Growing Old Gracelessly
Mar. 27th, 2007 07:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nnySheppard's hair goes silver it seems like overnight, and it leads to any amount of teasing (although at this point, what wouldn't?) but Rodney suspects it's less about discrete dye jobs and more like some kind of release. The admission that there aren't missions like there used to be, the acceptance of the fact that 'promotion' looks suspiciously like 'desk job', the recognition that you get to a certain age and joints start bitching loudly when you're trying to flee from the spear-wielding natives. With Rodney it's more gradual and less unexpected - the slow creeping retreat of his hairline, gentle expansion of his waist, a reduction of speed in the flailing hand movements ('though the tongue stays just as quick, just as sharp.)
He supposes that he's accepting it with equanimity, which makes it kind of a shock when Sheppard's birthday present stings, a little. He takes it with good grace, though, sarcastic comments tripping off his tongue easily enough as he places the fedora dead center on his head. Sheppard reaches over to tip it to a rakish angle, carefully suppressed laughter in his eyes as the tips of his fingers ruffle through what's left of Rodney's hair.
The next year, it's a floppy hat like the Doctor's, and he takes it better this time. It's kind of fun to lull the new recruits into a false sense of security, wandering around the lab in white coat and ridiculous head gear and looking like nothing so much as an absent-minded and benevolent professor - until they screw up. Then all hell breaks loose and he relishes the fear in their eyes, looking up sometimes to catch Sheppard watching him from the doorway with some strange mutation of his usual smirk on his lips.
The third year, the replica of Magneto's helmet (and god, Magneto), he finally gets it. Finally works out what it is that Sheppard's saying. About age, and acceptance, and about the fact that they've got to a point now where they can look as ridiculous as they damned well please without anyone saying the first thing about it.
(And when the door to his quarters hisses open that night age means nothing - he feels like a teenager again.)
Next time his birthday comes around he's comfortable enough with it all just to beat John around the head with the Homer Simpson mask until they're both laughing helplessly, gracelessly, thighs pressed against each other under the table.
***
I don't know what it is about this fandom, but I totally delight in the unromantic. More than usual, I mean. No idea what prompted this, actually, but it's kind of nice to write something again, no matter how small. :D
(I so need a McShep icon.)
He supposes that he's accepting it with equanimity, which makes it kind of a shock when Sheppard's birthday present stings, a little. He takes it with good grace, though, sarcastic comments tripping off his tongue easily enough as he places the fedora dead center on his head. Sheppard reaches over to tip it to a rakish angle, carefully suppressed laughter in his eyes as the tips of his fingers ruffle through what's left of Rodney's hair.
The next year, it's a floppy hat like the Doctor's, and he takes it better this time. It's kind of fun to lull the new recruits into a false sense of security, wandering around the lab in white coat and ridiculous head gear and looking like nothing so much as an absent-minded and benevolent professor - until they screw up. Then all hell breaks loose and he relishes the fear in their eyes, looking up sometimes to catch Sheppard watching him from the doorway with some strange mutation of his usual smirk on his lips.
The third year, the replica of Magneto's helmet (and god, Magneto), he finally gets it. Finally works out what it is that Sheppard's saying. About age, and acceptance, and about the fact that they've got to a point now where they can look as ridiculous as they damned well please without anyone saying the first thing about it.
(And when the door to his quarters hisses open that night age means nothing - he feels like a teenager again.)
Next time his birthday comes around he's comfortable enough with it all just to beat John around the head with the Homer Simpson mask until they're both laughing helplessly, gracelessly, thighs pressed against each other under the table.
***
I don't know what it is about this fandom, but I totally delight in the unromantic. More than usual, I mean. No idea what prompted this, actually, but it's kind of nice to write something again, no matter how small. :D
(I so need a McShep icon.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2007-03-27 07:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-27 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-27 10:05 am (UTC)(Or, say, irritable bowel syndrome. *looks shifty*)
:D
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Date: 2007-03-27 10:06 am (UTC)Thank you kindly.
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Date: 2007-03-27 10:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-27 11:26 am (UTC)Lovely, thank you for sharing. :)
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Date: 2007-03-27 01:10 pm (UTC)Yes, I'll just keep telling myself that. And I don't really know this fandom aside from flailings I've read in various places, but awwwww. :D So adorable - and romantic, IMO. Unfortunately though, I don't know what the Doctor's floppy hat looks like. I'm getting 'hopeless' stamped on my forehead this weekend. *sigh*
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Date: 2007-03-27 01:58 pm (UTC)This is totally what I want for them.
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Date: 2007-03-27 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-27 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-27 03:39 pm (UTC)(You're one of the reasons I am faintly terrified of writing SG:A fic. :D?)
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Date: 2007-03-27 03:41 pm (UTC)my bitchwatch it.The hat (http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/m2/apr2006/5/9/000774E3-B5BB-143C-A0080C01AC1BF814.jpg).
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Date: 2007-03-27 03:42 pm (UTC)Me too, totally. They will bitch into old age together.
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Date: 2007-03-27 03:42 pm (UTC)Thank you! As is your icon. :D
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Date: 2007-03-27 04:02 pm (UTC)Batya made the icon. It fills me with great glee every time I remember I have it.
And I totally agree with the general consensus: this story is absolutely romantic, and rather more genuinely so (to me) than the flowers-and-candy sort. It reads like a real and goofy romance.
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Date: 2007-03-27 04:22 pm (UTC)So does Stargate: Atlantis.
No, seriously.
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Date: 2007-03-27 04:29 pm (UTC)(Which I am not actively resisting, but it falls under the heading of my general tendency to not watch shows without someone to watch them with, particularly since I don't have a tv just now. But really in general. TV is totally a group hobby for me.)
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Date: 2007-03-27 04:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-27 04:37 pm (UTC)I want teleportation so very, very much.
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Date: 2007-03-27 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-27 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-27 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-27 06:23 pm (UTC)Thanks so much!
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Date: 2007-03-27 06:24 pm (UTC)*licks your icon*no subject
Date: 2007-03-27 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-27 07:57 pm (UTC)That's pretty much what I was going for. Probably. :D Thank you!
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Date: 2007-03-28 03:03 am (UTC)Also, I used to watch Doctor Who as a tiny child. My parents despaired, I think. I recognize the theme song and the police box falling into the void as one of those long-repressed memories that one always assumes were lost along with one's third birthday party. How could I forget the hat?? *weepz for lost childhood*
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Date: 2007-03-28 05:37 am (UTC)Um. Thank you? *raises eyebrow*
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Date: 2007-03-28 05:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-28 05:55 am (UTC)Honestly, I don't think my fic is all that good. It's hard to be objective about one's own stuff, I guess. But yeah, I get that intimidating thing - I usually feel exactly the same. :)
Just write. If it's like that short piece above, it's good.