Too many questions

Sunday, November 25, 2007 5:46 PM

Fanfiction is pretty much written to answer questions, I know. Sometimes the question is small. What would happen if River tried to bake cookies? What do Jayne’s letters to his mother look like? And other times the question is big. What if Mal and Inara finally got together? What if Niska came back? What was it like growing up on Osiris? Lastly is the epic. What happens after the BDM? Unfortunately, if you’re writing anything longer than oneshots, and sometimes even with those, that question isn’t the only one you’ll have to answer.

I was watching the series, usually where inspiration for fanfiction comes from, and noticed that Simon and River are very out of place in the first couple of episodes, but are fairly well integrated by the beginning of the episode Safe. My question was: how did that happen? And of course, I tried to answer it through fanfiction. But then I found that there were other questions I had to answer, before I could answer that one. What is the exact layout of the ship? What are the designs of the guest cabins? Where are the bathrooms/sinks? Those answers, kind of necessary just for background description, were simple to get.

But then I had to consider: what kind of luggage did Simon bring? He has an encyclopedia and a medkit, and definitely a wardrobe, but what other things would someone like that bring to start a new life? And then I noticed that since River was naked in the cryo box, we only see her wearing Inara’s robe and something that might be Simon’s shirt in Serenity, but by the Train Job she has her own clothes. Where did those come from? Is clothes shortage the reason why she’s always barefoot?

While further examining the episode Serenity, I had to wonder: do all the crew sleep at the same time? Without sunrise and sunset, what kind of time is kept on Serenity? Then I noticed: there are no clocks, but they speak of hours and minutes. Do they all have pocketwatches we never see? How do they meet for the regular meals Mal speaks of?

Why does Book stay on the ship, and how did that happen? What does the crew other than Jayne think about Book and Simon and River staying on? Simon and Book have chores by Shindig, so when did they get assigned them? How does the chore system work on Serenity? Why doesn’t River have chores?

Speaking of River...Simon says she has paranoid schizophrenia in Safe, but when did he decide that? Why is her behavior different in the pilot than every other episode, and does it have anything to do with the shock of cryogenic freezing? How did being woken early affect her? What about any medications she was on at the Academy? Does Simon give her any medications until after Ariel? How does he care for her until he decides that she’s schizophrenic?

And then, of course, the relationships. What sort of relationship do Wash and Kaylee have, considering they’re usually the ones stuck on the ship while the others go on a job pre-pilot? Does Wash really have a relationship with anyone but Zoe that’s not confrontational or ridiculing? He and Zoe seem to be a little separate, but also protective, especially of Simon and River in the first episode...how does that work? Inara and Book are pretty much the only ones other than Kaylee to actually interact kindly with the Tams, though...what kind of relationships are going on there, and how and why do they happen?

Do jobs ever go smooth for the crew? It seems like they must, or they’d be out of business, so do they have boring jobs off camera? And during those boring jobs, especially the long flights in space, what do the crew do? We’ve seen spaceball, dominoes, chinese checkers, tall card, horseshoes, weightlifting...what else might they do? Are there any books on Serenity besides Shepherd’s Bible and Simon’s encyclopedia? What about music? Does Jayne ever play his guitar like on Haven? Does he do anything but clean his guns and lift weights?

What exactly is the foodstuff on Serenity? Is protein flavorless, or do the “colors of the rainbow” mean different types? Did Book bring anything but tomatoes and strawberrie

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