Long Ago (And Far Away) by Kristen999 & Everybetty (PG13)

[sholio]

Show: Stargate Atlantis
Rec Category: Hurt/Comfort
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex
Pairing: none
Het/Slash/Gen: Gen
Warning: WWII historical AU; includes period sexism and racism, and graphic violence
Author on LJ: kristen999 & everybetty
Author's Website: Kristen999's Fanfic Master List and Everybetty on ff.net
Link: Long Ago (And Far Away)

Why This Must Be Read: In this fantastically well-researched and believable historical AU, John's team are a recon crew in the Pacific theatre of WWII. (Teyla isn't actually on the crew as such -- it's 1944 -- but don't worry, she has a large role in the story and plenty of agency of her own.) This is the kind of long and lush story that you can just sink into -- the world feels absolutely real (complete with illustrations taken from period photos), and the characters are very believable in their AU roles as well as being the team we know and love. (There are even great cameos from several SG-1 characters.) And of course I'm reccing this in the h/c category, so without giving away spoilers, you can guess that things are going to go very, very bad before the story is done. Some of the violence might be a little hard to take, but it never felt gratuitous or voyeuristic to me; I felt that the authors did an excellent job of putting the characters through hell while being aware of the sensitive nature of the real-life events they were depicting. This is a story I keep returning to, time and again, to re-read choice bits and lose myself once again in their AU lives.

Comments

[astridv.livejournal.com]

That's good timing. :) Outside there's still no spring in sight, and I caught a cold on top of it. I was thinking about spending the day cuddled up near the heater with a nice, long fic. And this one has been on my to-read list for a while.