Five Things Responses, Version Tres

[itsallovernow]

woodface wanted

Five ways Aeryn Sun kicked Cameron Mitchell's ass

1. Despite settling into what she considers his normal sort of insanity (meaning no desperate conversations with Harvey, meaning no intention to annhialate the universe), John's never quite stopped over-reacting when someone holds a gun on him. The fact that this time, the wielder of the weapon looks like John doesn't make him any more rational. Aeryn doesn't blame him. Twins make her vaguely twitchy as well. She could hear John ranting from across the plaza, and so it's an easy decision as she gets closer.

The man sees her out of the corner of his eye, and the look of surprised shock is quite gratifying when she knocks him out. He goes down in a heap and she wonders if it's the shape of his jaw that makes him so suceptible. She squints at John, who shrugs his shoulders with a definite air of "What? S'not my fault." It's always his fault, but she's come to terms with that.

2. Crichton warns Cameron, despite seeing the wheels turn in the other man's head. "Dude, she's not human. And she does not get the concept of friendly competition."

Mitchell nods like, "Yeah, yeah, she's an alien, but she's still a girl."

Later, after they have to haul Mitchell off the makeshift field so he can wheeze his way through the rest of the pickup game on the sidelines, John goes to offer him some Gatorade and a little harrasment.

"Did you teach her how to tackle like that?" Mitchell asks, rubbing his sternum. still shocked.

"Nah," John answers, "That came naturally."

3. He knows better than to drink Tequila, but when your human doppleganger and his alien bride arrive on your doorstep, Tequila sounds like a pretty good solution.

Especially, five days later when you may have mentioned to someone, inadvertantly, that said alien bride and your alien teammate could make a fortune jello wrestling, and the alien teammate offers that up as a suggestion to the alien with the really big gun who then finds out it was your idea. (It's not like Cam couldn't have telegraphed the trajectory of that one. Jello plus money plus lots of people watching delighted Vala. It was a given that she'd want to share her potential wealth and joy).

The fact that his doppleganger now has an equal sized lump on the opposite side of his head from you suggests that at least great minds think alike.

4. She keeps her mouth very tight, very controlled at the state dinner, watching how everyone holds their fork, who they speak to, how they move. She scouts out all the exits the instant they enter the room, and she sits with her back to the wall, maneuvering somehow despite the preset seating arrangement. She answers questions briefly, but in English, and tries not to look at Crichton. The man's a little bit drunk, tightly wound, and Cam is nervous for both of them.

Cam spends most of his time watching her and answering absently to the general on his left. At one point, he thinks he may have agreed to go hunt wild boar in the California desert. He hopes he can get out of that one. Too many tarantulas.

Later, there's music in one of the rooms, chairs lined up for a formal concert and Aeryn Sun slips into the hallway.

When he finds her, she's at parade rest, looking almost at ease, feet planted solidly, shoulders back, utterly still. She's maybe the most beautiful, most alien thing Cam's seen since he saw his first alien ship, and he wants to touch her, just her wrist her cheek, something to feel how real she is.

When she sees him come round the corner her eyes spark bright, then dim and he's not sure if it's because he's himself, or because he's not Crichton. Cam doesn't know quite what to say, and she tracks him like she would an enemy, a predator.

She stands and waits and he thinks that maybe she could wait forever as long as he doesn't pose a threat, and finally, he jerks his head towards the music room.

"It's nice," he says. "They want to show you what humanity is capable of."

Aeryn Sun shrugs her shoulders like maybe she's not impressed, or maybe she's already made a decision about humanity and it's capabilities. He wants to tell her that they can be so full of grace that it'd make you cry, so full of joy and life. It's not something you articulate though, at a state dinner, wearing your dress blues and tongue tied by an alien. Not when you carry that many secrets inside of you.

"You're a soldier," she says, and it surprises him, more so when she looks him up and down, drawing some sort of indefineable conclusion.

"Yeah," he says, and feels himself reach, reaching, wanting and Crichton comes out the door. She doesn't turn towards him, continues to watch Cam and the other man's eyes get hard as his mouth gets soft and when Aeryn Sun does drop her focus, switch it to Crichton, Cam feels hot and cold and perversely jealous because Crichton's a mask once again, a cypher.

"Gotta headache," he says, "Gonna head back to the hotel." It's somewhere amorphous - a request, an order, a statement, too open-ended and Cam spots a chance.

"I'll run you back later," he says, and takes a step forward, "If you want to stay."

There's a weird sort of smile playing around Crichton's mouth and he nods like sure, fine, whatever. There are things Cam wants to say to this man, secrets he wants to tell. But they're not just his secrets. There are other things Cam wants to say to Crichton, but they have more to do with this woman in their dual periphery.

"No," Aeryn Sun says, finally, and flicks her eyes back to Cam, who flushes. "I'm ready to leave."

She follows Crichton out, her stride matching his, close enough that they should be touching, and no contact between them.

Cam watches them leave, feels hollowed out, more than unsettled, as nervous as when he heard about the wormhold above them, uncontrolled, random, unlike the Stargate, just like the two people walking away in front of him.


5. "I'll win," Aeryn says, but she sounds amused.

"It's okay," Cam says, "Teal'c pounds my ass all the time." He blushes, and Aeryn finds it a little charming. "Not like that!!" he says, and later, when she gets John to explain the vagaries of the English language to her, she laughs so hard it hurts.

He's not Crichton. She's not trying to teach him anything, at least not at first. He's relentless, like one of those terriers John had described in his list of dogs he doesn't ever want to have, which is better than the list of dogs he wants and probably won't ever have.

Fortunately, there are no domesticated animals on Atlantis, even if there are many, many humans.

The third time Mitchell pulls his punches, she hits him hard enough to break something and he goes down with a stuttering gasp and a grunt and she curses herself. John learned early not to get hit that hard, but then John had never underestimated her capacity for violence.

She kneels by Mitchell, probes the bone with her fingers, determining integrity and decides that he is, in Crichton's vernacular "one lucky son of a bitch."

Mitchell looks up at her, puts his hand over the injury. "You could have hit me harder than that, couldn't you?" he says, and there's humility there, and she's not exactly sorry. "Yes," she says, and helps him sit up.


6beforelunch wanted Five people Jack O'Neill admires.

1. He has, at times, admired each of his teammates, for their strengths and weaknesses, their moments of brilliance, and their moments of despair, and he tries to tell them sometimes, but it usually comes out wrong. He figures they know anyway.

2. Homer Simpson. Jack thinks it might be nice to do whatever the hell pops into your brain at any given moment.

3. Mohammed Ali. There's something admirable about a man doing exactly what he was made for, and doing it to the best of his abilities. Jack doesn't ever tell anyone that seeing Ali in his later years, shaky with palsy and the result of too many fights makes him teary, makes him think of his own future.

4. His son. Every day that he knew him, and all the days after, Jack was amazed to see that he just... was. That he continued to grow and thrive, until he didn't. That something Jack contributed to was capable of that much joy and that much grace. He maybe didn't realize this until after, but it's something he's held onto since.

5. That dancer on PX4591. Because he's pretty sure that humans can't do that thing with the bending and the reaching and the shimmying and the tongue. But he sure wishes they could.

kazbaby wanted Five times John wasn't saved from Scorpius.

1. Every morning of his life after the chair. That's when John learns that being saved is a relative term.

2. He never tells anyone about the realities he witnesses where his brain leaks out his ears in the chair. The one's where Scorpy flays him open on an operating table, where he digs for the knowledge with a dentist's drill. He nevers talks about them not because they're nightmares, but because they're a safe place to go, a daydream of how it could have ended better.

3. He's a lieutenant the next time he sees Aeryn Sun, when she's dragged in front of Scorpius, her fate in his hands.

Crichton only has vague memories left of his life BEFORE. But he's watched the recordings from his time in the chair, and he remembers tenderness when he sees himself with this woman. Awe. Maybe even something richer, warmer, more frightening.

She doesn't beg, for anything, until Scorpius says he's going to put a control collar back onto the Leviathan and then she promises everything she can offer. It is sadly, not much. Even the return of Crais is hardly much of a prize.

Scorpius leaves the final decision in his hands, and, remembering the recordings - the scent of her hair, the feel of her skin, her sheer presence - John orders a swift execution. He won't watch her suffer, and he holds on to her gratitude for the whole of the next cycle.

4. She does her duty to him. One clean shot, straight through the head and he dies with her name on his lips, at peace.

5. She meets him years later, and he's a shell of a man. Chiana doesn't know if it's because of the ravages of the universe or the ravages of his brain. She mentions Aeryn to him, and his eyes get vague and damp, but he says no, he doesn't want to see her. Can't.

He wakes up later in a dank room, with cool fingers on his forehead. He knows that touch, has dreamed it for so many years that he doesn't even question it.

He's not even surprised by the words. "If I were someone else, you'd be dead by now." They're clean, kind words. He relaxes into them, the same way he relaxes into her touch. "It's okay, baby" he says, "I wouldn't mind."

She puts her hand on his heart instead. "You're going to have to live with this instead," she says, and when he feels her tuck herself into the narrow bed next to him, he doesn't say that he knows that too, just keeps his eyes shut tight and holds her close.

Comments

[woodface]

I love you. Have I said that before? So very awesome. I think I like 4 best and it makes me want to snuggle him lots and lots.

And maybe give him some Vala. *coughs*

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Awww. Thank you!

[woodface]

Thank you! *had been dying for some Cameron/Aeryn fics*

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

Oh, Thea, these are all splendid!

#4 of the first set is just perfect, Cam, Aeryn and Crichton exactly in character, and all the little details ring so true: Cam's optimism about the beauty and grace humanity is capable of, the way John and Aeryn are so close but not touching, which is such a perfect marker of their relationship in season 4.

And I was surprisingly touched by the Jack set, Jack being less of a favorite character of mine, especially of late--and I know he doesn't tend to do much for you, either. But whether or not you much like him, you get him and capture him nicely here.

And the John and Scorpius set just hurts, every one. Well done!

I've missed the good ol' five things meme! (Oh, and the reunion challenges are fabulous!!! I'm definitely planning to contribute.)

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you dear. Much, much appreciated. I'm so glad the Jack one's work for people who were more enthusiastic early season fans than myself:)

And yeah for Reunion fic!! The challenge awaits:)

[pdxscaper.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, you do these 5 things fics so very well.

I absolutely love the first one: Five ways Aeryn Sun kicked Cameron Mitchell's ass, especially #4. that was brilliant.

And of course, the last one: Five times John wasn't saved from Scorpius, kills me. Oh, John. **sob**

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much dear!!!

[paian]

Great stuff!

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!!

[annakarrennina.livejournal.com]

Oh, these are beautiful. Especially love Cam, Aeryn and John in #4, and the Scorpy/ John ones are utterly stunning, and completely heartbreaking. I think #5 broke me. Gorgeous.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Thanks dear! I'm so glad you liked them.

[ch1pper.livejournal.com]

*cries*

Really, I've got tears over John.

Fabulous darling.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhhh. Thanks sweetie. Poor, poor John.

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

2. Crichton warns Cameron, despite seeing the wheels turn in the other man's head. "Dude, she's not human. And she does not get the concept of friendly competition."

Mitchell nods like, "Yeah, yeah, she's an alien, but she's still a girl."

See, I haven't read the rest of this and I already know that this is gonna leave a mark. *bows*

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Hee:) Like Aeryn isn't totally going to kick his ass at ANYTHING.

[loozy.livejournal.com]

Brilliant... Especially the first set of fives, the two characters of Cam and John meeting, with Aeryn as a common denominator... Loved it :D

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!