AMP12: Day 30, Day 31, Day 32, Day 33
Once again, it seems I'm four days behind on my AMP12 podfic posting. This really just isn't shaping up to be my best Amplificathon ever.... But! It's alright that I'm a few days behind, because (thanks in part to the fact that the lovely cantarina1 has been feeling a bit under the weather lately, and needs something to pep her back up) I've got a seven hour podfic series to cover all four days!
See, cantarina1 is a fan of Stargate: Atlantis AUs, and I'm a fan of cantarina1, and my solution to anyone on my flist having a crappy day (or an exciting day... or an exam.... or a good hair day....) is to provide podfic in consolation. And, I'm also a big flaily fan of seperis, who writes really really really excellent SGA AUs.....so, this works out perfectly.
Only, well, cantarina1 was feeling less than her usual awesome self, and the SGA AU I'm bringing to the table isn't exactly the cheeriest of all AUs. Keep that in mind, folks. Also, I originally began recording the first parts of the first story waaaay back during AMP11 - before I was as excellent a podficcer as I am now, and definetly before I'd learned some of the handier tricks of GarageBand - and then I sat on the series for a while, trying to find the perfect music. So, yeah - there are a few (okay, a lot) diferences in audio-quality between the first hour and last hour of this series, but I hope that it won't take away from your enjoyment of the 'verse.
The series in question is seperis' Crimes Against Humanity 'Verse: a seven-part (the story that spawned the 'verse, three shorter stories that form a series within the 'verse, and three ficlets that act as codas for the main story), open series (seperis has a Blanket Permission Statement that not only encompasses free reign for podficcers, but also for remixing her stories and playing in her universes - so, should this series strike a chord with you, I highly suggest - nay, implore - that you not hesitate to add a little something more to the universe. I'm 98% likely to want to podfic anything more added to this 'verse, too), about the most awesomely fucked-up Mirror Verse Stargate: Atlantis universe, full of sociopaths and serial killers who WE ALL STILL ROOT FOR ANYWAY. It's technically a WIP (which hasn't been updated since 2008), but the series doesn't read like one.
A Note Of Warning: This is A Dark Universe. As such, the following warnings apply to the first story specifically, as well as the series as a whole: dark themes, violence, bloodshed, knifeplay, torture, implied rape (offscreen), non-consent and dubious consent issues, drug addiction, drug withdrawal, power hierarchy and imbalance (in both sexual and non-sexual situations), prison, medical experimentation without ethics, murder, mayhem, assassination, explosions, brainwashing, piracy, verbal and physical abuse, political uprising, self-harm, situationally-aggravated insanity, voyeurism, exhibitionism, possessive behaviors, and canon-AU. If any of these warnings might be triggers for you, feel free to skip this one (I don't mind - I know my tastes are not for everyone).
Part One of the series is Crimes Against Humanity, written by seperis (I've linked to the copy of this story found on seperis' personal site, which is the copy of text I recorded from. All the text-breaks within this version of the text correspond with musical breaks in the podfic. (The musical interudes within this podfic are all excerpts from the song "Drove Through Ghosts To Get Here", as performed by 65daysofstatic. I originally found this song an a Star Tek Reboot fanmix, though I can't recall which mix at the moment, and I felt that it had the same gritty, harsh, non-soothing feel as the CAH 'Verse does.) I'm pretty sure that you can also find Crimes Against Humanity at seperis' livejournal, spead out over a series of posts, but that's not the way I chose to break up the story). As I said before, it's a fantastically dark story set in an alternate Stargate: Atlantis universe (think, Star Trek's Mirrorverse, but with fewer beards), where instead of sending the best and brightest to explore the Pegasus Galaxy..... well, Stargate Command sends the very worst criminals of Planet Earth to the most inescapable prison imaginable. Rodney McKay is still the smartest man in two galaxies, but his drive and ambition only go to fuel his own ego - detonating a ZPM bomb and destroying a planet, to cover for killing off his minions? Yup, not the work of a nice man, but definitely the work of a smart one. John is just as kickass as in the regular SGA 'verse, but broken in new and interestingly violent ways. Elizabeth's peacekeeper-negotiation skills take on a scary twist when we consider her cult of personality on three continents, and her deals with the Ori.
And it's not just exploring how true-to-character seperis can keep Team Sheppard while also twisting them up into evil mastermind pretzels - there are Adventures! Intrigues! Prison escapes! Acts of space piracy! and Subterfuge! The universe created by seperis for Crimes Against Humanity is so very richly detailed, with all sorts of information popping up in hidden crannies that only serves to make the story-telling experience that much more engaging. There's even a little bit of femslashly Teyla/Elizabeth goodness for cantarina1 to enjoy (though it's mostly offscreen, and a minor pairing, and non-explicit... and the story is also 100% John/Rodney.... so I'm not actually going to use this for the "femslash" square on my podfic_bingo card. But, I am going to use this podfic to fill the "Over Two Hours" square on my card....).
One last caveat, before you go on a downloading frenzy: seperis lists this 'verse as a Work In Progress, which hasn't been updated since 2008. I felt that the story ended in such a place as to appropriately and adequately tie up the story arc of the main story (John And Rodney Escape Prison! John And Rodney Stage A Coup! John And Rodney Meet The Wraith! John And Rodney Steal A Spaceship!), while still leaving a few dangling threads in the same way an episode on tv would (John And Rodney Fly Their Spaceship! John And Rodney Fight The Wraith! John And Rodney Stage A Rescue Attempt! John And Rodney Govern Atlantis With Guns And Science!), and so I went ahead with my recording. However, if WIP status is a deterrent for you, you might want to skip this one and wait for my next post.
If these warnings haven't scared you off, feel free to download this podfic over here (thank you, paraka, for hosting me!) Crimes Against Humanity clocks in at about 5.5 hours - but don't stop there! Keep reading, for the rest of the stories in the Crimes Against Humanity 'verse.
Part Two of the series is A History of Violence: Recruitment, written by seperis. Part of a three-story addition to the CAH 'verse, Recruitment begins to give us the fleshed-out background on Evan Lorne that's only hinted at in Crimes Against Humanity. Recruitment takes place back in the Milky Way Galaxy, before John Sheppard was arrested and shipped off to Atlantis. We get to see the formation of John's team, back when they were still a cohesive and deadly unit (instead of fractured by prison force-fields and the distance between galaxies). And how John just reels Evan in? Gorgeous. Running about half an hour, you can download this podfic over here (thank you, paraka, for hosting me!)
Part Three of the Crimes Against Humanity series is A History of Violence: Settling, written by seperis. Settling is part two of the History of Violence arc, taking place concurrently with the part of Crimes Against Humanity when Lorne meets McKay. In CAH, we get only McKay's perspective of Lorne - in Settling, we get to see Lorne's opinions on McKay, and McKay's influence upon Sheppard, and even Lorne's regard (bordering on hero-worship) for Sheppard. It's an interesting slice of life on Atlantis, post-prison break: seeing how Sheppard's team re-coalesces around him, and seeing how things have changed in their group dynamic from Lorne's perspective, makes for a great 20-minute podfic. You can download this podfic over here (thanks, paraka, for hosting me!)
Part Four of the CAH series is A History of Violence: Balancing, written by seperis. Balancing goes back and forth between Lorne's last few days on Earth, and his first few days on a recently revolution'd Atlantis. For all that we know Lorne is John's second, and that he must be something of a badass to earn that distinction, I felt that this story is the one where Lorne's badassery truly shines. His loyalty to John is showcased spectacularly, and the fuck-hate rivalry between John and Cam Mitchelll is exploited ruthlessly. You know that saying, about how just because you chose the lesser of two evils it still doesn't make it a good choice? Well, Lorne's perfectly alright with making some truly terrible choices if it will keep his team alive. Clocking in at about 45 minutes long, you can download this podfic over here (thank you, paraka, for hosting me!)
Part Five of the CAH series is Downtime, written by ladycat777. Downtime is almost twenty minutes of John/Rodney porn, with bonus exhibitionism, violence!kink, and some fucking with the minds of Rodney's minions. There's the same possessive behaviors in both Rodney and John, as in seperis' stories, and ladycat777 has written several truly lovely turns of phrase in this fic. Timeline-wise, this pornlet takes place sometime after the coup on Atlantis, but still in the early days of the CAH 'verse. (Nota Bene: I contacted ladycat777 at least four times, over the course of almost a year, in regards to posting this podfic. As I still haven't heard from hir, and I am kind of tired of waiting for a response, and this fic was written for a series that's got Blanket Permission, and I've listened to other podfics of ladycat777's fanfiction, I'm going to be a rebel and post without explicit authorial permission on this one. I know, I'm treading iffy podfic ground, but dammit, I want to post my podfic porn....) You can download this podfic over here (thank you, paraka, for hosting me!)
Part Six of the series is an Interlude, written by seperis, as a "thank you" respose to Downtime. It's a small slice-of-life moment, full of snuggly, cuddly, sleepy, sociopaths. Yup, the same guys who have blown up solar systems, led bloody coups, and tortured friends and enemies alike - snuggling together and being cozy in bed. It'll definitely help if you've read/listened to the man Crimes Against Humanity story first (this takes place, timeline-wise, sometime around the last 45 minutes or so of that podfic). This Interlude is less than ten minutes long, but you can download this podfic over here (thank you, paraka, for hosting me!)
Finally, we come to Part Seven of the CAH 'Verse, and the shortest of the bunch: Five Times Rodney Wished He Could Have Known John Before They Met. You absolutely need to know the rest of the series before listening to this one, because the story references events not only from Crimes Against Humanity, but also from the History of Violence series, as well. Now, part of me only recorded this podficlet because it completes the series (I have a probelm with recording podfics under ten minutes long - it just doesn't really work well for me - but I have a bigger problem posting unfinished series when I could have finished them. It itches at my soul when I do that), but the rest of me was really impressed with how seperis managed to cram entire novels' worth of devious angst and manipulative emotional trauma into only FIFTEEN SENTENCES. Yup, this one's two minutes and thirteen seconds of gut-punching. You can download the podfic over here (thank you, paraka, for hosting me!)
So....that's that. Approximately seven and a half hours of seriously-deranged-and-yet-we-love-them-anyway!SGA podfic. Feel better, cantarina1! Happy (or, perhaps I should say, creepy) listening, everyone!
See, cantarina1 is a fan of Stargate: Atlantis AUs, and I'm a fan of cantarina1, and my solution to anyone on my flist having a crappy day (or an exciting day... or an exam.... or a good hair day....) is to provide podfic in consolation. And, I'm also a big flaily fan of seperis, who writes really really really excellent SGA AUs.....so, this works out perfectly.
Only, well, cantarina1 was feeling less than her usual awesome self, and the SGA AU I'm bringing to the table isn't exactly the cheeriest of all AUs. Keep that in mind, folks. Also, I originally began recording the first parts of the first story waaaay back during AMP11 - before I was as excellent a podficcer as I am now, and definetly before I'd learned some of the handier tricks of GarageBand - and then I sat on the series for a while, trying to find the perfect music. So, yeah - there are a few (okay, a lot) diferences in audio-quality between the first hour and last hour of this series, but I hope that it won't take away from your enjoyment of the 'verse.
The series in question is seperis' Crimes Against Humanity 'Verse: a seven-part (the story that spawned the 'verse, three shorter stories that form a series within the 'verse, and three ficlets that act as codas for the main story), open series (seperis has a Blanket Permission Statement that not only encompasses free reign for podficcers, but also for remixing her stories and playing in her universes - so, should this series strike a chord with you, I highly suggest - nay, implore - that you not hesitate to add a little something more to the universe. I'm 98% likely to want to podfic anything more added to this 'verse, too), about the most awesomely fucked-up Mirror Verse Stargate: Atlantis universe, full of sociopaths and serial killers who WE ALL STILL ROOT FOR ANYWAY. It's technically a WIP (which hasn't been updated since 2008), but the series doesn't read like one.
A Note Of Warning: This is A Dark Universe. As such, the following warnings apply to the first story specifically, as well as the series as a whole: dark themes, violence, bloodshed, knifeplay, torture, implied rape (offscreen), non-consent and dubious consent issues, drug addiction, drug withdrawal, power hierarchy and imbalance (in both sexual and non-sexual situations), prison, medical experimentation without ethics, murder, mayhem, assassination, explosions, brainwashing, piracy, verbal and physical abuse, political uprising, self-harm, situationally-aggravated insanity, voyeurism, exhibitionism, possessive behaviors, and canon-AU. If any of these warnings might be triggers for you, feel free to skip this one (I don't mind - I know my tastes are not for everyone).
Part One of the series is Crimes Against Humanity, written by seperis (I've linked to the copy of this story found on seperis' personal site, which is the copy of text I recorded from. All the text-breaks within this version of the text correspond with musical breaks in the podfic. (The musical interudes within this podfic are all excerpts from the song "Drove Through Ghosts To Get Here", as performed by 65daysofstatic. I originally found this song an a Star Tek Reboot fanmix, though I can't recall which mix at the moment, and I felt that it had the same gritty, harsh, non-soothing feel as the CAH 'Verse does.) I'm pretty sure that you can also find Crimes Against Humanity at seperis' livejournal, spead out over a series of posts, but that's not the way I chose to break up the story). As I said before, it's a fantastically dark story set in an alternate Stargate: Atlantis universe (think, Star Trek's Mirrorverse, but with fewer beards), where instead of sending the best and brightest to explore the Pegasus Galaxy..... well, Stargate Command sends the very worst criminals of Planet Earth to the most inescapable prison imaginable. Rodney McKay is still the smartest man in two galaxies, but his drive and ambition only go to fuel his own ego - detonating a ZPM bomb and destroying a planet, to cover for killing off his minions? Yup, not the work of a nice man, but definitely the work of a smart one. John is just as kickass as in the regular SGA 'verse, but broken in new and interestingly violent ways. Elizabeth's peacekeeper-negotiation skills take on a scary twist when we consider her cult of personality on three continents, and her deals with the Ori.
And it's not just exploring how true-to-character seperis can keep Team Sheppard while also twisting them up into evil mastermind pretzels - there are Adventures! Intrigues! Prison escapes! Acts of space piracy! and Subterfuge! The universe created by seperis for Crimes Against Humanity is so very richly detailed, with all sorts of information popping up in hidden crannies that only serves to make the story-telling experience that much more engaging. There's even a little bit of femslashly Teyla/Elizabeth goodness for cantarina1 to enjoy (though it's mostly offscreen, and a minor pairing, and non-explicit... and the story is also 100% John/Rodney.... so I'm not actually going to use this for the "femslash" square on my podfic_bingo card. But, I am going to use this podfic to fill the "Over Two Hours" square on my card....).
One last caveat, before you go on a downloading frenzy: seperis lists this 'verse as a Work In Progress, which hasn't been updated since 2008. I felt that the story ended in such a place as to appropriately and adequately tie up the story arc of the main story (John And Rodney Escape Prison! John And Rodney Stage A Coup! John And Rodney Meet The Wraith! John And Rodney Steal A Spaceship!), while still leaving a few dangling threads in the same way an episode on tv would (John And Rodney Fly Their Spaceship! John And Rodney Fight The Wraith! John And Rodney Stage A Rescue Attempt! John And Rodney Govern Atlantis With Guns And Science!), and so I went ahead with my recording. However, if WIP status is a deterrent for you, you might want to skip this one and wait for my next post.
If these warnings haven't scared you off, feel free to download this podfic over here (thank you, paraka, for hosting me!) Crimes Against Humanity clocks in at about 5.5 hours - but don't stop there! Keep reading, for the rest of the stories in the Crimes Against Humanity 'verse.
Part Two of the series is A History of Violence: Recruitment, written by seperis. Part of a three-story addition to the CAH 'verse, Recruitment begins to give us the fleshed-out background on Evan Lorne that's only hinted at in Crimes Against Humanity. Recruitment takes place back in the Milky Way Galaxy, before John Sheppard was arrested and shipped off to Atlantis. We get to see the formation of John's team, back when they were still a cohesive and deadly unit (instead of fractured by prison force-fields and the distance between galaxies). And how John just reels Evan in? Gorgeous. Running about half an hour, you can download this podfic over here (thank you, paraka, for hosting me!)
Part Three of the Crimes Against Humanity series is A History of Violence: Settling, written by seperis. Settling is part two of the History of Violence arc, taking place concurrently with the part of Crimes Against Humanity when Lorne meets McKay. In CAH, we get only McKay's perspective of Lorne - in Settling, we get to see Lorne's opinions on McKay, and McKay's influence upon Sheppard, and even Lorne's regard (bordering on hero-worship) for Sheppard. It's an interesting slice of life on Atlantis, post-prison break: seeing how Sheppard's team re-coalesces around him, and seeing how things have changed in their group dynamic from Lorne's perspective, makes for a great 20-minute podfic. You can download this podfic over here (thanks, paraka, for hosting me!)
Part Four of the CAH series is A History of Violence: Balancing, written by seperis. Balancing goes back and forth between Lorne's last few days on Earth, and his first few days on a recently revolution'd Atlantis. For all that we know Lorne is John's second, and that he must be something of a badass to earn that distinction, I felt that this story is the one where Lorne's badassery truly shines. His loyalty to John is showcased spectacularly, and the fuck-hate rivalry between John and Cam Mitchelll is exploited ruthlessly. You know that saying, about how just because you chose the lesser of two evils it still doesn't make it a good choice? Well, Lorne's perfectly alright with making some truly terrible choices if it will keep his team alive. Clocking in at about 45 minutes long, you can download this podfic over here (thank you, paraka, for hosting me!)
Part Five of the CAH series is Downtime, written by ladycat777. Downtime is almost twenty minutes of John/Rodney porn, with bonus exhibitionism, violence!kink, and some fucking with the minds of Rodney's minions. There's the same possessive behaviors in both Rodney and John, as in seperis' stories, and ladycat777 has written several truly lovely turns of phrase in this fic. Timeline-wise, this pornlet takes place sometime after the coup on Atlantis, but still in the early days of the CAH 'verse. (Nota Bene: I contacted ladycat777 at least four times, over the course of almost a year, in regards to posting this podfic. As I still haven't heard from hir, and I am kind of tired of waiting for a response, and this fic was written for a series that's got Blanket Permission, and I've listened to other podfics of ladycat777's fanfiction, I'm going to be a rebel and post without explicit authorial permission on this one. I know, I'm treading iffy podfic ground, but dammit, I want to post my podfic porn....) You can download this podfic over here (thank you, paraka, for hosting me!)
Part Six of the series is an Interlude, written by seperis, as a "thank you" respose to Downtime. It's a small slice-of-life moment, full of snuggly, cuddly, sleepy, sociopaths. Yup, the same guys who have blown up solar systems, led bloody coups, and tortured friends and enemies alike - snuggling together and being cozy in bed. It'll definitely help if you've read/listened to the man Crimes Against Humanity story first (this takes place, timeline-wise, sometime around the last 45 minutes or so of that podfic). This Interlude is less than ten minutes long, but you can download this podfic over here (thank you, paraka, for hosting me!)
Finally, we come to Part Seven of the CAH 'Verse, and the shortest of the bunch: Five Times Rodney Wished He Could Have Known John Before They Met. You absolutely need to know the rest of the series before listening to this one, because the story references events not only from Crimes Against Humanity, but also from the History of Violence series, as well. Now, part of me only recorded this podficlet because it completes the series (I have a probelm with recording podfics under ten minutes long - it just doesn't really work well for me - but I have a bigger problem posting unfinished series when I could have finished them. It itches at my soul when I do that), but the rest of me was really impressed with how seperis managed to cram entire novels' worth of devious angst and manipulative emotional trauma into only FIFTEEN SENTENCES. Yup, this one's two minutes and thirteen seconds of gut-punching. You can download the podfic over here (thank you, paraka, for hosting me!)
So....that's that. Approximately seven and a half hours of seriously-deranged-and-yet-we-love-them-anyway!SGA podfic. Feel better, cantarina1! Happy (or, perhaps I should say, creepy) listening, everyone!