Blue Sun Room FICTION - GENERAL
The Treasure of Lei Fong Wu -- Chapter Twenty-Eight
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Mal tries to pick up this hot little brunette in a bar . . . hilarity ensues.
CATEGORY: FICTION TIMES READ: 5198 RATING: 9.0 (PG13) SERIES: FIREFLY
The Treasure of Lei Fong Wu
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The patient was lying handcuffed to the hospital bed, a tracking anklet already snapped around his left ankle. Julian stood at the foot of his bed and shook his head sadly for ten minutes before he spoke one word. When he did, the word was telling.
“Idiot,” he swore as he began to pace. He looked up, and there was little reaction. Of course, any reaction would be hard to gauge. The man’s jaw was covered in reconstructive monofilament, knitting the shards of bone that used to be his face back together. In three weeks he’d look – more or less – the way he did before today. They had good doctors here, for a frontier world. His right wrist was in a more old-fashioned splint.
The man – Corporal Newton Jaeger, Alliance Special Operations, Retired – was on morphine, of course. He was lucid, but just barely. Julian hated that. He wanted Jaeger awake for the chewing out he was about to give him.
“You stupid son-of-a-bitch,” Julian said, disgusted. “Cao ni zou zong shi ba dai! I give you a second gorram chance after the crap you pulled on Hera, and you do this . . . you go and do about the stupidest thing you possibly could. Gan ni lao shi. You tipped them off, when I had people in place to deal with it. You were running surveillance, asswipe – surveillance, not apprehension!”
Jaeger flinched, and the keyboard the doctors had placed under his left hand clicked a little. The screen above his bed went blue, and white letters appeared.
Tap tap. Sorry.
“You sure as hell are sorry,” Julian said, in a low, dangerous voice dripping with contempt. “Sorriest piece of shabi go se . . . but we’ll get to that later.
“You got a positive ID. I got that much before you went apeshit. You were ordered to maintain your distance and wait for backup – I know that much. Where it gets fuzzy to me is where you seem to have forgotten that order thirty seconds after you got it, you burst into a shoe shop brandishing a weapon with no appropriate credentia
Comments
Thursday, 27 October 2005 03:24
This ties the length of Kaylee's Lament -- and I'm only about 2/3 of the way through!
Enjoy! Comments good.
Screw the Alliance
Enjoy! Comments good.
Screw the Alliance
ANONYMOUS
Thursday, 27 October 2005 05:43
Like I said on my review for Lament, if you could get some sort of deal akin to Expanded Universe, you'd have it made.
-GG Crono
-GG Crono
Thursday, 27 October 2005 06:19
I had to chuckle at the Captain's round about way of giving Inara the heads-up. Very interesting and heating up nicely. Ali D :~)
You can't take the sky from me
You can't take the sky from me
Thursday, 27 October 2005 06:37
So about 14 more to go huh? Thats cool always a fan. Course that just makes me already start to wonder what book 3 will be called. :)
ANONYMOUS
Thursday, 27 October 2005 09:10
lOL...on the malinara piece. Love your writing style!
ANONYMOUS
Thursday, 27 October 2005 09:38
An amusing part, hehe. Although, I do still hope to see Inara show up Mal for a change! She's as devious as he is, after all...
Oh, and I wasn't completely comfortable with Inara's thoughts about Caritas and Warriors. In particular as it so clearly divided between men and women, conveniently ignoring that there were probably more than a few women like Zoe fighting in the war, being essentially warriors. It made me uncomfortable, the implication that thousands of women do wrong by their warrior men because they are "untrained and ignorant" without considering their own needs or perhaps questioning war as a whole. It was all a little too black and white for me and didn't quite ring true for my impression of Inara either, this almost judgmental dismissal of women in general.
I did like Mal's semi-serious soul-bearing, though. Considering the news he reveals before leaving this was as good a way to get some things out in the open in case they never see each other again - without having to really admit to anything if they do.
Cowardly lion, that is Mal. *g*
Oh, and I wasn't completely comfortable with Inara's thoughts about Caritas and Warriors. In particular as it so clearly divided between men and women, conveniently ignoring that there were probably more than a few women like Zoe fighting in the war, being essentially warriors. It made me uncomfortable, the implication that thousands of women do wrong by their warrior men because they are "untrained and ignorant" without considering their own needs or perhaps questioning war as a whole. It was all a little too black and white for me and didn't quite ring true for my impression of Inara either, this almost judgmental dismissal of women in general.
I did like Mal's semi-serious soul-bearing, though. Considering the news he reveals before leaving this was as good a way to get some things out in the open in case they never see each other again - without having to really admit to anything if they do.
Cowardly lion, that is Mal. *g*
Thursday, 27 October 2005 09:45
Those bounty guys really know how to make everything seem more complicated than it really is, don't they?
Excellent Mal-Inara scene, brilliant. And the whole Companion/Caritas stuff... deep.
Excellent Mal-Inara scene, brilliant. And the whole Companion/Caritas stuff... deep.
Thursday, 27 October 2005 11:29
I can appreciate that some would be uncomfortable with Inara's views on Caritas/Warriors. I think a word of explanation might be in order.
As much as we all love Inara, she has her own unique and distinct point of view, complete with prejudices and personal history, just like anyone else. Just as some people were uncomfortable with how I handled Mal's pro-gun libertarianism and some of the stuff Book has said, I wanted to delve once more into the Companions' deeper philosophy -- a philosophy that itself has a perspective. I didn't handle the issue of Zoe and Warrior women because the conversation didn't start out about a woman. I debated whether to add it or not, and decided against it because the issues involved get more complex when analyzing (from a Companion perspective)the psychological motivations and ramifications of female Warriors.
As far as Inara's views on women in this area, I would imagine that her perspective is as informed, and as jaded, as any seasoned professional's opinion of an untrained layman. She doesn't hold women, in general in contempt; she just appreciates their lack of training in such matters. When I imagine a Companion's training, I see it as much a deep psychological study of intergender relationships as it is music and painting and dancing.
Combine that psychological background with the idea that Inara considers herself a Professional in the technical sense, as a doctor or lawyer, and you begin to see where she might have a low opinion of the way a regular woman handles such complex matters. She does not blame them for their ignorance, no more than a doctor would blame someone who was performing CPR on a victim and fails to save them -- they just weren't trained for that sort of thing. And her ideas on sexuality do differ with the rank-and-file of womankind, at least in the Western world. That could quite easily lead to a jaded attitude, or even a passive resentment for the untrained in the 'verse, those women who were told to "lie back and think of England" as opposed to being given a real education in the intracacies of the male/female dynamic.
They just don't teach that sort of thing in Social Studies.
I appreciate the perspective, though. I suppose I might include a paragraph on women warriors in the second draft. I also appreciate the comments -- gotta hungry ego to feed!
ScrewtheAlliance
As much as we all love Inara, she has her own unique and distinct point of view, complete with prejudices and personal history, just like anyone else. Just as some people were uncomfortable with how I handled Mal's pro-gun libertarianism and some of the stuff Book has said, I wanted to delve once more into the Companions' deeper philosophy -- a philosophy that itself has a perspective. I didn't handle the issue of Zoe and Warrior women because the conversation didn't start out about a woman. I debated whether to add it or not, and decided against it because the issues involved get more complex when analyzing (from a Companion perspective)the psychological motivations and ramifications of female Warriors.
As far as Inara's views on women in this area, I would imagine that her perspective is as informed, and as jaded, as any seasoned professional's opinion of an untrained layman. She doesn't hold women, in general in contempt; she just appreciates their lack of training in such matters. When I imagine a Companion's training, I see it as much a deep psychological study of intergender relationships as it is music and painting and dancing.
Combine that psychological background with the idea that Inara considers herself a Professional in the technical sense, as a doctor or lawyer, and you begin to see where she might have a low opinion of the way a regular woman handles such complex matters. She does not blame them for their ignorance, no more than a doctor would blame someone who was performing CPR on a victim and fails to save them -- they just weren't trained for that sort of thing. And her ideas on sexuality do differ with the rank-and-file of womankind, at least in the Western world. That could quite easily lead to a jaded attitude, or even a passive resentment for the untrained in the 'verse, those women who were told to "lie back and think of England" as opposed to being given a real education in the intracacies of the male/female dynamic.
They just don't teach that sort of thing in Social Studies.
I appreciate the perspective, though. I suppose I might include a paragraph on women warriors in the second draft. I also appreciate the comments -- gotta hungry ego to feed!
ScrewtheAlliance
ANONYMOUS
Thursday, 27 October 2005 11:51
I suppose we have very different views on Inara and Companion philosophy then. :)
The whole section kind of rubbed me the wrong way since it starts out with the assumption that it is women's duty to heal the broken psyche of men-who-became-warriors without questioning the framework behind it, the rightness of war, the fact that the men are unfit to work in "regular" society not the other way around, and their duty as a person to deal with their own problems and not lay the blame for their troubles at the door of improper care from innocent bystanders.
The whole thing makes me very uncomfortable and it's not something I believe Inara would see that way, as she generally has shown to be motivated by compassion primarily, applied to individuals, not pre-defined groups of people nor rigid codes of prescribed duties or contempt toward others.
The cold professionalism worked well for me with regard to economical issues that you earlier examined so very well. I just don't think she is that compassionlessly high-and-mighty about her own chosen profession nor that she views the universe in such broad-painted lines of "you are supposed to" and "you fail to".
It doesn't work for this particular reader but it's an interesting and rarely explored idea, so don't mind me. *g*
The whole section kind of rubbed me the wrong way since it starts out with the assumption that it is women's duty to heal the broken psyche of men-who-became-warriors without questioning the framework behind it, the rightness of war, the fact that the men are unfit to work in "regular" society not the other way around, and their duty as a person to deal with their own problems and not lay the blame for their troubles at the door of improper care from innocent bystanders.
The whole thing makes me very uncomfortable and it's not something I believe Inara would see that way, as she generally has shown to be motivated by compassion primarily, applied to individuals, not pre-defined groups of people nor rigid codes of prescribed duties or contempt toward others.
The cold professionalism worked well for me with regard to economical issues that you earlier examined so very well. I just don't think she is that compassionlessly high-and-mighty about her own chosen profession nor that she views the universe in such broad-painted lines of "you are supposed to" and "you fail to".
It doesn't work for this particular reader but it's an interesting and rarely explored idea, so don't mind me. *g*
ANONYMOUS
Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:13
Well, the aspect of this -- what led me to expound on these particular subjects -- was the ancient idea of the difference between life energy, as typified by Caritas and womanhood in general, and Death energy, as typified by the Warrior/Hunter ethic. In tribal societies the sanctity of the village community was something kept by the women of the village. When the men of a village went hunting, or worse, to war, they took on personae to attract the "death energy" that made them good at slaying. They took different names, wore distinctive costume, and essentially became a different person.
When they returned to the village there were usually rituals that they had to perform to shed this persona, lest they infect the life(Caritas) filled energy of the village with death energy. These rituals could take days, and eased the psychological transition between the two worlds. My take on it was that Companions saw what they did, in this sense, as part of their "ministry", an essential service to keep the psychosexual dynamic of society from being tainted by the elements of war.
Now, as far as Inara's views on war, her moral stand, we know that a) she is a Buddhist of some variety b) she has no problem servicing members of the military c) she knows how to handle weapons and apprecites the regretable necessity for violence when appropriate and d) she held political views in her past that caused her to support the Alliance on Unification. Taking all of these things into account leads us to believe that Inara's views on such things are complex; it also does not take away from the idea that she is a tremendously compassionate individual.
And Inara may well consider it a woman's duty to heal the wounds of their menfolk; while this may clash with our modern sensibilities, it was the accepted conventional wisdom in most societies for quite some time. As Inara's profession focuses on the interplay between male and female, and claims descent from several different traditions, it is not unlikely that she would hold a view like this. However, she doesn't expect most women to have this attitude -- indeed, if they did, it is unlikely that Companions would be needed. She is not taking the responsibility for their actions away from men, she is treating the after-effects of war as a mental/emotional illness which women are uniquely qualified (in most cases) to treat. This has ample historical and social precedent, even if it isn't a popular view these days. I'm not even saying I agree with it.
That it makes you uncomfortable tells me that I have, indeed, struck a real chord with this, which is good. I hope to do that from time to time, challenging the reader with Joss-like twists. That I could do this with Inara, a character everyone feels they have pegged (Harlot with a Heart of Gold) and bring some added dimension to her is that much more gratifying.
But excellent comment! Thanks!
StA
When they returned to the village there were usually rituals that they had to perform to shed this persona, lest they infect the life(Caritas) filled energy of the village with death energy. These rituals could take days, and eased the psychological transition between the two worlds. My take on it was that Companions saw what they did, in this sense, as part of their "ministry", an essential service to keep the psychosexual dynamic of society from being tainted by the elements of war.
Now, as far as Inara's views on war, her moral stand, we know that a) she is a Buddhist of some variety b) she has no problem servicing members of the military c) she knows how to handle weapons and apprecites the regretable necessity for violence when appropriate and d) she held political views in her past that caused her to support the Alliance on Unification. Taking all of these things into account leads us to believe that Inara's views on such things are complex; it also does not take away from the idea that she is a tremendously compassionate individual.
And Inara may well consider it a woman's duty to heal the wounds of their menfolk; while this may clash with our modern sensibilities, it was the accepted conventional wisdom in most societies for quite some time. As Inara's profession focuses on the interplay between male and female, and claims descent from several different traditions, it is not unlikely that she would hold a view like this. However, she doesn't expect most women to have this attitude -- indeed, if they did, it is unlikely that Companions would be needed. She is not taking the responsibility for their actions away from men, she is treating the after-effects of war as a mental/emotional illness which women are uniquely qualified (in most cases) to treat. This has ample historical and social precedent, even if it isn't a popular view these days. I'm not even saying I agree with it.
That it makes you uncomfortable tells me that I have, indeed, struck a real chord with this, which is good. I hope to do that from time to time, challenging the reader with Joss-like twists. That I could do this with Inara, a character everyone feels they have pegged (Harlot with a Heart of Gold) and bring some added dimension to her is that much more gratifying.
But excellent comment! Thanks!
StA
Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:20
Mal and Wash's exchange was so innocuous that it's bound to be noticed.
易
弯
曲
易
弯
曲
LIBRARIANWENCH
Thursday, 27 October 2005 17:05
Love it love it love it!
Loved "Kaylee's Lament" too. I've set new records for goofing off at work thanks to this! Can't wait for the next one!
Loved "Kaylee's Lament" too. I've set new records for goofing off at work thanks to this! Can't wait for the next one!
Thursday, 27 October 2005 18:11
Julian's interesting, in that he really should permanently silence Jaeger, yet pays his debts and set's him up in a new job (sorta)!. And otherwise jumps to conclusions just past the truth.
Love how much from outside FF you bring in to your stories.
Love how much from outside FF you bring in to your stories.
Thursday, 27 October 2005 20:12
"Cave painting, square dancing and fart jokes"
oh wait, we're talking about mal? i thought i'd just stumbled on another fic about simon...*grins*
love this chapter!!! especially wash and mal's conversation about fridges and parties...pure 'fly - keep 'em comin'!
b
oh wait, we're talking about mal? i thought i'd just stumbled on another fic about simon...*grins*
love this chapter!!! especially wash and mal's conversation about fridges and parties...pure 'fly - keep 'em comin'!
b
Monday, 21 November 2005 15:51
Mal and wash's exchange was funny, i thought. I love that mal was devious and kinda soulful al in one leaveing 'nara shocked. I did not much like inaras point of view on those men she interviewed, it reflects a certian sadness about her job i don't think she feels. She is a companion and also a buddhist. She trys to have compasion even for people even those theat cause her pain. Her goal is to reach nervana to do that most of the buddhist folk dont commit sexully inaproprate acts so in that case for her mind and soul to be at ease she could not find her job wrong since it hurts no one and in many cases heals some. The only reason she would see it as wrong at all is because some times some folk might fall in love with her and in that case she might even pass on the client to some one else or something just to keep her job peaceful. Now keep in mind no mater how old inara act she is still young, she is smart and in some cases wise but she is still young and that makes it easier for Mal to get under her skin, since she is used to more 'civil' men that would never actually try to piss her off. Ok well now i am just plain old rambeling! heh but just one more question, do the boy companions have the same feelings about their job?
ok on that note i love how you wrote her reactions although i don't think her thoughts were true to character. anyway good job keep it up!
ok on that note i love how you wrote her reactions although i don't think her thoughts were true to character. anyway good job keep it up!
ANONYMOUS
Thursday, 01 December 2005 23:59
Your fan fic is so addictive! :) Such a great writer!
ANONYMOUS
Monday, 23 January 2006 04:30
StA on reader protests over the Caritas section: "That it makes you uncomfortable tells me that I have, indeed, struck a real chord with this, which is good. I hope to do that from time to time, challenging the reader with Joss-like twists."
You have not struck the controversial cord of Jossness (ie, killing Tara), which readers may dislike but which serves the story. Instead, you have taken a character that Joss specifically says is a feminist and used her to voice some of your most sexist material. This is why we protest – you are warping these characters away from Joss’s principles. Other commenters have raised issues with: a lack of acknowledgement of female soldiers, the disgusting thought of acceptable sexual violence towards women, and the false-sounding invective of women as ignorant. All well noted. But the underlying sexism that allows all of this is the thought that women have no purpose as human beings in and of themselves - that they should function only to heal men.
You have not struck the controversial cord of Jossness (ie, killing Tara), which readers may dislike but which serves the story. Instead, you have taken a character that Joss specifically says is a feminist and used her to voice some of your most sexist material. This is why we protest – you are warping these characters away from Joss’s principles. Other commenters have raised issues with: a lack of acknowledgement of female soldiers, the disgusting thought of acceptable sexual violence towards women, and the false-sounding invective of women as ignorant. All well noted. But the underlying sexism that allows all of this is the thought that women have no purpose as human beings in and of themselves - that they should function only to heal men.
Monday, 23 January 2006 05:33
I am truly sorry if this section offends anyone -- I put it in for a couple of reasons, and it does have a place in the larger story arc. And all of those points are well taken. But I would like to remind folks of a few things, at the risk of defending my work too vigorously:
1) Yes, Joss killed Tara, Wash, Book, Buffy's Mom, etc. etc. I respect him for that -- it takes a good storyteller to be able to part with a beloved character and make it serve the story -- it takes a GREAT storyteller to make the audiance feel it like that. What I was doing here was in a way more daring, if I may. It's easy to kill a character. It's more difficult to examine a character's inner psyche and beliefs in ways which we don't anticipate, nor necessarily agree with.
Joss is a feminist, has described Inara as a feminist, and I like to consider myself a feminist, though others may have trouble with that definition. But I was writing a character with a very complex psychology in a very complex profession with an extra five hundred years of societal evolution and cultural sophistication than what we have. Feminism changes, over time, and what a 26th century feminist believe is going to be different than what a 19th century feminist believes. There used to be feminist schools of thought that said there were no innate physiological and psychologlical differences between the genders. Medical science and intense study have proven that wrong, and the ideology of feminism evolved into a slightly more sophisticated mode when that happened. What will we know about gender psychology and neurophysiology in 500 years? What additional historical episodes will inform feminist thought by then?
In this Caritas section I was showing through Inara's viewpoint -- that is, a character viewpoint -- of a PROFESSIONAL perspective on a very complex and emotional subject. Along the way I irritated some people because Inara, the PROFESSIONAL, was musing that most women who were untrained in psychology, physiology, and all the other arts of the Companion were often unequipped, through their ignorance of said knowlege, to handle the intense psychological repercussions of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the violence of war. She was not making a sweeping value judgement on the women in question, she was viewing them (perhaps a bit snobbishly) as AMATEURS in the context of her PROFESSIONAL opinion about their abilities to handle such a complex and intense issue as a returning combat veteran. She also mentions that the the Companions who dealt with these cases were a very select few, extraordinary individuals in a field of extraordinary individuals. And while I did mention violence, in passing, it was in the context of rough sex play -- which some people enjoy, and do not see as an expression of hate. I would imagine these women consider themselves healers, first and foremost, a kind of super-sex therapist willing to make the emotional investment in these damaged men amd accept the risks involved to accomplish this feat. And part of the point of these special Companions was to keep sexual violence from rearing its ugly head in future relationships. Part of that may mean seeing it expressed, controlling that expression, and teaching the man in question to channel his intimate feelings in a more constructive manner. I would assume that if the relationship became too violent, the Companion would end it.
All of that being said, I am not, of course, condoning any non-consensual sexual violence -- such a thought is disgusting and abhorrant. But this is a complex subject, and one that has many sides and perspectives. In ideal worlds there would be no violence towards women -- but then there would be no war to return from, either. I took inspiration for this bit from a relative of mind who returned from active combat and had some severe difficulties re-adjusting to civilian life. The individual in question was male, and the result wasn't pretty. Sudden explosions of violent rage, near-catatonic depression, all sorts of wacko syptoms. Th
1) Yes, Joss killed Tara, Wash, Book, Buffy's Mom, etc. etc. I respect him for that -- it takes a good storyteller to be able to part with a beloved character and make it serve the story -- it takes a GREAT storyteller to make the audiance feel it like that. What I was doing here was in a way more daring, if I may. It's easy to kill a character. It's more difficult to examine a character's inner psyche and beliefs in ways which we don't anticipate, nor necessarily agree with.
Joss is a feminist, has described Inara as a feminist, and I like to consider myself a feminist, though others may have trouble with that definition. But I was writing a character with a very complex psychology in a very complex profession with an extra five hundred years of societal evolution and cultural sophistication than what we have. Feminism changes, over time, and what a 26th century feminist believe is going to be different than what a 19th century feminist believes. There used to be feminist schools of thought that said there were no innate physiological and psychologlical differences between the genders. Medical science and intense study have proven that wrong, and the ideology of feminism evolved into a slightly more sophisticated mode when that happened. What will we know about gender psychology and neurophysiology in 500 years? What additional historical episodes will inform feminist thought by then?
In this Caritas section I was showing through Inara's viewpoint -- that is, a character viewpoint -- of a PROFESSIONAL perspective on a very complex and emotional subject. Along the way I irritated some people because Inara, the PROFESSIONAL, was musing that most women who were untrained in psychology, physiology, and all the other arts of the Companion were often unequipped, through their ignorance of said knowlege, to handle the intense psychological repercussions of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the violence of war. She was not making a sweeping value judgement on the women in question, she was viewing them (perhaps a bit snobbishly) as AMATEURS in the context of her PROFESSIONAL opinion about their abilities to handle such a complex and intense issue as a returning combat veteran. She also mentions that the the Companions who dealt with these cases were a very select few, extraordinary individuals in a field of extraordinary individuals. And while I did mention violence, in passing, it was in the context of rough sex play -- which some people enjoy, and do not see as an expression of hate. I would imagine these women consider themselves healers, first and foremost, a kind of super-sex therapist willing to make the emotional investment in these damaged men amd accept the risks involved to accomplish this feat. And part of the point of these special Companions was to keep sexual violence from rearing its ugly head in future relationships. Part of that may mean seeing it expressed, controlling that expression, and teaching the man in question to channel his intimate feelings in a more constructive manner. I would assume that if the relationship became too violent, the Companion would end it.
All of that being said, I am not, of course, condoning any non-consensual sexual violence -- such a thought is disgusting and abhorrant. But this is a complex subject, and one that has many sides and perspectives. In ideal worlds there would be no violence towards women -- but then there would be no war to return from, either. I took inspiration for this bit from a relative of mind who returned from active combat and had some severe difficulties re-adjusting to civilian life. The individual in question was male, and the result wasn't pretty. Sudden explosions of violent rage, near-catatonic depression, all sorts of wacko syptoms. Th
Friday, 09 June 2006 22:51
StA -
Bah, don't be in any way bothered by someone attacking your "sexism" in the story. I didn't read it like that at all - instead, you took a complex issue and expounded on it through the lens of someone whose perspective on the issue is centered around her job. Now, I've read some legitmately sexist science fiction - anything by Edgar Rice Burroughs, for example, and some of Heinlen's stuff - and this is not sexist any more than the Firefly show is.
And before Mr. or Ms. Anonymous cares to claim it is in any way degrading to women, I think it is important to remember just what Inara's job is - sex, comfort and spirituality all bound together in one package. I thought you did a perfectly brilliant job of presenting that, personally. It's pretty easy to tell that you are a professional.
Also, I love how you work some hard science (and medicine, and psychology) into your work - it's well researched, and what little bits I know on the subject agree with what you've said. Your approach to PTSD in this chapter, from two different sides, was informative without being boring and insightful without being preachy. I seriously love your work, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
Bah, don't be in any way bothered by someone attacking your "sexism" in the story. I didn't read it like that at all - instead, you took a complex issue and expounded on it through the lens of someone whose perspective on the issue is centered around her job. Now, I've read some legitmately sexist science fiction - anything by Edgar Rice Burroughs, for example, and some of Heinlen's stuff - and this is not sexist any more than the Firefly show is.
And before Mr. or Ms. Anonymous cares to claim it is in any way degrading to women, I think it is important to remember just what Inara's job is - sex, comfort and spirituality all bound together in one package. I thought you did a perfectly brilliant job of presenting that, personally. It's pretty easy to tell that you are a professional.
Also, I love how you work some hard science (and medicine, and psychology) into your work - it's well researched, and what little bits I know on the subject agree with what you've said. Your approach to PTSD in this chapter, from two different sides, was informative without being boring and insightful without being preachy. I seriously love your work, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
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