Through Reality	by Eirik	Dennis comes to a gateway through which a story lies, and then runs away.