Teal'c's Five Favorite Board Games, by Komos (G)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Rec Category: Gen

Pairing: none
Categories: gen, Teal’c, character study, team
Warnings: none
Author on LJ:

paian
Author's Website: Enkomion
Link: Teal'c's Five Favorite Board Games

 

Why This Must Be Read: This amazing Five Things is my personal definitive Teal’c fic. Despite the seemingly lightness of its premise – Teal’c’s favorite board games on Earth – it is filled with rich characterization and a deeply moving insight into Teal’c and his history, both before and after he joins the SGC.

Teal’c sees satisfying metaphor in checkers and Go and Chutes and Ladders – or, as Daniel points out, Snakes and Ladders, with an extra nod to canon in Fire and Water. He slowly and patiently collects bits and pieces of facts, until he is undisputed king of Trivial Pursuit, even when they play with Daniel Rules and use the Jaffa Edition. And he finds bemused escapism in the innocence and charm of the simplicity of Life, with its airy assumptions of easy success.

This story is poignant and humorous and thought-provoking in turns. We get some lovely glimpses of various team members, and they all ring clear and true. But most of all, we get Teal’c – in his entirety, and wonderfully, beautifully real.
 

"Hey, look, it's us!" Captain Carter said, lining up the players' gamepieces side by side. They were cartoon depictions of excited children, two boys and two girls, each printed on cardboard that was then coated in plastic and mounted to stand on a small base. "That one's me with a non-regulation haircut, and that one's Teal'c, and that one'll be you if we draw glasses on it, Daniel ... "

Daniel Jackson picked up the remaining piece, which depicted a little girl with a tuft of hair sticking straight up from the middle of her head. "Making this, um ... "

"Oh yeah," Captain Carter said with a grin.

Daniel Jackson gave only a hint of smile as he said, "So when do we get Jack in here to play?"

As it turned out, Teal'c was the only adult of his own acquaintance who did not find the game a stupefying bore. He plays it to this day, when he is at his weariest, when neither meditation nor the less accustomed relaxation of sleep can lift the fatigue from his mind and spirit, softly mesmerized by the twirling spinner, the unknown fate awaiting him in the number of squares he will be directed to move, the exhilaration of being lifted up a bright green ladder, the equal exhilaration of a slide down a bright red chute. The game requires no choices, no strategy, merely persistence, slow march after slow march around the board. Twirl the spinner enough times and you always reach the top -- always land, eventually, on the last square, with its blue-ribbon prize. He plays for all four players, and there is no failure, only the journey, with its fallings and risings; all four of them, always, reach the end intact.

Comments

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Hi back. :)

The biggest compliment a reccer can get is the discovery that someone has discovered and truly enjoyed a recced fic. And I agree with you all the way - this is really one of the most amazing Teal'c pieces I have ever had the pleasure to read.

[paian]

The 'Teal'c's Five Favorite Board Games' post at my journal is going to be friends-locked soon, but the fic is also at tealc_fic here:

http://community.livejournal.com/tealc_fic/30108.html

I can't thank you enough for this gorgeous rec. It brought a lot of readers over and they left thoughtful, enjoyable comments -- such a pleasure.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

You're busy tonight. :) I'll edit this, thank you (also at the archive). And this lovely fic of yours is still my definitive character piece for Teal'c, so thanks again for writing it.

[paian]

It's been a very Teal'cly evening! And a very linky day. *g*

And it's so wonderful to hear that this fic still has resonance. Thank you for saying. :-)