ethnocentricities, by sin, for the culture clash challenge
Sora POV, slash, 909 words.
Warning: [it's spoilery, but if you really want to know, please click]
with many thanks to kaneko for the read through and encouragment.
ethnocentricities
Even when you fight them, they still bind your wounds and supply you with food and clothing.
It surprises you to be treated so well; even the trespassers on Atlantis treat you with respect, and you know that if the situations were reversed they would not be able to say the same. You think them weak at first, harbouring an enemy in their midst strikes you as foolish in the extreme, but the attention to detail and thorough nature of your confinement shows them to be smarter than you expected.
It's that thought, working upon the failure of the attack, that makes you realise that your current situation is all of your own making. It was the Genii's arrogance in their own technological superiority over your trading partners that led you to these straits. You never expected to be out-matched by a people new and freshly arrived in the system.
You vow to yourself never to underestimate anyone again.
--
"Murder is not the way of the people of Athos. You will be punished, but it is not your death that I, or my people, will seek. Perhaps it will give you time to consider the veracity of your own beliefs."
The words echo in your head, in the silence of your cell, until they move you over to the mainland. You can see the truth in Teyla's eyes when she says them. In some ways they surprise you, in others they don't. The noble savages, that's what Cowen and your father called them -- the Athosians -- when they came to trade. Easily misled as most who came to your planet were, but still worthy of trade.
You just did not expect the same from the intruders, their leniency makes you nervous, but maybe it's a weakness you can exploit.
--
On the mainland, you grow to love the sun, the heat of it on your back while you work, though you know better than to trust that it will not harm. You learned that lesson well and even managed to smile when the Athosians teased you once the blisters had faded. Charon gave you salve for your skin and told you to cover up next time.
It was a lesson of pain, something you were used to, but they did not point out your failure, merely admonished you to take better care of yourself.
You're unused to the feeling that brings, confused by the behaviour of these people, these enemies.
--
As the days pass, you learn that for all the strength of Teyla's people, there is softness in them, too.
The Athosians, like your own people, have fought the Wraith but they are more like a mountain, standing strong and enduring. Your own, well, they are like the storm that almost allowed you victory, a force of nature that does not sit still and wait, and it chafes at you to be forced to plow and plant and watch the seasons change. That is simply the means to live, it is not the means to survival and you can feel the determination to fight draining from you with each night around the campfire, each meal and greeting offered to you.
This softness is not something that you understand, not in the sense that the Athosians do. The Genii have no time for such things. There is duty, there is survival, but there is little else in your people. Your way of life leeches what little you have in the confines of the underground. But examining it from here, from now, you can see hints, memoried reflections of what the Athosians show freely -- the love of family, the love of people -- that were not crushed by pride or duty.
It makes you wonder if, at the core of it all, you are not as different as you once thought.
And those thoughts feel like betrayal.
--
She comes to you, after time has passed. Comes in friendship, with no sign of anger for what has gone before. She talks of forgiveness and misunderstandings, of an action that had to be taken to protect the greater good, and deep inside you understand that. That is part of what you are, not an individual, but Genii, and your life is for your people.
That understanding eases things between you, the resentment of defeat is no longer there, and you find that, like her people, Teyla has her own well of softness.
And with that first kiss, you realise that this was something that had been between you for much longer than your anger.
--
You learn the ways of her body, as she learns yours, what pleasures her and what makes her cry out and dig her nails into your skin. You know her taste, you know her sighs, and you know the way her hands feel, the way her body does, when she breaks you apart and catches you when you fall.
Her lips are sweet, clinging, and you swallow her soft gasp as you smile into the kiss. Smooth, so smooth, and you're almost disappointed by how easy it is, but it's made up for when you lean back and see the look in her eyes.
"Sora." She coughs as she speaks, a small speck of blood on her lips. "Why?"
You pull the blade from her between her ribs and wipe it off on her skin. "I am Genii. Forgiveness is not our way."
.
Warning: this story contains character death.
Warning: [it's spoilery, but if you really want to know, please click]
with many thanks to kaneko for the read through and encouragment.
ethnocentricities
Even when you fight them, they still bind your wounds and supply you with food and clothing.
It surprises you to be treated so well; even the trespassers on Atlantis treat you with respect, and you know that if the situations were reversed they would not be able to say the same. You think them weak at first, harbouring an enemy in their midst strikes you as foolish in the extreme, but the attention to detail and thorough nature of your confinement shows them to be smarter than you expected.
It's that thought, working upon the failure of the attack, that makes you realise that your current situation is all of your own making. It was the Genii's arrogance in their own technological superiority over your trading partners that led you to these straits. You never expected to be out-matched by a people new and freshly arrived in the system.
You vow to yourself never to underestimate anyone again.
--
"Murder is not the way of the people of Athos. You will be punished, but it is not your death that I, or my people, will seek. Perhaps it will give you time to consider the veracity of your own beliefs."
The words echo in your head, in the silence of your cell, until they move you over to the mainland. You can see the truth in Teyla's eyes when she says them. In some ways they surprise you, in others they don't. The noble savages, that's what Cowen and your father called them -- the Athosians -- when they came to trade. Easily misled as most who came to your planet were, but still worthy of trade.
You just did not expect the same from the intruders, their leniency makes you nervous, but maybe it's a weakness you can exploit.
--
On the mainland, you grow to love the sun, the heat of it on your back while you work, though you know better than to trust that it will not harm. You learned that lesson well and even managed to smile when the Athosians teased you once the blisters had faded. Charon gave you salve for your skin and told you to cover up next time.
It was a lesson of pain, something you were used to, but they did not point out your failure, merely admonished you to take better care of yourself.
You're unused to the feeling that brings, confused by the behaviour of these people, these enemies.
--
As the days pass, you learn that for all the strength of Teyla's people, there is softness in them, too.
The Athosians, like your own people, have fought the Wraith but they are more like a mountain, standing strong and enduring. Your own, well, they are like the storm that almost allowed you victory, a force of nature that does not sit still and wait, and it chafes at you to be forced to plow and plant and watch the seasons change. That is simply the means to live, it is not the means to survival and you can feel the determination to fight draining from you with each night around the campfire, each meal and greeting offered to you.
This softness is not something that you understand, not in the sense that the Athosians do. The Genii have no time for such things. There is duty, there is survival, but there is little else in your people. Your way of life leeches what little you have in the confines of the underground. But examining it from here, from now, you can see hints, memoried reflections of what the Athosians show freely -- the love of family, the love of people -- that were not crushed by pride or duty.
It makes you wonder if, at the core of it all, you are not as different as you once thought.
And those thoughts feel like betrayal.
--
She comes to you, after time has passed. Comes in friendship, with no sign of anger for what has gone before. She talks of forgiveness and misunderstandings, of an action that had to be taken to protect the greater good, and deep inside you understand that. That is part of what you are, not an individual, but Genii, and your life is for your people.
That understanding eases things between you, the resentment of defeat is no longer there, and you find that, like her people, Teyla has her own well of softness.
And with that first kiss, you realise that this was something that had been between you for much longer than your anger.
--
You learn the ways of her body, as she learns yours, what pleasures her and what makes her cry out and dig her nails into your skin. You know her taste, you know her sighs, and you know the way her hands feel, the way her body does, when she breaks you apart and catches you when you fall.
Her lips are sweet, clinging, and you swallow her soft gasp as you smile into the kiss. Smooth, so smooth, and you're almost disappointed by how easy it is, but it's made up for when you lean back and see the look in her eyes.
"Sora." She coughs as she speaks, a small speck of blood on her lips. "Why?"
You pull the blade from her between her ribs and wipe it off on her skin. "I am Genii. Forgiveness is not our way."
.
Warning: this story contains character death.