Eat Your Heart Out, Peggy Fleming by Domenika Marzione [f**king freezing challenge]

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Eat Your Heart Out, Peggy Fleming
genfic; 28000 words
summary: The Ice Capades come to Pegasus and John gets a front-row seat.

John really didn't have a lot to do as he waited for the marines to rappel down, clean out the hole, measure the depth and the distance to where they thought the roof was, and set the next charge. He'd come out today only because Rodney was starting to get a complex as this would have been the fifth mission and John hadn't yet visited. Nevermind that there had been and would be dozens of projects Rodney ran off-world that John had never graced with his presence; that he had been there for the conception and had no interest in how it turned out deeply offended Rodney to the point that it was starting to affect their team missions.

("It's a mining facility, McKay, not a baby." "You are totally missing the point." "Apparently.")

With grateful thanks to: siegeofangels, witchofthedogs, and vonknibble. Anything that's wrong is entirely my fault.

Comments

[explodedpen.livejournal.com]

This was many kinds of awesome and shiny and full of yayness :D Your fics are always brilliant it's great!

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. :)

[jujuberry136.livejournal.com]

Great job! I loved the premise of the story, and I think it worked really well to have it set in Season 2. I love your John narration and the characterization was spot on.

Lovely job, as always!

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

I had a pretty narrow window for 'Cadman in Atlantis', so I can't really take too much credit for picking the timing.

Glad you liked.

[ratcreature]

I really enjoyed this.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[siegeofangels.livejournal.com]

This is the part where I squee about the hilarity of every description of Rodney in the first half (marshmallow!), and Teyla's lacework, and the naquadah cannon, which looks utterly adorable in my head.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

In the draft that didn't go to beta, the naquadah cannon looked like a Roomba. I changed it because 'round' seemed like a hard shape to make on the fly. The marines thought it was cute, though.

Thank you again.

[bratfarrar]

I love your world-building, and your everyday life but still very interesting story lines, and your John, and how you use Cadman here, and just about everything in the story. It was a marvelous excuse to procrastinate, and once I've got a clean draft of the essay I'm working on I shall reward myself by reading this again.

I know I don't always remember to let you know how much I love your stories, but I really do. Your version of Atlantis feels so real--like it could actually function.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't give positive reinforcement for procrastination, but... Thank you very much. :)

I like the idea of making Atlantis look like it could function -- for example, I enjoyed "Quarantine" muchly, but only after I just went with the flow and didn't try to figure out why there'd be one doctor and no nurses or orderlies or other patients in an infirmary.

[sgpr-fan.livejournal.com]

this is awesome and I love cadman and rodney in this and the military/ scientist dynamic thst you always have and the fact that despite thedire circumastances nobody died an dthe irony was perfect

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked. A story without a body count every once in a while isn't a bad thing.

[g0ssamer-decay.livejournal.com]

Ive never left feedback before, and I decided to fix that in the new year. I am an avid reader, and fan fiction has always been my between book fix. I find myself looking forward to everything you post, and have actually put down my book in order to read what you have written.

Thank you for posting your stories, since they are filled with awesome.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Thank you for breaking your silence, then. :)

[adannu.livejournal.com]

Wow. I could just feel my feet freezing as I read, and the urgency of having to dig out without killing themselves came through very clearly. As ever, great work on building such an immersive world in your stories and thank you for sharing -- I always enjoy them so very much.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Thank you in return. I worldbuild for the fun of it, so it's nice when the plot justifies the exercise.

[cofax7]

Oh, that was very cool. (Also brisk and chilly!) I liked all the technical stuff and Cadman getting to blow shit up. And liquid naquadah! Awesome! Good stuff.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

*bows* Thank you, ma'am.

All that time in Duet when Rodney was working in his lab and running around the Science real estate... Cadman was getting ideas.

[moonbeamsfanfic.livejournal.com]

Considering it's currently -44C right now and I have to go out in it in about twenty minutes, I really shouldn't have read a story about ice and hypothermia because now I'm shivering just thinking about it... but I can never turn down reading one of your fics.

I especially liked this story because it was Sheppard out of his depth in a situation beyond his own skillset, yet he still acted the good leader by trusting his people (ie: Cadman) to know what they were doing. Not even the show itself ever bothers to do something like that -- realism on SGA? ha! -- which is one more reason why your fics are better than canon.

Also, the little details still make me laugh: near-dear and not-quite-naquadah, indeed! I love your acronyms -- very Jack-ish.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

And here I thought I undersold the cold... :)

Part of the problem of SGA-the-show is that to avoid having a cast of thousands, everyone's an expert in everything. And I like undoing that a little.

[infinimato.livejournal.com]

Ahahahah As always I love your insanity. I loved Lorne & Zelenka giving each other that look (the "cripes we're XOs to nutjobs" look, I'm sure). I love how Cadman causes a bit of wishywashyness from the other Marines -- they like her, but the whole girl thing -- and then she's the hero of the day.

Also, yes, Rodney as Daffy Duck -- "It's mine, ya understand? Mine, MINE, all MINE!, get back in there!, down down down!, go go go!, mine mine mine!"

"Consequences, schmonsequences, as long as I'm rich." (Well, Rodney would say, "important.")

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Cadman deserved a fond farewell. I used (use) her precious little and I should remedy that.

Rodney is totally Daffy.

Thanks.

[mary-alice.livejournal.com]

This was another wonderful slice of life on (well, actually, off) Atlantis. I just love the realism and attention to detail in your stories. Your Sheppard and Lorne and Marine contingent read as real military, operating in a real universe, not the cardboard version presented by canon. And I adore your Lorne, silently commiserating with Zelenka over the things their bosses put them thru; and marshmallow-man Rodney and his attempts to recruit Horton... So many lovely details. (Happy sigh.)

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. I often get distracted by details, but sometimes it works out for the best.

Great!

[linziday.livejournal.com]

Loved this!! A full story, great plot, wonderful pace. Excellent!

Re: Great!

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[bruinsfan.livejournal.com]

Nicely put together.

John really thought his logic was less suspect than the Ancients' threat assessment skills...
Bwah! George Clinton's logic is less suspect than the Ancients' threat assessment skills. These are people who outfitted their giant spaceship with stained glass exterior windows fragile enough for someone to throw a chair through. And kept that life-sucking black cloud thingie in storage in their own basement rather than dumping it in a vault on some uninhabitable planet.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the self-destruct that doesn't run on an independent power source.

Thanks. :)

[thoran-ziyal.livejournal.com]

This was a really well written story with a 'real' feeling to it and full of lovely details - it would have fit perfectly into Season 2. So I give it a big *yay* and thank you for posting it!

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. :)

[zoniduck.livejournal.com]

I really love reading your fics. I used to be a Tom Clancy junkie back in the day, and (though I know a lot of folks consider him a terrible hack) I think your fic reads like SGA crossed with the best of his stuff. I want all of your original characters to be real characters on the show, and for them to have exciting and dangerous adventures like you write for them. Thank you for sharing your stories with all of us!

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

I used to eagerly consume the early Clancys in my high school years, so I'll take that compliment in the spirit with which it was intended. :)

Thanks.

[argosy.livejournal.com]

That was exciting and engrossing and wonderful. I really admire how you make it all seem so real.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[briar_pipe]

*looks out the window* Yup, this was very timely. I think I'll go make cocoa now.

...But seriously, I like everything of yours I've ever read, but this one jumped out at me, from Ronon not believing in the cold (until he felt it) to the suddenness and realism of the action. I love that John wasn't really planning to be there at all, that Elizabeth had just let them off the leash from the Ford incident, and that you know how snow and ice actually behave (as opposed to how they behave on-screen, which is weird and all kinds of wrong). I love that Cadman got to blow shit up and save lives by doing it. I love that Ansbacher was 24 and trying not to freak out, that Rodney had to drink hot gatorade, and that Teyla was dressed like a jawa. I love that what happened was nobody's fault and nobody sat around doling out blame.

I love that you make me care intensely about all the characters in a way that's hard for me to do with the actual show because of the hierarchy of character importance (i.e., extras = canon fodder) and the fact that it's all so unreal. Which your stories never, ever are. Thank you.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Thank you. That is... pretty much everything I hoped to achieve in this story.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

My glee is hard to textually render, but this had everything. Action! Adventure! Injuries! Derring-do! I love using that word. Very wonderful. Thank you very, very much.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

*bows with a flourish* Very happy to oblige. :)

And thank you for the rec.

[rinsbane.livejournal.com]

I love the sense of team you get here - John's quiet concern for Teyla and Rodney, Ronon's refusal to gear up until he sees just how cold it is, Cadman's role. I also like that when they get back to Atlantis, it's just another day on Atlantis and they all have had just a little too much practice at recovering from crises. It's a sad but true observation.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Atlantis is big enough and experienced enough that... yeah. This doesn't even register on the crisis meter.

John's team is devoted to each other -- old marrieds and not the flush of young love. They're past the stage where they even bother trying to prove it explicitly.

Many thanks.

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

As usual, this was a wonderful adventure that would have been great on the actual show. Way to let Cadman's talents shine!

Beyond the great adventure plot, I liked the Earth/Atlantis politics. The dance of resources withheld and provided, and discoveries exploited or horded: "I foresee grave difficulties in extracting it from the outpost. At least until they can come up with adequate compensation. Or a few drones." And I liked your igloo-dwelling natives and the respect the Team had for them and their rights to their own planet.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much.

Earth/Atlantis politics have always intrigued me a little -- Atlantis first as isolated outpost and then as far-flung frontier, frustrated by and reliant on an Earth-based command that does not truly understand how different things are in Pegasus.

[sholio]

I finally got a chance to read this, and it was fantastic! The interactions between John and the team and the marines are great, and I love how solid and detailed the world is; the plot makes sense, and everything is so well-drawn and believable that I think my toes might be frozen now. The blend of humor and slice-of-Pegasus-life and action/suspense works perfectly, and you've also got some wonderful turns of phrase (especially the hilarious descriptions of Rodney in his winter gear!). All in all, a really great read.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. I try to take Pegasus life more seriously than the show does -- mostly because I get revolted when they stick in cheap humor while characters are standing next to corpses -- but not so seriously that they lose the inherent wackiness in what they're doing. I'm very glad that came through.

[deaka.livejournal.com]

Loved this to pieces, fantastic story. Loved the characterisation of the main team, and also that, as usual, you worked in so many of the secondary characters and made them feel real and competent.

Great work!

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

I completely live through the secondary characters. :)

Thanks.

[emeraldsword.livejournal.com]

ooh, this was great. It was fab to read something really long for a change too - though one of the nice things about fanfic can be that it's short, it was nice to get my teeth into something a little more novel-like for a change! This was really well thought out and I think it worked really well. Good job.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not usually one with the brevity, so.... thanks. :)

[beth-green.livejournal.com]

Y'know, sometimes it's a *good* thing when my Google-fu fails. I was looking for a story in which Rodney and John are skiers at a lodge and a helicopter crashes, but found this story instead. Thanks for a long, lovely read, with lots of whump and danger and heroism, not to mention the very involved and plotty story with believable pyrotechnics.

I've read and enjoyed your stories before, but I've sometimes neglected to send feedback. Therefore, please accept this virtual basketful of warm fuzzies.

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Well, there's snow and ice in both?

Very glad you stumbled upon the story and more so that you enjoyed it.