Lacey | Parody

// #StrangeDestinies Well it seems that @drnicholasrush.bsky.social is having problems processing his true feelings for @2sidesofthesame.bsky.social and he's got some legitimate concerns. Like her youth. Maybe he's feeling too old and jaded after all he's been through to take up a young woman.

- doubt it’s possible, given the source of said knowledge.

How did you handle the shift of knowledge? Was it difficult to accept or was it more of an Ah-ha! moment where things slid into place for you?

*The way you said that sounded rather ominous. I set my pencil down, turning to give you a curious look, searching your face as if I could glean some sort of additional meaning there.* It would be interesting to come across some kind of knowledge bank that change my way of thinking. Not that I -

- how to lock away for good.*

Do you know if we have the complete data file from Destiny or is so large that we’ll never have the full information? Patterns with standard repetitions are one thing but if repetitions are the exception to the rule, I’d like to highlight that.

Issues with authority, in general. *I swallowed the instinct to choke at the Daddy Issues you’d said, only barely. Given the dreams I refused to allow myself to dwell on during waking hours, particularly when you were in the vicinity, I had my own Daddy issues I needed to deal with or figure out -

- showing, although few and far between given the sheer amount of data, helping shape the vision in my mind.*

- that genius goes. It’s quite impressive, I have to admit.

*I turned to a fresh page in my notebook, carrying over the last line from the previous page at the top so I could finish the thought I’d left off. My primer idea was beginning to grow more clearly, the patterns your equations were -

- frowned, wondering if I had perhaps inferred too much from the few conversations Eli and I had where you had come up, not that there were many.*

You are a genius. Anyone that meets you, knows it. Those who’ve had the honor of working alongside you are the rare ones who’ve seen just how far -

*You were incapable of accepting or acknowledging a compliment, weren’t you? I essentially called you a genius to your face and you somehow saw it as an insult.*

Odd. For all of the… well, despite everything, I always got the impression from Eli that he considered you as a father figure.

*I -

- notes I’d been working on, skinning over the previous days’ work to gather my thoughts and see if could pick up where I’d left off.*

- face.*

I’ve always enjoyed the opportunity to work with other talented minds, so it was just… fun to see how his mind worked. Not too dissimilar from yours, but you’re on a whole different level.

*I said the words without even realizing, having picked up a notebook opened to the last page of -

- that, he’s incredibly intelligent. To this day, I get the feeling that he has untapped potential which is probably why he was brought into the Stargate Program to begin with.

*At that, I turned to give you a curious look as if I could get confirmation of my suspicions from the look on your -

My first impression was that he was incredibly immature and didn’t know how to work with a woman.

*I scoffed, remembering those first few days with a stuttering, stammering, extraordinarily clumsy Eli who had difficulty speaking to me until I could get him to focus on the work before us.*

Beyond-

- students who think they can steamroll right over me because they assume I'm young and female and, therefore, won't be able to run my classroom.

They were quite wrong, too.

- with me.

*I laughed more to myself than anything, setting my mug down after taking my seat.*

I'm sure as a General, the man has to be strict. It only makes sense. Otherwise, everyone would run all over him. Not that I'm anything as esteemed as a General but I've dealt with many classrooms of -

Those are high marks coming from you.

*I arched a brow, eyeing you over the rim of my mug as I slowly walked back towards you and the pile of work we had spread across two long tables.*

From what little interaction I've had with him, he's seemed rather nice. Or maybe that was because Eli was -

- room to the familiar coffee maker and make myself a fresh cup.*

I'm surprised you didn't leave me here by myself and take off down to the lower levels. I think that means you like me more than you actually admit. Or that General O'Neill told you not to abandon me.

Is there a secret handshake or a secret dance I can do to speed things along?

*I managed to avoid rolling my eyes at your comment, although seeing you sip at your coffee reminded me that my own mug was empty and needed a refill. I set aside my notepad and pencil and grabbed my mug to cross the -

- military, they must be having a difficult time finding someone with enough empathy to break the news, right?

- sterile workspace we'd been in for days now. We were still stuck to white boards and sticky notes, math equations and possible translations spread out on every surface we could reach.*

Am I dying? Is that what's taking so long? They're trying to figure out how to tell me nicely? Since they're -

- me. Still, the annoying smirk you got whenever I asked if I'd be able to get past the big yellow No Unauthorized Personnel Beyond This Point sign each day was beginning to grate on my nerves.

Today was no exception, either. I'd asked and the non-answer was deafening as you brought me to the same-

- and a few other things I tended to zone out on when the list was rattled off every time I asked about it. I could only imagine that this was what my friend Dr. Daniel Jackson had been subjected to when he'd first joined the Stargate Project all those years ago, not that he could outright tell -

- to me - before being returned to me in military-green bins that blended into the rest of the non-descript room I'd been calling Home since I got here.

All of this, I'd been told, was because I needed a certain clearance. Background checks needed to be run, medical exams and clearances obtained,-

*{Present company excluded, of course!} Your words had haunted more than a few dreams between the decision to move our research to Cheyenne Mountain and arriving. My life, packed into three large suitcases, had been thoroughly searched and sanitized - something that had yet to be fully explained -

- for a boyfriend and, ultimately, a husband.* I promise, it's fine. You don't need to tell me I should hurry up and get married. I hear it enough from all my neighbors and older ladies I live around.

- *I laughed softly at myself.* He might worry that he's not lugging a pizza up to the third floor of my building. And I work too much for any kind of romantic life. *I held my hands up in a defensive manner, head turned away. People always argued with me on this, insisting I needed to make time -

- sharing a deeply personal secret about myself, and I was surprisingly okay with it. Once you mentioned needing to notify anyone of being gone, I shook my head.* No. No family. I should probably let Ralph know, though. He's the pizza delivery guy who always delivers when I order on the weekends. -

I like to keep a couple of plants around. Nothing too big, but they help ground me. Can't quite explain it, but I've made it a habit that if I'm anywhere for any length of time, I will find a small fern or something fairly easy to keep up with to keep in my room or tent. *It felt like I was -

- accidentally knocked you with my knee.* Oh, sorry.

Assuming everything goes according to plan, should I anticipate being away the whole summer? Not that I have pets but I do have some plants I may need to give to my neighbors so I don't kill them while I'm away.

*I noticed the frown but hoped it had to do with the phone call rather than me rambling on about my previous work. I really needed to learn to keep quiet when I was nervous.* Other than a certain professor calling security on me recently, no. *Shifting in my seat to face you a little more, I -