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A sad McShep post
MermaidMayonnaise posted this last night and it makes me so very sad. Our little fandom really has grown quiet. That makes sense, what with canon being closed and all new Stargate content about new characters. Maybe I should read the comics and post about those? They're supposed to be a continuation...
Anyway, in the link I provided, I mentioned how fun it'd be if we suggested changes to episodes and discussed what would happen. Maybe we could give that a try? It's okay if nobody's interested, but I miss connected with my McShep friends and feeling the excitement and love. It's lonely out here.
So: what do YOU think would have happened if John's mother had been alive when he went to his father's funeral?
A lot of fics have John's mother's death a point of contention between John and his father. It's possible to say that John had a falling out with his father over being gay, and/or joining the military. But we could always twist things further. John's mother lives. She forces her husband and her son to find common ground. John keeps in sporadic contact. He decides to go on the Atlantis mission because he's always been a geek at heart, daydreaming about living in Star Trek. And spacehips exist! Aliens are a thing!
Maybe he flips a coin on whether to tell his family that this particular mission is a bit more dangerous than his usual.
Maybe he doesn't send a video home in Letters From Pegasus because he's worried about how his family will react. Because saying goodbye is even more difficult when you care.
It's even more fun to think about John returning for his father's funeral with Rodney in tow. What would Mama Sheppard make of Rodney McKay? Rodney doesn't make a good first impression. It could go terrible. Or she could see right through Rodney's prickly exterior to the soft center. Maybe she's like John and finds him funny. Oh my gosh, imagine the boys on vacation and they have to split their time between Jeannie's house and John's childhood home. Rodney gleefully going through photo albums, bright eyed at the thought of embarrassing childhood stories.
Maybe when things go wrong and John desperately needs a break, he has someplace earthside to go. With John gone the whole team goes on standdown, and maybe they go with.
Maybe John gets to keep his family, all of it.
Anyway, in the link I provided, I mentioned how fun it'd be if we suggested changes to episodes and discussed what would happen. Maybe we could give that a try? It's okay if nobody's interested, but I miss connected with my McShep friends and feeling the excitement and love. It's lonely out here.
So: what do YOU think would have happened if John's mother had been alive when he went to his father's funeral?
A lot of fics have John's mother's death a point of contention between John and his father. It's possible to say that John had a falling out with his father over being gay, and/or joining the military. But we could always twist things further. John's mother lives. She forces her husband and her son to find common ground. John keeps in sporadic contact. He decides to go on the Atlantis mission because he's always been a geek at heart, daydreaming about living in Star Trek. And spacehips exist! Aliens are a thing!
Maybe he flips a coin on whether to tell his family that this particular mission is a bit more dangerous than his usual.
Maybe he doesn't send a video home in Letters From Pegasus because he's worried about how his family will react. Because saying goodbye is even more difficult when you care.
It's even more fun to think about John returning for his father's funeral with Rodney in tow. What would Mama Sheppard make of Rodney McKay? Rodney doesn't make a good first impression. It could go terrible. Or she could see right through Rodney's prickly exterior to the soft center. Maybe she's like John and finds him funny. Oh my gosh, imagine the boys on vacation and they have to split their time between Jeannie's house and John's childhood home. Rodney gleefully going through photo albums, bright eyed at the thought of embarrassing childhood stories.
Maybe when things go wrong and John desperately needs a break, he has someplace earthside to go. With John gone the whole team goes on standdown, and maybe they go with.
Maybe John gets to keep his family, all of it.
no subject
I like your ideas and esteefee's. Other things I've seen in fanfics are John's mother as an alcoholic or using pills to cope, often as the marriage to Patrick was a disaster.
There's potential for hurt/comfort fic if she wobbled into the funeral, drunk, and then made a scene. Dave would be swearing under his breath because her minder/paid companion was supposed to keep her out of sight of the guests. Maybe John tries to get her to come away even though it hurts him to be around her when she's like that. Maybe she says something hurtful to him. Eventually, Rodney gets John to leave, and takes him back to their hotel where comfort ensues.
Or...she's also a mover and shaker like Patrick, and they divorced years ago when John was a kid. Patrick made her give him custody and avoid the boys as part of the divorce settlement, which was in the millions, and which she used to set up a rival company. She turns up at Patrick's funeral and announces that she's bought Sheppard Industries and Dave now works for her. She and John quarrel about her abandoning them and putting her career first. Rodney intervenes with some well-chosen words, and later comforts John.
Or there are the fics where she's actually an Ancient!
no subject
Ooo, I do like your idea of Rodney comforting John when his mother appears, drunk, at his father's funeral. Or Rodney getting snippy with her when she shows up all in-charge and controlling. Neither of which has been done before.
John DIDN'T want to send a message to anyone. But maybe he didn't want her to worry, or thought receiving a video after he's died would be too painful.