Remember Paul Van Riper, by paradise_city

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Title: Remember Paul Van Riper
Pairing: McKay/Brown, McKay/Sheppard
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 7700
Challenge: Sickness
Summary: There's more than one battlefield on which to play a war game.



And in much the same way John made most of his important decisions -- on the fly, from the gut, and not always the best idea ever -- he made a decision about himself. And Rodney.

Comments

[panisdead.livejournal.com]

"Then I guess I'm just 77.17392% better than you are."

Heeeeee.

This was a lot of fun.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thanks! The way I see it, they're living in a floating, flying Ancient city. What's not fun about that? I dig fic that reflects the general omgwtfery of it all. :)

[spankys.livejournal.com]

This story was very sweet and well written. Go Zelenka. (Although I don't know who Paul Van Riper is...)

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thanks, glad you liked it. Zelenka was one of my favorite bits to write.

And in case you were still curious, Paul Van Riper was a military general who took part in this huge, expensive American wargame. He was essentially set up to lose, and then surprised everyone (and totally screwed everything up) when he won. I imagine it was quite the scandal at the time.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad I read this. This totally made my evening and I laughed so hard. Really nicely done. It made for a lovely break.

(And now I go back to pounding out a novel for deadline.)

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Awesome. Being able to make strangers laugh is one of the best parts of fandom. :)

Good luck with the deadline!

[mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com]

Charming and smart and funny. Thank you so much!

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading -- glad you enjoyed it. I don't think anyone's called my fic "smart" before. Sweet. :)

[elyssadc.livejournal.com]

I couldn't have loved this more. Absolutely delightful and well written and the characterizations thrilled me to no end. Just fantastic.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I was trying to challenge myself here to write believable characterizations that didn't automatically call for a suspension of disbelief, so I am thrilled that they worked for you. :)

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

Well done and interesting. I liked the McShep byplay, but I really liked the background "life on Atlantis" stuff. I liked the relationship between Sheppard and Lorne, between them and the marines. I liked the flag war and Zelenka's part in it & McKay's sudden generalship.

neat story! A sequel would be cool if you get so inspired...

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I love the everyday stuff, and while Sunday was great, I wish we got to see more of it woven into the episodes. I figure if I can't see it, I can at least write it, and I'm glad it real well for you.

And Zelenka was totally one of my favorite bits. The image of him declaring himself (in all seriousness, too) Max Payne still makes me giggle. :)

[lilac-way.livejournal.com]

This was just a lovely, lovely read. I enjoyed it very much.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it. :)

[bluebrocade.livejournal.com]

Very nice. I enjoyed this a lot.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading. Glad you liked it. :)

[in-interval.livejournal.com]

Oh what a wonderful story. So much fun and you do such a terrific job with John (and everyone else - I adored Lorne in particular). Thank you!

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thanks! John's always hard for me to pin down, so I'm glad the characterization worked for you. And Lorne, so much love! He's one of my favorites.

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

Awwww! I loved them SO MUCH in this, but I have to strangle you just a little for not taking me all the way to the payoff!--I want orgasms, dammit! (For them, if not for me!) But wow, scarily note perfect characterization.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

I'm sure John gets his man (he's just that kind of guy, y'know?), but I'll leave the porn to those who do it better.

And thanks for the comment on characterization. It's hard to write McKay/Sheppard (mostly Sheppard) that reads as believable -- a lot of fic just assumes the reader will grant the premise that two canonically straight men can and will end up together. And while that's the foundation of slash, I read a lot of fic that leaves me thinking, "Wow, that was great," but feels like it was written about a slightly different Sheppard and McKay than we see on the show. I was aiming for the believability, and while I don't know if it's really possible to achieve, good characterization is a step in the right direction.

So, a long-winded way of saying thanks. :)

[miscellanny.livejournal.com]

Really, genuinely grand. Just exactly what I needed, thanks.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Grand, she says! Fantastic. Glad you enjoyed it. :)

[ratcreature]

I like how you meshed the plot with the episodes.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm terrible with canon as a general rule, but I like to use it when I can. They don't exist in a vacuum, y'know?

Thanks for reading!

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I've wanted to see a Marine Olympics episode forever (seriously, all those manly men with time on their hands? There's so much going on we don't get to see) and when I finally got around to writing it, I was listening to Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, which has a sizable section on Van Riper. Score one for serendipity.

OMG - love!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_la_la_la/]

That was awesome! I loved Rodney's email, Daniel's fiscal year deaths, the little details re Lorne's artistic abilities, Rodney's "romantic" gift, and just _all_ the little details that made this such a wonderful fic. The wargames were great & I loved Rodney's stubbornness in forcing the conversation - the Van Riper analogy was great, & I loved that John came back w/ a different take on it.

*happy sigh* such a wonderful story!

Re: OMG - love!

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! All those little details are the ones I love to see in fic. Atlantis is such a rich universe -- there's so much going on that the show doesn't have time to cover (Can John type? Does Rodney really hack everyone's email and records? Do they talk smack in the databursts? What does Lorne do with all his paintings?), which is fantastic for fic. The little things really make a story for me, so I tend to include them. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the comment. :)

[sachenka.livejournal.com]

oh.my.you.rock.
they dont get together . . . but. abfab.
i'm glad i didn't skip this one. thanks.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading. Glad you enjoyed it. :)

[rustler.livejournal.com]

Oh! This is an utter delight. Smart, funny, and wonderfully understated. Made my evening. :-)

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I was aiming for understated, so it's nice to know I got there. Glad you enjoyed it. :)

[siegeofangels.livejournal.com]

I love the wargames (Zelenka! Awesome!) and I love the McShep, and I particularly love the way it doesn't quite end the way I thought it would. Very nice.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

My kingdom for any sort of wargames on the show. It's comedy gold waiting to happen.

Glad you enjoyed this version. :)

[nakedwesley.livejournal.com]

This is so wonderful. I was laughing throughout at your amazingly dead on characterizations. Especially Rodney and his 'Remember, no stupid ones.' and the image of Crazy!Zelenka holding his own against 6 marines. I love all the dialog to pieces. Just. Yeah. This one's a keeper (even if they don't actually get together...yet. I can use my imagination for the rest.)

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

There aren't words for how much I love crazy!Zelenka. He's just awesome. And we've already seen that he kills at chess -- I don't think this is too much of a leap. ;)

And I'm glad you enjoyed the dialogue. I don't write a whole lot of dialogue anymore, so I wasn't sure if it would work. Nice to know it did.

Thanks for reading!

[yin-again.livejournal.com]

That was delightful all the way around.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed the read. :)

[aurora]

Oh, oh, this was so cool!

And sweet and brilliant and just lovely.

(John typing in caps and with only 2 fingers will never not be funny :D)

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

I know odds are good John probably can type, but it's just too funny the other way around. And you know he's either an all caps or a no caps kind of guy and it probably drives Rodney crazy. You're right -- never not funny.

Glad you enjoyed it. :)

[dracostella.livejournal.com]

This was wonderful! I love how everything builts slowly without easy answers.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I was aiming for something a bit more realistic than an easy happy ever after, so I'm glad it worked. :)

[grey-bard.livejournal.com]

A great interesting and unconventional take on things. I love that you made Rodney not uninterested in John's offer and canonically not looking for marriage with Katie, but still not a cheater or a heartbreaker and interested in doing things right, even if it isn't as fun and glamorous. It rang very true. And I liked that you made John understand it, and both of them perfectly able to happily continue their friendship with that possible later up in the air.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

I think John and Rodney are both stand up guys, even if John plays a little dirtier than he might like to admit. But I just don't see Rodney dropping Katie because something better comes along, and I don't see John as a homewrecker. Plus, I think the in between time could be used to acclimate to the idea of a relationship with another guy. A lot of fic skips that part, or sets one or both of them up as gay, and that tends to throw me off, so I didn't want to do that here. I actually started writing this because I wanted to write Katie and do right by her, since personally, I really dig her with Rodney.

Thanks for the great comments. They're much appreciated. :)

[bitter-crimson.livejournal.com]

Yatta!! (Look at that, you made me exclaim in fake Japanese, and I haven't even watched any anime for like, three or four years. Heh.) One of my top 5 or so favorite SGA fics ever, without a doubt. First off, I love fics that teach me new things or otherwise expand my horizons - and of course, since I wasn't familiar with Paul Van Riper or the Millennium Challenge '02 I had to look them up and then flounce all over the web reading about them, and I'm quite glad I did. And then, I loved the structure of the fic: loved how well you captured the humor of the show, loved how you brought in various episodes and kept the reader grounded with other similar canon references. Last, your characters. Rodney and John were both spot-on and brilliant, but the one who really made it for me was Zelenka. Heh. Oh, Max Payne, and the kamikaze run against the marines. Honestly, so much love. Thanks for writing.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Whee! I get dancing Lex! I haven't seen him in forever.

I'm glad you found Millennium Challenge interesting. I've always wanted to see an episode with Marine Olympics (it seems like such an obvious B plot for one of those filler episodes, y'know?), and when I sat down to write it I'd just been listening to Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, which has an extensive section on MC02. It's so fascinating (if a little eerie in light of current events), and it seemed to apply, in a very non-serious way, to John and Rodney.

I'm glad the characterization sounded right, and Zelenka. Zelenka! He's one of my favorites and you just know he's hiding a thing or three up his sleeve. So much fun.

Thanks for the comments. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. :)

[bibliotech.livejournal.com]

I love how every moment between John and Rodney just rings true here--just comforable moments between two people who get each other.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

I think that's when I like them most, when they're just friends outside any crazy alien shenanigans.

Or when John's blowing shit up and Rodney's all hand-wringing wife. That's cool, too.

[krisdia.livejournal.com]

Aww! I loved how true John and Rodney rang in this, how you wove it in with the episode plots, and the fun sense of everyday life Atlantis (Lorne and Zelenka were awesome, and Rodney and John's respective war tactics were so very them *g*) But I agree that we need the sequel!

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

I'm so fascinated by the idea of everyday Atlantis. There are so many brilliant people doing so many weird things, shenanigans must abound. I wish we saw more so until then, I try to write it when I can. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

And thanks for letting me the characterization worked for you. This wasn't a standard John + Rodney = ♥ so I was a bit concerned about that. I'm glad you enjoyed the read. :)