personal canon: Ronon
guess who managed to find goof-off time today....
The list
Caldwell
McKay
Sheppard
Ronon
1 - It's not that he doesn't know how to be civilized. It's that sometimes remembering how hurts too much. Plus, he gets a bit of a thrill freaking out the scientists, even though Sheppard said that that's not a game he should be playing too often.
1b) Once upon a time, he could read (Ancient and Modern Satedan), play an instrument, and do calligraphy because that's what people of his social class were expected to learn. He doesn't see the need for any of it in Atlantis and it's not like anything here is written in Satedan script.
1c) Doctor Weir would like him to write out his alphabet anyway.
1d) Teyla can't read or write and Ronon tries not to bring it up because he thinks of her as a sister. He lived as an animal for seven years and yet the old prejudices remain. Even though Sateda is but rubble and the Athosians are well and strong.
2 - He gets nightmares. The longer he's in Atlantis, the more often they occur. He didn't dream of the Wraith when he was a Runner, but now that he is free, they are all he sees at night.
2b) Nobody else on his team sleeps all that well, either. They don't discuss it.
2c) Being in one place too long still makes him jumpy. It's why he leaves Atlantis as often as he can.
3 - He thinks Sheppard and Weir have their hearts and heads in the right place, but the people from Earth are never going to understand in their bones what it means to be born as food for the Wraith. They are optimistic, so full of their belief in themselves and their ultimate success that it's occasionally blinding. And blindingly stupid, but mostly just blinding.
3b) That doesn't mean that he wouldn't die by their sides to bask in that light.
4 - He misses his family, his studies, his girl, his aspirations. He misses Satedan food, Satedan music, Sateden culture, the way the dawn light shone off of the Ardakh Obelisk in the winter.
4b) He won't go to visit the Satedan refugees because he's ashamed that he lived when so many others -- so many who understood how far Kell would go to save his own ass -- died horribly. The circumstances of his survival are irrelevant -- better to live than to die and he lived.
4c) That doesn't mean he still doesn't wish that he could have killed Ailinthe -- it is better to live, but there is a cost beyond which he is willing to pay to do so.
5 - He is most at ease around the marines, who don't so much remind him of his old unit as they give him a glimpse of who he hopes someday to be -- a merging of the upper class Satedan he once was and the savage Runner he became. They enjoy the fight for what it is, but can harness that violence with discipline and respect. They aren't interested in the arts or fine culture and Ronon isn't sure he is either, anymore. His priorities shifted permanently once he started to Run and, despite Sheppard's encouraging him to find something to do for once the Wraith are defeated, he's not ready -- or able -- to look that far ahead and he has no interest in what was left behind.
note: Ailinthe is from Matter, Form, and Privation
The list
Caldwell
McKay
Sheppard
Ronon
1 - It's not that he doesn't know how to be civilized. It's that sometimes remembering how hurts too much. Plus, he gets a bit of a thrill freaking out the scientists, even though Sheppard said that that's not a game he should be playing too often.
1b) Once upon a time, he could read (Ancient and Modern Satedan), play an instrument, and do calligraphy because that's what people of his social class were expected to learn. He doesn't see the need for any of it in Atlantis and it's not like anything here is written in Satedan script.
1c) Doctor Weir would like him to write out his alphabet anyway.
1d) Teyla can't read or write and Ronon tries not to bring it up because he thinks of her as a sister. He lived as an animal for seven years and yet the old prejudices remain. Even though Sateda is but rubble and the Athosians are well and strong.
2 - He gets nightmares. The longer he's in Atlantis, the more often they occur. He didn't dream of the Wraith when he was a Runner, but now that he is free, they are all he sees at night.
2b) Nobody else on his team sleeps all that well, either. They don't discuss it.
2c) Being in one place too long still makes him jumpy. It's why he leaves Atlantis as often as he can.
3 - He thinks Sheppard and Weir have their hearts and heads in the right place, but the people from Earth are never going to understand in their bones what it means to be born as food for the Wraith. They are optimistic, so full of their belief in themselves and their ultimate success that it's occasionally blinding. And blindingly stupid, but mostly just blinding.
3b) That doesn't mean that he wouldn't die by their sides to bask in that light.
4 - He misses his family, his studies, his girl, his aspirations. He misses Satedan food, Satedan music, Sateden culture, the way the dawn light shone off of the Ardakh Obelisk in the winter.
4b) He won't go to visit the Satedan refugees because he's ashamed that he lived when so many others -- so many who understood how far Kell would go to save his own ass -- died horribly. The circumstances of his survival are irrelevant -- better to live than to die and he lived.
4c) That doesn't mean he still doesn't wish that he could have killed Ailinthe -- it is better to live, but there is a cost beyond which he is willing to pay to do so.
5 - He is most at ease around the marines, who don't so much remind him of his old unit as they give him a glimpse of who he hopes someday to be -- a merging of the upper class Satedan he once was and the savage Runner he became. They enjoy the fight for what it is, but can harness that violence with discipline and respect. They aren't interested in the arts or fine culture and Ronon isn't sure he is either, anymore. His priorities shifted permanently once he started to Run and, despite Sheppard's encouraging him to find something to do for once the Wraith are defeated, he's not ready -- or able -- to look that far ahead and he has no interest in what was left behind.
note: Ailinthe is from Matter, Form, and Privation