Surfacing

You may be looking for The Surfacing Series.

Zine
Title:	Surfacing
Publisher:	Duet Press
Editor(s):	Valentin
Date(s):	February 2007
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:	digest-sized
Genre:
Fandom:	Stargate Atlantis
Language:	English
External Links:	Duet Press
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Surfacing is a two-volume slash Stargate Atlantis McKay/Sheppard anthology.

The artists are Lorraine Brevig and Crysothemis.

It is spiral bound and digest sized.

The editor was Valentin, the proofreader was Etui, and the "head cheerleader" was Speranza.

The zine debuted at the 2007 Escapade. An age statement was required to purchase.

the fold-out cover from issue #1, by Lorraine Brevig

From the Zine

DUET PRESS has gathered some of SGA's most celebrated authors and artists into a don't-miss double-volume collection of stories about Stargate: Atlantis' favourite couple. Whether your pet genre is post-canon first times or pre-canon meetings, on earth, in the city, on a mission or in an alternate universe, humour, angst, whimsy or bittersweet romance, slashy PG or all-out porn, it's waiting for you in Surfacing.

[...]

RATING: Stories range from non-graphic to hot NC-17

General Comments

In her lj, lilysaid wrote: "What makes things better is curling up with my Surfacing zines, which arrived yesterday and are beautiful, the perfect size--not huge and awkward like some zines I've seen--just lovely, and with so many good stories. And art! Pretty Sheppard and McKay art with KISSING, and stories that made me smile and smile and smile. ♥

and in the comments: yes! real zines! if I ever questioned why people would buy zines when there's so much fic on the internet, that ended the second I got these volumes in my hands.

and ...such a great set of zines. they surpassed my expectations, and then some."

Rageprufrock writes in her blogger:

"I have to admit I'm starting to see the attraction of these things."

So. Over the summer, in the dizzying New York heat Speranza approached me and asked if I'd be interested in participating in a zine. Being what some people call a "whippersnapper" my basic answer was, "That's fanfic that's been printed out and stapled together, right?"

I turned out to be wrong, and now, months and months later, I've gotten my two volume set of Surfacing in the mail and have lost most of the last week to lying around in my bathtub drinking wine and reading fanfic -- guys: I can read fanfic in the bathtub -- you see why this appeals to me now, right? Right?

I can't say enough nice things about these volumes: they're really amazingly beautiful and well put together, wonderfully bound and the stories in the collections are pretty rocksome, too."

auburnnothenna says:

"Well, the zines arrived in the mail. Surfacing I and Surfacing II and they are wonderful looking and feeling (heavy, many pages of readable but not big, space-taking print). The covers are so nice, the coil binding is high quality, the paper is good, the printing itself is sharp and clear and pleasing to the eye. They're everything I could have hoped for when I was invited to participate and I am overwhelmingly happy I did so."

giddygeek writes:

...I got my Surfacing zines on Thursday night! I'm about 3/4 of the way through and so far I've loved everything. I haven't reached my own story yet, but it's 32 pages long or something and considering how many times I completely rewrote it, that's like 96 pages of effort. Counts for something, right? *grins* 240k words of OTP wallow, man. Honestly, that's pretty awesome. ♥

These two zines include some of the finest stories I've read by many of the best authors ever. Other SGA zines in the future will have a tough time matching the quality of these and I'm proud to have been a small part of it.

Wonderful!

I'd like to thank you, Stormy and Val, for all the effort and care you put into these two zines. I was pleasantly surprised by their smaller size--they really are just like two novels! I waited for my zines, checking the mail everyday, and when they finally came I had a major fangirl moment and went to hide in my room for 3 days!

As for the authors, every single story in both zines is some of the finest work I've read in SGA--absolutely wondeful! I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. These are the zines of a lifetime!

I just got my zines today and immediately deserted my schoolwork to page through them. The interior art is incredibly gorgeous.

As I was flipping through, "Ordinary Life" by shalott and Speranza caught my eye, and I ended up reading the whole thing. It made me laugh so hard, not because it was funny although it is, but just from the pure awesomeness. I can't even say without spoilers, but... John and Rodney are both perfect combination of incredible dorks and and fucking rock stars.

Going to go read it again now.

In her Escapade Con Report, Arallara writes: "At some point on Saturday, I made it to the dealers' room to buy my copies of Surfacing, and it positively killed me not to be able to start reading them immediately. I actually had a moment sometime on Saturday when I got kind of teary-eyed as I was looking at the zines. They're so gorgeous, and I was just so happy to have them, and I've been in such a greatbiglove place with SGA fandom and McKay/Sheppard recently, and I seriously almost cried thinking about how glad I was the zines existed and that I would get to read them. Yep, fandom makes me really incredibly sappy sometimes. *g*"

My Surfacing zines arrived on Friday, which makes Agents with Style not only very friendly, reasonably priced and the only source of those zines I found that doesn't require a credit card, it also makes them very fast. And the two fanzines themselves are totally shiny with the most incredible artwork and some really, really good stories. One of them even managed to make me cry. So if you don't have them already and are thinking of buying them, do it. They're worth the money.

Issue 1

Surfacing 1 was published in 2007 and contains 320 pages.

front cover of issue #1 displaying the clear overlay and zine title, Lorraine Brevig

displays the fold-out cover of issue #1

It has a fold-out cover and two interior illustrations by Lorraine Brevig. The cover won second place in the Hand-drawn/Painted category of the McShep Awards 2008.

The original flyer is here: Surfacing 1, ^{Archived version} .

• Perpetual Motion by Martha Wilson ("Rodney moved directly beneath one of the racks. He could see needles, all connected to wires, woven through the rack. Some of them were still attached to the rotted flesh. His stomach tried to turn and he swallowed hard. "This is power conduit. These bodies were hooked up to some kind of power generation system. As if whoever did this was using them like… batteries."")
• A Left-Handed Relationship by chelle (""It’d be better if…" John said, holding up his hand. "You can’t?" John shook his head. "My left just doesn’t seem to be as coordinated." "Huh." Rodney was probably able to use both hands. That figured. "Do you want some help?" ")
• The Stonemason’s Buildings Want For His Hands Again by Synecdochic (""You call him McKay," she says. "Even after spending so long shipwrecked together?" John spreads his hands and does his best impression of harmless. "Habits are hard to break," he says. She purses her lips and scribbles another cryptic line, and he wonders again whether the secrets he’s allowing her to see will suffice.")
• Normalize by Pru (""Okay, will you two idiot bastards stop fooling around and get the fuck over here and focus on the problem?" Meredith finally roars, eyes blazing, and John and Jane and Rodney and Rodney all share a meaningful look before the Rodneys scramble over to her side of the room as Other John scrambles away.")
• Mousetraps by Barb G ("The naquadah generator should have been able to generate enough power to run the trap for years, but even in the hour it took for the shadows to come out of the forest it was already down to eighty percent. As soon as a tendril got trapped in the machine the rest of the shadows pulled back, but that was all Rodney needed.")
• Weddings, Plural, and a Yak by Speranza ("By the eighth time John Sheppard married Rodney McKay, they were old pros at the wedding thing, having weathered not only an Ouishan blood wedding, but also a twelve-hour Avalonian handfasting, a Malanese necklace exchange, and a Thurtu joining ceremony that invoked a fire god and featured seven kinds of cake.")
• Heart of Glass by torch (John and Rodney get tangled up in an Ancient story.) (""I touched a piece of Ancient," Rodney grimaced, "technology. Loosely speaking." He rubbed his fingers together. He could still feel the slick glass, the heat. "I think Rabh had some philosophical differences with the other Ancients."")
• As Wide as the Sky by jenn ("Beneath the desk John feels his knees begin to shake, and strangely, the room seems to telescope, giving him flashes of this life that he’d never meant to lead, this world that he stumbled into on chance, the flip of a coin that took him from a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel to the United States Congress.")
• Gotta Dance! by Lenore (What wouldn't Rodney do for a ZPM?) (""Well, you don’t expect me to dance with Mt. Everest over there, do you? He’ll stomp all over my feet. Besides, if you hadn’t gone into the military, you’d probably have ended up an exotic dancer or something."")
• Diplomacy in Waltz Tempo by Rachael Sabotini ("Rodney glanced at him, and their gazes caught and held a moment before Rodney turned back to his equipment. That one brief glance was all it took for the sensation of the veil brushing his skin to become a visceral sense-memory of Rodney naked, stroking him; John shifted his weapon slightly, covering himself, feeling exposed and almost uncomfortably hard.")
• Suffer Me Not to Be Separated by Auburn ("Sheppard could have died. He really could have died on a mission and Rodney wouldn’t have known, not until the rumor mill worked its way to Terra Atlantica. All because he’d held onto an unjustified grudge for years. He really was petty and arrogant enough to think Sheppard should have chosen Atlantis over Earth, Rodney over duty.")

• 

  from issue #1, Lorraine Brevig

• 

  from issue #1, Lorraine Brevig

• 

  from issue #1, sample text

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

Surfacing came on Friday, and they've been banging around in my bag for the weekend. They still look great. I love the coil and plastic covers, and the covers look great. The formatting inside is more like a novel, which makes them very pleasant, easy reads.

And now, the stories!

Perpetual Motion is the first story in the zine, and it's thick and meaty with plot. Which is good. The writing is very visual and the details (walking on human bones covering the beach) is very well done. The voices were there, and as I was reading it, I was thrilled at just how plotty it was. There isn't enough established relationship with plot fic out there.

A Left-Handed Relationship throws plot out the window. Um, I mean, there's plot and DS9 episodes, but ALHR is also the hottest story in the zine. And wow, is it hot. It's having to put it away when reading in public places because the face goes all read and suddenly the life choices you've made that put you in this coffee shop rather than having 'alone time' you so desperately want suddenly come crashing down about your ears and it's really quite sad. It's a simple plot, but the writing is extraordinary and it sizzles. No, really, it sizzles. And the boys are the boys and they're perfect for each other as much as two straight boys watching straight porn can be.

The Stonemason's Buildings is a masterfully told story that opens up slowly, like a flower if you're romantic or an onion if you're not. Something bad had happened, and something good, and Synecdochic takes her time getting around to both occurrences. And seriously, because the writing is so gorgeous, there's really no hurry. I felt like the boys did coming home from my small village in Japan after two years, where everything that was supposed to be so safe was so foreign it had to be relearned, and the story conveys the mood well.

Normalize is a Pru story, which means all the prerequisites are there. It's a fucked-up genderfuck, so I know the girl will love it. Despite the potentially confusing writing that could have really gotten out of control in a lesser writer's hand, Normalize works. It's frantic and the dialogue is bang on despite the combinations and permutations that exist.

Mousetraps. Um, yeah. There's popcorn.

Weddings, Plural, and a Yak is kidfic! OMG, if I have a secret, pounding kink button on my chest a mile wide, it's kidfic. Well, not just any kind, but the screwed up, socially reclusive character takes on a kid. I did it with Krycek, it's been done with Fraser and of course McKay and Sheppard. And it's good. And W,P,aaY is just the right length of plot and relationship and ZOMG, Rodney's relationship with the kid. And John! John's relationship with the kid. And there's a yak. What more could you ask for? Well, for someone to realize that Peter McKay had named himself after the deputy Prime Minister of Canada. Okay, Peter MacKay spells his last name differently, but still! The story just hits all the notes in it perfectly, and just keeps hitting them for just the right amount of time. It's brilliant, and funny, and touching, and the voices are spot, spot, spot on.

Heart of Glass was possibly the only story in the zine that could have followed W,P,aaY and not be judged poorly for it. What can you possibly say about torch? HoG is the perfect mix of eerie plot, relationship and beautiful writing. You can feel the writing just being on a different level, from the crunch of glass to the feeling of cold. Also, there's a huge glass phallus. What could be wrong?

As Wide as the Sky is an AU, and even if you don't like AUs, there characters are all there. Rodney is perfect. I'd like to have seen John show his strengths earlier; he seems to spend too much time worrying that Rodney thinks he's a pretty video-bite more than something political, but the ending is satisfying enough.

In Gotta Dance, John and Rodney enter a dance competition. Trust me, you had to be there. And also? John's hips lie.

Diplomacy in Waltz Tempo has a plot, and it's good and interesting and things happen. But it's overshadowed by John's story almost to the point where it becomes a character study about John, without taking away how great the plot actually is. If that makes sense. It's everything that's good about a deep, meaty plot piece and everything that's hot about PWPs and blends them together. Teyla's voice is really good in this, and the telepathic way Rodney reads John is hot, hot, hot.

Okay, I had to admit, as Suffer Me Not to be Separated was the last story, I was thumbing through to see how long it was to the end of the zine so that I could start the next one. But dear god, that ended after about the first paragraph. I loved this story. I mean, I loved all the stories, but I *loved* this one. The plot was perfect. The mourning Rodney goes through is so very, very real. Auburn obviously loves SG1 as much as SGA, and she blended the characters with the world so well. And you while you find out that Atlantis falls in the first paragraph, the reveal of how it falls and what happens next makes this my favourite story in the zine, even above W,P,aaY. Seriously. This is a huge, wonderful story of a three-year journey just to come home. Buy the zine. Read this story. It's worth it all by itself.

The only story I haven't read yet is the last, Auburn's "Suffer Me Not to Be Separated", not because I didn't want to read it but because I promised the zine to someone this weekend and I was too slow to get through the whole thing. I'll review it as soon as I get the zine back.

Lorraine Brevig's Art

artconserv's art is always wonderful, and I'm so glad she's joined SGA after enjoying her awesome work in the Sentinel and Starsky & Hutch fandoms, among others. I'm so proud to count her as an online friend, and to have one of her TS works adorning the wall over my computer. It's a tough choice, but I think the interior colour one is my favourite, because the way they look at one another in it will just melt your panties.

Perpetual Motion by Martha Wilson

I have to admit I find it hard to get into S1 stories, maybe because I'm so enamoured of the team as it is now. But I enjoyed the original concept of this story, and the voices, particularly John's, are perfectly tuned. I liked this peek at the character when he's still struggling with his newfound responsibility.

A Left-Handed Relationship by chelle

You can always count on mmmchelle for top-drawer porn, and that's what you get here. And when I say top-drawer, that means it's so much more than tab A in slot B - it's got that intensity, that emotional tension leading to a satisfying payoff that leaves you warm and happy at the end. And when the first kiss is even hotter than the first blowjob, you know it's good. :) I loved the way John and Rodney fell into a tit-for-tat relationship, wrapped around the ritual of DS9 watching (oh, boys), and ended up having it grow into something they hadn't expected.

The Stonemason's Buildings Want For His Hands Again by Synecdochic

I'm rather ridiculously sad that this might be the last SGA story we ever see from synecdochic, and that coloured my first reading of it. I'm looking forward to a re-read, but my first impressions (apart from the irrational whimper! not long enough!) were wow and oh, my, as usual. I loved the slow reveal of this, and the unique and original look at John.

"I've forgotten how to wear clothes," John says. "I always feel like I'm choking."

High collars, long sleeves, these have always been his refuge, his armor and defense. He makes of his words an offering, knowing Rodney will hear it, knowing Rodney will understand what it stands for.

Normalize by Pru

This story is exactly what Pru does best: funny, madcap stories with plenty of running around and just the right amount of oooh, yes. She's cooked up a quantum mirror scenario that will have you grinning long after the story has finished.

"Wait, so you married McKay?" Jane is saying in the background, and John hears his own voice saying dryly, "I figured I ought to do right by her after all the booze-addled nights I just, you know, got drunk and fucked her."

Mousetraps by Barb G

This one is a nicely balanced team piece, where a concept from an S1 ep is brought back and used in a fresh way. It would make a good episode (and not just for the hot sex between John and Rodney).

Weddings, Plural, and a Yak by Speranza

Okay, so this is the first one I read, not only because it's Ces, but because, hello, I am five years old, and anything with the word 'yak' in the title is guaranteed to instantly grab my attention. Ces is the master of coming up with stuff for the characters to do/say/encounter that you never would have thought to write in a million years, and the crazy thing is she makes it work. Saying anything more specific than that will give away the central plot point, but suffice it to say that she takes Rodney in a direction I never expected and yet swiftly grew to love like whoa. And John's epiphany in wedding number twelve is about the most romantic thing ever.

Heart of Glass by torch

I thought at first that this was going to be a riff on the John-hates-to-be-touched fandom trope, and was delighted when it turned out to be something entirely different and original, but then this is flambeau we're talking about.

"We haven't even been on a date," Sheppard said, a bit too hoarsely for the light-hearted words.

As Wide as the Sky by jenn

seperis' AU is based on a premise I haven't seen before but that works astonishingly well - I can see this John, this Elizabeth, this Teyla, this Ronon, this Rodney. It's a pair of finely done portraits of a Rodney who is in a very different line of a work yet is still recognizable (a difficult feat) and a John who is subtly changed yet at his core is still the man we love, complete with his façades and hidden depths. I don't recognize this America, but that's handwavable in the face of bits like this:

...he may pace his room tonight and wonder if he lost his mind, wonder if he just fucked up his one big chance - but he'll be in his skin when he does it. And nothing's ever been this good, not for so long that John forgot how it could feel, to be this alive.

Gotta Dance! by Lenore

scribblinlenore's story is pure, pure fun, and any story that mentions both Fred and Adele Astaire and Denny Terrio automatically owns a tiny piece of my heart. And John and Rodney are such partoosh birds. :)

"I really thought they'd just end up killing each other," Lorne said.

"This is a lesson to us all," Zelenka told him. "We must never underestimate Rodney's powers of browbeating."

Diplomacy in Waltz Tempo by Rachael Sabotini

This was yet another story I thought would go in one direction and ended up going in another, but that's cool, because I love it when stories surprise me like that. It's a characterization of John that doesn't usually entirely work for me, but wickedwords made me see it as a possibility, and provided an interesting look at societal construction of gender roles to boot.

Oh my word! Like an unexpected gift from above, I opened a package today and my jaw hit the floor when I held the zine in my hand and pulled out the inside cover. That is TRULY the most MAGNIFICENT cover I've ever seen!!!! I'm not only blown away by it's beauty, I'm blown away by the overwhelming generosity of the only person I can think of who would have blessed me with it!!! Yes, I am sure to savor each and every one of the stories inside as I go out and about, and every time I look at the art inside, I'm going to be secretly smiling. Thank you SO MUCH!!!

Issue 2

Surfacing 2 was published in February 2007 and contains 304 pages.

The original flyer is at: Surfacing 2, ^{Archived version}.

cover of issue #2, Crysothemis

Cover and interior art by Crysothemis.

• Mr. Karaoke by Pares (""Be free for dinner tonight. You know, you’re not getting any younger. I’ll look for someone for you, too. That way we can double date! Take some of the pressure off." "What?" John said blankly.")
• Just Like Schrödinger's Cat by lamardeuse ("Once the door closed behind him, Sheppard turned to face him with his arms still folded. Rodney sighed. "She thinks you’re already involved with someone."")
• No Way Out But Through by CJ Andre ("Through a haze of pain, John could almost see Rodney frantically thinking "off" at the little blue cube. John thought it, too, and for once, the tech performed as expected. Lucy seemed puzzled, and not a little put out, but nodded in the end. "Very well, you have shown us that you are pure. You shall now Testify your friend so that he may be freed from his demons and once again be safe to walk the paths of Ligia."")
• Never Have I Asked an August Sky by Hth ("The last time Rodney had been on Earth, he’d come through the stargate with Major Sheppard, then gone back to Atlantis by spaceship without him. They didn’t make you— No. They hadn’t made anyone but John stay behind.")
• Ordinary Life by shalott & Speranza (""They all think I’m your boyfriend anyway," John said. "Yes, so? You are my boyfriend," Rodney said. "Why is this a problem?" "They thought I was before I even was!" John yelled.")
• A Faltered Hinge by lilysaid (""Everyone has something to hide, Colonel," Rodney says darkly. "And these people have the means to—to do whatever they like with what they find, yet for some reason everyone is all right with this?" "I am fine with it," Teyla says. "Just think of it as extreme customer service," John says.")
• Duet by Miss Pamela (""…it’s the Air Force, Rodney." He reached out and touched Rodney’s leg. "I wasn’t supposed to do this again." "This? This?" Rodney slapped his hand away. "So, what, having sex with me was like some stunt? I’m just the dumb, risky thing you did on spring break?"")
• The Highwayman by trinityofone (""I do not even know your name," said the doctor, leaning forward. "Or anything of your life or how you came to be here." There were parts of that that even Jean could not answer. But he said, "I am Jean Berger, matelot breveté. I loved the sea."")
• The Fiery Hound of Lo’r Mawra by SkoosiePants ("Rodney took a sip of coffee, typing with one hand. It was already past eight. He’d downloaded the data he’d collected from Lo’r Mawra, and the weird thing was… The weird thing was that the erratic pattern seemed to have followed them back through the gate.")
• What It Brings the Rabbit by Giddy (""They call it an oracle’s gift. It’s supposed to be good luck."")
• Slither by liketheriver ("I don’t think anyone that has done a stint on Atlantis could live anywhere that wasn’t by the water, not unless they had hated their time there. And Rodney had loved Atlantis, loved her so much he had given her up so that she could have what he thought she needed most… me.")

• 

  ifrom issue #2, Crysothemis

• 

  from issue #2, Crysothemis

• 

  from issue #2, Crysothemis

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 2

See reactions and reviews for Ordinary Life.

Crys' Art

Crys' SGA drawings have enhanced my enjoyment of the fandom so much, and hearing that she was going to be contributing to this was a cause of much excitement on my part. I kind of adore the cover and the way they look at one another, and the interior art is some of the best she's done (which is really saying something).

Mr. Karaoke by Pares

I can't say anything about this story that would be better than the following quote:

Teyla had presented Rodney with a little keg of Athosian cider, giving John an enigmatic smile. Three glasses into it, Rodney bullied Chuck from the stage in the middle of his rendition of "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" and began to sing something that it took John a while to recognize as a Liz Phair song. By the time he got to the line, " - your kisses are as wicked as an M! SIX-TEEN! and you fuck like a volcano and you're EVERY-thing to me - " he was staring right at John. John's ears were hot and he had to promise himself that everyone in the mess wasn't smirking at him.

Just Like Schroedinger's Cat by lamardeuse

Yeah, I'm reviewing my own thing, or rather, providing a bit of commentary on it. I signed up for Surfacing without a clear idea of what I wanted to write, and I ended up with the title before the actual plot; from there, it evolved into a story about the way the act of observation changes the outcome of the experiment. I did more tinkering and checking and double-checking with this than I do with most of my fics (although, yeah, I realize now that the spelling of Schrödinger's name is wrong, which irks me no end - I did look it up, but obviously on the wrong site), because I wanted to make sure it was as good as I could make it, and there would be no chance to tinker with this word or that phrase after I'd sent it out there. I enjoyed writing a story that took them through the last bit of the second season and into the third, interweaving canon events and their developing relationship.

As though he'd read Rodney's innermost secrets off his forehead, Sheppard stretched out on the bed until he was lying down, his arms folded under his head. "Wow, this really is comfortable, you know?"

"If Simpson knew we were here like this..." Rodney heard himself say, and was that flirting? Was he flirting?

Sheppard's gaze shifted downward, and Rodney didn't have to look to know that their legs were only millimeters apart on the narrow mattress. "Yeah, but you're gonna quash all those scary rumors and save my reputation, right?"

No Way Out But Through by CJ Andre

Don't get me wrong; this was certainly a well-written story, but it presents a version of John and Rodney I simply can't buy, and scenes that actually squick me (and yes, I did read the whole thing). I don't know if the author could have done anything to convince me of this Rodney and John, but the one sentence hint at backstory and the lack of explanation for why Rodney would be turned on by something that should, given his past history, frighten and disgust him, didn't do it for me. But if it's your cuppa, it's definitely one of the best written examples of this particular version of the boys, and it shows a culture with an interesting (and understandable) reaction to the Ancients.

Never Have I Asked an August Sky by Hth

This story, quite simply, ripped my heart out. I couldn't ever really get into Hth's John/Ronon work, not because I don't think she's brilliant but because try as I might, I couldn't see Ronon as anything but relentlessly straight, so the opportunity to read some J/R by her excited me. The style is innovative and evocative, and the emotion in it is honest and real, and oh yeah, ripped heart, here.

"Okay. Yes, "Rodney said, with hardly the foggiest idea whether he was being offered a nap or sex or - or what he really - wanted, which was...

The answer was still yes, though.

Ordinary Life by shalott and Speranza

Okay, so this is also one of the first stories I read, and I've already read it again, and will probably go back to it on a regular basis. I love back-on-Earth fics, and this one is among the best, with Rodney accepting a ridiculous amount of money (and a fully decked-out beach house in Florida) to work a little voodoo for Raytheon and dragging John along as his 'mathematician'. Of course everyone assumes John is his 'mathematician', and it's in this slightly altered circumstance, cut off from his military identity, that John decides to take his relationship with Rodney to the next level. The second half of the story picks up the pace and shows one of my favourite sides of John, the scary special forces mofo. It's interesting in that it also shows John coming back to himself, returning to his reality, if you will, and that tension of wondering if he'll keep the relationship he created with Rodney really drives you through to the end of the story.

John sat up, raised his arms, and stretched, yawning theatrically, while Rodney kept darting quick, helpless looks in his direction, watching while pretending not to watch. John stood up, stretched again, and then flung his sunglasses down on the chaise; a moment later, impulsively, he hooked his thumbs down and skimmed off the Speedo before diving into the pool.

And if that image alone doesn't make you want to buy this zine, you are made of stone.

A Faltered Hinge by lilysaid

I really enjoy lilysaid's writing, so I was looking forward to her story. This one paints an interesting view of a culture whose citizens are devoted to fulfilling your fondest wish. Unfortunately, Rodney isn't so keen on letting John know exactly what that is. Her voices are pitch perfect, and the way they finally come together is so very, very them.

"Are you - ?"

"If you want," John says. Because he certainly does.

Rodney swallows hard, choking a little on his answer. "Of course I want."

Duet by Miss Pamela

I have a huge soft spot for "they met before Atlantis" stories, and to have one written by misspamela is like finding a pearl on the beach. I'm a big fan of her finely-wrought, subtle characterizations of John and Rodney, and this one lives up to her reputation.

The whole damned week so far had consisted of Rodney forcing himself to socialize with boring, stupid, uninteresting people who placed no value on their own education. And now he finally met someone who was - who was - who was John, and he wasn't going to flip out over some outdated social construct.

The Highwayman by trinityofone

Trin astonishes me. She conjures ideas, images, story lines that you never would have imagined in a thousand years, but you're so glad she did, because every one of her stories bends your brain in a new direction, and that's an amazing thing. I don't want to write too much about this and give anything away, but suffice it to say, it is brilliant.

"Your assistant..." Jean croaked. "He wants to take my legs, doesn't he?"

The doctor nodded. Reluctantly, he said, "It may give you a better chance..."

Jean shook his head. "No. No, I prefer your way. All or nothing."

He did not say, Without legs, I would never sail again. I would be more a prisoner than if you English held me for a thousand years.

He would not be captive to anyone.

The Fiery Hound of Lo'r Mawra by SkoosiePants

This was a fun story, with an interesting twist, but I did find from time to time that I was left confused by the abrupt transitions from one scene to another, wondering if I'd missed something. However, SkoosiePants manages to tie it all together in the end, and gives us Rodney and John together besides. Plus I kind of loved that Radek switched bodies with a ginormous biologist for no apparent reason.

What it Brings the Rabbit by Giddy

This story left me with a warm, happy glow. It featured a well done Sheppard voice, and a clear story that moved along smartly while also giving us just the right amount of John and Rodney getting together for the first time. I loved the way Giddy was so subtle with the clues that John's attracted to Rodney, like this bit:

"What happened?" John asked, studying the transporter parts to avoid looking down at Rodney on his knees, looking up at him.

Slither by liketheriver

This was a neat exploration of a post-Atlantis John and Rodney, though the mechanism by which this is "post-Atlantis" for them made me want to batter my little fists against the injustice of it. The first-person POV threw me at first, but I think she did a pretty good job with it (oddly, the only thing that really threw me once I got into it was John using "rather" - go figure). It's a romantic, poignant story that has the feel of a hazy tropical afternoon; in the end, it was tough for me to accept that they wouldn't try to fight to get back, but I managed it, especially after that beautiful final scene.

I'd have been fooling myself if I'd thought he would just melt in my arms and give in without a fight. I waited for the outburst, the patented McKay browbeating and righteous fury, the flush of color on his face gave me every indication that it was coming. I was prepared for it, expecting it, actually looking forward to it. What I wasn't prepared for was the reaction I got.

"Go home, Colonel," he told me quietly, and shut the door in my face.

External Links

• Surfacing at Duet Press: Volume I, Volume II
• Links to Surfacing stories online