occured to me on the 211 bus
So what I was thinking was, you know what would really work?
Post-Quarantine fic based on Cyrano de Bergerac. It totally, totally works. I mean, Cyrano is a comédie héroïque. If that's not SGA, I don't know what is.
Cyrano = John
Roxane = Rodney
Christian = Katie
Cyrano's spectacular wit = John's geek fu
Cyrano's unattractiveness = John's y chromosome
Cyrano's above-average fighting and leadership skills = John's above-average fighting and leadership skills
Roxane's key line (paraphrased) : "I'd love you even if you were ugly" = Rodney's line "I'd want you even if you were a man"
Outline :
See, after Quarantine, Rodney suddenly decides he really, really longs for that white picket fence, and tells John so. Meanwhile, Katie starts to think maybe Rodney isn't into her because she isn't smart enough, and asks John for advice. Her biological clock has started ticking, and at this point she thinks she'd be happy just being the perfect housewife. So she doesn't mind trying to catch Rodney under false pretenses - she just wants to distract him long enough that he'll ask her to marry him again.
John thinks she is what Rodney wants, so he helps Katie out by showing her how to get his attention with well-placed sci-fi references and displays of intelligence. Then he gets a little more involved, and helps her write some emails. It works in a major way.
Katie ends up giving her email passwords to John so he can write emails in her name, because she's busy and he's better at it than she is anyway.
Then, there's a disaster of some sort, and John, Katie, and lots of people are stranded... somewhere. For a long time. John thinks he's going to die, and writes longer and longer love emails in Katie's name, which he sends despite nearly insurmountable technical difficulties and the fact that he's under siege in some far-away outpost with Katie and lots of marines. Rodney is overcome, and does something impossible to get to where John and Katie are. Then things happen, but at some point he pulls Katie aside and says :
"I can't believe that all this time, I was doing you the insult of wanting you just because you represented the possibility of stereotypical future. Please forgive me for feeling that even for a minute."
Katie is like : "wait a minute -" but Rodney just keeps going :
"The more I got to know you... For a while I loved you for both things, for being the ideal person with whom to share this future I've always wanted and for being the most perfect, funny and intellectually attractive person I've ever been privileged to know but... But now, I think, I wouldn't care, even if you said you never wanted a picket fence and a wedding and a future. I'd do anything for you".
And Katie is like : "wait, no, no, I want you to love me just because I could be a perfect housewife".
But Rodney answers : "no, don't you get it? You are... I think I'd want to be with you even if you were a man."
At which point they're interrupted by having to suddenly fight for their lives, and Katie dies. But before dying, she tells John about her conversation with Rodney, and says :
"It's not me he loves, it's you"
Except that she's killed then, in a heroic and blah blah blah something way, and John is too honourable to tarnish her memory with the story of their subterfuge.
That's the main part of the story.
Act 5 is like : time goes by, etc. etc. etc ; John hangs out with Rodney and makes him laugh so Rodney will forget the pain of losing (so he thinks) the love of his life. La la la, hanging out, bickering, etc.
Then one day... something dramatic happens (whoa, ok, this is the one big hole in my whole Cyrano concept - I can't think what would happen to provoke this). John asks to see the emails that made Rodney fall in love with Katie. He starts reading them out loud. And then Rodney drops coffee on the keyboard, and makes the screen turn off, but John keeps quoting - from memory, which is how Rodney catches on to the whole thing.
I could debate the relative merits of an "authentic" ending (i.e. main character dies), but meh, no one is going to write this anyway.
*
I wish I could write in verse.
*
The drawing on the right is from snarkyart's Snarklantis : http://snarkyart.livejournal.com/48591.html
Post-Quarantine fic based on Cyrano de Bergerac. It totally, totally works. I mean, Cyrano is a comédie héroïque. If that's not SGA, I don't know what is.
Cyrano = John
Roxane = Rodney
Christian = Katie
Cyrano's spectacular wit = John's geek fu
Cyrano's unattractiveness = John's y chromosome
Cyrano's above-average fighting and leadership skills = John's above-average fighting and leadership skills
Roxane's key line (paraphrased) : "I'd love you even if you were ugly" = Rodney's line "I'd want you even if you were a man"
Outline :
See, after Quarantine, Rodney suddenly decides he really, really longs for that white picket fence, and tells John so. Meanwhile, Katie starts to think maybe Rodney isn't into her because she isn't smart enough, and asks John for advice. Her biological clock has started ticking, and at this point she thinks she'd be happy just being the perfect housewife. So she doesn't mind trying to catch Rodney under false pretenses - she just wants to distract him long enough that he'll ask her to marry him again.
John thinks she is what Rodney wants, so he helps Katie out by showing her how to get his attention with well-placed sci-fi references and displays of intelligence. Then he gets a little more involved, and helps her write some emails. It works in a major way.
Katie ends up giving her email passwords to John so he can write emails in her name, because she's busy and he's better at it than she is anyway.
Then, there's a disaster of some sort, and John, Katie, and lots of people are stranded... somewhere. For a long time. John thinks he's going to die, and writes longer and longer love emails in Katie's name, which he sends despite nearly insurmountable technical difficulties and the fact that he's under siege in some far-away outpost with Katie and lots of marines. Rodney is overcome, and does something impossible to get to where John and Katie are. Then things happen, but at some point he pulls Katie aside and says :
"I can't believe that all this time, I was doing you the insult of wanting you just because you represented the possibility of stereotypical future. Please forgive me for feeling that even for a minute."
Katie is like : "wait a minute -" but Rodney just keeps going :
"The more I got to know you... For a while I loved you for both things, for being the ideal person with whom to share this future I've always wanted and for being the most perfect, funny and intellectually attractive person I've ever been privileged to know but... But now, I think, I wouldn't care, even if you said you never wanted a picket fence and a wedding and a future. I'd do anything for you".
And Katie is like : "wait, no, no, I want you to love me just because I could be a perfect housewife".
But Rodney answers : "no, don't you get it? You are... I think I'd want to be with you even if you were a man."
At which point they're interrupted by having to suddenly fight for their lives, and Katie dies. But before dying, she tells John about her conversation with Rodney, and says :
"It's not me he loves, it's you"
Except that she's killed then, in a heroic and blah blah blah something way, and John is too honourable to tarnish her memory with the story of their subterfuge.
That's the main part of the story.
Act 5 is like : time goes by, etc. etc. etc ; John hangs out with Rodney and makes him laugh so Rodney will forget the pain of losing (so he thinks) the love of his life. La la la, hanging out, bickering, etc.
Then one day... something dramatic happens (whoa, ok, this is the one big hole in my whole Cyrano concept - I can't think what would happen to provoke this). John asks to see the emails that made Rodney fall in love with Katie. He starts reading them out loud. And then Rodney drops coffee on the keyboard, and makes the screen turn off, but John keeps quoting - from memory, which is how Rodney catches on to the whole thing.
I could debate the relative merits of an "authentic" ending (i.e. main character dies), but meh, no one is going to write this anyway.
*
I wish I could write in verse.
*
The drawing on the right is from snarkyart's Snarklantis : http://snarkyart.livejournal.com/48591.html