Fic: I Keep One With Me At All Times by Tonia Barone (PG)

[toniabarone]

Title: I Keep One With Me At All Times
Author: toniabaroneFandom: SGA (though technically the episode was SG1

Comments

[blowjobsalways]

Cute AND smutty. And Lemony Snarky! *loves ficlet*
*pouts on account of having not seen the episode*

[toniabarone]

Aw, thanks! Glad y'liked it. Aw, y'didn't? You shoulda! It was good, even if the SG1 writers watered Rodney down to make Sam look good. Basically John gave Cam a lemon to "keep Rodney in line" and Cam ACTUALLY USED IT! And Rodney SAW John give him the lemon. And you KNOW Rodney wouldn't let it lie so...

For a crossover ep, though, it was good. You should watch it. If, y'know, you don't mind seein' Rodney put down at every turn and basically emotionally abused the entire episode--even by John. It was like the cool kids came to Atlantis and John dropped the geek to hang out with them. Classic "jock ashamed of being friends with shunned geek" act. It was painful to watch.

And I'm rambling. Maybe I should just review the damn ep and get my issues out...

[fanboy_of_zeus]

I was actually watching the ep admiring how SG-1 was treating Rodney as "one of the gang" - he *does* work best under pressure, Cam was doing the same "cruel to be kind" thing that John usually does with Rodney, and Sam was respecting his opinions and listening to his advice (and mocking his fantasies of her, of course). The way I saw it, *John* was the one that was excluded because he didn't get to go on the black hole mission and he was useless in terms of helping Daniel with the database, while *Rodney* got to abandon his team and hang with the "cool kids".

Many interpretations are possible, though.

[toniabarone]

*rolls eyes* John admits that Rodney's mortally allergic to citrus then hands Cam a lemon!? No. And John was trying too hard to show up to SG1. Even if joking, talkin' 'bout shootin' Rodney? All his barbs at Rodney were just mean. And Cam WAS mean. Maybe he WAS a little teasing with the lemon, but on the bridge scenes? No. And neither was Sam, most times. They hardly ever took him seriously. They treated him EXACTLY as they did at the SGC before Atlantis. Like he was an outsider who knew diddly squant. Sam's smart and all, but she hasn't spent her ENTIRE LIFE focused on science like Rodney has. She's split it between science and military. Like it or not, Rodney's got more expertise and they didn't listen to him and it nearly cost them.

[fanboy_of_zeus]

Neither one of them would have actually let the lemon anywhere close to Rodney - it was strongly implied that that was mostly just a joke. You've got to admit, Rodney *is* easy (and fun) to wind up - that's all that was, really. The barbs at Rodney were no different than normal, and he took them in good humor. Sam seemed to have settled into some sort of easy banter along the lines of "I know you have the hots for me, don't tell me anything more detailed than that" with Rodney. And they *did* listen to them. Yeah, they ended up going ahead and blasting the Gates anyway, but it was his idea to ignore his own warning. Rodney's got more scientific background, but Sam's got more field experience - it balances out, and they were treating each other as equals.

[blowjobsalways]

eek- opinions! I'm fine as long as John is mean like he was in Inferno and not mean like he was in Aurora (ie "What- you don't trust me?" "No" Eee! Rodney's face! *cries*)

I really do loves how everyone's basically figured Rodney out :)

[fanboy_of_zeus]

Yeah - the way to be mean to Rodney is that sort of straightforward cutting honesty; he's used to the joking around and threats, even thrives on them.

[blowjobsalways]

Aw! I could just picture him thinking "I'M SO LOVED!" at the end of the day.

[fanboy_of_zeus]

If Toni's really attached to the idea of Rodney being abused and mistreated, I'm sure you could work it in as backstory - something to the effect of, when he was younger, everyone who'd stoop to hanging out with him pushed him around and teased him mercilessly, to the point that he *needs* that sort of abuse to feel included - but no, in this ep (and in the series in general) he definitely took it as a positive thing. With a bit of grumbling when he had to save the world under threat of imminent death, yes, but hell, who *wouldn't* grumble about being the only person capable of saving the universe and having to do it every week?

[blowjobsalways]

My first impression of him was that because of his ego, compliments go in one ear and out the other. Teasing however, shows you've put in some thought, and is the act of a friend. So perhaps John was doing both?

[fanboy_of_zeus]

Yeah - you can't get him to work better by appealing to his ego, because his ego could already eat entire galaxies; needling him, threatening him, occasionally insulting him, though, gets him to work better (and save the universe). And yeah, that sort of banter - not compliments, because they've been friends long enough that compliments are unecessary, just giving each other a hard time about all the little things - that showed friendship, to me, and a pretty strong one, not mean-spiritedness.

[toniabarone]

*nods* Inferno wasn't mean-mean. That was winding-up mean. But Aurora and the end of Trinity WERE mean-mean, yer right. Just like this ep had an edge to. It seemed light hearted, but if you looked closely enough, it was pretty mean spirited. John was showing off for the cool kids.

[fanboy_of_zeus]

Rodney was abandoning John for the cool kids, John was being mean and grouchy because he felt left out. That's the only way I can see genuine harshness being worked into this ep.