Pat

Went to the hospital with my mom to let them x-ray her ribcage.

During the conversation afterwards mom asked the female doc what does a CAT scanner looks like.

Her answer: "It's a big ring. Just like a stargate, just without the wormhole."

\O/

sgamadison's stories were among the first I read when I got into SGA fandom. Fortunately, I have to say, because I wasn't quite convinced by the show but sat on the fence, so to speak. Her work was one of three that finally roped me in.
She has written a lot of stories and it's difficult to restrict myself to only five but I'll do my best. Of course, I would recommend to read all of what she has written but I guess once you've taken a look at the recs you'll do that anyway.

"Second Verse"
Summary by the author: Written for the 2009 sgabigbang. A bitter and disfigured Sheppard is forced to play the role of McKay's friend when a delusional Rodney from another universe encounters an embattled Atlantis. Before he knows it, John finds himself changing under the influence of Rodney's friendship. But will that relationship survive when Rodney finds out that John has just been playing him all along?

Give this one a chance despite the somewhat dark summary and the warnings at the bottom of the Big Bang page - it's so worth it. I love the Rodney and John in this one to bits and I'm still not sure if it's despite or because of their flaws. It's an intriguing, thought provoking story that I couldn't stop to read when I first discovered it. And since it's a Big Bang story: don't forget to check out the artwork.

In fact, I recommend all her "Second" stories which are variations on the theme of alternate realities: http://sgamadison.livejournal.com/…


“Tormack and Tavabeans"
Summary by the author: Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it.

Pegasii in Pegasus! A sister city to Atlantis with a twisted time line - it seems as if sgamadison never runs out of baffling ideas. This story is part of the "Cabin"-series that started out as a response to the cancellation of the show but then took on a life of it's own.


“Unfinished Business"
Summary by the author: Like Schrodinger's Cat, John is both dead and alive. Rodney will not accept 'dead' as an answer, however.

John, slightly grossed out by himself but mostly just trying to do what needs to be done. Rodney, not accepting the situation but insisting there has to be a way out even before he knows any details. Ronon being his unflappable self, not even flinching when John orders him to kill him but simply asking "how". Teyla, out of her depth but giving her best to do what she knows is the right thing to do.

The only "kind of zombie" story I ever liked! And usually I hate them with a passion.


“A Lesson in Evil"
Summary by the author: A series of bizarre murders has Holmes and Watson on the hunt for a dangerous killer, but it is the arrival of strangers that has Watson questioning everything he knows.

A SGA/Sherlock crossover? By sgamadison? Of course it's worth the read!

“Wake Up Call"

Summary by the author: He was going to go down in history as the man who killed John Sheppard.

We all make mistakes (but I bet most of them are tiny and insignificant compared to Rodney's) and I could *so* relate to Rodney's dismay when he realized what he had done.
Wonderful character study and of course a lovely solution.


Now, go, enjoy, and if you want to do so, drop her a note that you liked her work or simply leave a kudo at AO3. I guess it's always nice for an author to see that her work is appreciated.

... then go and read "Thirty Hours" by siegeofangels (here: http://siegeofangels.livejournal.c…)

Short and funny (don't worry, everything is back to normal at the end).

And after you've read the last line - and can you imagine the reputation the Lanteans will get after this little incident? ;-)

On a completely different note: watched "Aurora" and "The Lost Boys" yesterday evening (SyFy is doing re-runs over here in Germany).

Aurora:
John failing to convince Rodney that he's the one who should enter Aurora's virtual reality and Teyla succeeding in it:

TEYLA: Rodney. Between the two of you, if something were to go wrong, which would be the greater loss?

McKAY: Well, I've never thought of it that way but ... (he looks at John) she's right. You should go.

That "See, *that's* how you do it."-look Teyla is giving John immediately afterwards while Ronon is turning away in the background (reminds me of the scene from Adrift) probably rolling his eyes - still priceless! As short as it is, it's such a team moment.

The Lost Boys:
Have you ever thought about how long those "captured for their enzyme"-wraith in Ford's lair would survive and produce enzyme without feeding? Because - I refuse to think that Ford and his merry men would actually feed them in order to keep them alive and ... eh, "productive".

Is it possible to develop firearms like the Genii did without also getting the idea of developing explosives?

Okay, I can buy that they didn't exactly found out how to make C4 - but gunpowder?

Though from the way Cowen reacts and behaves it seems that he didn't come across the idea of having explosives available as a weapon (or, you know, for actually clearing land ;-) ) at all.

Just wondering ... :-)

Yesterday I watched "Childhoods End" and it occured to me (yeah, I *know* - as I said *slow* on the uptake) how many of the "seemingly on a low development stage"-societies in Pegasus have actually an advanced-tech past (and were most likely beaten down by the Wraith).

The Athosians have such a past - their Ancestors lived in big cities and Teyla still uses that high-tech firelighter (and I took it as actually being the Athosian ancestors, not the Ancients, living in the old city mentioned in "Rising"). Also, she's not surprised by advanced/high-tech and apparently familiar with its existence - might have seen it lying around, perhaps even not working anymore, or having seen advanced technology goods while trading on markets.


The Genii have such a past (great confederation of many planets, underground bunkers built for wars long forgotten), the Hoffans were reasonably advanced, Sateda, the Olesians, the Taranans, the people who build the personality storage device from "The Ark".

So, the society on the kids-planet was protected by a ZPM that powered a shield which rendered everything electronically based useless. Which means that either the Ancients came up with that plan and installed the technology on their planet to protect the population (why should the Ancients do that if they didn't do it anywhere else too? But if they had, why hadn't they used that same technology on Atlantis or on other worlds to protect the population?) or the kids' ancestors were technologically advanced enough to come up with that plan and technology on their own and traded for a ZPM to use it as a power source for their plan when the Ancients weren't even around anymore. Surely there were unclaimed ZPMs around after the war, downed warships and all that, scavengers taking what seems to be of use from any wrack and selling it on markets etc.

Of course their descendants would lose their technological achievements pretty fast over the generations when they killed themselves at age 24.

They also have "old cities" just like the Athosians, and are also not particularly fazed by the existence of technology, machines etc. They even accept awfully easily that it is actually a machine that protects them from the Wraith and not (at least not only) their sacrifice. That means, they could me more or less familiar with the concept of technology/machines - perhaps by the remnants of their ancestors equipment lying around, by legends, myths, rumours.

So, what do you think? Were their ancestors technologically advanced? What else "advanced in the past" societies in Pegasus have I missed? I think I'll look specifically for that when watching the re-runs this time.

I just love it when I come across an unusual, inventive idea in fanfiction. This gen story includes an unexpected way to be rescued for the team and has just the right dose of humor. If you have a little time between breakfast and lunch, go and read it. :-)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/1…

Since I was busy with McShep Match and I still have to do two team-recs on stargateficrec I'm just doing a few artwork-recs for the SGA Saturday Fandom Appreciation Challenge.

BTW, if someone needs team-recs for stories - go that way:
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/m…

Though it's a mixed bag of Stargate, you have to sort out the SGA stories if you're interested.

Anyway, on with the artwork on the topic of "Team":

The team as seen by Draco-Stellaris: http://draco-stellaris.deviantart.…

Various pieces of artwork by Astrid: http://astridv.livejournal.com/163… (I just love her stuff)

Artwork by Leyna55: http://leyna-art.deviantart.com/ga… (really beautiful)

Artwork by Nebulan:

http://nebulan.deviantart.com/art/… (drawing of the repli-team)
http://nebulan.deviantart.com/art/… (Disney-style)
http://nebulan.deviantart.com/art/… (gender-swapped)

Slodwick's "Atlantis Quarterly" (stunning work):

http://slodwick.livejournal.com/96… (done for the "Paintedspires"-comm)

Ileliberte's artwork tagged "team":

http://ileliberte.livejournal.com/… (gorgeous work)

The team dressed up as Star Wars characters, done by starfoozle, also for the "Paintedspires"-comm:

http://paintedspires.livejournal.c…

If anybody want to chime in in the comments with their own favorite piece of artwork, go ahead. :-)

...ab 02. September, unter der Woche immer um 20.15 Uhr.

... that can make the words "my scientist" actually ring like "my wife" or "my husband". *g*

Have Teyla address John as "Sheppard" and Rodney as "McKay" right there on the first page and I'm *out*. That's simply not her voice. It's either "John" or "Major/Colonel Sheppard" and "Rodney" or "Dr. McKay" - depending if she's talking to them in person or referring to them when talking to a third party.

And if an author doesn't manage to make her sound right on *this* small thing - when this is what you can hear/learn by simply watching the episodes and paying attention to how she speaks - then I really don't trust this author with the rest of the characterization, being it Teyla's or anybody else's. (And *this* is the minimum of what a beta-reader should actually catch. It's not only about typos, really, really not.)

It's perfectly possible that I'm misjudging the story based on this alone, but when I find this kind of flaw right at the start I just assume that the rest of the story also suffers from more flaws in characterization.

It's too bad, it was a long story and I actually looked forward to try it but after having stumbled over this right in the first minute of reading - just no.