astolat's livejournal

A really high-quality fic site my company firewall hasn't found a blocked yet! yesyesyes

Plus, I adore your fanfiction sight unseen.

[off to make limited personal use of the company internet connection pursuant to official policy allowing limited personal use thereof]

Fantastic read. I enjoyed this a great deal. Cracking read ;-)

Thanks, and for the rec! :)

I think -- though I'm not sure, and I'm reserving judgment, so as not to be called hasty -- I think that it may be a bad sign, in terms of my priorities, that I saw this post and a) immediately closed all the windows in which I was doing work (that thing I get paid for) and b) printed this out. *g*

Well, personally, I think your priorities are exactly what they ought to be. *grins*

Awesome. I think my favorite line is, "please don't be on my side anymore." I can just picture it -- classic Mckay!

*grins* Yay! That was one of my own favorites too. Thanks!

OMG! *dies from the Atlantis overload* That was wonderful. Rodney in charge is now a kink for me. He was so capable and gah! And poor John not knowing what to make of it, and then becoming the perfect partner.... The whole time I was just wondering what would happen when Wier woke up. Brilliant! I can not say enough good things about this. Wonderful job.

Thank you so much! Yes, it really was a lot of fun to write. Glad you liked!

This was wonderful. Everything was spot on, character-wise, and the action kept me on the edge of my seat. (I had to take breaks, usually, after teh hot gay sex(tm) because I couldn't handle all of this in one setting. It's really, really wonderful.

Thanks so much! It's a lot of fun to write action for SG. (And the gay sex part, you know, also fun. ;)

Oh, sweet mother of...

That's the best, and hottest, piece of fan fiction written in the SGA fandom so far. I think I love you.

*blushes* Thank you so much! That's a really lovely thing to hear. And hey, while you are here (er, or while I am here. er. I think) -- I loved the Zelenka & McKay drabble! Just read it now and eee, the cute.

Best Atlantis fic I've read. I've shared the link with everyone I know who even has a passing interest in Atlantis. Characters are spot on and voices were perfect. Everything I look for in a fic -- particularly the great plot. Can't rec this enough!

And wow of my own -- thanks so much! I'm so pleased and flattered you liked it this much. *beams*

*finishes story*
*lights cigarette*
*sighs happily*

Okay, I have seen very little of this show. But everyone was so incredibly vivid, and the plot was so engrossing, and the power plays were so tense, and the sex was so hot and amazing, and I was just on the edge of my seat the whole time.

::blisses out::

It's phenomenal.

*beams* Thank you so much -- and dude, you want to see more of the show, I promise! There is the yum of the Sheppard/McKay, and the storytelling and arc of the second half of the season is some seriously good stuff.

I'm pretty sure I had things to do before I found and read this, but I can't remember them now.
This is without doubt the best Atlantis fic I have read yet. There is so much I love about this that I don't even know where to start. The voices, the sex, the story...everything is just brillliant.
*thinks about intelligent things to say and can't come up with anything*
See, you've ruined my brain.

It's great to put people in the same boat as I was writing it, because oy, did I have work to do before this took over my brain. *grins* Thank you so much!

Thank you, thank you, thank you. That was the Atlantis story that I've been looking for. Tremendous.

Thank you for the lovely fb! :)

Huh. So my plan to do homework this afternoon? Right out the window. Out the window so fast that the window doesn't even exist any more. Window went *poof* and gave up.

My goodness, that was toasty. And funny. And Rodney and John running things perfectly while still making a huge mess of everything. I'm so glad my fandom timing is improving, and I'm in this fandom right now.

*hugs* I'm so glad you're in this fandom too! And yay, yes, with Rodney and John -- making plans that only work because the rest of the universe is as crazy as they are. *g*

Yay! My comments will be sadly inadequate, but what I like most about your Sheppard and McKay is that you let Sheppard be really really smart too. He's not a dumb grunt and he doesn't need to be to get a good contrast between them. The plot was also wonderful and convoluted and fun, with great teamwork (one of my bulletproof kinks, actually). I would have liked to see what happened with Teyla & Bates!

you let Sheppard be really really smart too

Yes yes yes. That is totally it for me. I *love* the fact that Sheppard's also really smart and a math geek on the show. He's just specialized in different areas -- totally complementary, and with enough in common to really communicate.

And as for Teyla and Bates, I think that what happens is there's an attack on Atlantis at some point, and they end up pinned in a corner, fighting off the enemy, back to back. Then the last bad guy falls, they stand shakily, look at one other, and jump each other at the same time.

And then they spend months never speaking about it again, of course. *g*

I can't possibly put into words how much I love this story! Your McKay is fantastic and I love that Sheppard guessed his password too soon! This is one of those stories that I immediately want to reread as soon as I've finished it - so bye bye productivity for the next few days. Thank you.

*beams and hearts John* I do so love how he can surprise Rodney. Thanks for the fb!

I've just started reading Atlantis fic, and I'm afraid that you've set quite a high standard for other stories to live up to.

This was just perfect. The plot, with every single twist and added dimension that just kept building towards the end, it had me sitting on the edge of my seat, wanting to scroll faster, but at the same time I never wanted to reach the last line. Lovely, lovely story.

Thanks so much! There's a lot of good stuff out there, though, too -- wistful_fever just put out a long list of recs, and also check out sga_flashfic -- those are shorter pieces, but some really nice stuff has been coming down the line.

But I have to say that this is the first time *ever* that I have needed a cigarrette after finishing a story.

And I don't even *smoke*.

...seriously, I'm not kidding.

Congratulations... and ohmygodcanihaveyourtawdryonenightstandbabies?

\luvs and luvs\

PS: And because it merits mentioning, this?

"Will you please let me out now?" he said.

Rodney blinked at him, looking vaguely unfocused. "No."

"I said please!" John said.

"What is this, kindergarten? There is no magic word," Rodney said.

Might be the best fucking thing in the history of ever... in a long list of equally awesome things in this story.

Thank you! I'm over here, feeling smug. *grins broadly*

I can't tell you how much I loved this fic. Seriously, I'm in awe. It's definitely one of my favorites. I'm reccing it all over the place.

Thanks ever so much for writing it! *g*

Thank you so much, both for the feedback and for your enthusiasm, and hosting such a chunk of the discussion. I've been being a good author and keeping out of it, but it's been really cool to watch from the sidelines. Not only has the discussion been fascinating in and of itself, but I've gotten to hear so much detail about how different people *read* the story, whether they liked or disliked it. It's just been phenomenal. *shamelessly gloats*

Dang. That was *amazing*. Poor Weir, but... I agree with John. After reading that fic, I wished McKay still was in charge! Leader!Rodney was fabulous, off-kilter, strangely authentic-feeling and wonderful in so many unexpected ways. I really, really liked it, and it left me hungry for more.

Thank you! It was a lot of fun coming up with how he'd act, as a leader, and yeah, there were moments when it was tempting to keep him in charge. *g*

I love this story. McKay in charge was kind of creepy and sociopathic in a great and perfectly-in-character way, and I'm glad you had Weir call him on that in the end.

Also, very hot.

Yeah, for me it was the alarming albeit fun extension of what we've seen in him -- arrogance and logic carried to an extreme. *g* Thank you!

OMG, this story nearly killed me dead with its shiny sharp excellence. Wow!

*is incoherent with lust love for it and you, for sharing*
Um, yeah. :) Thank you.

eee, shiny sharp excellence. That is like the best compliment ever. Thank you for the fb!

Wow. Just amazing. Your character voices were perfect, and by that I mean all of them - McShep of course, but Teyla and Zelenka were also spot on. And so very plotty! loved it loved it loved it!

Thanks so much! I heart Zelenka, of *course* *g*, but Teyla has been seriously growing on me as a character over the whole season. :)

Oh, wow. I just love this. I love this so much. With the McKay in charge and the bringing John into line and the hotness!

Thank you! And I have to say I wildly heart your icon. The look on Rodney's face!

Hi!

I found this fic yesterday and read it last night and have to say I love it! I've not really watched many SGA fics, but this fic made me SO love Sheppard and McKay! And the sex?? *melts* So HOT! *melts some more*

Thanks for sharing such a wonderful fic!

Thank you so much! Glad I was able to share the love. :-)

This was very crisply written and I really, really enjoyed it. Steamy bits, too. *g*

And while I know Rodney leads the Science team and has to be damned capable of that otherwise they'd not be as productive as they are ...

I've never, even once, considered him in the actual chain of command. I was wondering why you did? As always, I'm merely curious, not looking to fatch or anything. I just like to understand how others arrive at their ideas.

B

Thanks! And I'm always happy to burble on about my ideas. *g* In this particular case, it was more egg-before-the-chicken.

Though the story doesn't touch on the episode at all, this is originally a Hot Zone-inspired story -- specifically inspired by the Weir/Sheppard power struggle going on while Rodney was in charge the research staff during the crisis. Neither Weir nor Sheppard came off really well, and the power struggle was left unresolved at the end in a way that just itches at me. At the same time, it was the first time where we've seen Rodney really being a leader, and he did a bang-up job of marshalling his troops and keeping things together without ever losing the withering sarcasm that is his charm. *g*

So my original, back-in-the-mists-of-time idea was, what if *both* Weir and Sheppard were knocked out, and suddenly there was a power vacuum? Certainly sciences/research are one of if not the most important civilian divisions, and we haven't really seen anyone else in a civilian leadership role other than Dr. Beckett. There's also a proud tradition of science officers being fairly high in the chain in SF tv, and it does make sense to me, because if you've been hit at the top and presumably have a crisis going on, you want someone who understands instantly what all the technological options at your disposal are, in a situation like in Atlantis where those are both many and powerful.

The question of whether command would continue down the civilian line or switch over to the military is a separate one -- obviously it also makes a lot of sense that if you've been hit at the top, you want the military in charge. On the other hand, civilian command seems to have been important both to the President and to the US allies, and clearly this is a multinational group, where many of the people might have objections or unease about reporting to a US military officer directly.

A couple of spoilers from end of season through Siege part 2 here in white font: When Everett comes in, even though he relieves Weir and commands the return of all military personnel, he doesn't command the civilians to come back, he asks for damage control volunteers. It's not clear to me whether that's because he doesn't have the right to order noncombatants to fight, or because he doesn't have the right to command the civilian personnel period, many of whom aren't US citizens. Also, though this is minor, Rodney is the one who turns on the self-destruct with Elizabeth, when John isn't there, which is a little more support for the idea that he's next in the civilian chain, though it might just be that he's the most senior person there at the moment.

Anyway, we don't have enough from canon to either rule it out or assert it, but it's plausible enough to me to be an available option to play with in fic. I thought it would be fun seeing Rodney having power struggles with Bates, a scientists vs. the military kind of thing, and finding geeky ways to deal with the Genii rather than a straightforward military assault.

It still wasn't a real story idea at this point, though. It was more a bit of metadiscussion, playing with some ideas that wound up in the story, like Rodney using knowledge of the Ancient technology and marshaling the research staff to help him counter the military, and the idea of doing something to the Genii stargate. I got motivated to actually *write* it when Julad and Mia said, "What, are you nuts? You don't put *John* in stasis," and pointed out that I could still play with all the ideas of Rodney being in command, I just needed to make the assumption that he'd be in charge after Weir. And all of a sudden it became about playing out the power struggle between the two of them in a sexy way and paralleling that with the struggle to control the Genii, and that was just a whole lot of fun. *g*

So anyway -- it wasn't that I'm convinced Rodney would be in command, more that telling this story required making the assumption that command would follow the civilian chain, otherwise John would be in command. (I have hopes of making julad write that one, actually. *g*)

This is a thing of beauty. Hot beauty. Is it wrong that I just want to read it and read it and read it and never do anything else?

Hmm, well, I won't argue with that plan of action! *grins* Thanks!