20_wars Greil Mercenaries AU
Title: Journey to Far Metaphor
Author: Lazulidragon
Group: the Greil Mercenaries
Word Count: 1519
Warnings: shonen-ai, um, possibly obscure literary refrences
Rating: PG
Disclaimer/Notes/Whatever: Originally, this was based on a dream I had involving Soren, gryphons, and purple jungles (don’t ask). Then I read some stuff by Ray Bradbury, and the censorship and metaphor elements started to fall in. In case anyone’s confused, the Emerald City thing in #13 is referring to the short story “The Exiles” by Ray Bradbury, and Silong was the name of a mountain in The Telling, by Ursula K. LeGuin.
1.A long, long time ago, the planet Earth sent a ship full of colonists to a life-bearing planet on the far edge of the galaxy. In the hopes that this new civilization would learn from the numerous mistakes of the old, or, barring that, that they would preserve the Earth’s achievements, the ship’s computers were loaded with data on the literary, scientific, and cultural achievements of the world. The colonists successfully reached and terraformed the new planet, though they lost contact with Earth in the process. The new world became a rich complex of cities and carefully ordered farmland. This was Begnion.
2.With time and improved technology, several additional planets were made suitable for humans, though most were mere mining colonies or research outposts. The larger, Earth-like residential planets Daein and Crimea eventually broke away to form independent governments of their own. All three ultimately formed the hub of the shaky Federation of Known Worlds, although Daein and Crimea remained distrustful of each other and Begnion held itself arrogantly aloof.
3.By the time a fourth planet suitable for life was discovered, the other three were comfortably situated in eternal rivalry. Unlike Begnion, Crimea, and Daein, however, which had all been mostly thin grassland before humans wrought their changes, Silong was already rich with life. It was ultimately agreed that its value lay in whatever could be learned from its native ecology, and that a research team should be convened as soon as possible.
4.Greil had been well on his way to achieving what his ancestors had called the “American Dream.” He married his high school sweetheart, had two beautiful children, and landed the sort of job he’d always wanted, teaching biochemistry at the University of Melior on Crimea. If he was there to escape the disturbingly swift growth of censorship on Daein, the planet of his birth, it had no effect on his passion for learning.
5.Gatrie hadn’t ever really been interested in on-site research. He’d always planned to get a nice, high-paying job in a lab and settle down. When he heard his old friend Shinon was a part of the team heading out to the back of beyond, however, he fought, begged, and petitioned to be allowed to come as well. He wasn’t quite sure why, and Shinon’s only comment was “you are slow, aren’t you?” Whatever that was supposed to mean.
6.Soren grew up in one of the massive institutions built by the Federation of Known Worlds, part orphanage, part school, all propaganda mill. He was, generally, antisocial, aloof, and studious, so it was perhaps not surprising that he would come to love books more than his fellow students. Interestingly, it was the teacher everyone hated most, a dour old man in the science department, who took the boy under his wing and introduced him to the pleasures of vast, obscure, impossible fantasy and metaphor.
7.When Oscar got his biology degree, he wanted to study some of the life forms being discovered on the grassy plains of the new Aquarius sector colonies. He never even dreamed of making it onto a first-contact research team, let alone one blessed with the amazing good fortune of a completely unspoiled planet fully as complex as Old Earth must have been.
8.Boyd was never much good with deep thoughts or philosophical discourse, but he was a top-notch mechanic. He maintained that he was accompanying the team so that he wouldn’t have to part with his brother’s cooking, but even an idiot could see that that it was so he wouldn’t have to part with his brother.
9.Mia became a history nut the day her kindergarten class took a field trip to the museum to see the exhibit on Old Earth. Besides the usual child’s fascination with the romance of ancient Egypt and Dark Age Europe, she immediately fell in love with the original suffragettes. She devoured history texts like no other, perusing works on everything from Greece to China to the Americas. Interestingly, though her passion for the past never wavered, her university counselor managed to convince Mia that a bright mind like hers had the greatest chance for success in botany, her second great (strange) love. That didn’t stop her from becoming a walking history book, however.
10.Titania had worked under Greil at the university for a number of years, respected his expertise and his good sense, and enjoyed a good friendship with both him and Elena. It was no real surprise that she was offered the opportunity of a lifetime while the three of them were enjoying a casual lunch in the faculty dining hall.
11.Most students, when considering opportunities for graduate work, would not elect to pursue studies under the tutelage of their fathers. Ike knew perfectly well that Greil wouldn’t give him preferential treatment where work was concerned, and he knew also that exploring a planet like Silong was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was an easy decision for him. Shinon wasn’t too happy, though.
12.Rhys had always been a little sicklier than his peers, ever coming down with one cold or fever after another. He passed the time by reading, mostly, whether serious medical journal or silly Earth fantasies. He’d always figured that his health would disqualify him for any venture outside the comforts of civilization, but when he was offered a place on the team heading for Silong, he did not hesitate to accept.
13.Elena was happy to stay home and keep an eye on Mist while her man ran off to unknown danger and adventure-provided that he kept her as informed as was humanly possible. Which he did, sending pages and pages on the life of the research team via hyper-comm. And because they were sometimes a strange couple, still madly in love, and because she was a professor of English Lit, their correspondence seemed like an odd private code: “If Poe and Bierce are hiding out in the Emerald City, get me their autographs,” “Your Romeo is doing well, but if there ever was a Juliet she’s out of luck, as he seems to have fallen for our young Mercutio.”
14.Rolf was distinctly Not Pleased when he found out that both of his brothers were going four hyper-jumps and a week’s straight flight away. Then he met their boss’s daughter at the spaceport, and he decided it might not be such a bad association, after all.
15.When the ten of them met at the spaceport, many were absolute strangers. Within the first two hyper-jumps, they began forming friendships. By the time they made landfall, it felt as if they’d known each other for ages. Three weeks, a fever, and numerous minor crises later, they were family.
16.Just as most Earth vertebrates had had four limbs, most on Silong had six, and were either scaled or feathered. There were numerous species of many-legged lizards, feathery monkey-things, and funny, flightless bird-like creatures that seemed friendly until they bit (as Boyd discovered, much to his chagrin). And the top predators? Ah, yes…
17.The first sighting was of a mated pair flying at sunset, hunting. They were magnificent creatures, broad wings and bright feathers, sheer power and grace in every line. As the humans watched in awe, one took a breathless dive, nearly vertical, into the tangle of jungle below. Mia said they were griffins, the mythological half-eagle half-lions of legend. The name stuck, unscientific as it was, but then there was an argument about spelling.
18.Something about being planetside, the air or the food, maybe, triggered a superabundance of dreams. They were the sort of dream, cherished and secret, that held beautiful significance or equally beautiful mystery: an echo of a distant memory, made grand and mysterious by time and fancy; a child, almost but not quite the self, who danced free; the face of one far distant; the rare, brilliant smile of a friend who was, at heart, so much more.
19.There are some constants in the world, no matter what planet you’re on. Being chipper in the morning will earn the wrath of anyone who hasn’t yet had a cup of coffee. Young lovers never make any sense. Neither do old ones. Oscar’s cheesecake will always be better than everyone else’s, even when he has to substitute with native ingredients because certain brothers of his took all the sugar.
20.The thing about literacy is that it’s hard to spread and fairly easy to make unappealing. All it takes is a little leniency, not forcing fidgety students to read, not encouraging them to do so on their own, and peer pressure takes care of the rest. When Ike was small, he loved to sit in his father’s or his mother’s lap and listen to them read. He and Mist even drew straws to decide which of them would read with which parent. When he started attending school, however, he quickly learned that fairy tales and the like were for “losers.” He didn’t want to be a loser. It took being on another planet, one oddly similar to the image of fairyland in his old picture books, to remind him how much he loved reading.
Author: Lazulidragon
Group: the Greil Mercenaries
Word Count: 1519
Warnings: shonen-ai, um, possibly obscure literary refrences
Rating: PG
Disclaimer/Notes/Whatever: Originally, this was based on a dream I had involving Soren, gryphons, and purple jungles (don’t ask). Then I read some stuff by Ray Bradbury, and the censorship and metaphor elements started to fall in. In case anyone’s confused, the Emerald City thing in #13 is referring to the short story “The Exiles” by Ray Bradbury, and Silong was the name of a mountain in The Telling, by Ursula K. LeGuin.
1.A long, long time ago, the planet Earth sent a ship full of colonists to a life-bearing planet on the far edge of the galaxy. In the hopes that this new civilization would learn from the numerous mistakes of the old, or, barring that, that they would preserve the Earth’s achievements, the ship’s computers were loaded with data on the literary, scientific, and cultural achievements of the world. The colonists successfully reached and terraformed the new planet, though they lost contact with Earth in the process. The new world became a rich complex of cities and carefully ordered farmland. This was Begnion.
2.With time and improved technology, several additional planets were made suitable for humans, though most were mere mining colonies or research outposts. The larger, Earth-like residential planets Daein and Crimea eventually broke away to form independent governments of their own. All three ultimately formed the hub of the shaky Federation of Known Worlds, although Daein and Crimea remained distrustful of each other and Begnion held itself arrogantly aloof.
3.By the time a fourth planet suitable for life was discovered, the other three were comfortably situated in eternal rivalry. Unlike Begnion, Crimea, and Daein, however, which had all been mostly thin grassland before humans wrought their changes, Silong was already rich with life. It was ultimately agreed that its value lay in whatever could be learned from its native ecology, and that a research team should be convened as soon as possible.
4.Greil had been well on his way to achieving what his ancestors had called the “American Dream.” He married his high school sweetheart, had two beautiful children, and landed the sort of job he’d always wanted, teaching biochemistry at the University of Melior on Crimea. If he was there to escape the disturbingly swift growth of censorship on Daein, the planet of his birth, it had no effect on his passion for learning.
5.Gatrie hadn’t ever really been interested in on-site research. He’d always planned to get a nice, high-paying job in a lab and settle down. When he heard his old friend Shinon was a part of the team heading out to the back of beyond, however, he fought, begged, and petitioned to be allowed to come as well. He wasn’t quite sure why, and Shinon’s only comment was “you are slow, aren’t you?” Whatever that was supposed to mean.
6.Soren grew up in one of the massive institutions built by the Federation of Known Worlds, part orphanage, part school, all propaganda mill. He was, generally, antisocial, aloof, and studious, so it was perhaps not surprising that he would come to love books more than his fellow students. Interestingly, it was the teacher everyone hated most, a dour old man in the science department, who took the boy under his wing and introduced him to the pleasures of vast, obscure, impossible fantasy and metaphor.
7.When Oscar got his biology degree, he wanted to study some of the life forms being discovered on the grassy plains of the new Aquarius sector colonies. He never even dreamed of making it onto a first-contact research team, let alone one blessed with the amazing good fortune of a completely unspoiled planet fully as complex as Old Earth must have been.
8.Boyd was never much good with deep thoughts or philosophical discourse, but he was a top-notch mechanic. He maintained that he was accompanying the team so that he wouldn’t have to part with his brother’s cooking, but even an idiot could see that that it was so he wouldn’t have to part with his brother.
9.Mia became a history nut the day her kindergarten class took a field trip to the museum to see the exhibit on Old Earth. Besides the usual child’s fascination with the romance of ancient Egypt and Dark Age Europe, she immediately fell in love with the original suffragettes. She devoured history texts like no other, perusing works on everything from Greece to China to the Americas. Interestingly, though her passion for the past never wavered, her university counselor managed to convince Mia that a bright mind like hers had the greatest chance for success in botany, her second great (strange) love. That didn’t stop her from becoming a walking history book, however.
10.Titania had worked under Greil at the university for a number of years, respected his expertise and his good sense, and enjoyed a good friendship with both him and Elena. It was no real surprise that she was offered the opportunity of a lifetime while the three of them were enjoying a casual lunch in the faculty dining hall.
11.Most students, when considering opportunities for graduate work, would not elect to pursue studies under the tutelage of their fathers. Ike knew perfectly well that Greil wouldn’t give him preferential treatment where work was concerned, and he knew also that exploring a planet like Silong was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was an easy decision for him. Shinon wasn’t too happy, though.
12.Rhys had always been a little sicklier than his peers, ever coming down with one cold or fever after another. He passed the time by reading, mostly, whether serious medical journal or silly Earth fantasies. He’d always figured that his health would disqualify him for any venture outside the comforts of civilization, but when he was offered a place on the team heading for Silong, he did not hesitate to accept.
13.Elena was happy to stay home and keep an eye on Mist while her man ran off to unknown danger and adventure-provided that he kept her as informed as was humanly possible. Which he did, sending pages and pages on the life of the research team via hyper-comm. And because they were sometimes a strange couple, still madly in love, and because she was a professor of English Lit, their correspondence seemed like an odd private code: “If Poe and Bierce are hiding out in the Emerald City, get me their autographs,” “Your Romeo is doing well, but if there ever was a Juliet she’s out of luck, as he seems to have fallen for our young Mercutio.”
14.Rolf was distinctly Not Pleased when he found out that both of his brothers were going four hyper-jumps and a week’s straight flight away. Then he met their boss’s daughter at the spaceport, and he decided it might not be such a bad association, after all.
15.When the ten of them met at the spaceport, many were absolute strangers. Within the first two hyper-jumps, they began forming friendships. By the time they made landfall, it felt as if they’d known each other for ages. Three weeks, a fever, and numerous minor crises later, they were family.
16.Just as most Earth vertebrates had had four limbs, most on Silong had six, and were either scaled or feathered. There were numerous species of many-legged lizards, feathery monkey-things, and funny, flightless bird-like creatures that seemed friendly until they bit (as Boyd discovered, much to his chagrin). And the top predators? Ah, yes…
17.The first sighting was of a mated pair flying at sunset, hunting. They were magnificent creatures, broad wings and bright feathers, sheer power and grace in every line. As the humans watched in awe, one took a breathless dive, nearly vertical, into the tangle of jungle below. Mia said they were griffins, the mythological half-eagle half-lions of legend. The name stuck, unscientific as it was, but then there was an argument about spelling.
18.Something about being planetside, the air or the food, maybe, triggered a superabundance of dreams. They were the sort of dream, cherished and secret, that held beautiful significance or equally beautiful mystery: an echo of a distant memory, made grand and mysterious by time and fancy; a child, almost but not quite the self, who danced free; the face of one far distant; the rare, brilliant smile of a friend who was, at heart, so much more.
19.There are some constants in the world, no matter what planet you’re on. Being chipper in the morning will earn the wrath of anyone who hasn’t yet had a cup of coffee. Young lovers never make any sense. Neither do old ones. Oscar’s cheesecake will always be better than everyone else’s, even when he has to substitute with native ingredients because certain brothers of his took all the sugar.
20.The thing about literacy is that it’s hard to spread and fairly easy to make unappealing. All it takes is a little leniency, not forcing fidgety students to read, not encouraging them to do so on their own, and peer pressure takes care of the rest. When Ike was small, he loved to sit in his father’s or his mother’s lap and listen to them read. He and Mist even drew straws to decide which of them would read with which parent. When he started attending school, however, he quickly learned that fairy tales and the like were for “losers.” He didn’t want to be a loser. It took being on another planet, one oddly similar to the image of fairyland in his old picture books, to remind him how much he loved reading.