Blue Sun Room FICTION - GENERAL

SHADOW (07) Part (04)

Friday, September 9, 2011

More nightmares. Talk of heifers and pasture-raised beef leads to revelations.

CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 3853    RATING: 10.0 (PG13)    SERIES: FIREFLY

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SHADOW (07)

Part (04)

Follows . Precedes .

The series so far:

More nightmares. Talk of heifers and pasture-raised beef leads to revelations.

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Mal finished shoveling the last corner of the cargo bay, placing the last load into the septic vac tank. He hosed off the equipment and stowed it, leaving everything neat and tidy. Walking to the door that led to the infirmary and passenger lounge, he stepped very carefully out of his old boots and into the cleaner pair that he’d left just outside. He picked up his towel and bath kit and headed to the shower.

As he rinsed himself off, quickly and thoroughly, carefully turning off the water while lathering and scrubbing, he puzzled again over Jayne’s grumpiness about the cattle. Jayne acted as if everything to do with the cattle was a chore. Well, of course it was a chore, but Jayne made it all into a grumpy-ass gorram chore, while for Mal it was a chance to free his mind while going through a set of soothing, automatic motions. In a way it was more restful than sleeping—especially considering the nightmares he’d been having lately. In fact, he’d been avoiding going to bed, finding all manner of captain-y things to do b

Comments
Friday, 09 September 2011 16:04
Shout out here to Guildsister and her magnificent fic Blue Sun Job. In it, the crew visits a Core system where four moons orbit a gas giant. They land on Delta, Inara does business on Alpha, Mal and Zoe do business on Beta, and Gamma is a factory-ranch world spoken dismissively of by Mal. Thanks, Guildsister!
Friday, 09 September 2011 16:18
Jayne's homeworld industrial: nice! I always like seeing how much you've researched. The little details like that are important.

Ah, and I was waiting for Ip to bring this up. The guy has worse sense than Simon. Also, on my computer I had to page down right when Mal fell asleep, and so that was a good feeling of dread waiting for Mal to scare Inara.
Friday, 09 September 2011 17:15
I remember Guildsister's story Blue Sun Job and wish she was still posting. I loved this chapter, everything just perfect. I am actually glad Ip has finally blurted out what he wants even though it has earned him no brownie points from the crew especially Mal. And the scenes with Inara were beautifully done but River got in the last word, nice for Simon to know he isn't the 'boob' this time. Shiny, Ali D :~)
"You can't take the sky from me!"
Friday, 09 September 2011 21:06
The finally line was funny.
ZOESMOM
Friday, 09 September 2011 21:49
“You are such a boob,” she said.

That is an insult that she has so far reserved for her dear brother. Even though it is an insult, I take her choice of words to indicate that she is warming up to him. :)
ZOESMOM
Friday, 09 September 2011 21:50
“You are such a boob,” she said.

That is an insult that she has so far reserved for her dear brother. Even though it is an insult, I take her choice of words to indicate that she is warming up to him. :)
Saturday, 10 September 2011 21:01


Is there some cosmic radiation coming from Shadow, causing Mal's nightmares to be more frequent?

I thought Inara’s reaction was well done, luckily for him; she’s had training and possible experience with PTSD victims. Mal's freaking out and she's wanting intimacy, love it! Well, I reckon, he'd sleep better, though, hmm.

River’s ending comment was applied perfectly to Ip’s overzealous stupidity.

They’re cute together.
Sunday, 11 September 2011 13:34
No cosmic radiation, Platonist. No--what's getting to Mal is the fact that, even from a great distance away, Shadow looks wrong. Excuse me while I go all science-geek on you, but I had great fun researching this part of the story, looking at pictures of Earth from various distances away in space. And even from very far, Earth shines...blue, while Mars shines red, Saturn shines yellow. You get the picture. I figure Mal is familiar with how Shadow used to look from space (when he left to go to war, the place was still blue and green), so when he spotted it, and it hit him how wrong it looked, it was all kinds of disturbing. More about this in an upcoming chapter.

Everyone seems to like River's ending line. I'll admit I had fun writing that in, and I promise not to overuse River saying that. I think it was warranted in Ip's case here :-)

And can you believe, the whole dining room scene started with me wanting to use the line "Can't get any milk from a gentleman cow"? My kids have a nonsense song they like to play over and over again, with that line in it, and the thing just wormed its way into my brain until it came out in my fic.

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