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stargateficrecShow: SGA
Rec Category: Podfics (with a kidfic theme)
Categories: Essentially Gen, but John has a sexual relationship with Nofert, an OFC from his strike team, at one point.
Characters/Relationships: Mostly friendship/found family pairings. John Sheppard & Teyla Emmagan, John Sheppard & Rodney McKay, John Sheppard & Ronon, John Sheppard & Kolya, John & OCs, Elizabeth Weir. The story features John's young son, Ben.
Length: 05:55:56 (59,000 words)
Warnings: Canon-typical violence, Grief, secondary character deaths. At one point John trades his memories of a consensual sex experience to get what they need - he's conflicted but it's not non-con.
Author on DW: n/a (author can't be contacted for feedback anymore)
Author's Website: on Wayback
Links:
Podfic: stream or download on the Audiofic Archive
There's also a fascinating 'Reader's DVD Commentary' by general_jinjur on the story, here (massive spoilers so to be read afterwards)
Text: at M's old site, on Wayback
Why This Must BeRead Heard: Most people will know this, and many will have read it - it's an SGA classic and a masterpiece. As the notes above suggest, it can be a tough read, and I find that I can handle it more easily by listening to the podfic. General_jinjur did a masterful job of recording the story, and at the devastating climax near the end you can hear the intense feelings in her voice. It's a canon-divergence AU in which they discover a boy who turns out to be biologically related to John, but he's the product of experimentation and has physical and developmental issues. As it appears likely the IOA will take him from John, John and Teyla go AWOL in Pegasus, largely on Bajan, an amazingly depicted world where, although the inhabitants are human, it's truly alien culturally. The worldbuilding throughout the story is outstanding, and it's also packed with plot and action, and loads of found family feels. Another unusual aspect of the book is the appearance of Kolya, who despite being ruthless and pragmatic isn't a villain, and eventually, he and John become allies, and almost friends. At the heart of the story is John's relationship with Ben, his child, and it's heartbreaking, but his friends (family) are also there, helping him through. I can't recommend this enough - it's powerful and extremely well-written and read.
In the morning Teyla stands on a bridge with other day laborers and accepts whatever job will bring home food enough for three. John cleans what needs to be cleaned, washes what needs to be washed, and looks after Ben. In the evenings they sit on the floor in a circle and eat, or, in Ben's case, pretend not to eat. Teyla shares some baffling discovery she made about their adoptive world. John attempts to coax Ben into showing off what he learned that day, and ends up running the commentary of their adventures for Teyla: teaching Ben to count; spelling out the really long words from the first chapter of War and Peace with an alphabet of dry noodles; throwing small black nuts to a bird in the park and ending up feeding the whole colony; sitting on the bed Indian-style, quiet, for a really long time.
At times Ben's lips move along with the retelling.
After dinner they bundle up and take a short stroll to the local market place and its colorful displays of leeches. They linger on the suspended bridges, because Ben likes to look down. John holds Ben's right hand, and only when Ben frowns does John know he's squeezing too tight.
Every twelve standard days, Teyla returns from work early to sit with Ben, and John walks down to their local immigration office to pay the safety tax. He sleeps badly the night before, and sits on the ledge outside their window, watching the itinerant merchants go by.
Choosing which memory to give up is a little harder each time, even if he doesn't remember what he's lost. John has rules: never give up anything big, anything bad, or anything useful. But what if this is it? The seemingly insignificant event that was the key to the whole edifice; the loss that will unravel him completely.
Seated in a chair in the extraction room, John watches the digital monitor on the wall where flat, blurred images play out on a loop.
"That's the one you've settled on," the technician says. "Are you sure?"
John nods, forcing his eyes open when the technician brings the leech up to his neck. The bite doesn't hurt more than the pinprick of a needle, and the stimulation of the neural pathways feels pretty good as it happens, like a shot of nicotine. When the pathways are destroyed, it doesn't feel like anything.
Afterwards, the technician conducts a brief neurological check, asks if he wants to lie down, gives him a cup of blue Jell-O that tastes cloyingly sweet. Then, John is allowed to collect three updated ID keys from his case officer at a desk out front.
On the walk home there is always someone sprawled on a public bench who stares at a breach of sky with tell-tale, vacant eyes. These people need the sweetness of blue Jell-O more than he does, so John gives his cup away and eats at the counter of an ambulatory food cart, shredding pita-like bread into a sugary substance the consistency of yogurt. When the last crumb is gone, John sticks his key in the pay-slot, and a fleet of techno-organic bugs no larger than a fingernail swarm over his bowl, and lick the kitchenware clean to the last molecule.
Rec Category: Podfics (with a kidfic theme)
Categories: Essentially Gen, but John has a sexual relationship with Nofert, an OFC from his strike team, at one point.
Characters/Relationships: Mostly friendship/found family pairings. John Sheppard & Teyla Emmagan, John Sheppard & Rodney McKay, John Sheppard & Ronon, John Sheppard & Kolya, John & OCs, Elizabeth Weir. The story features John's young son, Ben.
Length: 05:55:56 (59,000 words)
Warnings: Canon-typical violence, Grief, secondary character deaths. At one point John trades his memories of a consensual sex experience to get what they need - he's conflicted but it's not non-con.
Author on DW: n/a (author can't be contacted for feedback anymore)
Author's Website: on Wayback
Links:
Podfic: stream or download on the Audiofic Archive
There's also a fascinating 'Reader's DVD Commentary' by general_jinjur on the story, here (massive spoilers so to be read afterwards)
Text: at M's old site, on Wayback
Why This Must Be
In the morning Teyla stands on a bridge with other day laborers and accepts whatever job will bring home food enough for three. John cleans what needs to be cleaned, washes what needs to be washed, and looks after Ben. In the evenings they sit on the floor in a circle and eat, or, in Ben's case, pretend not to eat. Teyla shares some baffling discovery she made about their adoptive world. John attempts to coax Ben into showing off what he learned that day, and ends up running the commentary of their adventures for Teyla: teaching Ben to count; spelling out the really long words from the first chapter of War and Peace with an alphabet of dry noodles; throwing small black nuts to a bird in the park and ending up feeding the whole colony; sitting on the bed Indian-style, quiet, for a really long time.
At times Ben's lips move along with the retelling.
After dinner they bundle up and take a short stroll to the local market place and its colorful displays of leeches. They linger on the suspended bridges, because Ben likes to look down. John holds Ben's right hand, and only when Ben frowns does John know he's squeezing too tight.
Every twelve standard days, Teyla returns from work early to sit with Ben, and John walks down to their local immigration office to pay the safety tax. He sleeps badly the night before, and sits on the ledge outside their window, watching the itinerant merchants go by.
Choosing which memory to give up is a little harder each time, even if he doesn't remember what he's lost. John has rules: never give up anything big, anything bad, or anything useful. But what if this is it? The seemingly insignificant event that was the key to the whole edifice; the loss that will unravel him completely.
Seated in a chair in the extraction room, John watches the digital monitor on the wall where flat, blurred images play out on a loop.
"That's the one you've settled on," the technician says. "Are you sure?"
John nods, forcing his eyes open when the technician brings the leech up to his neck. The bite doesn't hurt more than the pinprick of a needle, and the stimulation of the neural pathways feels pretty good as it happens, like a shot of nicotine. When the pathways are destroyed, it doesn't feel like anything.
Afterwards, the technician conducts a brief neurological check, asks if he wants to lie down, gives him a cup of blue Jell-O that tastes cloyingly sweet. Then, John is allowed to collect three updated ID keys from his case officer at a desk out front.
On the walk home there is always someone sprawled on a public bench who stares at a breach of sky with tell-tale, vacant eyes. These people need the sweetness of blue Jell-O more than he does, so John gives his cup away and eats at the counter of an ambulatory food cart, shredding pita-like bread into a sugary substance the consistency of yogurt. When the last crumb is gone, John sticks his key in the pay-slot, and a fleet of techno-organic bugs no larger than a fingernail swarm over his bowl, and lick the kitchenware clean to the last molecule.
