Oh, good, I'm not late.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Live journal: icarusancalion

E-mail: icarus.ancalion -> gmail

Things I'd like: These are a few of my fav-o-rite things ... I love humor, I love snarky banter, John and Rodney acting like they're 12 over a new toy, Ancient technology (speaking of toys), discovering new things Atlantis can do, ethical conundrums in the Pegasus galaxy, action/adventure/excitement, why have so few people written X-302 dog fights?, plot-plot-plot, John indulging his love of flight, Rodney's glee over scientific discoveries. I also love genderswap, John in a dress (genderswapped or not), and Pegasus galaxy civilizations that manage to outwit the Wraith. I enjoy SG-1/SGA crossovers. And if you try to fit all of this into one story you may go mad.

Things I wouldn't like: Character death. I can go for a bittersweet ending, but sad endings, no. Multiple pairings or OT3/OT4. Hurt/comfort. I'm AU'd out for the time being. Not in the mood for PWPs of late.

What I can do: I can write John/Rodney, or Gen, I can do Gen. I can do humor, Ancient equipment, SG-1/SGA crossovers, action/adventure. Light romance. Holiday fic.

What I can't do: Het, I find Keller dull, I really don't like Kanaan, I can only do death!fic if I'm in a rotten mood, and I've been out of the mood to do PWPs or heavy NC-17 fic lately. I've been so deep into an AU for so long, I'm AU'd out unless it's very, very close to canon.

Pinch hitter?: Probably not this year.

Comments

[whizzy.livejournal.com]

why have so few people written X-302 dog fights?

A damned good question!

>_>

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

This must be remedied.

[whizzy.livejournal.com]

Already done. It's just not ready for public consumption yet. :D

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Seriously?

Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt...

[whizzy.livejournal.com]

Mitchell hadn't been kidding when he'd said he wanted to put John through his paces. John had basically run assist for Garrett; Cam put him in the first seat and made him take the stick while they were still on the tarmac.

"Sir, are you sure about this?"

"We have the go-ahead from Dreamland." That was the radio call sign for the control tower at Area 51. Pilots in particular sometimes referred to the entire base by the same name. "Take her up, major. And in the future, when someone offers to let you fly the hottest, sweetest little piece of hardware ever built by human hands... don't make them repeat themselves. They're liable to get jealous and take it back."

"Yes sir," John chuckled.

The focus of the training exercise was combat maneuvers in low and no atmosphere. John had far less experience dealing with the extremely low gravity and lack of a true horizon; he was having a harder time adjusting than the other pilots. It was a godsend, in a way. His attention was so focused mastering the new effects of pitch and roll and yaw that there wasn't room for anything else, not even inconvenient thoughts of McKay.

Just like he'd warned Cam, his air-to-air combat skills were mostly theory. In a simulated dogfight, he was given the simple directions to avoid the "bandit" on his trail. And even though he had the benefit of unpredictability -- as a chopper pilot, he inherently had a less constrained theory of how to operate three-dimensional space -- time and time again, his defense computer shrilled the warning of an active weapons target lock.

All told, Cam was extremely patient; he described the engagements in detail as they unfolded, anticipating what the "enemy" would do next and providing John with the best counter course of action.

Of course, the fact that he'd switched them to the cockpit channel meant that he didn't have to be polite about it.

"Now that right there was damned stupid!"

"What are you talking about?" John replied, slightly miffed. It had actually been one of his more successful evasions. "I saw him coming and got out of the way."

"Not you, Mendez." The way Cam snorted suggested that there were going to be words when they reviewed the computerized recreation of the dogfight back on base. "You got lucky. He should have known better and had you dead to- Tally, incoming low on our nine!"

It was strange not to be able to squeeze speed out of a dive; conversely, John forgot that his opponent wasn't going to have to pour on extra burn to avoid losing ground in a climb.

"You're never gonna shake him that way."

"Yeah, I realized that," John gritted, more concerned at the moment with recovering from the aborted drop and bringing is nose back up.

"In about eight seconds he's gonna pull out on an intersect course, and that'll be all she wrote."

Eight seconds? Shit, eight seconds wasn't enough time to do-

Well hell. Time. That was the solution. He should have been thinking in four dimensions instead of three.

John keyed the command into his flight computer. "Hang on. I'm gonna try something."

"Shep, you just engaged the hyperdrive," Cam warned, as if John could have possibly done so by accident. "You wanna tell me what you're-"

The hyperspace window opened and swallowed the fighter out of existence... and spat it out again directly on the tail of the pursuing fighter. John nailed Mendez with a target lock before the poor bastard was even aware that there was a need to watch his own ass.

"-doing?"

[Jesus, did I just see what I think I saw?] was the startled exclamation from the other ship.

John asked blandly, [What does that make the score now, six-one?]

"Okay." Mitchell blew out a breath. "See, that is exactly what I was talking about! I knew you had it in you to be a crazy son of a bitch, Shep. I just knew it."

Re: Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt...

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

I mean both you and John. That maneuver with the hyperdrive was fantastic, especially John's inner monologue. Should've been thinking in four dimensions. The man is smart.

Tag, you're it, Mendez. Ha!

So few do action well in fandom, and whizzy, you're one of the best.

Beta comment: the punctuation on "Not you, Mendez" threw me. I thought he was addressing Mendez. Took me a minute to realize you meant "Not you -- Mendez."

How I love the fact that Mitchell was chewing them out as they trained, and the fact that Sheppard isn't experienced in air-to-air combat. It comes off as so believable, and I have even more respect for Sheppard knowing that he isn't combat experienced. Way more respect.

Re: Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt...

[whizzy.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks for the beta comment! This is still sort of a semi-rough draft, and I've been neglecting it to work on a creepy Halloween thing, but I expect being able to go back to it after a break will allow a nice, fresh perspective.

It doesn't make sense to me that an Air Force helicopter pilot would be adept at air-to-air combat when it should be mostly outside the realm of his experience. So... fixed!