rodeo town; Firefly/Serenity
Title: rodeo town
Fandom: Firefly/Serenity
P/C: a little Jayne/Kaylee
Rating: PG 13
Summary: The first word that comes to mind is ‘pristine’, which impresses Jayne as he didn’t think he knew a word like that.
Notes: written for laevatein for the Apocalytathon!
The first word that comes to mind is ‘pristine’, which impresses Jayne as he didn’t think he knew a word like that. Everything is quiet, everything is in its place here. It is the only reason to believe that everyone here is dead.
The light is harsh and the entire place is shades of brown, an old western looking place: wood fronts, big porches, a general store painted against a back drop of desert, a hanger looming above it all.
*
They called it an accident, for anyone who was stupid enough to think that was possible. A deadly, weapons grade plague poisons an entire galaxy; real convenient accident Jayne used to mutter.
*
Serenity is on her last legs. Kaylee has gotten her this far and isn’t sure she can keep doing it: pulling miracles out of thin air.
*
Jayne’s never been able to suss out why there are never any bodies. He climbs over a crashed hover car. Kaylee’s told him what she needs and so has Simon. He’s hit with a gut-wrenching smell, carried on the breeze running down the street. It’s a dusty, dead town, like so many other dusty, dead towns he’s encountered in the last year.
All he knows is that they need to keep the ship in repair: landing anywhere with people was the easiest way to get arrested or get dead.
A dead horse lies in the middle of the street, putrefying. It’s died recently, he can tell by the stink and by the shit caked on the ground. The wind starts to pick up after that breeze and Jayne places his goggles over his eyes to fight off the brown stinging dust that shoots at him from all directions.
He doesn’t know the name of this town, the name of the planet, or where it is in the ‘Verse. That’s not his job.
*
River doesn’t speak anymore.
No riddles, no nonsense, no sense either. All she does is quietly fly the ship. Sometimes Kaylee will catch her gazing over at the other chair. Mal has long since gone, to where they don’t know. Gone off to fight another war, to indulge in another crushing defeat, never to limp home again.
Zoe went with him, bloodthirsty and ready to die now; not that she believed in anything anymore. Her lust for brutality had become notorious, even among the few who survived the cleansing on the Rim. It was rumored that the High Chancellor had offered a bounty for her so large, it could buy half of the Allied Fleet.
It was also rumored that her head was on a spike in front of the Grand Parliament in Londinium, that she had been raped publicly, to prove she was powerless. But Simon consoles them all with the assumption that, should that have happened, it would have been broadcasted throughout every star system under Alliance control.
The High Chancellor isn’t one to be modest.
*
Jayne ransacks the small hangar. There is a ship that could be cannibalized for parts, a tool kit and several sets of mechanics and pilots jumpers. He stuffs the clothing into his rucksack, along with the tool kit. He’s got no head for machines and there are no Reavers on this rock. He radios Kaylee.
“Get out to the hangar girl. We don’t have much time before this dust storm gets too vicious to go out in!”
Outside the wind growls loudly.
*
Kaylee pulls on her big coat and her little goggles to go out after Jayne.
The dust flecks against her exposed skin, stinging and scratching it. She wraps a scarf around her nose and mouth, after coughing up enough dirt to plant a garden in. She sees the dead horse and gags at the exposed bone and the maggot riddled eyes. She pushes on towards the hangar, looming in the dust like a fin sticking out of the ground.
*
Parliament had ceded all power to the High Chancellor after the riots began. He began with immediate military action, gassing whole planets, employing sadistic men to implement new ways of crushing rebellion where it grew. There were fewer and fewer people every day.
After An Jiang, River had stopped speaking. She would sit alone, only speaking to Simon and even then, just a whisper.
*
Kaylee uses her spanner to pry open the side of the SK11-9. She pulls an autolizer, three wheel pistons and a fuel transitor out of the dead ship. The rest won’t fit Serenity so well if she needs them. A small arrow of glee zips through her at the thought of the loot she now puts in her pouch. It’s more then she had hoped for from such a backwater planet as this.
She turns to Jayne and jerks her head back in the direction of the ship.
*
An Jiang was a bustling little farm town.
No one knew exactly how it happened that one day, Captain Timothy King in his Capison 20, the Woman King, had received dozens of emergency hails from the surface of the planet. One wave came through all the others: a young man, desperately screaming for help. All of the ships were land locked, he’d said. Reavers everywhere, he’d said. And then the wave had cut out.
The rumors were that the Chancellor’s right hand man Nng Dai Tan had imposed the landlock and released Reavers on the entire planet, just to kill a single resistance leader, a man who wrote a subversive newspaper and a woman who had refused to sleep with the Chancellor.
*
Kaylee swung her hand playfully against Jayne’s as they walked through the now slackening dust and wind. He glared at her a little, teasing, finally grabbing her gloved hand to hold it. He smiled at her a little.
*
Simon was resigned to his sister, now that she didn’t speak and had to be persuaded to eat. Kaylee had come upon them in the kitchen, not long after Mal had taken his leave of Serenity. Simon was pleading with River to eat something, eat anything; a spread of half of the flavors of protein before her.
She stared ahead, blankly, unmoving. Her eyes said what Kaylee thought:
Why eat? Half the ‘verse is dead, dead and gone. Soon we’ll all be gone.
Why waste time pretending anything else?
*
The town is eerily silent around them, the wind dying by the second.
*
The ship was so close to empty now. Kaylee, Jayne, Simon, River. Mal was gone, Zoe was gone, Inara was dead, Wash was dead, Book was dead. The ship echoed now and everyone on it seemed slightly more hushed, as if they were in a church.
*
Back on Serenity, as the bay doors closed, they kissed, very briefly, before Kaylee calls up to River that they are ready to go. The kiss is all the comfort they have between the two of them for now. The dust had settled again and as Serenity rose, a cascade of it fell off her, down to the ground below, swirling across the brown and beige landscape.
The nameless town grows smaller and smaller beneath the belly of the Firefly until it’s lost on the face of the large, brown continent it sits on. Serenity breaks through the atmosphere, burning away all that’s left of the town from it’s hull. The frame of the ship shaking slightly, it flashes off, into the stars.
Fandom: Firefly/Serenity
P/C: a little Jayne/Kaylee
Rating: PG 13
Summary: The first word that comes to mind is ‘pristine’, which impresses Jayne as he didn’t think he knew a word like that.
Notes: written for laevatein for the Apocalytathon!
The first word that comes to mind is ‘pristine’, which impresses Jayne as he didn’t think he knew a word like that. Everything is quiet, everything is in its place here. It is the only reason to believe that everyone here is dead.
The light is harsh and the entire place is shades of brown, an old western looking place: wood fronts, big porches, a general store painted against a back drop of desert, a hanger looming above it all.
*
They called it an accident, for anyone who was stupid enough to think that was possible. A deadly, weapons grade plague poisons an entire galaxy; real convenient accident Jayne used to mutter.
*
Serenity is on her last legs. Kaylee has gotten her this far and isn’t sure she can keep doing it: pulling miracles out of thin air.
*
Jayne’s never been able to suss out why there are never any bodies. He climbs over a crashed hover car. Kaylee’s told him what she needs and so has Simon. He’s hit with a gut-wrenching smell, carried on the breeze running down the street. It’s a dusty, dead town, like so many other dusty, dead towns he’s encountered in the last year.
All he knows is that they need to keep the ship in repair: landing anywhere with people was the easiest way to get arrested or get dead.
A dead horse lies in the middle of the street, putrefying. It’s died recently, he can tell by the stink and by the shit caked on the ground. The wind starts to pick up after that breeze and Jayne places his goggles over his eyes to fight off the brown stinging dust that shoots at him from all directions.
He doesn’t know the name of this town, the name of the planet, or where it is in the ‘Verse. That’s not his job.
*
River doesn’t speak anymore.
No riddles, no nonsense, no sense either. All she does is quietly fly the ship. Sometimes Kaylee will catch her gazing over at the other chair. Mal has long since gone, to where they don’t know. Gone off to fight another war, to indulge in another crushing defeat, never to limp home again.
Zoe went with him, bloodthirsty and ready to die now; not that she believed in anything anymore. Her lust for brutality had become notorious, even among the few who survived the cleansing on the Rim. It was rumored that the High Chancellor had offered a bounty for her so large, it could buy half of the Allied Fleet.
It was also rumored that her head was on a spike in front of the Grand Parliament in Londinium, that she had been raped publicly, to prove she was powerless. But Simon consoles them all with the assumption that, should that have happened, it would have been broadcasted throughout every star system under Alliance control.
The High Chancellor isn’t one to be modest.
*
Jayne ransacks the small hangar. There is a ship that could be cannibalized for parts, a tool kit and several sets of mechanics and pilots jumpers. He stuffs the clothing into his rucksack, along with the tool kit. He’s got no head for machines and there are no Reavers on this rock. He radios Kaylee.
“Get out to the hangar girl. We don’t have much time before this dust storm gets too vicious to go out in!”
Outside the wind growls loudly.
*
Kaylee pulls on her big coat and her little goggles to go out after Jayne.
The dust flecks against her exposed skin, stinging and scratching it. She wraps a scarf around her nose and mouth, after coughing up enough dirt to plant a garden in. She sees the dead horse and gags at the exposed bone and the maggot riddled eyes. She pushes on towards the hangar, looming in the dust like a fin sticking out of the ground.
*
Parliament had ceded all power to the High Chancellor after the riots began. He began with immediate military action, gassing whole planets, employing sadistic men to implement new ways of crushing rebellion where it grew. There were fewer and fewer people every day.
After An Jiang, River had stopped speaking. She would sit alone, only speaking to Simon and even then, just a whisper.
*
Kaylee uses her spanner to pry open the side of the SK11-9. She pulls an autolizer, three wheel pistons and a fuel transitor out of the dead ship. The rest won’t fit Serenity so well if she needs them. A small arrow of glee zips through her at the thought of the loot she now puts in her pouch. It’s more then she had hoped for from such a backwater planet as this.
She turns to Jayne and jerks her head back in the direction of the ship.
*
An Jiang was a bustling little farm town.
No one knew exactly how it happened that one day, Captain Timothy King in his Capison 20, the Woman King, had received dozens of emergency hails from the surface of the planet. One wave came through all the others: a young man, desperately screaming for help. All of the ships were land locked, he’d said. Reavers everywhere, he’d said. And then the wave had cut out.
The rumors were that the Chancellor’s right hand man Nng Dai Tan had imposed the landlock and released Reavers on the entire planet, just to kill a single resistance leader, a man who wrote a subversive newspaper and a woman who had refused to sleep with the Chancellor.
*
Kaylee swung her hand playfully against Jayne’s as they walked through the now slackening dust and wind. He glared at her a little, teasing, finally grabbing her gloved hand to hold it. He smiled at her a little.
*
Simon was resigned to his sister, now that she didn’t speak and had to be persuaded to eat. Kaylee had come upon them in the kitchen, not long after Mal had taken his leave of Serenity. Simon was pleading with River to eat something, eat anything; a spread of half of the flavors of protein before her.
She stared ahead, blankly, unmoving. Her eyes said what Kaylee thought:
Why eat? Half the ‘verse is dead, dead and gone. Soon we’ll all be gone.
Why waste time pretending anything else?
*
The town is eerily silent around them, the wind dying by the second.
*
The ship was so close to empty now. Kaylee, Jayne, Simon, River. Mal was gone, Zoe was gone, Inara was dead, Wash was dead, Book was dead. The ship echoed now and everyone on it seemed slightly more hushed, as if they were in a church.
*
Back on Serenity, as the bay doors closed, they kissed, very briefly, before Kaylee calls up to River that they are ready to go. The kiss is all the comfort they have between the two of them for now. The dust had settled again and as Serenity rose, a cascade of it fell off her, down to the ground below, swirling across the brown and beige landscape.
The nameless town grows smaller and smaller beneath the belly of the Firefly until it’s lost on the face of the large, brown continent it sits on. Serenity breaks through the atmosphere, burning away all that’s left of the town from it’s hull. The frame of the ship shaking slightly, it flashes off, into the stars.