A Wing and a Prayer by Kriadydragon (PG13)
Show: Stargate Atlantis
Rec Category: John Sheppard
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Ronon, Teyla, Sumner, Weir
Pairing: None
Het/Slash/Gen: Gen
Warning: Au, Violence and language
Author on LJ: kriadydragon
Author's Website: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/768004/
Link: http://sgabigbang.talkoncorners.net/?view=fic&id=75
Why This Must Be Read:
I admit that I had the pleasure of doing some art for this 2009 Big Bang Story. The best part of this story is that Kriadydragon has paired each of the Atlantis expedition members with dragons. The way Kriadydragon has matched up the dragon personalities and looks to their human counterparts is both insightful, and in sometimes humorous. The story is a fun adventure ride through this AU world where, even though our heroes are in Pegasus, they still need to find the lost city of Atlantis.
Excerpt:
John got off on the first level and headed down overcast-gray halls. He walked through the large door at the very end, into the massive hanger larger than the entrance, walls geometrically pock-marked with padded niches. Sleeping dragons gave the storm-dark place a much needed splash of color, but it was still depressingly gray. For dragons with a heightened sense of sight, John didn't know how they could stand it.
The lights were low, like false dusk, and the dragons so out that the chamber vibrated with the distant thunder of their snores. John was still able to locate Corvax in a bottom niche, a curled lump of perfect obsidian like a fragment of black hole on the right side of the chamber.
A second dragon lay like a cat on the verge of a good pounce several feet from the niche. It was the complete opposite of Corvax, all white and, John guessed, a couple of inches shorter. When he moved around to see what the white was up to - and to offer his two-cents on why it would be a bad idea - he lifted both eyebrows at the mess of drawing supplies littered in front of the dragon: large pads of sketch paper and a small box of charcoal. The dragon held a thick stick of charcoal in a paw that was like human hand and sketched with the zeal of someone having found the ultimate subject, muttering while it did so, a manic smile on its ridged snout. When the current drawing was complete, he tore it away, set it aside and started a new one.
Much to Corvax's ever-growing consternation. John could feel the mounting annoyance slink his way. It wasn't enough to keep the smirk off John's face.
"There you are!"
John jumped, stepping back into the darker shadows of an empty niche. The new arrival didn't look his way, heading straight for the white dragon instead.
Rodney McKay thumped the white on its armored shoulder. "You're needed in storage to check the supply of that dragon kibble stuff and… will you leave that dragon alone! This makes it ten - ten - times I've caught you drawing him and I think people are starting to talk."
The white - Bina, John recalled - rolled bright blue eyes. "About what? I'm the foremost expert on dragonology. It's not like I do this because I have a fetish."
"You sure?"
Bina snorted. "He's an Egyptian Black. Do you know how rare they are? Their near-extinction by the Goa'uld in ancient days was such a massive blow to their breed that even to this day they've barely recovered. You only ever see one in the wild if you're lucky. You never see one Bonded. This is a big deal, Rodney. Like… like if we happened to find Atlantis full of Ancients with a lot of ZPMs they'd be willing to hand over kind of big."
"Now who's exaggerating," Rodney said dryly. He narrowed his eyes. "Seriously, you may want to think about backing off and giving the guy a little breathing room." Narrowed eyes widened and John heard McKay swallow. "He's very… spiky, if you haven't noticed."
"Oh, I've noticed," Bina said. He ripped away the recent drawing and started another. "Egyptian Blacks were rumored to have bred themselves for fighting. It's why the Goa'uld targeted them specifically. But it's all just aesthetics. Looking like a bad-ass doesn't necessarily make you a bad-ass."
Irritation surged from Corvax like an angry gust of ambient wind. It was high-time to intercede.
John stepped from the shadows. "And Corvax is an overgrown puppy; ask anyone." Interceding didn't equate coming to the rescue. Although he found it a little harder to ignore the second wave of annoyance. He managed, leaning with his back against the niche divide, hands in his jacket pockets. He grinned. "But he's a fair hand in a fight."
Rather than going for chastened, Bina perked up. "How good? Strategically or more fire-to-fire combat?"
McKay elbowed him in the flank, not that the dragon would feel it. "Bina!" He looked at John, not so much apologetic as mildly exasperated. "Sorry. He promises not to draw your dragon anymore."
"The hell I do. The next addition of dragonology is supposed to come out while we're off prancing around in another galaxy. I need to get the perfect angle and send all this in. I need…"
"To gather up your stuff, stop crushing on the good man's dragon," McKay started pushing against the creature that was roughly the size of an Indian elephant, "get to supply and make the bothersome supply people happy by approving the crates of kibble. So move!"
Rec Category: John Sheppard
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Ronon, Teyla, Sumner, Weir
Pairing: None
Het/Slash/Gen: Gen
Warning: Au, Violence and language
Author on LJ: kriadydragon
Author's Website: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/768004/
Link: http://sgabigbang.talkoncorners.net/?view=fic&id=75
Why This Must Be Read:
I admit that I had the pleasure of doing some art for this 2009 Big Bang Story. The best part of this story is that Kriadydragon has paired each of the Atlantis expedition members with dragons. The way Kriadydragon has matched up the dragon personalities and looks to their human counterparts is both insightful, and in sometimes humorous. The story is a fun adventure ride through this AU world where, even though our heroes are in Pegasus, they still need to find the lost city of Atlantis.
Excerpt:
John got off on the first level and headed down overcast-gray halls. He walked through the large door at the very end, into the massive hanger larger than the entrance, walls geometrically pock-marked with padded niches. Sleeping dragons gave the storm-dark place a much needed splash of color, but it was still depressingly gray. For dragons with a heightened sense of sight, John didn't know how they could stand it.
The lights were low, like false dusk, and the dragons so out that the chamber vibrated with the distant thunder of their snores. John was still able to locate Corvax in a bottom niche, a curled lump of perfect obsidian like a fragment of black hole on the right side of the chamber.
A second dragon lay like a cat on the verge of a good pounce several feet from the niche. It was the complete opposite of Corvax, all white and, John guessed, a couple of inches shorter. When he moved around to see what the white was up to - and to offer his two-cents on why it would be a bad idea - he lifted both eyebrows at the mess of drawing supplies littered in front of the dragon: large pads of sketch paper and a small box of charcoal. The dragon held a thick stick of charcoal in a paw that was like human hand and sketched with the zeal of someone having found the ultimate subject, muttering while it did so, a manic smile on its ridged snout. When the current drawing was complete, he tore it away, set it aside and started a new one.
Much to Corvax's ever-growing consternation. John could feel the mounting annoyance slink his way. It wasn't enough to keep the smirk off John's face.
"There you are!"
John jumped, stepping back into the darker shadows of an empty niche. The new arrival didn't look his way, heading straight for the white dragon instead.
Rodney McKay thumped the white on its armored shoulder. "You're needed in storage to check the supply of that dragon kibble stuff and… will you leave that dragon alone! This makes it ten - ten - times I've caught you drawing him and I think people are starting to talk."
The white - Bina, John recalled - rolled bright blue eyes. "About what? I'm the foremost expert on dragonology. It's not like I do this because I have a fetish."
"You sure?"
Bina snorted. "He's an Egyptian Black. Do you know how rare they are? Their near-extinction by the Goa'uld in ancient days was such a massive blow to their breed that even to this day they've barely recovered. You only ever see one in the wild if you're lucky. You never see one Bonded. This is a big deal, Rodney. Like… like if we happened to find Atlantis full of Ancients with a lot of ZPMs they'd be willing to hand over kind of big."
"Now who's exaggerating," Rodney said dryly. He narrowed his eyes. "Seriously, you may want to think about backing off and giving the guy a little breathing room." Narrowed eyes widened and John heard McKay swallow. "He's very… spiky, if you haven't noticed."
"Oh, I've noticed," Bina said. He ripped away the recent drawing and started another. "Egyptian Blacks were rumored to have bred themselves for fighting. It's why the Goa'uld targeted them specifically. But it's all just aesthetics. Looking like a bad-ass doesn't necessarily make you a bad-ass."
Irritation surged from Corvax like an angry gust of ambient wind. It was high-time to intercede.
John stepped from the shadows. "And Corvax is an overgrown puppy; ask anyone." Interceding didn't equate coming to the rescue. Although he found it a little harder to ignore the second wave of annoyance. He managed, leaning with his back against the niche divide, hands in his jacket pockets. He grinned. "But he's a fair hand in a fight."
Rather than going for chastened, Bina perked up. "How good? Strategically or more fire-to-fire combat?"
McKay elbowed him in the flank, not that the dragon would feel it. "Bina!" He looked at John, not so much apologetic as mildly exasperated. "Sorry. He promises not to draw your dragon anymore."
"The hell I do. The next addition of dragonology is supposed to come out while we're off prancing around in another galaxy. I need to get the perfect angle and send all this in. I need…"
"To gather up your stuff, stop crushing on the good man's dragon," McKay started pushing against the creature that was roughly the size of an Indian elephant, "get to supply and make the bothersome supply people happy by approving the crates of kibble. So move!"