fic post - Shore Leave ch. 1
May. 22nd, 2006 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseOkay! I'm finally set to go on this, I think.
What we’ve got here is a good old-fashioned AU. The story requires the background of Serenity to make it work, but I couldn’t imagine the whole thing without everybody involved. So… here goes. Let’s all pretend that Joss stuck with his original plan of nobody getting left behind in the movie, and go from there. ;)
Title: Shore Leave
Chapter: 1 of ??
Fandom: Firefly
Characters: All
Warnings and rating: post-Serenity AU, so spoilers... but not the big nasty things. At the moment, thoroughly PG - expect changes in later chapters.
Summary: The crew is under fire from the Alliance again, and in desperate need of a safe haven. Staying with the Cobb family solves one problem, but it might cause more than a few others...
“Sir, we’re receiving a signal on all channels. Thought you might want to have a look, although...”
“All channels?” Mal moved to lean over Wash’s shoulder, aware of Zoe behind him, her hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Play the wave.”
Wash nodded and turned on the screen. For a moment, the screen remained black, and then a computer-generated image of a young man of about River’s age appeared. The boy stood in the middle of a white-sand desert, naked from the waist up to reveal a veritable forest of tribal-looking tattoos over his chest and arms. A huge pendant showing the Chinese symbols for prosperity and eternal life hung over his sternum, and atop it all he wore a black beret.
“Brothers, sisters - the revolution is upon us! The parliament is trying to take our rights away! We’ve got to fight the power, man!”
Text appeared over the young man’s face, now, outlining the manifesto of a new anarchist order to be based out of Osiris.
“Why do I get the feeling this kid wants to be the head of this brave new order?” Wash asked.
“Spoiled rich boy decides to makes a new world with his daddy’s fortune?” Zoe smirked. “That’s hardly a new-“
“Quiet.”
Mal and Zoe both glanced back to see River staring fixedly at the screen. Wash glanced in her direction, then turned his attention back to the screen. The boy’s ranting continued, but River seemed to be listening beyond his voice, somehow, her head cocked slightly to the side as the message played. After a short time, it faded to black for a moment and resumed exactly as it had before, and River nodded. “It’s a message.”
Mal very much disliked the solemn expression in little River’s eyes. “From who?”
“The operative.” River curled up in the co-pilot’s chair, tucking her feet up under her. “The men with blue hands are after him. Planning to kill himself before they find him, but he found a way to reach us that they couldn’t trace. The parliament has given up, but they never stop coming. He understands now.”
“Life just keeps getting more complicated, doesn’t it?”
“Does seem to, sir.”
Mal glanced at Zoe - her body was tensed, her face tightly drawn, and her hand clenched tightly on Wash’s shoulder. The memory of everything the operative had caused in their last encounter - not least the near-death of her husband - was clearly not sitting well with her. He turned back to River to give his first mate some time. “Don’t suppose our psychotic little friend has any ideas on how to avoid them, does he?”
“Says we should hide, keep safe until we know what the next step is.”
“Go to ground, right - just what he prevented us ever doing again the last time we dealt with him.”
Zoe nodded. “We ought to let the others know about all of this.”
“Right.” Mal sighed. “Best get it over with now, then. Put the ship on auto, Wash, and let’s get everyone together in the kitchen.”
Wash nodded and turned to the controls, while Mal, River and Zoe headed back toward the kitchen. Jayne sat at the table sharpening his knives, while Kaylee and Inara worked at something on the counter. Simon leaned against the wall across from Kaylee, going over a medical journal.
“Hey, Captain. ‘Nara and I almost got dinner on.”
“Good. We can eat while we talk over our latest predicament.”
Jayne looked up from his work. “We got a job?”
“Not so much. What we got is another set of crazies bound on ending us.”
Inara set aside the bowl of molded protein she’d been stirring. “When did this happen? We haven’t stopped on a planet for the last three weeks, how did we manage to make another enemy?”
“Well, technically this ain’t a new enemy so much as an old one.”
“Men who want to bring me back to the academy.” River slipped past Mal and Zoe to curl into a chair at the table. With her feet tucked under her once again, she looked as though she was trying to make as small a target as possible. “The men with blue hands.”
Simon knelt on the floor in front of his sister, the skin between his eyebrows creased with worry. “River... how do you know this?”
“The government man sent a message.”
Inara snorted. “And we’re going to believe him? After all the trouble he caused us?”
“According to little River here, them that are after us are after him as well, probably looking for information on our whereabouts. From what he apparently said, he plans to end himself ‘fore they can get him, so at least that’s not a problem. But that still leaves us with a world of trouble to deal with.”
Kaylee carried three bowls of molded protein over to the table, but even Jayne seemed uninterested in it. Mal filled a bowl for himself and forced down a few bites despite the way his stomach twisted against him. The food felt like paste in his throat, but he swallowed nonetheless. Didn’t do a bit of good to refuse food while they had it, even if the thought made him sick.
“So... what’re we gonna do?’
“Well, way I see it we don’t have much choice. We hide for a while, find someplace these folks won’t find us, and wait until we can come up with a more solid plan.”
“Where?” Zoe gestured with her chopsticks. “Sanchez brothers are down, Haven’s practically destroyed…”
“I can check with my contacts, but I haven’t been keeping up with social niceties as well as I should have these last weeks,” Inara admitted. “With what happened at the training house… I’m not sure who would be willing to take us in, even if we could somehow excuse all of you coming with me. At best, I might be able to hide River away…”
“That’d put your girls at risk of bein’ killed when these men come for her. We ain’t bringing more innocents in than needed, especially not folks what can’t defend themselves.” Mal scanned the table. “We’re runnin’ out of options fast, people, but we need us a bit of cover, just until we have a better idea. Gotta think outside the usual boxes.”
There was silence for a moment, then Kaylee lifted her head. “What about family? My folks might be able to…”
“No, Kaylee.” Mal shook his head. “Already went and stole their baby girl into all this mess, I’m not running back to your daddy and tellin’ him we need to hide in the root cellar, too. Too much risk for them. This is all over, I’ll be happy to drop you at home if you decide you’re done here…”
“No.” Kaylee squared her small shoulders. “You know I’ll stay, Cap’n. I just thought... Don’t matter. You’re right, it wouldn’t work. We ain’t got room for nine people at our place, anyhow, even if they’d say it’d be okay.”
“My family, either,” Wash put in. “Beylix is too close to the core, anyway - we’d get snagged by an Alliance cruiser before we could get past the planetary border.”
“I got a thought.”
Mal blinked at Jayne. This was bound to be good, but it beat sitting around staring at each other. “Alright…?”
“My family’s got a lot a’ land out on Angel - ain’t rich, but got practically army of us, and a few strangers wouldn’t go noticed if’n we could find someplace to set the ship down where she wouldn’t get seen. There’s enough Cobbs we can hide all of us away better’n anybody can find.”
“I don’t mean any offense, but...” Simon tasted the words on his tongue before continuing. “How can we know no one will get the idea of selling us off? Not your direct family, I mean,” he added quickly, sensing an explosion of rage headed his way. “If it’s such a big extended family, someone might accidentally let in an outsider who could…”
Jayne snorted. “My mama gives her word on something, ain’t nobody in the family’s brave enough to go against her.” He turned to Mal, visibly proud. “Doc, his sister an’ the rest of us’ll be under her protection. And sure as hell nobody could say the Cobbs don’t know how to defend their own.”
It wasn’t at all what Mal’d hoped for, but it might be just what they needed to survive. “Alright, Jayne. Can you get a message out to your family? We don’t have time to wait on post for this.”
“Think the town store by my sister Eddie’s place has a cortex screen. I’ll wave and ask’em to get her in to talk to me.”
“You do that. Tell her we’ll pay in work as we can, maybe a bit of cargo if we can spare something. Make a point of the doc, Kaylee, and the shepherd. I’ve never yet seen a town where things didn’t need fixin’, or people didn’t want doctorin’ and prayin’. Everybody else… let’s look into everything we can find about Angel. Kaylee, Wash, I want you figurin’ on how we can hide Serenity once we’re there. Shepherd Book, ‘Nara, River - you take a look at cultural stuff might get us into or out of trouble. Don’t know how long we’ll be there, but it’s likely to be longer than we’ve set down anywhere in a good while. Doc…”
“I’ll go over the medical records on Angel, and see what innoculations and common health problems we’ll have to consider.”
“Good. Zoe, you’re with me - let’s see what we’ve got to spare in the hold that might do us good in trade if we need it. Might be we’ll have to sweeten the deal if it means nine extra mouths to feed. Get to it, people. We’ll be heading out as soon as Jayne’s got us the go-ahead.”
The crew all but scampered to their jobs, and Mal could already hear Kaylee chattering about how nice it’d be to set down on a planet for a while more than just a drop-off for a job. She made it sound like a vacation. He hoped she wasn’t too far from right.
* * *
Given the vagaries of communication out on the Rim, it actually took surprisingly little time for Jayne to hear back from his sister. The next afternoon, she sent a wave from the general store asking for her brother, and Jayne, Mal, and Zoe huddled around the screen eyeing a woman who looked to be somewhere in her late thirties to early forties, with broad shoulders and a round, apple-ruddy face.
“Higgins said you needed to talk to me - you got yourself in trouble again, boy? Thought you’d finally settled a bit, with that ship of yours.”
“Got trouble, but it ain’t on me,” Jayne grumbled.
“What he means, ma’am, is this trouble has our whole crew in hold, and Jayne here thought y’all might be able to help us out with it,” Mal put in, giving a polite nod to the woman on the screen.
“You must be the captain of that ship Jayne’s got, then - Reginald, is it?”
“Reynolds, ma’am - Malcolm Reynolds at your service. And this here’s my first mate, Zoe.”
“Eddie Cobb,” the woman replied, nodding. “Well, what kinda trouble y’all in that you think we could help, then? Jayne must’a told you we ain’t got much in the way a’ capital, so if it’s a business venture you’re lookin’ for...”
“Not as such, ma’am.” Mal hesitated, trying to find the best way to express their problems. “Seems some of our crew have some enemies after them, through no fault of their own, and those enemies mean to take us all down with ‘em. Jayne suggested a handful of strangers might find space on Angel where they wouldn’t be seen, might lie low til we think of a better solution to our troubles.”
“What kind’a trouble these crew of yours in, Mr Reynolds? Don’t care what Jayne might’a told you, our family’s got principles - we ain’t touchin’ slavers, nor drugs or anything of that kind.”
“Nothing like that, I promise you. It’s a bit of a touchy subject, I’ll grant you, though.” Mal rubbed his nose, then turned off-screen. “River? You come over here, li’l albatross.” The next part of his plan required her being seen, for more than one reason.
River moved unhesitatingly to his side, peering with curiosity into the cortex screen.
Mal smiled grimly to himself. Brutal honesty’d be best, here, and he’d use it. “Eddie, this here’s River. Seems some government men got into their heads they could play around with her brain, muck around and remake how things work in ways I don’t pretend to understand. Her brother’s a doctor, he managed to get her out and mostly figured out, but turns out they didn’t much like that. The men are lookin’ to get her back, and, ah... we’re looking to keep her out. Her and her brother, both. Their our main trouble.” Them and a contingent of Alliance cruisers what should’ve been enough to stop an army, Mal added in his mind... but a little bit of creative truth-telling never hurt anybody. Least not so long as it was him being creative, not the other guy. “Eighteen year-old girl got no place in a government holding cell, Miss Eddie. Let alone some hundan’s idea of a science experiment.”
Eddie and River eyed each other in silence for a moment, then the older woman turned her attention to her brother. “That all true, Jayne?”
Jayne shifted his feet a bit. Mal resisted the urge to smile - Jayne’d been uncomfortable thinking on what had been done to River ever since his little incident on Ariel. Good enough - Mal’d happily let him stew a bit in his juices if it meant he’d tell it honestly to his sister. “Yeah, s’true. Girl’s a bit of a moon-brain, but... s’cause of the stuff they did to her, no fault of her own. Jus’... just keep her the hell away from cortex screens, that’s all,” he added.
Of all the times for Jayne to get truthsome, Mal figured that of course he’d chosen the worst. “Ah, what Jayne means there is that we had some trouble with River getting... upset, off of some commercial on a cortex screen. Turned out to be subliminal.”
Eddie just nodded slowly. “Got ways of keeping her under control, I’m guessin’? Otherwise I s’pose you’d all be bloated and blue by now, seein’ how you’re on a spaceship. Well. I got a limit on time, here, so you all just come down here and have a chat with Mama. I’ll warn her you’re comin’, tell her all you’ve told me. With what Jayne said of your crew, I think we might be able to make arrangements, Captain Reynolds.”
“Thank you kindly, Ma’am.” Mal nodded to her. “We’ll be on Angel in about ten days, then.”
“Don’t thank me yet, you’ve still gotta get past Mama. But she’s been fair dyin’ to see her baby boy again, so I figure you’ll get points for finally draggin’ him home after all these years. Be good, boy - don’t want to have to tell Mama anything worse than I’m already reporting.”
As soon as the screen cut to black, Jayne snorted and headed off the bridge, shaking his head.
Mal grinned at Zoe. “Think I might come to like that woman.”
What we’ve got here is a good old-fashioned AU. The story requires the background of Serenity to make it work, but I couldn’t imagine the whole thing without everybody involved. So… here goes. Let’s all pretend that Joss stuck with his original plan of nobody getting left behind in the movie, and go from there. ;)
Title: Shore Leave
Chapter: 1 of ??
Fandom: Firefly
Characters: All
Warnings and rating: post-Serenity AU, so spoilers... but not the big nasty things. At the moment, thoroughly PG - expect changes in later chapters.
Summary: The crew is under fire from the Alliance again, and in desperate need of a safe haven. Staying with the Cobb family solves one problem, but it might cause more than a few others...
“Sir, we’re receiving a signal on all channels. Thought you might want to have a look, although...”
“All channels?” Mal moved to lean over Wash’s shoulder, aware of Zoe behind him, her hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Play the wave.”
Wash nodded and turned on the screen. For a moment, the screen remained black, and then a computer-generated image of a young man of about River’s age appeared. The boy stood in the middle of a white-sand desert, naked from the waist up to reveal a veritable forest of tribal-looking tattoos over his chest and arms. A huge pendant showing the Chinese symbols for prosperity and eternal life hung over his sternum, and atop it all he wore a black beret.
“Brothers, sisters - the revolution is upon us! The parliament is trying to take our rights away! We’ve got to fight the power, man!”
Text appeared over the young man’s face, now, outlining the manifesto of a new anarchist order to be based out of Osiris.
“Why do I get the feeling this kid wants to be the head of this brave new order?” Wash asked.
“Spoiled rich boy decides to makes a new world with his daddy’s fortune?” Zoe smirked. “That’s hardly a new-“
“Quiet.”
Mal and Zoe both glanced back to see River staring fixedly at the screen. Wash glanced in her direction, then turned his attention back to the screen. The boy’s ranting continued, but River seemed to be listening beyond his voice, somehow, her head cocked slightly to the side as the message played. After a short time, it faded to black for a moment and resumed exactly as it had before, and River nodded. “It’s a message.”
Mal very much disliked the solemn expression in little River’s eyes. “From who?”
“The operative.” River curled up in the co-pilot’s chair, tucking her feet up under her. “The men with blue hands are after him. Planning to kill himself before they find him, but he found a way to reach us that they couldn’t trace. The parliament has given up, but they never stop coming. He understands now.”
“Life just keeps getting more complicated, doesn’t it?”
“Does seem to, sir.”
Mal glanced at Zoe - her body was tensed, her face tightly drawn, and her hand clenched tightly on Wash’s shoulder. The memory of everything the operative had caused in their last encounter - not least the near-death of her husband - was clearly not sitting well with her. He turned back to River to give his first mate some time. “Don’t suppose our psychotic little friend has any ideas on how to avoid them, does he?”
“Says we should hide, keep safe until we know what the next step is.”
“Go to ground, right - just what he prevented us ever doing again the last time we dealt with him.”
Zoe nodded. “We ought to let the others know about all of this.”
“Right.” Mal sighed. “Best get it over with now, then. Put the ship on auto, Wash, and let’s get everyone together in the kitchen.”
Wash nodded and turned to the controls, while Mal, River and Zoe headed back toward the kitchen. Jayne sat at the table sharpening his knives, while Kaylee and Inara worked at something on the counter. Simon leaned against the wall across from Kaylee, going over a medical journal.
“Hey, Captain. ‘Nara and I almost got dinner on.”
“Good. We can eat while we talk over our latest predicament.”
Jayne looked up from his work. “We got a job?”
“Not so much. What we got is another set of crazies bound on ending us.”
Inara set aside the bowl of molded protein she’d been stirring. “When did this happen? We haven’t stopped on a planet for the last three weeks, how did we manage to make another enemy?”
“Well, technically this ain’t a new enemy so much as an old one.”
“Men who want to bring me back to the academy.” River slipped past Mal and Zoe to curl into a chair at the table. With her feet tucked under her once again, she looked as though she was trying to make as small a target as possible. “The men with blue hands.”
Simon knelt on the floor in front of his sister, the skin between his eyebrows creased with worry. “River... how do you know this?”
“The government man sent a message.”
Inara snorted. “And we’re going to believe him? After all the trouble he caused us?”
“According to little River here, them that are after us are after him as well, probably looking for information on our whereabouts. From what he apparently said, he plans to end himself ‘fore they can get him, so at least that’s not a problem. But that still leaves us with a world of trouble to deal with.”
Kaylee carried three bowls of molded protein over to the table, but even Jayne seemed uninterested in it. Mal filled a bowl for himself and forced down a few bites despite the way his stomach twisted against him. The food felt like paste in his throat, but he swallowed nonetheless. Didn’t do a bit of good to refuse food while they had it, even if the thought made him sick.
“So... what’re we gonna do?’
“Well, way I see it we don’t have much choice. We hide for a while, find someplace these folks won’t find us, and wait until we can come up with a more solid plan.”
“Where?” Zoe gestured with her chopsticks. “Sanchez brothers are down, Haven’s practically destroyed…”
“I can check with my contacts, but I haven’t been keeping up with social niceties as well as I should have these last weeks,” Inara admitted. “With what happened at the training house… I’m not sure who would be willing to take us in, even if we could somehow excuse all of you coming with me. At best, I might be able to hide River away…”
“That’d put your girls at risk of bein’ killed when these men come for her. We ain’t bringing more innocents in than needed, especially not folks what can’t defend themselves.” Mal scanned the table. “We’re runnin’ out of options fast, people, but we need us a bit of cover, just until we have a better idea. Gotta think outside the usual boxes.”
There was silence for a moment, then Kaylee lifted her head. “What about family? My folks might be able to…”
“No, Kaylee.” Mal shook his head. “Already went and stole their baby girl into all this mess, I’m not running back to your daddy and tellin’ him we need to hide in the root cellar, too. Too much risk for them. This is all over, I’ll be happy to drop you at home if you decide you’re done here…”
“No.” Kaylee squared her small shoulders. “You know I’ll stay, Cap’n. I just thought... Don’t matter. You’re right, it wouldn’t work. We ain’t got room for nine people at our place, anyhow, even if they’d say it’d be okay.”
“My family, either,” Wash put in. “Beylix is too close to the core, anyway - we’d get snagged by an Alliance cruiser before we could get past the planetary border.”
“I got a thought.”
Mal blinked at Jayne. This was bound to be good, but it beat sitting around staring at each other. “Alright…?”
“My family’s got a lot a’ land out on Angel - ain’t rich, but got practically army of us, and a few strangers wouldn’t go noticed if’n we could find someplace to set the ship down where she wouldn’t get seen. There’s enough Cobbs we can hide all of us away better’n anybody can find.”
“I don’t mean any offense, but...” Simon tasted the words on his tongue before continuing. “How can we know no one will get the idea of selling us off? Not your direct family, I mean,” he added quickly, sensing an explosion of rage headed his way. “If it’s such a big extended family, someone might accidentally let in an outsider who could…”
Jayne snorted. “My mama gives her word on something, ain’t nobody in the family’s brave enough to go against her.” He turned to Mal, visibly proud. “Doc, his sister an’ the rest of us’ll be under her protection. And sure as hell nobody could say the Cobbs don’t know how to defend their own.”
It wasn’t at all what Mal’d hoped for, but it might be just what they needed to survive. “Alright, Jayne. Can you get a message out to your family? We don’t have time to wait on post for this.”
“Think the town store by my sister Eddie’s place has a cortex screen. I’ll wave and ask’em to get her in to talk to me.”
“You do that. Tell her we’ll pay in work as we can, maybe a bit of cargo if we can spare something. Make a point of the doc, Kaylee, and the shepherd. I’ve never yet seen a town where things didn’t need fixin’, or people didn’t want doctorin’ and prayin’. Everybody else… let’s look into everything we can find about Angel. Kaylee, Wash, I want you figurin’ on how we can hide Serenity once we’re there. Shepherd Book, ‘Nara, River - you take a look at cultural stuff might get us into or out of trouble. Don’t know how long we’ll be there, but it’s likely to be longer than we’ve set down anywhere in a good while. Doc…”
“I’ll go over the medical records on Angel, and see what innoculations and common health problems we’ll have to consider.”
“Good. Zoe, you’re with me - let’s see what we’ve got to spare in the hold that might do us good in trade if we need it. Might be we’ll have to sweeten the deal if it means nine extra mouths to feed. Get to it, people. We’ll be heading out as soon as Jayne’s got us the go-ahead.”
The crew all but scampered to their jobs, and Mal could already hear Kaylee chattering about how nice it’d be to set down on a planet for a while more than just a drop-off for a job. She made it sound like a vacation. He hoped she wasn’t too far from right.
* * *
Given the vagaries of communication out on the Rim, it actually took surprisingly little time for Jayne to hear back from his sister. The next afternoon, she sent a wave from the general store asking for her brother, and Jayne, Mal, and Zoe huddled around the screen eyeing a woman who looked to be somewhere in her late thirties to early forties, with broad shoulders and a round, apple-ruddy face.
“Higgins said you needed to talk to me - you got yourself in trouble again, boy? Thought you’d finally settled a bit, with that ship of yours.”
“Got trouble, but it ain’t on me,” Jayne grumbled.
“What he means, ma’am, is this trouble has our whole crew in hold, and Jayne here thought y’all might be able to help us out with it,” Mal put in, giving a polite nod to the woman on the screen.
“You must be the captain of that ship Jayne’s got, then - Reginald, is it?”
“Reynolds, ma’am - Malcolm Reynolds at your service. And this here’s my first mate, Zoe.”
“Eddie Cobb,” the woman replied, nodding. “Well, what kinda trouble y’all in that you think we could help, then? Jayne must’a told you we ain’t got much in the way a’ capital, so if it’s a business venture you’re lookin’ for...”
“Not as such, ma’am.” Mal hesitated, trying to find the best way to express their problems. “Seems some of our crew have some enemies after them, through no fault of their own, and those enemies mean to take us all down with ‘em. Jayne suggested a handful of strangers might find space on Angel where they wouldn’t be seen, might lie low til we think of a better solution to our troubles.”
“What kind’a trouble these crew of yours in, Mr Reynolds? Don’t care what Jayne might’a told you, our family’s got principles - we ain’t touchin’ slavers, nor drugs or anything of that kind.”
“Nothing like that, I promise you. It’s a bit of a touchy subject, I’ll grant you, though.” Mal rubbed his nose, then turned off-screen. “River? You come over here, li’l albatross.” The next part of his plan required her being seen, for more than one reason.
River moved unhesitatingly to his side, peering with curiosity into the cortex screen.
Mal smiled grimly to himself. Brutal honesty’d be best, here, and he’d use it. “Eddie, this here’s River. Seems some government men got into their heads they could play around with her brain, muck around and remake how things work in ways I don’t pretend to understand. Her brother’s a doctor, he managed to get her out and mostly figured out, but turns out they didn’t much like that. The men are lookin’ to get her back, and, ah... we’re looking to keep her out. Her and her brother, both. Their our main trouble.” Them and a contingent of Alliance cruisers what should’ve been enough to stop an army, Mal added in his mind... but a little bit of creative truth-telling never hurt anybody. Least not so long as it was him being creative, not the other guy. “Eighteen year-old girl got no place in a government holding cell, Miss Eddie. Let alone some hundan’s idea of a science experiment.”
Eddie and River eyed each other in silence for a moment, then the older woman turned her attention to her brother. “That all true, Jayne?”
Jayne shifted his feet a bit. Mal resisted the urge to smile - Jayne’d been uncomfortable thinking on what had been done to River ever since his little incident on Ariel. Good enough - Mal’d happily let him stew a bit in his juices if it meant he’d tell it honestly to his sister. “Yeah, s’true. Girl’s a bit of a moon-brain, but... s’cause of the stuff they did to her, no fault of her own. Jus’... just keep her the hell away from cortex screens, that’s all,” he added.
Of all the times for Jayne to get truthsome, Mal figured that of course he’d chosen the worst. “Ah, what Jayne means there is that we had some trouble with River getting... upset, off of some commercial on a cortex screen. Turned out to be subliminal.”
Eddie just nodded slowly. “Got ways of keeping her under control, I’m guessin’? Otherwise I s’pose you’d all be bloated and blue by now, seein’ how you’re on a spaceship. Well. I got a limit on time, here, so you all just come down here and have a chat with Mama. I’ll warn her you’re comin’, tell her all you’ve told me. With what Jayne said of your crew, I think we might be able to make arrangements, Captain Reynolds.”
“Thank you kindly, Ma’am.” Mal nodded to her. “We’ll be on Angel in about ten days, then.”
“Don’t thank me yet, you’ve still gotta get past Mama. But she’s been fair dyin’ to see her baby boy again, so I figure you’ll get points for finally draggin’ him home after all these years. Be good, boy - don’t want to have to tell Mama anything worse than I’m already reporting.”
As soon as the screen cut to black, Jayne snorted and headed off the bridge, shaking his head.
Mal grinned at Zoe. “Think I might come to like that woman.”
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 05:09 pm (UTC)On an editorial note, think you have a typo in there: "Ma blinked at Jayne." And also, I'm wondering if it's cannon for Mal to call Inara 'Nara. It's been a while since I've watched, but it rang a little odd to me.
Wholly wonderful though. Definitely finish.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 05:30 pm (UTC)The 'Nara thing... it's iffy, I admit. I'll have to play with listening to Mal some more (tragedy, of course *g*), but that's how it comes out sometimes, when I get his voice into my head. Mal has a tricky voice to catch, even though some of his patterns are really distinctive, and it seems like Inara's name is always getting twisted around by the crew anyway. I swear Jayne calls her "In-air-a" (ow, I wish I could remember how to do IPA notation in LJ) at one point, which just boggles me. Long story short, thanks for bringing it to my attention - I'll definitely check up on it.
I'm glad you like the story, and very glad that my explanations of how the characters work make sense to you. I always worry about the reasoning not being clear, or striking people as just plain wrong, so it makes me very happy to have feedback on that!
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Date: 2006-05-22 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 10:57 pm (UTC)I can practically see him doing it, I just can't remember what episode... might've been... yeah, I'm pretty sure it's in the same conversation with the whole "Companions don't kiss and tell," thing, which'd make it the beginning of "Out of Gas." I love Jayne, he's so... horrible and funny all at the same time.
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Date: 2006-05-23 01:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 02:06 am (UTC)(Now I'm more tempted than ever to go back through my disks and keep track of all the ways people pronounce her name, as soon as they get back from being loaned out. Yay for recruiting new Browncoats and all, but... I do miss my DVDs occasionally!)
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Date: 2006-05-22 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 10:54 pm (UTC)Next chapter should have some fun Simon goodness for you - he's got a lot to do in the scene I've already written, and more surrounding it. Him meeting Jayne's mama is something I've been looking forward to for a long time. *g*
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Date: 2006-05-23 05:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 04:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 10:25 pm (UTC)I really liked the bit about The Operative's warning them -- seems like the least he could do.
And, as usual, you've gotten all of their voices down pat. AND WASH IS ALIVE! Oh, I love you so much for writing an epic post-BDM fic where WASH IS ALIVE!
Also -- this isn't a Highlander fic, which is what I was expecting when I saw the post. How's that one going? Glad to see you found the time for a little Firefly fic, what with all the paper-writing and Highlander-fic-writing and hand-wringing and whatnot. I'm looking forward to the next installment(s)!
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Date: 2006-05-22 10:52 pm (UTC)I couldn't resist keeping Wash and Book around. There are some scenes later on that just wouldn't be the same without them. *g* As for 'epic'... well, we'll see how I pull it off. I've never done anything like this before, so it should be a learning experience!
This thing's been brewing for so long (I think
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Date: 2006-05-23 07:52 am (UTC)Anything that starts out with the disclaimer, 1 of ??, is well on the way to being EPIC, with a capital everything.
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Date: 2006-05-23 04:46 pm (UTC)*Laughs* It's a safeguard, really - I have no idea how long this thing is going to be, or, to be honest, how I'm getting them out of it just yet. So... we'll see what happens! I need to do some serious plotting now that I've got myself committed to this thing.
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Date: 2006-05-22 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 11:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 02:03 am (UTC)If you like Eddie, just wait til you meet the rest of the family. Coming up with good Cobb family names has been one of the funniest parts of writing this fic. XD
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Date: 2006-05-23 02:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 02:59 am (UTC)