The Seven Virtues...
For a challenge at gameofcards: fic on the theme of the Seven Virtues.
The Seven Virtues of Serenity
Mal: Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse... but you take a boat in the air that you don't love... she'll shake you off just as sure as the turn of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she ought to fall down... tells you she's hurting before she keels. Makes her a home.
Jayne: Shepherd Book once said to me, "If you can't do something smart, do something right."
1 Faith - A belief in something higher (156 words)
Shepherd Book stared out at the stars and fingered the leather-bound missive in his hand. Taking over late watch on the comm made a body pensive, indeed. Gave him quiet time to think about the past, the future-though a man of his faith was meant to do his daily practice to stay firmly in the Now. “You don't fix faith, River. It fixes you.” Those words made some sense at the time he spoke them, but were they even true? He’d taken on Faith as a virtue, had it thrust upon him, more like, but had it fixed anything in his heart or soul? Cleansed him of his past actions, prepared him for the unknown future? Faith as a concept was so ephemeral, he could feel himself clutching at it with spiritual fingertips.
He barked out a sudden laugh at his own flight of fancy. Here and now, Derrial, here and now, he reminded himself, and went back to staring at the stars.
2 Hope - Confidence in ultimate outcomes (144 words)
Kaylee’d always had an optimistic outlook. Always. Even since a little girl, and even with times being hard from year to year, she’d see the best in things, and could imagine that better was yet to come. Kept her plugging away at her Daddy’s side, fixing motors and such, pretty much believing that anything could be got running again, you just worked at it long enough.
‘Course, you couldn’t have foolish optimism working with pistons and gears and belts and such. Had to have some dose of reality. So with her girl, her Serenity, she knew she couldn’t fly her on hope alone. No matter what Mal might say about love or whatever. Took parts, and oil, and work, to keep her in the air. Hope was all well and good, but sometimes a girl just had to have a compression coil, dong ma?
3 Charity - love and giving to others (101 words)
Inara knew that once she left the Enclave, struck out on her own, she’d have to get tougher, see her calling through the eyes of a businesswoman, else she wouldn’t survive as a Companion. She had the mind for it; after all, her family had all been businesspeople. The hard part was, she just didn’t see her calling as a business, an exchange of a valued service for gold. No, she genuinely saw it as a gift of love, that she would give freely if not for the need to support herself. She just wouldn’t be able to do it otherwise.
So when Mal, or others, made remarks about the mercantilism of sex, she just smiled, knowing that her secret was only for those upon whom it was bestowed.
4 Fortitude - the strength to persevere (151 words)
Zoe Alleyne Washburn had physical, mental, and emotional toughness, honed and shaped from being born and banging around on a cargo ship all the way up through her teens, then coming to the fore in the horror of the war, then becoming her livelihood in the years after. She'd been shot, gassed, knifed, punched, fallen off a horse, off a cliff, from a flying cargo carrier, off a catwalk, concussed, ripped a tendon lifting weights...seen family members die, fellow soldiers blown up next to her, and lost her most beloved husband.
But in all of that, she'd never felt pain like this, and for the first time in her life she wondered if she could live through it. She gritted her teeth, though, and tried to obey as Simon yelled at her, "Zoe! You're almost there!! Now push! Push! Push!" Then a whoop of joy. "It's a girl!"
5 Justice - a desire to make sure all share equally in the benefits of life (102 words)
Mal had had a happy enough childhood; sure, work on the ranch was tough, but he’d never lacked for the essentials and had grown up loving the wide open spaces and free-wheeling lifestyle.
But when the Alliance began snatching away people’s freedoms faster than the quickest picker could pluck cotton from the fields, he found in himself a sense of outraged justice that drove him to the skies, and the trenches. The years during and following the war had burned in deeper the sense of outrage, but somewhere along the way he’d lost the urge for justice.
Until now. Until Miranda.
6 Temperance - balancing what you want with what you need (140 words)
Jayne Cobb would not be said to be a temperate man. In fact, you could survey in towns and bars and ships all across the ‘Verse and he’d be right up there in the running for the least temperate man going. But here’s the thing: Jayne Cobb was alive, and more-or-less well, because he was a man who knew his limits. Drinking, fighting, carousing, eating, shooting, knifing, tracing, hunting-sure, he did all those things, and to an excess over what could be handled by any average man. But notice this: he hardly ever did them in excess over what he could handle himself. Sure, now and again he’d over-reach. Most likely in underestimating the smarts of those around him *cough*Mal*cough*. But overall, Jayne was a master at staying within his own bounds. And having a hell of a good time while at it.
7 Prudence - the ability to think before acting (129)
Simon Tam was raised in an atmosphere of luxury and care that nonetheless was measured, narrow, and deliberate. Not for the Tams the wild extravagances of others of their class and standing. No, prudence was their watchword, and even as a child Simon absorbed this and settled along the path of intellectual rigor, careful life management, and civic duty. But then the whirlwind hit: his beautiful baby sister River-brilliant and impulsive. Throughout their youth, they balanced each other-him creating structure for her chaos, her lending adventure to his prosaicism.
It was when she was taken from him, and he resolved to rescue her, that he found in himself the perfect blending of the careful plan and the insane act, and he threw prudence to the winds.
The Seven Virtues of Serenity
Mal: Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse... but you take a boat in the air that you don't love... she'll shake you off just as sure as the turn of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she ought to fall down... tells you she's hurting before she keels. Makes her a home.
Jayne: Shepherd Book once said to me, "If you can't do something smart, do something right."
1 Faith - A belief in something higher (156 words)
Shepherd Book stared out at the stars and fingered the leather-bound missive in his hand. Taking over late watch on the comm made a body pensive, indeed. Gave him quiet time to think about the past, the future-though a man of his faith was meant to do his daily practice to stay firmly in the Now. “You don't fix faith, River. It fixes you.” Those words made some sense at the time he spoke them, but were they even true? He’d taken on Faith as a virtue, had it thrust upon him, more like, but had it fixed anything in his heart or soul? Cleansed him of his past actions, prepared him for the unknown future? Faith as a concept was so ephemeral, he could feel himself clutching at it with spiritual fingertips.
He barked out a sudden laugh at his own flight of fancy. Here and now, Derrial, here and now, he reminded himself, and went back to staring at the stars.
2 Hope - Confidence in ultimate outcomes (144 words)
Kaylee’d always had an optimistic outlook. Always. Even since a little girl, and even with times being hard from year to year, she’d see the best in things, and could imagine that better was yet to come. Kept her plugging away at her Daddy’s side, fixing motors and such, pretty much believing that anything could be got running again, you just worked at it long enough.
‘Course, you couldn’t have foolish optimism working with pistons and gears and belts and such. Had to have some dose of reality. So with her girl, her Serenity, she knew she couldn’t fly her on hope alone. No matter what Mal might say about love or whatever. Took parts, and oil, and work, to keep her in the air. Hope was all well and good, but sometimes a girl just had to have a compression coil, dong ma?
3 Charity - love and giving to others (101 words)
Inara knew that once she left the Enclave, struck out on her own, she’d have to get tougher, see her calling through the eyes of a businesswoman, else she wouldn’t survive as a Companion. She had the mind for it; after all, her family had all been businesspeople. The hard part was, she just didn’t see her calling as a business, an exchange of a valued service for gold. No, she genuinely saw it as a gift of love, that she would give freely if not for the need to support herself. She just wouldn’t be able to do it otherwise.
So when Mal, or others, made remarks about the mercantilism of sex, she just smiled, knowing that her secret was only for those upon whom it was bestowed.
4 Fortitude - the strength to persevere (151 words)
Zoe Alleyne Washburn had physical, mental, and emotional toughness, honed and shaped from being born and banging around on a cargo ship all the way up through her teens, then coming to the fore in the horror of the war, then becoming her livelihood in the years after. She'd been shot, gassed, knifed, punched, fallen off a horse, off a cliff, from a flying cargo carrier, off a catwalk, concussed, ripped a tendon lifting weights...seen family members die, fellow soldiers blown up next to her, and lost her most beloved husband.
But in all of that, she'd never felt pain like this, and for the first time in her life she wondered if she could live through it. She gritted her teeth, though, and tried to obey as Simon yelled at her, "Zoe! You're almost there!! Now push! Push! Push!" Then a whoop of joy. "It's a girl!"
5 Justice - a desire to make sure all share equally in the benefits of life (102 words)
Mal had had a happy enough childhood; sure, work on the ranch was tough, but he’d never lacked for the essentials and had grown up loving the wide open spaces and free-wheeling lifestyle.
But when the Alliance began snatching away people’s freedoms faster than the quickest picker could pluck cotton from the fields, he found in himself a sense of outraged justice that drove him to the skies, and the trenches. The years during and following the war had burned in deeper the sense of outrage, but somewhere along the way he’d lost the urge for justice.
Until now. Until Miranda.
6 Temperance - balancing what you want with what you need (140 words)
Jayne Cobb would not be said to be a temperate man. In fact, you could survey in towns and bars and ships all across the ‘Verse and he’d be right up there in the running for the least temperate man going. But here’s the thing: Jayne Cobb was alive, and more-or-less well, because he was a man who knew his limits. Drinking, fighting, carousing, eating, shooting, knifing, tracing, hunting-sure, he did all those things, and to an excess over what could be handled by any average man. But notice this: he hardly ever did them in excess over what he could handle himself. Sure, now and again he’d over-reach. Most likely in underestimating the smarts of those around him *cough*Mal*cough*. But overall, Jayne was a master at staying within his own bounds. And having a hell of a good time while at it.
7 Prudence - the ability to think before acting (129)
Simon Tam was raised in an atmosphere of luxury and care that nonetheless was measured, narrow, and deliberate. Not for the Tams the wild extravagances of others of their class and standing. No, prudence was their watchword, and even as a child Simon absorbed this and settled along the path of intellectual rigor, careful life management, and civic duty. But then the whirlwind hit: his beautiful baby sister River-brilliant and impulsive. Throughout their youth, they balanced each other-him creating structure for her chaos, her lending adventure to his prosaicism.
It was when she was taken from him, and he resolved to rescue her, that he found in himself the perfect blending of the careful plan and the insane act, and he threw prudence to the winds.