Crimes Against Humanity (Stargate Atlantis story)
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Crimes Against Humanity |
| Author(s): | Seperis |
| Date(s): | 2006 (last updated in 2008) |
| Length: | long |
| Genre: | Mirror Universe, Prison AU |
| Fandom: | Stargate Atlantis |
| External Links: | Crimes Against Humanity Index Page (Indulgence) Crimes Against Humanity (LiveJournal) |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Crimes Against Humanity is a popular Stargate Atlantis AU series by Seperis, in which the characters are criminals and Atlantis is a prison. Still a WIP.
The story won the McKay/Sheppard Fan Awards 2006 in the category WIP.
Four years after the last update reena_jenkins podficced the whole series.[1]
Warnings and Summary
Warnings: If you trigger easily, do not read this. Dark ‘verse. Violence, rape (off screen), torture, murder, mutilation, drug abuse, power imbalance, unethical medical experimentation, in fact, unethical pretty much everything Genre: Romance, Alternate Universe, Dark!fic, Action/Adventure
Summary: Atlantis was a neutral colony before it became a prison camp, split between the mainland facilities and the ocean bound city itself for the war criminals and those convicted of crimes against humanity. Alcatraz, he’d heard Sheppard drawl when he arrived in the gateroom, manacled and bruised from a scuffle in the Colorado gate room that ended with four injured Marines. Inescapable, or so they said, but Sheppard’s single word reminded him that nothing’s inescapable.
Recs and Reviews
"The characters here are quite different from their canon counterparts, because they are more or less ruthless supervillains, and Atlantis is used as a prison camp that is said to be inescapable. That is of course before they take over. However it is definitely fun to root for the evil twin versions of the team."[2]
Okay, it’s a little embarrassing how much I love this one. I do not generally care for dark!fic. I like the good guys to be good. So this is a departure for me. I LOVE this, even though absolutely everyone in it is a really bad person. For instance:
“During trial, Rodney’s lawyers hadn’t been able to break Zelenka’s testimony that Rodney had already been aware of the dangers of his research and that his test in a populated solar system had been both deliberate and with malice aforethought.
There are reasons for this, though the truth is, Zelenka is pretty close to right. Fifteen hours before the first stage of the testing, Major Samantha Carter was touring the fourth planet after formally opening an inquiry into the deaths of ten of Rodney’s most recently deceased staff. So really, when he thinks about it, he just can’t see how he’s to blame at all.”
These are not nice people. It may freak you out a little bit, because if you are like me, you will enjoy them very much. There is one particular sex scene that both turns me on and makes me wonder if I am really the fairly nice person I think I am. Yet, in spite of all the murder and violence and blood, it is a very sweet love story. Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that either.
Please note, this is technically a WIP, though there is plenty there for you to enjoy. Checkout the “Crimes Against Humanity” tag and see some of the other stories in the same ‘Verse by Seperis and others. The major other story is “A History of Violence”. [3]
"Everyone and their mom probably knows about this WIP already, but I have such an unhealthy love for it. Atlantis is a galactic prison and everyone's in jail for some heinous crime or another. Of course, they break out and take over the city. Seriously, I shouldn't love sociopaths this much, but there's something about a John in love with violence that gets me right there."[4]
Podfic Notes
[T]here are a few (okay, a lot) diferences in audio-quality between the first hour and last hour of this series, but I hope that it won't take away from your enjoyment of the [...] Crimes Against Humanity 'Verse: a seven-part (the story that spawned the 'verse, three shorter stories that form a series within the 'verse, and three ficlets that act as codas for the main story), open series [...], about the most awesomely fucked-up Mirror Verse Stargate: Atlantis universe, full of sociopaths and serial killers who WE ALL STILL ROOT FOR ANYWAY. [...]I've linked to the copy of this story found on seperis' personal site, which is the copy of text I recorded from. All the text-breaks within this version of the text correspond with musical breaks in the podfic. (The musical interludes within this podfic are all excerpts from the song "Drove Through Ghosts To Get Here", as performed by 65daysofstatic. I originally found this song an a Star Trek Reboot fanmix, though I can't recall which mix at the moment, and I felt that it had the same gritty, harsh, non-soothing feel as the CAH 'Verse does.) [...]
As I said before, it's a fantastically dark story set in an alternate Stargate: Atlantis universe (think, Star Trek's Mirrorverse, but with fewer beards), where instead of sending the best and brightest to explore the Pegasus Galaxy..... well, Stargate Command sends the very worst criminals of Planet Earth to the most inescapable prison imaginable. Rodney McKay is still the smartest man in two galaxies, but his drive and ambition only go to fuel his own ego - detonating a ZPM bomb and destroying a planet, to cover for killing off his minions? Yup, not the work of a nice man, but definitely the work of a smart one. John is just as kickass as in the regular SGA 'verse, but broken in new and interestingly violent ways. Elizabeth's peacekeeper-negotiation skills take on a scary twist when we consider her cult of personality on three continents, and her deals with the Ori.
And it's not just exploring how true-to-character seperis can keep Team Sheppard while also twisting them up into evil mastermind pretzels - there are Adventures! Intrigues! Prison escapes! Acts of space piracy! and Subterfuge! The universe created by seperis for Crimes Against Humanity is so very richly detailed, with all sorts of information popping up in hidden crannies that only serves to make the story-telling experience that much more engaging.
One last caveat, before you go on a downloading frenzy: seperis lists this 'verse as a Work In Progress, which hasn't been updated since 2008. I felt that the story ended in such a place as to appropriately and adequately tie up the story arc of the main story [...], while still leaving a few dangling threads in the same way an episode on tv would [...], and so I went ahead with my recording.[1]
References
- ^ a b reena_jenkins. AMP12: Day 30, Day 31, Day 32, Day 33, 15 April 2012. (Accessed 21 April 2012)
- ^ RatCreature. Through the Looking Glass: Alternate Universe Recs - Stargate Atlantis. (Accessed 05 April 2011)
- ^ Slash World, 2014
- ^ strongpieces. stargate atlantis rec list, 30 August 2006. (Accessed 21 April 2012)