Romance Fest Prompts

[melagan.livejournal.com]

Please comment to this post with your prompt suggestions. Prompts may be anything including, but not limited to, pictures, poetry or song. You may offer as many prompts for the fest as your romantic heart desires.

Comments

[emrinalexander.livejournal.com]

Rodney proposes under the stars. After all - voluntarily camping out has to have some benefits!

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

Rodney finally talks John into the two of them taking a vacation together, only when they finally get away, Rodney is too wired to relax and have fun. John takes it upon himself to solve this problem.

Heart of Stone by Joan Osborne (http://youtu.be/kdhzR4cUr00"). Any pairing of John/.Rodney but particularly the Vegasverse (after which Det. Sheppard survives, natch!). Instead of the sad feel of the song, though, the pair overcome the Heart of Stone dilemma.

Pining!John is no more! He's a BAMF, damn it! He's not going to dance around anymore--he's going to make his move on Rodney. Just as soon as he finds the right, um, tactical moment.

Rodney gradually becomes aware John is spending all his free time on the mainland. He says it's no big deal but he won't tell Rodney what he's doing over there. Sometimes he takes Ronon. Sometimes Teyla. Never Rodney. And the others only smile and refuse to tell him what's going on. What IS going on?

:-)

[omg-wtf-yeah.livejournal.com]

Passing notes or making paper airplanes.

Trading treats (like Rodney builds John a remote airplane or John trades Ronon for Rodney's favorite movie).

On earthleave, people keep mistaking (still friends) John and Rodney for a couple.

Animal by Neon Trees (http://youtu.be/gM7Hlg75Mlo)

A big, dramatic scene where Rodney saves John's life at risk of his own.

Rodney having silly romantic feelings watching John surf.

When Rodney thinks that John is dead, he begins writing him letters on the advice of the new Heightmeyer. When John comes back alive, he finds the letters in Rodney's room.

Ad prompt

[melagan.livejournal.com]

This is an actual ad in the college's newspaper, one I see every single week:

HELP WANTED

Athletic men for calendars,
books, etc. $100-$200/hr, up
to$1000/day. No experience.
~~~

Re: Ad prompt

[omg-wtf-yeah.livejournal.com]

oh my god, yes. this prompt!

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

Couldn't resist sharing this one: Marines Dance-off at Marine Ball (http://dailypicksandflicks.com/2013/11/11/dance-off-at-us-marine-corps-ball-video/)

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

Couldn't help myself. Brokeback Skaters. (http://youtu.be/qDLghjfoYUY)

:-)

[syble4.livejournal.com]

I've always looked at convention pictures and thought they looked they the boys were singing to each other. ;)

[aka-niffer.livejournal.com]

i LOVE the idea of them singing to each other and this pic really works it!

[popkin16]

Rodney has always laughed at those ridiculous romantic comedies - like things that ridiculous ever happen in real life!

But then it does. To him. Now Rodney has to work to get his own happy ending while refusing to fall into romantic comedy cliches.

[ozsaur.livejournal.com]

Regency AU - Forced Marriage - In order to save his family from ruin, Rodney must marry the son of his father's worst enemy. Expecting an empty-headed fop, Rodney finds himself charmed, then seduced, by John Sheppard. Rodney decides that being married may not be so horrible after all, until he discovers that his fiance has a hidden agenda of his own.

John and Rodney have been arguing and fighting for a while, and neither can figure out why. They are captured on an off-world mission. During the long, boring days that follow, secrets are revealed and confessions made.

Rodney hates Valentine's Day. All his worst breakups have happened on or around that day.. He's only been with John a few short weeks. Valentine's is approaching - will this be another disastrous break-up, or a surprise turning point for them?

Rodney gives up on love. Who needs it anyway? He has his job, his team, and his best friend John. The problem is, John wants his best friend and passion, too. How can he convince Rodney to give love one last chance?

Puddlejumpers don't run out of gas! And they don't run out of gas on remote planets with a space Gate far, far away from the distractions of Atlantis. And they don't end up with a beautiful view or a delicious dinner hidden away. Or soft music. Or John acting very, very strangely, and looking very, very sexy!

[popkin16]

I love your Regency AU idea ♥

[popkin16]

An AU where people live on Atlantis, and those with the ATA gene are considered royalty. John, with the strongest gene, is the Prince. Rodney could be a scientist who works for the ~crown. (John, Rodney, Teyla, Carson, Elizabeth, everyone grew up on Atlantis).

[popkin16]

Pegasus Natives AU, where everyone was born and raised in the Pegasus Galaxy. John is a hunter and Rodney is a scholar, and maybe at first they don't get along at all. (Or just the generic prompt: Pegasus Natives)

[popkin16]

A McShep version loosely based on this book. John rebelling against his Uppercaste family, becomes an Icarus. Rodney is a reclusive scientist who knows a terrible secret about a certain Uppercaste family...

[zoemathemata.livejournal.com]

LONG PROMPT IS LONG
Okay, I always had this 'beginning' in my head, where Rodney is a slave in some kind of dom/sub or maybe just a slave!AU kind of thing, and he's at the funeral of his master/dom just looking DISTRAUGHT and he doesn't take his collar off and everyone is like "Oh! So TRAGIC. You just don't see devotion like that anymore!"

But in reality, Rodney is just SO FUCKING RELIEVED his dom is DEAD and he hasn't taken the collar off because he refuses to ever get 'trapped' by another dom again, so he just leaves it on even though it's hateful and awful and he loathes it but the alternative is he's considered 'up for grabs' again, and he'll be damned if he'll let that happen. So he's a widowed!Sub and they're afforded more leeway than general uncollareds

Enter John Sheppard, Dom with a heart! {dun dun dun}
And then, happily ever after happens. After wooing. There should be wooing.

[popkin16]

*mimics Rodney's grabby hands*

[kitchyy.livejournal.com]

Rodney is the know it all abrasive lieutenant colonel and John is the laid back astrophysicist. At first John gets on Rodney's nerves, but over time he gets to know how truly charming John can be.

[velence.livejournal.com]

AU. Different Careers. Sheppard is math professor and McKay is a more or less sucsessful musician. Somehow they meet and connect immediately...

[trillingstar]

Born of my voiceless time, your steps
Slowly, ecstatically advance:
Toward my expectation's bed
They move in a hushed, ice-clean trance.
Pure being, shadow-shape divine-
Your step deliberate, how sweet!
God!-every gift I have imagined
Comes to me on those naked feet.
If so it be your offered mouth
Is shaped already to appease
That which occupied my thought
With the live substance of a kiss,
Oh hasten not this loving act,
Rapture where self and not-self meet:
My life has been the awaiting of you.
Your footfall was my own heart's beat.
-- Paul Valery, "The Footsteps"

*

The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.
-- Rumi, The Essential Rumi

*

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you directly without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes close with my dreams.
-- Pablo Neruda, One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII

*

Then there's the two
of us. This word
is far too short for us, it has only
four letters, too sparse
to fill those deep bare
vacuums between the stars
that press on us with their deafness.
It's not love we don't wish
to fall into, but that fear.
this word is not enough but it will
have to do. It's a single
vowel in this metallic
silence, a mouth that says
O again and again in wonder
and pain, a breath, a finger
grip on a cliffside. You can
hold on or let go.
-- Margaret Atwood, "Variations on the Word Love"

[kitchyy.livejournal.com]

That last one always seems to kick me in the stomach with how simple yet powerful it is. Love Margaret Atwood and love your prompts here!

[melagan.livejournal.com]

A 'Splash' (the movie) fusion - Feeling grumpy and unloved, MermanRodney thinks he can find love like the mermaid Madison if he can save someone from drowning too. That someone turns out to be John Sheppard.

[lilyleia78]

I love this! I feel like John's probably not actually downing though and he's gone be quite amused at the half naked, half fish man trying too save him from snorkeling or whatever he's actually doing. :)

Everyone will have seen this one coming...

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

Not that this song doesn't go with at least one main character from EVERY FANDOM EVER, but it was also obviously written for John. Obviously.

I'm not looking for songfic, but this song as an inspiration? Yes, please. (But with a happily ever after ending.)

Re: Everyone will have seen this one coming...

[squidgiepdx]

Loved the song - and then started bawling at the ending with Tyler...

[ozsaur.livejournal.com]

In the distant future, Rodney is a lone scientist manning a science station on an otherwise uninhabited planet. All attempts to lure other scientists or personnel to the station has met with failure. If he doesn't get help soon, he will have to leave the planet and abandon his research. In a last ditch effort to get assistance, Rodney buys an android that was slated to be disassembled. Rodney doesn't care what kind of android it... he... was, but he soon finds out that it... he... was made for war. The android, John, soon turns out to be far more useful than as an assistant when GeniiCorp tries to steal Rodney's research....

John is at loose ends after getting out of the Air Force. To have something to do until he figures out his future, he helps Ronon and Teyla out at their Gym as a personal fitness instructor. His first client: Rodney McKay.

Rodney finds the Stargate mothballed at Area 51. The rest of the world is in chaos and on the edge of collapse. In secret, Rodney races to get the Stargate working, while John gathers friends and family, military and science personnel to evacuate through the 'Gate before it's too late.

On his early morning run, John stumbles across an injured man. Just as he's about to call the police, the man regains consciousness and begs him not to. He sounds like a nutcase when he talks about being kidnapped and the police might be in on it. Then the shooting starts. For the next few days, it takes all of John's skills, contacts and resources to keep Dr. Rodney McKay alive until the good guys find them, whoever the good guys turn out to be.

The way to a man's heart it through his stomach, at least that's what John has always heard. This seems to be especially true of Rodney, who loves good, simple food. While Atlantis is still on Earth, it shouldn't be too hard to get the ingredients. He asks his brother to send their grandmother's recipe book which has the type of recipes that Rodney loves. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and biscuits - what could go wrong? (Alternative: This will be the meal of a lifetime. If Rodney doesn't buy a clue, John just might have to smack upside the head with the cookbook.)

John is a makeup artist, Rodney an actor on a sci-fi tv show. It takes four hours every morning to put on the prosthetics for Rodney's role as an alien. They have plenty of time to get to know each other - until the show is canceled. They move on to other jobs, but that doesn't mean they have to move on from each other.

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

I WANT TO READ THE ANDROID ONE SO MUCH. Sheesh, I almost, sort-of, already wrote that story. I love John as an Android!

Wow, do I wish I had time to write that, but that has EPIC written all over it. ::sniffle::

[antares04a.livejournal.com]

John is the owner of an exclusive 5 star hotel. When his staff starts complaining about a guest, he at first ignores it. But when his cook, Radek Zelenka, threatens to poison his next dinner and his manager, Elizabeth Weir, promises to help him, he decides that it is time to act. He pays a visit to a certain Dr. Dr. Rodney McKay ...

[melagan.livejournal.com]

Film noir style - Rodney is suspected of murdering his fiance and John is the detective on the case. Or vice versa. Rodney is the hard-boiled detective and John is sexy suspect.

[omg-wtf-yeah.livejournal.com]

I'm so into noir right now. This prompt is heaven.

[velocitygrass.livejournal.com]

Modern AU: Rodney is a single father with issues (maybe trust issues because his ex totally screwed him over or bad experiences with women who didn't want to date a single father?). John is the new neighbor and Rodney hates him because someone who looks so laidback is probably irresponsible and gets laid by a different girl every night. Turns out he's wrong (and that John is looking for a guy who wants more than sex and that he actually used to want children until admitting he was gay put a damper on that?). In short, they're perfect for each other (once Rodney can learn to get over his issues and John opens up to actually admit what he wants).

~~

When Jeannie visits Rodney and finds out he's no longer with Jennifer, she talks to her to find out why (aka what Rodney did wrong). Jennifer tells that he didn't do anything wrong, but that they ultimately don't fit together. As they talk about the kind of woman Rodney needs, they realize that they're basically talking about John. When Jeannie mentions that Rodney had a boyfriend in university for a while, they conspire to get them together.

~~

Modern AU: John and Rodney have a one-night-stand...that somehow never ends.

~~

Modern AU: John has followed his fathers wishes. He's working in the family company and still married. He hates his job and his marriage only exists on paper at this point. His wife has a separate bedroom and the only reason they haven't divorced is because they're regarded as a perfectly happy power couple and as long as neither of them has a new partner and their life mostly consists of work, it's not worth the gossip and social backlash.

He meets Rodney (through work?) and is extremely annoyed by his arrogance and complete lack of social grace, but at the same time he's never felt more alive than when fighting with Rodney. They fall in love and John finally finds the motivation to take his life in his own hands again. He lets his brother take over his job, files for divorce, and is happily ever after with Rodney.

~~

Modern AU: Rodney is paranoid about his newest invention. In order to protect himself and his idea before it is revealed, he hires a bodyguard: John.

~~

Pseudohistorical/fantasy AU with servants/slaves: John's father gives him several pretty female servants of different types, but his son only seems interested in his studies, so he eventually gives him Rodney, who's too smart for his own good and maybe he'll at least do some good as John's study buddy (as opposed to complaining how his genius is wasted on other tasks). Needless to say, John has finally found someone who interests him more than his studies.

~~

Historical (early 20th century) AU: Rodney is a rich scientist from an important family. John is his valet who takes care of Rodney and supports his wish to avoid having to get married for not entirely selfless reasons.

~~

Historical AU: Rodney is a universal genius and John his patron and muse.

[ozsaur.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, several really fun ideas there! I like the SingleDad!Rodney AU. And the modern AU has some intriguing possibilities.

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

Skin hunger.

[omg-wtf-yeah.livejournal.com]

Goddamn, I love it. It's been too long since I've read a fic about touch needy John.

[omg-wtf-yeah.livejournal.com]

Inspired by the moonlight McShep manip posted by Melagan -- Rodney and John are alone after an Athosian festival, still warm and mild from the Ruus wine we've heard so much about, doing what they do best.

[aka-niffer.livejournal.com]

not too long ago, fanarts-of-series posted a wallpaper on tumbler McShep. It was a beautiful manip of a young Rodney and John, with the idea of John as a student at the Sorbonne and Rodney at an astrophysics institute. I wish, i wish I could write that story, but I'd be more than willing to beta and whatever to anyone who is inspired to take on this plot bunny

[melagan.livejournal.com]

Do you happen to have a link to that image?