Hieroglyfics Recs

This story feels exactly like canon, except for the zombies, and I can’t believe I actually wrote that sentence in a rec. No, seriously. It was originally written as a series of comments to the anonymous Aubreyad Kink Meme, and with the author’s permission, I collated it into a single file, which is linked above. And it rocks utterly. It is the story of a plague that comes to London, and of sailing ships, and of politics, and how Jack and Stephen’s friendship is sorely tested by difficult times; it is magnificent, and you should read it. There are clever references to canon and to other sources (I detected a Shackleton homage, and I am sure there are others.) And there are zombies.

Ray and Fraser as ELVES! Heeeeee!

Wiseguy, Vinnie/Sonny, AU assuming Sonny escapes from the Rialto - and brings Vinnie with him. It’s a fabulous road-trip story, a perfect set-up and a satisfying ending.

Scenes from Epiphany are used to imply an AU history for John and how he met Rodney and came to Atlantis, and there’s some astonishing vid-manip work.

Ray/Ray with hints of F/K/V. Vecchio’s work in Vegas must come to an abrupt end when he sprouts wings; there’s a lovely metaphor of devils and angels, there, and in fact the whole story is rich with metaphor and imagery, sensitivity and grace and poetry. There’s a bit of plot which is not really resolved - I hope this story gets expanded or the clearly needed sequel written.

This is a remix of a story I haven’t read. It’s the kind of AU I like best (which is alas rare in SGA) - set in a world that is close to, but not quite, canon, in which familar canonical events (or their analogues) occur. Rodney’s still an SGC scientist, but John is a robot - except that he is not, as he claims to be, an AI sex toy, but a highly advanced and highly secret experimental model. The plot includes both standard Harlequin tropes and startlingly clever twists and revelations. There’s a bit of handwavium tossed around, but no more than in the show. A good read.

AU. Fraser leaves with Victoria, and makes one last phone call to Ray. It’s just a little scene, just a sliver of the story, but it’s so rich in what it shows and what it doesn’t. The Vecchio voice is fantastic.

I was intrigued by the title, captivated by the first line, and entertained mightily by the rest of the story. Sort of an Aubrey/Maturin fusion in feel, if you will. The story alternates sections of Doctor McKay’s journal (written in nicely period prose) and sections of dialogue that sound like they could have come from an episode of SGA in which the team has a collective nautical delusion.

I’m generally not a fan of stories about younger versions of the characters, but this AU in which they are college friends who become something more while on spring break is lovely and hot and sweet, with well-done structure that flips between flashback and present.

Although the ds_harlequin prompt (”Private eye Ray Kowalski is attracted to Benton Fraser from the moment he sees him– in the courtroom where Fraser is on trial for murder….) could have been pure AU, this story posits that Ray became a private detective after being booted from the police force in the aftermath of the Beth Botrelle case, and that during the events of Victoria’s Secret, Ray Vecchio catches up to Victoria…and is killed, and Fraser implicated. This makes for a plausible and fascinating story as it veers only a little distance from canon. There is an “alternate noir ending” which is linked from the last part; I thought it a little too far out to be believable in the context of due South fanfiction, but I sort of prefer it on strictly aesthetic grounds as it’s a totally kickass ending in a structural sense.

I recced a shorter version - what became the first chapter - before. But yay, Salieri continued and expanded this dystopian cyberpunky idea to a novella, and, wow. Fraser’s a bot looking for the killers of the AI that created him, and Ray’s a cop looking for answers. It’s got great nods to canon, a cleverly imagined plot, and an ending that knocked my socks off.

Written for the genre challenge, this is an absolutely fabulous take on Ladies’ Man (with a hint of Asylum, and a tiny bit of CotW) as a Dorothy Sayers pastiche - and Lord Peter Fraser is spot on. This AU posits that Kowalski was brought up on charges of killing Detective Botrelle, during the years that Fraser was partnered with Vecchio. The writing is gorgeous and the story unfolds beautifully.

Aubrey/Maturin, NC17, AU. If this is a fusion with something I don’t recognize, it’s brilliant, and if it’s an original fusion I’m floored. It takes O’Brian’s world into a different direction in the same way the Temeraire series does (but with its own completely realized execution: swords and sorcery, and a complicated feudal/sexual structure), and as such it would be fabulous as original fic. The dialogue and characterizations are fabulous, the minor characters from the series welcome grounding in canon, and the plot nicely done with a punchy ending.

This is apparently based loosely on the movie Never Been Kissed: Rodney’s masquerading as a biology grad student in order to get close to Professor Sheppard, for purposes that I don’t want to spoil here but the cool thing is that the AU converges with canon, which is my favorite type of AU. As you might expect, he gets close to Professor Sheppard in an, er, rather different way than he was supposed to. The absolute best part is Ronon, who takes to hanging out on a college campus with unexpected zest.

This is a rec with a caveat. I originally passed over this story because a, BSDM isn’t my thing, and b, I had not read the series which the story notes say this is an “unauthorized homage” of. I read it because of Cathexys’s (locked) post in which she referred to the story as a feminist critique; this is how I read and interpreted the story, and that’s why I liked it.

I guess I’d describe this as a “BSDM AU”. For discussion that includes the BSDM aspect and the relationship between this story and its source, see Millefiori’s post here; to me, it reads as brilliant social satire on traditional views of the role of women:

Until 1941, subs hadn’t been allowed in the military at all; temperamentally unsuited, everyone said, for fighting. Much better to keep them safe at home. Subs were excellent aids and secretaries, junior engineers, kindergarten teachers, nurses, assembly-line workers, mechanics, accountants—careful, rule-following, meticulous, obedient. In the midst of World War II, personnel shortages had forced the armed forces to allow subs to enlist, but they’d been put in separate units, and couldn’t be promoted beyond Corporal. Subs had separate rank insignias until 1970 and wore an S-pin on their collars until 1982.

I’m not generally a fan of BSDM, but here I don’t think it’s intended to be either particularly realistic or even titillating, so for me it works more as a metaphor, the absurdity of which is what makes the satire work. Helen also pokes fun at some canon and fanon elements (such as Sheppard’s frequent defiance of orders). The characterizations are fairly loose, as usual with her stories. The writing is beautifully invisible and just pulls the reader along.

Rodney’s a brilliant conductor who’s written a violin concerto, and John is the erratic but talented violinist trying to escape the shadow of his famous father. There are a few nods to canon - “think of where we are in the solar system”, the coin flip, flying metaphors - but mostly this is an entirely different world. Yet Rodney and John are both distinctly their canon characters and simultaneously perfectly translated into this world, and their individual faults and problems are transcended by what they can do together - just like in canon.

The Opening (McKay/Beckett, Sheppard/various implied, R)
Balancing Act (McKay/Beckett, McKay/Sheppard, NC17)

Series of short stories. Atlantis is a Manhattan restaurant, and McKay is the chef, a demanding and neurotic diva with a crush on the bartender, Sheppard. This AU reminds me a bit of Lalejandra’s publishing AU, except it has fewer in-jokes and is therefore more accessible. Well-written and witty, with clever casting choices. The stories read more like parts of a WIP than as separate stories; in particular, the first story doesn’t really end but just trails off at an odd point, with a suggested plot that doesn’t materialize in the second story (but the author promises more of in the future). The canon allusions are wonderful, and I wish there were more of them.

John and Teyla centric gen, alternate history AU.

This story, a pastiche of Lawrence of Arabia, is set in an AU Atlantis in which Sheppard came to Atlantis as a captain (and thus with less military authority); because he doesn’t go on the initial expedition to Athos, Teyla’s necklace isn’t activated, the Wraith don’t come to Athos, Sumner lives and the Wraith don’t awaken. Sumner runs his missions with the arrogance of a technologically and morally superior race, alienating the Pegasus people; Sheppard (the Lawrence character) is relegated to being “Captain LightSwitch,” using his gene to turn things on, until he gets itchy feet, wangles a mission to Athos, finds a kindred spirit in Teyla (who is a combination of Feisal and Ali), and “goes native.”

The brilliance of this story lies in the way that canon events (e.g. the meeting of the Genii, the discovery of the wrecked Wraith ship) are retold as they would have happened in this version of Atlantis. There are some very clever subtleties, such as the puddlejumpers being “gateships” (but of course!) and Sheppard’s thoughts on the “alternate alternate” history from the events of “Before I Sleep.” Sheppard is the perfect tragic Lawrencian hero, charismatic and sympathetic, disillusioned about the military yet a strong leader, ultimately a pawn in a terrible war.

You do not need to know the movie (or Lawrence’s autobiographical writings, which this draws from) to enjoy this fabulous story.

This tremendously original story, set in 17th century Italy, is about city magistrate Raimundo Vecchio and his French friend Benedetto Frasier, investigating a rumor about a painting of Christ modeled on the likeness of a “scruffy blonde barbarian” named Stanislaus. The writing is a bit uneven (particularly at the end) but overall, this story is clever and entertaining. (Part 2 is here.)

This is an AU in several senses; Ray and Fraser have chosen different careers, but for reasons traceable to changes in canon events. It was Fraser’s father, rather than his mother, who died when he was young, so although he becomes a Mountie, he never went to Chicago; and Ray quits the police force and becomes a pilot after the Beth Botrelle case. They meet in Fort Howell, when Ray gets a job with a Canadian puddlejumper air service. The plot wanders a bit at first, then turns into a thoughtfully reworked version of Victoria’s Secret.

Fraser’s a professor - this time, in geology - but Ray’s a cop. (I think this is the only AU I’ve seen in which RayK is a cop and Fraser is not a Mountie.) They meet in Hawaii, where Ray is on vacation and Fraser’s doing research. There are plenty of canon characters in new roles, but the enjoyable plot - although very much a due South style plot - isn’t drawn from any specific canon events.

Ray is a car mechanic, Fraser is an archeology professor. (And Ray Vecchio is a wiseguy, so expect some Ray-V-bashing.) A lot of familiar characters appear, but (as far as I can tell - I hadn’t seen all the episodes when I initially recced this story, and haven’t re-read it since) the plot doesn’t draw from any specific canon events. Still, a fun read and definitely worthwhile.

I love this story’s summary: Fraser returns to Chicago after a short holiday up north and finds a stranger in Ray Vecchio’s place. Too bad it’s not Ray Kowalski. Here, Ray K runs a garage, and someone has just murdered one of his mechanics; Fraser helps investigate and falls in love. The plot moves with perfect pacing, there are clever echoes of canon, and the romance tugged at my heartstrings with just the right amounts of sexiness and sappiness.

The famous hockeyfic. Populated with familiar characters - Turnbull, Gardino, Frannie and Ray Vecchio - in roles both familiar and unfamiliar, and the events of the pilot episode unfold in a way suited to this new world, yet familiar from the old.

This classic AU recasts Victoria’s betrayal of Fraser into the publish-or-perish world of academe.

The true story of the well-known rock band, The Puddlejumpers! How they formed; how they found a manager; about the replacement of their bassist Aiden Ford. Little canon details are translated cleverly to this AU. I don’t see the point of it being McKay/Sheppard, really - it would have been a fine gen story, which lately is my complaint about a lot of SGA fiction, which is part of my recent meh-ness about fanfiction, but I digress. It’s worth a read - and a look at the art - and a listen to the song (!). Multimedia, woo!

AU, crossover, romance, humor. I have no idea how to characterize this fic. John is a figure skater and Rodney’s on a curling team with Carson Beckett, Neil Bucyk (from Men With Brooms!), and Callum Keith Rennie. My brain hurts from all my fandoms crazily slamming into each other on the ice. Mostly what appeals to me is the wacko premise, but there is cute banter, and a few clever canon references.

I’m reccing this even though it’s an abandoned WIP, because the beginning and the end are written and make a satisfying story even without more than a sketched-out middle. This is an AU (AR?) of the sort in which a canon event happened differently: in this case, Ray K wasn’t wearing the bulletproof vest in the first s3 episode, so he dies - but he’s around as a ghost, a la Bob Fraser.

Well, everyone probably knows about this by now - the Pizza AU. Well-written and scorchingly hot, with an entertaining plot (that demonizes Ray V a little, be warned). The best part for me was the emotional climax that is a very clear nod (heck, verbatim dialogue!) to Mountie on the Bounty, which I had just seen the night before I read the story.

Rodney is called away from his teaching job for his father’s funeral, where he meets Captain John Sheppard of the Air Force and learns his family may have some hidden secrets. Entertaining but not exceptional until the second half, when some of those secrets turn out to involve alien devices and Area 51, and the story begins to converge with canon. I particularly like Rodney’s characterization and the jealousy he can’t hide that John got to spend his childhood with the very scientists Rodney idolizes. Note that one aspect of the AU (which might be guessable from this summary) may be squicky for some (and push kink buttons for others).

Novella-length WWII-era AU. Elegantly conceived and beautifully written, with spot-on characterizations (and excellent casting choices in most cases) and scorching sex. I love this story so much. Easily my favorite of the 2005 sga_santa stories, and a strong contender for favorite SGA story ever. Seriously. Go read it.

What if, in Lost Boys, Kanayo had taken both Rodney and John to steal the C4 from the Genii? This is an action-adventure to sink your teeth into; the characterization of enzyme!Rodney is magnificent. And it’s got Kolya, the villain I love to hate.