(no subject)
Dec. 6th, 2005 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icarusStill tinkering with that ficlet... hmm. Thank you to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
celestialseason for helping me dig up some of the cause of the last few months of writer's block. Still not through it, but it's getting better.
Title: Begging For Trouble
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: PG-13, for some violence
Pairing: John/Rodney
Notes: I've a million and one things to do, so of course I'm sketching out Atlantis fics. This is very, very foolish of me, especially since I've only seen a few episodes. I should wait, I say, I know better, I say. But the pen, she writes anyway. *shrugs*
ETA: Oh. Right. Set in season one (after The Storm), because I'm too cheap to buy cable and that's all that's playing.
Begging For Trouble
by Icarus
Okay, he was all set -- and couldn't believe he was doing this. John settled in at the base of the stairs, crouched and waiting. He winced and angled his foot a little better, checking his watch. Atlantis waited around him, cool and silent, her lights dimmed.
T-minus one hour and… no, he wasn't going to count. There was no telling how long he might be here, so it would just make him impatient. He half-shut his eyes meditatively, taking in the night. Moonlight shone through windows and stained the halls blue and white. There was a broad white swath at the bottom of the stairs, right in front of where John hugged the shadows. He had to keep an eye on that. It could shift and expose his position.
Finally, by the time he was starting to really feel his left ankle, he heard it. A distant click. Followed by a soft, confident tread, echoing in the empty halls. The two a.m. trek to the cafeteria to forage.
Target acquired. As predictable as rain in Spain.
John rose up on the balls of his feet, eyes narrowed and heart pounding. He was not going to get another chance at this.
Doctor Rodney McKay pattered down the staircase, absent-mindedly flipping a pen between his fingers, muttering happily to himself. Didn't even look right or left as he passed the darkened entryway. John Sheppard shook his head and wondered if sheep were this easy.
As McKay reached the bottom step and passed him, soft rounded shoulders came into view, right in the target area. Sheppard sprang. There was a whoosh of breath and grunt as he slammed Rodney into the wall, hard, his hand clapped over Rodney's mouth, gripped tight.
"Not a word, McKay," he said in his ear.
He felt Rodney relax. Big mistake. He didn't get it yet. He twisted Rodney's arm behind his back and pressed his face to a window. There was a little huff, but fortunately Rodney didn't try to yell.
"Major, what are you doing?" McKay asked, just a little too calm still.
"You've put people's lives at risk. With the Genii," Sheppard growled, and Rodney stiffened. Irritated or hurt it was hard to say. "You have no military training but you've got all the information any invading force could possibly ever want."
"Yes, well, I'm sure Radek knows something, although he hasn't nearly the insight that's required to--"
"He's served in the military."
"Oh." Rodney's mouth opened in surprise. "He has?"
"Yes. You haven't."
Rodney took a breath. "Look, and I'm going to ask this nicely, largely because you are armed and clearly out of your mind, to please let me go now."
Sheppard ignored that. "I could do whatever I wanted to you right now," he breathed ominously into the back of Rodney's neck. His knee slid to the back of Rodney's thigh.
"That's very nice, I'm sure you probably could, but you could also get into trouble for that. Major." Rodney said it with more than a little scorn.
"But I could do things you wouldn't want to report."
"Such as…?" Rodney's eyes blanked as he got the picture. He raised his chin, jaw jutting out. "I don't believe you."
Sheppard smiled. Very casual. "All I need is a little information and you don't have to find out what I'm capable of."
His words visibly sank in. Yeah, John Sheppard had just recently killed sixty of Kolya's men. You bet there was a whole lot no one knew he could—or would—do. He had credibility to burn.
"What do you want to know?" Rodney said softly. His arm trembled. A muscle tremor, maybe. John kept Rodney's arm high.
"Tell me the password to Elizabeth's office computer."
"But everyone in the science team knows that—"
John slapped the wall next to Rodney's head and Rodney ducked, curling in on himself. "Wrong answer, Rodney!" John said. "You don't tell your captors what they want to know!"
"What do you want me to do?!"
"They'll kill you, Rodney! They'll check your information, find out it works, and then they'll kill you!"
"But what do you want? I can't hold out against armed guards and torture!"
"Lie, Rodney—lie!" He pressed his hip into the small of Rodney's back, twisting his arm to nearly the back of his head. "You're a smart guy. Lie to me!"
"Ungh… this is demented… let me go…" Rodney panted.
John gave him another shove. "What's the password?"
Rodney's lashes fluttered, face flattened where it was pressed to the glass. "Um… 322… 97xw5…."
"It'll take them ten seconds to figure out that's not true. Then they'll beat the hell out of you."
Panicked, Rodney whimpered. "Then… um… I don't know it--?"
"They won't believe you. You just got the hell kicked out of you again. Maybe you lost a tooth."
Rodney winced. "Ow. Um… I have the passcode, but it automatically resets, and, ah, there are two operators required to—"
"Too complicated. You're obviously lying—""
"You told me to!"
"—they'll beat you up 'cause they're pissed, and now they'll kill you because you're useless to them."
Rodney gasped out, "I'm not useless. Okay, I have the passcode but it won't do you any good because, you idiots, when you turned off the iris—"
"Good, the attitude's good," John said, "they'll believe you."
"—I'm not done! You idiots turned off the iris shield without the proper authorization and that triggers a self-destruct sequence that will set off charges to sink Atlantis."
"This is good, a wild goose chase is good… until they come back," John said.
"Which can only be reached by taking a puddlejumper under the city."
"Great. Completely unprovable and totally convincing."
"That's because it's true!" Rodney said. "Do you believe we learned nothing from the Genii attack?"
"It is?" John drew back, surprised.
"No!" Rodney twisted towards him. "You honestly think that we'd rig ourselves to blow up?"
"But they'll believe it because they're crazy enough to do it."
John relaxed, with a trace of a smile.
"Yes," Rodney said.
John let out a deep breath and released Rodney, who let his arm fall slowly and stretched his neck. He immediately squirmed and shrugged his shoulders and shook out his hand, attempting to get the feeling back.
"You realize that I'm going to send you my medical bills for the rest of my life," he complained. "You dislocated my shoulder."
"You would have heard it pop," John said, leaning against the wall. He studied Rodney for a moment. "You wanna get something to eat?"
"I'm not hungry now—well, no, actually yes. I do. Homicidal maniacs and death threats make me hungry for some reason." Rodney rolled his head again. "Oh. And I'm plotting your imminent demise. Consider this your final warning: Good intentions don't count."
"You do that."
John grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. Or tried to. His hand swept through empty air — Rodney had skittered out of reach, giving him a vulnerable doe-eyed stare. Well, at least he'd learned something. But he thought he'd better at least make Rodney a sandwich or he'd be jumpy forever.
John froze for a moment, remembering something Rodney had let drop. He kept walking. "Does the entire science team really have Elizabeth's password?"
"Yes, of course. We need it." Rodney looked at him uncomprehendingly.
John gave an exasperated sigh and let his head fall back. He chuckled at the ceiling. "Christ… we're just asking for trouble."
celestialseason for helping me dig up some of the cause of the last few months of writer's block. Still not through it, but it's getting better. Title: Begging For Trouble
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: PG-13, for some violence
Pairing: John/Rodney
Notes: I've a million and one things to do, so of course I'm sketching out Atlantis fics. This is very, very foolish of me, especially since I've only seen a few episodes. I should wait, I say, I know better, I say. But the pen, she writes anyway. *shrugs*
ETA: Oh. Right. Set in season one (after The Storm), because I'm too cheap to buy cable and that's all that's playing.
Begging For Trouble
by Icarus
Okay, he was all set -- and couldn't believe he was doing this. John settled in at the base of the stairs, crouched and waiting. He winced and angled his foot a little better, checking his watch. Atlantis waited around him, cool and silent, her lights dimmed.
T-minus one hour and… no, he wasn't going to count. There was no telling how long he might be here, so it would just make him impatient. He half-shut his eyes meditatively, taking in the night. Moonlight shone through windows and stained the halls blue and white. There was a broad white swath at the bottom of the stairs, right in front of where John hugged the shadows. He had to keep an eye on that. It could shift and expose his position.
Finally, by the time he was starting to really feel his left ankle, he heard it. A distant click. Followed by a soft, confident tread, echoing in the empty halls. The two a.m. trek to the cafeteria to forage.
Target acquired. As predictable as rain in Spain.
John rose up on the balls of his feet, eyes narrowed and heart pounding. He was not going to get another chance at this.
Doctor Rodney McKay pattered down the staircase, absent-mindedly flipping a pen between his fingers, muttering happily to himself. Didn't even look right or left as he passed the darkened entryway. John Sheppard shook his head and wondered if sheep were this easy.
As McKay reached the bottom step and passed him, soft rounded shoulders came into view, right in the target area. Sheppard sprang. There was a whoosh of breath and grunt as he slammed Rodney into the wall, hard, his hand clapped over Rodney's mouth, gripped tight.
"Not a word, McKay," he said in his ear.
He felt Rodney relax. Big mistake. He didn't get it yet. He twisted Rodney's arm behind his back and pressed his face to a window. There was a little huff, but fortunately Rodney didn't try to yell.
"Major, what are you doing?" McKay asked, just a little too calm still.
"You've put people's lives at risk. With the Genii," Sheppard growled, and Rodney stiffened. Irritated or hurt it was hard to say. "You have no military training but you've got all the information any invading force could possibly ever want."
"Yes, well, I'm sure Radek knows something, although he hasn't nearly the insight that's required to--"
"He's served in the military."
"Oh." Rodney's mouth opened in surprise. "He has?"
"Yes. You haven't."
Rodney took a breath. "Look, and I'm going to ask this nicely, largely because you are armed and clearly out of your mind, to please let me go now."
Sheppard ignored that. "I could do whatever I wanted to you right now," he breathed ominously into the back of Rodney's neck. His knee slid to the back of Rodney's thigh.
"That's very nice, I'm sure you probably could, but you could also get into trouble for that. Major." Rodney said it with more than a little scorn.
"But I could do things you wouldn't want to report."
"Such as…?" Rodney's eyes blanked as he got the picture. He raised his chin, jaw jutting out. "I don't believe you."
Sheppard smiled. Very casual. "All I need is a little information and you don't have to find out what I'm capable of."
His words visibly sank in. Yeah, John Sheppard had just recently killed sixty of Kolya's men. You bet there was a whole lot no one knew he could—or would—do. He had credibility to burn.
"What do you want to know?" Rodney said softly. His arm trembled. A muscle tremor, maybe. John kept Rodney's arm high.
"Tell me the password to Elizabeth's office computer."
"But everyone in the science team knows that—"
John slapped the wall next to Rodney's head and Rodney ducked, curling in on himself. "Wrong answer, Rodney!" John said. "You don't tell your captors what they want to know!"
"What do you want me to do?!"
"They'll kill you, Rodney! They'll check your information, find out it works, and then they'll kill you!"
"But what do you want? I can't hold out against armed guards and torture!"
"Lie, Rodney—lie!" He pressed his hip into the small of Rodney's back, twisting his arm to nearly the back of his head. "You're a smart guy. Lie to me!"
"Ungh… this is demented… let me go…" Rodney panted.
John gave him another shove. "What's the password?"
Rodney's lashes fluttered, face flattened where it was pressed to the glass. "Um… 322… 97xw5…."
"It'll take them ten seconds to figure out that's not true. Then they'll beat the hell out of you."
Panicked, Rodney whimpered. "Then… um… I don't know it--?"
"They won't believe you. You just got the hell kicked out of you again. Maybe you lost a tooth."
Rodney winced. "Ow. Um… I have the passcode, but it automatically resets, and, ah, there are two operators required to—"
"Too complicated. You're obviously lying—""
"You told me to!"
"—they'll beat you up 'cause they're pissed, and now they'll kill you because you're useless to them."
Rodney gasped out, "I'm not useless. Okay, I have the passcode but it won't do you any good because, you idiots, when you turned off the iris—"
"Good, the attitude's good," John said, "they'll believe you."
"—I'm not done! You idiots turned off the iris shield without the proper authorization and that triggers a self-destruct sequence that will set off charges to sink Atlantis."
"This is good, a wild goose chase is good… until they come back," John said.
"Which can only be reached by taking a puddlejumper under the city."
"Great. Completely unprovable and totally convincing."
"That's because it's true!" Rodney said. "Do you believe we learned nothing from the Genii attack?"
"It is?" John drew back, surprised.
"No!" Rodney twisted towards him. "You honestly think that we'd rig ourselves to blow up?"
"But they'll believe it because they're crazy enough to do it."
John relaxed, with a trace of a smile.
"Yes," Rodney said.
John let out a deep breath and released Rodney, who let his arm fall slowly and stretched his neck. He immediately squirmed and shrugged his shoulders and shook out his hand, attempting to get the feeling back.
"You realize that I'm going to send you my medical bills for the rest of my life," he complained. "You dislocated my shoulder."
"You would have heard it pop," John said, leaning against the wall. He studied Rodney for a moment. "You wanna get something to eat?"
"I'm not hungry now—well, no, actually yes. I do. Homicidal maniacs and death threats make me hungry for some reason." Rodney rolled his head again. "Oh. And I'm plotting your imminent demise. Consider this your final warning: Good intentions don't count."
"You do that."
John grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. Or tried to. His hand swept through empty air — Rodney had skittered out of reach, giving him a vulnerable doe-eyed stare. Well, at least he'd learned something. But he thought he'd better at least make Rodney a sandwich or he'd be jumpy forever.
John froze for a moment, remembering something Rodney had let drop. He kept walking. "Does the entire science team really have Elizabeth's password?"
"Yes, of course. We need it." Rodney looked at him uncomprehendingly.
John gave an exasperated sigh and let his head fall back. He chuckled at the ceiling. "Christ… we're just asking for trouble."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-12-07 01:57 pm (UTC)*g* I liked this. I particularly liked Rodney, his pissed off vulnerability rings very true. I think John definitely needs to make him a sandwich now.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-10 10:08 am (UTC)Icarus
no subject
Date: 2005-12-10 04:45 pm (UTC)And have you received your package yet? I'm getting worried, I hope it didn't get lost along the way.
*bounces*
Date: 2005-12-10 10:23 pm (UTC)But if that's the case I'll just have to watch them (ahem, on weekends) at school. (I sooo need a new computer.)
Gah. I can't wait. I started looking for Century Hotel at my local video store (I bet Scarecrow would have it).
Icarus
Re: *bounces*
Date: 2005-12-11 04:54 am (UTC)I don't know if avis will play on a dvd player, but they should play on your computer, right?
Re: *bounces*
Date: 2005-12-11 07:42 am (UTC)Well, no, I haven't been able to get videos to play on my system yet. I take it these won't play on my DVD player even though they're on DVDs. *scowls at the entire technological world*
I'm running Win98 with 160 Megs RAM, and there aren't any codecs installed in my version of Windows Media Player. Do you have any recommendations for a DVD player that'll run .avi files?
Icarus
Re: *bounces*
Date: 2005-12-11 04:56 pm (UTC)http://www.free-codecs.com/DivX_Free_download.htm
or here:
http://www.canadiancontent.net/tech/downloads/Video+Codecs/2/
I think the avi codec pack on the second link is the one you want--it has the divx codec included. Let me know if these work!
Re: *bounces*
Date: 2005-12-11 06:40 pm (UTC)Re: *bounces*
Date: 2005-12-11 10:05 pm (UTC)http://www.divx.com/divx/divx_v6_me98.php?lang=en
So I'm downloading that. What I'm not sure is if this will be comprehensive and include all the audio and visual codecs needed. But I'll know in (checks progress of download over my dial-up account) 5 minutes or so.
In other news, my video store did have Century Hotel.
Holy fuck. How many camera lenses did DH melt when they were filming that kiss? (Heh. And he giggled when the guy swatted his ass.)
Icarus
Re: *bounces*
Date: 2005-12-12 03:54 am (UTC)Hell yeah. I can't tell you how many times I've watched that kiss. It's really quite...::flails::
And then there's the ass, and the swatting, which a friend was kind enough to icon for me. *g*
*not as bouncy, more puzzled*
Date: 2005-12-11 10:29 pm (UTC)I've tried the VLC Media Player. That gives me a clear picture, but frozen on the first screen, even though it says that it's playing.
The up-to-date version of Divx won't download (I tried). *scratches head*
Icarus
Re: *not as bouncy, more puzzled*
Date: 2005-12-12 03:50 am (UTC)Have you checked this page out for suggestions?
http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/support/faq/SUPFAQMPlayer.asp
Re: *not as bouncy, more puzzled*
Date: 2005-12-12 09:14 pm (UTC)I'm sitting on this treasure chest of SGA/Rodney files (bounces!) and I'm determined to make this work.
I spoke with my computer guy on Sunday (like I said, determined) and he says "the trick is to find the right codecs, but you should be able to play them on your computer." He says to take you up on your offer of the disc with the codecs: "she'll know what you need since she can play them."
*looks very, very cute and beseeching, and offers much Rodney fic in return* Are you still able to send that disc?
I'm switching ISPs shortly, but I can email from school for now.
Icarus
Re: *not as bouncy, more puzzled*
Date: 2005-12-12 09:53 pm (UTC)I will get you bouncing again, darn it! *g*
Re: *bounce factor is up*
Date: 2005-12-12 10:28 pm (UTC)Icarus
no subject
Date: 2005-12-07 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-10 10:09 am (UTC)Icarus
no subject
Date: 2005-12-10 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-12 10:29 pm (UTC)Icarus