Prompt Fic: The Patron Saint of Lost Causes (prompt by lls_mutant)

[kappamaki33]

Title: The Patron Saint of Lost Causes
Characters: Hoshi, Narcho, Adama, Tigh, Lee, Racetrack, Helo, and though Gaeta isn't present, he's still a major part of the story
Rating: PG-13, for one gruesome line
Summary: What happens when even hope is gone? Reflections on Raptor 718's disappearance.
Notes: Thank you to my betas, puszysty and

Comments

[emmiere]

This is great, I especially love the way you write Hoshi and Racetrack shutting down Lee's rationalizations. But great characterization all around.

For such a small detail, the bridge bunny table staying empty by unspoken rule really gets me.

[kappamaki33]

Thanks for reading! I enjoyed vicariously yelling at Lee through Racetrack. ;) Lee often has good points, but I like it whenever people call him on his bull now and then, too.

[lls_mutant]

I absolutely love this. This hits so many of my fic kinks- desperate love that you know isn't going to end well, understated expressions of affection, the feeling that Hoshi would do it all again.... ::hugs this::

I love that Narcho threw out his back. The equipment's been going for four years without a pit stop, and so have the pilots. That detail just... it worked so well for me. And I love that Narcho and Racetrack keep reminding people (including Hoshi) that there are other people on the Raptor besides Gaeta.

I miss loving the Tigh-Bill bromance, and this line:

He’d always loved Bill like a brother, but for the first time, Saul was realizing just how good a friend to him Bill had been for putting up with Saul’s never-ending cycle of this kind of crap.just made me love them again for a bit. I love this realization, and it's so 4.5 Tigh. And Hoshi waiting outside (and Saul knowing it) cracks me up, because it just fits with what we know of Hoshi. And that it bothers Bill that he knew and forgot about Gaeta/Hoshi... ::sigh

[kappamaki33]

I'm so glad you liked it! And thanks again for the beta--I keep forgetting that Baltar's trial was a "TV trial" rather than a mini-Nuremberg, which is how I keep thinking of it for some reason

[lls_mutant]

Quick question for you:

is this line:

Cavil will dissect her like a science project. He’ll cut her up into little pieces to try to figure out how she works. There will be nothing but pieces for us to find.

From canon, or yours? I don't have the 4.5 DVDs yet, and I just wanted to check.

Thanks!

[kappamaki33]

Nope, that's my own. Canon has her saying something similar *after* Adama OK's the rescue mission, so I couldn't use it for that last scene because that in my head comes before Helo even begs for a Raptor, but I used something similar because it felt to me like the scene in canon was an argument that Helo and Athena had been through a few times before.

Here's the actual dialogue from the "Daybreak":

Helo: It's really happening. We're going after her.

Athena: Or what's left of her. Cavil's probably had her sliced and diced and cut into a thousand specimens.

Helo: Stop it! Just...stop it, okay? She's still alive, and she's still out there. And we're gonna get her, and everything's gonna be all right.

Athena: It's not gonna be all right, Karl.

Helo: No. You're wrong. You're wrong.

Hope that helps!

[lorrainemarker]

Felix's handwriting being all over the star charts really brought home how much he did behind the scenes. I'd love to see the argument between Hoshi and Gaeta after Baltar's trial and Lee's assumption that just because you have a knock down, drag out, tear up the scenery argument that means you quit on each other says so much about his relationships. It almost perfectly describes what happened over and over again with his father, Kara, and Dee.

Narcho's realization he didn’t have anybody left that he’d go off on a mad, hopeless mission for anymore just killed me, because by the end that described nearly all of them. Because really going after Hera felt like a last hurrah that they'd never win. I suspect that they all expected to die on the mission and then they won (sort of

[kappamaki33]

Thanks so much! I don't think I could bring myself to write that argument. My feeling is it has something to do with Gaeta's testimony, but I have a hard time writing those two that mad at each other. It would be interesting, though.

I completely agree that everyone saw the mission to go after Hera as a suicide mission. I really like trying to find reasons why people would cross that line to go on that mission--yes, Hera is a cute kid with a destiny, but they've lost people before and not gone after them. It ended up feeling to me like Hera became the surrogate for all those people left behind, for all those people like Narcho who didn't personally have anybody left.

[safenthecity]

Oh, oh.

You made me tear up in the computer lab. This is heartbreaking. All of it- from Narcho's "we're too old for this" to everything with Bill and Saul to Hoshi and Racetrack insisting on the SAR despite Lee's newfound reason... And Lee's thoughts on Felix and Louis, how they fought after Baltar's trial, even without knowing what was said, the fact that they got through it just makes it hurt worse, somehow.

And the last scene with Helo and Hoshi, it's just devastating. Excellent.

[kappamaki33]

Thank you so much! (and sorry for making you tear up in the computer lab--maybe I should add a "don't read without kleenex handy" warning along with the violence-type warnings? ;) ).

This was an interesting story to write, delving into a lot of characters that I know and like but don't necessarily venture inside their heads too often. I'm really glad that the Saul and Bill stuff turned out well, because writing Adama always makes me nervous. I just can't get inside his head myself. Luckily, I can get into Saul's head, and he serves as a pretty good proxy.

And I'm glad you liked the last scene. In my mind, that's why Hoshi walked across the line and volunteered for the mission to save Hera (though Adama sent him back). He gets it; he's been there, and as badly as it turned out in some ways, it was still worth it.

[brennanspeaks]

Oh, wow.

This is beautiful. You get all of these characters so well. The last section really got to me. I'll be adding to memories, 'kay? thanx.

[kappamaki33]

Oh wow, thank you! I'm honored--especially that you think I understood the characters. You're so good at getting in Adama's head, and I'm so...uncomfortable in there, that it means a lot. Thanks!