Understood by Keiko Kirin, NC-17

[avidrosette.livejournal.com]

Rec Category: Jack O'Neill
Pairing: Jack/Daniel
Characters: Jack, Daniel, Sam, Teal'c, Janet
Category: Jack O'Neill, Jack/Daniel, first time, Jack and Sam, Jack and Teal'c, humor, slash, romance
Warnings: slash
Author on LJ: keiko_kirin
Author's Website: The Keikotorium
Link: Understood

Why This Must Be Read:

After a ritual on an alien planet, Jack comes down with a slight case of telepathy. Is he ready to learn what his teammates really think of him? This newish fic by the author of the Steak series takes this fannish trope and makes it fresh as a daisy. As Jack confronts each of his team members, he's treated to thoughts that are a humorous mix of frankness, affection, and exasperation. Daniel's lines are a standout - utterly deadpan and hilarious. The author captures the voices throughout with her usual pitch-perfect precision, and the characterizations with a wonderful blend of clear-eyed distance and warm sympathy. The way she reveals Jack's vulnerability without making him soft is a lovely feat of authorial balance. The author maintains a delicious, light tone throughout the piece, yet never endangers the story's heart - the sense that what happens here matters, that the events have emotional weight. As for the romance at the end - and it's real romance, not just sex - it's good. Oh, so very good.

The technical flourishes that Keiko Kirin brings to even a short, light-hearted piece like this one are impressive, and they contribute to the story's smooth flow and irresistible magnetism without calling attention to themselves. One of the author's techniques that I particularly enjoy is her use of repetition of small elements to create a believable, internally consistent story world. Like the blue stones that Daniel studies across multiple chapters in the Steak series, here the author creates a wonderful little riff about knocking on doors that recurs from section to section. It becomes an in-joke that the reader anticipates and enjoys both for its innate humor and for its familiarity - its presence as a friendly landmark amid uncharted territory. Similarly, the author takes the description of the alien ritual, introduced in the very first line of the story, and has Jack repeat it again and again as the story progresses, each iteration becoming more abbreviated and more humorous in its concision, until finally it's so condensed as to be incomprehensible to anyone outside the immediate story world. But we readers are insiders; we get the joke. And we're hooked on the story, gladly suspending our disbelief in an atmosphere of such prompt welcome and delightful reward.


Fic Excerpt:

The last thing Jack remembered was being on P9A-287, standing in a hole in the ground, stripped to his underwear, and holding a carved stick in the air while the natives circled the hole and chanted something. It was a vivid memory, one he supposed wasn't going to fade any time soon.

Read fic