exsequar: (SGA McShep by the water)
[personal profile] exsequar
*takes a deep breath*

Okay. I'm going to try for coherence here. I'll probably fail, but here goes.

I just read what is, in fact, the best piece of fanfiction I believe I have ever read, and it certainly ranks up there with all fiction period. You think I am kidding. I, too, was tempted to scoff a little at Mona when she sent me this link and flailed, a LOT, and said "It's one of those works of words that will CHANGE YOUR LIFE." She wasn't kidding, nor exaggerating. Seriously.

To give you some trivial way of measuring this story's impact, it has 25 pages of comments. That's rather extreme, and so very very deserved. It is a Stargate Atlantis futurefic, with Rodney as the focal point. Set years after the events of the show itself, the Atlantis mission is over and everyone has returned back to Earth. Rodney is a professor at "Flyspeck University," and a much changed man, the result of years of his actions having fatal AND life-saving consequences, of dealing with crises in a distant galaxy where the basics were always in question, of bonding with other human beings on a level it is difficult to comprehend. This is a story about what he does with that history weighing down on his shoulders. He tried to fall completely off the radar, but instead, despite himself, he begins to sculpt a beautiful future, one of hope and promise and wonder, for others. I don't want to spoil too much, because it is Rodney's evolution, as graceful as the unfolding petals of a new flower, that shapes this story and gives it its life.

I cried, several times. There are parts that stole my breath away, made me ache profoundly. Every word is chosen and crafted with such precision that it's like every sentence is a new revelation. This is just one example, in a story that must be at least 10k words:

Sometimes at night, he looks up into the stars, the patterns that were all he knew for so much of his life and now look like a stranger's face, and wonders what's happening out there. Wonders if they're winning; wonders if he'll wake up one morning and find they've lost. He is surprised at how little he cares. There are things he's done, and there are things he's said he'll never do again, and he knows, now, that the best and only thing he can do to change the world is to set small ripples in motion, because small ripples become large waves and the world, the universe, is a beautiful quantum jewel built from fractals of consequence and conscience.


Please, read this story. It's got mild spoilers for some of SGA, but nothing important. It is good to be familiar with the characters, though, to understand the layered emotional resonances. But even if you simply plan to watch this show - bookmark this story. You won't regret it.

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose by [livejournal.com profile] synecdochic.

Date: 2007-01-22 10:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] phaballa.livejournal.com
I love that writer. If only I watched SGA and didn't think it was horrible. Sigh.

Date: 2007-01-23 12:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] exsequar.livejournal.com
You make me sad in my heart :(

Date: 2007-01-23 04:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] phaballa.livejournal.com
I tried to like it. I did! I just... am incapable. It makes me sad, too.

Date: 2007-01-22 11:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] musical-emjay.livejournal.com
Oh god, I've seen this one recced all over the place, notably as "The Story That Broke Fandom", but I've been saving it for a time when I can sit down and appreciate it, you know?

Now is not that time, with papers that need to be written and two ficathon stories due, but I think I might just have to go read it now. I'm in the mood to be broken ;)

Thanks for the rec ♥

Date: 2007-01-23 12:38 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] exsequar.livejournal.com
You are very welcome, sweetie. And feel free to come flail at me when you finish, because I will never be done flailing about this story. Good lord.

Date: 2007-01-23 12:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beatperfume.livejournal.com
Oh my God, I love that story. It seriously ... I sat around like a zombie for a week after I read that story, just THINKING about it. And I tried to explain to my roommate about it, but all I could do was flail my hands around and say "And Rodney! With the! And the! And!"

Sometimes it just comes up again in my mind and I have to to pause what I'm doing, whatever I'm doing and just savor it. Because god. So good.

Date: 2007-01-23 12:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] exsequar.livejournal.com
Yes. Yes. I understand completely, because, with the FLAILING - that's kind of all that can be said about this story. I mean, it just swallows you whole. It's so understated and that's its POWER. I just... god. I think this one's going to stick with me forever and ever. And ever.

I need to read it again.

Date: 2007-01-23 12:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shibbyfangirl.livejournal.com
Hey, I'm new here. I just friended you and I hope you don't mind~! We seem to have a lot in common, such as SUPERNATURAL. But also Harry Potter, Queer as Folk (BRIAN KINNEY!) and Gilmore Girls too. :)

Date: 2007-01-23 02:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lemurjoe.livejournal.com
God, that was a beautiful story.

It brought up so many things for me, I can't even go into them, much less spam your lj with them. But yeah.

You owe me a box of kleenex, and you know guys don't cry over things like this. :)

Date: 2007-01-23 03:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] candidlily.livejournal.com
Remind me of this when I've watched SGA. I'll ask for it. :P

Date: 2007-01-23 04:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] burns-my-skin.livejournal.com
Hi!

That was one of the first SGA fics I ever read and I had no idea of the story line . It was the most unexpectedly amazing surprise. I've read so many since then and I'm a John-centric girl but this fic is one of my absolute favourties.

Date: 2007-01-23 06:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crediniaeth.livejournal.com
GOOD FIC REC, SWEETIE.

I love SGA but don't get to watch it very often, and I LOVE THAT FIC. If you're looking for another one of those good John/Rodney fics, I would recommend String Theory (http://toft-froggy.livejournal.com/190025.html). It's an AU, but a GOOD AU. Rodney's a symphony conductor and John is a headstrong violinist.

It's AWESOMESAUCE.

*grins*

Date: 2007-01-23 06:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] exsequar.livejournal.com
BEST FIC EVER. And I think I actually mean that this time :D

Oooooh, thanks SO much for the rec! :D It seems like this fandom loves McShep AUs, which is simply AWESOMESAUCE, as you so eloquently put it :D Yay!

Date: 2007-01-23 06:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crediniaeth.livejournal.com
That fic is the reason I put Eternal Father (http://www.adoptedaustralian.net/glorylibertymix/scars/05%20Eternal%20Father.m4a) on one of my Summer 2006 (http://community.livejournal.com/glorylibertymix/7803.html) mixes. I didn't have that CD burned to my computer... but I searched the house for WEEKS because that was the only version of the song I though fit. It has waves! Crashing! Like being out in the middle of the ocean! PERFECT.

Date: 2007-01-23 06:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] exsequar.livejournal.com
Whee, thank you! *downloads*

Date: 2007-01-23 03:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mona1347.livejournal.com
OOooo, I read that one too a while back and it IS awesome!

*shoos Anne toward it*

Date: 2007-01-23 10:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crystal-lily.livejournal.com
Damnit I'm all excited about this fic now and I want to read it but it's like 1 AM and I need to save this for tomrrow so I can give it the proper appreciation it deserves. :D

Date: 2007-01-25 07:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crystal-lily.livejournal.com
Okay, so now I've read it and... I printed it out, and sat down to read it cause I usually don't read fics this long. And just... dude, WOW. It was so heartbreaking, and beautiful, and man, Rodney.. *squishes him*. It was McShep, but that wasn't really the focus, and yet it was so elegantly strewn into the fic. That little bit about the dog-tags tugged my heart a bit (cause I seem to have some kind of a dog-tag fetish of some kind) and the ending just made me cry. And I really don't cry THAT easily. Not at all easily actually. I don't think a fic made me cry before.

So, ummm, yeah. Thank you for linking it! :D *muah*

Date: 2007-01-25 09:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] exsequar.livejournal.com
Eeee, you're welcome! See, I told you, it's just so - powerful! Absolutely unbelievable. The McShep is perfect in its simplicity - they were in love. For five and a half years. The part that absolutely broke me was about Rodney going insane after John died and breaking his wrists in the restraints - every time his aching wrists were mentioned after that, I whimpered a little. So many little details like that that just get you in the heart. I'm so glad you liked it, not that I doubted it :D

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