The Earth people fascinate Teyla; perhaps more than they should, as Halling is wont to point out. But she can't help but be drawn to them--they came from so far away, and now they are trapped here in the shadow of the Wraith. And what is more, not only have they taken possession of the city of the Ancestors, but some of them--like John Sheppard--even have the blood of the Ancestors flowing through their veins.
Even her people, despite the name they have given to the ancient inhabitants of this city, cannot say the same.
Still...she is troubled by the lack of beauty in their lives.
Among her people, each garment is unique, its design a reflection of the emotion its tailor was feeling as he or she sewed it. But the Earth people wear matching clothes--uniforms, they even call them--when they are working. And even when they are not, when they are "off duty" as she's heard them say...she's seen Dr. Weir's other clothes, and still finds them dull. Simple and elegant in their own way, but so linear and plain. Only the shoes the leader of Atlantis sometimes wears--with the strange spikes on the heels--show any sign of creativity as she is used to it.
Well, that and her necklace. She wonders sometimes, about the necklace the Earth woman always wears, thinks she might ask someday about its significance. Is it, like her own, a keepsake of a loved one? A symbol of something from Earth? Or just something pretty to remind her that she is still Elizabeth even when she must be Dr. Weir, governor of Atlantis?
There is one thing beautiful on their "uniforms"--the patch that says Atlantis in the Earth tongue, with a winged animal of some kind seeming to leap out of one of the chevrons of the stargate towards her. She asked, once, what manner of creature it was. She was told it was a mythical beast called a pegasus, and that it was on the patch because the people of Earth call her home the "Pegasus" galaxy.
But when she asked whose time and minute detail had gone into sewing the patches, she was told they had been created by a machine.
A machine. She can't imagine spending her entire life in garments made by a machine, instead of her own hand or the hand of a loving friend. For now, she wears them because they insist she must "match" the rest of her team, but she is glad that Dr. Weir allowed her to keep her own shirt. She doesn't feel like she's been swallowed up in sameness as long as she can cling to that one piece of who she is.
Maybe it's because the people of Earth never lived with the Wraith before now. They never learned to find beauty wherever it hides because life is fleeting and worthless without it. That there is beauty even in death, if you have time to prepare and accept your fate instead of having your life torn from you.
She cannot remember the last time one of her people died of old age.
To Teyla, to her people, every sunrise is a treasure. Having the time and care to put into making clothing, or candles, or anything, is something to be celebrated. The people of Earth are in such a hurry to get to tomorrow that she wonders if they even see the sunrise. Maybe that is why they have machines sew for them, and bring food wrapped in shiny metal wrappers with them instead of planting and harvesting their own.
Maybe it's not beauty they truly fail to appreciate...maybe it's time.
Either way...it is something about them she will never understand, even if one day they teach her everything there is to know about Football and Hockey and Ferris Wheels.
The Earth people have much that they could teach her, this she knows...but maybe she has something to teach them too.
FIN
Beauty for Ashes von Azar
Story Bemerkung:
Acknowledgments: Thanks to the two people who helped give me the confidence to post this: the Teyla fan and beta reader, Meg, and the non-Teyla fan who enjoyed it anyway, Medie. *g* Oh yeah, and the title comes from a song by Crystal Lewis.
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