Misery to Man by trinityofone (R)

[mific]

Show: SGA
Rec Category: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, John Sheppard & Rodney McKay
Characters: Rodney McKay, John Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex, Elizabeth Weir, Carson Beckett
Warnings: Mpreg, grief, and incest and character death in later sequels
Author on DW: n/a
Author's Website: trinityofone on LJ  and  trinityofone's old website on Wayback

Link: Misery to Man on LJ,  (back-up copy on Wayback)

Why This Must Be Read: (contains spoilers) Well, I won't say it must be read as there are potentially major triggers implied in the story (but not actually played out). However it's powerful and thought-provoking, and I gather it was a phenomenon for a while back in 2006, a notorious and haunting story for which several fans tried to write fix-its and sequels. The premise is that John and Rodney are lovers, and then Rodney dies on a mission off-world in a place where the alien race have the technology to 'reincarnate' him by implanting him as an embryo into John, who's the only team member available when they make the offer. The other killer worldbuilding twist is that when such 'saved' individuals grow up and reach adolescence, some of them regain their memories.

( snippet from Misery to Man )

Sequels and Fix-its: (spoilers and a warning for mentions of incest and character death in the following summary)
The best way to introduce these is this quote from Shusu, who wrote one of the sequels: "This is a triumph of sprogfic, and a totally incredible story.... Why so awesome? Because there is no conceivable way to give it a happy ending. NONE. All of fandom is trying to disprove that theorem, but as of right now, it's the Millennium Prize of SGA fanon."
 
toft attempted a fix-it in They Fuck You Up (this title and Trinityofone's title are both from the Philip Larkin poem). It's not available on the interwebs anymore, or on Wayback. In the start notes Toft declared she hadn't been able to fix Misery to Man but she wrote two alternate endings. In one, teenage Rodney does regain his memories and his feelings for John, and despite having been Rodney's father for years, John succumbs when Rodney seduces him, then takes Rodney and goes AWOL. In the other ending, John, realizing adolescent Rodney is regaining his memories and knowing he won't be strong enough to resist, goes out to the end of a pier and shoots himself.

Shusu (Liondragon) wrote a sequel, Overlap, set when Rodney's entering adolescence and beginning to regain his memories - he's partly a kid and partly has an overlay of his old self. Shusu was very good at allusive writing that hints at what's happening (well, that and utterly explicit porn!) so this one isn't quite as likely to be triggery, and it's also unresolved, in terms of how John and Rodney work things out.

Finally, Gaia achieved more of a fix-it in La Dulce Espera which does find a happier ending that avoids character death and (initially) avoids incest. As with all these stories, it's set early in an SGA AU without Kanaan and Torren. It's from Teyla's POV and relies on her for its resolution. I definitely recommend this sequel if you decide to read Misery to Man. ...But, Gaia couldn't leave it there, so she wrote a further sequel Tadpole, with five other stories about how it could go on to play out. Option 1 is messed up and angsty (warning for sibling abuse as Rodney remembers but younger, more vulnerable John really doesn't). The rest of the options are less fraught so maybe skip over option 1, but as John and Rodney have been raised as brothers, sibling incest sometimes features, although it's less problematic as it's more consensual and sometimes they remember their former selves.

So, to wrap up, this is a rec post for this story and its sequels as despite the often difficult implications and themes this 'verse is an interesting and memorable read, and Gaia managed two sequels with (mostly) happier resolutions.

(By the way, If you're remembering another story where John ends up raising a de-aged Rodney as his son, there's Sardonicsmiley's The Other Side of Grace - not a sequel for Misery to Man at all, but it covers some similar issues as John deals with the change from being Rodney's best friend to becoming Meredith's father. Rodney never regains his memories in that fic and the culprit is Ancient tech with no mpreg and no character death as such, although for John, when he misses the old Rodney, there kind of is. Note that the warning for child abuse in the tags refers to Rodney's childhood treatment by his mother.)

April reccers volunteer post

[fignewton]

Surely it would be foolish to miss the chance to rec your favorite Stargate stories in April... :)

This entry will be open to April volunteers through March 31st. The official list will go up on Thursday.

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