Meme time again

[aurora_novarum]

Gakked from about half of my flist by this point.

1. Comment to this post with the name of a character that I have written in fic.

2. I will comment, telling you the following:

a. What initially prompted me to like the character enough to write about him/her.
b. One of his/her best traits.
c. One of his/her worst traits.
d. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character.
e. The story/chapter/paragraph/phrase where I feel that I truly captured the character.
f. My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future.

Comments

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

a. What initially prompted me to like the character enough to write about him/her.
Oh, I adore Samantha! When I have to pick my favorite of the team, she's second favorite! I love her humanness. So driven to excellence in her career, so insecure and screwed up in her personal life (I can kinda relate to her).

b. One of his/her best traits.

Her fun side/sense of humor. When she's comfortable with something or someone, she truly shines. She teases Daniel, Jack O'Neill, and even Teal'c. She works on a motorcycle on base with Siler. She jumps at the chance of entering a space race. She geeks out over technical things that are just as riveting to her as going through the stargate. I wish we saw more of this part of Sam.


c. One of his/her worst traits.

As a character?
Her scientific side. She is so much at heart a soldier/scientist, she sometimes has to be forced to see past that. She thinks getting upset about Cassie is a sign of weakness, when Daniel points out it's a strength. Even her worries about Daniel dying doesn't stop her from wanting to try and get the naquadria that caused his death.

d. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character.

I find Sam as a person I connect to more than any of the other characters. That aspect I get, and can find easy to write. However, I've grown intimidated at writing Sam. Her technical/scientific side is a core part of who she is and I know next to nothing about it (most of her technobabble sounds good enough to me, even when I know it makes my scientific friends cringe). So I have mixed feelings on writing Sam.

e. The story/chapter/paragraph/phrase where I feel that I truly captured the character.

Well, "Az'heni" really is my tour-de-force for Sam, but I can't help but have special fondness for her OTT hovercraft/naquada grenade sequence from "Vanquishing Demons". :-)

Um, but this is where I felt most connected to Sam. I'm not sure if it's a Sam moment or if she's channeling me here, but... From "Girls Night In":

"That's the telling moment, isn't it?" Sam's eyes were haunted. "Deathbed realizations and making sure you don't have more regrets?"

Carolyn was still caught in her memories of her vigil, but she recognized the expression on Sam's face and remembered a notation in Sam's file. "You lost your father recently, didn't you?"

"Relatively, I suppose. It's been a couple years. But it's something you never quite get over. When the other SG-1s from alternate universes were here, he and Selmak were still alive in a few of them. I wondered if there was something we missed." Sam spun her wine glass around in her hand. "But we thought we were going to lose him years before this, so I'm grateful for what I had. Some of Sams never had the Tok'ra's intercession." She blinked at the blank looks on Carolyn and Vala's faces. "Dad had untreatable cancer eight years ago, was in a critical state. It was only by blending with Selmak he was saved. My job--meeting the Tok'ra--saved Dad's life."

"Your father was Tok'ra?" Vala straightened in her seat. "And this was after your own experience?"

Sam nodded. "Even though Dad and I got along okay before then, we really weren't close. Blending with Selmak softened up the rough edges. He and Mark reconciled. He had a relationship with his grandchildren. We worked together on missions, and...we talked. I'll always be grateful to Selmak for that."

f. My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future.
Well, there's the sg1teamficathon, of course. And I am currently writing her Making the Band scene, and there's a WIP from a "gateship challenge" from wayback that I still plan on finishing with poor Sam sick, and abyssis just reminded me of a Sam and Cam's dad story I started long ago. LOL. Looks like I've got lots of Sam on the burner. :-)