Life (hopefully) Onboard Serenity: The Pain Man Returneth
POSTED BY: DRPAIN
UPDATED: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 22:51
VIEWED: 26692
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Life Onboard Serenity is a chain-story/rpg. If you want to join in the fun, you're more than welcome too...
Previously On Battlesta- sorry: Life Onboard Serenity!...
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Our latest adventure:
http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=26610
In which:
The events of the movie happened, Pain threatened Badger with a grenade, Pain, Fly, and Reggie reunited, Fly showed Pain her new tattoo after he mistook Reggie in the shower for her, there was lots of fighting and a Highlander reference, before we (well me, Ertia, and John) decided to just skip past the rest of the movie (John's idea, which was fine with me and Ertia).
Now the posting begins...
Epilogue - Two months later (that would be after the last scene of the BDM)
The deaths of Wash, Book, and Mr. U were still fresh in everyone's mind. After Serenity was repaired, Zoe pretty much stayed in her and Wash's room, only coming out to grab something to eat, and when the Captain needed her for a job. There weren't many of them, seeing as the Operative dispatched most of their contacts, except for those who managed to stay off the radar and even they didn't want much to do with Mal and his crew. Sammy remained onboard per doctor's orders and has managed to remember most of the crew's names. The memories concerning Pain have been fuzzy at best, but she remembers certain things, like the time she ran out of the shower with only a washcloth to cover her, and that someone had hid her in a crate when the Feds came looking for her on Persephone.
River has taken over Wash's job as pilot and Wolf still helps in that department. She's still crazy in the brainpan, but not so much now after the Miranda incident, which the Parliament has convinced most Core Worlders, was just a hoax. Simon and Kaylee seem to be expirimenting with this thing called love (or is it lust?) and are going at it like a couple of jackrabbits, much to the dismay of Mal. There has been no word from JR or Sybil and no one can explain the mysterious disappearance of Guy and Shipscat. As for 13, he's had terrible luck getting in contact with Serenity. All of the docks and spaceports he's tried have either been on lockdown for security reasons or severe weather has forced them to close until it cleared up. Oh and John's friend Doc is still onboard.
Now on with the show...
Bridge
Over the shipwide comm River's voice boomed "Captain, we've got an incoming wave from Pain. Text only."
Mal replied over the comm "Shiny. I'll be there in..."
River cut him off "Two minutes and fifty eight seconds."
As Mal entered the Bridge, he said to River "That never ceases to creep me out, Albatr
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Sammy was lying on the catwalk, the way River used to do, if she could have remembered the way the River used to do it.
She hated it here.
She didn't even know why. Some part of her tried to remind her how it had once been her family, her home. She'd fought and loved, and shared with these people.
Kaylee and Simon hardly looked up from each other, making up for lost time. Zoe's eyes were dark, stoic. She'd stopped laughing when Wash died. Shepherd Book's voice was gone from Sammy's memories, but some part of her longed to hear it again.
This place was a trap. A cage. An empty hole.
Some old song was running through her mind, something about painting, and shades of grey. She hummed it as she lay there, looking up.
"Ertia." Mal's voice. He was standing over her and she pulled herself up.
"Gotta talk, bao bei."
"I don't want to talk." She met his gaze tiredly as she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the catwalk to kick her feet.
"Too bad." This was The Captain, The Sergeant; "Because I've had enough of your moping around here like the worlds ending."
"World didn't end." She glanced over as he dropped down to sit beside her. "Just feels like it did."
"Pain's coming home." He said it quickly, without preamble.
Pain. A shiver ran through her. "I don't want to see him."
"Too gorram bad." Mal growled, reached out to shake her shoulder, "You're going to see him, and maybe you'll remember everything. Maybe not. But it's time you started living again."
As he stood up and walked away, she remembered, the words, somehow and sang quietly to the empty cargo bay...
"Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul."
("Vincent" Don Maclean)
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Onboard Reggie's ship - Cargo Bay
Pain, Fly, and Annabelle were getting things packed into bags as they waited to dock with Serenity, which was still four hours away.
"Annabelle sweety, do you remember what I said about the one called Jayne?" Pain asked his daughter as he put some clothes in a duffle bag.
Annabelle smiled and replied "If he says or does anything bad, I kick him in the shins."
"That's correct, bao bei." replied Pain, ruffling the girls hair with one of his hands. Turning to Fly, Pain said "You sure you're not stayin' onboard Serenity, Fly?"
Fly gave the man a smile, then said "I'll stay for a few hours, chat with friends, perhaps sit down and eat some chow, but I'll be goin' back to Reggie's ship before we leave."
"Well I ain't goin' to twist your arm then, Fly. Just promise to wave often and try not to get shot, dong ma?" replied Pain, flashing Fly a smile.
Fly smiled back and said "I promise, Pain. You're such a worrywort."
Pain stuck out his tongue at Fly and went to help his daughter pack.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WWJD: What Would Jayne Do?
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Yeah new thread
John loved Serenity. He had seen her crew come together after a time of loss and anguish. The emptyness of the destroyed Haven. The sense of relief from River on Miranda. The feeling of fear and sorrow as they fought for the message. The joy and renewal when they rebuilt the ship. The anger when the Parliament's cover up worked. Doc was shakey. If they went near Knives again he would let her off but somebody needed to keep an eye on her.
Kaylee was happy so he was happy, but when he looked at Zoe he saw emptyness. John decided to take it on himself to bring the Zoe of Zoe back. He had never been able to connect with her husband but he could make up for it. He waited in the galley where he knew she would eventually come to talk to her.
johnttf
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*wolf had been very busy, getting involved in every part of the re-building of the ship, this was tricky as he had been seriously wounded in the battle,(he stayed with serenity to keep the reavers back as long as possible) because of this and his recovery, he was somewhat behind on current events.*
wolf" this is it."
*he took a deep breath, and made his way towards the engineroom with his hand in his back pocket.
as he turned the corner and walked up to the door he saw kaylee and simon "working".
he stopped in his tracks, turned around and, with a single tear, slipped the ring back into his pocket.*
-------------------------------------------------
Bigwolf18, shaman.
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"Wolf" John said as he saw the man walking sadly towards the bridge. "Stop I need to talk to you!"
"What" Wolf said.
"You saw Simon and Kaylee I presume"
"What do you care ou always thought he was better for her."
"I'm sorry, Wolf. She was torn for a long time. She didn't know where your relationship was going so she went with him. I know your hurting. Bad. But, anything I can do to help alleviate that pain, I'm willing to do
johnttf
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(beginning of journal entry):
‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.’
Pretty, isn’t it? Amazing how the 23rd has remained unchanged for so many years, a constant through thousands of years of war, spoken on behalf of perhaps billions, maintaining the same meaning. Mal read it for Shepherd Book, at the rocket sendoff. Mal, for God’s sake, the man who believes in no higher spirit, who calls himself creator of his destiny. He didn’t say anything about it, and nobody asked.
Is it destiny, (or ka, if you prefer) that jagged-toothed monster, that took two of us, and will maybe take more? I’ve been trying to convince myself that it was all just bad luck, but I’m not so sure.
I got off pretty cheap in retrospect. My face took some heavy slashing, going toe-to-toe with a Reaver (Simon managed to reduce the damage to nothing but a trio of scars and a dead eye. I have a nifty artificial one, though, compliments of the regretful murderer) and I’m walking with a rough limp, but nothing terribly debilitating (except for my state of mind, ha-ha).
You know what my first thought was at that sendoff, when Zoe lit the rocket in that dress? ‘Now she’s single.’ Jesus-please-us. Does that make me a bad person? Of course. But do I care? Do I feel bad about thinking that, thrust against the very face of Death?
Honestly, I don’t know. More later.
(end entry)
The man they called Oath closed the tattered leather book with a thankful sigh, tucking it and his stylus away. Every time he put something in there, it felt like shoving his fingers down his throat to get rid of some black poison. That was the journal’s purpose: put your life on paper, and it becomes less real, as if it never happened.
That was what Oath wanted, what he sought desperately: to forget. He found himself envying Samantha/Ertia/Sammy, if not very seriously. Experience is what makes us grow, as some mock-wise old fart had once said. Of course, that mock-wise old fart hadn’t seen his friends dying in the dust with gaping bullet wounds or impaled to their chairs, hadn’t had his face sliced open, hadn’t nearly had his leg chopped off by gunfire…
Before the silence and solitude of his sparse bunk could amplify the sound of his thoughts, Oath slid the door open, fingers unconsciously tracing the scars that now dominated his face, along with the thing that failed at replacing an eye. Whenever anybody looked at him, that was all they really saw now. He looked less human now than 13, the wonder-bot who had come out of that fight grinning and hungry for more, eyes burning bright as the sun. He hadn’t been the only walking slaughterhouse during that ‘Last Stand’; River had turned into something that rivaled, if not eclipsed, the android’s capacity for destruction.
Not that Oath was complaining; he was concerned over his daughter’s latent abilities, but if not for those abilities all of them would be dead as Dad’s hatband. Even 13 would’ve fallen eventually, even if it was only under the weight of the bodies he would’ve piled up.
Oath’s ears, having remained unharmed, perked up at the sound of singing from the catwalk. He didn’t recognize the voice, but he had a single fleeting microsecond of hope that it would be Zoe up there, maybe in that dress…
‘You mean the dress she wore to her husband’s funeral?’ he told himself, fists tightening at his thoughts that ran free of the rein
A voice that sounded like a thousand sewer streams bubbled from the bott
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Good to see you all back. Anyone mind if i re join?? And man i think wolf's going to be pissed.
Persphrone (grr....hard to spell place times. Curse you Joss!!)
Shouldn't of gotten off...
The Party was in full swing with the band playing and the upper crust of society all gathered, chatting about trivial things, moving like little bits of paper in the wind.
Choo, decked out in the best suit favours could buy, gave a smile and nod to many of his customers, noting a lot were getting older each time he saw them. Anthon Wing still sporting a hideous scar from an unlucky duel. Choo had been stuck on three hills when that had happened and regretted it still.
"Did you hear all about that awful hoax?" one maiden chatted to the other, both gleefully laughing like old mules in a stable "Its amazing what these cortex masters can do today,"
Choo gave a nervous tug at his sleeve, trying to cover the huge glaring scar were the .... were...
Shouldn't of gotten off
Taking a deep breath, the trader headed for the balcony, trying not to catch peoples attention. heading the cold evening air to try and clear his head.
Haven or Reavers. One Crazy Browncoat and his gun wasn't going to get me killed. Haven was an apporiate name, Choo thought, until the Feds showed up.
When people describe reavers, they've never seen the Alliances Black Ops in action. In under two hours all trace of an alliance attack had been removed. Heck ANY trace that there was a small mining town there was gone. And once they'd finished with the dead..they started on him...
"Shouldn't of gotten off," Choo said quietly, eyeing the huge drop off the balcony.
"Anything i can get you sir?" a waiter enquired behind Choo, breaking him out of his trance.
"er...yes, a pan-galactic would be fine, oh, and is there any place i can send a wave here? Need to talk to someone urgently"
-----------------------------
Remember: When introducing Zoe to your shiny new ship, pay attention to where she's pointing when she says "What is that?" That's where you're going to be laying, bleeding someday.
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I'm excited for the first time in a while about this thread. I think skipping was definately a great idea. Everyone's actually posting yeah 
johnttf
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“Samantha,” Oath breathed, genuinely relieved, but not for the reasons you might think: the sight of the amnesiac woman confirmed that Oath hadn’t imagined the singing after all. “Excited about your lover’s gallant return?”
Sammy stilled inside, but finished out the last verse of the song,
"You took your life as lovers often do
But I could've told you, Vincent.
This world was never meant,
For one as beautiful as you."
A half smile on her face, she turned to look Oath in the eye, trying not wince from the scarring on his face. He didn't deserve that, that way that the others couldn't look him in the face; they way they glanced and then tried not to stare.
So she looked him in the eye, in his good eye, the one where the lights from the catwalk played sparkling colors against the iris, and simply appreciated the beauty there. Van Gogh's beauty, the blurred colors of a marred lifetime told in artist strokes. And she answered his question, "Terrified, is more like."
"I'm not ready for this." She groaned, rubbing a hand over her eyes, "I mean, as far as I remember, six months ago, I was married and to know that was six YEARS not months... that my husband is dead, and never coming back, and I've been in love with another man, who I barely remember?"
"Oath? It's insanity. The whole thing, it's insanity. Look what we've done, what we've proved! But does anyone even believe us? Did it change anything? Wash? Book?" She pauses, the other ache still too fresh as she whispers, "Universe. I knew him longer and better than any of you. He was... my last connection to who I was before."
"And now, Pain is coming back. He's going to walk in that door." She gestured violently towards the cargo bay doors, her voice raising in frustration, "And expect me to be all open arms and desperate lover, and... I don't know how to do that. All I have are fragments, pieces. Memories that don't even feel like they belong to me."
She glanced over at Oath, apologetically, "Sorry, I'm ranting at you. But you asked. What about you? Where do you go from here?"
OOC: Once again, lyrics "Starry Starry Night" aka "Vincent" - Don McLean
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