Human Vacillation

Fanfiction
Title:	Human Vacillation
Author(s):	trinityofone
Date(s):	2006
Length:	~4300 words
Genre:
Fandom:	Stargate Atlantis
External Links:	online here
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Human Vacillation is a Stargate Atlantis John/Rodney story by trinityofone. It is a story in which John Sheppard is transgender. When it was released, many described it as a genderfuck or genderswap story.

Reactions and Reviews

Genderswapped: Various - I've recced Human Vacillation before, but it's just to good to pass up, so since I'm using the excuse that I haven't recced Grace before to include it here. My original rec of Human Vacillation, which I still stand by wholeheartedly, says: The most brilliantly original fanfic premise I have read in a long, long time. This is one of those stories where the less you know going in the better. It's genderswap fic. But it's like no genderswap fic you've ever read before. There are layers of story here, and it's so brilliantly woven together that when it all clicks into place it's a true revelation, a moment of "aha, so that's why..." that leaves me breathless every time I read it. I've read this story a lot of times, and every time I notice something different about it, some new hint of backstory and added complexity and depth. Trin has a simple, spare prose style and an ear for truly evocative turns of phrase and never has she used it to better effect then here.

The Story That Really Makes a Disturbing Amount of Sense, When You Think About It, and Wow. What Does That Say About SGA? Human Vacillation, by trinityofone. Stargate: Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. And, okay, I don't want to spoil this one too much, so can I just kind of, I don't know, talk around this story rather than about it? (Yes, fine, go right ahead and say it. "That's what you always do anyway." Thank you very much.) What I can say is that for once we have a minor character changing sexes. (I mean, relatively minor - we're not talking about that Canadian, um, you know, console guy or anything*.) Which is interesting to me because we get the reaction not from the point of view of the character (and, damn, writing this is hard because pronouns just totally suck monkeys in English) who has been genderswapped, but from the bystanders.

This story is also very, very much worth reading from a stylegeek perspective. See, when you start it - or, okay, when I started it the first time I read it - it seems kind of slow, kind of like there are parts missing. (And not just Lorne's parts. Yes, I did have to say that. I did.) And then there's this moment of epiphany, and suddenly it becomes very, very interesting. At which point you can go back and read the beginning part and it won't be dull at all. I've read this story maybe three dozen times to track the reasons why that happens and the things that change meaning, and it's fascinating. To me, anyway.