Signs, signs, everywhere a sign...
Jun. 14th, 2007 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eliyesLooks like this will be my first SGA fic instead of the one I've been working on. When the muse bites, disinfect the area thoroughly the writer must heed.
title: Do This, Don't Do That, Don't You Read the Sign?
prompt: bio-hazard stickers, this week's challenge from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
windles_orbit
rating: friendly little G
John held back a sigh as Elisabeth distribute boxes of safety labels and black ring binders with their guidelines to the various department heads. Really, he knew he should be pleased that they'd finally gotten a shipment of the labels to replace the ones they'd used up, oh, almost immediately upon arrival. The Pegasus Galaxy as a whole could probably use a big "DANGER!" sticker on it. And he knew that the familiar signs would make Atlantis feel a little more like home to it's Terran residents, and that any way to give people a bit more of a feeling that they were in control in this particularly crazy life was a good thing.
But he was going to miss Rodney's signs. He liked them. He thought they kinda gave Atlantis character, and it amused him to see rectangles of cardboard (or whatever Rodney had gotten his hands on) with Rodney's no-nonsense handwriting writ large in marker, insulting the intelligence of anyone who would dare ignore the danger. Each one was unique. They were kind of funny, even if they were also pretty accurate. There was nothing like having a blunt "This will kill you, DO NOT TOUCH" with four slanty exclamation marks to drive home the point. Bright stickers just weren't the same.
But, it was an international expedition, and while most of the people there were pretty fluent with English, Elisabeth was pretty firm on the idea that recognising a symbol would go a lot faster than trying to mentally translate something if you were in a hurry, or a panic. He knew she was right. (Although for all they knew, the Ancients had already marked everything here and they just hadn't learned to recognise it yet.)
When the meeting was over, John hung around to update Elisabeth on the plans he and Teyla had made for teaching these symbols to her people, in case they were in the city during an emergency. Given the rate of emergencies around here, it seemed pretty likely. Everyone but the usual crew for that area was gone by the time he'd finished outlining the plan, and touching on a few other things they had to talk about, and agreeing to the timing of the next meeting.
Walking down a corridor towards the mess, he spotted something bright orange lying on the ground. He stopped and picked it up, smiling at the three-fold bio-hazard symbol. One of the medical crew must have dropped it. He continued down the hall, tapping it idly against his palm. He could take it to the medical labs.
Then again, it would make a pretty cool decoration for a skateboard. Not that he had one with him, but he could maybe build one if he got bored.
He grinned suddenly, and detoured, a plan in mind.
Two hours later, one of the marines on KP duty went hunting for an ingredient in the walk-in storage pantry, and stopped, confused by the bio-hazard sticker on a box of what should be edibles. He opened his mouth to call the mess sergeant, and then noticed a scribble of writing next to it on the box.
Do not feed contents of box to Dr. McKay. We don't like it when he's cranky from allergic reactions. It was followed by an eccentric scribble that could have been a flower, or a butterfly, or maybe "JS". The marine checked the label on the box and snorted, then grabbed what he'd come for and went out to tell the rest of the night's kitchen crew that they had orders from the Major not to feed McKay any Tang.
title: Do This, Don't Do That, Don't You Read the Sign?
prompt: bio-hazard stickers, this week's challenge from
windles_orbitrating: friendly little G
John held back a sigh as Elisabeth distribute boxes of safety labels and black ring binders with their guidelines to the various department heads. Really, he knew he should be pleased that they'd finally gotten a shipment of the labels to replace the ones they'd used up, oh, almost immediately upon arrival. The Pegasus Galaxy as a whole could probably use a big "DANGER!" sticker on it. And he knew that the familiar signs would make Atlantis feel a little more like home to it's Terran residents, and that any way to give people a bit more of a feeling that they were in control in this particularly crazy life was a good thing.
But he was going to miss Rodney's signs. He liked them. He thought they kinda gave Atlantis character, and it amused him to see rectangles of cardboard (or whatever Rodney had gotten his hands on) with Rodney's no-nonsense handwriting writ large in marker, insulting the intelligence of anyone who would dare ignore the danger. Each one was unique. They were kind of funny, even if they were also pretty accurate. There was nothing like having a blunt "This will kill you, DO NOT TOUCH" with four slanty exclamation marks to drive home the point. Bright stickers just weren't the same.
But, it was an international expedition, and while most of the people there were pretty fluent with English, Elisabeth was pretty firm on the idea that recognising a symbol would go a lot faster than trying to mentally translate something if you were in a hurry, or a panic. He knew she was right. (Although for all they knew, the Ancients had already marked everything here and they just hadn't learned to recognise it yet.)
When the meeting was over, John hung around to update Elisabeth on the plans he and Teyla had made for teaching these symbols to her people, in case they were in the city during an emergency. Given the rate of emergencies around here, it seemed pretty likely. Everyone but the usual crew for that area was gone by the time he'd finished outlining the plan, and touching on a few other things they had to talk about, and agreeing to the timing of the next meeting.
Walking down a corridor towards the mess, he spotted something bright orange lying on the ground. He stopped and picked it up, smiling at the three-fold bio-hazard symbol. One of the medical crew must have dropped it. He continued down the hall, tapping it idly against his palm. He could take it to the medical labs.
Then again, it would make a pretty cool decoration for a skateboard. Not that he had one with him, but he could maybe build one if he got bored.
He grinned suddenly, and detoured, a plan in mind.
Two hours later, one of the marines on KP duty went hunting for an ingredient in the walk-in storage pantry, and stopped, confused by the bio-hazard sticker on a box of what should be edibles. He opened his mouth to call the mess sergeant, and then noticed a scribble of writing next to it on the box.
Do not feed contents of box to Dr. McKay. We don't like it when he's cranky from allergic reactions. It was followed by an eccentric scribble that could have been a flower, or a butterfly, or maybe "JS". The marine checked the label on the box and snorted, then grabbed what he'd come for and went out to tell the rest of the night's kitchen crew that they had orders from the Major not to feed McKay any Tang.