It's Always Autumn (M) and Winter (T) by Kodiak Bear Country

[sholio]

Rec Category: Hurt/Comfort
Pairing: none
Category: John Sheppard, angst
Warning: dark; descriptions of torture (both psychological and physical) and brainwashing; heavy angst; a major rift between the teammates
Author on LJ: kodiak_bear
Author's Website: Master Fic List on LJ
Link: It's Always Autumn in the Old Trees of Despair and Winter (the sequel)
(Full disclosure: I sometimes beta for this author, and was lucky enough to be one of the betas on the second story.)

Why This Must Be Read: The first of these two companion stories, It's Always Autumn in the Old Trees of Despair, is one of the most detailed and believable psychological torture/brainwashing stories that I've read (and that's actually a compliment! really!), and the sequel, Winter, deals with the consequences of having experienced such a deep break with one's normal reality. These were not easy stories to read (especially since, for various reasons, I find emotional torture considerably harder to deal with than physical torture in fiction) but ultimately, I found them very much worth it, especially for their psychological subtlety and the way that they present a complicated world where months of trauma can't be easily wrapped up in a five-minute episode tag.

Sheppard is at the core of these stories, but the rest of the team have their own journey as well, and the world-building is wonderful -- particularly in the first story, which features a disarmingly likable villain and a world/culture that is a character in its own right. There is a ton of hurt and angst in these stories, but it's never angst for angst's sake, and the characters' closeness shines through even when they're all two steps out of sync with each other.

Comments

[asugar.livejournal.com]

An excellent recommendation. You might want to add a warning for Teyla being repeatedly raped by their captors and for the fact that John's team believes he is being treated extremely well, (literally) like a prince, while they are being beaten etc, when in fact he is undergoing brutal torture and psychological conditioning. That element of everyone being against him is (almost) more upsetting than everything else.

[sholio]

Er ... Teyla was raped? In what part of the story, do you remember? I'm going back through looking for that, and I can't find anything of the sort. (Though I do think that I need to update my warnings to reflect how much physical damage the characters take in the course of the story; I'd forgotten that there was as much physical torture as psychological.)

I think I've already got the other part covered with the "rift in the team" part of the warning, though perhaps I should make it stronger/clearer somehow?

[asugar.livejournal.com]

It's alluded to pretty strongly. I can go find the exact point.

[sholio]

If you could, that would be really helpful. :) Like I said, I don't remember it and I can't find it, but I could have missed something and I don't want people to go into something triggery un-warned. The author says in her warnings that there's no sexual non-con in the story, but she might be talking specifically of John.

[asugar.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Going back and looking again I can't find it. Maybe I read into the story something that wasn't there (I remembered it as hinted at rather than explicitly stated) or I'm thinking of another story.

I think you could make the warning stronger BUT the author prefaces the story with the warning that the story revolves around this plot device/concept of Sheppard torture so maybe it's not needed.

Must compliment you again on a great recommendation. I think I read these two stories originally by following a long ago rec here so it's nice to see them re-spotlighted, especially in light of "Remnants."

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

You're thinking of iamrighthere/skypig21's "The Known World" (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3300672/1/The_Known_World). Where the non-con is strongly hinted at but off screen.

Kodiak Bear's fic does not have that in this rec.