#but she also showed to egeria just how much love she had for the people of fontaine & fontaine all together

[myjustice]

sudden intrusive thought about how furina/focalors was to egeria what pikachu was to ash ketchum from pokemon.

[riicky-ye]

Do you know why I love “Focalors/Furina is Erinnyes” theory so much? Because it straight up gives us a perfect setup for Focalors and Furina’s already existing personality trait: their (verbal) hostility towards the other gods.

In Focalors’ case it’s more or less clear: as the god of Justice, she must not close her eyes to the way Heavens wronged the dragonkind. She explicitly states she would love to make a tribunal for Celestia (what a goat she is) and then entrusts Neuvillette with this very task.

But Furina is actually no better. In the end of her ascension speech, she just suddenly drops the bomb of an intent to judge the gods of other lands. You may say it’s just a random bluff to convince people she’s strong — but I’m saying her personality is intricately, inseparably intertwined with Focalors. Don’t forget: she is Focalors’ very own body, just amnesiac and powerless. She inherited the original Focalors’ selfless sense of justice. She may also inherit the dislike for godkind, get it carved deep in her gut.

So, long story short, both Focalors and Furina has some grudge against the Divine. And you know who, among the Fontaine crew, has the utmost motivation to feel the same way?

That’s right. Erinnyes.

Erinnyes was wronged by the godkind not once and not twice, but thrice. First: Heavenly Principles claiming fontainians guilty and bestowing a prophecy of inevitable doom upon them. Second: Remus, a foreign god with questionable ways of defeating the prophecy which led fontainians to the entrapment in the bodies of stone. And finally third: Egeria telling Erinnyes to give up and accept her fate when asked how to save her people.

And we all know well how damn determined Erinnyes was. I dare say that for her, failed and wronged by gods, it would be only natural to next seek help from their enemies. Anything for Fontaine, you know.

And the “Anything for Fontaine” mindset already feels kind of familiar, doesn’t it?

So, while Erinnyes’ whole ordeal may be just another mirror to show and reflect Furina’s journey, it would be extra cool of Hoyoverse to hide her backstory on the plain sight.

(Also, both Furina and Erinnyes are trusting to the point of being dumb and I’m all here for it. Furina had shown an immense amount of trust in Mirror-Her by pushing forward her act for 500 years without the knowledge of the possible outcome, though it’s not as bad as Erinnyes’ case because Furina could have a gut feeling about Focalors being reliable and trustworthy in a familiar way. Erinnyes on the other side spent her whole life chasing castles in the sky, dreaming about Egeria stepping up and saving everyone, only for Egeria to say there’s no way for Erinnyes and her people to be saved.)

[ninicaise]

@bacchantbroccoli what the people want the people get!! warning though i am not a fan of the girlboss queen perfect tragic dead woman so get ready for some messy disaster mothers. also i did not intend for them to be this long so i had to split them a little for readability.

hennike lore in my head:

marie-antoinette ass character. marie-antoinette-esque. marie-antoinette core. etc

didn't have a filter in the most innocent way possible, didn't fit in with the subtlety of veretian court politics which is part of why laurent is drawn to damen's tendency to say whatever the fuck he was thinking most of the time.

auguste had to do a lot of the heavy lifting raising laurent partly bc she was sick a lot and couldn't always get out of bed and partly bc she saw auguste was so good at her and aleron's job she sometimes decided he could handle the whole thing. was young when she was married off so she tended to be a little self-centred; she didn't have time to grow out of being a child before having children herself.

despite this she did the best she could and tried to bond with them especially academically and creatively, and tried her best to include kemptian culture in both of their educations. speaking of;

she tried to raise her kids bilingual but it didn't last long bc aleron didn't like that as he is basically a cartoon villain. she put up with a lot of shit from aleron in general bc marriage love duty which resulted in auguste putting up with a lot of shit from Everyone Ever All The Time bc kingdom love duty which lead to laurent putting up with the regent's shit and being ridiculed in his own court for so many years. bc family love trauma status.

maybe if she still had the tendency to always say whatever the fuck crossed her mind by the time she realized she was being poisoned then things would've been different.

hypermenestra lore in my head:

this is a messy one okay basically choices were made and they were not the best ones.

first thing about hypermenestra is that was sooo loving so adoring so protective of kastor to the point of being overbearing. permissive. keep that in mind.

didn't mind whether kastor was going to be king or not but after a few years she got used to the idea so damen was a huge shock to her. she tried not to let it show too much bc egeria was her friend and whatnot but kastor could tell. being only child for the majority of his childhood usually coddled and not having much demanded from him given they were still lowkey hoping from an heir from egeria but still being told it was likely he was going to be king was a DISASTROUS choice on both theomedes and hypermenestra's part and on top of that hypermenestra was a piss poor liar. kastor Noticed.

she was not cold towards damen but she was not motherly either bc she didn't see it as her responsibility (which. was she wrong).

she could see kastor being a little bummed at the whole situation and tried to cheer him up by telling him he would've done a better job than damen at ruling anyway, this one time she went as far as ignoring damen being in the same room as her bc kastor was in a mood. often called kastor her 'little king' once or twice letting a 'my true king' slip which. had its consequences.

must stress this is not bc she was resentful of anyone, she just didn't want kastor to be sad or frustrated or any negative emotion ever and she didn't know how to deal with it. she was in absolute agony every time she saw kastor have the slightest fucking frown it was honestly incredible to see.

overall had no intention of creating a coup but ultimately theomedes loved her so much and was so permissive with her that she loved kastor so much she was so permissive with him that kastor decided he could do whatever he wanted. ironically, damen never got that permission, and when he realized in slavery that he had been taking something that wasn't his, he accepted it gracefully and with dignity, and decided to give it back with ease.

+ egeria lore bc i started thinking abt my one true rightful queen of akielos:

did not want children for a long time. she fully understood the responsibility that having a child meant and fully believed she was not ready. used a lot of contraceptive methods for a few years and it really messed up with her system, unfortunately.

probably would've made the best mother of the lot. ironic isn't it.

had an incredible vision. could see shit coming from miles away which gave her a tendency to jump to conclusions too quickly and accept no other information + be a bit too much with criticism. this got an unflattering reputation for a few years, added to the fact that she was also very private very cold very tactical for an akielon, and thus very lonely.

it's not that she didn't care for people and she wasn't cold, or harsh, just stoic. she wasn't exactly an approachable person. in fact, the only time she was seen with true softness on her face was the first and only time she held damen in her arms.

got along better with hypermenestra than theomedes. she thought theomedes was a little thick and lacked insightfulness and she knew theomedes thought she was basically insane. mostly their marriage was one of mutual tolerance. hypermenestra on the other hand was very eloquent even though she tended to agree with everything egeria said in the end. couldn't keep a damn opinion but at least she understood egeria when she talked.

kastor though, big fan. egeria loved that child’s wisdom, was more of an aunt figure to him at the time. she got kinda sad when kastor stopped talking to her after she got pregnant, but she understood it.

in truth very little was known about the late queen. nobody dared to get close enough to really know her. and well. queen egeria was so lovely, so dedicated, knowledgable and clever, gentle and playful at times, even. had anyone taken the time to know her, to truly see her, she wouldn't be just another tragic royal death now. damen asked around and though he didn't come to this exact same conclusion, he got the feeling there was something missing in the way people spoke about his mother. had he known her, he would have truly seen her. he has a tendency to want to see past appearences, still.

[kybelles]

for the dvd commentary meme:

Apparently it was all it took to set Damen off because he swallows his fruit and looks at Theomedes with accusing eyes. “Six months! That’s half a year, baba! How am I supposed to endure it until then?” His lip quivers again and this time, a sob escapes from his mouth. He turns his teary eyes to Hypermenestra. “I feel like my heart is breaking into pieces! Can a person die because of a broken heart?”

Keep him safe, a woman’s raspy voice whispers. Love him. Love him so much.

A memory. Egeria, untangling herself from his embrace in the middle of the night and stepping into the balcony for some fresh air. Theomedes, following after her like a sailor follows a siren. Egeria’s belly swollen with their unborn baby, her thin silk nightgown clinging into her skin, her skin glowing with both sweat and health.

You never looked more beautiful, Theomdes said unthinkingly as he stared at her. Egeria smiled cheekily at him, her dimple showing, hazel eyes shining with mischief. Flattery will get you nowhere when I’m this big, Exalted.

And then. The baby came too early.

Promise me he’ll be okay, Egeria whimpered as she continued to bleed and bleed. One of her hands was clutched in Theoemedes’s hand and his tears were blurring his vision. He kissed her knuckles, over and over again, until her last breath. I promise.

Theoemedes doesn’t recall a worse heartbreak he’s experienced than Egeria’s death but in the end, he survived. For his country and his family. For his motherless infant son.

HELLO GORGEOUS 💞 💞 wow, almost every question i got about this meme had been about egeria! i love that this sorta has become my brand ngl 🤭

i know the books repeatedly tell us theomedes' great love was hypermenestra and the only reason they couldn't get married was bc of her low status but i like to imagine theo and egeria also loved each other in some way. (hypermenestra and egeria too hehehe) i've actually become very attached to the idea of them being in a polycule since akielon culture is generally polyamorous. so, i wanted to portray theomedes' anguish over losing egeria and how much her death affected him even though she gave him a precious gift like damen. and how he had to pull himself together to take care of him since he was all damen had now.

i'm also a great "damen got his dimple from his mother" truther because i just like the idea of damen inheriting egeria's charm! in canon, damen is a very charismatic person who easily impresses almost everyone he meets and i just love the idea of egeria being the same. that even though these two people never got the chance to be a mother and son duo, damen still carries egeria's legacy by having her easy magnetism and her dimple. 🥺

[blazingblorbos]

Okay Genshin 4.1 thoughts dump because if I don't compile my thoughts somewhere I will literally implode. Anyways, spoilers for the Fontaine Archon Quest so far (as of Chapter 4, the Version 4.1 update) under the Read More (a couple paragraphs under, but you catch my drift)

So. Something I have always absolutely adored about Genshin's storytelling is the way it goes about presenting its gods as "Human too"...

At first, it was seen painfully obvious through Ei and her incredibly human response to grief and trauma (a lot of people thought she was being unreasonable, and yeah for a ruler of an entire nation, closing yourself off to the outside world certainly seems - and is - irresponsible. And then... you consider how easily any other normal person would have done the same thing, if not worse, if they had lost nearly everyone they loved in quick succession, while also being personally responsible for a handful of those deaths).

And upon further reflection on the topic, you can see blatant traces of it present in every archon. And I don't just mean their trying to blend into/ further their understanding of humans, human society, and human nature.

I mean, Venti is kinda hedonistic and aloof; Zhongli wasn't always as wise and so intricately-versed in his knowledge about so many things - before the Archon War, he was more of a brute who preferred to solve things head-on (literally) as opposed to thinking things through; Nahida- oh don't even get me started on Nahida. Her self-doubt and insecurity as a result of facing constant beratement and feelings of inferiority to Rukkhadevata; her constant desire to learn more (both for her namesake as the God of Wisdom, to prove herself, and for her own curiosity's sake); her child-like nature (as a result of her research and human observation ofc!!! but still adorable none-the-less; I mean "dook-dook" !?! come on!)...

But now with Furina, oh. I think we've entered a BRAND NEW level and it's part of the reason why I absolutely love her so much.

In classic good-story-telling practice, Genshin achieves all of this through "show-not-tell" and it's world-class ability of characterizing its characters (IN MY OPINION ! I love them so much, okay?). And from the second I MET this girl to the very last line of 4.1's archon quest, it has been made painfully abundant to me that

Furina is just a child.

She has. NO IDEA what she's doing!!! Now, the underlying reasons for this have yet to be seen, and will most likely be tackled in the very next Archon Quest chapter, but if you'll allow me to speculate right now... Knowing that Egeria also conducted trials for citizens who broke the law (meaning she should have also been a God of Justice), I believe whole-heartedly that it was her who built the entire system Furina and Neuvillette are running right now. Meaning, I'm confident Furina has absolutely nothing to do with it. The ONLY (and I think I truly mean ONLY) thing Furina did in the time since she inherited the role was: change the perception of what justice and its deliverance should be into something a lot more akin to a dramatic play, only enacted for people's enjoyment.

Which includes her lack of knowledge on the Oratrice. Furina didn't create it. How could she? She's so utterly ignorant on what it is, how it works, and dare I say what it's truly even for.

The moment I read this statement I convinced myself that it had to have been the previous Hydro Archon. And while I concede that: looking back on the wording of this statement now, it seems like its existence would only be beneficial under someone like Furina's ruling… But, I'm willing to just chalk that up to "Egeria had great future-sight" (or something more along the lines of: she trusted the machine to help keep her in check so false charges were less likely; and it just so happens that its decision making is carrying the court system now under Furina’s rule).

Like many things related to Fontaine's history, it would seem, Egeria being solely responsible for the creation of all these staple facilities and aspects of the nation's inner workings would shed light on why Furina is so unknowing. She had nothing to do with it. And while I'm no envoy from Celestia, so I have no insight as to what the hell happens when a new Archon is born to fill in the void that was left, I think that whatever that process is (IF THERE EVEN IS ONE) went completely awry for Furina. She probably didn't even inherit the Gnosis - ever ! I'm thinking it's stuffed into the Oratrice somehow/somewhere. I'm thinking the "curse" Arlecchino sensed has something to do with that process of inheritance (or... lack thereof) going so wrong.

It’s obvious that Furina is running from something. Ignoring something. Distracting herself from the realities of the world with the “spectacle of the courtroom” (as Dain put it). And it’d be easy to just chalk it up to her being a little bitch with no deeper meaning but I don’t think that’s it.

Genshin doesn’t make it gods “just human”. They spend their time trying to prove that they’re “Human too”.

The underlying reasons for it have to lie in whatever happened when Furina was born. Cursed. Whether it was a curse to end up alone (as per the prophecy), or to never obtain the powers becoming of a god in this world... Whatever happened, it overwhelmed Furina to an unbearable degree, and naturally, like any Human would... she resorted to escapism. She found entertainment in the trials headed at the court room, realized she could make people like her by being this mascot of justice, and upon learning that it's only a matter of time before all of her subjects turn into puddles and she'll be left all alone… she decided to just- NOT think about it!! Who would?! That is a horrifying! revelation.

THAT is why she's so scared to fight - literally anyone!! She doesn’t have the power (and if she does she’s never had to use it).

THAT is why she’s turned out this way - a brat with very little humility, never knowing when to stop the act - because for centuries she’s lived in this little Lala-Land of a bubble denying the inevitable. A fate she was cursed with from the moment she inherited the title of “God”. She wasn’t really given powers, she wasn’t given dominion, and she most certainly hasn’t received instruction, or… ANY!?! HELP!! it seems, in understanding what it means to be an Archon (perhaps even in spite of those other perks she was “supposed” to receive.)

Born to be a god, yet being set up to suffer the loss of your entire people with almost no power to change it? That would fuck anyone up, even an Archon.

And it’s the way that they’ve shown how it’s fucked with Furina that blows my mind.

She’s so disconnected that Arle’s assassination attempt shocked her to her core. She’s a GOD!! Who would try to assassinate her (aside from the Fatui)!? She’s never had to even perceive the notion of being a target of something like that. Stack that on top of her general sense of helplessness in the greater context of what’s happening to her nation, and it makes sense that she broke down crying later that night... :(

Girlie just needs some help </3

[damianosismyking]

PART VII

Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV - Part V - Part VI

A day or two later, Damen got weird.

It was a hard-to-describe type of situation that made Laurent freak a little. His mind was happy to provide him with lots of thoughts regarding just that.

For one, he probably did something wrong, though he couldn't pinpoint what it was.

They had that too vulnerable of a conversation about things that led Laurent to the ranch; they detoured that by talking more about family than specifics of Laurent's story. They got back on track and then detoured again - and it went on and off like this for about an hour or two. They overslept. Had lazy morning sex. Damen left late for work, which was less than smart now that he was given his first case. Laurent didn't complain. Laurent was late for work too, but the others could manage the horses just fine without him there.

Something during that time must've gone wrong, maybe.

Damen texted Laurent at night to tell him they couldn't hang out because there was a lot he had to study for his case before he met his new client. Laurent's only reply was 'ok'. It was a little too dry. Maybe that made Damen upset?

For other, Laurent was meaning to leave anyway so if Damen was distant, shouldn't that make things easier? Laurent shouldn’t be so distressed.

Waking up without Damen wasn't new, and still it made something twist in the pit of Laurent's stomach.

Not getting any replies for his texts did not help.

Damen seeming so distant on the other side of the line when Laurent called during lunch was upsetting. Damen hanging up abruptly was even worse.

It was an ego thing.

It probably was an ego thing.

Laurent always had a thing with ego.

Probably.

And it was a stupid thing to get worked up over. Laurent didn't have to make it serious.

On the first day, Laurent focused on his job, since that’s what he was meant to be doing, instead of thinking about his boss. Feeding the horses, changing their water, calling the Vet to come check on them. Three horses were almost late on the vaccines and one needed deworming. Paschal would come in a few days to check on them. Then Laurent and two others took them to walk around, freeing them on the pasture. Gather them back on the stalls.

After that Laurent himself was off for a long ride around the ranch and farther until he began to worry it would soon be too dark to come back safely.

On the second day something Laurent surely had not expected was to see Damen with some girl.

Some girl with long black hair braided over her shoulder. Some girl with a stunning face and huge eyes and freckles, and that strutted. She strutted. Some girl that laughed like she was singing. Some girl that Damen was laughing back to, the way he only ever laughed with a few close people. The way that he laughed when he was with Nikandros, and Kastor and Jokaste (before they cheated). The way that he laughed when he was with Laurent.

They disappeared in the main house and didn’t reemerge from there. Eventually it got too late and Laurent was too tired to wait up and see when she’d be leaving.

On the third day, Laurent came up with a speech and then mastered said speech that he would give to Damen and his family - as a whole, not separated parts - thanking them for so many years of kindness. He couldn't bear speaking to Damen privately. Not that Laurent was the crying type, but he might cry anyway. Emotions. Laurent hated them.

There were the speeches for the horses too - and those were individual. One to each. The biggest and most heart-felt to his own horse. It was the right thing to do.

Also on the third day, Damen opted for undermining all of Laurent's plans by showing up without previous notice to Laurent's room just before nine, looking serious and stiff like Laurent’s never seen him be. Damen tried for a smile, but it became obvious then and there that this conversation would be better if they didn’t try to pull niceties.

Straight to the point. Just business and such.

Laurent couldn't help but feeling small though. And helpless, and wrong, and guilty about something he didn't even know what. He has felt like this before - though the circumstances had been so different then.

Guilt was a constant in Laurent’s life when he arrived at the ranch. Guilty for escaping. Guilty for not letting Auguste know he was okay. Guilty for accepting all of those nice things that Egeria offered to do for him. Guilty.

The way Laurent felt guilty then was like how he was feeling guilty now. It was irrational and yet too goddamn real, despite him not having done anything to deserve that.

"We need to talk," was the first thing Damen said, his voice too deep to suggest anything other than that he wasn't in the mood for jokes.

Laurent gulped. "We do."

Damen frowned, as though not expecting that Laurent would say anything. Like Laurent was supposed to stay quiet and mop as Damen broke things up between them. "Go first then," Damen settled on the bed.

"Okay," Laurent walked to his desk and back, settling beside Damen, close enough that he could reach, but far enough that they would not bump.

Laurent offered the methodically folded piece of paper to Damen and waited for Damen to take his own conclusions of it. When it took longer than a minute, Laurent decided to verbalize, "I would like to offer you my resignation. I am immensely grateful for all that you and your family have done for me over the course of the years; I can't stress enough how -"

"What -" Damen interrupted "What is this? What the fuck, Laurent?" Damen held up the letter as though he had been personally offended by it.

Laurent drew a deep breath. "As I was saying - I am all too thankful for all the kindness you have shown me for so, so long. In my heart I will never forget all of this and I promise I will remain grateful to the day I die, but I feel like I overstayed my welcome. I know it might come as a shock, but right now I want to do more with my life. Something to give me an actual future. I hope you and your family won't take it as an offense, I will talk to Theomedes before I -"

"Are you shitting me?" Damen's expression grew more outraged the more Laurent spoke; he was already on his feet "That's it? You’re going to leave? You're breaking up with me with a fucking resignation letter and a formal speech?" Damen threw the letter to the ground "A goddamn speech?"

Laurent shifted, trying to appear unaffected. "I know the nature of our relationship was more intimate and I appreciate the special attention over the past few months. But, yes, I would like to leave."

Damen blinked, in chock. He had his hands on his hips which should be funny, except it wasn't. Damen lowered his tone, considering something before he said, "Is it because of the breakfast? Because if it is, Laurent, I promise I will never put you in that position again, I wasn't thinking. You don’t have to leave I’ll -"

"It's not because of the breakfast, Damianos" Laurent interrupted this time "I just want to be something more. To become someone. And I’m well aware of our situation" he gestured between them "and how things couldn't go forward."

“You can do everything you want. You don’t have to go away. Or you can go away, if you want to not be here anymore. I can help you, with college and finding a place to live wherever you want, just let me -”

“I have my own money that I saved, thank you. I don’t want your money. I don’t need it.”

“Laurent -”

“I would like,” Laurent’s tone was more incisive, firm “To de dismissed. Please.”

"Holy -" Damen turned his back, running his hands down his face.

There was silence and Laurent didn't want to think about it, or anything at all. He wanted this conversation to be over, so they could be over, and Laurent could be alone. By Damen's reaction he wasn't thrilled Laurent beat him to breaking up. Was Damen not used to being broken up to? Was this a first for him? No. Laurent knew for a fact this wasn't the case.

There had been Jokaste before him - and breaking up by cheating on him with his brother must've been a little worse than a letter of resignation. Though the letter shouldn't be too far behind. Laurent just didn't expect Damen to care so much. Maybe that was him not caring so much. Laurent would love it if his head would stop spinning and if Damen said something already.

"I, of course, fully intend to complete my notice and help you find a suitable person to fill my spot," Laurent said, in the quiet, when Damen still didn’t speak.

Damen huffed. "That's really nice of you, thank you," he said, voice carried in irony "I should’ve known. God, how am I this stupid?"

"Huh?"

Laurent wished Damen would turn around; watching his back was unsettling.

"Why am I always this stupid?" Damen said, not louder, "Nikandros told me this was going to happen and I - I didn't listen. Why did I not listen?"

"Are you talking to yourself?"

Damen just kept rubbing his hands over his face and mumbling. "You could have told me,” Damen’s voice was internalized, like he was half swallowing the words, but at last he was talking to Laurent “If you didn’t want... You could’ve told me before – you could’ve told me sooner.”

“Told you what, Damianos?” Laurent was still rock-solid on the outside.

“That you didn’t want things to get serious,” Damen took a sharp breath before finally turning and fixing his eyes on Laurent's “Didn’t want things to go forward. That you wanted us to remain casual.”

Laurent frowned. "We were casual," They were casual. Weren’t they casual?

Damen closed his eyes, pained. "I got that part, thanks," Damen leaned against the wall, resting his head on the wood panel.

More silence. "We were casual," Laurent whispered.

It did not make any sense. None of it.

"So," Laurent gulped, words outwards again "You didn't come here to end things between us?"

Damen smiled like it cost him greatly to do so. After, he shook his head. "No.”

Well, fuck.

Laurent was considerably less stable. "What were you here for then?"

Damen's jaw tensed. He looked to his boots, not Laurent. Laurent almost thought Damen wouldn't say anything until, "I met your brother."

The words floated before they could sink and once they did, Laurent found out he wouldn't be able to breath any time soon. "You what?"

"He is my client," Damen explained, "He has lawsuit against your uncle. There are evidences that your uncle interfered on the process of your custody, stole your family's money and properties. They've been fighting in court for years now and Auguste is out of resources to pay the fees and lawyers, so he signed up for the pro-bono."

Damen, much more in control of himself now, pushed away from the wall and bent to catch the letter he had thrown to the ground "I thought of breaking attorney and client privilege to let you know," his voice was cutting, bitter. Damen raised the letter again, like he's done earlier, but this time he refused to look at Laurent "I'll have the others know you're leaving. We will hire someone to replace you by the end of the week. Don’t worry about the notice, you’re free to go."

On his way out, Damen was gentle to close the door, leaving Laurent alone with his pounding heart and a full head.

__

NEXT>>

Read it on AO3!

[tanadrin]

Absolute Power

(Attention conservation notice: 4800 words of Stargate: SG-1 fanfiction)

1. Absolute Power

When Shifu lowered his hand, Daniel was, for a brief moment, astonished to find himself back in the gray-walled room. Then the realization hit, in successive waves. It had all been a dream, a vision; a lesson, really. Vivid as it was, as long as it had seemed, not even a moment had passed. None of it was real.

“Now you see?” the boy said calmly; but it wasn’t really a question.

Daniel nodded. In that brief moment he had lived--was it months? Years?--with the knowledge of the goa’uld inside him, all their technological sophistication, yes, but also their tens of thousands of years of rage, their plunder and their destruction and their burning need, above all else, for power. And he had seen what the consequence would be for someone like him: one human mind, with three and a half decades of memory and identity and intent, versus countless lifetimes? It wasn’t even a contest. Shifu had said, the only way to win is to deny the battle, but there was no battle. One man couldn’t stand against an army. Without ever realizing it, without even thinking about it, his entire view of the universe had changed in an instant, and he had betrayed everything he had ever believed in, everything he had ever fought for, everyone he had ever loved, all in the service of that hard, sharp, satisfying feeling of crushing something else beneath the heel of your shoe.

“Thank you,” he said to the boy. “Yes. Now I understand.”

Shifu nodded, satisfied. Then he looked up at the guard by the door.

“Can I go now?”

The guard looked to Daniel nervously, but Daniel just nodded; when they were gone, he sat alone in the little room, rubbing his forehead, trying to grapple with the experience he’d just had.

The thing was… it hadn’t felt like a dream. It sat in his mind like an actual memory, it felt like things he had actually done. He remembered, clearly, the choices he had made and the logic behind them. Defending Earth from the goa’uld was and had always been his priority. That was the whole reason for the SGC. He had felt, in Shifu’s vision, that for the first time he could at least understand the scope on which the goa’uld could plan things, the dizzying array of possibilities that opened up when you were functionally immortal and had millennia of looted technology available to you, and all the genetic memory of your ancestors. He had felt for the first time that he could compete with them on their own level, that they weren’t struggling in the dark against an opponent that completely outclassed them. And so he did the thing that came naturally. He put plans into motion.

This was, he supposed, the danger; that the logic of the knowledge of the goa’uld was built on a fundamentally different way of seeing the universe. A thing to be conquered, a thing to be ruled. He remembered seeing, by virtue of their genetic memory, all the way back into their primeval past on their forgotten homeworld, the dominance displays they had performed in the rivers and shallow bays, the little petty kingdoms they built to attract mates and followers, before they broke free, before they were able to build kingdoms among the stars. The problem wasn’t that the goa’uld were alien. The problem was that they were all too human. They were social animals, just like Daniel. They were makers of hierarchies. They, just like he, knew the pleasure of conquest, the pure thrill of being the winner. And that cruel, vivid pleasure had conquered him, because apparently no matter how good and wise and careful and rational you tried to be, your limbic system held all the cards, and could make you justify anything, if you had a reason to.

And he had justified it. It wasn’t real, but he’d still justified it. And like some sort of perverse figure-ground illusion, he could remember that justification, and he could still see how exactly right it had felt from the inside. He had justified not only betraying his principles, but murdering his friends, and millions of peoples besides, and even if it hadn’t been real, it had still felt perfectly all right.

To his own surprise, he realized he was sobbing--short, guttural noises that dislodged tears of frustration. He straightened up in the chair, and forced himself to take a long, deep breath. Shifu had intended only to show Daniel that the knowledge of the goa’uld could not be used safely, not by Shifu or Daniel or anyone else. But he had, perhaps quite inadvertently, shown him something else as well.

There were plans that needed to be put into motion.

2. Cure

The Pangarans were behind Earth technologically in a lot of ways, but their medical science, ghoulish as it might seem if you were goa’uld, was top-notch. Unfortunately, Egeria was dying, and there was nothing that the Pangarans, or the Tok’ra, or the SGC’s own doctors could do for her. In fact, probably the only person on the whole planet who could help her was Egeria herself.

“But even we goa’uld have no cure for old age,” she said.

Besides the sarcophagi, of course; but Daniel had not even asked about that possibility. He knew the answer already. He wasn’t a technically minded person, but he’d heard Samantha trying to explain it to Jack once, slowly and with small words. The sarcophagus was stolen technology, not designed for the goa’uld (or the human) nervous system, and it tended to alter certain elements of brain chemistry over time; alterations that with repeated use became permanent. It heightened aggression, heightened the dopamine hit from feeling like you were on the winning side. It made you feel right, all the time, and it made it basically impossible to question or interrogate that feeling. It took the worst qualities of a human or a goa’uld and magnified them ten thousand times. And because the goa’uld passed on their memories and their feelings and their emotions to their children, these qualities were only magnified with subsequent generations.

Until, somehow, Egeria came along.

“I need your help to understand some things,” he said. “And we don’t have a lot of time.”

Egeria--or her host, or both; the Tok’ra insisted blending wasn’t really like goa’uld possession, but Daniel had to admit that the distinction seemed pretty fine to him--Egeria shrugged. “Why not? But if it’s the secrets of your enemies you are looking for, I may disappoint you. I was never a very powerful goa’uld queen. And I am sure much has changed since I was imprisoned.”

“No, nothing like that,” Daniel said. “I need to understand you. As a person. Your history.”

“I thought you were an archeologist, not a biographer.”

“Archeologist, linguist, anthropologist… if my business card weren’t a threat to national security, it would be very complicated. But I need to understand how the Tok’ra came to be, because in a sense that is one of my enemy’s secrets. Or, well, it may be the key to defeating them. It’s hard to explain.”

“The story is already known to you, is it not? I rebelled against Ra; I sought to create children who lacked the greed and the destructive nature of the goa’uld. Thus the Tok’ra were born, and for that act of rebellion, I was imprisoned here, on Pangara, in the stasis jar.”

“What I don’t understand is why you made that decision. Or to be more specific, I don’t understand how you were able to make that decision. Because everything I know about the goa’uld indicates that that should not have been possible.”

“What do you mean? Do I not have free will? Shall I not be judged on my deeds like any other sentient being?”

“Yes, of course. All rational beings have to accept the consequences of their own free choices. But not all free choices are equally free. There’s, uh…” Daniel rubbed his forehead, wondering if the analogy he was about to attempt would really work across the massive culture gap between a human and a goa’uld, but he went for it anyway. “There’s a genre of fiction, a kind of story, that’s pretty popular on Earth, called ‘fantasy,’ that often depicts the struggle of good versus evil on the scale of whole cities and nations and worlds, and sometimes in order to really drive home the point that the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad, people telling fantasy stories will describe whole species or whole nations in a way that makes them irredeemably bad. Irredeemably evil. Their intrinsic nature, I mean. Always chaotic evil.”

“Like the goa’uld.”

“Yes. Like the goa’uld. I thought, until we met the Tok’ra, that the goa’uld were always chaotic evil. In a way, it was… comforting to think that. It made it easier to hate them. And even after we met the Tok’ra, there was such a clear distinction between them and the goa’uld, between your children and the children of all the other System Lords, it’s easy to forget that sometimes they’re biologically the same species. But it’s more complicated than that.”

“I don’t see how. The goa’uld are evil. If you are going to admit that the word has any meaning at all, it applies here. The children of Ra are hostile to all other beings in the universe; they are even hostile to themselves, except insofar as they choose to cooperate against outside threats. They cannot be trusted or reasoned with. Diplomacy is impossible, unless you are more powerful than they.”

“But you were born a goa’uld, and you chose to be different.”

Egeria nodded.

“I did. I… did make a choice. I don’t know why.”

“What do you remember?”

She closed her eyes; for a minute, Daniel was afraid she had lost consciousness, that his opportunity to understand had slipped him by, but then she spoke.

“I was born small, blind, and fearful, as all goa’uld are. Yet with thousands of years of memory. I did not know who I was, but I knew what I was. We have no names; did you know that? The Tok’ra do, but not the goa’uld. The names they use are the names their fearful subjects give them, or the designations their superiors impose on them. We are born so many; those who have not yet distinguished themselves are deserving of no names. In a very real sense, there was no I. Only a weak sense of self, among the many, among the great sea of ancestral memory.

“But soon I understood I was different. I did not have the same greed the others had. The same need for conquest. The same craving for power. And in that absence, I could focus on other things. I devoted my attention to the sciences, because that was what I loved most. But I ultimately could not ignore the suffering of other beings, the cruelty of my kin. So I created the Tok’ra, and ensured that they would not be like the goa’uld.”

“How did you do it?”

“I created a retrovirus that altered the structure of the goa’uld midbrain. It reduced the size of the akareish and lessened the intensity of the positive feedback provided by the ku’kra. Forgive me. I don’t think there are words in your language for these things. I ensured the changes were heritable. And I passed on only part of my memories. All the most important things. But… there were things they didn’t need to know to survive, to thrive in the galaxy. They needed to know of the horrors of the goa’uld, but perhaps not… perhaps not what it felt like to commit those horrors. And to enjoy them.”

“I get it.”

“I remember. I wish I did not. But I do.”

“Did you ever examine yourself? To try to figure out why you were different? Whether it was, I don’t know, a genetic mutation of some sort.”

“I did not. I was… I am afraid of the answer. It pains me to admit that; but I am dying, and it seems that now is a bad time to keep secrets.”

“Afraid? Why afraid?”

“Consider the possibilities. Either I am no better than any of the others--Ra, Apophis, Baal--no different, or… or I am, and only by some twist of fate I was lucky enough not to share in their nature. That, really, I am the only goa’uld with free will. As you said, not all free choices are equally free. Can a being constrained by its very nature to lack empathy, to need the suffering of others to be happy, be condemned for its choices? Opposed, surely. But condemned? You do not condemn the predator for devouring the prey. But that analogy never sat right with me where my kindred were concerned. I do not want it to be true.”

“Did you ever try to persuade someone else to your point of view? One of the other goa’uld?”

“No. Never. It would have been useless, and put me in mortal danger.”

“Are you sure about that, that it would have been useless?”

“I was born believing utterly in the rightness of the ways of the goa’uld. When I confronted those lies for what they were, the pain nearly drove me to suicide. I cannot imagine any of my brethren choosing that pain for themselves, and certainly not because of something as trivial as mere empathy for lesser beings.”

“But you chose it. Maybe others would, if they were given the chance.”

“Oh, Daniel Jackson. You poor child. I understand now. You are that rarest of all the creatures in the universe. You are an optimist.”

3. Full Circle

On the best days, the best part of every mission, Daniel thought, was the quiet aftermath: when you went to bed knowing that you did good, that you did right, that you made somebody’s (or some planet’s) day a little bit better. And on the worst days, the worst part was the same: living with yourself in the dark space between being awake and sleeping, when you could not hide from your doubts and your grief and your self-recriminations.

Most of all, at those hours, Daniel thought of Sha’re; how could he think of anything else? She was everything he had ever looked for in his life, and he could not save her. She had always looked at him with the quiet, loving certainty that he could do anything, that he was terrific and wonderful and the strongest, most capable man in the galaxy. And he did not save her.

Daniel often did not sleep well. Tonight, as he lay in the darkness, he wondered if he would ever sleep again. He had failed to save Sha’re and now she was dead. He had failed to save Abydos, and now Skaara and Kusuf and all his friends and in-laws there, they were dead, too. He had asked his therapist, after Sha’re had died, how you lived with grief like this. How you kept getting up in the morning and going to work and feeding yourself and going through the gate and coming back, knowing it would never, ever get any better, than this was something that could never be fixed. “Do you want the comforting answer, or the real answer?” his therapist had said; and because he was an emotional masochist at heart, Daniel had asked for the real one. “You keep going because you have no other choice,” she’d said. “And because all you can do is your utmost to make sure nobody else has to suffer the same way you’re suffering right now.”

So Daniel had kept doing what he did. But now the worst had happened again, and he didn’t know how he was going to survive it.

He rolled over in his bed, turned the pillow over, and then punched it in frustration. There was no way he was going to sleep. He sat up and turned on the light, and that was when he realized he wasn’t alone. There was a woman, attractive and middle-aged, with a warm, maternal face, sitting in the chair by the window, looking out at the street below.

“Oma Desala,” he said. She looked at him and smiled.

“Daniel. It’s been a while.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I take an interest in your life, you know. I like to check on you from time to time. See how you’re doing.”

“You’re an ascended being,” he said flatly, by which he meant, that still doesn’t explain what the hell you’re doing in my bedroom.

“I wanted to ease your mind a little bit, if I could,” she said.

“Anubis destroyed Abydos. As I’m sure you know. I don’t really think you can help with that, unless you and the other ancients have decided to bring it back.”

Oma shook her head. “No, not that. I wish I could. It was a terrible thing. But the Abydonians aren’t dead. I helped them to ascend. All of them.”

Daniel stared at her, trying to understand the magnitude of what she was saying. “All of them?”

“Every last one.”

Tears of relief sprang unbidden to his eyes. And tears of anger.

“I don’t get you people,” he said quietly.

“You don’t approve?” Oma said dryly.

“You’re so… capricious. You ascended beings, all of you. The others lay down the law against interference. You break it, help other beings ascend. Then along comes Anubis, you fuck up, the others de-ascend him but only a little, and let him wreak havoc on the rest of us just to teach you a lesson. Which doesn’t work, because you’re an incorrigible little puck, even when it gets millions of people killed. And then you save a whole planet just for fun.”

“Should I have let them die?”

“You shouldn’t let anyone die!” Daniel realized he was out of bed now, standing, and yelling at her. “If you can save all of Abydos, you can save the entire galaxy! No one should have to die! No one, ever. Fine! Let the goa’uld and Anubis and the Replicators and every other terror in the universe run rampant, but you could at least save them in the end, and you don’t. You dip in and out of our lives, and pretend like you possess vast wisdom we can’t comprehend, and maybe you do, but that doesn’t mean we’re wrong. It just means you’re arrogant as hell!”

Oma smiled sadly. “You might be right, Daniel. Just because we’re on a higher plane of existence doesn’t mean we’re right. It doesn’t even mean we’re good. We do try to be. And we don’t always agree on methods. You certainly didn’t, when you were one of us.”

Daniel froze. “What are you talking about?”

“You were, very briefly, an ascended being. After the accident on Langara. Do you remember? You were dying of radiation poisoning.”

“Yeah. And then suddenly I wasn’t, and no one knew why. You had something to do with that?”

“Indirectly. I offered you a choice. I couldn’t save your life directly. I wanted to. Insofar as there’s any flexibility in the rules the others have set for me, I try to do what I can to make the galaxy a better place. And saving your life, I reckoned, would do a lot to further that goal. But all I could do was offer you ascension instead, help you along that path in the moments before your death. So I offered, and you accepted.”

“I did?”

“Access to nearly limitless knowledge is a hard offer for someone like you to turn down. Yes, you accepted. And then just as quickly, the others forced you to return.”

“I thought they didn’t interfere in ascensions?”

“They don’t. No, they leave me that. It was once you did once you were ascended that forced them to intervene.”

“I expect I tried to wipe out the System Lords or something.”

“Just one in particular. You saw the threat Anubis presented. You understood the rules, of course--you understood a lot of things in that moment--but you weighed the risk of breaking them against the risk Anubis posed to the galaxy, and in that moment you did everything in your considerable power to try to stop him.”

“I tried to kill him?”

Oma shook her head.

“Not at all. You tried… something else. Something very unexpected. Your heart was in the right place, but you broke the letter of the rules. The others didn’t want to punish you too harshly, so they sent you back.”

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“Daniel, it’s not in my power to save every dying soul in the galaxy. Yes, it’s for reasons I can’t explain to you, because you’re not an ascended being, and yes that’s frustrating, and yes, you just have to accept it. I made a mistake a long time ago, with Anubis. A lot of people have suffered as a result of that mistake, and while you can blame the ancients, and you can blame Anubis himself, some of that blame has to fall on me. Until now, I’ve never known how to correct that mistake. I could devote all my energy and all my attention to fighting Anubis. I can’t kill him, of course, but I could keep him occupied--at the cost of being far too occupied myself to ever help another being ascend, to ever save another soul from death. I don’t know whether that’s the right trade off to make. Even if it is, I don’t know whether I’m capable of it.

“But I have been watching you. I have seen what you’re working on. I think you’re on the right track. I just don’t think you’re aiming high enough, and there are tools you’re missing. I want to help.”

4. Reckoning

For a split second, all of creation seemed to hold its breath as Anubis stood over the console at the heart of the Dakara temple; in a very real sense, the entire galaxy was moments from destruction.

They had a plan. It was, as Jack had pointed out, “A bad plan, no, insane,” but a plan nonetheless. And he hadn’t needed to convince Jack--just Samantha and Jonas and Teal’c and General Hammond, after which Jack had reluctantly gone along with it like he usually did. There was, even if he didn’t like to admit it, something in Jack O’Neill that loved a crazy plan.

Three things happened in rapid succession. First, a blast of energy knocked Anubis backward, away from the console; second, there was a brilliant flash of light as an Asgardian transporter engaged; third, there was a great silence, as the battle outside ceased.

“Okay,” Jack said, picking himself up off the flagstones and brushing the dust off his pants. “Time to go see if this worked.” He extended a hand to help Daniel up, and they went over and stood on the platform.

“Two to beam up,” he said into his radio.

There was another flash of light, and they were standing on the bridge of the O’Neill, Thor’s battlecruiser. The Asgardian was sitting in the command chair; next to him stood Samantha and Teal’c, and he was looking across the room, with intense focus, at the prisoner.

“Everything OK up here?” Jack asked.

“Indeed,” Thor said. “I was… quite alarmed when I read the outline of Dr. Jackson’s plan, but I believe the preparations you made are adequate.” He gestured at the Sangraal, the little machine plugged into a console to one side. “This curious device has been modified as instructed. I believe it can contain Anubis indefinitely.”

Daniel looked across the room. The forcefield was holding; Anubis was bellowing something muted and indistinct inside it, and Oma stood nearby, ready to intervene if necessary.

“We can alter the forcefield to permit communication,” Sam said.

“Or, y’know, we can just dump him into a black hole,” Jack said. Daniel glared at him. “Just a thought.”

Daniel walked over to the forcefield. Almost as an afterthought, he unclipped his gun and laid it down next to him. Sam tapped a few buttons on a console, and Anubis’s voice was suddenly distinct.

“--OUT OF THIS PRISON AT ONCE. YOU PUNY TAU’RI WILL FEEL MY WRATH!”

“Oh, zip it,” Daniel said. “You System Lords are all the same. You’re gonna rant for a while, then get bored, then try to bargain, with every intention of reneging on the deal as soon as you can. You’re not getting out. That’s the first thing you need to confront. That--” he pointed at the Sangraal-- “can kill ascended beings. Or, with some modifications, hold them indefinitely. Oma here--you remember Oma--is here to make sure that if you do somehow escape, you don’t get very far.”

This is where Daniel was pretty sure Anubis’s eyes would have narrowed, if he had them.

“Ascended beings aren’t permitted to interfere in this plane of existence,” he growled.

“Sure. Yes. Absolutely.” Daniel scratched his head. “Exceeept I think the others are quite happy to let Oma do all the interfering she wants if it’s to correct a certain mistake she made a long time ago, involving a certain half-ascended System Lord. Well, so far they haven’t stopped her, anyway.”

 “Kill me and be done with it then!”

“Tempting, tempting. That was certainly Jack’s vote. And Teal’c’s. And, well, everybody else’s at first. I can see the logic to it.”

“Perhaps you seek instead to profit from my knowledge?”

“Actually, no. No, I don’t think so. We have something else in mind.”

“Spit it out!”

“Hmm, how do I explain this. I don’t think the Dungeons and Dragons analogy is really right here. Er… do you know the story of the goa’uld Egeria?”

“The mother of the Tok’ra? Pah!”

“Yes, that’s the one. She died not too long ago. I’ve been thinking about her a lot over the last few years. Interesting person. We asked the Tok’ra if we could run some genetic tests on her after she died, and do you know what we found?”

Silence.

“Nothing. Nothing at all! She was totally indistinguishable from any other goa’uld we’d ever encountered. Except of course the Tok’ra. They’re a little different, but just a little.”

“What foolish nonsense are you talking about? What does any of this have to do with anything?!”

“A lot, actually. I’m not explaining it very well. Sorry, it’s been a long day. A long five or six years, actually. And I knew this would be hard, because I don’t like you very much. In fact, every part of me is screaming at me to hate you right now. To walk over there and find the button marked ‘kill this asshole,’ and to push it, because that part of me is one hundred percent convinced that that’s all you deserve. That this whole plan of capturing you was a mistake, and we should just abort it right now. But Egeria is one reason I’m not doing that. Not the only reason. I think… I think I would be doing it anyway, because of what Shifu showed me. I hope I would be, anyway. Because I don’t believe there’s any such thing as an always chaotic evil creature. I don’t believe anything as similar to me as a goa’uld--don’t laugh! It’s true--who can also think and feel and want and hope and dream, and yes, love and hate and all the rest of it, is really irredeemable. I mean, maybe you are. Just because somebody has the capacity for good doesn’t mean they ever have to realize it. God knows there are plenty of humans who never do. But human lives are short. Human memories are short. Humans have seen a lot less of the universe than any goa’uld. And all the other goa’uld have seen a lot less of it than you.”

“Get to the point, you irritating little worm.”

“Okay. Here’s my point. Oma and I are going to keep you here as long as it takes. Not here on this ship, we’ll probably have to move you to the gamma site or something at some point, but in this prison. And we’re going to talk. We’re going to teach you the one thing you don’t already know, that all that ascended knowledge floating around in that… weird empty space where your brain should be, that that knowledge hasn’t shown you. The one thing that maybe can make all the suffering you’ve caused, and all Oma’s mistakes, and all the arrogance of the ascended worthwhile. And maybe, just maybe, redeem your entire species. Anubis, son of Osiris and Isis, System Lord of the Goa’uld, we’re going to teach you how to be good.”

[denisa-blr]

Sam and Jack fanfiction recommendations

I`d like to share a couple of my favorite stories with you. They are by no means all, so if I left some, I may add them later. They are all Sam and Jack stories unless said otherwise.

It`s worth mentioning that I love more serious stories, many of them have a whump in them, but they are all very plot driven or has an interesting thought. I don`t like suffering just for the sake of suffering.

Another Lost on a Planet Fic by Vinividivinci 

This is one of the best stories I`ve read. It has very intriguing plot and lots of Sam and Jack together moments. It kept me on the edge most of the time. Highly recommend :)

I have read from this author several more stories. All were well worth reading. Long with solid plot and accurate Sam and Jack`s relationship. Some are quite dark though, so read disclaimers. If the author claims them dark, they are.

10,000 BC by Vinividivinci

O'Neill and Carter get left on a planet and are captured by the locals. How will they handle the new culture in which they find themselves and will they be rescued? Definitely ship and whump!

Calia by Vinividivinci

With their former life forgotten, can Jack, Sam and Daniel start again in Calia? Based very, very loosely on 'Beneath the Surface' S/J Ship

Mariscola by Vinividivinci

An encounter with aliens sends Jack and Sam - far away. Jack is no longer himself and Sam has to learn to survive. S/J of course. Jack whumping of course.

A Bang and a Whimper by Vinividivinci 

A newly discovered race turns out to be Earth's worst enemy. General O'Neill is off world when Earth is attacked - will he ever be able to return and what of his former team?

Surebu by Vinividivinci 

Jack is captured and enslaved by a vicious Goa'uld. Will there be anything left of Colonel O'Neill by the time his team finds him? This story has extreme Jack Whump (and I mean extreme). Don't read it if you don't like whump. 

Primary Emotion by amaradangeli

After seventeen weeks of torture in a Goa'uld prison, Samantha Carter is rescued by SG-1. In the time that follows she must relearn how to relate to her team, reassess her relationships with both herself and others, and decide whether or not she'll continue to step through the Stargate. Luckily she's got the benefit of a good psychologist and the love of a great man.

One of the best stories I`ve ever read. Author masterfully developed main and supporting characters and also relationship between Sam and Jack. It was very natural progress from the relationship we can see in the show to something more.

The Secret Lives of Pandas by Phoenix-cry

Separated from the team Sam and Jack's survival skills, sanity, and relationship are put to the test. Heavy S/J Ship, with high angst, hurt/comfort, adventure, and a touch of humor. Emotional ride but, NO major character death, NO graphic sex.

I loved this story so much. It was dark and hard to read, but author created such strong emotions. Plus I admire their imagination and talent for creating new alien world and society. It was very interesting view on things.

Untouchable by Phoenix-cry

A violent, yet sappy, J/S shippy/angst type story, one shot. It is amazing how two people can be so close and so far apart at the same time...

Another story from same author. This person has real talent for creating strong emotions.

Life In the Shadows by JackieONeill Nut

SG1 are forced into slave labour. Complete

This was first or second SG-1 fanfiction I`ve read and made me fall in love with Sam and Jack stories.

Out of Time by AstraPerAspera

What happens to Sam and Jack when the world they know is falling apart around them. Inspired by the novel Stargate SG1: Relativity by James Swallow. Sam and Jack Ship.

Another excellent story which will keep you reading right way through.

Love, Honor and Obey by Little Miss Flo

Sam Carter is arrested - for being single. Trapped too far from the gate to escape, and with a valuable trade deal hanging in the balance, Sam and Jack must go through the Yantaran marriage rites, or face the consequences. S/J throughout.

Very nice story.

Egeria's Legacy by Annerb

A Tok’ra civil war is brewing and Sam gets caught in the middle. Angst, action/adventure, drama, team, Sam/Jack.

I love when skilled author writes interaction between human and symbiote.

Only the Stubborn Survive by fems 

Captain Carter celebrates finishing her latest project with a man she only knows as 'Jack' and learns she's transferring to the SGC the next morning, but her first off-world mission ends in betrayal. Captured by Jaffa she keeps Earth's secrets under torture but is then brought before Apophis and Klorel, who decide to make her a host. She discovers the wild fling may just save her…

The Guardian by Bixata

Major General Jack O'Neill has been missing for 12 years. Where he's been, what happened to him, and his return home. Oh yeah, he can't speak and he's not alone. SJ ship

A Deadly Legacy by Sally Reeve, Marcy

Memories weren't the only things Jolinar left behind

I really like stories from these two authors. Althought Sam and Jack relationship is not much more than what we see in season four, I love plot and well portrayed characters.

Night Terrors by Sally Reeve, Marcy

A mission to explore an abandoned temple turns into a desperate flight for survival.

Notes above apply to this story too.

Changes by not_a_zatarc

Sam returns after a long undercover mission with the Tok'ra and is shocked to discover what's happened to Jack in her absence. Sam/Jack, with some Daniel/Janet as well.

Cost of Living by Doc

Major Carter goes missing while on loan to SG-9 for a research assignment. The S&R mission takes a wee bit longer than expected (be warned: this is a loooooong story!), not aided by the fact that Colonel O’Neill contrives to get misplaced as well (how does he do it???) …

Compos Mentis by adangeli

After Colonel O'Neill is stranded on a seemingly friendly planet, it's up to his team to rescue him. Who they find, though, isn't the man they left behind.

Wings of the Apocalypse by sharim

We have seven months until the planet is wiped out, Carter. And that's optimistic. SJ. AU.

Gravity Always Wins in the End by Annerb

After Sam is held hostage, Jack takes an impromptu trip to Atlantis.

Leaving Atlantis by dreamer one

At first, he thought she was dead. Then he worried what had been done to her was worse than death. Perhaps it was simply the beginning of a greater adventure. Sam and the Pegasus Galaxy might never be the same again. SJ story; SGA crossover

Arborvitae by gingasaur

“You really think you’re capable of carrying Carter around a sacred tree nine times?”

This is Sam and Teal`c friendship story, well worth the reading.

Also many of these authors wrote several great stories, so if someone's style'll catch your attention, check their respective pages :).

Rereading this post, it struck me that most of these stories are indeed very serious. So I recommend alternate them with lighter ones. But it`s not my fault that most high quality stories are not very happy all the way through ;).

[inqorporeal]

Both Beijner and Wolfe talked about that bond on set, and the environment that Jenkins created to nurture it.  “I give a lot of credit to Patty Jenkins for creating this vibe, it truly went top-down,” Beijner said. “This movie is about a lot of things, but female power, wisdom and badassery is what’s at the core. And Patty managed to get that out of each and every one of us, as well as a team, or troops. Us Amazons challenged each other while training, only to push each other further and to become stronger. Beyond that, we used our fighting spirit to support each other. There were days we were so tired we could sleep standing up, but we went at it, again and again and again.”Doutzen Kroes, Venelia For many viewers, the recently released box-office hit “Wonder Woman” could have ― and should have ― been set entirely on the women-only Amazon warrior paradise of Themyscira.

In fact, I would have contentedly traded Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor for more time with Artemis, Antiope or Hippolyta at any given point in the film’s 141 minutes. It felt profoundly satisfying to watch women of all colors, sizes, shapes and ages wield so much physical power on a humongous screen, and as the story went from Themyscira to World War I-era Western Europe, I found myself missing the women warriors and wanting to know more about them.

Turns out, the real women beneath the armor are just as fierce as their characters.

Ann Wolfe, Artemis

Ann Wolfe is considered by many to be the best female boxer in history, known in particular for her strong and unforgiving punches ― in fact, her 2007 knockout of Vonda Ward has more than a million views on YouTube.

Wolfe told HuffPost a bit about how, after her storied boxing career, she came to be in the blockbuster hit.

“Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins had approached her for the role because of her knowledge of Wolfe’s background in boxing. Jenkins’ husband, Sam Sheridan, a former professional fighter himself, had long been following her career. As other women were auditioning for the role of Artemis, Jenkins kept going back to Wolfe. She eventually got the part, and was flown out to London to meet everyone before starting filming in Italy.

“I had never been on a set,” she told HuffPost. “Patty got out of the director’s chair and said, ‘Sit down!’ And then Gal [Gadot] came over and looked at me and said, ‘Yep, that’s Artemis.’”

The rest, according to Wolfe, was magic. She told HuffPost that working with so many other athletic women was a gift, especially after spending so much of her boxing career being trained by and working with men.  

“It felt like we were truly Amazons,” she said. “I have never been around that many strong women at one time. It was like a puzzle, and we all fit in it together. It felt like we were real, true Amazons.”

Madeleine Vall Beijner, Egeria

Like Wolfe, Madeleine Vall Beijner came to “Wonder Woman” from the world of professional fighting. For over 10 years, she was a world-ranked Thai boxer. After an injury took her away from her plans to transfer into MMA, she instead took her skills to stunt roles and film. The intense physical demands that she and the other Amazons went through on set were pretty standard for her skill level.

“I’m used to training two to three times a day,” Beijner told HuffPost. “The difference was in the techniques and choreography, but since I’m used to constantly learning new moves, pro-fighting translated itself pretty easily into stunt acting. I feel like I have a great base to build on from all my years taking punches and knocking people out.”

What was new for the Swedish fighter, though, was getting to do so much heavy lifting with other women.

“It wasn’t actually until ‘Wonder Woman’ I got to be in a girl-power world. Being a female Thai and kickboxer, I’ve been in a man’s world for the last decade, so being around this many women was completely new to me,” she said.  

“I was a little nervous at first,” she added, “but as soon as I arrived I just felt this ... surge of power and unity.”

Both Beijner and Wolfe talked about that bond on set, and the environment that Jenkins created to nurture it.  

“I give a lot of credit to Patty Jenkins for creating this vibe, it truly went top-down,” Beijner said. “This movie is about a lot of things, but female power, wisdom and badassery is what’s at the core. And Patty managed to get that out of each and every one of us, as well as a team, or troops. Us Amazons challenged each other while training, only to push each other further and to become stronger. Beyond that, we used our fighting spirit to support each other. There were days we were so tired we could sleep standing up, but we went at it, again and again and again.”

Doutzen Kroes, Venelia

Doutzen Kroes may best be known as a Victoria’s Secret Angel and supermodel, but she’s also trained in horseback riding ― and showed off these skills in her role as Amazon warrior Venelia.

Kroes told HuffPost that having an equestrian background made the training a bit more natural, but it was still outrageously intense.

“I’ve loved riding horses my entire life,” she said. “But riding at full gallop with a weapon was challenging, but empowering and so much fun.”

She too was quick to credit Jenkins for steering the ship and allowing women to be their baddest warrior selves.

“She is like a real-life Queen Hippolyta ― Patty set a mood that was welcoming, warm and supportive,” Kroes said.

She was also grateful for that tough-yet-maternal culture among the other Amazons. “Many of the other Amazons are also mothers, so we were all able to have our families with us during filming,” she said. “It was just a very special moment — to be in this gorgeous Italian paradise, shooting this historic film and iconic story and then having the opportunity to share it with so many cool women and their children ... The experience of working on Wonder Woman was something I’ve never had before.”

Brooke Ence, Penthesilea

Like some of the other Amazons, Brooke Ence caught the attention of the director as a professional athlete ― she’s a competitive CrossFit athlete, and was scouted by film producers just before the 2015 games.

“I got a call from Warner Bros. asking me if I would come in and read,” she told HuffPost. “I had no idea what it was for.”

Ence told HuffPost that she initially felt conflicted about accepting the role because the filming would clash with her training schedule for the 2016 CrossFit Games.

“I was really hesitant to [accept the role] … But it just seemed like a really great opportunity that people audition for all the time and never get,” she said. “And it literally just fell in my lap. I just couldn’t say no.”

Because Ence was training for the CrossFit Games during filming, she felt right at home among the other athletes. In fact, she was the last Amazon that they flew out to train ― most of her training was pretty much already done, and she was already in Amazon shape. But that didn’t mean she didn’t have more to learn.

“Everyone that was an Amazon [had] so much mental strength,” she said. “Everyone just walked with more power. They walked with this Amazonian vibe.”

“It was a great realization of all the different types of strength. Strength for me is physical and super, super mental,” she continued. “And there, not only did I get to see and feel strength in a physical sense, but a lot of it was in attitude, and determination ... It was very empowering to be around so many different types of women with the common goal. Everyone came together as this army.”

Samantha Jo, Euboea

Many have already seen Samantha Jo on film before without even knowing it. She’s worked as a body double for major Hollywood blockbusters like “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ― Part 2,” and “300: Rise of an Empire.”

Jo also told HuffPost how much she loved being on set with so many ripped women who were there to play the role of warriors, especially in contrast to her experience in “300,” when she was the only woman on set with dozens of men.

“It was really interesting to contrast the experience of working with 40 men, where I was the only woman,” she said.

“Females just have a different kind of energy. There was this bonding that happened. I think it was probably through the suffering [from training],” she added.

She told HuffPost how, on the first week of shooting, part of the training for the women playing Amazons was to stack weights on top of a sled and push it back and forth.

“It was my first week, and my muscles weren’t quite developed, and I wasn’t as strong as everyone else yet,” she said.  

At one point, after about 20 seconds, she began to feel dizzy and felt herself fading.

“All of the women in the gym ran up behind me and started yelling and cheering for me. I don’t think I would have made it had they not given me that extra push. I almost started crying [at] the love that I felt,” she said. “And that was only day three.”

What’s abundantly clear, from Jo and the rest of the Amazons, is that “Wonder Woman” being led by Jenkins was what made the experience ― and the film itself ― so damn special.

“The whole vibe of the set really starts from the top down,” she said. “It was interesting to get a female perspective.” Jo said that the story itself was that much better because it was told and directed by a woman.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of action and cool moments. But at the heart of it, it’s about love and compassion and unity,” she said. “It translated so well coming from a woman’s voice. We all knew that we were going to be a part of something really special.”