SGA 3.16: The Ark

[trinityofone]

Well, that was definitely a Willow-song episode. Fill-er! There were some okay character moments though. In brief:

*Rodney's "should've used a Mac." !!!! I almost died. You could tell Hewlett got a huge kick out of it. Also, this Mac user approves!

*Ronon! Man, I loved Ronon in this. The way he wrenched his arm back into his socket was so hard core, and you could tell that John thought it was way hard core. "I don't like waiting." Ronon, you have won my heart with your impatience. I also loved their vow to go down fighting by fighting each other to the death. Awww! Boys. *smishes*

*John's shirt. Hot.

*John's little emo collapse when the doors shut. Dorky!

*John in welding goggles and gloves. Really dorky. (And also strangely hot.)

ETA: *John's "I don't want to die." I mention this only because I've seen a lot of "John's suicidal!" in things like fic summaries lately. Um, no. Being willing to die and wanting to die are two separate things. Please let's not rehash the post-'The Gift' BtVS fandom debate.

*Rodney's "we don't leave men behind!" and Lorne's reaction to it. Can we have some Rodney/Lorne bonding fic please? (Er, not like that. Or like that, whatever!)

*Um. The suicidal guy was kinda hot?

Mostly though: blah. Yawn. And why do they always have to have jokes like the "except Rodney" line? I mean, obviously John's kidding—canon has shown this. And possibly, it is a case of John PROTESTING TOO MUCH TO THE POINT OF HILARITY, MR. MY PLANET OF KINKY BONDAGE FETISH PEOPLE HAD HEARTS ON THEIR LEATHER TUNICS. But, man, as someone who has always worried that her friends don't really like her that much, and that they talk smack about her behind her back—as the team has been shown to do to Rodney; hello, parts of 'McKay & Mrs. Miller' that make me wince and want to hide behind the couch—why? Seriously, why? Why do a bunch of writers who were almost certainly outcast dorks themselves want to take the side of the cool kids ragging on the geek? I mean, I'm fully willing to admit that my own issues are coloring my interpretation of this, but jeeze. I was ready to leave this episode having been, y'know, just sort of bored (and note: giving Teyla more lines does not equal giving her something to do, if said lines could just have easily been spoken by Bob Redshirt); instead I left it with a sour taste in my mouth.

I'm probably making too much out of nothing, and should go back to pretending that when Rodney said, "Any last thing you want to say?" he was really asking, "Do you love me, Sheppard?" And when John answered, "You owe me a week's pay, Rodney," that was secret code for "Yes, and you owe me a blow job." THE END.

Also...anyone want to buy my Peg2 ticket? Please? trinityofone AT livejournal DOT com. Reasonable rates! Will throw in a story or something! I have to go to the dentist tomorrow and I need money!

Okay, that was just pathetic. Please ignore.

ETA2: Well, apparently they're non-transferable. I hate my life.

Comments

[setissma.livejournal.com]

Okay, okay, I give in! I give in horribly! Please forgive me if this is awful because I am on heavy duty cold meds. But you sound so sad! And dentists are no good.

-

The first time Rodney realizes that having sex with John has changed their relationship is also the first time they fight, the first time he realizes that there are consequences to this, like dependent variables and errors in code. They’re out in the field and he sees something – glowing, he thinks, maybe ancient, and it’s easy enough to slip away from John and Ronon, who are arguing over which trail to take. Teyla sees him, and he thinks she’ll tell them, follow him, but when he comes back half an hour later (having discovered absolutely nothing save a tree) it’s to find Teyla with an arrow in her shoulder. John’s white-faced and a little wild, eyes a shade Rodney’s never seen before, and he thinks for the first time that maybe he’s done something wrong.

John doesn’t say anything until that evening, sitting in the dull light of the infirmary.

“John,” Rodney begins, but John doesn’t look up from his book – still War and Peace.

“Nioke,” John murmurs, and Nioke almost looks apologetic, if the emotion were possible, but then Tyk is out of his pocket and bristling on the infirmary floor, and Nioke slides down the leg of John’s chair.

As a child, Rodney never let his daemon fight – he won every battle with her kept away, like a treasured secret, and after they chose, it was always too awkward. No scientist wanted to pit their daemon against a mouse. Someone had tried it once, in Siberia, and Tyk had met the fox before he could stop her. “You were brave,” he told her, later, when the physicist had crept away in generalized shame. “You were stupid,” Tyk replied, and that was the end of that.

This is impossible, but somehow calculable, and Rodney remembers that imaginary numbers are only used for electricity, current and voltage. Nioke curls around her, tight, simple, and Rodney can’t breathe either. John looks tense and miserable, feeling it, and then it’s over. Tyk pretends nothing has happened, grooming herself – paws over her face and ears, smoothing fur back. Nioke loops around John’s chair again, an odd shade of blue under a heat lamp, and he looks at Teyla sleeping, at the floor, counts ceiling tiles.

“I’m sorry,” Rodney says, finally, and John looks up.

“I’m not going to lose you like that,” he replies, and that’s all, the end of it – he goes back to reading. Rodney goes back to his room.

“I won’t fight for you when you’re wrong,” Tyk says, finally, at one in the morning, the only thing she’s said all night, and Rodney realizes she’s not thinking, she’s unhappy.

“You love them,” he says, half way through an integral calculation, almost startled (as if Rodney McKay ever failed to predict the results of an experiment).

“You do, too,” she replies. He finishes his problem and she climbs in his palm, a safe place to ride until they get there, and at least John’s awake too.

“Maybe - ” Rodney begins, when he opens the door, glowing in the backlight, but Tyk merely jumps, climbing up John’s t-shirt to settle at the curve of his shoulder, watching Rodney across the gap of the door.

“We won’t do it again,” she interrupts, firmly.

“We won’t,” Rodney agrees.

“Well,” Nioke says, and Rodney’s alone for a moment before John reaches out to cup his face, drawing him in.

“Just so long as you take us with,” John says, simply, and kisses him. Nioke winds around his wrist, warm, and John draws him in further.

“Aren’t you going to come in?” Tyk murmurs, coy but hardly subtle, and John laughs, soft.

“Come on,” he says, and Rodney does, until it's just the four of them, again.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Thank you. This is delicate and wonderful, again, although you're really not helping me with the "no-crying-at-work!" Though this is a much better, nicer kind of crying.

I can't express how much I've appreciated both of these ficlets. Just...a lot.

[setissma.livejournal.com]

I totally know what it's like to have a really lousy week, and you totally seem to be having a bit of one, so if I can help a bit, I'm happy to! Just in case tomorrow is rotten too (or a bit better, hopefully!) is there anything you'd like to see, in case I manage to write more?

Also, no crying! It was intended to be cheerful! *offers kleenex, since she has about five hundred of them*

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Well, it's really sweet of you (and AWESOME), so...

I can't think of anything in particular, although I'd love more of John talking to Tyk and Rodney talking to Nioke. (The sequel-I'll-never-write involved John&Tyk and Rodney&Nioke tapped on either side of a wall—close enough not to hurt, but still unfamiliar and scary, and I love that dynamic, the vulnerability and intimacy inherent in it.)

And yay! I just saw that you posted these on your own journal. I'm gonna link...

[setissma.livejournal.com]

That's totally why I keep writing the odd way around. I think dealing with someone else's daemon like that is totally like falling in love - it's way more intimate than just being with the person, you know? You're - for all intents and purposes - interacting with their soul.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Exactly! And that's why...yeah. That's why what you're writing is so wonderful and perfect. *beams*

[setissma.livejournal.com]

I think Nioke and Rodney? Totally kind of awful with each other. Like, they WANT to be friends, but Nioke is kind of aloof and Rodney is so awkward. And it's adorable because they try! So hard! And maybe it just takes something to make it click. ;)

Versus John and Tyk, who are like BFF from the get-go.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that makes total sense to me. Because in an odd sort of way that I can't really define, those are the parts of John & Rodney's personalities that have lined up from the beginning, and the parts that have bumped against each other in such a weird/interesting way. *rambles* Um, but yes! I agree!

[setissma.livejournal.com]

And I think daemons are sort of independent too, you know? And I think Nioke is much more of a one-person daemon, versus Tyk, who is infinitely loyal to Rodney but also? Totally loves John, because a) John has ridiculous hair and b) John always carries peanut butter crackers for her and c) he likes to talk in the middle of the night, too.

I think Nioke is kind of like, so I really like Tyk but this scientist, what are we doing again? He is so... abrasive! And on the other hand, Tyk totally has a daemon-sort-of-crush on John. Which I think is cute.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

It is! And you know Rodney's kind of disgruntled about it—"Flirting with my dæmon, Colonel! Have you no shame?" And John's kind of like, "Um."

And later John and Tyk laugh about it a little, while Rodney and Nioke are like, "Hrmph."

[setissma.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, exactly. Tyk totally wants John to take her to prom, in a very metaphorical way.

Also, I am really sick and, you know, having the world's worst day, so if I am a bit slow with the next one, forgive me. :*

Furthermore, I vote dental work + job quitting. You will be so much happier elsewhere. :)

[setissma.livejournal.com]

I really, really secretly like that idea, and I can't stop thinking about it. Hm! We'll see what pops out.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Yay! *bounces* Although, God, talking about this with you and reading your pieces has made me realize...do you know what would be fascinating/awful? 'Common Ground' in the Dæmonology 'verse. I'm not saying you should write it or that I should write it, but...OH MY GOD NIOKE!

[setissma.livejournal.com]

Okay, okay, I have to acknowledge this horrible fact, that I've only seen a few episodes of the show. It's not that I don't like it! It's just that I am crazy in love with fandom and fandom's characterisations and all that, and I really, really don't want it to turn out like SG1. Because I loved SG1 fandom! I loved it like crazy! And then it turned out that the show was SO INFINITELY BAD. And I couldn't love fandom anymore.

But if it was for fic! *strokes chin* That's sort of like homework, right? :> Or you could give me a Basic Plot Synopsis! (Is that the one where they torture John?)

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I accept your confession and do not judge you for it. *g* And I understand your plight: there's always a risk of canon screwing up what you love, and I've definitely felt physically wounded ('cause I'm a drama queen) by bad canon in other shows in the past.

HOWEVER...SGA is really quite fun. Not brilliant, by any means, but fun—funny and dorky, not really like SG1 at all. (Which I don't particularly care for.) Plus, the eye candy—damn.

So there's my little quasi-sales pitch. Please feel free to ignore. *g*

'Common Ground'—yeah, that's the one where John is captured by Kolya and tortured by being repeatedly fed on by a Wraith. Then he and the Wraith—who's also a prisoner and being tortured—team up and escape, even though they're boh very weak, John from being fed on (and I must say, Joe actually looks ridiculously hot with the first few stages of old age makeup on—the grey hair? Nice) and the Wraith from barely eating anything (except John) in a really long time. They get chased by Kolya's men, and when they're surrounded, the Wraith suddenly turns on John and drains him down to almost nothing, using the strength he gains to defeat the Genii. He then goes back to John, who demands that he finish him off, but instead the Wraith puts all the life back into him—apparently a neat Wraith trick that we just didn't know about. So John is okay, and he and the Wraith go their separate ways. The end.

Now imagine that with Nioke. It makes me feel physically ill, in a way, like the boy with the fish, but...but...

I'd be an interesting story. I can't resist those.