Sandstorms

Fanfiction
Title:	Sandstorms
Author(s):	Mithreon
Date(s):	July 2007
Length:	46818 words
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Stargate Atlantis
Relationship(s):
External Links:	"at Wraithbait". Archived from the original on 2017-10-31.
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Sandstorms is a Stargate Atlantis John/Rodney story by Mithreon.

Summary: "The way back turned out to be longer than Rodney had imagined. AU from Trinity. Spoilers for Instinct and Aurora."

This fic is an oft-recced one, and was one of the examples a story that got a very, very high lemon chicken rating in the 2007 meta essay by iibnf called Stargate: Atlantis -- The Post-Trinity phenomenon.

Reactions and Reviews

2007

... pretty close to the archetypal PT.

Excellent recent addition to the genre! McKay gets eaten alive by bugs. After a lot of nasty shunning, Rodney gets taken by natives and tortured, and blames John and the others. Mostly John. This quote by perfica sums it up beautifully: It's towards the end of the fic but Rodney gives the monologue to end all monologues as he bitches out the entire command team over their treatment of him over Doranda. It's like Rodney made a big, steaming bowl of lemon chicken and forced everyone to eat it. The best bit is where Sheppard starts crying too.

Lemon Chicken Rating: A solid nine out of ten. Updated to ten out of ten by popular request. Long lasting consequences, and John eats some serious crow! Huge crow pie with a side serving of crow! Delicious.

The first thing I have to say is that sadly, about 85% of the fanfiction I have read is awful. 10% of them are somewhat interesting and entertaining and the rest of the stories are the ones that makes reading fanfiction worthwhile. Your story is definitely one of them. It actually has a plot and the characters are portrayed beautifully. I sincerely hope that you continue writing, because if your other stories are half as good as this, it would be worth reading. Thank you for making my day.

I love post-Trinity stories. And I especially love post-Trinity stories where Sheppard is acting like a dick and Rodney ends up getting hurt and then there's angst and recriminations and tears, and well, this hit all my buttons. You've even managed to write an OFC love interest for Rodney that I liked. :) Great story.

*Happy sigh* Brilliant use of h/c, yiu had me bawling at points! Especially loved the balcony scenes, the one with Ronon and the last one with John! If anyone had walked in on my reading, they would have thought I'd turned into Niagra Falls!

i sobbed. like. a baby. seriously, i don't think i've ever had such an emotional reaction to an SGA fic before, and i've read as many post-Doranda fic as i could get my hands on. i feast on emo!fic... and yours blew all the others out of the water. the part that got me? when Rodney tells John he knows he lied to get out of his company - the comment to Ford about 'getting rid of McKay'. i bawled. hitched breath, tears running into my ears and down my neck (i was reclining with my laptop propped on my knees) and whimpering. gah.

the only thing that detracts at all from this, is the little spelling/grammatical mistakes, which i think could be easily fixed by a beta if you wanted to go over it again. but the story, the emotions... everything else was perfect. thank you for putting into Rodney's speech all the things i feel is wrong with canon characterisation, and the overreaction/callousness when it comes to Rodney. thanks again! xoxox

I read a LOT of fanfiction but I've never de-lurked to comment. I had to on this one. Reading your fic all I could think was FINALLY! I've always thought Rodney was treated unfairly and it's nice to see him get a bit of his own back. Loved your writing style and I'll be eagerly awaiting your next efforts.

Darn it you made me cry! This is the first story that has ever inspired me to review because it was so exceptional. If you had wanted to you could have done this in two chapters but I am so happy you didn't. The helplessness when he's being eaten by the bugs. His POV during the crisis in the city when we don't know what Sheppard is doing to help him. And that speach. That speach is going down in my fan fiction history books. If you haven't read it yet there is a Jack/Daniel story from Stargate SG-1 that is very similar where Daniel gets his say. It's called devil's advocate and can be found here http://www.jd-divas.com/biblio/devils_advocate_01.shtml. I hope you write more and I can't decide if I want you to write a sequel or not. I would love to see how they manage 'slow' and Rodney deals with the rest of the expedition but if it's not as wonderful... I don't know. Either way I hope you continue to write and I look forward to your next piece. Thank you!

2012

Rodney feels abandoned by the team when they do not rescue him (he's already feeling emotionally abandoned by John due to Doranda). They choose not to trade another person for him and as a result he almost dies and has lasting physical effects. John and everyone else experience a great deal of emotional fallout and Rodney gives a great speech calling them all out that I absolutely love.

2013

Funny thing is, I had completely forgotten the first part of the story with the bugs!

I love Rodney's rant in this story! And it needed to be said, too.

Brilliant story! It's one of my favorites, makes me cry evrey time I read it :)

I too adore the story and still cry at several places in it every time I read it. No joke I bawl my eyes out every time. Rodney's tirade at the others was terrific and well overdue.

2016

Why You Should Read This:

This is a brilliant read for post-Trinity. It’s whumpage for McKay, yes, but it really highlights the issues with that episode and subsequent handling of the storyline.

It does start off with McKay/OFC, but honestly that isn’t the point of the story, and it end with McKay/Sheppard.

I love this story, that speech by Rodney made an emotional impact and reminded everyone else about casting stones and taking a look at themselves in mirror.

This story is so amazingly good. My heart breaks for Rodney every time I read it.

2017

This is one of my all time favorite stories in any fandom and I keep coming back and rereading it every few months. I quite literally cry a lot every time I read it, I can’t help it as it hurts so much. I keep thinking I won’t the next time I come back to it but I always end up bawling and I am not usually that emotional. Very beautifully written, hurts like hell to read but so worth it.

Oh wow. I’m so glad you rec’d this story as I had never read it. Although my heart ached for Rodney, it was an awesome fic.