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

[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!