Kanaan and Rodney are gonna be friends

[popkin16]

For a long time - 5 years or so - I’ve wanted to write a fic where Rodney adopts a Pegasus kid who is mute. Rodney’s mother was deaf so he’s fluent in sign language, and he teaches it to the child. I was worried about inadvertently ignoring the kid’s culture or somehow doing something wrong (like making Rodney into a White Savior, or something), so I’ve put it off.

 

Then, today. I was thinking about Kanaan, and how we never see much of him. What even is his role among the Athosians? He didn’t strike me as a hunter. Does he know how to stick fight? I had this image of Rodney dismissively thinking he was probably a farmer or some such.

And then I thought: what if Rodney goes to Teyla for advice about how to adopt this kid without stepping on anyone’s toes, except she’s not home - and Kanaan is. So Rodney reluctantly agrees to wait for her, and Kanaan politely asks what Rodney is seeking Teyla for. Kanaan points out that if he teaches this child sign language, he should probably teach others too, so the kid can talk to others beside Rodney.

Later, Rodney realizes - Kanaan isn’t a farmer, he’s a teacher. He teaches the kids to read, write, and count (other people handle teaching them tracking/survival skills).

Rodney goes back to Teyla’s quarters, and she looks so surprised and pleased when Rodney says he’s there to talk to Kanaan (about how to set up lessons and effective teaching methods, etc.)

And then Rodney holds a class (with Kanaan as his patient, amused assistant).

There’s McShep shenanigans! John's very intent on learning, and then they fall into a co-parenting thing.

Comments

[danceswithgary]

Sounds lovely!

[popkin16]

Thank you :D

[squidgiepdx]

I really, really love this idea!! :)

[popkin16]

Right? It's not something I've seen done before. Really, I haven't seen anyone write Kanaan becoming friends with AR1. Should be fun :D

[runpunkrun]

I like this idea! Including the very sensible suggestion that Rodney will have to teach sign language to other people so that the kid can talk to more than just him.

[popkin16]

Rodney's gotten so caught up in adopting the kid - and all that will entail - that he hasn't thought far enough ahead. Luckily Kanaan is there to ground him a bit *grins*

(Also this means that someone can watch their kid overnight if John and Rodney need ~alone time)

[selenic76]

I love this idea so much, ♥♥♥! It's brilliant, and I always love when people show new sides of the lesser seen characters ^_^

[popkin16]

Aww, thank you bb ♥ It's not something I've seen done before, so I'm excited to give it a try. And I like it when people grow to care about Rodney~

[melagan]

Freaking awesome idea. Write it.

*puts feet up and waits*

[popkin16]

Oh, I'm going to. At some point. I still need to plot the fic beyond the bare bones I have now...

[moth2fic]

I would read this!!! Stories that involve teaching are great! I hope nobody would see any signs of white saviour/condescension in it because with aliens you have to squint hard to see analogies with earth natives and the major theme is usually how the human characters are reacting. And yes, Teyla and all her people are human but their backstory/culture is not like anything on earth. Having said that, I'm aware that some people see references to earth cultures in anything and everything - I just hope you're able to ignore that!

[popkin16]

Ahhh, thank you bb :D I'm a bit nervous about this one, not just because of the white savior analogy (I plan to make the child white too, to hopefully make it less icky?) And Kanaan and Teyla will make sure Rodney teaches the child about his culture. But I'm also nervous because I don't have a kid, so I'll have to research that, and I don't know anybody that's deaf. I want to do it all justice LOL

Everyone in this fandom is so nice, I can't see anyone yelling at me for stuff. I don't want to offend anybody - but if I do, your advice to ignore it will come in handy ;)

[moth2fic]

There are fandoms where you would immediately get people 'dogpiling' as soon as you even mentioned the idea. I don't think SGA is one of them and until recently I would have said all the sci fi fandoms would be OK but we have 'wars' in the Star Wars fandom since the new films came out. I am not in that fandom but we see the fallout on AO3!! Then we get into trouble for hosting whatever people think is unacceptable and the arguments spill over into social media.

All my main fandoms are very well behaved!! If they weren't I would probably run a mile!!

You can probably research everything you need online and you might find someone who is either deaf or teaches deaf children to help/beta. It might be worth asking on one of the comms.

[popkin16]

Oh god yeah. I'm still seeing fights in the Supernatural fandom, which is why I only read in that fandom, nothing else. SGA is quieter and kinder, so I feel more comfortable posting there.

Yeah, I will at least start all my research online. It's a REALLY good idea to go to beta comms and ask for help though!

[moth2fic]

SGA is kind and quiet now. It was not always thus!!! *g* One of my friends fell foul of the shipping police because she shipped Rodney/Zelenka... and a friend of my daughter's was hounded because of of perceived non-con abuse in a bdsm story. You can't always win...
I'm active in Pros (Professionals) and there have been upsets there but not recently, in Lewis, which is almost always a shining example of what fandom should be like, Harry Potter which is OK at the moment but had a lot of early troubles with plagiarism etc. and LotR (plus The Hobbit) which is usually fine. SPN on AO3 is usually reasonable though the writers frequently get confused about RPF and FPF tags. But anonymous readers report incest.... We have had complaints about LotR from bystanders, too - one suggesting that not only was slash unacceptable but that not making Galadriel actively disapprove of it would have Tolkien turning in his grave. Then there are the people who complain that Game of Thrones fic has rape, incest, child abuse, murder..... I read in that fandom but am not active. Observing fandom trends and wars is fun in its own way!!

[popkin16]

Oh man, I'm sorry they had to experience that stuff :( My time here has been nothing but a joy, so I'm always startled and sad when I hear other people can't say the same.

Sometimes I get curious about wank, but for the most part I just try to avoid it. I'm here to have fun, after all. Though like you said, fandom trends and wars CAN be fun...