Go Forth, by Frostfire--Darkness challenge

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

Title: Go Forth
Author: Frostfire
Rating: R
Summary: Generations under the Wraith make life a little different. 664 words.

Here, in the firelight, in the forest, she dances. Her people around her, making music and feeding the fire, and she whirls with sticks held loosely and lightly in her palms, spinning and ready against the opponent who does not come from the sky tonight, but has in the past and will in the future.

This is the battle that they will never win. That the ancestors could not win. The Athosians possess not the hubris that would allow them to believe they could prevail where the ancients and their wonders did not.

They will not win. They will die, over and over and over, screaming their lives away under the hand of ghouls that haunt the night. But before they die, they live, and while they live, they celebrate that it remains so.

She dances.

Under her feet are needles and old leaves, comforting—this world is not so unlike their home, after all, for all that Teyla spends her time in the magical city of the ancestors, where bare feet encounter only hard floors and slick surfaces. Here she can feel the earth under her soles, as she can feel the firelight glowing off her bare skin—and around her, the eyes fix on her, the children in awe, and the adults in hunger. She is the leader of their people, touched by the ancestors to sense the enemy and guard against it, chosen by the elders to travel to other worlds and speak to foreigners—she is their chosen warrior, and her body and her dancing shows it to be so. The most fit of them all. The most desirable.

She has seen Major Sheppard look at her in these clothes, which she wears to fight with the sticks, at the exposed thigh and stomach, breasts high and firm and held tightly by the top. When she first stepped into the practice room so clothed, his eyes went wide. Desirable, even to someone who has never known the Wraith, never known the driving need to choose the fittest, the fastest, the strongest, so that their children may survive the next culling.

She will choose someone tonight, sure as she feels the sweat trickling down her back and the fire rising in her blood. She spins, one foot kicking up, and again, and a higher kick, and again, until very little is left to the imagination of the watchers.

They do not need it. They have seen it all before.

When her breath comes in gasps and the dance has taken her over until she would not sense a Wraith were it standing in the circle around her, she undoes the clasps to her shirt, and unfastens the skirt, until she spins naked, glowing in the firelight, strength and fertility proven to all who watch.

Major Sheppard asked once why the Athosians had so young a leader. In fighting the Wraith, she explained, one needs not only wisdom, but strength. Proof to the old ones that a new generation rises strong, and the Wraith have not taken all this time.

The drums are growing louder. She stamps, kicks, spins, and comes to a halt next to Lycos, who watches her, gasping for air almost as deeply as she is.

Behind her, Mara spins out into the firelight, and Teyla pulls Lycos out into the dark of the trees, tripping him onto the forest floor and landing over him, feet and hands to either side. She waits, impatient, while he fumbles with his trousers, and lowers herself onto him, slowly. His head goes back, sweat standing out on his forehead.

“Teyla,” he gasps. “Teyla. Have mercy.”

She bites his exposed collarbone, and he yells, the cry echoing back to the firelight where Mara dances, blending in with the music. The woods will be full of young men screaming pleasure tonight, while the women show the Athosian people that they may not be able to prevail against the Wraith, but they will stay alive.

Comments

[mice1900.livejournal.com]

Sweet. Teyla kicks ass.

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

Thanks! She so does. Plus she's dead sexy in that stick costume.

[calijirl5150.livejournal.com]

Usually not a Teyla fan, however I loved the way you wrote the story about how they will "stay alive". Great job.

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough, usually neither am I. But she was the only character that fit with the story I wanted to write...and maybe now I like her a bit better. (Plus she's so sexy! I can't get over it!) Glad you liked it!

[shetiger.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh, oh. Oh yeah.

That's both profound and very, very sexy.

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

Thanks...that's what I was going for. That's really what Teyla at her best is, in the show...glad you liked it.

[astolat]

Oh yay -- both sexy and very real, very vivid. Yum.

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

Thanks! *spends a few minutes drooling at Teyla in her sticks costume*

[jic]

I like dancing =D Great sensory imagery with needles and old leaves underfoot.

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too. Have always wished I could dance.

If I give a blanket reply to all your comments, does that make me a bad person? I'm really flattered that you've read/liked/commented on so many of my fics. (opening my email and seeing this loooong list of comments from you--frost: "huh? is lj glitching? ohhhhh....dude, yay!") Thanks! ^_^

[jic]

No, it doesn't. (Of course, my roommate says it makes you evil and I should hate you now, but she says that about low-signal wireless networks and microwave popcorn, too.)

And, dude. 'Twas the least I could do: you put them in Memories!

[sjkasabi.livejournal.com]

Well that explains the costume ;-)

But really, that was great, a lovely backstory for her and the Athosians.

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

*drools at Teyla in costume* My attempt at resolving the kind-of-ridiculous nature of half-naked Teyla fighting, and the fact that I cannot get *over* how fabulous it makes her look.

Glad you liked it!

[umbo.livejournal.com]

I liked this--nice backstory on the Athosian culture, very believable.

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it! This Athosian thing is cool, because it's almost like original fic--you can totally make stuff up, and it still works. Yay.

[porntestpilot.livejournal.com]

*giddy*

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

*thankful*

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

The things that I loved about this: showing teyla as strong and sensual, powerful in her own right; the glimpse into Athosian culture, and the fact that it is female dominant, rather than male; the backstory with how the wraith culling makes breeding so damn important (something I think they could really do more with in the show.) And all of that in such a short piece! It's very cool.

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it! Teyla's sexuality is interesting--she wears that...costume for the sticks that's totally sexy, and yet we don't really get much re her willingness to be in a relationship or have sex or whatever. She and Shep go from mild-flirting to totally platonic as far as I can tell, and...shutting up now. But it's interesting.

Also I have a thing for fertility rituals. I just think they're awesome, and it does make sense in context.

Thanks for commenting.

[miera-c.livejournal.com]

wow.

I've just been arguing with some people about Teyla and how that outfit is more than just a show for the male demographic, thanks to Rachel's acting.

Thank you for expanding on that so perfectly.

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the outfit...the outfit always has me too busy drooling for the feminist radar to kick in. One of the things I was trying to do here was make Teyla more than eye candy to me. I *want* to like her, I *want* to stop totally ignoring her when I write...I'm glad I seem to have achieved some depth. Glad you liked it!

[mz-bstone.livejournal.com]

That's really, really well done.

It wasn't cheap, like it could have been. It was passionate and heartfelt and vibrant.

Thank-you.

B

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

Thank you, and you're welcome.

[ship-recs.livejournal.com]

This is great. Lovely Teyla fic.

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

Thanks much. *bows* *embraces new...opposite of indifference...to Teyla*

[cofax7]

Coasted in off a rec by docmichelle. This was very cool. Very vivid and creative, and a nice insight into Teyla. There's got to be more to her than the bland alien babe we get on the show.

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Yeah, her character is so underdeveloped that I just couldn't write her at all for the longest time. And then I was in the mood for something like this, and she was the only character it really worked for, and then I started getting into it...*shrug and grin* Glad you liked it!

Ooh, pretty.

[ubixtiz.livejournal.com]

Very nice connections here, from this idea of Athosian culture to Teyla's fighting costume to John's reactions to Teyla -- I especially like this part, "even to someone who has never known the Wraith." It underlines how different Teyla's view of the purpose of her desirability is from John's. Nicely put together, and you're right, Teyla's amazingly gorgeous in that outfit.

Re: Ooh, pretty.

[frostfire-17.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I've spent a little while thinking about how these cultures who grow up as an inferior race (whether on SG-1 or Atlantis) must think differently than Earth people, who rule (or at least think they rule) most of their known universe. More like primitive man, in a sense, always at the mercy of forces beyond their control...

Ahem. The history major comes out to play.

But yeah. Glad you liked it, and oh man I love that costume. *drools*

[tinny]

Wow! You always find ways to write insightfully about very exotic things, and make them fascinating. The Athosian culture is really neat in its setup, but we haven't gotten any new information about it since 38 minutes. :( The Athosians *should* be more important to canon.

I love the imagery. It impressed me that it all feels so very important to Teyla, explaining all those things we tend to dismiss as eye candy. There was nothing gratuitous about the nakedness or the sex, it's just very natural.

Thanks for creating this depth. You rock.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

This is utterly compelling -- old custom and sex in its pure, life-affirming glory, and Teyla incorporating it all.

Just wonderful.

Thank you for writing this; it's astounding glimpse at the Athosians and the leader of their people, one of our favourite characters.

[missyvortexdv.livejournal.com]

I think this is one of the greatest Teyla stories I've read that actually talks of why she is leader. I'd read people discussing meta similar to this but until I saw this under the Isis nominations I had no idea anyone had written something like it.

[flyingcarpet.livejournal.com]

I love this -- really great snapshot of what's important to Teyla and why. Nice job.