All things considered, Rodney rather liked the setup on P3X-778. Not that he liked to think of the world in terms of sociological standpoints, soft science being pointless and all, but really. Tribal society that moved from planet to planet, nuclear families often being broken up by Wraith cullings... in cases like that you wanted everyone to get as attached to every other member of the tribe as possible. So- while couples did develop and inevitably had children, they were all raised communally. What he found most interesting was that the children got to choose whose hut they would sleep in every night. (Or in the cases of babies, whoever happened to be holding them when they fell asleep, though they were often passed to someone that had given birth recently for feeding reasons.)
Mostly he really appreciated the setup because it would've saved him a truly depressing childhood if he'd been allowed to choose new parents as a kid.
Okay, but seriously, the thing is-- the thing is, it's lucky he likes the way this planet works, and that the tribe in question is friendly and accommodating, because the stargate on this particular three-mooned planet was on the shore, and with all three moons together the tides were particularly vicious... and their slow circles around the planet meant that they'd be here another week or so before the water receded.
They'd already sent Elizabeth a message via radio contact while the shield was still up, but between flood the main room and wait, Elizabeth had wished them luck on their vacation (excuse me??) and laughed at his outrage when she signed off.
Still, any village that gave him a nice place to sleep, delicious slow-roasted whatever-this-meat-is and, most importantly, didn't try to shoot at him, was a nice village by him. It didn't hinder his good mood that there were a whole bunch of strange readings to explore, and a few interesting outposts within an easy puddlejumper ride, although so far most of those complexes lacked enough power to even turn on.
Shamefully, he'd lost half of his snickers bar to a six-year-old, which seemed to always happen around kids. No other way to convince them to leave him alone, apparently, and then they always came back for more.
They sat around the fire with some of the locals, eating what basically amounted to rabbit stew, the three moons bright in the northeast, even in their crescent states. Most had already retired for the night, particularly the hunters that would leave at first light, taking many of the children with them. A few remained, flitting here and there. One kept trying to pull herself to her feet, using a woman's leg as a gripping post. One was babbling happy about the weave of flowers her current father figure had put on her head. The preteens were sitting in a corner talking to each other rapidly, pretending they weren't tired yet. And Tress, the 4-year-old that had toddled after them today, fascinated by the jumper and the way it lit up for John, was nowhere to be se-
....tugging at John's BDUs with big brown eyes. "Hum?"