SGA fic: Games of Chance

[xparrot]

Posted this (just under the wire, and I only managed that by getting about 3 hours of sleep over the last two nights, so please excuse the giddiness) for sga_flashfic's Second Verse challenge.

The basic idea behind this I had a couple months back, so I was happy to have the excuse to write it. Yet another entry in the field of X-parrot likes playing with multiverses Way Too Much - as always, I am not a quantum physicist, so you'll have to give the technobabble a pass. Thank you, Wikipedia. Also an entry in the field of X-parrot likes Rodney McKay Way Too Much...and if you know me and my favorite chars, you can guess what that means. Sorry, Rodney. Though man, I know why I've been sticking to John's POV. S'hard, trying to channel a genius. Between him and Lex I've kinda regretted not taking HS calculus...(when they were going on in school about the reasons learning math is good for you, no one ever mentioned 'One day you might find yourself ficcing arrogantly brilliant scientific geniuses.')

SGA: Games of Chance {~12,000 words}
PG-13, season 4 cast/spoilers (post-BAMSR, pre-The Kindred)
Sheppard's got one chance, and Rodney is going to find it, no matter what.

Comments

[naye]

when they were going on in school about the reasons learning math is good for you, no one ever mentioned 'One day you might find yourself ficcing arrogantly brilliant scientific geniuses.'

I know! Obviously they have no idea how to get us textual folks to do the numbers game. (Though you're way better at sounding like you know what you're talking about than I am - it's impressive, your technobabble is! It could be on the show! ^_^)

Also, I have so much love for this fic! It's infinite kinds of brilliant. ♥ (And I'm off to read it now with my very very late breakfast.)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yes...I don't like math much at all, except in the context of Rodney! (or a few other geniuses, I've often gone for this type)

Also I know that's an old icon of yours, but man is he pretty in it! Rodney should smile more~...

[stitcher2ficcer.livejournal.com]

You have outdone yourself with this story, my dear. I love it on so many levels--on the sheer fangirl level, the team love and Rodney angst and Rodney/Ronon and John/Rodney interaction are wonderfully satisfying, especially after a hard week's work when relaxation and getting lost in another world are much needed. On the writing level, this is up there with your best. The capture of Rodney's personality and the nuances of his thought processes, the pacing, the tension, the incremental revelations about what is happening, the description of Rodney's descent into confusion and hopelessness--and the blending of all of these into a perfectly choreographed action sequence--are breathtaking.

Tired as I am, I was already falling asleep when I started reading this, and I wondered at the beginning whether it wasn't making sense because it wasn't supposed to be or because I was too tired to grasp it. But by page two it had captured my attention enough to keep me awake and reading, and the building tension and slow reveal of what had happened and was happening served to keep the adrenalin that has sustained me these last few days pumping 'til I reached the very satisfying conclusion.

And finally, on the gut mother's "my daughter wrote this very fine piece of work!" level, this is yet another achievement that reaffirms my opinion that I have a quite brilliant, very talented child of whom I am rightly proud. I hope the comments you've gotten on this--filled with superlatives as they are--will help convince you that you really DO write as well as many of the writers you admire and think are better than you (when they aren't). Because whether you get the same BNF audiences or not, pieces like this---and you have many of them--demonstrate that you really are as creative and talented a writer as anyone I enjoy reading in the sci-fi/fantasy field, even if you don't believe it. Whether you are writing fic or original stories, you make your worlds and the characters in them believable; you do it with beautiful, well-crafted prose; and you bring the characters' thoughts, feelings, and interactions so alive that as readers we know and love and care for them enough to get lost in their stories and laugh and cry with them. What more can one ask of great fiction!

Kudos on a fine piece of writing, my dear!

Love you.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I'm glad you did enjoy it so! I was pretty proud of this one, for the writing style and intensity, and the complexity of the plot, even more than the character stuff. Not that the character stuff wasn't a blast. Adrenaline-pumping is definitely a great compliment!

Love you, too, and always warms me to know you're proud. ^^

P.S. to last

[stitcher2ficcer.livejournal.com]

I get a big charge out of your mourning the fact that you didn't take high school calculus. Mr. O'Malley would be pleased to hear it... although I'm not sure he'd approve of your reasoning. On the other hand, he'd probably love a character like Rodney, and he would have been happy for anything that would have provoked you to stick with math. And your distaste for math notwithstanding, I do recall the you won the annual "Outstanding Achievement in Physics" award for your graduating class. You may not have Rodney's brilliance, but clearly your competence and level of interest is enough to pull off the writing of characters like him and Lex, at least on the level of this show, and probably better than that level. It would be SO COOL to see you write a script for this show! (quietly **nudges you in that direction** if you entertain any thoughts of it at all)

Re: P.S. to last

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

...I forgot about the physics (was it really physics?) award. That was only because the best students had already won for Chem and bio and math and such!

Still, I could only apply math as I was taught it, I never really understood it the way the bro can. I should just carve his skull open and eat his brain, next time I see him...(what, doesn't human intelligence work like a flatworm's?)

Re: P.S. to last

[stitcher2ficcer.livejournal.com]

Yes, your bro really does have a comprehension of math and science beyond any of the rest of us. He might even be as competitive with Rodney as Zelenka is.