Work Text
Rodney had always been curious about people’s daemons, ever since Miral had settled. No one had understood why she was what she was, sure otters were smart, but weren’t they also sweet? Adorable, cuddly little things that held hands so they wouldn’t get separated? Rodney hadn’t understood it himself at the time, so he’d researched them and found out she was a north american river otter, not the more popular sea otter.River otters were every bit as playful, sweet and cuddly as the sea otter, but unlike the sea otter, river otters ate crocodiles. The two of them had read about it with barely contained horror and awe, his fingers clenched in her soft fur. Because they ate them alive. Bit into the back of it’s neck’s where the crocodile couldn’t get them and let the crocodile wear itself out until it was paralyzed and slowly dying of lactic acid build up. Then the otter would drag it to shore and eat it while it was still alive.After that, Rodney never took a daemon at face value again.~~~Unfortunately Rodney still had a habit of underestimating people, which was his reflex when he met Dr. Samantha Carter, it took Miral nipping at his fingers for him to remember why that was such a bad idea, and to look for her daemon while he tried to backpedal from lashing out. Had he just called her a dumb blond? While hitting on her? He was definitely screwed, and probably just digging himself a deeper grave while he tried to fix it.He usually did.Miral nipped his fingers again, possibly drawing blood this time, and Rodney took the hint to shut up before he said anything else he regretted. And there she was, glaring at him and tail lashing behind her, how in the hell had he missed that?Carter’s daemon was a lioness, a massive and very angry lioness.What did he know about lions? The females hunted, they lived in groups, they were surprisingly passive, which didn’t stop them from being unbelievably dangerous. What he didn’t know was how smart they were, he would have to check on that. Preferably before he put his foot in his mouth again.~~~Dr. Carson Beckett was the most confusing man Rodney had ever met. One minute he was a ball of energy and enthusiasm, the next he was nervous and snippy, refusing to even touch the ancient chair. And when he was in his element.. he was brilliant. Brilliant enough to leave Rodney’s head spinning. Of course that was because medicine was not his area, but the fact that he’d discovered the ATA gene told Rodney he was a genius in his field.And then there was Brighid. Brighid looked like a hybrid between an anteater and a pine cone, and after Carson caught him staring for the third time, he had informed Rodney that she was a long tailed pangolin.He’d known about the prehensile tail and the absolutely terrifying claws, he hadn’t known that she didn’t have any teeth, or that her scales were sharp enough to turn her tail into a weapon, or that she could curl up tight enough that not even a lion could hurt her.Carson Beckett helped people like it was his entire reason for living. He wasn’t just a healer with the best bedside manner Rodney had ever seen, he was also a shoulder to cry on and a listening ear. Brighid comforted the daemons whenever their people were hurt, but she spent most of her time clinging to Carson’s shoulders, whispering in his ear whenever people turned away.When they started hanging out more Brighid began to climb down Carson’s side to drop down onto the floor or the table with Miral. Pangolins were playful, he knew that from his research, and sure enough; weeks after Brighid first joining Miral on the floor, the two were playing. The style wasn’t entirely compatible, but they made it work. In private, because Rodney wasn’t sure he could handle the embarrassment of people seeing his daemon bouncing around and squeaking.Later, he’d come to take pride in the fact that he was enough of a comfort to Carson that Brighid felt she could leave his side.~~~He might have dismissed Major Sheppard as just another military flyboy - despite the whole gene thing - if it hadn’t been for his daemon. Because he had absolutely no idea what it was, but it looked like a fat raccoon and sounded like a demented fox.Thankfully he managed to keep those comments to himself, and even sounded polite when he gave in and asked Sheppard what she was. A tanuki, or ‘raccoon dog’. Which almost beat out the pangolin at the top of Rodney’s mental ‘weirdest daemons’ list.Researching them didn’t provide many answers. They were weird, hardly related to raccoons at all, raised their young together, lived in pairs or family groups, and no one seemed to know whether they were monogamous or not.Alizeh at least was sweeter than Sheppard was and put up with Miral’s bouncing and occasional nipping with good humor. But even after a solid hour of researching tanuki, Rodney felt no closer to understanding Sheppard than he had been when they first met.~~~Rodney had only known Dr. Weir for all of five seconds before he decided she was the most terrifying person he’d ever met. He’d heard the story of course, of how she’d faced down the Goa’uld and all but stated that if they wanted her help, they’d have to make her a system lord. And how she’d held them prisoner when they tried to double cross her.He knew about all that, but knowing and seeing the face of the woman and her daemon were two entirely different things.In this case, he’d already researched her daemon, he’d known a man in college with the same daemon. A gorgeous, intelligent and friendly man, but of course Rodney had put his foot in his mouth and ruined any chance of them ever getting along, within the first five seconds of meeting him.He managed not to do that with Dr. Weir, and Miral even climbed down off his shoulders to greet Quillon, and the african wild dog gingerly lowered his head to meet her.He was smaller than Rodney remembered them being, but the ears were just as over sized. Anyways, it wasn’t the size that made him intimidating, it was the eyes. That direct, predatory gaze that made it impossible for Rodney to forget that it was the african wild dog, not the lion as some people believed, that was the most successful predator in the world.And Weir’s warm smile and later, the way she fought to protect them all, reminded him of the massive families they lived in, and that it was those families which made them such efficient hunters in the first place.~~~Rodney would be lying if he said he wasn’t excited about seeing the daemons of other planets. Sure, he wasn’t a zoologist, but he’d read the SGC mission reports. Some people on alien planets had familiar, earth animals as daemons, but some had animals they’d never seen before, and some had been animals long extinct on earth. He wasn’t sure whether he was was more excited about alien daemons or prehistoric ones.Teyla had either, and at the time they met, he knew virtually nothing about ring tail lemurs other than that they lived in groups and made for very annoying animated characters.So he did what he always did, and started researching them the moment he had free time. It wasn’t as easy here as it was on earth, but he’d planned for that, and so he read up on them with Miral draped over his neck like a scarf, her nose inches from the screen.Ring tail lemurs were matriarchal, largely non-violent, extremely intelligent and bonded very closely with their group. They were however, like all monkeys, incredibly vicious when pushed.When he learned that Sheppard was pushing to make her a member of the team, Rodney was pleased, she’d be a good person to have by their side.And if Alcander and Miral ended up on a pile on the floor together more often that not, while Sheppard and Teyla sparred.. well at least Rodney was finally getting used to it. Seemed like between Carson, Sheppard and Teyla, Miral was in contact with another daemon more often than not these days.~~~Major Lorne, as soldiers went, was absolutely fascinating.In a field of canines, big cats and predatory birds, it took Rodney several minutes to spot his daemon.Because Niamh was one of the smallest daemons in the entire expedition. He knew from the second he saw her the kind of jokes Lorne had inevitably been putting up with his entire career. Which had done nothing to change his calm smile and the disturbingly intelligent glint in his eyes.Rodney had already known a bit about meerkats, of course, but he researched further anyways. They were the single most cooperative species on earth. Matriarchal and cooperative diggers, hunters and parents.Military types didn't tend to respect smaller, rodent like daemons, few people did, but Major Lorne had carved out the respect he and his daemon deserved. So despite their less than ideal first meeting, Rodney decided he could get along with the major.~~~Ronon was absolutely terrifying. The kind of terrifying that genuinely left Rodney shaking sometimes. It wasn’t just that he was big, which he was, or that he seemed angry all the time, it was also that he seemed to think Rodney and Miral were the most annoying things in the galaxy.At least people noticed when Miral stopped bouncing around and instead spent all her time on Rodney’s shoulders, as far away from that menacing beast as she could get. They just.. didn’t seem to understand why.It wasn’t like Cyrene was outright aggressive, she just growled whenever Miral got too close, or too loud, or whenever Rodney was being annoying. Which really, was pretty much all the time. So Miral stayed away, and Cyrene stopped growling so much, which meant Rodney spent less time feeling like he should be hiding in a tree.Saber tooth tigers probably couldn’t climb, right? Not even the relatively small ones who only weighed 700 pounds. Who was he kidding, she could probably climb, and if she and Ronon ever actually got sick of him he was doomed.Except they didn’t. In fact, they seemed to almost be growing.. fond? Of him? Sure it had happened before, Carson willing sought him out during free time - which Rodney still wasn’t used to - and Sheppard actually let him ramble for a few minutes before interrupting him. Teyla actually seemed interesting in what he was talking about sometimes. But Ronon? Ronon actually seemed to be starting to like listening to him.Which was weird. Really, really weird. People tolerated Rodney at best, that was how things worked. People didn’t like him. That was how things had always been, and he was beginning to wonder if this whole thing was just a really, really elaborate prank.Of course, if he mentioned that he’d probably end up in Heightmeyer’s office with her spouting words like ‘delusional’, ‘paranoia’ and his absolute favorite which seemed to get a honorable mention no matter what the problem was, ‘narcissism.’ So he was just going to keep that growing concern to himself.For now he’d play along and just wait for the other shoe to drop.~~~He’d seen Dr. Jackson and his daemon in passing while at the SGC, but he hadn’t actually met them. Which meant he had no idea what to expect when he was informed that the man was coming to Atlantis for his research.He’d heard the rumors of course, and the jokes. Dr. Jackson had died what? Five times now? And the gossip about it varied, the ones which disturbed Rodney the most was the ones that speculated on how that effected his daemon. He didn’t know what was disturbing about it, the possibility that any of the rumors were true, or the idea that Jackson had to work with people who believed them.Rodney ruled out over half the rumors the second he laid eyes on them both. Deepshika was a creature of boundless energy and enthusiasm, with a nasty penchant towards nipping Miral every time Rodney got too snippy with Daniel, which in turn made Miral nip at him, until he started making an effort towards being nicer. Or at least not as outright unpleasant.She was also, he learned, a golden jackal, which was interesting for several reasons. He wouldn’t have expected Daniel to have a predator, but the golden jackal was a cooperative hunter which mated for life and raised their young with the help of one or two of their older children. They were intelligent, social, but incredibly vicious when push came to shove.And as Rodney learned over the next few days, it fit Dr. Jackson perfectly.~~~The wraith didn’t have daemons. He’d learned that in his first encounter with them, they seemed to function just fine, but no matter how closely he looked in between bullets fired, or while they were being held on the ship, he never saw a daemon.It still made him a bit sick, even years after dealing with it, and he knew he wasn’t the only one, but they moved on. It was just that even the Goa’uld had daemons. It might have been less disturbing if they hadn’t. Anything would be better than watching the host’s daemon suddenly shift in a lurching unnatural moment while the Goa’uld’s daemon took over.But the more he interacted with Todd, the more Rodney suspected there was something more going on. He had a sense of humor. And he avoided touching Miral when they worked together without Rodney needing to mention it. Sure, the wraith interacted with humans sometimes, outside of eating them, and maybe they picked it up from their worshipers, but there was something about the way he looked at her sometimes that made Rodney think it was something more.And one day, the mystery was unraveled. When Todd, or Guide as Rodney now knew his name was, arrived at Atlantis with a small black mink looking animal on his shoulder.Her name was Mischief, and she was a member of a species which lived, hunted and raised their young in packs of three or four. They’d never met her, or any other wraith daemon before, because they could be a galaxy away from each other without straining their bond, and so daemons stayed in the safety of the hive ship. Where no humans could see them and exploit the potential weakness.Meeting Mischief gave Rodney more hope for the alliance with the wraith than anything else ever had. If Guide trusted them enough to let them meet her, maybe this would work.~~~They were all off world together, some uninhabited, temperate planet that they’d taken a liking to, but hadn’t set up any kind of base at. It was a good place to go when they wanted to get far away from the scrutiny of the IOA and the military, which was always a good idea when Guide was with them.Picnicking with a wraith, Rodney never would have thought this would become his life. But here he was. Miral was sitting underneath the perch Ronon had stabbed into the ground for Brighid, who was hanging off a branch by her tail, just out of Miral’s reach, and Mischief was on the branch above her, getting ready to pounce.Something which was made all the funnier, or perhaps sweeter, by how Carson was leaning trustingly against Guide, all but asleep in the gentle sunlight. Ronon, John and Teyla’s bickering over the pros and cons of various fighting styles had grown respectfully quieter in response, and Rodney kept his smile to himself. If there was one thing they all agreed on, it was that Carson needed more sleep.Mischief pounced and Carson barely reacted while his daemon was knocked to the ground unto Miral. They all watched the three of them wrestle for a minute, before the conversation shifted onto daemons, and the curious way they represented their people.Rodney laid back and closed his eyes, deciding to follow Carson’s lead and get some sleep while he had a chance, letting the conversation and squeaking of daemons wash over him.It was Sheppard that shook him back to awareness, barely seconds after he started to drift off.“Hey, umm.. don’t river otters, like.. eat crocodiles alive or something?”