excerpt meme

[tielan]

When you see this, post an excerpt from as many random works-in-progress as you can find lying around. Who knows? Maybe inspiration will burst forth and do something, um, inspiration-y.

Oh, hell, no.

In my 'stargate' folder, I have 11 files. In my 'on hold' folder for Stargate, I have 115 files. Let's not even go into the 'discarded' folder. The 'merlin' folder has 21 files, and the 'on hold' folder for Merlin has 7 files.

And at least one of those files is always called [fandom] - bits and pieces, and it's my dumping-ground for any plotbunnies that nibble me, but which I don't have time to write. There can be up to twenty plot ideas in there, with a few lines written to each, and a concept but no actual substance.

So, yeah, "as many random works-in-progress as you can find lying around"? Sorry, not gonna happen.

What you will get is an excerpt from Astonishing Persistence Of Memory: Future Indefinite:

--

Sheppard and Teyla soon outpaced McKay, moving swiftly ahead. Ronon could have, too, but he stuck with his team-mate, knowing the other guy wasn't quite as fit as the rest of them.

"You okay?" He asked as they forded the river across a rocky ledge.

"Do I look it?" McKay managed to demand through his gasps as they splashed ashore. "And now I'm that much heavier thanks to the water!"

Heavier or not, he kept the run up - although Ronon figured that was more the threat of impending death than any kind of heroism.

Just as he was beginning to think he recognised the terrain, they reached a clearing that he recognised - the tree whose vivid floral blooms had caught his eye on the walk in - and nearly crashed into the back of Sheppard. The man was at Teyla's back, right behind her outstretched arm.

"What--?" Rodney broke off.

There were glittering eyes everywhere, watching from behind long tufts of grass and old, fallen tree-trunks. Ronon took one glance around at them and guessed that there were at least eight - maybe as many as a dozen.

And they were positioned, not just waiting. Crouched and ready to spring if it became necessary, but waiting. For a signal to leap? For backup? Ronon would have put a bet either way.

And in the middle of the clearing, crouched down in a feline hunch, the yellow-eyed leader stared at Teyla in a silent battle of wills.

Nothing moved but the trees and grasses, brushed by the wind, and the only human or animal sound in the place was Rodney's panting. Even the kiraet weren't doing anything - just watching from their positions, as disciplined as any Satedan troop.

Whatever these creatures had been once, they weren't just animals anymore.

They were dangerous.

Then Teyla spoke. "We shall leave. But do it slowly..." Her gaze never left the leader as that creature opened it's mouth to bare ivory teeth, then seemed to catch itself. It yowled something to the pack and Ronon flipped his weapon's setting from 'stun' to kill'.

Ahead of them - in the direction of the 'jumper - several of the pack began to slink away, as though retreating. Still, Ronon could see the way they were watching the humans and knew it wasn't anything so simple. This was a retreat under duress, nothing more. And if their leader's voice was to be heeded, they weren't happy about it.

One of them yowled at the leader, refusing to move as John stepped around Teyla, his hand on her arm. "Rodney, go."

"Uh, I'm not sure he's going to—"

The leader yipped again, sharp and imperious. And the kiraet backed away, reluctant but steady.

"Go," Teyla said. "I can hold them for only a little while..."

Ronon grabbed Rodney and half-pulled him along, his weapon out and pointing at the creatures - as though they might know what he held and to avoid what it might do to them. "Sheppard..."

"We're coming." John eased around Teyla, drawing her with him as he retreated, a gun in his hand, watching the kiraet as they shifted, but stayed obedient. It was a tense retreat, moving step by step while the pack shifted positions the better to keep an eye on the intruders, while the leader sat there, almost trembling...

Ahead of them, the arch of the 'jumper was visible over the next rise, and now that they were out of obvious sight of the creatures, Ronon pushed Rodney along ahead of him. "Move!"

"Sheppard and Teyla..."

"Are coming." And they'd better. Because no way had Ronon left Atlantis and his best shot at fighting the Wraith to lose his two closest friends to a bunch of Wraith-changed creatures.

They reached the 'jumper, Rodney unlocked the ramp and yanked it down, and Ronon shoved him up it. "Start the 'jumper."

"We're not leaving--!"

"No," he agreed. "We'll wait. But we should be ready..."

A sudden howl went up - a series of yaps, hard and sharp, and he started back towards the clearing, yelling at Rodney to start up the 'jumper. Now was no time for the other guy to start on any heroics - not when they needed out of here at a swift run and Sheppard was still in retreat with Teyla.

As he raced for the ridge, Ronon knew something had gone wrong - he didn't know what, couldn't imagine..

At the crest of the ridge, he saw John scrambling up, shoving Teyla ahead of him while simultaneously trying to shoot behind him.

The pack was coming for them, sleek and swift and too close. Ronon shot the nearest one, then lifted his muzzle and shot the next one in line. The blast was intended for a large humanoid; it would stop a Wraith in its tracks at 'stun' and Ronon had set it to kill.

But there were more of them coming - too many, too fast for him to get them all. And from the way John was holding onto Teyla, she wasn't in any fit state to be shooting.

Ronon swung to take in movement on his periphery. The form leaping out at him from the scrub got a blast in the head and when he ducked under its swipe, it sprawled in the dust beyond him, unmoving. John shot another one in the chest as he went, and it howled with dying rage.

And still they came - more than the original dozen - snapping and snarling. Ronon shot another one, then turned to make for the jumper - better to make a stand with his back covered than out in the open - and saw Teyla jerk up, her eyes blank and staring, her hands raised as though she was feeling her way through the blackest night.

Then she spoke.

"STOP."

The creatures stopped.

They scrabbled and halted and fell over where they stood. Those who'd leaped continued their trajectory but they hit the ground and sprawled as though dead. They slid to a stop and lay, unmoving, like they were Lantean robots that had just had their power cut.

Behind him, he heard John grunt and turned to find the other man panting, the Iratus hand pushing at his forehead as though trying to keep the pain back. Teyla's hand rested on his shoulder, her back perfectly straight, her expression blank and staring.

Ronon felt nothing.

He'd felt the Wraith trying to get at his mind before - the scratching sense of the males that John said was a thousand times worse when facing a Queen: like fingers wrapped around your brain, trying to squeeze your thoughts out.

"The hell?" Rodney said, gaping from the doorway of the 'jumper. Then he flinched back as Teyla turned, her expression softening as she looked at him. "Right. We're leaving now."

There were bodies on the ramp, and Ronon kicked them off as Teyla murmured something to John and began helping him up towards the 'jumper. Rodney would have to fly it - it didn't seem that John was in any fit state to fly the 'jumper.

With their backs turned to the still pack, neither of them saw the reddish-brindled one - the leader - shake herself and bare her teeth to leap, snarling.

Ronon shot her as she sank her fangs into Teyla's shoulder, tearing through skin. He heard Teyla's scream of agony, saw the big, grey male beyond her leap. He tried to get a shot lined up, but the jerk of the ramp rising unbalanced him, and Teyla was still half in the way, her back arched in agony.

John moved faster than Ronon's eye could track him. His claws raked across the creature's throat, ripping it out as his fingers closed around Teyla's arm and he dragged her to him.

The dead kiraet spun off into the dirt, and Ronon shot two more that looked like they were going to try to leap for the ramp as it lifted and the 'jumper swung up into the air.

He couldn't keep his balance, and grabbed for the wall. Rodney's version of 'flying' seemed to be 'drag the 'jumper up into the sky and hope for the best', with none of Sheppard's smooth control of the craft. Teyla and Sheppard lurched towards him, and he braced himself against the wall as they collided with him.

A moment later, he pressed himself back against the wall as John shoved them away, dragging Teyla back with him across the cargo bay.

"Mine."

The word was barely human; coming from vocal chords that were beginning to turn Iratus.

But there was almost nothing human looking out of Sheppard's face.

John was his friend; Ronon knew that. He trusted the man with his life, with his past, with his future. But that snarl hit something elemental in his senses, beyond Ronon's ability to consciously parse. Instinct brought his gun arm up and steadied the muzzle over Teyla's shoulder at the man who wasn't thinking in human right now.

"John." Teyla said, and Ronon could hear the echoes of command in her voice. "Look at me."

He nearly didn't.

Later, Ronon would remember the way the blankness drained from Sheppard's face, leaving him looking confused and very human in the moment before he saw Teyla's injury. Then he was all team leader, pushing her down to the bench seat and ordering Ronon to grab the First Aid kit from out of the compartment by his shoulder.

Ronon pulled the kit

But when he held it out, John hesistated. "Ronon..."

"Later," he said, knowing it wasn't the time to bring up what had happened. "Don't let Teyla bleed out."

"I am in no danger of that." Teyla bit out, although her voice was breathless and her jacket was rapidly staining dark with blood. John took the kit without another word, but his expression warned Ronon that this wasn't done.

"What the hell is going on back there?" Rodney yelled from the pilot's seat. "Is everyone okay?"

John looked up from where he knelt in front of Teyla, but his eyes lifted to look at Ronon, asking a question.

"We're fine," Ronon answered.

--