The Steak Series

Fanfiction
Title:	The Steak Series
Author(s):	Keiko Kirin
Date(s):	14 September 2000 - 23 November 2002
Length:	140,000+ words
Genre:	slash fanfiction
Fandom:	Stargate SG-1
External Links:	The Steak Series (AO3) The Steak Series (Area 52: The HKH Standard)
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Steak Series is a series of Jack/Daniel stories by Keiko Kirin. It's considered by many fans one of the classics. The series won the Stargate Fan Awards 2002 in the Slash/Femslash category "Best Series" and part 11, Steak and Lizards, was nominated in the category "Best Action/Adventure".

Summary of part 1 (Area 52): When Jack and Daniel are trapped on a planet, they realize a few things about their friendship and this leads to dinner. Which leads to another dinner...and another...

Suzan Lovett created two pieces of fanart (Castaways and Castaways 2) that are likely based on part 11, Steak and Lizards.

Stories

The summaries are from the the Archive of Our Own, the links go to Area 52: The HKH Standard. Part 1 at Area 52 is entitled Steak and comprises The Box, Steak Dinner, and Steak in the Rain.

• Part 1: The Box :: 6300 words :: 10/29/2000 (Trapped.)
• Part 2: Steak Dinner :: 2200 words :: 10/29/2000 (Some eating, mostly talking.)
• Part 3: More Steak (Steak in the Rain):: 10000 words (explicit) :: 02/04/2001 (More eating, more talking. Clothes are removed.)
• Part 4: Steak in the Dark :: 11700 words (explicit) :: 02/12/2001 (The one with the psychotropic mine.)
• Part 5: Steak In-Between :: 11800 words (explicit) :: 03/06/2001 (The one with the blue stones.)
• Part 6: Steak-in-Waiting :: 8500 words (explicit) :: 03/25/2001 (The one with the plague quarantine.)
• Part 7: Steak and Cows :: 8990 words (explicit) :: 05/10/2001 (The one with the cows.)
• Part 8: Steak and Territory :: 10600 words (explicit) :: 05/27/2001 (The one with the metal cage. Content includes incarceration.)
• Part 9: Steak and Separation :: 11900 words (explicit) :: 06/20/2001 (The one with the buried stargate.)
• Part 10: Steak and Motility :: 15700 words (explicit) :: 08/05/2001 (The one with girls. Contains suggestive but non-explicit heterosexual content.)
• Part 11: Steak and Lizards :: 28600 words (explicit) :: 10/05/2001 (Another mine, a pool, and lizards. Content includes incarceration and unwanted sexual attention.v
• The Rememberers :: 15300 words (explicit) :: 11/24/2002 (Blue stones, broken planets, and memories.)

Fanart

Castaways 1 by Suzan Lovett (2001). Unusual example of full frontal nudity by Lovett; in many cases, Lovett's naked characters are strategically positioned to avoid showing genitalia.

A scene from Steak and Lizards:

Daniel walked along the edge and knelt down, tilting his head. He pointed past the pool. "There's a cave."

Jack was looking beyond the pool, where there were flowering bushes growing, and short trees with round, red fruit.

"Let's camp here," he said. [...]

He shuddered and leaned back heavily, and Jack held him, breathlessly kissing his neck.

Jack clasped his wrists over Daniel's stomach. Daniel lifted his feet from the pebbled pool bottom and tried to float in Jack's arms. Jack licked the curve of his neck and behind his ear, and swayed in the water.

This place was so quiet, so empty. Just the water, and rocks, and trees, and lizards, and the night sky above. No breeze, and the air was thick around them, humid, wet, sweaty. Languid, lazy heat.

They were alone here.

It was a temptation.

Castaways 2 by Suzan Lovett

The Castaways art series was one of the many pieces of Suzan Lovett turned into a cross-stitch pattern that fans could buy. The seller wrote about Castaways 1 "Once again, Suzan's use of framing and the bright flashes of colour made this picture an immediate hit with me. Then there's the lovely, sensual pose of the two figures. This is one of my favourite Stargate fan art pieces....

Regarding second piece: "More lush tropical greenery and sensual figures, in this companion to Castaways 1. The rippling reflections in the water are particularly attractive to me as a stitcher. It's just a beautiful composition."

Recs and Reviews

Best Series That Owes a Great Debt to Cows. Celebrate Our Bovine Friends! Steak: 1: The Box, 2: Steak Dinner, 3: More Steak (Steak in the Rain), 4: Steak in the Dark, 5: Steak In-Between, 6: Steak-In-Waiting, 7: Steak and Cows, 8: Steak and Territory, 9: Steak and Separation, 10: Steak and Motility, 11: Steak and Lizards, and The Rememberers, by keiko_kirin. Stargate SG-1, Jack O'Neill/Daniel Jackson (with mention of Jack/f, Daniel/f, and Teal'c/f in 10).

This is a famous series in the fandom; it was, in retrospect, wrong of me to avoid it so long simply because of the predominance of the word "steak" in, above, and about it. By the time I started reading SG, I knew Keiko Kirin's work in other fandoms, so I knew she was good. But I kept looking at this and saying, "Yeah. A twelve-part series about steak. Just what I've been hoping for." Well, that was wrong, and now I know it. For one thing, it isn't about steak, not really - the steak is a metaphor, a device, a bunch of those things you gladly forgot after you passed your last English test. For another thing, this is justly famous and in fact not as famous as it deserves to be. (I understand some people in lowland New Guinea haven't heard of it.) The Steak series is one of the best switching-teams stories I've read, yes, and it's funny and dramatic and sweet and everything else under the sun, yes, but that's only a part of it. Because there's plots here, people; almost every one of these stories could be an episode (well, apart from the sex, but that's obviously a failing of the show, not the series). I'd wager that these are also better than most of the existing episodes. The basic theme here is exploring new worlds - abroad, in bed, and with steak. And you get a heaping helping of all three, in twelve stories that make me want to fall to my knees and give thanks to the gods of FF.

Favorite stories: The last two, entirely for plot reasons. Part eleven takes me home to my SF roots, only with added sex, and "The Rememberers" (which she doesn't number like the others, so I didn't, either) is about some of my favorite things: memory, long-term relationships, and how people become who they are.

Don't allow yourself to be fooled by the name of this series; it's an absolute classic in fandom and rightfully so. Keiko Kirin does an amazing job of taking what could have been a ridiculous cliché and turning it into a journey of discovery between two otherwise completely straight men. Which is, I think we can agree, hard to do even at the best of times. Every single story in the series is riveting and plot driven, reading more like an episode than a fan fiction only with the added benefit of, well, benefits (if you know what I mean). The characterization in the series is likewise impeccable, not just for the two main characters but for the entire team, and doesn't stray too far afield as the series progresses. In the long run, however, the thing that makes this series standout from the crowd for me is the fact that the intimate relationship between Jack and Daniel is never forced or rushed. They never fall into each others arms and into bed and try to figure it out afterward. No, they move forward in stops and starts, realistically trying a build a relationship that will last and not fall apart when the going gets rough for them. I honestly can't recommend this series enough, even to those of you who are a little leery of reading this after my warning or the 'silliness' of the name. It's worth the time spent and absolutely wonderful for Jack/Daniel fans, new and old.

Another classic. Jack and Daniel slowly realise they are attracted to each other and tentatively begin a relationship.

Several stories, famous in the fandom, exploring a developing relationship between Jack and Daniel. I adored the slow build-up of intimacy between Jack and Daniel, the way they sort of skipped and stuttered along. I think I was hooked right from the metaphor conversation in the first story.

I loved The Box and I was originally unsure as to whether to rec this entire series because I liked the earlier entries better than the later ones, but upon reflection and discussion I think that's due to my own issues with the pairing (because I tend to lose interest in stories where Jack and Daniel are experiencing any kind of domesticity--and honestly, it's not even just them, it's pretty much any fandom except maybe The Sentinel--unless there's also sufficient dark gritty angst of the kind which manages to avoid becoming fluffy hurt/comfort) than any lack in the storytelling, which was good throughout. I also realize that this is kind of a moot point because given how the first couple of stories sucked me in, there was no way I was going to stop reading and probably neither are you.

Aw, I decide to go back and read this one so it would be fresh in my mind. So I could do a proper rec for it. What a hardship that was with a series this good. I'm telling you. Suffering. Not. It starts out when Jack and Daniel are on a planet, get captured by strange aliens, who some weird tests on them. They end up in a dark place talking so they don't fall asleep which is when the aliens do the weird experiments on them. Have you ever been stuck in a dark place with someone for a while. You say shit to strangers you'd never say to them in the light of day. So they talk and some stuff is revealed and as they talk they realize that they might just be dating. Seem to be having alot of Sunday night steak dinners together. Well, they get rescued and from there things get heated. They start thinking a whole lot more about what they want. That's just the beginning of the first story. From there the guys try and figure out what they have with one another and what they want. They have some awkward sex and first, but it gets better. What I really like about this one is they take it slow. They have no idea what you do with another guy so they take it slow. Work up to things. Try things here and there. Figure out how far they want to go as they go along. The relationship progresses gradually and they settle into the physicality of it as they do their emotions about one another. I love that. We're up to story number 5 and their still working through things. I love that. Talk about a slow build up. I love a good tease. This one has that. The guys trying to work on their relationship and decide what the hell they're doing and what they want from each other along the way. Great story. The guys are just so 'Guys' in it. I love that. Great characterizations of Jack and Daniel too. I wasn't sure I liked this series at first, but as it's come along I've found that I love it. Absolutely, falling in love with it. If you haven't read this one you definitely need to. It's a great read and a fabulously sloow tease. Note: I'm not slamming Keiko here, but I've mentioned this before. Sometimes you really need to know when to end a series. The latest piece of her Steak series, Steak and Motility, I really could have done without. I think the end should have been the one before this. She really lost a feel for the characters in this latest one. Having them act in ways I don't think any of them would. I was wondering where the hell everyone was in that the story. Or more to the point who the hell these people were. They weren't the members of SG-1. That's for sure. No one was acting in character, I was shocked how out of character there actions were in fact. That she could think any of them would act this way truly amazed me. I shudder at how bad she characterized everyone in this story. I was really looking forward to it too. It's like she freaked out and wanted to reassure herself that J/D were still straight even though they were fucking like bunnies. Do slash writers have moments of homophobia? I swear to god that's almost what it was like. That story was so bad I cringe when I think of it. Ok, this might turn into a slam if I don't stop now. Let's just say my rec stops at whichever story comes before Steak and Motility and leave it at that. Take my advice, don't read further than that. You'll thank me for it.

– Slash Slut's Stargate SG-1 Recs