Do I Dare Disturb the Universe by vaguely_concerned (Explicit)
Show: SGA
Rec Category: Sheppard/McKay
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay
Pairings: Sheppard/McKay
Categories: Angst, Drama, Timefic, Outside POV
Warnings: Character Death
Author on LJ:
Author's Website:
Link: Do I Dare Disturb the Universe by vaguely_concerned
Why This Must Be Read:
While exploring a forbidden region, a young girl discovers a cranky old man. As an odd friendship grows between them, his mysterious existence and secret work is slowly revealed.
While there is more than one heart-squeezing moment in this tale, it all works out in the end for our heroes.
Faith finds the cottage just as the sun is draping itself over the horizon and lending a golden tinge to the crowns of the surrounding trees.
For all the fuss that has been made about it it’s a thoroughly innocuous structure. Huddled in its little dip in the landscape it sports a freshly thatched roof and plain light-painted walls that have been spared the thrash of the north wind because of its protected position. A small boat lies dipping up and down in the ocean right below it, moored to a small pier. The salty smell of sea is fresh and sweet in her nose, and there’s an apple tree stubbornly clawing at its soil, flowers blooming pink-white.
A clothesline is strung between the apple tree and the cottage. A pair of undergarments are still hanging off it, probably forgotten last night and now damp again from dew.
Nothing looks even remotely haunted. At least she can’t remember a single ghost story that had involved underpants. She squints down at the whole picture from her hiding place behind a rocky overhang. This was... not what she’d expected.
There is a rustling in the underbrush behind her and she jumps, barely containing a yelp of surprise as something shoots past her leg in a flurry of fur and paws. As abruptly as the thing had come barreling out it stops, coalescing from a blur of speed into... a cat. A slightly chubby tabby cat with white markings.
It glares reproachfully up at her in the way of cats everywhere, as if astounded at the abject rudeness of any being occupying space where they weren’t supposed to. Faith returns the glare as her pulse settles back down again. She can practically hear her grandfather’s voice in her head berating her for letting herself be taken by surprise like that. There could be much worse than this sorry excuse of a fleabag rat catcher in these woods.
She clenches her teeth and shoos at the cat quietly, waving her hands at it. As if to prove a point the cat sits down. If it had had eyebrows it would be raising them sardonically. Its tail flops lazily back and forth on the forest floor.
Be like that, Faith thinks, peering back down at the little cottage. It continues to look wholly innocent.
Figures. For as long as Faith can remember these parts of the woods have been forbidden by Queen Harmony’s decree. Now that she knows that there’s nothing out here except this harmless building, she’s forced to consider that the queen’s reasons had always been a bit on the vague side. Nobody was allowed to go there because was the Beast’s hunting ground, and it doesn’t mind the taste of human flesh from time to time. (It was especially partial to small children, because they were fresh and tender.) Nobody was allowed East of the hunting post on the border of Tanglewood and Rockwell - because it was haunted by the ghosts of evil witches, or because the ground was soaked with poison when the Wraith attacked somewhere in the distant past; because at night the ocean yielded its scale-covered monsters and slimy sea worms.
The anger bubbles back up Faith’s throat because she’d believed it. She’d sat with all the other children, wide-eyed in horrified fascination as the queen spoke. She’d never even noticed that the reason was never the same twice, or that the queen would be conveniently hazy on the details - just enough to ensure it sounded ominous, yet not enough to actually say anything ever.
It had all been just bullshit. Everything was.
She jumps for the second time in ten minutes when the cat, having changed its assessment of her from ‘Personal Insult’ to ‘Possible Source of Stomach Rubs’, headbutts her arm insistently until she scratches behind its ears.
“Dumb animal,” she mumbles, petting its head and getting a chorus of purrs. Its fur is soft and warm and surprisingly clean for being so long. It looks like it’s been cared for.
Down by the water the cottage door bangs open. The cat perks up noticeably.
There are various clanging and crashing noises from down there, a muffled shout that sounds like a swear word, and then a figure steps out of the doorway, ineffectively kicking off a coil of rope that has wound itself around his foot. The figure moves a little stiffly, like her grandfather does on cold mornings.
After realizing that the current method isn’t working out so well he leans heavily on the door frame and uncoils the rope by hand. Then he nearly overbalances, only catching himself before he faceplants into the door.
The scary aspect of this place is diminishing by the minute.
The man kicks the rope back in over the doorstep absently and briefly ducks back inside. When he comes out again he’s holding two metal bowls. A new sound breaks the morning silence.
“Archimedes!” the man’s voice calls. It sounds cracked and raw, like it hasn’t been used for a while. “Archimedes, breakfast time!” Like a shot the cat disappears from under Faith’s hand and barrels down the rocky crag towards the man with the bowls. When it reaches him it claws at his legs until he crouches down and scoops it up, letting it sink its claws into his shoulder as he fills the bowls from two different buckets standing close to the cottage wall.
Yup, that’s... decidedly disappointing. Why would the queen go to all that trouble just to hide an old man and his cat?
Rec Category: Sheppard/McKay
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay
Pairings: Sheppard/McKay
Categories: Angst, Drama, Timefic, Outside POV
Warnings: Character Death
Author on LJ:
Author's Website:
Link: Do I Dare Disturb the Universe by vaguely_concerned
Why This Must Be Read:
While exploring a forbidden region, a young girl discovers a cranky old man. As an odd friendship grows between them, his mysterious existence and secret work is slowly revealed.
While there is more than one heart-squeezing moment in this tale, it all works out in the end for our heroes.
Faith finds the cottage just as the sun is draping itself over the horizon and lending a golden tinge to the crowns of the surrounding trees.
For all the fuss that has been made about it it’s a thoroughly innocuous structure. Huddled in its little dip in the landscape it sports a freshly thatched roof and plain light-painted walls that have been spared the thrash of the north wind because of its protected position. A small boat lies dipping up and down in the ocean right below it, moored to a small pier. The salty smell of sea is fresh and sweet in her nose, and there’s an apple tree stubbornly clawing at its soil, flowers blooming pink-white.
A clothesline is strung between the apple tree and the cottage. A pair of undergarments are still hanging off it, probably forgotten last night and now damp again from dew.
Nothing looks even remotely haunted. At least she can’t remember a single ghost story that had involved underpants. She squints down at the whole picture from her hiding place behind a rocky overhang. This was... not what she’d expected.
There is a rustling in the underbrush behind her and she jumps, barely containing a yelp of surprise as something shoots past her leg in a flurry of fur and paws. As abruptly as the thing had come barreling out it stops, coalescing from a blur of speed into... a cat. A slightly chubby tabby cat with white markings.
It glares reproachfully up at her in the way of cats everywhere, as if astounded at the abject rudeness of any being occupying space where they weren’t supposed to. Faith returns the glare as her pulse settles back down again. She can practically hear her grandfather’s voice in her head berating her for letting herself be taken by surprise like that. There could be much worse than this sorry excuse of a fleabag rat catcher in these woods.
She clenches her teeth and shoos at the cat quietly, waving her hands at it. As if to prove a point the cat sits down. If it had had eyebrows it would be raising them sardonically. Its tail flops lazily back and forth on the forest floor.
Be like that, Faith thinks, peering back down at the little cottage. It continues to look wholly innocent.
Figures. For as long as Faith can remember these parts of the woods have been forbidden by Queen Harmony’s decree. Now that she knows that there’s nothing out here except this harmless building, she’s forced to consider that the queen’s reasons had always been a bit on the vague side. Nobody was allowed to go there because was the Beast’s hunting ground, and it doesn’t mind the taste of human flesh from time to time. (It was especially partial to small children, because they were fresh and tender.) Nobody was allowed East of the hunting post on the border of Tanglewood and Rockwell - because it was haunted by the ghosts of evil witches, or because the ground was soaked with poison when the Wraith attacked somewhere in the distant past; because at night the ocean yielded its scale-covered monsters and slimy sea worms.
The anger bubbles back up Faith’s throat because she’d believed it. She’d sat with all the other children, wide-eyed in horrified fascination as the queen spoke. She’d never even noticed that the reason was never the same twice, or that the queen would be conveniently hazy on the details - just enough to ensure it sounded ominous, yet not enough to actually say anything ever.
It had all been just bullshit. Everything was.
She jumps for the second time in ten minutes when the cat, having changed its assessment of her from ‘Personal Insult’ to ‘Possible Source of Stomach Rubs’, headbutts her arm insistently until she scratches behind its ears.
“Dumb animal,” she mumbles, petting its head and getting a chorus of purrs. Its fur is soft and warm and surprisingly clean for being so long. It looks like it’s been cared for.
Down by the water the cottage door bangs open. The cat perks up noticeably.
There are various clanging and crashing noises from down there, a muffled shout that sounds like a swear word, and then a figure steps out of the doorway, ineffectively kicking off a coil of rope that has wound itself around his foot. The figure moves a little stiffly, like her grandfather does on cold mornings.
After realizing that the current method isn’t working out so well he leans heavily on the door frame and uncoils the rope by hand. Then he nearly overbalances, only catching himself before he faceplants into the door.
The scary aspect of this place is diminishing by the minute.
The man kicks the rope back in over the doorstep absently and briefly ducks back inside. When he comes out again he’s holding two metal bowls. A new sound breaks the morning silence.
“Archimedes!” the man’s voice calls. It sounds cracked and raw, like it hasn’t been used for a while. “Archimedes, breakfast time!” Like a shot the cat disappears from under Faith’s hand and barrels down the rocky crag towards the man with the bowls. When it reaches him it claws at his legs until he crouches down and scoops it up, letting it sink its claws into his shoulder as he fills the bowls from two different buckets standing close to the cottage wall.
Yup, that’s... decidedly disappointing. Why would the queen go to all that trouble just to hide an old man and his cat?