kriadydragon: (Beast)
This is part of a little AU I slapped together for [personal profile] pentapus's ficlet challenge. And I mean slapped together on the spot. But the concept continued to intrigue me and since then I've expanded it. I have a larger story in mind, but seeing as how I have enough stories as is, I'm going to be writing it snippets at a time that I will eventually peice together into a larger fic. 

So as not to have to deal with the piddly little details in the snippets, here's what you need to know (which will be expanded on later).

The Atlantis expedition is an Atlantis colony. The entire Milky Way has been colonized (not including already inhabited planets) so the colonization has moved on to Pegasus, but there's still plenty of exploring going on (which is the purpose of the colonies)

Everyone has a dragon. Either a single dragon all to themselves or a dragon beloning to their family. Dragons are either inherited or hatched from eggs to be passed down the generations. Most dragons can live to up to five human generations. No one knows how or when the Dragon/human bond formed.

There is still gate travel and an SGC.

The city of Atlantis is the capital of the planet of Atlantis (I refuse to call it Atlanatica). Dr. Weir is the govenor (govenor, I know, cheesy)

Instead of being sent to Antarctica, Sheppard was sent to Atlantis as part of the wing brigade protecting the swamp that divides the continent. He will eventually become part of the city's brigade.

This story is how that happens.

---------------------------------------------------------
It was big, black, lean as a bladed whip, pissed, and throwing the stereotype of wild blacks being rebellious loners back in their faces. Had it not been for the polished and well-cared for saddle harnessed to the black's back, it would have been easy to assume the body it was standing over to be its meal. Since it was saddled, the marines were to go with non-lethal force.

McKay felt himself an appropriate distance away; close enough to help if needed, but way, way, way out of reach of that lashing bladed tail. The damn thing was a collection of bony knives, lean muscle, and angular. Even its wings were spike-tipped at the fingers and along the arms. Rodney could feel Bina's skin ripple in a shudder, so he leaned forward to pat the milk-white neck.

"That thing is insane!" Bina yelped. "I'm surprised he hasn't stepped on his human."

Rodney could see said human from where he sat - kind of. He was lying face down in the tall grass bordering the edge of the swamplands. A couple of kids had found him... well, found his dragon crouching protectively over him and snapping at anyone who moved in too close.

McKay could hear the soft spat of tranguilizer darts hitting their mark.

Bina's blue eyes widened. "Good crap! Ten shots and he's still up."

Rodney gaped. "What!"

Ten, twenty, Bina lost count after a while. The black's thrashing grew sluggish, uncoordinated, as though the darts had been filled with Vodka. But it never staggered dangerously close to its human, not once. In fact, it backed off so as not to drop on him when it suddenly collapsed onto its side. Both Rodney and Bina released a breath of relief.

"He's gonna have a headache," Bina muttered.

The Atlantis Wing Brigade led by Lorne and his red surrounded the black to spread the nets. Carson and his medics swarmed the dragon's human. Rodney slid from Bina's back to move in for a closer look, and wished he hadn't.

The dark-haired man look like he'd been chewed up and spit out. Bruises, bloodstains, shredded clothes barely hanging on, gashes, and his arm lying at an odd angle. With a one, two, three, Carson and his team gently rolled the man onto his back on the stretcher. The guy was skinny, really skinny, like he hadn't eaten in a while; a soaked and bloody shirt sinking into his concaved stomach and molding to sharply protruding ribs. There were bruises on his neck and face, and on the part of his chest exposed by a tear in his shirt from collar-bone to sternum.

Carson and his team didn't work on him until they had him loaded safely on the jumper. Rodney stood outside watching as the hatch lifted and the jumper pulled away. A gust of strong wind that nearly bowled him over pulled his attention to the brigade working as one to lift the black coiled in nets into the air. That left only a few marines trying to get a clue as to where the guy had come from, and Rodney. Not that he needed to stay. He'd done his part taking energy readings. Whatever had trashed that man hadn't been anything technological.

Rodney climbed back into Bina's saddle, strapping his legs in tight for the flight home.

"This is going to be interesting," Bina said.

-----------------------------------------------------

I know, really short. But there will be more and slightly longer. What do you think? Stupid? Tolerable? Intriguing? I promise that the next installment will be longer and a little more in depth.

Rodney snorted. "You're telling me." If the guy and his dragon turned out to be serial killers, Rodney was moving to another planet.

Date: 2007-08-18 11:11 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] bratfarrar
bratfarrar: A woman wearing a paper hat over her eyes and holding a teacup (john wings)
Hm. I like this, although now I'm curious as to why Rodney doesn't have a dragon in the original snippet. I must admit I found the world slightly more intriguing when I thought only some people had dragons (- though not at all like in the Pern books).

...Whoo. I just started trying to calculate the amount of meat needed by a society that contained that many large carnivores.

Date: 2007-08-18 11:18 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] bratfarrar
bratfarrar: A woman wearing a paper hat over her eyes and holding a teacup (john wings)
...Actually, another thing that I really liked about the snippet was that John's dragon didn't seem to be anything more than a really intelligent animal. Honestly, the whole bonded/talking dragon thing made me think pretty immediately of Pern, and that's something you'd probably want to be really careful about.

But this is your story, and if you keep writing, I'll keep reading, because dragons + Atlantis = cool. I promise to keep to myself any further comparisons to Pern. ;p

Date: 2007-08-18 11:26 am (UTC)From: [personal profile] bratfarrar
bratfarrar: A woman wearing a paper hat over her eyes and holding a teacup (john wings)
Am being spammity - apologies.

Just reread snippet, and see that I somehow missed on the prior four readings that Rodney does have a dragon, it just happens to be injured at the time of the snippet.

promise this will be the last suggestion thingy - what if instead of being bonded to their riders, dragons were sort of like horses were a hundred, hundred fifty years ago? Lots of people had one, but only those who could afford to house and feed them.

story

Date: 2007-08-18 11:38 am (UTC)From: (Anonymous)


i really like this so far and i think you should continue. i have never really foun dthat many good atlantis Au fics and this seems to be a good one so far.

Date: 2007-08-18 06:59 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] kriadydragon.livejournal.com
That's the main problem I have with dragon-rider fics - potentially being accused of copying Pern or Eragon or the fifty billion other dragon-rider books out there. But it's such an awesome concept!

The idea for this is based on an original story of mine - two, actually. One involves a country (not world, country) in which everyone has a dragon (while every where else only those of importance have dragons). In the other, everyone has a dragon, either personally, as part of their family, or part of the village. The latter is what I'm more or less going with.

There will be an explanation for the bond eventually, and nothing complex. Right now what I'm considering is something along the lines of it being a kind of alliance formed (probably starting with dragons and Ancients) for the purpose of better survival. But since that revelation won't be for some time, I'm still tweaking it. Then, of course from there, human and dragon bonding just became second nature.

What I keep bouncing back and fourth about is, should there be magic? I'm considering no, and like you said, making dragons intelligent animals - more like a sentient race, maybe with some unique gifts like empathy and such. I feel going the magic route would be going too far.

Right now what I'm focusing on is John, his drgon, how they became part of Atlantis, and integrating many of the SGA story lines into the AU. For example, I'll be doing a snippet about the aftermath of Sheppard having to kill Sumner, and maybe do other such tag pieces. But I do plan for it all to lead up to a larger work.

Date: 2007-08-18 07:04 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] kriadydragon.livejournal.com
I usually solve the food problem by having the dragons snack between meals (In Atlantis' case, lots and lots of fish) that way there's no need to wipe out entire herds of larger game.

Plus these dragons really aren't that big since they have to be able to fit through the stargate. I'm thinking the size of an Indian elephant. Granted, that still means a lot of eating, but probably not as much if they were larger.

Re: story

Date: 2007-08-18 07:05 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] kriadydragon.livejournal.com
Thanks. AUs are tricky as they seem to scare most readers away. I'm actually still a little iffy about this one.

Date: 2007-08-19 02:25 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] d_odyssey.livejournal.com
You grabbed my attention with the snippet. Enjoyed this and definitely want more. What happened to John and what is this universe like? Hope you write more, as I will be waiting to read it.

Date: 2007-08-19 09:18 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] giusytriso.livejournal.com
Great start!
I love the way Shep's dragon kept protecting him and I'm curious to see what happened so that John was in so dire condition.
This dragon/human bond sounds interesting. Please keep writing.

Date: 2007-08-27 09:35 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] carwright-m.livejournal.com
Very intriguing. The only thing that brought me up short was the fact that Rodney's dragon could talk and Shep's couldn't? or is it telepathic between bonded dragon and human? and if so is it vocal?
But other than that, you've got me hooked and I just may swallow the fishing pole in my haste to get to the rest of this story. AUs are my passion!
Speaking of AUs, have you read the Retrograde universe by ltlj?

Date: 2007-08-28 04:37 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] kriadydragon.livejournal.com
I actually started this as a snippet on someone else's page. In that snippet Sheppard's dragon talks. For the most part, though, he isn't big on talking.

I'm very iffy about this AU. AUs make me uncomfortable, although the closer I can keep it to canon SGA, the less uncomfortable I am.

And I have read the Retrograde verse stories. Very good.

Date: 2007-09-11 01:20 pm (UTC)From: (Anonymous)
Hi,

I love the concept of this story. I have just gotten into SG:A and this is the first AU I've read, as well as the second of your stories. If this is what I can expect from your other works I'm not expecting any sleep tonight as they will most likely be just as addictive. I love the characterisation of the dragon and the way you have woven the descriptions of the characters into the story without making it a chore to read. I hope you continue this!

Off to read everything else...

Date: 2007-11-28 12:55 pm (UTC)From: [personal profile] ratcreature
ratcreature: RatCreature as dragon (dragon)
I like the opening. Have you continued this somewhere since?

Date: 2007-11-28 10:27 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] kriadydragon.livejournal.com
I've got more written on my laptop but haven't gotten around to cleaning it up. The problem is, though I like this AU, I'm not very comfortable with it. I love reading AUs but always have trouble writing them, especially the ones that veer farther and farther away from canon.

For that reason, though I do intend to continue with this AU (since people do seem to like it) it'll probably be slow going.

Date: 2008-04-01 06:22 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] kontiki.livejournal.com
Such an intriguing beginning, all nice & whumpy.

Any more likely?

Soon?

Thank You,

kontiki
















































































Date: 2008-08-09 11:16 pm (UTC)From: [personal profile] tigriswolf
tigriswolf: (temptation)
Oh, come now. Where's the rest?

Date: 2008-08-12 12:57 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] kriadydragon.livejournal.com
*Hangs head in shame* The plot bunny ran away from me and I haven't been able to find it. Seriously, though I tend to have the worst luck with AUs. I'm very canon oriented, and though Stargate deals with AUs, all the time, writing them still makes me uncomfortable.

however, I've - I guess you could say - conditioned myself a little more when it comes to AUs. So though it may be a while before you see any more from this AU, it's one I would like to continue, so there will eventually be more.

Date: 2009-02-24 10:00 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] mystroth.livejournal.com
"This is going to be interesting," Bina said. That it is. You are going to continue it right? Please say that you are. *begs* I think your aversion to writing AUs maybe due to the fear of big nasty plot holes. That and the overused plot of having dragon riders. Take that plot and twist it till it's yours. Might be a wee bit difficult than it sounds.

Date: 2009-02-24 09:36 pm (UTC)From: [identity profile] kriadydragon.livejournal.com
Thank you.

Actually, I've re-written it, but due to plot issues it stalled out. I've since discussed these issues with my alpha, know where I went wrong and am now replotting the part of the story that was giving me trouble. I plan on finishing it once my other various writing projects are out of the way. So though it will be a while, I will finish this ;D.

AUs are tricky for me because I'm very "What we see is how it's supposed to be." In other words, if it doesn't adhere to canon, then it makes me feel uncomfortable. It's not as bad as it once was but there still tends to be some reluctance. But I really like this AU, so will finish it whether I like AUs or not ;).

Date: 2009-02-25 02:45 am (UTC)From: [identity profile] mystroth.livejournal.com
Yay for still continuing it! Won't mind if it'll be a while before you get to finish this so long as you will finish it. I'll check back periodically (monthly or bimonthly or something) for an update to this~

And thank you for continuing this story off 'screen'. Looking forward to the end product! *sits and waits patiently*

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