This is the Sea by cofax, rated G (38 minutes challenge)

[cofax7]

Gen, no pairing. Spoilers for The Rising only.

11:05 - 11:37, with a break to let the dog out.





Her people call her far-sighted: it is a gift of her house, like her copper skin and the way the battle-sticks sit so easily in her hands. But when Halling comes into her tent and says there are men who wish to trade, she sees nothing. They are merely traders. The world is not about to change.

And then it does.

It changes when the one man looks past her; and when the second one smiles and jokes about tea. Teyla Emmagen, daughter of Tegan, and of Tenara before him, cannot help but smile back, inviting them to her table. It is too late then, but she does not see it.

The world changes again when the Wraith come, and again, and again.

When she can breathe again, when the world has stopped changing -- for the moment, a fire settled down to coals -- Teyla stands on a balcony in the City of the Ancestors, watching the sun rise over the sea.

The sky is overcast except in the direction the planet spins away from (and she smiles yet at the sharp-nosed scientist who thought to explain to *her* about planetary rotation, as if she were a herdsman from Pestral); grey and sere overhead, but a glory of color on the horizon. Pinks and lavenders, and green as well. The green reminds her of the fields in the West Reach, where she and her father hunted tall-horned emaki the year she came to her majority.

This is a new world; a terrifying one. She runs her hand, rough with calluses from hunting and weapons-work, along the smooth surface of the railing. This place feels so very alien to her: exposed, confined, full of harsh voices and harsher smells. But the beauty charms her, as well. The towers gleaming under the stars; the musical murmur of the city, ever-present; the lights that greet her at each turn in the passageway. She will not be made to fear this place: it is the home of her ancestors, and for all the Earthers' technology and powerful weapons, they cannot see it as she does.

The sun creeps over the edge of the world, light filling the sky, showering the city with light reflected off the ocean. It is -- almost -- too much. Teyla gasps and closes her hands about the railing.

She has traveled through the stargate many times on trading expeditions for her people; but she has never before seen the sea.


END

Notes: many thanks to The Waterboys for the title.

Comments

[delurker.livejournal.com]

I really like this, especially the description of Teyla's culture. I'm very jealous that you wrote such beautiful and descriptive detail in such a short amount of time!

[cofax7]

Thank you! I watched the first half of The Rising tonight, and got inspired.

[fenris_wolf0]

What a beautiful, thoughful look at Teyla!

This was excellent... please write more. :)

[cofax7]

Thank you! And if I do, I'll be sure to post it here.

[umbo.livejournal.com]

I loved this.

[cofax7]

Thank you! Teyla has great (although sadly unrealized) potential, I think.

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

Oh my. Total icon love!

[umbo.livejournal.com]

Twas made for me by the lovely and talented astolat, and I do adore it!

[troyswann.livejournal.com]

(and she smiles yet at the sharp-nosed scientist who thought to explain to *her* about planetary rotation, as if she were a herdsman from Pestral);

!! Yes, that captures something excellent there. The Athosians are in some ways more sophisticated than the Earthers, at least more "worldly" (galaxly? *g*) and not at all naive or childlike, even though their tents and nomadic ways and rituals seem to make their representation lean dangerously toward infantilism. So hard to write Teyla without tipping either that way or into a kind of reductive mysticism and exoticism. You tread the line so well here. Plus, the details and the rhythms of this are beautiful.

Stories like this make me want to think more seriously about Teyla and the Athosians. My favourite kind of story, then: food for thought.

Thank you!

[cofax7]

The Athosians are in some ways more sophisticated than the Earthers, at least more "worldly" (galaxly? *g*) and not at all naive or childlike, even though their tents and nomadic ways and rituals seem to make their representation lean dangerously toward infantilism.

Right, right! I was frustrated by the production designers going -- yet again! -- for tents in the Athosians' village. And then Teyla said her thing about hunting villages, and I realized that they were at least partly nomadic. You can have a rich culture without a lot of massive material goods: complex oral tradition, densely-decorated tools and clothing, an awareness of natural and cultural history. I think it's plausible the Athosians have that -- for a people under constant assault, they're remarkably stable and sophisticated.

They just don't have the technology, because it can't be moved and may even attract the Wraith. So their focus goes into oral history and other less tangible things. And I love the concept that they're well-informed about basic principles of astronomy and physics -- they have to be, if they use the Stargate system and don't think of it as magic. Well, that's my theory, after all.

Of course, all of this sort of stumbles over Teyla-as-Leader. But you know, maybe it's a more limited position than we think. She's the leader of the trading delegations, or something like that. I think hereditary positions would be problematic in a society subject to Wraith culling: chances are too great you'd lose someone unexpectedly.

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

I got the impression that Teyla's position as a leader wasn't hereditary, rather her father groomed her for it so well that she was chosen after he was taken by the Wraith.

I also don't know that the Athosians wouldn't have a written tradition just because they're nomadic. Grant you, a lot of text would be difficult to move, but we have no idea just how far ahead they were technologically before they gave it in order to survive the wraith. It's quite possible they carried some form of data pad or whatever. Or, a bit like the Hoffans, stored their "libraries" in caves.

[cofax7]

Good point, although I wasn't meaning they were illiterate. I do think they must have an extensive oral tradition, just because things are so easily lost.

[nestra.livejournal.com]

Whoo! I rewatched the first half of The Rising last night as well (having, um, not paid much attention the first time around), and it all worked so much better for me already knowing the characters and being invested in them. Teyla took a long time to click, but now I'm interested in her, and this is lovely.

[cofax7]

Thanks! That's exactly what happened to me: I found Teyla far more interesting on the second time around. (Although I'm very peeved they cut a bunch of character-building scenes, like the bit where Jack convinces Shep to go on the expedition.)

I was also bemused by the connection between Sheppard and Weir: they give each other meaningful looks a couple of time.

[nestra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I missed those, and Weir's scenes with Simon. It was also interesting watching the characters settle into what they'd eventually become.

[scrollgirl.livejournal.com]

Wait, there was stuff cut from "Rising"? Ooh, I'd kill for more Jack/Sheppard scenes! Hmm, I wonder if they'll include these in the DVDs.

Do you know if there's a shooting script up anywhere?

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

They had to cut for time when they were making it two hour-longs instead of one two-hour. I'm pretty sure the DVDs will have it as a one, two-hour long episode.

It kind of ticked me off the first time I saw them separated (when they did the marathon in January) because I was showing the series to my boyfriend for the first time and it's like "Oh, good scene coming up! ...Wait! Where's my good scene?!" ;P

Weir, all on her own

[(Anonymous)]

"The Rising" Weir struck me as a little off; lots of out-of-character grins at the oddest places. And yes, those meaningful looks bespoke a couple with some sort of connection...not people who had met for the first time within the last 24-48 hours.

I just chalked it up to the writers' and the actors' uncertainty about the relationship.

Thinking of the writers, isn't there a Military Etiquette 101 that they could use to brush up some of those finer details? Oughta be!

C. Whidbey

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

lovely, and wonderful to see her preceptions so beautifully articulated.

and this: "The sun creeps over the edge of the world, light filling the sky, showering the city with light reflected off the ocean." is very fine.

and it makes me curious as to what she'd think of earth, and if by the time she gets there the rest of her human team will be seeing her as clearly as she sees them.

*g*

[cofax7]

Thank you!

[maraceles.livejournal.com]

I loved this.

A sophisticated Teyla--canny in all the right ways--is absolutely lovely. Thanks for writing it.

[cofax7]

Thank you! Glad you liked it.

[scrollgirl.livejournal.com]

Wonderful! I echo everybody who's said you show Teyla as she really is, an experienced woman who understands a lot more about how the galaxy works than the technologically inferior, "unsophisticated native" cliche would have us believe.

I love how the way she relates to the city of the Ancestors is so different from that of the Earthers. They don't have the same sense of history and legend the natives of Pegasus do. The Ancients bind the humans of the Pegasus galaxy together in a way the humans of the Milky Way probably can't understand. As much as the Genii have become enemies, on one level Teyla knows they are much like her people. They are the descendants and inheritors of the Ancestors.

[cofax7]

I like the concept of the connection between the Pegasus locals and Atlantis. But I get hung up on the 10,000 years, there. We don't remember anything from that long ago, and we haven't been subject to periodic culling by an evil race of space vampires. So I really don't know how they could do it.

[adelynne.livejournal.com]

I love the way you portray Teyla. The internal monologue is character consistent, and the way she sees beauty in everything is really telling of the character.

[cofax7]

Thanks!

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

Finally got a chance to read this -- woo! I hope you do more with Teyla, she deserves some good writing.

[cofax7]

She deserves something -- both on the show and off, I think. And thanks!

[minnow1212.livejournal.com]

Wheeeee! You're writing Atlantis!

>She will not be made to fear this place: it is the home of her ancestors, and for all the Earthers' technology and powerful weapons, they cannot see it as she does.<

Mmm, nice.

[cofax7]

Hey, I've written some before! Not a lot, mind you. But drabbles!

And I'm glad you liked it.

[neonhummingbird.livejournal.com]

Pretty, pretty, pretty, and Teyla fic, besides! Nicely done.

[dirty-diana.livejournal.com]

Teyla! This is pretty and very Teyla. Awesome.