recs of times before now

Because Austin is finally cold, and I'm in the mood for warm, warm fic. And cheerful fic! And fic that was generally posted fairly far back and so I feel it is my duty to make sure every new SGA Sheppard/McKay fangirl reads because wow. The awesome is legion.

Fic to Make You Smile

An Aesthetic, Solitary Thing by eliade - this was posted way back and I seriously don't think you can call yourself a Sheppard/McKay fangirl if you haven't read it. It's pon-farr! Alien!Rodney! Utterly gorgeous and hot and utterly beautiful the way only eliade can really be.

"You have a mating cycle," Elizabeth said, obviously wishing in a heartfelt way that he didn't. John was right there with her.

"I just said that I don't. Except...maybe." He seemed caught by the thought for the first time, interested. "Huh. That might explain the symptoms I've been having."

You've got to be kidding, John thought, fighting dismay. Beckett seemed to be thinking the same thing.

Elizabeth pressed him. "And what exactly does a mating cycle entail?"

He blinked at her. "I need to explain procreation?"

"In this instance? Yes."

I seriously cannot, cannot emphasize the awesome enough here.

A Blue True Dream of Sky by isilya - of all AUs, this one is one of my read-several-times-a-year, because it's just that damn good. It's an original take on the AU with a strong, original plotline and wonderfully realized characteriations. The story is set in the outback with cattle, a terrible disease, a researcher looking for a way to stop it, and a world so well-built I feel like I lived there. This isn't to be missed.

“I am not okay,” Rodney repeats, but he relaxes into Sheppard. Sheppard lets him lean there for a moment, which Rodney really appreciates; Sheppard is warm and strong and being inexplicably nice. Sheppard rubs his hands up and down Rodney’s arms, smoothing away the goose-bumps of Rodney’s chilled skin. Rodney heaves a couple of deep breaths, not failing to notice that Sheppard smells really good.

“Right,” Sheppard says, stepping back and touching the cut over Rodney’s eye gently. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Sheppard gets a flannel and a bucket of warm water. He wipes Rodney down slowly with careful strokes over all Rodney’s bruises. “Christ,” Sheppard says, “You really were almost killed, weren’t you.”

Rodney looks down to see that Sheppard has gone thin-lipped and frowning. Rodney shivers, and Sheppard eases down his shorts, and washes him so matter-of-factly that Rodney can’t even feel embarrassed. He sways forward into Sheppard and Sheppard rinses out the flannel and wipes his forehead. Rodney feels confused, and sore, and battered almost as badly by Sheppard’s soft touches as he felt by the stampeding cattle the night before. He says; “Quit being so nice, you’re making feel like I’m at my own funeral,” but he doesn’t quite hit the tone he was aiming for–it comes out all breathy and pleading.

That's not a quote from the plot; trust me in this, you will love it.

Existence as Interesting As Possible by wax_jism - I can say with honesty that anytime there is trapped on a dying planet that I usually expect a lot more trauma. And there is! But it is minor trauma. There is a dragon and a dying planet and some goat-like things, and Rodney, and John, and it's just--marvelous. Marvelous.

McKay shucked his BDUs and threw them over a branch. His boxers weren't anything funny like Sheppard had hoped. He would have bet money on McKay being the novelty underwear type. "Mutant deerskins, beard like a biker, living on mutant deer jerky and roots, back permanently bent from sitting hunched over that crystal... Is it cold? Piranhas? Embarrassing shrinkage?"

Sheppard stopped watching him undress and instead floated in the shallow water, staring straight up. Birds flew from treetop to treetop. Would there be alien squirrels in the trees?

Loud splashing and some undignified whooping announced McKay's arrival. "It's freezing, are you insane? I'm Canadian, I know freezing."

"You're a sad, pale, indoor Canadian, though," Sheppard said, turning his head to see McKay not far away, looking less disgruntled than he sounded. His arms were covered with goosebumps.

"It's not good to swim so soon after eating," McKay muttered.

"The water is three feet deep!"

"Sure, sure, we can risk our lives, I mean, what's the use of trying to be careful when the universe hates us? They all think we're dead, back on Atlantis. We're dead to them, we're lost in space. 'Oh, the Major and Doctor McKay, did you hear, so sad, eaten by a dragon. Now we must make do with Bates and Zelenka.' Good luck with that, by the way. They won't come looking for us. And if they did, what are the chances they'd look here? And if they did by some miracle look here, the rescue party would be stuck too. This planet is a galactic pitcher plant. Ergo, the universe hates us and wants us to die. I might as well swim now."

Jam Every Other Day by arionchan - two parts, linked. I'll quote my rec originally, because it kind of encapsulates my feelings on the story:

The author said Wonderlandish, and yes, surreal as hell, but it's so damn *good* and easy to follow and just--wow. I loved everything--the virtual environment, the ship, the way Rodney has to succeed and the way that he really needs to move on from that water related death thing--it just works in every way.

Pinched the bridge of its nose and actually, that is a familiar gesture and one he seems to provoke fairly often. Hell, sometimes he does it on purpose, just for the fun of it. "You're not immersed in a virtual environment. You're getting a direct feed of my system data which your brain is interpreting in whatever way is most intrinsic to you. And may I add that I hope you have some kind of psychological training, because that really helps when it comes to being an engineer on the good ship Protection. He, on the other hand, is essentially in here. With me. Which, actually, isn't the way the interfaces are supposed to work, and God only knows how he managed to do it. So what this means is that instead of having to just separate the virus from me and kill it, you now get the fun job of trying to separate it from both of us. And may I add that the odds the virus will still be trying to kill him, specifically, are very high? Or did you get that on your own, genius that you are?"

Okay, now. The formatting is not standard for reading, and it can and does get a little--*see-saws*. I just cut and paste to word and double lined everything to read it and that worked fine for me since I save fic I like anyway. Just--move beyond the formatting, find zen in how seriously cool this is, with a truly interesting plotline.

And...yeah. I am so avoiding work and I don't even care.

Comments

[demilo19.livejournal.com]

You are a godsend. I'm bored out of my mind today and nothing looked good to read (a pain worse than death!) but this, this gives me an afternoon of things to enjoy. I haven't read all of these so yay!

Thank you!

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Whee!

I like remembering and reccing the stuff that was formative to me when I start in a fandom, because with all that's posted, it's easy to, you know, forget. I *still* run across stories I loved when I started in the fandom that I completely forgot about.

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the recs!! I am that new SGA Sheppard/McKay fangirl of which you speak, and I have not read these yet. So yay.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*bounces* You'll have a blast!

Um, if it's not too presumptuous, I keep a rec page if you're interested--I haven't updated since last December (Dear god. Really? *shocky*), but it's fairly thorough up to then.

http://seperis.illuminatedtext.com/recs.html

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

That's not presumptuous at all. It's great!! I love rec pages! Oh, my, Queer as Folk recs... zzzt. Now I have to read some of those, too.

[iphi1.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!! I have 166 SGA fics on del.icio.us and I must have read hundreds more, but I somehow managed to miss 3 of the 4 fics you recced here.
*Goes off to read*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Whee! Which one did you have? *curious*

[iphi1.livejournal.com]

An Aesthetic, Solitary Thing by eliade.

I methodically and alphabetically read all the SGA fics you recced on Illuminatedtext.com although obviously not as methodically as I thought.

In fact, I started with the Smallville recs and after I was done with those I started watching SGA, because I really wanted to read MORE fics.

YOU *points accusingly* are personally responsible for my husband's threats to leave me because I don't pay enough attention to him. :)

[aurora]

Great, now I have to re-read all of these. :D

[devin-chain.livejournal.com]

I've spent the last couple of weeks working my way down your SGA recs list at Indulgence. I've tried SGA a couple of times, liked it, but ultimately not enough to jump in the pool. Suddenly I'm reading everything. I don't understand my brain. But I'm glad you keep up with your recs list. Thank you.

I have this itch to try writing something in the fandom, but the science and math give me shivers. Any suggestions?

[jmchau.livejournal.com]

I hadn't read Jam Every Other Day before. Thanks for the rec

[elaran.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the fic recs. Am currently working on The Most Ginormous List Of McShep Fics That Every McShepper Should Read. It has 60+ fics on it atm. Er, there is a slightly biased selection of AU fics and happy-ending kinda ones seeing as I'm not much for character-deaths. Anyway, what I was working my way up to saying in a rambling sense was thanks for the fic recs because I liked them and it's reminded me to finish off my recs too. :)

[pyrae.livejournal.com]

I've been informed I'll have nothing to do at work tomorrow so I should bring a book or something. Well, the walk to the library is fucking cold. *saves this list instead*