RP: "Adventures in Gunrunning" - Act 10

POSTED BY: FrauDirektor
UPDATED: Thursday, March 4, 2004 20:12
VIEWED: 17840
PAGE 6 of 11

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NEXT PAGE

GEEZER

Tuesday, February 24, 2004 12:56 PM

MAL's Move:

Location: Bridge

[MAL's thumb hovers over the comm button for the engine room]

MAL:"WASH, you listen too."[Pushes button]"KAYLEE, when we're grounded in the Valley I wanna be ready to go jin kuai, so you stay in the engine room. If trouble comes I need you there. WASH'll be on the bridge with an eye to the scanners."

"Now don't get mad, darlin' , but I'm gonna ask that DAMON fella to hook up the laser cannon when we land, if he's up to it. I know you can do it, and better too, but I'd rather have you on the engines. They're more important if we need a quick getaway. Besides, if he screws the pooch, you can tease the livin' shiong mao niao out of him."

[MAL releases the comm button]"Get that, WASH? I'm goin' below to see how things are. Check out the scanners, an' let me know when we're 10 minutes from landin'."

[Exit bridge aft]

EOM

Jin kuai = as quickly as possible
Shiong mao niao = Panda piss

"Keep the Shiny side up"

BOOMERGOODHEART

Tuesday, February 24, 2004 3:24 PM

Kaylee's Move
Location: Engine Room

Kaylee cocks her head and listens to the Captain's instructions. When he gets to the part about that Damon fella installing the new cannons, she sticks her tongue out at the comm and proceeds to ignore everything else he's saying.

She continues to tinker with Serenity.

End Move

BoomerGoodheart
"I love my Captain."

CAPNRAHN

Wednesday, February 25, 2004 1:11 AM

LOCATION - INFIRMARY As ...
The garish bloom of blood on ROWANs forehead stands out in stark relief--ROWANs skin seems to have grown shades lighter.

INARA
"She doesn't look good, does she? She's so pale."

Simon nods without speaking as they get ROWAN settled in the Infirmary.

ROWAN
softly to no one :
"I have to find him...finish this. Have to know...make it stop..."

SIMON, lost is thought, suddenly realizes he has not spoken in the several minutes since they moved ROWAN into the INFIRMARY.

SIMON
Shaking his head wearily
"My apologies, Inara. I seem to be rather lost today."

he turns to gather equipment

INARA
Smiles a gentle smile
"Simon, this has been a very difficult day."

As SIMON continues to collect equipment, INARA moves around the MED-CHAIR and places her left hand on SIMONs right forearm
"With so much going on, I am amazed any of has had the ability to cope. Things have been moving very, very fast."

SIMON stops and looks down at INARAs hand and then lets out a pent up sigh. He carefully sets the equipment down on the counter. He turns to face INARA as he places his left hand over hers on his right forearm. He raises his head to look into INARAs eyes.

INARA has seen many things in this young doctor, but to see total confusion in SIMONs eyes and countenance has been very rare. Portals behind SIMONs eyes seem to open and pour forth all the pain and frustration that has been building in him for the last 24 hours. This moment last less than a fraction of a second, but INARA attempts to absorb it all. The intensity therein nearly takes her breath away.

Concern for the o-so-young Doctor causes INARA to squeeze SIMONs forearm and allow a connection of understanding, however brief, to form as she says ...

INARA
Serious, yet softly
"We can only move one step at a time. We just have to discern the best path in this rocky wilderness we have put ourselves into."

SIMON
Nods with feeling and allows himself a small smile as he softly squeezes INARAs hand in return.
"Yes. No fate other than the one we make for ourselves."

After this all to brief moment of sharing, SIMON turns and gathers the equipment back up. INARA is slightly stunned that one so young would seem to understand the simple, yet hellishly complex idea of full responsibility of self. INARA had thought she had seen some sort of evil in SIMON much earlier, but now he seemed to be back in control. Had the abrupt appearance of SLIGHT loosed some demon in SIMON? Again, INARA vows to seek out the answers. River, Simon and Malc... INARA quickly stifles the deep, and sometimes painful, feelings she has for Mal ...the whole crew are much like the family that is denied her as a Companion. She wasn't about to loose ANY of them.

As SIMON arranges the tools on the surgery tray, INARA moves to the left side of the Med Chair and lays her cool hand on ROWANs slightly fevered brow.

INARA
"What do I need to do?"

SIMON
Looks up with determination and his normal medical resolve
"Please shut the door and then we'll scrub and glove. I suppose after that all I'll need is for you to assist with implements and the like."
Simon looks up to ROWANs vitals on the monitor
"Looks like the mild sedative I gave her is not working too well. It must be her metabolism or fatigue poisons in her blood. Since I am working on her eyes, I'll have to induce a deeper sleep."

As INARA nods and moves towards the door, SIMON checks the oxygen level in ROWANs blood stream. Satisfied, he withdraws a small sample of her blood and turns to inject it into a special rubber sealed test ampoule. The blood filters through a screen and yellowish serum drips into the of fluid in the bottom section. SIMON swirls the mixture together for a moment. The test i

RAVENWHYTEWING

Wednesday, February 25, 2004 5:15 PM

Wash calibrates the scanners. "Will do, cap'n. I wouldn't mind hoppin off as quick as possible either." Wash keeps a lookout through the bridge window.
Might be nice to take a break after this run.
EOM

Everyone Dies. Someone's carrying a bullet for you, doesn't even know it. The trick is, to die of old age before he finds you.

CHANNAIN

Wednesday, February 25, 2004 6:15 PM

LOCATION - INFIRMARY

Rowan's Ruminations:

She's warm, comforted, down right cozy. On some baser level she realizes she's asleep. Dreams come in sleep - she's always had vivid dreams. This…this is something else.

The room is huge and utterly devoid of light. There's something unsettling about man-made blackness, and how complete it can be. At night on a planet, there's starlight to lend some depth and a modicum of illumination. In man-made black there's nothing. As if the very right to any manner of elucidation has been revoked.

Maybe she's meant to rest, but she can't bring herself to it. If she stops for any length of time, she'll start to think again, to remember, to return to the misery she wallowed in right after the war ended.

"Standing firm on this stony ground…The wind blows hard, pulls these clothes around…I harbour all the same worries as most - the temptations to leave or to give up the ghost"

Who is that? The voice sounds familiar. There's a light now, slowly coming to life and oddly enough in the shape of an overhead lamp for a billiards table.

"I wrestle with an outlook on life that shifts between darkness and shadowy light. I struggle with words for fear that they'll hear, but Orpheus sleeps on his back still dead to the world."

A table appears under the light - the felt cover is deep blue rather than the standard green. Then a nine-ball formation, still in the rack. Then the cue ball, poised exactly where she likes to make the first break. Before she realizes it, the cue stick is in her hand and she bends down to line up the break without even thinking about the how or the why. The tip of her cue strikes, and the cue ball is a blur as it separates the formation. Nine balls fly across the table, crashing into each other and the bumpers. Not one of them makes a single sound.

"Do you remember when we learned this game?"

It's the same voice, speaking softly. She still can't tell who, or where. Circling the table, she lines up the first shot. One ball in the side. Again the cue strikes soundlessly and the ball floats into the pocket.

"A rainy afternoon on the weekend. Poppa was working - again - Aislin was primping for her companion presentation. It was just you and me."

Couldn't be…brothers who disappear for twenty-one years don't just show up in your subconscious.

Two in the corner.

"I could never beat you," he admits. "It was the one thing in the 'verse I never completely mastered. Did you ever wonder why that was?"

"Honestly? I was just thrilled there was one thing I was better at than you."

Three in the side. It sailed in as if drawn on a string.

"It seems selfish now," she says and hears his light chuckle. Then he's there, on the edge of the light, just as she remembers him. Young, shuai and so confident in his superior intellect that he didn't feel the need to show it off.

"I still miss you, mei mei."

Meeting his eyes, she swallows slowly. "I never stopped missing you."

He nods, then steps back out of the light, vanished as if he never was.

Holding back tears, she returns to the game. Four in the side.

"I opened up the pathway of the heart. The flowers died embittered from the start. That night I crossed the bridge of sighs and I surrendered"

That was a different voice. The accent was more pronounced, as if the speaker had spent the larger part of his life speaking only Chinese. Lower, older, and strangely more familiar. Seeing the four glide away into the pocket, she watches as the felt on the table goes from blue to red.

As she leans into the next shot, she has to consciously keep her hands from shaking.

EOM

OOC: More to come...
Also, the prose is not my own, much as I might like. I have David Sylvian to thank for such excellent words to set a scene.

We have art so as not to die of truth ~ Neitzsche
http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=7922

TEELABROWN

Wednesday, February 25, 2004 10:59 PM

This what you're talking about?
___________
River is wandering around the ship, just wandering. She goes to the infirmary.

Brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers. They all return sometime. When or where is the suprise.

She smiles to the sleeping Rowan.
____________

_____________
"Freedom is the Freedom to say that 2+2 makes 4. If that is granted, all else follws"-Winston, 1984
Teela Brown, keeper of bad typing.
"No one reads these things any way."- Bart on Blackboard

CHANNAIN

Thursday, February 26, 2004 4:44 PM

LOCATION - INFIRMARY

Rowan's Ruminations:

The second voice continues, "I looked back and glimpsed the outline of a boy. His life of sorrows now collapsing into joy, and tonight the stars are all aligned and I surrender. My mother cries beneath a southern sky and I surrender."

Ordering her hand to remain steady, she focuses on the five ball. Side pocket.

"Do you remember what I said to you on our wedding day?"

The five rolls slowly across the table to vanish smartly into the pocket. She stands still to study the six ball, holding the cue stick tight in both hands. Simple bank on the angle into the side. She could do it blindfolded. If only she could get her hands to move. "The war started on our wedding day. I remember listening to the counterattack orders in an underground bunker."

"Before that." His hand moved into the light, gracefully running along the polished surface of the table edge. Square-featured but with slim fingers - artist's hands. The sleeve of his jacket is off white. He stops at the corner and she finds herself torn between needing to see him and a desperate wish that he would disappear.

She takes a deep breath and leans down to take the shot. The six sails away. "Something from the Word."

His hand begins moving slowly toward her as he recites, "Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned."

She lines up the seven ball and slams it in silence. She had wanted to hear the crack of the cue ball striking so solidly that the seven should have shattered to pieces, which sounds much more satisfying to her than the slamming of a door. Straightening, she marches around the table, handily avoiding him and begins a bitter recitation of her own.

"By night on my bed I sought the one I love; I sought him but did not find him. 'I will rise now,' I said, 'And go about the city. In the streets and in the squares I will seek the one I love.' I sought him but did not find him. The watchmen who go about the city found me; I said 'Have you seen the one I love?'"

The eight ball sinks much the same way as the seven, still without a sound, leaving two balls on the table; the white cue and the nine.

He asks her, "Do you remember how it ends?"

EOM

OOC: Again, thanks David Sylvian. The bits from the Word are from the Song of Solomon.

I'll finish the dream just before she wakes up.

We have art so as not to die of truth ~ Neitzsche
http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=7922

MISTRESSSMUTBUNNY

Thursday, February 26, 2004 6:25 PM

*Ciara grumbles*

MISTRESSSMUTBUNNY

Thursday, February 26, 2004 6:25 PM

Inara's turn
LOCATION-INFIRMARY

ROWAN
softly to no one :
"I have to find him...finish this. Have to know...make it stop..."

Inara places her had on Rowan's shoulder--she looks down into Rowan's face--the woman's brow is knit, her full lips pulled into a slight grimace. Inara can see Rowan's eyelids twitching with the movement of her eyes under them. She runs her hand down Rowan's arm, clasping the woman's hand in hers. Rowan's face relaxes a bit, and she sighs softly.

Inara smiles down into Rowan's now-relaxed visage--"there, now...that's better."
As she gazes at Rowan, Inara feels a sudden surge of recognition--a flash of bright yellow sunlight and red brocade.....

*****
"yes, just like that, a long stroke, watch your pressure...and...you're done! Brilliant, Inara."
Inara gently sets her long-handled calligraphy brush down and beams up at her gongbi (detailed chinese painting) tutor, Aislin. Inara and Aislin are sitting at their favorite place beside the huge windows in the common room of the Academy. Bright yellow sunlight streams through the tall windows, bathing Aislin's beautiful asian face in gold. "You did my copy perfect justice, Inara"...Aislin picks up her picture from the wide stone table, and settles back onto her cushion, gazing at the image intently..."it looks just like her.."

Inara notices a slight look of sadness on her favorite tutor's face.."who is she, da jie*? You've had me copy the image three times, and every time, you look more morose." Aislin gives Inara a sad smile..."You see, mei mei--when you become a companion, you gain a whole world of adventure and satisfaction in pleasing your clients. But...."*Aislin looks sadly at the picture of her sister* "...you lose something else." Aislin turns her original copy of the painting around "Inara, meet my little sister--I miss her so often these days. She has just the most beautiful eyes."
*****

Inara returns to the present, Simon's voice ringing in her ears:

SIMON
Shaking his head wearily
"My apologies, Inara. I seem to be rather lost today."

Inara, emerging from her reverie, takes a deep breath and smiles down at Rowan one more time...

INARA
"I think we're all a little lost today, Simon, this has been a very difficult day."

Inara takes a moment to share a connection with Simon, to ease his troubled mind and allow him to continue with the work at hand.

She moves to the left side of the Med Chair and lays her cool hand on ROWANs slightly fevered brow.

INARA
"What do I need to do?"

Nodding at Simon's instructions, Inara closes the door, then returns to Simon's side, assisting him in gloving them both up.

Inara watches Simon clean the wound above Rowan's brow, his hands sure and swift. Simon instructs her to gently hold open Rowan's swollen eye as he removes the obvious contact lens there. Since the eye had been swollen, Inara hadn't noticed the bright flash of jade green peeking from behind the dark brown of the contact lens. Inara lets a knowing smile touch her lips--a phrase echoes in her head. "She has just the most beautiful eyes"

da jie=big sister
End Inara's turn

OOC I forgot I was logged in as MSB--just ignore it :P

TEELABROWN

Thursday, February 26, 2004 11:04 PM

_________
River is in the infirmary. She says, to no one in particular:

You know the words, but you want to forget. They still come, and come. And they don't leave you. Yet part of you still wants them to stay. And so stay they shall.

She looks up at Inara.

She still has the most beautiful eyes.
__________

_____________
"Freedom is the Freedom to say that 2+2 makes 4. If that is granted, all else follws"-Winston, 1984
Teela Brown, keeper of bad typing.
"No one reads these things any way."- Bart on Blackboard

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NEXT PAGE