Milliways auction fic for gao
Feb. 2nd, 2010 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chanter1944This fic came about as a result of the auction held in the OOC community at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
milliways_bar. Man, I love how much help for Haiti is being generated in fandom and at games all over the place. :D anyhow.
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gao asked for a blind date, set up by Susannah, between her original character Rose (who's Susannah's daughter) and Sariel. This is what resulted. Sorry about the shifting point of view, I hope it's not too weird. Of course, just for info, none of this is Millicanon. Yet. *impish look at Susannah-mun*
Sariel’s almost furtive when she looks at Rose. She’s more than a little uncertain, more than a little shy, and far from denying either; she’s doing her best to keep the first reality down to manageable levels, but there isn’t much to be done about the second. She takes Rose in at a glance, albeit one thrown cautiously, sent mid turn of the head; takes in the confident stance and the braided hair, the motorcycle boots and the air of fierce purpose that clings to Rose’s skin like vapor.
She’s glimpsed something like that purpose before, in River Tam’s face. And in Lieutenant Worf’s.
Sariel tries not to react the way she’d like, resists the urge to improve her already perfectly acceptable posture. For some reason, and she can’t quite put a name to it yet, she feels more than a little like saluting. Somehow, she doesn’t mind that impulse as much as she thinks she ought to.
Rose isn’t quite so subtle as she’s taking Sariel in. Her look blatently combines sizing her up with checking her out, and she’s not ashamed of either aspect; con your vantage. Besides, this girl’s kind of cute. Somehow, Rose can’t see her engaging in the first handful of high school pursuits she thinks of; wearing trendy makeup - no. She hasn’t bothered with much more than a little low-key lipstick now. Primping in the mirror - not her style, somehow. Trying to out-shallow someone - not very damn likely, from the looks of her. This one’s the geeky chick in the back of the library way more than she’s the cheerleader. Rose kinda likes it.
“I’m gonna have some serious words with my mom,” Rose says, and though she tries, she can’t quite make the words carry the level of irritation she’d initially been going for. The sigh she ends with does fairly well at conveying it just the same.
Sariel blinks, looks momentarily surprised. “Pardon?” Then she twigs it, and dark eyes widen in what’s part shock, part consternation. “Oh no, you didn’t know about this either? God, Susannah, did you honestly?” The last rhetorical question is a little muffled, on account of coming out through a facepalm. The shift to Creole probably doesn’t help, but the meaning’s plenty plain from the tone she uses. For her part, Rose keeps her own moment of surprise at the sound of a second language out of sight. Whoever this chick is, she’s maybe a little like someone from Kaylee’s world. Her answer is a resigned shrug, though from what she says next, it’s not Sariel she’s resigned to.
“Figures she’d set us up. Here I thought you had some kind of specialized problem going down in your world, and—what’d she tell you, anyway?” Rose scans the sky; what’s visible of New York City twilight is turning that sky indigo and violet, dusk studded with a hundred hundred fluorescent lights.
Sariel follows Rose’s gaze as she answers, and while the other girl looks down and away again almost at once, her own eyes linger on what few fragments of uninterrupted city skyspace there are. “She told me she needed my help in her New York, that there was something she wanted my specific skills for. I just assumed that I’d learn the details when I—lord. I didn’t even suspect.“ She trails away in a sigh that’s not quite, but close to, as exasperated as Rose’s own was seconds earlier.
“She got both of us but good,” Rose agrees. “And she won’t be back for two hours this world’s time, which could be God knows how long in Milliways. I don’t feel much like trying doors the whole damn night, either.” The younger woman squares her shoulders, turns a suddenly speculative, almost daring look on Sariel. “How do you feel about the blues?”
That brings Sariel’s attention back to earth. For a second, some of the natural reserve in her expression vanishes, revealing a flash of something that’s at once surprised, wistful and maybe even hopeful, somewhere way down. Her answer, after a pause, is downright tentative. “From New Orleans?” She pronounces it correctly, which doesn’t startle Rose at all.
Rose shrugs, glances over Sariel’s shoulder to the road beyond, then looks back. “… We can work with that,” she decides after a second. “Sure.”
Now I think I'm going to curl up and zonk out. Tiiiired greenie. Oh, and by the way: When you've had a heck of an argument with your mother, and a couple days later your mother's sounding like her old self when she talks to you, maybe, just maybe, things are actually okay between you two again. Wheeeew! :D
milliways_bar. Man, I love how much help for Haiti is being generated in fandom and at games all over the place. :D anyhow. gao asked for a blind date, set up by Susannah, between her original character Rose (who's Susannah's daughter) and Sariel. This is what resulted. Sorry about the shifting point of view, I hope it's not too weird. Of course, just for info, none of this is Millicanon. Yet. *impish look at Susannah-mun* Sariel’s almost furtive when she looks at Rose. She’s more than a little uncertain, more than a little shy, and far from denying either; she’s doing her best to keep the first reality down to manageable levels, but there isn’t much to be done about the second. She takes Rose in at a glance, albeit one thrown cautiously, sent mid turn of the head; takes in the confident stance and the braided hair, the motorcycle boots and the air of fierce purpose that clings to Rose’s skin like vapor.
She’s glimpsed something like that purpose before, in River Tam’s face. And in Lieutenant Worf’s.
Sariel tries not to react the way she’d like, resists the urge to improve her already perfectly acceptable posture. For some reason, and she can’t quite put a name to it yet, she feels more than a little like saluting. Somehow, she doesn’t mind that impulse as much as she thinks she ought to.
Rose isn’t quite so subtle as she’s taking Sariel in. Her look blatently combines sizing her up with checking her out, and she’s not ashamed of either aspect; con your vantage. Besides, this girl’s kind of cute. Somehow, Rose can’t see her engaging in the first handful of high school pursuits she thinks of; wearing trendy makeup - no. She hasn’t bothered with much more than a little low-key lipstick now. Primping in the mirror - not her style, somehow. Trying to out-shallow someone - not very damn likely, from the looks of her. This one’s the geeky chick in the back of the library way more than she’s the cheerleader. Rose kinda likes it.
“I’m gonna have some serious words with my mom,” Rose says, and though she tries, she can’t quite make the words carry the level of irritation she’d initially been going for. The sigh she ends with does fairly well at conveying it just the same.
Sariel blinks, looks momentarily surprised. “Pardon?” Then she twigs it, and dark eyes widen in what’s part shock, part consternation. “Oh no, you didn’t know about this either? God, Susannah, did you honestly?” The last rhetorical question is a little muffled, on account of coming out through a facepalm. The shift to Creole probably doesn’t help, but the meaning’s plenty plain from the tone she uses. For her part, Rose keeps her own moment of surprise at the sound of a second language out of sight. Whoever this chick is, she’s maybe a little like someone from Kaylee’s world. Her answer is a resigned shrug, though from what she says next, it’s not Sariel she’s resigned to.
“Figures she’d set us up. Here I thought you had some kind of specialized problem going down in your world, and—what’d she tell you, anyway?” Rose scans the sky; what’s visible of New York City twilight is turning that sky indigo and violet, dusk studded with a hundred hundred fluorescent lights.
Sariel follows Rose’s gaze as she answers, and while the other girl looks down and away again almost at once, her own eyes linger on what few fragments of uninterrupted city skyspace there are. “She told me she needed my help in her New York, that there was something she wanted my specific skills for. I just assumed that I’d learn the details when I—lord. I didn’t even suspect.“ She trails away in a sigh that’s not quite, but close to, as exasperated as Rose’s own was seconds earlier.
“She got both of us but good,” Rose agrees. “And she won’t be back for two hours this world’s time, which could be God knows how long in Milliways. I don’t feel much like trying doors the whole damn night, either.” The younger woman squares her shoulders, turns a suddenly speculative, almost daring look on Sariel. “How do you feel about the blues?”
That brings Sariel’s attention back to earth. For a second, some of the natural reserve in her expression vanishes, revealing a flash of something that’s at once surprised, wistful and maybe even hopeful, somewhere way down. Her answer, after a pause, is downright tentative. “From New Orleans?” She pronounces it correctly, which doesn’t startle Rose at all.
Rose shrugs, glances over Sariel’s shoulder to the road beyond, then looks back. “… We can work with that,” she decides after a second. “Sure.”
Now I think I'm going to curl up and zonk out. Tiiiired greenie. Oh, and by the way: When you've had a heck of an argument with your mother, and a couple days later your mother's sounding like her old self when she talks to you, maybe, just maybe, things are actually okay between you two again. Wheeeew! :D
no subject
Date: 2010-02-03 11:16 am (UTC)I think my favorite part was seeing an outside perspective of Rose as she is now, after six months on her own and on the road, from someone who doesn't know her as she was before. She honestly has no idea she comes off that way--her mental self-image hasn't really caught up--and because I almost always write about her from her POV or Susannah's, that gap didn't really come into focus for me until I read this, so thank you especially for that. (The comparison to Worf really tickled me, and it's totally accurate... Rose could totally be a half-Klingon. (Rose + Kaylee x Star Trek = B'Elanna Torres?))
Also, I sort of squawked when I hit the last line, because, even though it hasn't been referenced anywhere, in my head Rose is in Louisiana this week on her crosscountry trip. She finished up Mississippi earlier this week, per the OOM with X, and I figured I'd get her to NOLA in time for the Superbowl. I will make a point to familiarize her with the blues. :D
As for millicanon--I'm for it! It will be quite a while before Rose is back in New York, but then again Sariel and Susannah haven't even met yet. We could also use the core of the idea and shift the details around as necessary.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-03 08:23 pm (UTC)I was totally playing off Sariel's familiarity with gunslinger-types there, i.e. River Tam. There's enough of the same type of intensity in Rose to be recognizable for her, and as for the Worf comparison, it's the security officer thing more than it is the Klingon thing, although that's probably in play at least a little. Sariel respects the heck out of Worf, even if he does intimidate her. Ooooh, you know, Torres seems just about right, yes. XD
Ohmygosh, the Louisiana reference. That was a nod to Sariel's friendship with Gene Roe, as was her initial reaction to Rose's suggestion. I'm not a reader, I swear. Talk about your 19! :)
Ooh Millicanon. We should seriously get Sariel and Susannah to meet. Seriously. Somehow, I think they might get along, although I envision Sariel repressing her urge to salute at least once. Heh.
As for the donation thingie, I trust you; if you say you've sent it, you've sent it. It's cool. And thank you!
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