Fic: The Dances of Uzume

[paian]

Title: The Dances of Uzume
Author: paian
Word Count: 2800
Season: S7, set between 'Homecoming' and 'Fragile Balance.'
Summary: Daniel wanted to get friendly with these guys, wanted to find the Lost City here. Carter wanted to know how they were extracting whatever gas they were using in their dirigibles. Jack just wanted to get out alive.
Rating: PG-13 for language
Written For: theemdash
Prompt: Requirements: Offworld mission, S3-S7. Restrictions: No wimpy Daniel, no non-con. Optional request: Action-adventure with a side of romance.
Notes: Thanks and hugs to jd_junkie.

The Dances of Uzume | PG-13 | 2800 words | complete

Comments

Love this!

[chattycatsmeow.livejournal.com]

Great, Jack thought. It's the Flying Wallendas fresh from their kendo class.

LOL!! Excellent action story.


I know you've been faking it by substituting data for subjective recollection. This is a piece of data. I know it's in there. Over."

I love the thinky!Jack in this. I love how he's been analyzing Daniel based on empirical data and comparative analysis and coming up with the right answers.

I love the history lesson embedded in the defensive moves Jack sees Daniel making.

And I really love that this incident is the catalyst for the return of Daniel's memories of Jack.

Re: Love this!

[paian]

Oh, yay. Thank you for the wonderful feedback! :-)

The Dances of Uzume

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

Daniel looked into Jack's face, and his eyes were filled with recognition ... and affection. I know you, they said. You're the pain in the ass that crazy shit like this happens to me with.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I love the way you highlighted that fabulous physicality Daniel came back with, and grounded it in years of SGC training--muscle memory training that he can remember while he doesn't remember anything that might slow him down.

And I love this planet! Airships and bamboo swords! I'm betting that, disarmed, Daniel has the two fighters who came after them charmed, turned around, and halfway to a trade agreement in no time. :D

Re: The Dances of Uzume

[paian]

Oh yeah -- Daniel definitely will. :-)

Eeee, I'm so pleased that you liked the planet! And Daniel's hand-to-hand chops, and his moment of recognition.

::smishes you for the lovely feedback::

[paian]

Thank you so much! :-)

[lazigyrl.livejournal.com]

Daniel looked into Jack's face, and his eyes were filled with recognition ... and affection. I know you, they said. You're the pain in the ass that crazy shit like this happens to me with.

I just love that, how Jack can see in Daniel's eyes that he remembers him after all the crazy they just went through.

Flying Wallendas - so Jack.

[paian]

I'm so pleased that you enjoyed this. Thank you! :-)

[jd-junkie.livejournal.com]

Hee. Tons of bonus points for the Flying Wallendas. :-))

"I know you, they said. You're the pain in the ass that crazy shit like this happens to me with." And don't we just love that? Send more crazy shit. Stat.

This is so deftly done. A world of action and love and banter in a yummy bite- size (see CWM!) chunk of trademark Paian goodness.

*loves*

And thanks for the hugs. I return them manyfold. :-)

[paian]

lol! More crazy shit is on the way. *g*

Thank you so much for the lovely feedback, and for keeping those Acme candles lit at the St. Coyote shrine. ::laughs and hugs more::

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

Ah, I love the description of Daniel's look as interpreted by Jack. And the moment when Jack tries to think to Daniel about zatting.

The precise way you create the imagery and situation on that planet works very well. The stretch of that moment when Jack confronts Daniel about recollection is wonderful. Beautiful too how Jack reads the patterns exhibited by Daniels movements and how Siler and others are reflected in that. The way Daniel's subjective recognition shifts at the end is very fine.

I can't help but want more, which is a reflection of just how good this is. :)

[paian]

I'm so happy that this made you want more! There, um, will be. :-)

Thank you so much for your lovely feedback! ::hugs::

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

Yay! So glad for more.

And hugs right back at you. :)

[tresa-cho.livejournal.com]

Wonderful! I love the setting at the end, how it goes from OMGWTFCRAZYEVERYWHERE to a relaxed, slow 'we made it'. Very, very well done.

[paian]

Thanks so much! :-D

[lilyleia78]

Lovely world building here. I love the grace and history Jack can read in Daniel's fighting styles.

And the character study of Daniel - his faking it and not quite knowing people and just everything that Daniel was at this point in his return. ♥

[paian]

I'm so, so pleased to hear this. Thank you! :-)

[hivesofactivity.livejournal.com]

- and of Daniel's training, training Jack hadn't even known he'd been taking, tricks and techniques that only Dover could have taught him, or Hudson, or Stark, when he hadn't known Daniel was working with those guys at all.

...I loved it all, but especially the whole passage that ended with this, a recognition of SG-1's hinterland. And, also, really living up to the "no wimpy Daniel" restriction!

And I loved Jack's analysis of exactly where Daniel's memory is wonky, and where it isn't, and his articulation of it, under attack, over the radio, to Daniel. I love, love, love fic which allows Jack his intelligence, and Daniel his strength.

[paian]

Fantastic to hear -- thank you so much!

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Aw, this was lovely, pulling is straight into the action with all the craziness of battle and yet so much mentally going on and the setting of it beginning of Season Seven and just the picture of these airships and the rappelling warriors and...hee!

(but p.s. owie! Teal'c!)

[paian]

I'm so happy that you enjoyed it! :-)

About Teal'c -- I know, ow! He will need sutures, but he'll be OK.

[lavenderlocks.livejournal.com]

I think everyone else has quoted this paragraph:
"Listen to me, Daniel. There's a big honkin' gun aimed at the gate and a boatload of hostiles flying your way and I will start shooting them down to buy us time. I know you remember every fact you ever knew, I know that what you're missing is personal memories, not information. I know you've been faking it by substituting data for subjective recollection. This is a piece of data. I know it's in there. Over."
But then there's a reason for that ... it's perfect Jack-ish; betraying his own intelligence, and swiping away Daniel's defenses in one fell swoop.

Wonderful piece, thank you

[paian]

Thank you so much for the wonderful comments. :-) :-)

[sid]

Nope, that Daniel's definitely not wimpy! You hit all your prompts, and so very delightfully. Airships, for crying out loud! Such very alien warfare, for no known reason, with the possibility of future relations if we just don't kill everybody.

And now we have hostages, although I'm not certain how much weight they would possess as bargaining chips. Still....

Love how the last line encompasses so many things. :-)

[paian]

So glad to hear that you enjoyed it! :-)

[kuwdora.livejournal.com]

!!!!!!!!!

<3

*recedes into lurkdom with hearts in her eyes*

[paian]

Eeeee!

:-) :-) :-)

And ♥.

[discodiva76.livejournal.com]

Amazing stuff......will have visions of kendo wielding flying Wallendas for evah now!!....gorgeous descriptive narrative!...


Deeds xx

[paian]

lol -- thank you! I'm so happy that you liked it. :-) :-)

[rocky-no.livejournal.com]

This fic has such a fresh new world, its great to imagine everything happening, so different but flying (LOL) by at lightning speed in the fic.

And I love that it is in this adventure that Daniel's memory of Jack returns!

Thank you for another great J/D ficathon fic!

[paian]

Thank you so much for these lovely comments! :-)

[starglyph.livejournal.com]

You're making me quite the action/adventure fan!

I especially loved the time-dilation bubble moments with Kawalsky's ghost, and all the echoes of Daniel's past training. You brought me right in the bubble with the moment, but I could still feel the activity and urgency all around it. And I don't even know where to begin on how Jack thinks on Daniel; I just loved the realness of it.

Lovely, with action-packed fun!

[paian]

I'm so happy for what you enjoyed about this. Thanks so much! :-)

[fanficfan.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this as action-adventure, as a display of Daniel's grace (so apt combatting warriors coming out of a martial arts tradition yoked to the aerial flights of steampunk Wallendas), and as a metaphor for the shifting sands of Daniel's memory and reestablishment of his and Jack's relationship, obscured now as the grasses obscure sightlines but present in muscle memory.

[paian]

What gorgeous, lyrical fb. You enjoyed so much of what I hoped would be enjoyable in this. Thank you for telling me!

[dragojustine.livejournal.com]

This is incredible and I adore it. I love descension stories because I don't think the show handled Daniel's amnesia nearly well enough, and I love your intelligent Jack able to understand how Daniel is handling it- and then the gut-punch of the "He recognized how Daniel was faking it because he'd been faking it for most of a year" paragraph. You're able to articulate so exactly what it is each of them has lost, and how neither of them can get that back without the other. It's wonderful.

[paian]

Your comments make me so happy. Thank you! ♥

[saffronhouse.livejournal.com]

Wow, is this beautiful. Wow.

[paian]

I'm so sorry it took me so long to answer this. I got a huge kick seeing that you'd commented, and I'm truly thrilled that you enjoyed it. Thank you!