Tuesday: Song lyrics!
Feb. 6th, 2024 06:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nagi_schwarz posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
comment_ficHello, everyone. I’m nagi_schwarz and your host for the week. As a reminder, Sundays are for Lonely Prompts and sharing the fills that you completed during the week, Tuesdays and Thursdays are for new themes and prompts and Saturdays will remain a Free for All. Posting will be done on both DW and LJ so everyone should be able to get notifications.
With that being said, today's theme is song lyrics. Prompts can be lyrics from any song, from pop to opera to folk songs and nursery rhymes.
Just a few rules:
No more than five prompts in a row.
No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
Use the character's full names and the fandom's full name
No spoilers in prompts for a month after airing, or use the spoiler cut option found here.
If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space, or use the above-mentioned spoiler cut.
Prompts should be formatted as follows: [Use the character's full names and fandom's full name]
Fandom, Character +/ Character, Prompt
Some examples to get the ball rolling...
+ any, any, I’m not myself without you in this world (Find Me - Rocky)
+ any, any, you loved me just the same (Yes or No - Rocky)
+ any, any, when I see you, it feels like the whole world is upside down (Chameleon - Rocky)
We are now using AO3 to bookmark filled prompts. If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3 please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2024 collection. See further notes on this new option here.
Not feeling any of today’s prompts? You can use LJ’s advanced search options to limit keyword results to only comments in this community.
While the use of LJ's advanced search options is available, bookmarking the links of prompts you like might work better for searching in the future.
If you have a Dreamwidth account and would feel more comfortable participating there, please feel free to do so…and spread the word!comment_fic
tag=song lyrics
nagi_schwarz and your host for the week. As a reminder, Sundays are for Lonely Prompts and sharing the fills that you completed during the week, Tuesdays and Thursdays are for new themes and prompts and Saturdays will remain a Free for All. Posting will be done on both DW and LJ so everyone should be able to get notifications.With that being said, today's theme is song lyrics. Prompts can be lyrics from any song, from pop to opera to folk songs and nursery rhymes.
Just a few rules:
No more than five prompts in a row.
No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
Use the character's full names and the fandom's full name
No spoilers in prompts for a month after airing, or use the spoiler cut option found here.
If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space, or use the above-mentioned spoiler cut.
Prompts should be formatted as follows: [Use the character's full names and fandom's full name]
Fandom, Character +/ Character, Prompt
Some examples to get the ball rolling...
+ any, any, I’m not myself without you in this world (Find Me - Rocky)
+ any, any, you loved me just the same (Yes or No - Rocky)
+ any, any, when I see you, it feels like the whole world is upside down (Chameleon - Rocky)
We are now using AO3 to bookmark filled prompts. If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3 please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2024 collection. See further notes on this new option here.
Not feeling any of today’s prompts? You can use LJ’s advanced search options to limit keyword results to only comments in this community.
While the use of LJ's advanced search options is available, bookmarking the links of prompts you like might work better for searching in the future.
If you have a Dreamwidth account and would feel more comfortable participating there, please feel free to do so…and spread the word!
comment_fictag=song lyrics
Fill: Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Date: 2024-02-06 10:53 pm (UTC)His parents had been assholes, wielding words like sharpened knives; the scars were real, if not physically present. He’d suffered at the hands of high school bullies, and college professors who hadn’t liked being shown up by an insufferable teenage genius. He’d been banished to Siberia by the SGC, kept away from the projects that were actually worth a damn.
Watching the video chronicle of himself losing his mind? Top of the list of the worst things he’d ever gone through.
“You don’t need to watch it,” Jennifer had insisted. “Why put yourself through that?”
Dr. Ramesh, the base psychiatrist, had disagreed. “Confronting what happened to you will help you move forward.”
“If it were me, I’d want to know,” John had said with a nonchalant shrug.
In the end, Rodney hadn’t really had a choice. He hated being left out of the loop, hated that other people knew things about him he didn’t remember himself.
No, I'm-I'm not anymore. I'm not…s-s-mart anymore. Doctors are smart, so I'm "mister" now.
He’d worked so hard to be the smartest man in any room, and all it had taken was a microscopic parasite to unravel his entire sense of self. Everything that had made him Dr. Rodney McKay, PhD, PhD had been eradicated.
Where is... where did John go? John? Where are you, John?
The most illuminating part of the whole humiliating situation was Jennifer. Rodney had been attracted to her when she’d first come to Atlantis – well, who wouldn’t be? – but he knew he hadn’t stood a chance against Ronon, who had also expressed his interest in ‘wooing’ the pretty doctor. It was so unexpected, then, how Jennifer’s interest in Rodney had changed when the parasite’s effects started to show.
What did it say about her that she fell for him while he was becoming more and more childlike? Probably Dr. Ramesh would have some opinions about that, and Rodney was going to ask him at their next session.
More unexpected was how she so easily dismissed what had been obvious to Rodney since the day he’d let John toss him off a balcony to test the personal shield. Over and over again on the video, Rodney was calling for John. Looking for John. Talking about John. With everything else that slipped away, as if Rodney’s brain was slowly dissipating into whisps of smoke, he never forgot John.
That night on the pier wasn’t part of the recording, but it was fresh in Rodney’s mind. Maybe because it was so close to the end of his affliction. When they’d gone to the Shrine of Talus, he’d remembered it then too, once the radiation kicked in. Jennifer had been accused of holding too tightly to Rodney, but John had been holding on just as tightly in his own way.
I mean, I'm not saying goodbye. You're stuck with me, Rodney. Just accept it.
Which was just as illuminating, in a different way. Rodney knew his team loved him; they’d shown him in so many ways. But Teyla and Ronon had wanted a chance to say goodbye, a chance to tell him one last time how they felt. John hadn’t been willing to do the same. He’d been grasping at straws and got lucky.
And it occurred to Rodney that, as much as Jennifer had preferred his softer, mushy-brained side, John had always accepted him as he was, flaws and all. Had ultimately forgiven him everything, including Doranda.
He may have claimed to love Rodney the way a friend feels about another friend, but in his guts, in his heart of hearts, Rodney didn’t believe that was true. He believed John loved him the same way he loved John, because that love had never changed, never diminished, never asked Rodney to be anything other than what he was.
John loved Rodney just the same as he always had.
Well, Rodney wasn’t wasting anymore time. He gathered up his courage and the black leather jacket John had let him borrow and went calling.
“Rodney. Everything okay?”
John was hiding out in his office, purportedly to do paperwork. Rodney could see he’d been doing Sudoku puzzles instead. The open look of concern on his face made something tighten in Rodney’s chest.
“I’m just returning this.” He thrust the jacket at John. “And I wanted to ask your advice about something.”
John leaned back in his chair. “Shoot.”
“I want to ask someone out. On a date.”
And wasn’t it interesting how quickly John’s open expression shuttered into a bland blankness? Rodney had always assumed it meant John wasn’t interested in talking about his love life, but he now suspected that was true for entirely different reasons.
“Keller?” John asked, his tone giving nothing away.
“The woman who took power tools to my irreplaceable skull? I don’t think so.”
John’s forehead crinkled, showing his confusion. “Who then?”
“This guy I talked to the other night out on the pier. Arthur.”
Rodney was entertained watching the different emotions that crossed John’s face in the span of seconds before the blankness resumed.
“Rodney, there was no guy. I know you don’t remember, but –”
“I remember that night very well, actually.” Rodney leaned over the desk and planted his palms. “And I’ve recently come to the realization that you’ve been holding back and I’ve had some sort of John Sheppard blinders on. I’m sure Dr. Ramesh could tell me exactly why that kind of thing happens, though as a genius you’d think I could see what was right in front of me this whole time.”
“McKay,” John said, and then didn’t follow it up with anything. His voice was a little strangled, though, and there were cracks starting to show in the bland façade.
“You wouldn’t let me say goodbye.” Rodney rounded the desk until he was standing right in front of John, who’d pushed his chair back as far as it would go. “How about if we try hello instead?”
He leaned in slowly, watching John’s eyes go wide. Flight or fight? Neither, as it turned out. As soon as their lips met, John surged forward and put everything he had into that kiss, and wow. Flying had never been Rodney’s thing, but he was starting to think he understood the joy of it now. Because every molecule of his body was alight and pulsating with yes and finally and hell yes!
Not even a parasite would be able to take the memory of that first kiss away from him.
When Rodney pulled back, he had John’s hands on his hips and the taste of John on his tongue. “So. You wanna go out sometime?”
John just stared at him for a moment, and then he started laughing, great big donkey-bray laughs. Rodney laughed along with him.
Their relationship was changing right in front of his eyes, but not the way Rodney felt. He loved John just the same as he always had. Only now he could show it.
Re: Fill: Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Date: 2024-02-06 11:37 pm (UTC)And you really uncovered the heart of The Shrine. When John refused to let go, he really did get lucky, and Teyla and Ronon’s desire to say goodbye while Rodney was lucid was an expression of their love for him, but John’s love was different.
And the way Jennifer only liked Rodney when he was nicer and not himself was, as the kids say these days, a red flag.
Re: Fill: Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Date: 2024-02-07 12:36 am (UTC)LOL! Yeah, red flag for sure.
Re: Fill: Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Date: 2024-02-08 08:41 pm (UTC)Re: Fill: Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Date: 2024-02-08 10:59 pm (UTC)Re: Fill: Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Date: 2024-02-09 02:21 am (UTC)“You wouldn’t let me say goodbye.” Rodney rounded the desk until he was standing right in front of John, who’d pushed his chair back as far as it would go. “How about if we try hello instead?”
My heart. That was so sweet. And so Rodney.
Re: Fill: Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Date: 2024-02-09 02:22 am (UTC)