Classification, by kitsune_tsuki
Title: Classification
Author: kitsune_tsuki
Characters: McKay, Zelenka
Rating: PG-13
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Sloth)
Spoilers: None.
Summary: Rodney has found it easier and infinitely less frustrating in life to place people in two simple groups: the willfully stupid and idiots.
It's difficult, make that impossible, to live in a place like Atlantis - a diverse population living in close quarters with one another - and not overhear things. It's impossible not to overhear things that you maybe shouldn't because that same diverse population is comprised of a truly staggering number of idiots and the willfully stupid, and the only thing they seem to enjoy more than their jobs is talk, talk, talking.
About their lives. About other people's lives. About their jobs. About the supposed food offered at meal times. About a million and one things that should and shouldn't be talked about.
When Rodney hears some of the new personnel fresh off the Daedalus discussing the military force in Atlantis, he finds himself paying less attention than usual, because genius like his can't afford distractions, and anyway, it's a waste of time and he's heard a dozen different versions of the same stories that morning already.
It's only when he hears one of them mentioning 'Colonel Sheppard and his apparent lack of intelligence and laziness, because have you seen the man?' to another that Rodney goes still, hands frozen above the keyboard of his laptop.
Looking up he sees Radek watching him, eyebrow cocked in silent inquiry and Rodney's eyes narrow in return.
No, he doesn't need Radek to interfere, because just no. And no, he is definitely not going to let people who have no idea, no idea, what life in Pegasus entails, what it costs, to run their mouths off about things they obviously don't understand.
Rodney has found it easier and infinitely less frustrating in life to place people in two simple groups: the willfully stupid and idiots.
The people that fall under the first category are irredeemable, lost causes, because they are the kind of people who won't, can't, listen. They're the kind of people that will never learn no matter how many times they are told or taught or shown. They're the kind of people who refuse to understand something because it's beyond what they believe possible, because they can't comprehend that some things are bigger than themselves and the world they inhabit.
The people that fall under the second category can be, and often are, the most brilliant people that have ever lived, and somehow, frustratingly, still insist on engaging in idiotic behavior. They're the kind of people that listen and learn and understand. They're the kind of people that commit reckless, and far too often, suicidal acts of bravery because they understand the necessity, that some things are bigger than themselves and the world they inhabit.
John Sheppard is easily the biggest idiot Rodney has ever met, and fortunately for all of them, anything but stupid.
Radek's other eyebrow joins the first and Rodney's mouth flattens into a thin line, gratified to see his own indignation, his own anger, reflected in Radek's eyes.
He mulls over his options for a moment, because while he could certainly tell these people that the military doesn't hand over multi-million dollar machines/flying deathtraps to stupid people, they wouldn't understand. They wouldn't get that the military doesn't let stupid people do a great many things, but idiots? Oh, now those they let do just about anything, up to and including getting themselves spectacularly killed in new and exciting ways all the damn time.
Radek clears his throat and Rodney frowns at him, because hello? Thinking?
Radek rolls his eyes this time and his glances at the stupid people sharing their space, breathing their air, and Rodney suddenly smiles. He is, after all, the head of the science department in Atlantis, and as such is responsible for assigning his people jobs and tasks around the city that need to be seen to.
With that in mind he turns to address the newest batch of stupid people to cross his path, smugly secure in the knowledge that the willfully stupid never last long in Pegasus, one way or another.
Author: kitsune_tsuki
Characters: McKay, Zelenka
Rating: PG-13
Challenge: Seven Deadly Sins (Sloth)
Spoilers: None.
Summary: Rodney has found it easier and infinitely less frustrating in life to place people in two simple groups: the willfully stupid and idiots.
It's difficult, make that impossible, to live in a place like Atlantis - a diverse population living in close quarters with one another - and not overhear things. It's impossible not to overhear things that you maybe shouldn't because that same diverse population is comprised of a truly staggering number of idiots and the willfully stupid, and the only thing they seem to enjoy more than their jobs is talk, talk, talking.
About their lives. About other people's lives. About their jobs. About the supposed food offered at meal times. About a million and one things that should and shouldn't be talked about.
When Rodney hears some of the new personnel fresh off the Daedalus discussing the military force in Atlantis, he finds himself paying less attention than usual, because genius like his can't afford distractions, and anyway, it's a waste of time and he's heard a dozen different versions of the same stories that morning already.
It's only when he hears one of them mentioning 'Colonel Sheppard and his apparent lack of intelligence and laziness, because have you seen the man?' to another that Rodney goes still, hands frozen above the keyboard of his laptop.
Looking up he sees Radek watching him, eyebrow cocked in silent inquiry and Rodney's eyes narrow in return.
No, he doesn't need Radek to interfere, because just no. And no, he is definitely not going to let people who have no idea, no idea, what life in Pegasus entails, what it costs, to run their mouths off about things they obviously don't understand.
Rodney has found it easier and infinitely less frustrating in life to place people in two simple groups: the willfully stupid and idiots.
The people that fall under the first category are irredeemable, lost causes, because they are the kind of people who won't, can't, listen. They're the kind of people that will never learn no matter how many times they are told or taught or shown. They're the kind of people who refuse to understand something because it's beyond what they believe possible, because they can't comprehend that some things are bigger than themselves and the world they inhabit.
The people that fall under the second category can be, and often are, the most brilliant people that have ever lived, and somehow, frustratingly, still insist on engaging in idiotic behavior. They're the kind of people that listen and learn and understand. They're the kind of people that commit reckless, and far too often, suicidal acts of bravery because they understand the necessity, that some things are bigger than themselves and the world they inhabit.
John Sheppard is easily the biggest idiot Rodney has ever met, and fortunately for all of them, anything but stupid.
Radek's other eyebrow joins the first and Rodney's mouth flattens into a thin line, gratified to see his own indignation, his own anger, reflected in Radek's eyes.
He mulls over his options for a moment, because while he could certainly tell these people that the military doesn't hand over multi-million dollar machines/flying deathtraps to stupid people, they wouldn't understand. They wouldn't get that the military doesn't let stupid people do a great many things, but idiots? Oh, now those they let do just about anything, up to and including getting themselves spectacularly killed in new and exciting ways all the damn time.
Radek clears his throat and Rodney frowns at him, because hello? Thinking?
Radek rolls his eyes this time and his glances at the stupid people sharing their space, breathing their air, and Rodney suddenly smiles. He is, after all, the head of the science department in Atlantis, and as such is responsible for assigning his people jobs and tasks around the city that need to be seen to.
With that in mind he turns to address the newest batch of stupid people to cross his path, smugly secure in the knowledge that the willfully stupid never last long in Pegasus, one way or another.