Establishing the background

Context: Rodney doesn't know that John's dad is a High Storm Commander in the Maelstrom (basically a high ranking officer in their city's militia) and has a lot of money

Concrit: Is this good? Like, at all?

~

John waved the scroll in front of Rodney's face in an attempt to distract him.

"Stop that. I need to concentrate."

John hopped up and took a seat on the empty part of Rodney's worktable. "You and I both know that dagger isn't for anyone in particular. Or at least anyone important. After all, you haven't hired me to be your bodyguard yet."

Rodney gritted his teeth, put his tools down and looked up at John. He was giving Rodney a smarmy look because of course he was.

"What's on the scroll?"

John shrugged. "You sure? A minute ago you weren't interested -"

"Please," Rodney snapped, his voice full of unnecessary venom, "Stop. And tell me why you're here."

Instead of giving him an answer, John handed him the scroll. Rodney unrolled the parchment and read the title of the document out loud.

"Petition to Form a Free Company..." Rodney's voice drifted away as he quickly scanned the few details John had already filled in. When he got to the bottom, he saw the fee required to submit the petition and chuckled cheerlessly.

"So much for that." He rolled the scroll back up and handed it back to John. John didn't take it, and instead just stared at him.

"What?" Rodney asked. "There's no way."

John's brow furrowed. "What do you mean there's no way? Of course there's a way. We get two more signatures, I think we can easily convince Teyla and Ronon -"

"I don't mean finding two more people to sign the petition! I'm talking about the money, John!"

A few people turned their heads toward the commotion inside the Blacksmith's Guild. Rodney cleared his throat and lowered his voice.

"I'm good at what I do, but there is no way that I can come up with fifteen thousand gil. That's ludicrous. I can barely pay you to be my bodyguard."

John frowned. "I can get the money."

Rodney rolled his eyes. "How? The fishing in La Noscea can't be that good."

John hopped down from Rodney's worktable and dusted himself off. He turned back toward Rodney, a grim look on his face.

"I want to show you something."

Rodney motioned towards the unfinished dagger in front of him. "I can't, I need to finish this -"

"Please," John said, his voice barely audible.

Rodney blinked at John's sudden show of sincerity. He stood up from the table and put his supplies away, eyeing his fellow blacksmiths with a cold look, as if daring them to go rooting about in his things. He motioned for John to lead the way and John did so silently.

The cool night air felt good on Rodney's face as the two of them stepped outside. John still hadn't said anything more, but he started walking across the bridge toward the Aftcastle, so Rodney followed. They crossed the courtyard until John suddenly stopped short in front of Maelstrom Command, the beating heart of Limsa Lominsa's Grand Company.

John stood in front of the bridge leading toward the Maelstrom's open gate, but didn't take another step. Rodney stood next to him, unsure of what was happening. John had never mentioned anything about the Maelstrom before.

John pointed toward a large bulletin board off to the side that was covered with morale-boosting posters, encouraging citizens of all Eorzea to pledge their allegiance to the Maelstrom.

"On that board, you'll find a list of all the high-ranking officers in the Maelstrom. I want you to go look at the Storm Commanders list and tell me if you see anything interesting."

Rodney raised an eyebrow, giving John an incredulous look. "Me? Why can't we both go look? Why can't you just tell me -"

"Just go look. And meet me at the Aftcastle's Aetheryte over there when you're done."

John walked away before Rodney could argue any further.

"This is ridiculous," Rodney muttered to himself. He rolled his shoulders back, straightened his spine, and crossed the bridge toward the Maelstrom headquarters.

"I'm not interested I'm not interested I'm not interested," Rodney whispered to himself as he approached the board, anxious that a Maelstrom underling would try to offer him a sales pitch on joining up. He found the list of high-ranking officers, saw Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn's name at the top of the list. He glanced through the long list of names until he found the Storm Commanders.

He didn't have to look much longer. His name was at the top of the list.

Patrick Sheppard. Storm Commander and father of John Sheppard.

Rodney turned away, saw John standing in the blue glow of the Aetheryte. Rodney walked back toward John and stood at his side, saying nothing. After a few minutes, John tugged on Rodney's sleeve.

"I tell a better story when I'm fishing. Come on." He grabbed Rodney's hand and they both touched the Aetheryte to teleport them to Fisherman's Bottom.

~

John cast his line into the water. Rodney looked out to the horizon, smelled the salty air, and wondered just how much John was about to tell him.

He wouldn't admit it, but Rodney wanted to know everything there was to know.

"I joined the Maelstrom as soon as they'd take me. I knew it was what Dad wanted, especially after my brother ran off to the Garlean Empire."

Rodney's eyes widened at that detail, but didn't want to interrupt. John sighed, reeled in a little, and continued.

"I climbed up the ranks. Made it all the way up to Storm Sergeant First Class. Dad was grooming me to be an officer but...I didn't want it. I wanted my life to be more than just following Merlwyb's lead. So I quit. And instead of running off and joining up with someone else's cause, I stayed here. Took odd jobs. Joined the Fishermen's Guild. That really pissed the old man off. One son a traitor, and one son a lowly adventurer."

Rodney took a deep breath. John still hadn't gotten to the matter at hand.

"So what does this have to do with the free company petition? The money?"

"Oh, got a bite!" John jumped up and started reeling in his line, fighting against what turned out to be nothing but a Lominsan anchovy.

Rodney laughed out loud, and kept laughing as John put away his fishing supplies, tossing the anchovy back into the sea.

"I'd like to see you do better."

"Hey, I make swords for a living."

John smiled. "Is that all you want to do? Make weapons?" John cocked his head to side, giving Rodney a knowing stare.

Rodney shook his head. "No. It's not."

John took the free company petition back out of his bag and handed it to Rodney. "Then sign. And we'll go to Ul'dah."

"But the money -"

John put his forefinger to Rodney's lips to hush him. "I can get the money. My dad will gladly pay fifteen thousand gil to get me out of Limsa Lominsa for good. Or, at least for a while."

Rodney took a quill out of his bag and signed the petition, handed it back to John. John nodded, stood up, and started walking back down the dock with bag in hand.

"John?" Rodney called to him, watching him go.

"Yeah?"

"Why me?"

John grinned. "Because you were born to do magic."

Establishing the background

Context: SGA Steampunk AU, Rodney doesn't know John is Dave Sheppard's brother

Looking for concrit: too much infodump?


"I thought the whole point of your revolutionary engine is that it's more energy-efficient than any engine on the market." John wasn't perched on the edge of Rodney's workbench for once, stood with him and the rest of the Atlantis team just inside the doorway of the lab.

"It is, if you consider the net energy requirements and expenditures in the design," Rodney said. "What makes my engine so energy-efficient is that it's - it's almost like a human body. Once you get past the start-up cost, which is pretty massive, it more or less keeps itself going."

"Like what Janus wrote of," Radek said.

"What Janus wrote of but never left detailed notes on and that no one has ever come close to," Rodney said, a little peevishly.

Radek rolled his eyes, took off his spectacles and cleaned them on the hem of his jacket.

"Great. So let's fire it up," John said. "You said Sheppard's breathing down your neck, Elizabeth's breathing down your neck - as much as Elizabeth ever does anything aggressively - and this one hurdle will solve all of our problems. I get to fly. You get that prize from the Royal Guild of Arts and Sciences. Radek has enough money to keep him in a lifetime supply of kolaches. Miko can take her sail design elsewhere, go back to star diving. And Kavanagh will finally get out of your hair."

It was Teyla who said, "It is not that simple. The initial expenditure of energy is massive, is it not? Humans are perfect machines, capable of reproducing and forming their environment around them to meet their needs. But in their early years, they are completely vulnerable. They spend their first few months utterly dependent on another human being, if not their first few years."

She was the only one of them who was a parent or anything close to it.

"Are you saying you can't do it?" John asked. He fixed Rodney with a look that was far more serious than any Rodney had seen on his face before.

"If I had more time I could figure it out," Rodney said. "But I don't have time. Sheppard's patience is at an end, and there are other external pressures." He very deliberately did not look at Teyla when he spoke.

John was a soldier, believed in saving all he could, in leaving no person behind. If he knew of Teyla's predicament, he'd do something rash.

"Then what's your plan?" John pressed.

"Janus created a device to power his automatons. It could provide the initial delivery of energy we need to get the system up and running. It would fit in the space, and it would convert the energy in such a way that we wouldn't just be setting off a powder keg in the engine furnaces," Rodney said, because he knew how John's mind worked.

"Janus's notes on all of his greatest inventions are incomplete," Miko said.

"I managed to fill in some of the gaps on his automaton designs," Rodney said. "This piece - it amounts to the automaton's heart - will get us what we need. We just need this piece."

"How the hell are we going to find this one piece of an automaton that we're not even sure still exists, if it even existed at all?" Radek asked.

"Other pieces of Janus's legendary designs have been found," Rodney said. "We have to try. We need this engine up and running."

Really, Teyla needed this engine up and running. Rodney didn't care if Sheppard and Elizabeth were mad at him. He was used to people being mad at him.

Radek said, "We should ask for help. I will send a message to Dr. Carter." He started for the pigeon coops.

Miko said to Ronon, who'd been watching the entire exchange silently, "Come on. I'll show you where some of Janus's works are archived."

Ronon nodded and followed her to the door, handed her her hat and draped her shawl across her shoulders, held the door open for her, followed her out. Strange. He rarely cared about Earth-style manners and deportment.

John swept for the door. He almost crashed into Kavanagh, who was just coming into the workshop.

"Hey," Kavanagh said.

John grabbed his shoulder. "You're coming with me."

Evan emerged from the corner. "I'll help," he said.

He always helped.

Rodney said, "Come on. I have a lot of Janus's works."

Evan nodded and followed him. Rodney knew they'd be awake late into the night.

Writing Exercise: Setting

Establishing The Background

Think of some information your readers will need to learn to understand the story. This could be technical information or character backstory. Now write an argument between two characters in which you use conflict to share this information.