Serenity/BtVS Xover: "Out of The Blue" (1/1), 500 words
Don't ask where it came from, 'cause I dunno. Except for from the prompt. You hear that, Groupmum? I'm blaming you, again.
Out of The Blue. . . .(1/1)
Author: _beetle_
Fandom: Serenity/BtVS
Characters: The Serenity crew, and a couple of surprises.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 500
Notes: Set post-BDM, and, obviously, well post-NFA. Very vague spoilers for both series and the BDM. Implied slash.
Summary: River watches and is watched by two passengers. Written for the slashthedrabble prompt watch.
They're . . . different.
River reckons that's why she watches them at mealtimes, though it could be that the truths she reads on faces are far stranger than the bland lies they tell.
Her? their doubtful eyes ask whenever they glance at River, cautious and curious, two jaded cats distracted mid-hunt.
*
When Serenity makes planetfall, Mssrs. Idol and Tiberius tend not to take any sun with t'other passengers. Ain't regular.
('Cording to Mal, ain't a gorramn thing wrong with ain't . . . anyone says different's just talkin' out their pigu, even and 'specially if it's Simon talking.)
But irregular don't mean not a thing but what it means, and what it means . . . is anachronistic. Outmoded, like whispering gold-blue and gold-brown eyes, and feral, secret faces.
*
They make friends fast and easy.
The blond, Mr. Idol, gets on well with Jayne--and Kaylee's taken a shine to his impeccable darkness that Simon don't approve of.
The other, Mr. Tiberius, gets on with everybody. He reminds them all, even Zoe (who mostly avoids him) of Wash.
Only.
There was a light inside Hoban Washburn, River could tell them. It was warm, like hearth-fire. Mr. Tiberius's light is cold and old, like the memory of dead stars. He was Wash before Washwas Wash, but he gorramn ain't Wash.
In the end, she holds her peace.
The only people more excitable than the dead about such things are the living.
*
The air 'round them tastes of myrrh and copper, of buried secrets unearthed. Ways and means that bear no meanin' in this 'verse of numbers and causal chains.
Ain't no demons, here . . . only Reavers. Possessed of no more magic than any human reduced to several natures below beast.
Ain't a need for demons when there's Reavers.
*
One mealtime:
Mr. Idol is charming the table with a story that's at least sixty-three point five seven four percent lies. River sneaks a glance at Mr. Tiberius--Kirk, as he says to call him.
Anomaly.
Kirk usually watches Mr. Idol when Mr. Idol is being charming, not River. At these times, the heart Kirk no longer has . . . beats. Glows.
There's an unsubtle, hammering wrongness to them, so blatant that it causes an itch on River's skin, on the skin of the entire 'verse. It follows that:
Kirk is wrong because Mr. Idol is wrong, and so they will always be wrong, because they will always be wrong.
Spike, look, Kirk breathes, so soft River can only taste it on the air, like ashes and blood.
Mr. Idol's gaze finds and lingers on her face for a moment. Marks her forever.
And they are, it seems, now watching her back.
Her? Slay her? they both wonder silently, and River turns her attention back to her half-eatenbao, the shine of a blooded ax in her mind. She corrects them.
No. Her? Slayer.
'Cause ain't no force in the whole gorramn 'verse.
*
Mssrs. Idol and Tiberius--and their fancy luggage--fetch up lost somewhere in New Dunsmuir. It's a cause for wonder, and more'n a head-scratch, but like Mal says, least they paid in advance, and left before they brung the law down.
At the pilot's station, surrounded by dinosaurs, River smiles.
“. . . and into the Black.”
She and Serenity break atmo.
Out of The Blue. . . .(1/1)
Author: _beetle_
Fandom: Serenity/BtVS
Characters: The Serenity crew, and a couple of surprises.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 500
Notes: Set post-BDM, and, obviously, well post-NFA. Very vague spoilers for both series and the BDM. Implied slash.
Summary: River watches and is watched by two passengers. Written for the slashthedrabble prompt watch.
They're . . . different.
River reckons that's why she watches them at mealtimes, though it could be that the truths she reads on faces are far stranger than the bland lies they tell.
Her? their doubtful eyes ask whenever they glance at River, cautious and curious, two jaded cats distracted mid-hunt.
*
When Serenity makes planetfall, Mssrs. Idol and Tiberius tend not to take any sun with t'other passengers. Ain't regular.
('Cording to Mal, ain't a gorramn thing wrong with ain't . . . anyone says different's just talkin' out their pigu, even and 'specially if it's Simon talking.)
But irregular don't mean not a thing but what it means, and what it means . . . is anachronistic. Outmoded, like whispering gold-blue and gold-brown eyes, and feral, secret faces.
*
They make friends fast and easy.
The blond, Mr. Idol, gets on well with Jayne--and Kaylee's taken a shine to his impeccable darkness that Simon don't approve of.
The other, Mr. Tiberius, gets on with everybody. He reminds them all, even Zoe (who mostly avoids him) of Wash.
Only.
There was a light inside Hoban Washburn, River could tell them. It was warm, like hearth-fire. Mr. Tiberius's light is cold and old, like the memory of dead stars. He was Wash before Washwas Wash, but he gorramn ain't Wash.
In the end, she holds her peace.
The only people more excitable than the dead about such things are the living.
*
The air 'round them tastes of myrrh and copper, of buried secrets unearthed. Ways and means that bear no meanin' in this 'verse of numbers and causal chains.
Ain't no demons, here . . . only Reavers. Possessed of no more magic than any human reduced to several natures below beast.
Ain't a need for demons when there's Reavers.
*
One mealtime:
Mr. Idol is charming the table with a story that's at least sixty-three point five seven four percent lies. River sneaks a glance at Mr. Tiberius--Kirk, as he says to call him.
Anomaly.
Kirk usually watches Mr. Idol when Mr. Idol is being charming, not River. At these times, the heart Kirk no longer has . . . beats. Glows.
There's an unsubtle, hammering wrongness to them, so blatant that it causes an itch on River's skin, on the skin of the entire 'verse. It follows that:
Kirk is wrong because Mr. Idol is wrong, and so they will always be wrong, because they will always be wrong.
Spike, look, Kirk breathes, so soft River can only taste it on the air, like ashes and blood.
Mr. Idol's gaze finds and lingers on her face for a moment. Marks her forever.
And they are, it seems, now watching her back.
Her? Slay her? they both wonder silently, and River turns her attention back to her half-eatenbao, the shine of a blooded ax in her mind. She corrects them.
No. Her? Slayer.
'Cause ain't no force in the whole gorramn 'verse.
*
Mssrs. Idol and Tiberius--and their fancy luggage--fetch up lost somewhere in New Dunsmuir. It's a cause for wonder, and more'n a head-scratch, but like Mal says, least they paid in advance, and left before they brung the law down.
At the pilot's station, surrounded by dinosaurs, River smiles.
“. . . and into the Black.”
She and Serenity break atmo.