“HJKLFGSHD—!! How am I supposed— This is NOT -ah!— ROCKET SCIENCE!”
you’re free, but you’re trapped.
The team gradually slows to a stop while looking up at this bird — it’s almost comical. They stand there, absorbed in the sight of this poor trapped creature until Sheppard breaks the silence.
“Well that’s… ominous.”
“Should’he go check it out?” Ronon suggests, gesturing at Rodney with his chin.
Rodney, being an owl, is already bug-eyed, so he emphasises his point instead with volume and feathered gesticulating. He may or may not whack Sheppard in the face a couple times in his enthusiasm. ”…ARE YOU ACTUALLY RETARDED?! DO YOU INTENTIONALLY WANT TO IMPRISON ME IN LIMBO? HAS MY BAD HABIT OF SAVING YOUR LIVES ON A WEEKLY BASIS BECOME REDUNDANT LATELY? OH RODNEY, IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S US; WE’VE ALL BEEN DISCOMBOBULATED BY AN ANCIENT RAY BEAM, AND WITHIN OUR FLUMMOX, WE’VE DECIDED TO ENCASE YOU IN CARBONITE. WELL FUCK THAT, I’M GOING BACK TO THE JUMPER.”
With Matrix-like reflexes, Sheppard objects, “No, you’re not,” grabs him by the feet before he gets out of arms reach, and yanks Rodney out of the air, leaving him hanging upside down and cursing. ”You’re gonna use your fancy tablet and tell us how to get around this limbo field. And if that doesn’t work? We’ll use Colonel Carter’s rock test.”
Rodney snorts. He will not be reduced to throwing rocks around, thank you very much.
“…Am I dreaming?”
“Of course you’re dreaming. Moons aren’t actually a crescent like this, it’s just a shadow cast by an object partially between it and a sun. Only an idiot doesn’t know that.”
“….You’re not a very nice dream owl.”
“Gee, thanks. And you’re not my ideal dreamgirl either, so I guess we’re both disappointed.”
“…Am I really dreaming?”
“You know, I’m beginning to doubt that, the longer this goes on. …Do you remember how we got here?”
![[x]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m36k4g5W3o1qzdm3eo1_1280.png)
“I found him. Two parks over. He was chasing a labrador.”
«He had it coming! Little punk. Didn’t know his place in the food chain…»
John knew the instant he saw the tethers wrapped around Rodney’s taloned feet, there was gonna be a fight. Nobody - NOBODY - got to keep HIS scientist, and just because Rodney got turned into an owl didn’t change that.
Then, he saw the wide-eyed worry on Rodney’s feathered face.
Even more telling, Rodney didn’t make a sound.
John licked his lips, nodded, and lifted his P-90.
*~*~*
Many years later, the Tcharan people would tell the campfire boogie-man story of a Lantean man that had nearly destroyed them all just to get his winged companion back. It was a cautionary tale that taught children to think before acting; to look deeper to a person’s heart before judging them; to never, EVER interfere with a bonded pair lest they find themselves short a few limbs and possibly their head.
It is also why the owl came to symbolize love, loyalty, and protection in the Tcharan culture - and why owls never again had their freedom restricted.
“GOTCHA.”
He was halfway through dictating which crystals needed swapping, rotating, cleaning, or outright replacing when Rodney noticed Radek’s attention wasn’t on his instructions anymore. ”What?”
“Er— Rrodney, what is…?”
“Oh,” that. Rodney’d nearly forgotten the white lab mouse he’d snatched from the biologists’ lab earlier. ”A snack.”
Zelenka swallowed once, unassured. ”It’s… still alive.”
“Well, of course. I wouldn’t eat a dead mouse, that’s disgusting.”
