Reindeer Games (aka Atlantis does homecoming week) - SGA not-fic
Not-fic written in 2006, published now because the idea of Cadman's signs really needs to be shared with the world. Or so says me.
[2006 me: So my insanity quota of yesterday was filled on my drive home, when I was reminded that really, when I write Lorne/Novak, all my stories are very much high school in circs.
So, really, what if I just went whole hog? Homecoming at Atlantis.]
Like, say, one of the tribes on the Athosian's friend's list have a thing every few years where they get together with their trading partners and have a field day of sorts -- the Dunder-Mifflen Company Picnic if you will.
So there's food and dancing and frisbees for games of Ultimate, and then some sort of ball game between the Lanteans and the Athosians or the Visiting Tribe That Has Really Good Hooch. And for the week before the game, everyone's all excited except for Novak.
Lorne tries to explain it to her that it's like the Olympics. But she's all, "No, there's a big game with an oddly shaped ball and grunting men and mud, and afterward we're all expected to gather around a big bonfire and get smashed."
"Yeah, that's pretty much it."
"Sorry, Major. That's not the Olympics. That's Homecoming," the faint air of distaste in her voice.
But she goes along with it anyway, something about reliving her youth and making the best of it. Lorne keeps an eye on her the whole time, is attentive and nice, and while it's amusing the hell out of Taylor, Ruiz and everyone else in the Will They Or Won't They? pool, it's all starting to freak Novak out a little.
She'll die if a varsity letter appears on her lab table.
Besides, everyone's so damned cheery. Novak even starts to harbor a sneaking feeling that Dr Weir was formerly on the pep squad, judging by her blinding enthusiasm. Either that or one of the chemists is spiking her bran muffin.
But the week leading up to "Homecoming" is busy and fun, and everyone's getting into it. Hat day doesn't go off so well, most of the personnel already having access to one kind of head gear or another -- though a few people have fun donning those high powered head lamps to blind people "accidentally", but Twin Day is a lot of fun, and not the giant security risk that Bates had envisioned.
The week ends with the skit show and it's the highlight of the week. It's held in the jumper bay, and Sheppard only grudgingly went along with it because he "convinced" some of the trained pilots on base to join in with his tribute to Top Gun. Rodney makes noise about the latent homoeroticism of the movie, but no one else says a word, and wisely so.
The botanists get together and do a skit in an effort to mock all those that have mocking them, perhaps implying that they're really growing pot in the gardens and those really aren't carrot tops like they've been telling everyone. Meanwhile, Rodney leads the "hard" scientists in something daring and faintly Wagnerian. In an unrelated and completely random skit, Kavanagh comes out wearing a diaper. Novak watches along with everyone else in horrified fascination. She turns beet red and starts laughing hysterically, burying her face in Lorne's shoulder. Lorne's only answer is, "There's always got to be a baby at one of these things. Who better? At least there's no one in drag..." But he spoke to soon, because then the "hard" scientists that had resisted McKay's sway have their time, and well, Zelenka's in drag. And enjoying it. Mostly because it makes Rodney twitch.
And then finally, the night of the big game, and everyone gets muddy and bruised and Lorne does really well -- possibly. better than Shep, because Lorne might actually have a center of gravity, whereas Sheppard's so lithe that it's a little iffy -- and ends up getting cleaned up by Novak and there's an aw moment or two. Or maybe a pornier outcome for those with, er, more creative brains.
But Lindsey's favourite part of the game is when Cadman and her some of her buddies hold up a placards, proclaiming, in bright red letters, "HEAVY ARTILLERY DOES IT HARDER!" and "DEMOLITIONS: EXPERTS IN BLOWING UP LOTS OF THINGS!"
There is drunken revelry around a giant bonfire -- the engineers build it (Shep occupied McKay during construction), the chemists, the Athosians and their friends bring good hooch.
The next afternoon, after Lizzie starts recovering high brain function, she opens Outlook and marks the date on her calendar for next year's *cough* Homecoming.
[2006 me: So my insanity quota of yesterday was filled on my drive home, when I was reminded that really, when I write Lorne/Novak, all my stories are very much high school in circs.
So, really, what if I just went whole hog? Homecoming at Atlantis.]
Like, say, one of the tribes on the Athosian's friend's list have a thing every few years where they get together with their trading partners and have a field day of sorts -- the Dunder-Mifflen Company Picnic if you will.
So there's food and dancing and frisbees for games of Ultimate, and then some sort of ball game between the Lanteans and the Athosians or the Visiting Tribe That Has Really Good Hooch. And for the week before the game, everyone's all excited except for Novak.
Lorne tries to explain it to her that it's like the Olympics. But she's all, "No, there's a big game with an oddly shaped ball and grunting men and mud, and afterward we're all expected to gather around a big bonfire and get smashed."
"Yeah, that's pretty much it."
"Sorry, Major. That's not the Olympics. That's Homecoming," the faint air of distaste in her voice.
But she goes along with it anyway, something about reliving her youth and making the best of it. Lorne keeps an eye on her the whole time, is attentive and nice, and while it's amusing the hell out of Taylor, Ruiz and everyone else in the Will They Or Won't They? pool, it's all starting to freak Novak out a little.
She'll die if a varsity letter appears on her lab table.
Besides, everyone's so damned cheery. Novak even starts to harbor a sneaking feeling that Dr Weir was formerly on the pep squad, judging by her blinding enthusiasm. Either that or one of the chemists is spiking her bran muffin.
But the week leading up to "Homecoming" is busy and fun, and everyone's getting into it. Hat day doesn't go off so well, most of the personnel already having access to one kind of head gear or another -- though a few people have fun donning those high powered head lamps to blind people "accidentally", but Twin Day is a lot of fun, and not the giant security risk that Bates had envisioned.
The week ends with the skit show and it's the highlight of the week. It's held in the jumper bay, and Sheppard only grudgingly went along with it because he "convinced" some of the trained pilots on base to join in with his tribute to Top Gun. Rodney makes noise about the latent homoeroticism of the movie, but no one else says a word, and wisely so.
The botanists get together and do a skit in an effort to mock all those that have mocking them, perhaps implying that they're really growing pot in the gardens and those really aren't carrot tops like they've been telling everyone. Meanwhile, Rodney leads the "hard" scientists in something daring and faintly Wagnerian. In an unrelated and completely random skit, Kavanagh comes out wearing a diaper. Novak watches along with everyone else in horrified fascination. She turns beet red and starts laughing hysterically, burying her face in Lorne's shoulder. Lorne's only answer is, "There's always got to be a baby at one of these things. Who better? At least there's no one in drag..." But he spoke to soon, because then the "hard" scientists that had resisted McKay's sway have their time, and well, Zelenka's in drag. And enjoying it. Mostly because it makes Rodney twitch.
And then finally, the night of the big game, and everyone gets muddy and bruised and Lorne does really well -- possibly. better than Shep, because Lorne might actually have a center of gravity, whereas Sheppard's so lithe that it's a little iffy -- and ends up getting cleaned up by Novak and there's an aw moment or two. Or maybe a pornier outcome for those with, er, more creative brains.
But Lindsey's favourite part of the game is when Cadman and her some of her buddies hold up a placards, proclaiming, in bright red letters, "HEAVY ARTILLERY DOES IT HARDER!" and "DEMOLITIONS: EXPERTS IN BLOWING UP LOTS OF THINGS!"
There is drunken revelry around a giant bonfire -- the engineers build it (Shep occupied McKay during construction), the chemists, the Athosians and their friends bring good hooch.
The next afternoon, after Lizzie starts recovering high brain function, she opens Outlook and marks the date on her calendar for next year's *cough* Homecoming.