Recs of Sheppard, the Marines and Lorne and in the AF, Lorne/Cadman & Caldwell/Weir (updated)
Fics in which Sheppard is the most laid-back and beloved Zoomie commander ever (because he is just as crazy and loves to play with space guns and blow things up too) and has way too much fun with his Marines/ John is really 12; John would not be able to do any of the things he does and be so popular without his excellent and unflappable, XO and AF staff-officer, Lorne, so many of these feature or are about him or some of their Marines. Also all military themed stories.
A resistant John, his Marines and Pegasus may succeed where even Jack O'Neill failed and drive Sam nuts in Sam in Atlantis.
Cadman and Lorne have a revealing chat in the gen Astronauts and Other Dreams.
Made to Be Broken, a short tribute to the SG-1 timeloop episode and the utter childishness of Jack and John, makes me grin.
In "At Lib," Lorne muses on Sheppard as boss.
In "Pretty as a Picture" John and Lorne inspect Marine tattoos for the regs. HILARIOUS.
I adore how gracefully Sheppard handles the hero worship of his young officers in "Officers Call".
Lorne realizes his CO is nuts when John plans a scavenger hunt to keep the Marines busy on the Daedalus to Caldwell's chagrin in "Maiden Voyage",
The officers muse on how to write a report on Cadman in Rodney's body in "Altered States"
The Marines build a water slide in "Slippery Slope"
"Future Shock" is fun too as is HILARIOUS "The Legend of Smedley Ducker, the Fighting Quacker."
Field Day in Atlantis and John's Marines are as nuts as he is.
Rodney McKay's Scrapbook of Death with commentary by John is hilarious.
You must check out the oh-so appropriate LantisJournal and be sure to check out all the links. I must admit that I had to look up why John chooses princesspeach as his user name since I don't play video games.
The genius The Towers On The Heights Reach To Heav'n's Own Blue : "In which John Sheppard hates cricket and accidentally starts an intramural soccer league, and Cameron Mitchell thinks McKay's sister sucks." So funny, John misses sports and gets some intramural sports leagues going. There is a slash sequel with Cam and SG-1 set on earth also if you're interested.
Bates' POV on Sheppard at the beginning of season 1 in so you think you're a leader. And as counterpoint, Bates' POV on Sheppard after the events of "The Storm" and "The Eye" in the Calm After The Stormi.
John lets the Marines play with fireworks when Atlantis holds a Fourth of July celebration (much to Rodney's ire) in Assorted Fireworks
John shamelessly uses the old Abbott and Costello gag (impressively without giggling) to drive Teyla insane in Take Me Out as everyone tries to keep a straight face and fails.
kristen999 gives me the everyday John in Atlantis scenes I crave in Fluff and Fold (John does laundry) and Barbershop.
Jinto asks to join the Marines in the charming Fresh Recruit . I'd recommend this for John calling Stackhouse 'Stacks' alone; the characterization of everyone from Lorne to Teyla is equally well written.
Teyla sees Cadman sitting alone and separating herself from the other Marines and makes an effort to get to know her in The Tell-Tale Twitch. An unusual gen combo and beautifully done.
In Like Diffusing a Bomb, Lorne deals with Sheppard's reactions to all of Caldwell's changes while he was incapacitated during "Conversion." Hilarious and a great portrayal of their friendship and sense of humor. R for language only.
M7G-512 (or: Why Gate Team 5 is No Longer Allowed To Write Their Own Mission Reports) makes the point quite hilariously that the SGC saves all the extra-crazy space Marines for Atlantis and secretly John loves it.
Hockey Night in Atlantis is hilarious. John doesn't play but he puts plenty of energy into mocking.
Boredom is the Root of All Evil (And Lorne is its Bitch) must be read for the sheer inanity and random humor of the conversation between the team after they are captured by Ladon Radim and reunited with the presumed dead Lorne and his team in cells in "Coup D'etat."
Nobody dies or is kidnapped for once when Lorne joins the team for a trading mission in The Long Way Home. The story is funny and entertaining with dead-on characterizations.
Lorne slides quickly from reality to reality when something goes terribly wrong on a mission in A Major's Gude to Dining in the Pegasus Galaxy. No matter how much is different in each reality, the characterizations and core values of the people on Atlantis stay true, especially Sheppard.
It's just another lunatic Thursday in Atlantis in the oh-so perfectly paced comedic tale.
Snort. LOL. You must read 5 Paragraphs Eventually Cut From Atlantis Mission Reports.
Board Wars is incredibly fun and must be added to my favorite team+games=mayhem category. The art and the coda is truly what sets this fic heads above the rest though. True laugh-out loud genius. I love that the boys suck even Teyla into their dorky fun.
I really enjoy stories about the mundane in Atlantis and especially when it comes to the military. The process of hiring people to come to Atlantis seems especially fascinating; Sixty-Eight Whiskey, Four People Who Got The Job, One Who Didn't (incredibly clever use of MOSs and both moving and funny) are favorites. Special shout-out to the latter for the mention of my future MOS.
The Protect and Survive series by RowenaR stars Lorne, Cadman and some of the best OC Marines I've ever read. A Lorne/Cadman series with tons of action, humor, angst and charm.
John Sheppard teaches a Marine how to fly a puddlejumper and shows some of his love of flying in "Route 66.
Nika Dixon wrote the incredibly fun, Woolsey's Team Building Fiasco: If you have ever been made to suffer through a corporate team building event, or even not, this fic will crack you up. Also features Lorne/Cadman, Keller/Ronon and some of the craziest and most-injury causing bonding exercises ever. Also see my rec at Woolsey's Team-building Fiasco by Nika Dixon
John becomes quite jealous of how close Teyla becomes to the Marine he assigns to be the Athosian liasion.
Sheppard Personal Canon is a must-read.
John asks Lorne to do something difficult in Die Verwandlung
In The Pledge and The Turn, Lorne schools Rodney how to write an AAR to protect his team, especially Sheppard.
John in Afghanistan in "Just Another War Story"
The End is Near and So Am I packs quite a wallop. The team is on the run from the Genii and as death seems imminent muse on some key points in their lives and how they ended up there. John thinks back to joining the Special Forces and how he lost everything.
Be my homeward dove is a lovely gen fic set pre-"Intruder," on Earth in which Elizabeth, Rodney and Carson realize that this isn't home anymore. They attend the promotion ceremony for John, who already knew he felt that way, even though he didn't invite anyone at all. The author perfectly captures John's pride in the promotion even as he makes his unhappy superiors squirm.
The brilliant ShepsReyna is doing some phenomenal world building and exploration of just why Sheppard's gene is so much powerful than anyone else's, even O'Neill in her Evander's Heir novels, Evander's Heir and Evander's Heir II: Dark Mind. I love how she captures Sheppard's intelligence, loyalty, strong moral core and modesty. He feels incredibly real and flawed but incredibly heroic as well. Her original characters are just as well writeen and defined, as is her Lorne, O'Neill, Marines and Teyla. Her treatment of the intense and unflinching loyalty and friendship between John and Teyla is one of my favorite of them as best friends. She really shows the comfort and acceptance they find in each other, especially Sheppard, who has never had anyone else who would believe in him no matter what. Gorgeous. Big juicy parts for Lorne, the Marines, O'Neill, Caldwell and others.
Lorne takes care of a recovering post-Conversion Sheppard without seeming to in "The Care and Feeding of a CO" . "Minor in Archeology" features John communing with the city. In Plus ca change, Lorne learns a little about Sheppard through the ancient tech. "5 Times Atlantis Died"
nytel ever so accurately captures just what a misery John would be in a classroom as Rodney wreaks his revenge for the John's prodding in The Prodigal. Hilarious and perfect little character sketch of the two and good little student Lorne in Tables Turned.
Lorne impresses Sheppard with his almost supernatural ability with small children in the short and sweet Hushabye Mountain.
Also funny, the many short responses to the challenge to write an email that would appear in the Commander of Atlantis' in-box, either Sam or Elizabeth. miss_porcupine's might be my favorite but be sure to expand all the threads because they are all hilarious.
Not only is Dry City poetically written and a hot, hot (despite being PG-13, it's all in the chemistry) Cadman/Lorne back on Earth piece, but it also captures the homesickness and longing for Atlantis everpresent in all the exiled expedition members after "The Return, part I."
"Cosecant" is a beautiful and dark scene between Jack and John that reveals as much about Jack and his damage as it does about John.
In To Promote or Not To Promote, Landry tells O'Neill of Elizabeth's demand for John to be promoted and head up the military on Atlantis. As a John fan this one upsets me a little because of their attitudes and yet it is perfectly in character and accurate for the characters and two officers of their experience and rank. I like the military parts to be as realistic as possible and this is.
Meals on the run by raisintorte,
It's hard for me to forgive the author for killing Sheppard off pre-fic so that Cam can come and replace him as Atlantis' military leader in Command Dynamics 2.0 (four parts) but dontwantmeback writes Cameron struggling to replace a man that cannot be replaced and understand Elizabeth so beautifully that I try.
Things Said About John Sheppard" is more of a list than a story but somehow the contrasting responses from the pre-Atlantis John's men and superior officers are very telling. I think it says more about a man (or woman) what their subordinates or those weaker and more vulnerable than themselves thinks of them than what those above him say.
"25 Things Skippy Can't Do In Pegasus" this is funny too, Marine bits , "Carry On" "5 Superhero Powers John Sheppard Wishes He Had" is light and fun until it turns dark. Sheppard protects his men from Woolsey.
"Eat Your Heart Out, Peggy Fleming" is a fun actioner.
"Self-Made" is a just-post Afghanistan John, when he thinks his career and world is ending.
Number One is heartbreaking in " 5 Things Lorne Wishes He'd Never Seen and One He Did". " 5 Things John Sheppard Never Thought He'd Do,"
In"The Jenny Code" and it's three accompanying pieces, "In Abeyance," "Academic" and "Poppies in November" Sheppard and a group of Marines are captured and tortured and Sheppard experiences his worst nightmare, losing his men. Incredible action and beautifully done.
"Teacher's Pet: Lorne" is miss_porcupine picking up a chapter of a very unusual fic by another author, one which I fear is heading into dreaded McShep territory but her chapter is fabulous. A priestess turns John back into a child and he is reraised most unusually by the Atlantis staff. Since John is a child for all of the story, I hope and pray this doesn't turn into McShep since that would make Rodney's interactions with the child Shep incredibly icky in retrospect.
In Between the Lines, friendshipper fills in the blanks to show how John went from just the pilot to friends with Rodney.
In "Just Like That Richard Gere Movie", Sumner's Marines learn they've underestimated John.
"The Second Terrace of Purgatory" is told by Lorne (she also have a drabble set right before from Sheppard's POV that's quite funny) and Sheppard doesn't appear until far in but the ruthless John of The Storm is perfectly captured.
Lorne underestimates Sheppard on first meeting in Masquerade.
Cam Mitchell meets and underestimates Sheppard long ago without ever realizing it in "That Summer on Tattooine"
"Transformative" : Aiden watches Sheppard and learns.
A Marine guard's perspective of Sheppard and Steve the Wraith of them appears in Predatory
In every fight is a fight for your life, Sora as prisoner gives quite a unique POV on all of the characters; Aiden's darkness is presciently visible and Sheppard, despite getting only two lines, is the most terryifying of all.
"Return to Oz"
Great gen action and whump in Eurydice Turns Left. The team visits a planet of stone mazes and is attacked. Everyone but Ronon is captured and buried alive in a cave. Can they dig themselves out and survive with no provisions or water and Ronon bring back a team to find them before they lose John, who grows more and more ill the longer he spends on the planet? Teyla caring for John is particularly affecting.
Standard Issue Refrain is a morning-after story for Lorne/Cadman by a tattered rose.
First and Last is a fun and pitch-perfect pre-Atlantis Lorne and Cadman flirting ever so coyly one night in the SGC and at drinks with SG-1, SG-7 and SG-11.
The Pegasus Galaxy Gift Registry is pure Lorne/Cadman "aliens made us do it" smutty fun that captures both characters' sense of humor well.
In her Verb, Noun Lorne and Cadman infuriate Rodney with their answer to Prime Not Prime.
Reunion features a Cadman and Lorne who knew each other in the biblical sense back on Earth before running into each other again on Atlantis.
Lorne must explain to Cadman, his girlfriend, why he came back through the gate pantless and nearly naked in Welcome Back to the Pegasus Galaxy Lieutenent!. I also adore Best Surprise Ever in which Lorne is well-rewarded when he comes to visit Cadman at grad school when he's back on Earth for leave. Laura begs Lorne to let make things go boom in her Long Walk.
I beta for EvaFlack001 but I am not being biased when I say how beautiful, funny, warm and angsty her Coming Home is. It has Lorne/Cadman and John/Teyla and Jennifer/Ronon and I only hope our characters have a future as great as the one she envisions.
Could it ever be uneventful?
Interpretations
Returned
Major problems
My kind of person
Nika Dixon wrote the incredibly fun, Woolsey's Team Building Fiasco: If you have ever been made to suffer through a corporate team building event, or even not, this fic will crack you up. Features Lorne/Cadman, Keller/Ronon and some of the craziest and most-injury causing bonding exercises ever.
Laura begs Lorne to let make things go boom in her Long Walk.
Beatrice and Benedict
The Bonding and Playing Happy Couples
If you love someone, let them go
Reclamation and it's sequel Breaking Point
Explosive Introductions
Weir and Caldwell had such great chemistry but this seems to be an ignored pairing. This drabble sums the love/hate well. There are a few great stories out there though. I like the subtle White Queen's Knight. There is a Weir/Caldwell Community also. regann does the pairing beautifully and has really explored all the subtle and sophisticated possibilities Remnants is haunting as the two begin to bond over being possessed. The companion piece Visiting Hours is equally lovely and goes with Draw. Check out Like Barley Bending also. Her haunting Peace of Mind is a gen Caldwell POV as he is trapped inside his body by the goauld. Good smut in Diplomatic Relations. Equally hot is Permission. Absolutely Not is naughty good fun. smittywing wrote some good stories about what she dubbed "the courting sweater" also and writes fantastic Weir/Sumner too.