Mating Rituals (Stargate Atlantis story)

Fanfiction
Title:	Mating Rituals
Author(s):	Karen McFadyyon (trinityofone)
Date(s):	2005, posted to Wraithbait in 2009, updated in 2010
Length:	Word count: 19792
Genre(s):
Fandom(s):	Stargate Atlantis
Relationship(s):
External Links:	it WAS here; it is now here: Mating Rituals by Karen McFadyyon, Archived version Mating Rituals, Too by Karen McFadyyon, Archived version
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Mating Rituals is a Stargate Atlantis John/Rodney story by Karen McFadyyon.

It has a sequel called Mating Rituals, Too.

While not the earliest penguin fic, it is close. Pygoscelis (Or, a Gift of Pebbles) was the first penguin fic, and "Mating Rituals" is a remix of that story done with the original author's permission. From the Story Notes: "This story was written after Pygoscelis, which is chapter two of Leah's Animalia Sequence. Karen had complete permission to remix Pygoscelis... To give credit where credit is due, this story was written to echo two stories written for Peg B by Leah: Tarsiidae (Or, a Simian Vacation) and Pygoscelis (Or, a Gift of Pebbles)."

Reactions and Reviews

2005

Best FF That Proves That Drilling for Emergencies Is Pointless Unless You Include the Penguin-Related Ones. Mating Rituals, by Karen McFadyyon, and is she on LJ? And does anyone know if I'm capitalizing her name correctly? Stargate: Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. And some penguins.

You know how you'll be reading along, and some sentence hits you just right and suddenly you're laughing and laughing and oh god you're never going to be able to breathe again and you really wish you could say something reassuring to the loved one now looking at you with concern but it's just so fucking funny that you can't? This happens to me sometimes. A disproportionate number of times have something to do with animals. While reading Connie Willis's Bellwether, for example, I broke up over a vomiting sheep, to a degree that Best Beloved was threatening to call an ambulance by the midpoint of the laughing fit. And in this one, it was a biting penguin that got me. (OK. Technically, the penguin got Ford, but I was the one who got to laugh when Ford complained about it.) I almost dropped my laptop from joy. And here's the thing - after an experience like that, I don't look for more from FF. The author could've finished this story with a 3,000 word discussion of the avian cloaca and I'd still want to recommend it. But in this case? Not a worry, because fifteen minutes after the Penguins 2, Whole Rest of SGA 0 scene, when I could finally focus again, I discovered that this story brings the funny and the touching in really excellent amounts. Frankly, I'm sort of stunned anyone could sell a story with this one's premise, but Karen McFadyyon does so with style. And then there's the excellent use of points of view, and the rocks, and...just the whole thing. 'S wonderful.

2007

Animal transformation fic has been pretty popular, and this fic (well this fic and the one that inspired it) set the precedent. John and Rodney are penguins. It's amazing. It's also not online any more. ETA: Karen McFaddyon has asked that they not be distributed anymore, and sendspace took it down (?weird, not sure why?) so if you haven't read it yet, um, email me too bad.