fic: The Astonishing Persistence Of Memory - Past Time

[tielan]

Right, well, this is what I get for not configuring my 'tracking' properly (and not checking my f-list for a couple of days).

The sgabigbang challenge has gone live! (And the site is gorgeous.)

TITLE: The Astonishing Persistence Of Memory - Past Time
SUMMARY: The last they saw of him was as Kolya's prisoner, drained by the Wraith. When Atlantis finds John Sheppard living in a Pegasus village, with no memory of who he is, they endeavour to restore his memory. But a lot of things have changed in six months, including John himself. And there are some things he doesn't want to remember.
CATEGORY: drama, action-adventure, team
PAIRINGS: John/Teyla UST, John/other
RATING: PG-13
NOTES: For some reason, I can't find my Alpha- and Beta- thanks on the site, so, here we go:
THANK-YOUS: To wojelah and ladyjax for alphaing - really detailed alphaing, with encouragement and prodding and very very helpful comments which I loved getting because even if there was bad, it was detailed bad that I could do something about!

To saeva, who listened and chatted but didn't manage to finish up her Big Bang after all. (Maybe next year? *hopeful*)

To my betas, who barely blinked when I dumped a 60K story in their laps, but came back with comments that elaborated on OMG and WTF and ??? and !!!

To kristen999 whose fic 'Take These Wings And Learn To Fly' prompted me to go read up about possible situations for John's history, and who did the honour of beta'ing the section on John’s USAF history.

To the artists liviapenn, tli, and almostnever for their lovely artworks and video!

And to the people who cheered me on, offered encouragement, picked me up and dusted me off, and generally were awesome, amazing friends to me during this period - thank you all so very much!

--

The Astonishing Persistence Of Memory: Promo Vid
by tli

The Astonishing Persistence Of Memory: Cover Art
by almostnever

John Remembers Her: Story Art
by liviapenn

I'm looking for people to review the story (a little more in-depth than feedback) - there's a note on the feedback post about it. If you're interested, please offer!

Finally, feedback is always loved.

Comments

[raksha38.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEEEE!!! So exciting!

And that site is indeed gorgeous.

*goes off to read*

[tielan]

*pokes*

[beatrice_otter]

I read it and enjoyed it. Thank you.

[tielan]

Thanks!

(Could you go and leave feedback on the feedback page, please? It makes it all nice and neat...)

[renisanz.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm a little over halfway through your big bang, and OMG, John Sheppard is Jason Bourne.

Back to the story. . .

[tielan]

LOL. Except for the killing people without knowing how he does it part.

[renisanz.livejournal.com]

Lol. Well, that's true. However, the part that really made me thing of the comparison was when Gen. O'Niell (I think it was him) said, "You're a weapon," because that's the same thing that was said to Bourne at the end of the first film. Yeah, and the whole memory loss thing. :)

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome.

[raksha38.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEEEE!!! So exciting!

And that site is indeed gorgeous.

*goes off to read*

[tielan]

*pokes*

[beatrice_otter]

I read it and enjoyed it. Thank you.

[tielan]

Thanks!

(Could you go and leave feedback on the feedback page, please? It makes it all nice and neat...)

[renisanz.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm a little over halfway through your big bang, and OMG, John Sheppard is Jason Bourne.

Back to the story. . .

[tielan]

LOL. Except for the killing people without knowing how he does it part.

[renisanz.livejournal.com]

Lol. Well, that's true. However, the part that really made me thing of the comparison was when Gen. O'Niell (I think it was him) said, "You're a weapon," because that's the same thing that was said to Bourne at the end of the first film. Yeah, and the whole memory loss thing. :)

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome.

[raksha38.livejournal.com]

So like I said (http://tielan.livejournal.com/293891.html), I felt bad that you didn't see my comment on this fic and thought I'd ignored it, so here I am to leave even longer feedback by way of apology (you can still read the original comment in that link). Alas, my new pain meds are not all I'd hoped, so I'll probably have to split this up over the next day or two.

So, first some stuff I really, really liked:

1) The premise. I've always found amnesia a very sad and moving premise for a fic, but I think I find it even more heartbreaking after my grandmother got severe dementia and had to move in with us. That whole loss of self/loss of a loved one thing really hits me hard. Our memories and life experiences make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose a major part of ourselves, no matter how much of our experience-created instincts and tendencies remain. We may still have beliefs, desires, and habits, but without being able to know where those come from, I think that severely diminishes and limits us. To see that happen to a character I really care about hurts! But like I said before, you make it hurt so good! Thankfully, John was still there underneath and not lost forever, so I think that lessened the blow for me a bit.

2) Consequences. One major complaint I have about the show that I know a lot of other people share is that very rarely do things carry over into other episodes. After something happens, so frequently they just hit the reset button, especially when it comes to character development. I always thought there should have been some major fallout from "Common Ground." It was so very intense. Luckily, there was more carry-over from that episode than from most, but mostly just as far as plot goes. Sure, that's where we got Todd, who's become very important. And it was obvious that the next time John saw Kolya, he was going to kill him. (But did it have to be in an episode with Lucius? Really?) But there was no emotional fallout for John. I think in your reworking, there were huge emotional consequences that were absolutely unavoidable, even for one so good as repressing and ignoring as John! And this is a story that catches the reader up in the emotion as much as the characters.

3) The character voices. This is always one of your strong suits. They always sound so true to the characters as we see them on screen, but also true to real live people that I never find your AUs, however cracktastic they may be, to be unbelievable in the slightest. I'm sure it was no easy task to make John seem like varying shades of the John we know, depending on his level of memory loss/recovery at various times, but you did really well. I also liked your original characters, like Ivali and Edwards. They seemed like real people with their own lives and histories, not just cyphers for whatever was needed to make the situation for the main characters.

4) Speaking of having their own lives and histories, I loved the part Pegasus played. It just seemed more alive and real. It wasn't just an indistinct backdrop to the action. It had its own purpose and its own points of view.

5) Ronon and Teyla. I know you and I are totally on the same page as far as those two being criminally underused on the show, so I always love it when they get some really juicy stuff. It was a given that I was going to love your Teyla and love the J/T subtext, but I loved what you did with Ronon too. I loved that they were still John's touchstones, no matter what shape his memory's in.


Yeowch. I think that's it for me tonight. More later!

[raksha38.livejournal.com]

So like I said (http://tielan.livejournal.com/293891.html), I felt bad that you didn't see my comment on this fic and thought I'd ignored it, so here I am to leave even longer feedback by way of apology (you can still read the original comment in that link). Alas, my new pain meds are not all I'd hoped, so I'll probably have to split this up over the next day or two.

So, first some stuff I really, really liked:

1) The premise. I've always found amnesia a very sad and moving premise for a fic, but I think I find it even more heartbreaking after my grandmother got severe dementia and had to move in with us. That whole loss of self/loss of a loved one thing really hits me hard. Our memories and life experiences make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose a major part of ourselves, no matter how much of our experience-created instincts and tendencies remain. We may still have beliefs, desires, and habits, but without being able to know where those come from, I think that severely diminishes and limits us. To see that happen to a character I really care about hurts! But like I said before, you make it hurt so good! Thankfully, John was still there underneath and not lost forever, so I think that lessened the blow for me a bit.

2) Consequences. One major complaint I have about the show that I know a lot of other people share is that very rarely do things carry over into other episodes. After something happens, so frequently they just hit the reset button, especially when it comes to character development. I always thought there should have been some major fallout from "Common Ground." It was so very intense. Luckily, there was more carry-over from that episode than from most, but mostly just as far as plot goes. Sure, that's where we got Todd, who's become very important. And it was obvious that the next time John saw Kolya, he was going to kill him. (But did it have to be in an episode with Lucius? Really?) But there was no emotional fallout for John. I think in your reworking, there were huge emotional consequences that were absolutely unavoidable, even for one so good as repressing and ignoring as John! And this is a story that catches the reader up in the emotion as much as the characters.

3) The character voices. This is always one of your strong suits. They always sound so true to the characters as we see them on screen, but also true to real live people that I never find your AUs, however cracktastic they may be, to be unbelievable in the slightest. I'm sure it was no easy task to make John seem like varying shades of the John we know, depending on his level of memory loss/recovery at various times, but you did really well. I also liked your original characters, like Ivali and Edwards. They seemed like real people with their own lives and histories, not just cyphers for whatever was needed to make the situation for the main characters.

4) Speaking of having their own lives and histories, I loved the part Pegasus played. It just seemed more alive and real. It wasn't just an indistinct backdrop to the action. It had its own purpose and its own points of view.

5) Ronon and Teyla. I know you and I are totally on the same page as far as those two being criminally underused on the show, so I always love it when they get some really juicy stuff. It was a given that I was going to love your Teyla and love the J/T subtext, but I loved what you did with Ronon too. I loved that they were still John's touchstones, no matter what shape his memory's in.


Yeowch. I think that's it for me tonight. More later!