The rules of termodynamics the pegasus remix part 3 The Second Law
Title: The rules of Thermodynamics the Pegasus remix. Part 3 The second Law
Author scarlettandblue
originally written for the sga_saturday Prompt # 21 Tattoo
Pairing: John and Rodney
Rating: faily mild
Summary: Only entropy comes easy. Anton Chekhov
Disclaimer:: I don’t own them, I only wish I did. I’m doing this for fun not profit so please don’t sue me.
Further disclaimer: These stories have been written to balance out the Universe. Since Joe posted a certain picture on his Twitter page I realised that the Universe had become seriously unbalanced by The Flan’s ridiculous gorgeousness. So to restore Cosmic Balance in these stories John Sheppard feels like he’s passed his “sell by date.”
The first part of this can be found here link to The Rules of Thermodynamics, The Pegasus Remix Part 1 Zeroth
Everything goes away in the end, that was the truth whether you were in the middle of a fire fight in Afghanistan or in the middle of the Pegasus Galaxy.
But John always had trouble letting things go. From his mother, to the dog he rescued that his father said he couldn’t keep, his marriage, even though it honestly hadn’t worked, or the friends he was ordered to leave behind enemy lines. It the was any kind of way, John was gonna take it, if meant not having to say goodbye.
Lately, though John has been learning to say goodbye to some things.
Like relying on a smile and some low level flirting to get what he wanted. Whether that be the co-operation of a head-woman in the annual Tava bean negotiations, or finding a way of getting himself or Mckay out of whatever trouble they’ve stumbled into with the local Priests or Shaman without spilling any blood. John seemed to have lost his flirting Mojo.
He nearly had to say goodbye to his friendship with Teyla a couple of weeks ago, when she found out what John had mistakenly believed was going on between her and McKay.
He would be saying goodbye to forty four in another few weeks, and maybe that sucked worse than anything. John remembered his father being forty-five. And he could clearly remember his nineteen year old self thinking that he was never gonna be an old man like that.
But there it was on the horizon along with bad knees and bones that were more likely to break than to bend, and it made him a little crazy to think about it.
But he knew he wouldn’t find any sympathy, and if he was honest he didn’t deserve any, because in The Pegasus Galaxy people were dying young, people were living hard lives, on some planets people were grateful if they got to even reach middle age.
John remembered the first time they met Keras, how he had been willing to sacrifice his life a just twenty-four. He thought of all the ones before Keras who had sacrificed their lives at that age and his own little bit of mid life craziness seemed self indulgent. So he resolved to put it out of his mind and just get on with his life.
But his life just wasn’t cooperating with that plan.
The team had a run of bad missions. First they gated in to a world that had just been culled. John turned McKay right around and pushed him back through the gate with instructions to get the emergency teams into action.
Then they walked into the middle of some kind of Auto-da-fe and ended up having to run from a huge, stone-throwing crowd. They only just made it stumbling to a halt half way across the Gate room amid a shower of rocks, before the Gate Tech thought to close down the wormhole.
Then there was the mission where Rodney was forced at spear point into a cage to fight some kind of amorous six legged bush baby/kitten hybrid in a trust ritual. Fortunately McKay refused to harm a hair on it’s un-naturally cute, kittenish head, which turned out to be exactly what the ritual was designed to establish. But it left John with the uneasy feeling that if he had been chosen for the ritual instead of McKay, that bush baby/kit would have been the next day’s mystery meat in the commissary.
Then when he thought he could relax, because the team had a week of down-time from first contact missions, he had to handle some ugly fall-out from the change to The Uniform Code. Not that John hadn’t’ been expecting something.
The initial announcement that “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” had been rescinded had gone down so unbelievably well that John had been waiting for the other shoe to drop ever since. Not that his people weren’t a remarkably tolerant bunch, but even among the most enlightened there was always the opportunity for someone to forget themselves and act like a complete jerk.
But when the shit hit the fan John was very pleased to discover the original culprit was actually a one of the Political Science staff, a recent appointment to Woolsey’s team thanks to the IOC.
He still gave his people what for because instead of reporting the issue right away they had tried to handle it themselves. And that had led to an escalation that had culminated in an almighty fuck up. But John still had a moment when he felt like his heart was going to burst he was so damn proud of his people. But that was followed by a moment of utter gut wrenching terror when he realised that somewhere, during the course of chewing them out and praising them, he might, just possibly have outed himself
So the next day John was back to hiding in his room and having a mid life crisis, but now it was augmented by an I-outed-myself-to-the-marines big- gay-freak-out.
He had eaten a maple syrup/pecan power-bar and drunk an can of Mountain Dew for breakfast, his lunch had been a can of Dr Pepper, a strawberry/white chocolate power-bar and four Lindor hazelnut truffles he‘d liberated from McKay’s chocolate stash. John had been considering the nutritional value of a Kit-kat dunked in coffee granules for his dinner when the chimes on his door announced a visitor.
John though seriously about ignoring the door in favour of eating coffee granules with a chocolate wafer, but the chime was insistent and he guessed McKay was probably out there so there was no way he’d give up. John opened the door with his mind. No matter how down he was, no matter what was going on in his life to make him crazy, there was nothing cooler than being able to open a door with your mind.
“John, will you come with me?” It wasn’t McKay it was Teyla.
John thought about it for a second then said, “No.”
Teyla glared at him, her look reminded him that she had been very understanding over his mistaken belief that she had been knocked-up by McKay, but if John continued to be an ass she might reconsider.
John sighed, he was definitely having words with Ronon about the gratuitous use of that particular phrase, but Teyla, as always, had him whipped so he gave in and asked, “Okay, where are we going?”
“We are going to the Mainland.” then Teyla pressed her ear-piece and said, “We are ready Colonel Caldwell.“ The world around them dissolved in the Asgard beam of white light, only to solidify again on a beach.
The sand was pure white. The waves breaking against the shore were dark blue capped with white froth. The sun was a glowing tangerine ball, sinking towards the horizon, and the sky was the palest gold decorated with the occasional bruise coloured cloud. It was John’s favourite place on the whole of the Mainland. Further down the beach he could see Rodney and Ronon standing around a driftwood fire. There was a jumper parked higher up the beach, which meant they didn’t have to rely on Caldwell to get back.
Teyla turned to face John, placing a hand on his shoulder to hold him there, she smiled at him and said. “Dr McKay explained it to me.”
“He did?”
“Yes, it is a rite of passage for men of your culture.”
John tried to explain the obvious misunderstanding “I don’t think that’s…”
But Teyla interrupted him, “No his meaning was very clear, he explained it involved a Harley Davidson, which is some kind of individual transport device, a leather vest, the music of Trent Reznor and an eighteen year old girl-friend,” Then Teyla gave him one of her really frightening smiles before she continued, “Although that is not going to be part of your ritual, John. Dr McKay also mentioned a pony’s tail and some Viagra but I am not entirely sure how they would be part of your ritual.”
John glanced up the beach towards the fire, then back at Teyla. He swallowed and said, “None of that is..”
But Teyla interrupted him again, saying.
“I realise that many of the things Dr McKay referred to had a cultural significance that did not translate to the lives we live on Atlantis. But it reminded me that Athos had a ritual we performed when a person had reached a milestone in their life. And Ronon shared a tradition that was popular on Sateda so we would like to share them with you at this time.”
When he got to the fire, he stared at McKay. Rodney was relaxed, he wasn’t in his science uniform for once, he was even bare foot on the sand, and there was a rosy glow to his cheeks like he’d been on the beach a while, or maybe had just stood too close to the fire.
McKay smiled at John and handed him a cold dark bottle of beer.
There were things roasting in the fire, and in a while they began to eat. Tormak, the skin crispy and pleasantly charred from where they had been cooked in the ashes around the edge of the fire. Skewers of meat, crusty and dark on the outside and sweet and juicy inside. Finally skewers of fruit caramelized in the fire’s heat to be dipped in cool Ushak Cream.
After they had eaten Ronon showed John the reed mat that had been laid down near the fire along with the strange little pots and odd quill like instruments.
Teyla explained that on Athos a person would often take the mark of their Guild or Tribe, but that sometimes a person would wait until later in life and then would take the mark of their guiding force. She pulled her top off unselfconsciously and showed John the meandering line of characters that looped around the underside of the breast an up into her armpit.
John was trapped between absolute horror that Teyla was standing there in front of him without her top on, and amazement that he had never noticed the tattoo before.
“It is the first line of Torren‘s favourite lullaby.”
Then Rodney pulled the leg of his cargo pants up and showed John the strange collection of letters and numbers that spiralled around his ankle and down over his foot.
“Ronon did it for me after I nearly ascended. It‘s an equation in the new math I invented, some day I hope I’ll understand what it means. ”
Ronon lifted the hair on his neck and showed John the single line of characters that undulated across the back of his neck.
“When you took the runner device out of me and gave me a home, I asked around until I found one of the Marines who knew how to do it,”
Rodney handed John a piece of paper with a line of strange symbols and numbers on it. “It’s in three parts, Teyla, Ronon and me. If you want we can do it here, Ronon knows his stuff.”
John stared at the paper for a long time, then he looked at Ronon and asked, “Does it have to be one colour?”
Ronon shook his head
John smiled and lay down on the reed mat, he pulled his tea-shirt up and pushed his jeans down a little and said, “’Can you do it in rainbow colours?”
Author scarlettandblue
originally written for the sga_saturday Prompt # 21 Tattoo
Pairing: John and Rodney
Rating: faily mild
Summary: Only entropy comes easy. Anton Chekhov
Disclaimer:: I don’t own them, I only wish I did. I’m doing this for fun not profit so please don’t sue me.
Further disclaimer: These stories have been written to balance out the Universe. Since Joe posted a certain picture on his Twitter page I realised that the Universe had become seriously unbalanced by The Flan’s ridiculous gorgeousness. So to restore Cosmic Balance in these stories John Sheppard feels like he’s passed his “sell by date.”
The first part of this can be found here link to The Rules of Thermodynamics, The Pegasus Remix Part 1 Zeroth
Everything goes away in the end, that was the truth whether you were in the middle of a fire fight in Afghanistan or in the middle of the Pegasus Galaxy.
But John always had trouble letting things go. From his mother, to the dog he rescued that his father said he couldn’t keep, his marriage, even though it honestly hadn’t worked, or the friends he was ordered to leave behind enemy lines. It the was any kind of way, John was gonna take it, if meant not having to say goodbye.
Lately, though John has been learning to say goodbye to some things.
Like relying on a smile and some low level flirting to get what he wanted. Whether that be the co-operation of a head-woman in the annual Tava bean negotiations, or finding a way of getting himself or Mckay out of whatever trouble they’ve stumbled into with the local Priests or Shaman without spilling any blood. John seemed to have lost his flirting Mojo.
He nearly had to say goodbye to his friendship with Teyla a couple of weeks ago, when she found out what John had mistakenly believed was going on between her and McKay.
He would be saying goodbye to forty four in another few weeks, and maybe that sucked worse than anything. John remembered his father being forty-five. And he could clearly remember his nineteen year old self thinking that he was never gonna be an old man like that.
But there it was on the horizon along with bad knees and bones that were more likely to break than to bend, and it made him a little crazy to think about it.
But he knew he wouldn’t find any sympathy, and if he was honest he didn’t deserve any, because in The Pegasus Galaxy people were dying young, people were living hard lives, on some planets people were grateful if they got to even reach middle age.
John remembered the first time they met Keras, how he had been willing to sacrifice his life a just twenty-four. He thought of all the ones before Keras who had sacrificed their lives at that age and his own little bit of mid life craziness seemed self indulgent. So he resolved to put it out of his mind and just get on with his life.
But his life just wasn’t cooperating with that plan.
The team had a run of bad missions. First they gated in to a world that had just been culled. John turned McKay right around and pushed him back through the gate with instructions to get the emergency teams into action.
Then they walked into the middle of some kind of Auto-da-fe and ended up having to run from a huge, stone-throwing crowd. They only just made it stumbling to a halt half way across the Gate room amid a shower of rocks, before the Gate Tech thought to close down the wormhole.
Then there was the mission where Rodney was forced at spear point into a cage to fight some kind of amorous six legged bush baby/kitten hybrid in a trust ritual. Fortunately McKay refused to harm a hair on it’s un-naturally cute, kittenish head, which turned out to be exactly what the ritual was designed to establish. But it left John with the uneasy feeling that if he had been chosen for the ritual instead of McKay, that bush baby/kit would have been the next day’s mystery meat in the commissary.
Then when he thought he could relax, because the team had a week of down-time from first contact missions, he had to handle some ugly fall-out from the change to The Uniform Code. Not that John hadn’t’ been expecting something.
The initial announcement that “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” had been rescinded had gone down so unbelievably well that John had been waiting for the other shoe to drop ever since. Not that his people weren’t a remarkably tolerant bunch, but even among the most enlightened there was always the opportunity for someone to forget themselves and act like a complete jerk.
But when the shit hit the fan John was very pleased to discover the original culprit was actually a one of the Political Science staff, a recent appointment to Woolsey’s team thanks to the IOC.
He still gave his people what for because instead of reporting the issue right away they had tried to handle it themselves. And that had led to an escalation that had culminated in an almighty fuck up. But John still had a moment when he felt like his heart was going to burst he was so damn proud of his people. But that was followed by a moment of utter gut wrenching terror when he realised that somewhere, during the course of chewing them out and praising them, he might, just possibly have outed himself
So the next day John was back to hiding in his room and having a mid life crisis, but now it was augmented by an I-outed-myself-to-the-marines big- gay-freak-out.
He had eaten a maple syrup/pecan power-bar and drunk an can of Mountain Dew for breakfast, his lunch had been a can of Dr Pepper, a strawberry/white chocolate power-bar and four Lindor hazelnut truffles he‘d liberated from McKay’s chocolate stash. John had been considering the nutritional value of a Kit-kat dunked in coffee granules for his dinner when the chimes on his door announced a visitor.
John though seriously about ignoring the door in favour of eating coffee granules with a chocolate wafer, but the chime was insistent and he guessed McKay was probably out there so there was no way he’d give up. John opened the door with his mind. No matter how down he was, no matter what was going on in his life to make him crazy, there was nothing cooler than being able to open a door with your mind.
“John, will you come with me?” It wasn’t McKay it was Teyla.
John thought about it for a second then said, “No.”
Teyla glared at him, her look reminded him that she had been very understanding over his mistaken belief that she had been knocked-up by McKay, but if John continued to be an ass she might reconsider.
John sighed, he was definitely having words with Ronon about the gratuitous use of that particular phrase, but Teyla, as always, had him whipped so he gave in and asked, “Okay, where are we going?”
“We are going to the Mainland.” then Teyla pressed her ear-piece and said, “We are ready Colonel Caldwell.“ The world around them dissolved in the Asgard beam of white light, only to solidify again on a beach.
The sand was pure white. The waves breaking against the shore were dark blue capped with white froth. The sun was a glowing tangerine ball, sinking towards the horizon, and the sky was the palest gold decorated with the occasional bruise coloured cloud. It was John’s favourite place on the whole of the Mainland. Further down the beach he could see Rodney and Ronon standing around a driftwood fire. There was a jumper parked higher up the beach, which meant they didn’t have to rely on Caldwell to get back.
Teyla turned to face John, placing a hand on his shoulder to hold him there, she smiled at him and said. “Dr McKay explained it to me.”
“He did?”
“Yes, it is a rite of passage for men of your culture.”
John tried to explain the obvious misunderstanding “I don’t think that’s…”
But Teyla interrupted him, “No his meaning was very clear, he explained it involved a Harley Davidson, which is some kind of individual transport device, a leather vest, the music of Trent Reznor and an eighteen year old girl-friend,” Then Teyla gave him one of her really frightening smiles before she continued, “Although that is not going to be part of your ritual, John. Dr McKay also mentioned a pony’s tail and some Viagra but I am not entirely sure how they would be part of your ritual.”
John glanced up the beach towards the fire, then back at Teyla. He swallowed and said, “None of that is..”
But Teyla interrupted him again, saying.
“I realise that many of the things Dr McKay referred to had a cultural significance that did not translate to the lives we live on Atlantis. But it reminded me that Athos had a ritual we performed when a person had reached a milestone in their life. And Ronon shared a tradition that was popular on Sateda so we would like to share them with you at this time.”
When he got to the fire, he stared at McKay. Rodney was relaxed, he wasn’t in his science uniform for once, he was even bare foot on the sand, and there was a rosy glow to his cheeks like he’d been on the beach a while, or maybe had just stood too close to the fire.
McKay smiled at John and handed him a cold dark bottle of beer.
There were things roasting in the fire, and in a while they began to eat. Tormak, the skin crispy and pleasantly charred from where they had been cooked in the ashes around the edge of the fire. Skewers of meat, crusty and dark on the outside and sweet and juicy inside. Finally skewers of fruit caramelized in the fire’s heat to be dipped in cool Ushak Cream.
After they had eaten Ronon showed John the reed mat that had been laid down near the fire along with the strange little pots and odd quill like instruments.
Teyla explained that on Athos a person would often take the mark of their Guild or Tribe, but that sometimes a person would wait until later in life and then would take the mark of their guiding force. She pulled her top off unselfconsciously and showed John the meandering line of characters that looped around the underside of the breast an up into her armpit.
John was trapped between absolute horror that Teyla was standing there in front of him without her top on, and amazement that he had never noticed the tattoo before.
“It is the first line of Torren‘s favourite lullaby.”
Then Rodney pulled the leg of his cargo pants up and showed John the strange collection of letters and numbers that spiralled around his ankle and down over his foot.
“Ronon did it for me after I nearly ascended. It‘s an equation in the new math I invented, some day I hope I’ll understand what it means. ”
Ronon lifted the hair on his neck and showed John the single line of characters that undulated across the back of his neck.
“When you took the runner device out of me and gave me a home, I asked around until I found one of the Marines who knew how to do it,”
Rodney handed John a piece of paper with a line of strange symbols and numbers on it. “It’s in three parts, Teyla, Ronon and me. If you want we can do it here, Ronon knows his stuff.”
John stared at the paper for a long time, then he looked at Ronon and asked, “Does it have to be one colour?”
Ronon shook his head
John smiled and lay down on the reed mat, he pulled his tea-shirt up and pushed his jeans down a little and said, “’Can you do it in rainbow colours?”