The Undone Years by vain_glorious (PG-13)
Rec Category: John Sheppard and Teyla Emmagan friendship
Pairing: Glimpse of Rodney McKay/OC, (John Sheppard/Teyla Emmagan in an offscreen alternate universe ONLY)
Category: GEN, John Sheppard and Teyla Emmagan friendship, Alternate Universe, John Sheppard, Character study, Teyla Emmagan, Angst, Vala, Cameron Mitchell, Daniel Jackson, Teyla Emmagan and Vala friendship, Sam Carter, Evan Lorne, Aiden Ford, Episode related, Drama,
Warning: The universe has possibly been turned wildly upside down and characters, some major, may have died. Or no one has died. Draw your own conclusions. Be warned that this one's a mind f*%$.
Author on LJ: http://vain-glorious.livejournal.com/
Author's Website: http://vain-glorious.livejournal.com/616.html
Link: http://vain-glorious.livejournal.com/23773.html (Fic start page)
Why This Must Be Read: My fondness for vain_glorious may be obvious from how many of her stories I have recommended. Not only does she write some of the few unpredictable mysteries I've read in the fandom but I think she has very interesting and insightful things to say about the characters (both SGA and SG-1, though the Atlantis crew is her usual focus). She always drags the reader forcibly exactly where she wants them to go no matter how viscerally painful and heart wrenching the process may be. (I'm usually sobbing hysterically.) Her stories are never fluffy or happy and I look at that as a trait to be admired. I am tempted to crown her with the angst queen tiara but I respect the uncompromising consistency of her authorial vision. Every story is as shocking, painful and immediate as a kick in the teeth and she never flinches from developing a concept to its fullest potential, even if no one else would dare. I don't know how she does it but she patiently endures her readers' whining, crying and complaints, perhaps knowing that in the end we are grateful for the emotional truths and the powerful reading experience she never fails to deliver. I've yet to read a story by her that I did not ponder for months after.
Her stories are all the more emotionally powerful for their originality, precise prose, pitch-perfect narratives and adept characterizations. I don't think you can go wrong with anything she's written. Not to pigeonhole but I think of her as the Stargate Shirley Jackson. Her work also strongly reminds me of the dark and moody psychological studies of Georges Simenon packaged for palatability into the Inspector Maigret mysteries. [Yes, Simenon may have been a Nazi collaborator and anti-Semite but he's long dead. No one morally bankrupt will profit if you check out his work, which bear no trace of the author's views except perhaps to be indelibly shaped by his intimate knowledge of the evil in every soul.]
As the story begins, John Sheppard, at least a John Sheppard, falls on a mission and hits his head. He wakes up in the SGC infirmary with a healing skull fracture and finds that everything has changed or never occurred. Or maybe they're all Replicators, a theory he tests out memorably. Carolyn Lam, General Landry, Sam, Daniel, Cameron, Aiden, Evan and Vala all tell him that what he remembers of the last five years never happened. The disastrous Atlantis expedition misdialed through to Athos. They shot many of the Athosians, mistaking them for aggressors. All of the Athosians and some of the expedition were culled and the remaining members huddled in caves until rescued months later by the Daedalus. Atlantis has never been found. This John is an admired SG team leader (Aiden and Lorne are on his team!), married to Teyla, a homeowner. He is happy, much less damaged and none of his relationships are the same. What happened? Why is he there? Is he the same Sheppard with amnesia and his memories are just fantasies? Has he been swapped with another universe's Sheppard? Can he get home? If he can, should he abandon those who love him and does he even want to? As narrator, John is profane, wry, confused and utterly himself at every moment. He remains the loyal man we love even as all becomes ever more alien as just how differently events occurred and continue to occur as a result of that fatal dialing error becomes more and more apparent. Despite his recognition that much is better in this reality (and the chance to see all his failures undone), John cannot escape his essential nature. He uses his memories to meddle for the better of the team and persists in failing to accept the party line that he's merely recalling fantasies from a long coma. Even as I railed against his actions, vain_glorious' characterization remained perfect and forced me to accept that he was incapable of reacting any other way even when he knew that he might be doing the wrong thing.
The Undone Years is a deeply painful, mysterious and revealing character study of John Sheppard and how his friendships with his team and his love for Atlantis have become so deeply a part of his basic identity that he can no longer function without them. The concept is not new but I haven't seen it explored in such a visceral and uncompromising way. This might be one of her finest stories yet but it has been curiously ignored so far. I think the John/Teyla phobes were put off by even the mention of a possible relationship between the two. Let me assure you that this is still vain_glorious and the story is strictly gen; the relationship between this John and Teyla is friendship only.
Their bond, which each bases on a history that the other does not remember, is the heart of story and is all that keeps John sane, though it's painful for both as John fumbles to fit himself into the hole left behind by a him he cannot remember or the AU Sheppard without wounding the unexpectedly fragile Teyla further. My heart aches for both as they long for the life and person they knew and loved and try to make do with what the other can give. Can the same person be just second best?
I dare even the most ardent Teyla hater to resist her here. This is a Teyla who has been crushed physically and emotionally, and then carefully pieced back together out of guilt, love, and necessity by the SGC, the missing Sheppard and her own hard work. Every Athosian may be gone and she might have been ripped from her home, way of life and universe but Teyla has refused to be defined by her losses. She has built a new life and home with a husband and best friend that she deeply loves, a vital role as negotiator for the SGC and a strong network of friendships.
I was fascinated by the author's juxtaposition of she and Vala, both alien women utterly alone in every galaxy, who could be said to be leveraging romantic relationships into sanctuary on Earth. (Stop! Don't throw rotten fruit at me! It's just a possible interpretation the author teases the reader with.) Vain_glorious slyly hints in the flashes Sheppard the male outsider glimpses of Teyla and Vala's relationship at how little any man can understand female friendship. Vala and Teyla both neatly steal most of the story from John. These are just some of my favorite parts and I hope you'll enjoy the story and let vain_glorious get you thinking. Please, please leave the author feedback as she "get sad and confused when [her] posts got lots of hits but no comments."
Pairing: Glimpse of Rodney McKay/OC, (John Sheppard/Teyla Emmagan in an offscreen alternate universe ONLY)
Category: GEN, John Sheppard and Teyla Emmagan friendship, Alternate Universe, John Sheppard, Character study, Teyla Emmagan, Angst, Vala, Cameron Mitchell, Daniel Jackson, Teyla Emmagan and Vala friendship, Sam Carter, Evan Lorne, Aiden Ford, Episode related, Drama,
Warning: The universe has possibly been turned wildly upside down and characters, some major, may have died. Or no one has died. Draw your own conclusions. Be warned that this one's a mind f*%$.
Author on LJ: http://vain-glorious.livejournal.com/
Author's Website: http://vain-glorious.livejournal.com/616.html
Link: http://vain-glorious.livejournal.com/23773.html (Fic start page)
Why This Must Be Read: My fondness for vain_glorious may be obvious from how many of her stories I have recommended. Not only does she write some of the few unpredictable mysteries I've read in the fandom but I think she has very interesting and insightful things to say about the characters (both SGA and SG-1, though the Atlantis crew is her usual focus). She always drags the reader forcibly exactly where she wants them to go no matter how viscerally painful and heart wrenching the process may be. (I'm usually sobbing hysterically.) Her stories are never fluffy or happy and I look at that as a trait to be admired. I am tempted to crown her with the angst queen tiara but I respect the uncompromising consistency of her authorial vision. Every story is as shocking, painful and immediate as a kick in the teeth and she never flinches from developing a concept to its fullest potential, even if no one else would dare. I don't know how she does it but she patiently endures her readers' whining, crying and complaints, perhaps knowing that in the end we are grateful for the emotional truths and the powerful reading experience she never fails to deliver. I've yet to read a story by her that I did not ponder for months after.
Her stories are all the more emotionally powerful for their originality, precise prose, pitch-perfect narratives and adept characterizations. I don't think you can go wrong with anything she's written. Not to pigeonhole but I think of her as the Stargate Shirley Jackson. Her work also strongly reminds me of the dark and moody psychological studies of Georges Simenon packaged for palatability into the Inspector Maigret mysteries. [Yes, Simenon may have been a Nazi collaborator and anti-Semite but he's long dead. No one morally bankrupt will profit if you check out his work, which bear no trace of the author's views except perhaps to be indelibly shaped by his intimate knowledge of the evil in every soul.]
As the story begins, John Sheppard, at least a John Sheppard, falls on a mission and hits his head. He wakes up in the SGC infirmary with a healing skull fracture and finds that everything has changed or never occurred. Or maybe they're all Replicators, a theory he tests out memorably. Carolyn Lam, General Landry, Sam, Daniel, Cameron, Aiden, Evan and Vala all tell him that what he remembers of the last five years never happened. The disastrous Atlantis expedition misdialed through to Athos. They shot many of the Athosians, mistaking them for aggressors. All of the Athosians and some of the expedition were culled and the remaining members huddled in caves until rescued months later by the Daedalus. Atlantis has never been found. This John is an admired SG team leader (Aiden and Lorne are on his team!), married to Teyla, a homeowner. He is happy, much less damaged and none of his relationships are the same. What happened? Why is he there? Is he the same Sheppard with amnesia and his memories are just fantasies? Has he been swapped with another universe's Sheppard? Can he get home? If he can, should he abandon those who love him and does he even want to? As narrator, John is profane, wry, confused and utterly himself at every moment. He remains the loyal man we love even as all becomes ever more alien as just how differently events occurred and continue to occur as a result of that fatal dialing error becomes more and more apparent. Despite his recognition that much is better in this reality (and the chance to see all his failures undone), John cannot escape his essential nature. He uses his memories to meddle for the better of the team and persists in failing to accept the party line that he's merely recalling fantasies from a long coma. Even as I railed against his actions, vain_glorious' characterization remained perfect and forced me to accept that he was incapable of reacting any other way even when he knew that he might be doing the wrong thing.
The Undone Years is a deeply painful, mysterious and revealing character study of John Sheppard and how his friendships with his team and his love for Atlantis have become so deeply a part of his basic identity that he can no longer function without them. The concept is not new but I haven't seen it explored in such a visceral and uncompromising way. This might be one of her finest stories yet but it has been curiously ignored so far. I think the John/Teyla phobes were put off by even the mention of a possible relationship between the two. Let me assure you that this is still vain_glorious and the story is strictly gen; the relationship between this John and Teyla is friendship only.
Their bond, which each bases on a history that the other does not remember, is the heart of story and is all that keeps John sane, though it's painful for both as John fumbles to fit himself into the hole left behind by a him he cannot remember or the AU Sheppard without wounding the unexpectedly fragile Teyla further. My heart aches for both as they long for the life and person they knew and loved and try to make do with what the other can give. Can the same person be just second best?
I dare even the most ardent Teyla hater to resist her here. This is a Teyla who has been crushed physically and emotionally, and then carefully pieced back together out of guilt, love, and necessity by the SGC, the missing Sheppard and her own hard work. Every Athosian may be gone and she might have been ripped from her home, way of life and universe but Teyla has refused to be defined by her losses. She has built a new life and home with a husband and best friend that she deeply loves, a vital role as negotiator for the SGC and a strong network of friendships.
I was fascinated by the author's juxtaposition of she and Vala, both alien women utterly alone in every galaxy, who could be said to be leveraging romantic relationships into sanctuary on Earth. (Stop! Don't throw rotten fruit at me! It's just a possible interpretation the author teases the reader with.) Vain_glorious slyly hints in the flashes Sheppard the male outsider glimpses of Teyla and Vala's relationship at how little any man can understand female friendship. Vala and Teyla both neatly steal most of the story from John. These are just some of my favorite parts and I hope you'll enjoy the story and let vain_glorious get you thinking. Please, please leave the author feedback as she "get sad and confused when [her] posts got lots of hits but no comments."