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stargateficrecShow: SGA
Rec Category: AU - specifically, cut off from Earth.
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay and many others, as below.
Categories: Het. Note that Dossier calls it Gen, and of course there are many views of what constitutes "Gen". I'll just say that both Rodney and John are in established relationships with OFCs by the end of the story, so I don't think it's Gen, myself, and readers who need John and Rodney to be together should be aware of the other, het pairings.
Warnings: There are character deaths, even of main canon characters, but not John or Rodney.
Author on DW:dossier
Author's Website: See the AO3
Link: East of the Sun, West of the Moon on AO3
Why This Must Be Read: At 145,393 words, this is a novel-length feat of extraordinary world-building. It starts with the theme I'm reccing this month - in that the story diverges from canon during "The Intruder" (S2E2) when John and Rodney fail to eradicate the Wraith computer virus in the rogue dart, and the Daedalus crashes on a hitherto unknown planet with no Gate and is stranded there. So this isn't the whole expedition being cut off, just everyone who was on the Daedalus, or who made it through the crash, anyway. The story is a detailed account of their survival and exploration of the new planet and the culture they find there, how they acculturate - or don't - and how John, Rodney and many others make it their home.
If you like Sheppard-centric stories this is for you, although Rodney has an important role as well, as do others who happened to be on that Daedalus trip, like Elizabeth, Lorne, Carson and Caldwell. The flavour is rather Islamic, from the style of names and words in the local language. But there's also a Dune-like feel, as the place where they crash is largely desert, and John develops special abilities linked to his Ancient heritage and becomes the "Chosen One", tied to the planet and its people. Despite this, the characterisations are complex and well done, and John changes a lot across the years the story covers, or rather, he's changed by the world, Dominat, and its people. The big strength of this story is the extraordinarily detailed world-building of the planet's culture and people, which is managed naturally and without noticeable info-dumps. I found it a gripping and fascinating read. It's an older fic, archived at the AO3 well after initially being posted, so it has few comments or kudos there. It deserves a lot more.
Note that it was reccd 12 years ago bysholio in the John Sheppard category, so here's a link to sholio's rec, as there's more and better-expressed praise for this story there. Just don't use the defunct link there - use the AO3 one above. The AO3 fic is titled "Chapter One" but it's the whole story in 24 chapters. There's a second in the series, but it's very different, is Elizabeth-focused, and is about grief and the assassination of her daughter, so be warned.
Blue Hat, John mentally dubs him, appears to be their leader. Their features are thin and fine, and they are all clean-shaven. Blue Hat, who's rounder and heavier than his companions, has interesting eyes, they're a hazel that's nearly gray, and John's unaccountably reminded of the girl on the front of the National Geographic.
They bow slightly and speak their greetings, and even though it's complete gibberish, it sounds friendly enough.
Elizabeth gives them a small bow in return and says, "Hello, I'm so pleased to meet you."
An expression of confusion spreads among the locals; they really didn't meet many strangers if they honestly expected them to speak the local patois. The head guy tries again, but he uses Ancient this time, in a far more formal manner than before.
Elizabeth grins, and replies very slowly, stumbling over some of the words; they had only a small amount of video with Jack O'Neill speaking Ancient and there was a whole language that they didn't know how to pronounce. There had been so little time to focus on spoken language; translation of Atlantean scientific text had been their priority.
At her words, every one of them drops to their knees and lay their foreheads on the sand, their arms pulled back to meet their ankles. Blue Hat is at the apex of the group, and the rest fall into neat ranks behind him to create a chevron shape. All of them are murmuring in what can only be Ancient.
"Well, that's unexpected," Rodney says in a curious voice. "Elizabeth, here."
She turns her head and sees that Rodney is offering his PDA. When she sees what's on the display, she scolds him. "Rodney, you've been holding out on me."
A look of sharp pain crosses Rodney's face. "It's, uh, something Peter was working on in his spare time. Before. It's not done, I was..."
"Thank you Rodney." She smiles apologetically, understanding what Rodney didn't really say.
Elizabeth gets to her knees and mirrors the obeisance after laying the PDA between her and Blue Hat. John makes a gesture for the rest his group to take a step back. They crouch in the sand and Elizabeth kneels just as long as the villagers.
Eventually the prayer session, or whatever, comes to a close and they all sit up, nearly as one. John smiles and nods, and Blue Hat smiles back at him.
Elizabeth picks up Rodney's PDA from the sand and John glances over to see how he's handling the cavalier treatment of his personal equipment. Rodney looks unhappy, but surprisingly he's not complaining.
Blue Hat takes the PDA from her, and studies it carefully. He hands it back to her and says something. Elizabeth shuffles a little closer and shows him how to scroll the screen and points to it. "Docui." She points to herself, "Elizabeth."
Blue Hat nods furiously. He repeats the word and points to himself, "Anbur," signaling that he understands perfectly.
Elizabeth scrolls through the PDA again and making sure that Anbur is watching, laboriously asks if she can come to visit his town. He smiles widely and makes a gesture back towards the east, then nods furiously, obviously excited by the prospect.
Elizabeth holds up two fingers, "Two diei."
Anbur stands up and speaks freely to his retinue in the first language they'd heard. John is guessing that he's telling them to expect visitors in a couple of days. Anbur touches the PDA and points to his village again, and Elizabeth nods. "I'll make sure to bring it."
"Wait, Elizabeth, give this to him." Rodney unzips his vest and pulls out one of the useless, Ancient tschotchkes from his pocket.
"Just how much stuff did you take back to the SGC, Rodney?"
"Just a few things, examples mostly. I'd forgotten it was in my jacket pocket."
John flexes his eyebrows in response, and Rodney ignores him in favor of stepping forward to watch as Anbur takes the device.
When it dimly lights up, Rodney grins triumphantly. "Yes, I thought so. Not particularly strong, but he definitely has the gene."
Rec Category: AU - specifically, cut off from Earth.
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay and many others, as below.
Categories: Het. Note that Dossier calls it Gen, and of course there are many views of what constitutes "Gen". I'll just say that both Rodney and John are in established relationships with OFCs by the end of the story, so I don't think it's Gen, myself, and readers who need John and Rodney to be together should be aware of the other, het pairings.
Warnings: There are character deaths, even of main canon characters, but not John or Rodney.
Author on DW:
dossier Author's Website: See the AO3
Link: East of the Sun, West of the Moon on AO3
Why This Must Be Read: At 145,393 words, this is a novel-length feat of extraordinary world-building. It starts with the theme I'm reccing this month - in that the story diverges from canon during "The Intruder" (S2E2) when John and Rodney fail to eradicate the Wraith computer virus in the rogue dart, and the Daedalus crashes on a hitherto unknown planet with no Gate and is stranded there. So this isn't the whole expedition being cut off, just everyone who was on the Daedalus, or who made it through the crash, anyway. The story is a detailed account of their survival and exploration of the new planet and the culture they find there, how they acculturate - or don't - and how John, Rodney and many others make it their home.
If you like Sheppard-centric stories this is for you, although Rodney has an important role as well, as do others who happened to be on that Daedalus trip, like Elizabeth, Lorne, Carson and Caldwell. The flavour is rather Islamic, from the style of names and words in the local language. But there's also a Dune-like feel, as the place where they crash is largely desert, and John develops special abilities linked to his Ancient heritage and becomes the "Chosen One", tied to the planet and its people. Despite this, the characterisations are complex and well done, and John changes a lot across the years the story covers, or rather, he's changed by the world, Dominat, and its people. The big strength of this story is the extraordinarily detailed world-building of the planet's culture and people, which is managed naturally and without noticeable info-dumps. I found it a gripping and fascinating read. It's an older fic, archived at the AO3 well after initially being posted, so it has few comments or kudos there. It deserves a lot more.
Note that it was reccd 12 years ago by
sholio in the John Sheppard category, so here's a link to sholio's rec, as there's more and better-expressed praise for this story there. Just don't use the defunct link there - use the AO3 one above. The AO3 fic is titled "Chapter One" but it's the whole story in 24 chapters. There's a second in the series, but it's very different, is Elizabeth-focused, and is about grief and the assassination of her daughter, so be warned. Blue Hat, John mentally dubs him, appears to be their leader. Their features are thin and fine, and they are all clean-shaven. Blue Hat, who's rounder and heavier than his companions, has interesting eyes, they're a hazel that's nearly gray, and John's unaccountably reminded of the girl on the front of the National Geographic.
They bow slightly and speak their greetings, and even though it's complete gibberish, it sounds friendly enough.
Elizabeth gives them a small bow in return and says, "Hello, I'm so pleased to meet you."
An expression of confusion spreads among the locals; they really didn't meet many strangers if they honestly expected them to speak the local patois. The head guy tries again, but he uses Ancient this time, in a far more formal manner than before.
Elizabeth grins, and replies very slowly, stumbling over some of the words; they had only a small amount of video with Jack O'Neill speaking Ancient and there was a whole language that they didn't know how to pronounce. There had been so little time to focus on spoken language; translation of Atlantean scientific text had been their priority.
At her words, every one of them drops to their knees and lay their foreheads on the sand, their arms pulled back to meet their ankles. Blue Hat is at the apex of the group, and the rest fall into neat ranks behind him to create a chevron shape. All of them are murmuring in what can only be Ancient.
"Well, that's unexpected," Rodney says in a curious voice. "Elizabeth, here."
She turns her head and sees that Rodney is offering his PDA. When she sees what's on the display, she scolds him. "Rodney, you've been holding out on me."
A look of sharp pain crosses Rodney's face. "It's, uh, something Peter was working on in his spare time. Before. It's not done, I was..."
"Thank you Rodney." She smiles apologetically, understanding what Rodney didn't really say.
Elizabeth gets to her knees and mirrors the obeisance after laying the PDA between her and Blue Hat. John makes a gesture for the rest his group to take a step back. They crouch in the sand and Elizabeth kneels just as long as the villagers.
Eventually the prayer session, or whatever, comes to a close and they all sit up, nearly as one. John smiles and nods, and Blue Hat smiles back at him.
Elizabeth picks up Rodney's PDA from the sand and John glances over to see how he's handling the cavalier treatment of his personal equipment. Rodney looks unhappy, but surprisingly he's not complaining.
Blue Hat takes the PDA from her, and studies it carefully. He hands it back to her and says something. Elizabeth shuffles a little closer and shows him how to scroll the screen and points to it. "Docui." She points to herself, "Elizabeth."
Blue Hat nods furiously. He repeats the word and points to himself, "Anbur," signaling that he understands perfectly.
Elizabeth scrolls through the PDA again and making sure that Anbur is watching, laboriously asks if she can come to visit his town. He smiles widely and makes a gesture back towards the east, then nods furiously, obviously excited by the prospect.
Elizabeth holds up two fingers, "Two diei."
Anbur stands up and speaks freely to his retinue in the first language they'd heard. John is guessing that he's telling them to expect visitors in a couple of days. Anbur touches the PDA and points to his village again, and Elizabeth nods. "I'll make sure to bring it."
"Wait, Elizabeth, give this to him." Rodney unzips his vest and pulls out one of the useless, Ancient tschotchkes from his pocket.
"Just how much stuff did you take back to the SGC, Rodney?"
"Just a few things, examples mostly. I'd forgotten it was in my jacket pocket."
John flexes his eyebrows in response, and Rodney ignores him in favor of stepping forward to watch as Anbur takes the device.
When it dimly lights up, Rodney grins triumphantly. "Yes, I thought so. Not particularly strong, but he definitely has the gene."
