SGA fic: Breaking Up in Three Easy Clichés (+ challenge)

[xparrot]

Firstly - McShep HappyFic Challenge! I've been waiting for something like this to pop up, since we all need it now. Since I not-so-secretly love unmitigated and absurdly happy endings even more than I love angst, I am all over this one (...whether or not I'll be able to write something for it is another matter, but we'll see...) It's very open-ended, so go! Sign up! Be happy!


Then, changing gears so fast that I apologize for the whiplash, a new fic:

This is...okay, I don't like the McKay/Keller pairing. My reasons range from my fairly levelheaded disinterest in seeing any romance in the show, to the increasingly emotional and irrational. But I don't want to take out that dislike on Keller, not when we have so little show left to enjoy; I don't especially like the char as she's been written anyway, but I'm trying. So really, this is less an actual fic and more me working to come to terms with the pairing, such as it is. Such as I see it, so I can move on and see Jennifer in her own right. Any McKeller OTPers will probably want to give this one a pass, for your own good.

(And next I will return you to your regularly scheduled Rodney/TEAM/McShep squee, before gnine has my head for straying!)

SGA: Breaking Up in Three Easy Clichés {~3,300 words}
PG, McKay/Keller, spoilers for "The Last Man" and "The Shrine"

Read it on AO3

Comments

[propinquitine.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks for this. I almost didn't read it, since I pretty vehemently dislike the McKay/Keller pairing, but between the title and the author, I decided to give it a shot, and boy am I glad I did! I think you articulate all of the (exceedingly rational) reasons why this pairing grates, and I really liked how you wove in so many standard break-up lines, but used them to develop the characterizations and achieve a pretty non-standard break-up.

I like your Keller, and that's a nice change of pace from recently on the show. Even though the line about her not minding it if his genius faded made me gasp in horror, I still felt sympathy for her, and found myself rooting for both of them to find some kind of happy (separate) ending. (And I loved that part of her calculus for whether to go to dinner was that she'd been missing her "Torren time". &hearts ) In short: this was great, and helped me get a better handle on how to regain some of my Keller love! Thanks!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you liked it - I really dislike the McKeller pairing myself, so I entirely understand your reluctance to read it, thanks for giving it a shot anyway! It's good to know I'm not alone in thinking like this about them (...aside from really not wanting to see romance in the show, and also of course my OTP leanings, I just don't think Keller & McKay are very good for each other, at least from what we've seen of them so far...)

And glad, too, that I could help redeem Keller - I want to like the char, and I mostly don't, and that annoys me, so this was therapy for that as much as anything else.