Command Performance (G)
Remember those prompts I begged you to give me? Something actually happened! \0/ Amusingly enough, the first ficlet isn't actually from any prompt at all. But hey, it's words!
So this will be a series of 400-word ficlets. Here's the first one while I get to work on the rest of 'em.
No spoilers, any season: Sam and Jack are spectators to Teal'c and Daniel's command peformance. Pointless feel-good fluff.
Command Performance
Sam, trusting that the rapt audience of natives was too focused on Daniel and Teal'c to pay any attention to her movements, sidled over to the back of the huge instrument and carefully cracked open the lid. Jack joined her a few minutes later, watching as she raised on tiptoes in order to peer inside.
"Classic Steinway, Carter? Or are we talking Casio here?"
Sam's eyes shifted leftward to give him a fleeting glance, then returned to their focus within. To be fair, Jack thought, her penlight was clenched between her teeth, and she couldn't actually answer him anyway. He abandoned further attempts at conversation and made himself useful instead by aiming his own penlight inside. His extra inches of height allowed him the dignity of keeping both feet planted firmly on the ground and a slightly better view.
Definitely Steinway, he decided. The metal of the wires and the frame wasn't steel - that bluish sheen, as well as Sam's incredulous nod, confirmed that it was actually some kind of composite that included naquadah - but the soundboard, the taut wires, and the tiny hammers wrapped in a greenish material that came flying up to strike them looked uncannily similar to the baby grand piano he'd desecrated in his grandparents' home by banging out Chopsticks.
This one, of course, was no baby. The closest equivalent back home would probably be a concert grand. Daniel had muttered something about ninety-six keys rather than the usual eighty-eight before he started to play.
Carter gently lowered the lid and removed the penlight from her mouth. "Gorgeous sound," she breathed almost reverently.
Jack nodded, feeling a pang as he followed her gaze to look back at the other half of SG-1. The music poured out as Daniel's fingers danced furiously over the keys, but Teal'c had no trouble keeping up with him as he improvised an intricate storm of percussion on the gorgeously alien drum kit that the king and queen had offered. Turquoise and deep black animal skins vibrated beneath the carved bones that Teal'c wielded as skillfully as his staff weapon.
"I've always wanted to learn to play the violin," Sam said, her voice wistful. "One day, maybe." Then, catching his expression, "Not musical either, huh, sir?"
"I'll have you know that I play a mean triangle," Jack huffed.
He exercised colonelish discretion and pretended that he didn't see her grin.
So this will be a series of 400-word ficlets. Here's the first one while I get to work on the rest of 'em.
No spoilers, any season: Sam and Jack are spectators to Teal'c and Daniel's command peformance. Pointless feel-good fluff.
Command Performance
Sam, trusting that the rapt audience of natives was too focused on Daniel and Teal'c to pay any attention to her movements, sidled over to the back of the huge instrument and carefully cracked open the lid. Jack joined her a few minutes later, watching as she raised on tiptoes in order to peer inside.
"Classic Steinway, Carter? Or are we talking Casio here?"
Sam's eyes shifted leftward to give him a fleeting glance, then returned to their focus within. To be fair, Jack thought, her penlight was clenched between her teeth, and she couldn't actually answer him anyway. He abandoned further attempts at conversation and made himself useful instead by aiming his own penlight inside. His extra inches of height allowed him the dignity of keeping both feet planted firmly on the ground and a slightly better view.
Definitely Steinway, he decided. The metal of the wires and the frame wasn't steel - that bluish sheen, as well as Sam's incredulous nod, confirmed that it was actually some kind of composite that included naquadah - but the soundboard, the taut wires, and the tiny hammers wrapped in a greenish material that came flying up to strike them looked uncannily similar to the baby grand piano he'd desecrated in his grandparents' home by banging out Chopsticks.
This one, of course, was no baby. The closest equivalent back home would probably be a concert grand. Daniel had muttered something about ninety-six keys rather than the usual eighty-eight before he started to play.
Carter gently lowered the lid and removed the penlight from her mouth. "Gorgeous sound," she breathed almost reverently.
Jack nodded, feeling a pang as he followed her gaze to look back at the other half of SG-1. The music poured out as Daniel's fingers danced furiously over the keys, but Teal'c had no trouble keeping up with him as he improvised an intricate storm of percussion on the gorgeously alien drum kit that the king and queen had offered. Turquoise and deep black animal skins vibrated beneath the carved bones that Teal'c wielded as skillfully as his staff weapon.
"I've always wanted to learn to play the violin," Sam said, her voice wistful. "One day, maybe." Then, catching his expression, "Not musical either, huh, sir?"
"I'll have you know that I play a mean triangle," Jack huffed.
He exercised colonelish discretion and pretended that he didn't see her grin.