Eve11's sequel, a meme, and SGA questions

[aurora_novarum]

If you haven't read eve11's Folsum Prison Blues and its sequel, you should. And then read the latest addition in her answer to me when I played a writing meme on her lj.

In fact the meme was so fun, I want to play it too (come play with me! It's Friday!):

Name any story I've written, and any character in them, canon or OC. I'll tell you three things about that character which I didn't put in the story.

I plan on posting a rec later today of three awesome fics I've been lucky enough to get a sneak peek of betaed, as soon as someone finally posts hers. ;-)

Oh, and while I'm on here, a couple of SGA canon questions (weirdly for an SG-1 fic, but...don't ask). My SGA canon knowledge comes nowhere close to my SG-1 trivial info. 1) Do we know when Carson developed the Ancient gene? On Earth or on Atlantis? 2) Lorne has the Ancient gene, but is it canon as to whether he has it naturally or from the therapy or can I play either way? 3) How did that Ancient personal shield (from S1 and S3) attach to the person?

Comments

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

1) He perfected it soon after they got to Atlantis; I don't know if he'd been working on it on Earth, but I would think it's a safe bet he was.

2) I don't know if they've ever specified.

3) The first person (with the Ancient gene) to touch it activates it, and it imprints on that person so that that person is the only one who can use it. How it physically attaches to a person - Ancient velcro, as far as I can tell. :P

So...SG-1 fic using some Atlantean plot details, hmmm? *intrigued*

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

1) Oh, also, Carson did discover the Ancient gene, but what he developed was the gene therapy that delivered the missing gene to a person's cells. Er, I wasn't sure from the wording of your question if you that was understood or not...

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Well, I was asking about the gene therapy...but really I was just trying to figure out how much they knew and when they knew it. Because as sg_fignewton has pointed out in the past, SG-1 doesn't mention any "Ancient gene" until IGTBK, and by then it's an established fact that's glossed over in the show. People who don't watch SGA do a WTF?

I've gone through a Rising transcript to refresh my memory. :-)

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

Check out the Hide and Seek transcript too - Carson exposits for the audience about his gene therapy right at the beginning, even referring to trouble he may have had with the FDA on Earth. :P

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

The first person (with the Ancient gene) to touch it activates it, and it imprints on that person so that that person is the only one who can use it. How it physically attaches to a person - Ancient velcro, as far as I can tell. :P

They seem to change the rules on that imprinting thing in S3 (but it won't make a difference in my story). Ancient velcro! Hah! That's what I suspected! :-)

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you know, I totally can't remember how they used it in season 3, now that I'm thinking about it.

I mean, wow, totally drawing a blank. O_o I need sleep, man.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Maybe you skipped that episode, or blocked it from your brain (understandably). The title of the ep was "Irresponsible". :-p

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Oh, gosh, yes. It really bothered me that the rules suddenly changed on the personal shield.

Not nearly as much as the whole rest of the episode bothered me. I loathe Lucius Lavin!

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Yep. And it's funny, I probably would never thought this hard about it if redbyrd_sgfic wasn't so well versed from beating some fic of yours when she gave a looksee on MY WIP and started nitpicking my SGA asides. :-)

There are many things that bothered everyone (even TPTB) about Irresponsible. :-p

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

Oh, was that the second appearance of whatsisface, Louis? Loooo..something...us. If so then, um, yeah, I did sort of skip that one...sort of on purpose.... *cough*

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

You were wise. Yes. It's the Lucius sequel.

[shutthef-up.livejournal.com]

Yup mahoni is right.

1) Carson was a natural gene carrier, but he was pretty afraid of it in the pilot. I imagine he'd worked with it over time

2) Exactly. It's never been specified either way in Lorne's case

3) Yeah, it just seems to 'stick' to the user until it turns off or runs out of juice. Then it just falls off.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he was so cute being all scardy of it.

I didn't think it had been specified for Lorne. Cool. Now to decide which way I should play it. *cackles evilly*

So that's two votes for Ancient velcro. Got it. :-)

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Name any story I've written, and any character in them, canon or OC. I'll tell you three things about that character which I didn't put in the story.

Bill Lee: "Just a Scientist." (You knew I was going to ask about him, didn't you?)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

This has been surprisingly difficult because Bill kind of talked and thought about everything in the fic itself, so I wrote a couple of "post fic" scenes and some extra meta.

1. Bill Lee made a point to sign up for any and all refresher or orientation seminars for scientists who may go offworld. The main ones were run by a group of marines, a mixture of a couple of the SG teams and some of the on-base personnel. The first one was an orientation. Bill arrived and hung out with the other scientists, feeling a bit out of place. They were new to the base, still in shock and wonder at the fact people from Earth really did visit other planets. Some of them were even joking about being the next Indiana Jones. Bill had already lived through that, thank you very much, and it definitely wasn't like the movies.

Later when the lecture began, he broke his promise of keeping a low profile when the people behind him kept whispering to each other and not concentrating on the marine sergeant. He'd had enough and stood up, lecturing the shocked scientists on how they'd better as hell pay attention because it could save their lives or the lives of people they may be with and...he didn't even recall what all he had said. He just knew that after he'd finished his tirade, he was shaking and embarrassed for disrupting the lecture even more than the scientists had. The marine didn't seem to take offense though.

2. During their joint recuperation, Daniel helped Bill try and make sense of the multiple government forms detailing how they lost U.S. Government property. Despite Daniel's assurances that he wouldn't get into trouble and Colonel O'Neill's caustic comments about much larger and more expensive equipment getting lost on a daily basis, Bill still worried the US Air Force was going to knock on his door demanding reimbursement of at least the cash lost plus interest. He avoided going to supply for months afterwards. Out of all the nightmares he had from this event, this one was the most illogical.

3. I will say something about this story that's more meta. I had chosen to do this fic from Bill's perspective, but wasn't certain at first I wanted to do it solely from Bill's perspective. I ended up following through with that because A) it would be an outsider look on Daniel. B) My inspiration for writing the story was to find out what Bill meant by "everything" (and didn't know the answer myself until I wrote the scene and C) I was too chicken to whump poor Daniel (by the time I wrote the torture scene I didn't want to whump Bill either though. Obviously I got over it. *pets Bill*.

Also, I didn't have a clear idea in my head of who Bill should be? Would he be resentful of Daniel or the government dragging him through this ordeal? Would he be a lesser version of Felger, hero worshipping the scientist? (This was early in my fic writing and I'd barely *read* any fanfic), but they struck me as stereotypical and any attempts I made had Bill not sounding "right" to my ears. Eventually, I worked through things by starting in the middle–the scene of them walking through the jungle hands tied is the actual "first scene written", gauging Bill's reactions and getting a better sense of who he was as I went along. And I think that's why "Just a Scientist" is still a personal favorite of my stories.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Especially the way he signs up for all those courses and yells at the others for not taking it seriously.

Is there anyone out there who doesn't love Bill? :)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Hee! Yeah. I actually started writing that one out for the meme, but it got WAY ott, so I like this foreshortened version better.

Bill Lee for teh win!

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I plan on posting a rec later today of three awesome fics I've been lucky enough to get a sneak peek of betaed, as soon as someone finally posts hers. ;-)

Not me! I posted mine! :)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Nope not you. :-D Yours was on the list already with link, just waiting on my word prcessor. :-)

And the well deserved rec is posted now. YAY!

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

For your fic meme:

The poor confused doctor in "Trauma Confusion." I always felt sorry for laughing at her utter bafflement.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

1. After Dr. Jacobs had gotten over her shock, she tried to stop them, but they'd already disappeared. She noted in her hand were transfer orders and releases from the hospital...some sections already prefilled out. Not sure what she should do, or whether she'd be reprimanded for her failure, she nervously approached the hospital chief. After barely a glance the doctor waved off her concerns and said in more official language essentially what the janitor had told her the night before.

"Back during the Vietnam War, I used to work for a local hospital near an army base that was building weapons. It wouldn't happen as often as here, but occasionally, we'd see injuries from civilans who worked on things likely classified. Standard procedure was to refer them back to the base hospital. I learned a long time ago it's better not to ask questions on such things."

"But why...?"

"Questions like 'why' especially. You'll never get a satisfactory answer and it'll give you an ulcer trying to puzzle it out. I guess I should've warned you about it, but we hadn't seen anything in several months..." He looked at the papers again. "And this is one of the more dramatic events in a few years. It still doesn't top when we had to evacuate the building for the ER patient shooting out electrical radiation."

"Electrical..."

"Like I said, don't ask questions. Don't worry. I've met Doctor Fraiser a few times over at the academy hospital. If they left with her, they're in good care." And with a paternal smile, he steered her out of his office.

2. A few months later, she was picking up some groceries, and while in the dairy aisle, she spotted a familiar tall woman. She recognized her immediately, but her name didn't instantly come to mind. The woman must've noticed her staring, because she turned and looked, breaking into a puzzled half-smile as if expecting to recognize her from somewhere. Finally the name came back.

"I'm sorry for staring. Major...Carter?"

"Yes," the polite half-smile stayed in place as Major Carter placed a few yogurts in her cart.

"I'm Dr. Karen Jacobs. I saw you in the ER a while back."

"Oh?" Major Carter frowned in puzzlement, then Karen saw when the recognition hit. "Oh." Her expression instantly became more closed, and Karen remembered what her boss said about not asking questions.

"I was just..." What was she going to say. "I just...I hope you and your friend are okay. I've thought about you both from time to time."

Major Carter gave a rueful chuckle. "I bet. Yeah, sorry to have caused you trouble. Um, we're fine. We're both fine. Everyone is fine." She glanced around at the other shoppers with a wide smile before turning back to Karen. "I'm sorry I can't tell you anything more."

"No, I...well, I don't understand. But..."

"Right. Well, good to see you."

Karen watched the major head away with her cart, still not sure what to think about that night.

(too long, new comment)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

3. Karen Jacobs had an unusually light Sunday afternoon. Her next patient was a tall man with glasses, she could hear his wife worriedly lecturing him as she headed to the curtained area.

"...shouldn't have been up on that ladder in the first place.

"I've told you before, Mary. Accidents happen. I could've just gone into work to..."

"Oh no. You come home from work with enough unexplained bumps and bruises worrying me to death. Coming here, I can find out what's wrong. Why you don't get reassigned somewhere less dangerous."

"It's not..." The man sighed. "It's everyday stuff. And I'm good at my job." He stopped talking as she came in.

"Hello, I'm Doctor Jacobs. What seems to be the problem?"

"I'm sure it's nothing." The man smiled half-apologetically.

"He could've broken his arm!"

When Karen examined him, she was surprised at the number of older healing bruises. The injury itself appeared to be a sprain, and the x-ray confirmed it. "These are a lot of old injuries, sir." She glanced at the wife. "These are all work related?"

"Yes." The man sighed, and she didn't detect any deception. "I'm...a bit accident prone."

"Well, what kind of work do you do Mister Siler?"

"It's sergeant, ma'am. I work at the local air force base." He twitched a bit more uncomfortably at that.

"Peterson?"

"He works in that damned mountain."

"Ah." Behind her, she heard what almost sounded like a snicker. She turned to see the janitor at the far end of the room. He gave her a wink before going back to his sweeping.

"The base doctor is Doctor Fraiser, right? Well, you can give her this. You should stay on light duty for at least ten days, including no ladders." The wife looked satisfied, if not very happy. She gave him some work release forms and a prescription for pain killers. "And...just be careful, okay?"

Sgt. Siler gave her a grateful smile that she didn't pursue any more questions. "Yes, ma'am."

She caught the janitor giving a small nod to her as she passed by.

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

Hee! Yay! All of these are fun, but I especially love Sam's "Everyone's fine," and the fact that the last encounter is with poor Siler.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

LOL! I hadn't even made the connection with Cold Lazarus! Excellent. And yay for Siler!

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Hee. And yay Siler! (Poor accident prone guy)

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

I think the best answer to #3 is magic. Also differently since between S1 and S3 they completely forgot how the shield worked. Grrrrr

Your meme!
Vala in your most-Talion tag! (sorry, I'm blanking on the title)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

You said "Talion" so I'm assuming you mean "Between the Lines" and not "Girls Night In". Oooh. This one should be interesting.

1. Vala was very happy to be woken up from her Teal'c vigil to be told they were having dinner off the base. She picked out a couple outfits from her quarters and hurried to the women's locker room to get Samantha's opinion on which should she wear for a group night out with the general.

Sam told her to go with the blue top and black jeans. "It's likely not going to be anything fancy. More along the lines of comfort food."

"Gotcha." Vala grinned and started to change.

"Um...Vala. Did Daniel talk to you at all about this dinner?"

"No." She looked up, puzzled. "Come to think of it, he wasn't talking much at all when they invited me."

"Ah." Samantha's face took on the same odd expression Daniel's had when Vala had seen the two men. "Well, it-it's not strange the general would come out here to check on Teal'c, but..." Her voice trailed off.

"But?" Vala prompted.

"He's going to want to know what really happened. Remember how we explained that Teal'c's actions might not be interpreted well in certain circles?"

"Right." Vala was puzzled. "But Jack O'Neill is your friend, right? You think he's going to be mad at Teal'c?"

"No. It's not that. It's...people may raise questions, and go after Jack for the answers. So, it's better if he doesn't know."

"So...you're counting on General O'Neill to stop additional questions from coming back on Teal'c, but you don't want him to know the answers himself?"

"Well, we're not...counting on him to do it. I mean, we know he will but..." Samantha began to look cross at Vala's questioning of it. "It's for his protection that he doesn't know. He won't have to lie for us. He'll be telling the truth as he knows it."

Vala shrugged on her top. "That sounds perfectly stupid to me."

"Vala..." Sam glared, and Vala could tell she was revving up for a lecture that would probably rival a Daniel rant, so she forestalled the maneuver by waving her hand.

"Fine, fine. I won't say anything. I am pretty versed in the art of deception you know."

Sam gave a faint smile and bit her lip. "I know. But so is General O'Neill."

Vala blinked, then followed her friend out to join the others. She hoped maybe Teal'c could explain what seemed to be another bizarre Tau'ri custom, then remembered her friend's current state, putting a damper on her interest in this dinner.

2. Vala sat enjoying her meal, and bits from Daniel or Sam's plates. She wished one of them had ordered something different so she could try a bit more variety. She listened to the conversation and could read the tell of a hidden warning in Jack O'Neill's words as much as from the others. He was hiding stuff from them as well. But Samantha and Daniel had insisted he would be on their side.

He certainly had made his loyalties quite clear when Daniel was in danger. She had heard him shouting at Woolsey from the next floor up. It made her feel a bit safer to know someone was protecting Daniel's interests. If she had had to break Daniel out to avoid killing him, she had considered including Jack O'Neill on the plan.

It was when he dismissed the Trust conspiracy theories she realized–Jack O'Neill's influence had taken a hit after his protection of Daniel. The people he dealt with in Washington didn't trust him as much now. She understood that concept all too well. He was protecting the team from this revelation of weakness–not as a macho power show like that idiotic senator last year, this was part of that same deluded idea of protection that SG-1 seemed to be trying to use against him. Not for the first time did Vala Mal Doran realize what a dysfunctional group she'd cast her lot with–it was one of the reasons she liked them so much.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

3. During the confusion of paying the bill and sorting the leftover containers, with Vala distracting Daniel by the loaded question of asking why they called them "doggie bags", Vala thought it would be a perfect opportunity to snag that Asgard device. It wouldn't hurt to take a closer look at it. She could even slip it back in someone's pocket before they noticed it was missing (and when had she start thinking about returning stuff?) Her hand snaked out, ostensibly grabbing the remaining bread in the group basket, but reaching under to the napkin. Mitchell's lame hand snagged around her wrist. She took advantage of his weakness to twist out of his grip, returning his glare. She looked down in alarm when the napkin revealed no device was there.

Her glare was replaced by an expression of honest shock, looking at each of them in turn. "I swear. I didn't..."

"It's all right. I've already got it covered." Vala stared at O'Neill's unconcerned expression. She had kept an eye on the device ever since he'd covered it with that napkin. She hadn't seen him remove it. Everyone was getting up to leave now. Vala realized Jack O'Neill was not a man to be underestimated.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

oh, oh, I LOVE the conversation with Sam. All of it. So much. So very, very much.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Are you still meming? How about three things about Harrid and Sallis? (I think those are their names - the poor couple from the S9 opener that you brought so beautifully to life. Before they died, of course.)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

I am still memeing (instead of working on my ficathon, silly me). I will get to this one too. I'm just posting the other three now. Poor Harrid and Sallis.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

You've been so patient, and with the ficathon finally done (I'm resisting temptation to futz with it more, because I'm to the point I'm changing my mind back and forth on some of the same things).

Anyway, Harrid and Sallis.

1. Harrid's family was relatively well-off in the town. Sallis was not from as rich a family but she was always very popular amongst the village. They grew up together with Fannis and Traddin and a bunch of others. Sallis became interested in Harrid when he stuck to his guns in asking logical questions to the teacher that "the Ori provide" just didn't quite answer. Harrid never thought Sallis was interested in him until Fannis nudged him out of his books and to give it a try.

2. Harrid and Sallis had only been married about ten months by the time Daniel and Vala connected with them through the stones. That's why Harrid has a bit of an idealized view of his wife on top of his overprotective chivalry on her behalf. He was still at the stage that he could see no faults in her day to day actions. She kept him focused on the practical things, he kept her mind engaged with philosophy and history. And they both had the risks of working against the Ori to bind them together and savor every moment.

3. Sallis was just as inspired by Vala as Harrid was by Daniel. Sallis was intrigued by Vala's freedom and caustic views of "blind faith" because it confirmed much of what she suspected not only of the Ori, but of their followers. She and Vala shared the idea of being practical, but Sallis's rebellion was centered on a cause. She didn't comprehend Vala's lust for the con, and pitied her for her jaded view of life. Daniel Jackson struck her as more of a kindred spirit to Harrid, but she worried he was a little too much like Harrid with his nose in books. She was also quite disturbed by the dark memories she got hints of in Vala's past.

4. I hated giving them that horrible burning death ending, so aside from the hopeful note of them being together at the end and having followers still keeping the faith (pretty cool considering I wrote this long before Crusade), so I left a bit of ambiguity at that point on the brightness of the light. Did Harrid's connection to Daniel and his own research give him enough knowledge for he and Sallis to ascend? Very doubtful, and later canon about the Alteran/Ori war contradicts it entirely, but I couldn't resist giving that bit of possibility of seeing the bright light if readers ever wanted to interpret it that way.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, lovely. Especially #2 (odd as that is coming from me!). To be honest, I never noticed the ambiguity of the light, but - I really did like these little snippets. I really wanted to include Harrid and Sallis as OCs in my OC rec month, but I thought it would be cheating. :)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Aw.

The light thing is a half-line barely noticeable spot that probably only exists in my head, but hee. It's my tiny transom window out of it totally being a death fic. LOL

And AW for the consideration! Yeah, H&S are OC Other characters/secondary characters more than Original Characters. Poor couple.