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

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

Ha; well, that's kind of hilarious, because I was going to comment "It's not just like the show; it's TOO MUCH like the show," in that the show, too, routinely denies me orgasms of the more literal kind. *g* I do think that most fanfic is written about a different McShep than the on=screen one, though I don't have a problem with that; I think there's a Platonic McShep from which all earthly forms, including the TV canon, are derived, so I'm okay with translating upward toward that ideal. That being said, I admire your project, which is to get the television McShep on the page in a way that will likely lead to a relationship; I think you did it, and that it demonstrates wonderful finesse.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

I think there's a Platonic McShep from which all earthly forms, including the TV canon, are derived, so I'm okay with translating upward toward that ideal.

Translating upward -- that's a great way of putting it, and some great fuel for meta. Thanks so much for mentioning that.

I admire your project, which is to get the television McShep on the page in a way that will likely lead to a relationship...

Those are always the fics that stay with me, the ones that lead you from A to Z so seamlessly you can't remember how you got there. And that's how it works in real life, a series of incremental changes where the sum of the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Those fics are just magic.