Application for Apocalypse How

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Name: LP
Age: 30+
Contact: PM or caffettiera
Character(s) in game: John Carter (setthetone)
Permissions: here

→ CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay
Age: 40
Canon: Stargate: Atlantis
Canon point: post 5x01 - Search and Rescue
History: Here
Personality:

Petty, arrognat, bad with people

McKay: No, I mean it. I really enjoy working with you. Always. I wonder why we never hooked up.
Carter: Well, aside form the fact you're petty, arrogant and treat people badly?
McKay: Yes?
Carter: No, that's pretty much it. Petty, arrogant, bad with people.

Rodney is a brilliant scientist with genius level intellect as well as one of the foremost experts on Gate technology and the astrophysics needed for the Stargate Program. And he likes to remind people of these facts whenever and wherever possible. The adjective that pops up the most when people describe him is 'arrogant' and he sure is. Rodney is self-assured, boastful, and very vocal about his abilities throughout the show: "There is brilliant, and then there's me." "Please, I'm Rodney McKay. Difficult takes a few seconds, impossible a few minutes." It is an insufferable attitude that often alienates him from his peers and got him a reputation of being difficult, whiny, melodramatic, and overly negative.

Which he is. He's very bad with people. He is awkward at small talk, he berates and verbally abuses those working under him, he is petty and jealous of other people's success and can even come across as callous and vindictive. Secondary characters are often shown annoyed or long-suffering when they have to put up with his antics, sometimes even calling him out on it ("Wow - you must really be some kind of genius! Something has to have kept Colonel Sheppard from shooting you all this time!").

Missing social cues Rodney is also terrible at reading a room and often extremely insensitive, antagonizing the people they come across on their missions by making fun of their level of technology, their believes or culture. In the episode Sanctuary the team explores a planet that is protected by an energy field which Rodney believes to be a technological weapon but the inhabitants understand as divine protection. Rodney mocks their reverence openly, annoyed by his teammates's diplomatic approach of playing along. He also often displays heaps of toxic masculinity and makes sexist remarks (->there is an opt out post for that or interacting with him in his permissions).

In addition to that, Rodney is very anxious, high-strung, and neurotic. He tends to explode into agitated rants when things aren't going his way. Sunburn, radiation, dangerous animals, he voices these fears and grievances so incessantly on missions that it has reached a point where they get brushed off by his annoyed teammates. Fast-talking and worried about pretty much everything under the sun (including the sun) characters spending time with him will eventually suffer his hypochondriac side which can deduce blood poisoning from a tiny splinter. He can be very tone-deaf in this; there are several instances in the show where we Rodney complains about the tiniest cut while his teammates are literally hobbling along with broken bones or serious flesh wounds.



Brave and caring

McKay: You see, the thing is, Col. Sheppard and I have sorta gotten into this habit of saving each others' lives and it's my turn.

Despite his bad attitude, Rodney has proven himself to be resourceful in the field even though he is no trained fighter. In his key episodes he is often shown as incredibly brave, not in the sense of noble spirit but actually overcoming his fears when things get bad.

In one of the very first episodes of the show, Hide and Seek, Rodney finds a personal shield that makes him invulnerable to outside attack. However, as there is a mental component to controlling it, he finds himself unable to take it off again - and unable to eat or drink. At the same time, an alien entity made of energy starts attacking people around the city. A large part of the episode focuses on Rodney's self-centeredness and personal shield woes while there is an actual danger present. However, once the entity threatens to destroy the base, he uses the shield to move into the entity and lure it away from the city at the risk of his own life even though he's clearly terrified.

There are a lot of instances on the show that play with this theme; him absolutely terrified or out of his depth but stepping up to save the expedition or those closest to him - for example tapping into a millennia old neural network to aid Sheppard in a virtual reality, or connecting to his mind the fight of a nightmare entity that has taken hold of him. In an alternate timeline, Atlantis flooded and Rodney drowned working in the control room until the last minute, trying to help others to escape. When his team gets kidnapped, he floods his body with an alien enzyme that temporarily gives him superhuman strength in order to escape his captors and help them, even though the use leads to a severe withdrawal that almost kills him. He can also be seen picking up guns to attack incoming Wraith even though he is no trained soldier and clearly overwhelmed by the battle.

In a way, Rodney is the found family trope personified. Alienated from his sister for a long time and having no friends or any kind of meaningful social life prior to the Atlantis mission, he soon finds himself entangled in new relationships and emotions which are hard for him to navigate. Despite the abrasive attitude, Rodney cares for those around him even if he sometimes can't find a way to show or express it. And that care runs very deep and he goes to surprising lengths to protect his friends and teammates. It starts early on in the show when he steps in front of a gun to shield Elizabeth or going after Sheppard to help him fight a Wraith (which even prompts one of his fellow scientists to comment on it: "You want to help him. You've changed.").

Already in Season 2 in the episode Condemned, the villain of the week comments on this ambivalence: "Well, I could kill you. But you strike me as the type of man who despite being weak and cowardly on the outside, harbors a strength of character he doesn't even know he has. You see, the way to motivate a man like you, Mr. McKay, is not to threaten your life. It's to threaten the lives of your friends." It's a recurring theme of the show - the bad guys threaten the rest of the team in order to coerce McKay into putting his genius to work for them. Whenever that happens, Rodney loses his attitude and focuses on the task at hand with a quiet, steely resolve. There are several episodes in which his actions speak louder than words and he puts himself in harm's way in order to save or protect the ones he loves.



Insecure

Brown: I like you a lot too.
McKay: I know. And to be honest, I find that just baffling.
Brown: Come on, now...
McKay: No-no-no-no-no, it's other people too -- they find it baffling too.
Brown: I guess they just don't know you like I know you.
McKay: Yeah, but, you see, that's what scares me. I mean, at some point, you're gonna know me the way they know me and then...

Rodney cares a lot about what others think of him. At the same time, he is extremely insecure about himself. As the show progresses, he becomes more aware of his negative character traits and turns quite self-reflective: "I think it's safe to say that, uh, I am at times a petty, vindictive, even jealous man. I sublimate my own anxieties or feelings of inadequacy by creating a bubble of hostility around myself." Because of that, he preemptively breaks up with his girlfriend Katie Brown after she saw his bitter, fatalistic side while they were locked in together during a city-wide quarantine ("If we got married now, I would make your life miserable, and you are far too good a person for that.").

In the episode McKay and Mrs Miller, Rodney meets an alternative version of himself who ends up in his universe. This version, 'Rod', is a lot more sociable and extrovert, getting along splendidly with Rodney's team and his sister which clearly has him spiraling:

Sheppard: Say what you want. I know what this is about.
McKay: Oh, really, Mr Mensa in a parallel universe? What is this all about?
Sheppard: You think Jeannie likes him more than you.
McKay: What?! That's crazy. That's ... that's ... that's possibly true. [...] You're right. Of course, you're right. I mean, she has every reason to hate me.
Sheppard: I didn't say she hates you.
McKay: Well, she should.

Rod praises him for always speaking his mind even if people don't like him. Rodney doesn't take the compliment at all and instead reacts with almost hurt irritation ("People... don't like me?"). It's something that he absolutely tries to bury under his abrasive attitude but it comes up again and again, both in dialogue with people he is close with or in the way he reacts to situations such as the one above. In the episode Tao of Rodney, his DNA gets altered by an alien device that tries to force his body to reach Ascension, a higher plane of existence where one leaves their physical body behind. However, since he's not spiritually attuned, it ends up slowly killing him instead and Elizabeth tries to get to the root of the problem:

Weird: One of the biggest things that holds people back is that somewhere deep down they believe they're not deserving. You have to... release your burden. Rodney, I don't know what you truly believe about yourself. For all I know, you use your intelligence to compensate, to make yourself feel better for other things you think you may lack.

This burden is released towards the end of the episode: Rodney is shown almost ascending and making his peace just after his team assures him how much they care about him ("You love me? Really? All of you?").



Inquisitive/Obsessive

Rodney has the genuine drive to advance humankind's technological and scientific level. He is inquisitive and curious and has an explorer's mindset. The Atlantis Expedition set out as a one-way trip without knowing if they would ever make it back to Earth - not much glory in that - and once they reach the Pegasus Galaxy, he is willingly on an away team to go on missions to new planets. New discoveries is ultimately what he is after and despite all complaints, he is willing to take the risks.

When the aforementioned Ascension device temporarily boosts his intelligence to even higher levels - but simultaneously threatens to kill him - he decides to spend his last days holed up in his lab, trying to record all the complex equations that he is now able to come up with and leave a legacy.

This drive can sometimes turn into obsession. While Rodney's overconfidence in his abilities is warranted and necessary, it can have catastrophic side effects. In the episode Trinity the team comes across a powerful weapon that was abandoned because even the Ancients - the creators of the Stargate themselves - couldn't get it under control. Rodney is convinced he can get it to work and obsessively keeps working on it despite all warning signs of imminent failure. The end results are the weapon overloading and him destroying the large part of a (luckily uninhabited) solar system, as well as his friends' trust in him.

There is also a ruthless streak to him, especially when it comes to the survival and well-being of his people. They have been at war for a while and his pragmatism has on occasion drawn the ire of Dr. Weir, for example when Rodney suggests taking the energy source of a planet populated by children to use it for their own protection and leave them defenseless. He also has no qualms taking such objects when they are considered important or even sacred relics to a planet's society. He has manufactured bombs that were beamed aboard enemy ships, effectively killing thousands of Wraith if not more. In the episode Miller's Crossing, Sheppard talks a man sacrificing himself to a Wraith in order to save Rodney. When Rodney learns about this, he acts shocked for all but two seconds - then thanks Sheppard for it and asks if he wants to grab some dinner with him.



Suitability:

Rodney would absolutely stay to fight the good fight. His world has canonically been on the verge of extinction before (once even because of him) and it's just really close to his day job. Just, more magical and eldritch which will take some getting used to.

On the other hand, he has spent most of his life working for a shadowy government organization that keeps the general public out of the loop of what is really out there, so - what else is new? They have the technology. He wants that technology. Regardless on where his feelings may fall on ADI over time, he'd absolutely stay with the people who are in the loop and have the best resources to a) save the world and b) get him home again.

Powers/Abilities:

Genius level intellect (-> potential nerf?)
An expert in a variety of hard sciences, predominately astrophysics and physics, engineering, computer sciences and math. Often seen McGyvering his team out of impossible situations by repairing unrepairable systems, hacking into unhackable systems or likewise sciencing them out (a personal favorite being using a supervolcano to catapult a spaceship into orbit and open a hyperspace window before its shields can collapse under the lava's heat).

Rodney is often claimed to be "the smartest person in two galaxies" and what he pulls off on the show is at times pretty outlandish even for sci-fi so I do believe it could be considered a power in a way.

So I was thinking about nerfing it like a power? Maybe to a point where he is still a capable scientist but aware that he's nowhere near where he should be. It would give him a pretty good fear repository and also an incentive to reach out and connect with other characters despite his difficult personality. Having to work together. Having to (shudder) ask for help. Or actively having to feed his patron Entity and pay a price for his intellect/figuring things out, the same way physical characters would have to pay for getting that punch in.

But I'd love some mod input if you have the time!


Playing the piano
Rodney can play the piano exceptionally well - at least technically. He originally intended to study music, however his piano teacher told him that he had no sense of the art and played "clinically" which led him to focus on science instead.


Entity Affinity:

Since Atlantis deals with the threat of an alien race that literally feeds off humans and wants to find Earth to conquer it, the Extinction would always be a fitting pick for Rodney.

However, my first pick on a personal level for him (and if his intellect ends up counted as a power) would be the Lonely.

Deep down, Rodney feels very isolated from his peers which he tries to compensate for with his intellect. He is obsessed with having his prowess seen and leaving a legacy. Most of his negative traits come from the fear of being overlooked or not getting enough attention. He even has a "game" with his sister Jeannie where he obsessively keeps tabs if she published any new physics papers. He is known to draw out problems, even lying about being unable to solve them and setting himself up for failure. He often tells his team an issue is impossible for him to solve just to make himself look more brilliant or heroic in the end.

Another hint at his underlying loneliness is a conversation with his teammate Teyla when she shares her observations about their expedition leader Richard Woolsey:

Teyla: He seems lonely. He never takes part in any of the city's social activities. He always eats alone. Either in his office or in his quarters.
McKay: ... Maybe he has work to do, you know? Some of us are busy people.

McKay reacts very uncomfortable and avoidant there, looking down at his tray and scoffing at her remarks. The scene is clearly played as a parallel to Rodney's own behavior, pointing out what is going on with him instead.

While he likes to be the smartest person in the room, he doesn't deal well with actual isolation. In the episode Grace under Pressure, he gets trapped underwater by himself and ends up arguing with his own subconsciousness in the form of a hallucination. It prompts him to wait for his team and not try to make the situation worse by trying to save himself. While rationally, Rodney finds it impossible to believe that his friends will come for him, it's what he longs for deep down. Likewise, after the solar system disaster in the episode Trinity, there is a rift between him and Sheppard. Rodney is very upset by it, following Sheppard around base and awkwardly trying to mend the broken trust and asking if he can somehow earn it back. He's visibly crestfallen when Sheppard tells him "that may take a while".

While Rodney's canon point is from before this episode, there is a key episode in Season 5 (The Shrine) in which he gets infected with an Alzheimer-like disease. The episode shows him slowly losing his memories which leaves him absolutely devastated ("I've never been so scared in my life! I feel like I'm losing myself!") and while technically it hasn't happened yet, it is something he is absolutely terrified of.

Another good alignment for Rodney would be the Buried. For one, there is the rather obvious choice that he is canonically claustrophobic. With Grace under Pressure there is an entire episode dedicated to him trapped in a sunken shuttle and having to fight for survival despite his rising panic.

But it would also work in a more metaphorical sense, as in Buried with the responsibility as Atlantis's chief science officer. He's often expected to work miracles in the field ("Why don't I just go on these missions by myself?") and shown to be under a lot of pressure. Then he's also Buried by guilt - and he has a lot of that. There are a lot of instances where Rodney loses members of his science team during the expedition and he always takes it very hard. His obsession in the episode Trinity partly comes from the death of a team member and because Rodney can't stand the thought that he should have died for nothing. After the death of his friend Carson Beckett he again shoulders the blame because he overlooked the device that was accidentally activated by members of his team.


Inventory:

M9 pistol
Atlantis expedition uniform - science department
tactical vest
radio/earpiece
handheld scanner for energy readings (cursed)
tablet
small flashlight

Potential curse -> whenever Rodney tries to scan something it either leaves him feeling inadequate or convinced that whoever is near him secretly hates him (open for other suggestions!)

Samples: TDM starters with various threads
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