Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 -  Living with it

The food had been a not particularly impressive example of some kind of soup and sandwich combo. Not to say his own people were gourmet chef's or anything, as more often than not they had tended towards quick to prepare dishes that would meet a predetermined caloric requirement. But he'd still been hoping for something a bit more tasty, or at least a bag of potato chips to go along with then meal.

“Now that I'm feeling marginally more myself.” He began as he pushed the now empty tray away and looked to the duo of Elizabeth Weir and John Shepherd who had finally designed to join Teyla and him in the break room. 

“And you've apparently decided I'm not an immediate threat to anything but your relationship prospects.” He continued with an amused smirk to the pair of Teyla and John who had relocated to a shared couch so Elizabeth could take the lead sitting directly across from him.

“We're not-”

“We are not-”

They both began at once before sharing an awkward look.

“We're not together.” Shepherd finished in a clearly uncomfortable tone.

“You should try it.” Eventus told the pair as he held back his sudden urge to laugh at the way that made them tense up even more awkwardly than before. “I did the few times I had a chance, but you would not believe how bad Atlantis's dating prospects were.”

That was putting it mildly, his last girlfriend had been an absolutely adorable cultural anthropologist only two hundred years his senior who'd died sixty-seven years before he'd ended up in stasis when the bronze age civilization she had been studying was attacked by the Wraith.

“Eventus.” Weir interjected before he could say anything more, likely in hopes of saving the two from further awkwardness. “I don't know how much my other self told you about why we came to your people's city, but we are scientists and explorers, like your people were.”

“I certainly hope not.” Eventus returned bluntly, not in the mood to mince words given the very obvious way she was trying to engender sympathy in him. “Because my people had a tendency to try doing a thing without first asking the question of whether it was a good idea to do in the first place.”

“Sounds like McKay.” Shepherd offered with a smirk.

Weir grimaced slightly. “Yes, well, I'd like to claim we're better than that, but I'm afraid we've had a number of problems caused by a similar lack of forethought during our time here. Which was why we were hoping you might be willing to put off ascending to assist us with various matters in the pegasus galaxy?”

That had certainly been a first rate segue Eventus mused to himself as he took a moment to study Weir's face to try and determine just how much she thought he might be able to do. He could just say yes of course, since he wasn't actually planning to try and ascend anytime soon anyways. But something about taking that option just felt too easy to him, so he might as well indulge in his Ancienty side and make her work for it.

“To what end?” He put forward, raising a single eyebrow in a practiced move that had taken him nearly a decade to master. “And what price are you willing to pay if I were to do so? 

“Price?” Weir repeated in confusion as she failed to follow the question to its end.

Eventus gave an encompassing wave with one of his arms. “Assume I stayed in this city to help your people with things. Do you expect that is all I would do? What if one day I wished to travel to another world in search of others of my kind? Would you stop me? Let me go on my own? Or accept the very real risk inherent in sending your people to accompany me?”

“We-

“What about if I decided to wander the worlds of the stargate network,” He continued before Weir could answer. “and fell in love with someone I met while doing so only to end up bringing them and their family back to the city with me?”

“That would be–

“Or how about if I decided to pursue a personal project and it goes awry, opening a rift to another dimension through which a number of creatures pass and kill some of your people?”

The last two had actually happened a number of times to others during his years living in the city, though it was ironically the ones falling in love that tended to cause the most trouble, since you could just shoot the creatures.

“Is that last actually a thing that can happen?” Shepherd asked in a suddenly concerned tone.

“It's a thing that has happened.” Eventus confirmed with a severe nod. “More than once.”

“I'd rather avoid the last if possible.” Weir confessed with a wry smile. “But I understand the point you're making, and I have to agree, we can't know what dangers you staying here might bring. But facing the risk of the unknown was something everyone here accepted when we came to Atlantis, so I can't see anyone balking at whatever may come from you staying.”

As she finished Eventus couldn't help but feel the galaxy had dodged a bullet, because the children that would have resulted from Elizabeth and Janus ending up together would have no doubt been absolute terrors that may very well have ended them all.

He gave Weir an amused grin. “A persuasive argument, all things considered. And I suppose it wouldn't be that much of an inconvenience to stay in the city for a bit, assuming your people are willing to restore my living quarters for me.”

That last was more than a little selfish on his part given his living quarters had been next to one of the swimming area's, so almost surely had been flooded at one time or another in the past ten thousand solar cycles. 

Thankfully everything he had owned that was of even moderate importance had been either waterproof, or stored in something waterproof. So that would mostly just mean changing out the carpet, furniture, and running a sonic cleaner over everything.

“I'm sure something can be arranged.” Weir returned as she exchanged a brief look of uncertainty with Shepherd.

“Great.” Eventus said as an impish look briefly flashed across his face. “I assume to start with then you'll want a list of the city's red zones where there are various projects likely to kill people horribly if they're turned on without proper precaution? Or would you rather assign a team to escort me to the maintenance depot to see if the portable emergency generator we kept there can be brought back online?”

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Author’s Notes: I started the next chapter of Cerulean Stars, stared at it for an hour trying to figure out how I wanted to start it and just came up blank. So have another one of this while I try to hunt down a bulldozer to deal with the block.