Comments | auburnnothenna: Fic: When Nothing's Left to Burn

auburnnothenna

Fic: When Nothing's Left to Burn - R [SGA/SG-1] Complete

Aug 14, 2007 11:16

The John/Vala Thing-a-thon is live at lonelytartsclub.

I wrote:

Recipient: Gaia
Creator: Auburn
Title: When Nothing's Left to Burn
Size: 56 KB, ~8575 words
Rating: R (readers should be 18 or over, unless okayed by a parent or guardian).
Prompt(s): Stealing something. Unexpected pregnancy.
Spoilers: Yes! Spoilers for The Fifth Race, The Lost City, The ( Read more... )

sga, lonelytartsclub, fic, john/vala

Comments 9

chloe_tambell August 16 2007, 03:49:07 UTC

Too cool. I just cannot keep up with you, Auburn. :)

Hmm, maybe saying "too cool" is weird when it comes to what is probably a dark story, but hell...I *like* dark stories. And I love your work whether it's dark or not, so hey... :)

auburnnothenna August 16 2007, 03:58:20 UTC

'a dark story'

The problem with it is I kept trying to write it lighthearted and full of banter and that just didn't work. This is the one that got started and scrapped five separate times. I thought it was going to make me go crazier than I already am. But I kind of like that all the sarcophaguses (ai?) and Ascensions can't really make everything happy ever afters. That all lies in the people involved.

chloe_tambell August 17 2007, 04:26:06 UTC

Sometimes stories have a will of their own, a place they are pulled to like a magnetic towards the poles. People who don't write or read much probably think that's nuts, but it's true; maybe the "will" of a story is a reflection of our subconscious, or maybe it's something ethereal and mystical; who knows, and in the end, does it matter?

Crazier than you already are? You say that like it's a bad thing. :P

Life is not always happy ever after, and stories have a balance like they have a will, and sometimes a happy ending doesn't fit, and if you force it, it comes off false and wrong and jarring.

icarusancalion August 27 2007, 01:40:43 UTC

This is incredible.

In a year where I'm struggling to find good stories for the 2007 Flavor Of The Year essay (yes, yes, it's not due till January 1, 2008, but I have to work on it all year) -- oh. Suddenly there's a great one. I have no idea how this fits into trends for the year, but man, I can't get the hot-sex-turned-serious-commitment out of my mind.

Thank you. Vala and John are just... wow, together.

Icarus

auburnnothenna August 27 2007, 01:48:41 UTC

I've done my level best to avoid all spoilers for Season 4, so while I know of one SG-1 character that is going to show up, I have no idea about anything else. But I would dearly love to see Vala in Atlantis again and interacting with the regulars. John and Vala my het OTP, even though they've only been in the same room once canonically. I just like the idea of them. But then I try to write them together and I end up with bad things happening, because they've both got a freight train worth of baggage.

icarusancalion August 27 2007, 07:32:47 UTC

But that's what makes John and Vala so intense together. They're so... sexual and playful and yet broken. And they sense that in each other immediately.

cimmerdeux April 23 2009, 21:55:23 UTC

What a wonderful story with such an interesting pairing. They are a lot alike but that's not necessarily a bad thing - they share traits that cause far too many people to underestimate them. I know it didn't have a happy ending per se but for some reason I can see Sheppard watching his child grow up in Atlantis as time draws on. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if his son, and for some reason I think it will be a boy, has a wonderful 'imaginary' friend growing up who will teach him a great deal about life, the universe and everything. Thank you.

auburnnothenna April 23 2009, 23:40:31 UTC

Thank you.

I've been thinking about endings and 'happy' endings and 'realistic' (for values of realistic applying to fanfiction and media) and I think I'm a little off to the fringes compared to everyone else. A character dying in a fic doesn't really make it an unhappy ending to me - not if they achieve what mattered to them. A sad - sometimes realistic - ending can have everyone alive, but still pain me because they failed and are broken. To die, knowing they've failed, that's a real heartbreaker.

So, I kind of like how this went, without any last minute save or Sheppard descending afterward.

And Sheppard and Vala's child, raised by her and Rodney, is going to be a force to reckoned with, especially with an ascended looking out for him/her.

Of anyone who ascended, Sheppard is certainly the one who would stick around and be 'there' for the child too.

cimmerdeux April 24 2009, 05:23:51 UTC

I see what you mean about dying not being the worse thing that can happen to a person and especially not these people. They expect to die doing their jobs they just don't want to take anyone else with them or have anyone die because of them. Ascended Sheppard especially would have traded virtually anything to be allowed to continue to protect and defend and if at all possible, bend the rules a bit here and there ( ... )