[Stargate: Drabble] "True Colors" [SG-22, G]
Title: True Colors
Prompt: writerverse challenge #2 quick fic #1 (“Too many jokes, not enough meditation” (Ginsberg) & ‘cleaned up’)
Word Count: 692
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: Stargate SG-1 ( SG-22, original characters)
Pairings: none
Summary: The members of SG-22 participate in an off-world ritual about family and togetherness- and paint.
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_bookclub
True Colors
Igraine Gryffydd closed her eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling the almost-but-not-quite familiar scent of alien aromatherapy candles. Around her, she could hear the three members of her team settling into position with their little pots of body paint.
The people of P2X-576 held this ritual every year, a celebration of reflecting and reconnecting as family units. Each group built a temporary stick-and-straw hut-like building, lit candles that smelled sort of like Lady Grey tea, and covered each other in finger-paint body murals. The drawings were supposed to be a representation, literal or metaphorical, of how the painter saw or felt about the paintee.
The four members of SG-22 had arrived just in time to join them, and had been loaned their own temporary hut-building. It was tradition to start with the youngest member of a family, so Levi had been the first to pull off his shirt and settle onto the pile of cushions in the middle of the hut.
Gryff’s fingers were already stained with paint- as the oldest, she would go last. She had drawn a map of Earth across Levi’s shoulder blades, marked at the places he’d most like to visit; then a fairly impressive Marine Corps insignia above Vicks’s heart, right where it belonged; and a series of interlocking gears down Tobias’s arms, both for his engineering skill and his quick mind. Then, she’d traded her t-shirt for the halter top she’d been given by one of the local women and sat cross-legged on the cushions.
“Be careful, Lee,” said Vicks’s voice, from her left, “or the captain will be seeing red.”
“As long as she won’t be feeling blue,” Levi replied, and she could hear him clattering the small bowls of paint together.
Gryff heard Tobias laugh, directly behind her. “How about we show Gryff her true colors?”
“Hey,” she said, without opening her eyes. “Too many jokes, not enough meditation. You’re supposed to be thinking about what I mean to you.”
“Right,” said Tobias and the other two muttered, “Sorry.”
Gryff almost drifted off under the feeling of their warm hands on her skin, leaving cool trails of drying paint as they went. After what seemed like forever and no time at all, a hand touched her knee. “Hey, Gryff, we’re done,” said Tobias.
She opened her eyes, blinking at the change of light, and Levi held up the mirror from his shaving kit so she could see her reflection.
There was a band of black paint across her eyes. “Because you’re sneaky,” said Levi, “like a ninja.”
A pattern of blue swirls trailed over her sternum, with a red heart over her own. “It’s supposed to be like the squiggles of a brain, sir,” said Vicks. “But blue because you’re always calm.”
“And you’ve got heart,” Levi added, smirking. “I did that, too.”
Tobias, still behind her, held up his own shaving mirror so the double reflection would show the wings he’d drawn over the entire length of her back. “Because you keep us under your wing,” he said. “What do you think?”
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed. “They’re all beautiful. Thank you.”
“This is definitely one of the better off-world rituals,” said Vicks, twisting to see the tree Levi had painted on his bare back. “Do you think we can come back next year?”
“Maybe,” Gryff agreed, wetting a finger to smooth a smudged line on one of Tobias’s painted cogs.
Levi reached toward his chest, as though about to scratch at the Cowardly Lion-esque Badge of Courage that Vicks had drawn for him, and stopped, dropping his hand again.
“Something wrong?” Tobias asked. They were pretty sure the paint was hypoallergenic, but Levi had never been as comfortable with public partial nudity as the rest of them.
The sociologist squirmed. “I just don’t like having stuff all over me. How long until we can get cleaned up?”
“Not until after the feast,” said Gryff. “Don’t you want to come show everyone how much your family loves you?”
Levi smiled. “Yeah, I do. I guess I can put up with it that long.”
Vicks clapped him on a paint-free shoulder. “That’s the spirit.”
THE END
Current Mood:
dorky
Prompt: writerverse challenge #2 quick fic #1 (“Too many jokes, not enough meditation” (Ginsberg) & ‘cleaned up’)
Word Count: 692
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: Stargate SG-1 ( SG-22, original characters)
Pairings: none
Summary: The members of SG-22 participate in an off-world ritual about family and togetherness- and paint.
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_bookclub
True Colors
Igraine Gryffydd closed her eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling the almost-but-not-quite familiar scent of alien aromatherapy candles. Around her, she could hear the three members of her team settling into position with their little pots of body paint.
The people of P2X-576 held this ritual every year, a celebration of reflecting and reconnecting as family units. Each group built a temporary stick-and-straw hut-like building, lit candles that smelled sort of like Lady Grey tea, and covered each other in finger-paint body murals. The drawings were supposed to be a representation, literal or metaphorical, of how the painter saw or felt about the paintee.
The four members of SG-22 had arrived just in time to join them, and had been loaned their own temporary hut-building. It was tradition to start with the youngest member of a family, so Levi had been the first to pull off his shirt and settle onto the pile of cushions in the middle of the hut.
Gryff’s fingers were already stained with paint- as the oldest, she would go last. She had drawn a map of Earth across Levi’s shoulder blades, marked at the places he’d most like to visit; then a fairly impressive Marine Corps insignia above Vicks’s heart, right where it belonged; and a series of interlocking gears down Tobias’s arms, both for his engineering skill and his quick mind. Then, she’d traded her t-shirt for the halter top she’d been given by one of the local women and sat cross-legged on the cushions.
“Be careful, Lee,” said Vicks’s voice, from her left, “or the captain will be seeing red.”
“As long as she won’t be feeling blue,” Levi replied, and she could hear him clattering the small bowls of paint together.
Gryff heard Tobias laugh, directly behind her. “How about we show Gryff her true colors?”
“Hey,” she said, without opening her eyes. “Too many jokes, not enough meditation. You’re supposed to be thinking about what I mean to you.”
“Right,” said Tobias and the other two muttered, “Sorry.”
Gryff almost drifted off under the feeling of their warm hands on her skin, leaving cool trails of drying paint as they went. After what seemed like forever and no time at all, a hand touched her knee. “Hey, Gryff, we’re done,” said Tobias.
She opened her eyes, blinking at the change of light, and Levi held up the mirror from his shaving kit so she could see her reflection.
There was a band of black paint across her eyes. “Because you’re sneaky,” said Levi, “like a ninja.”
A pattern of blue swirls trailed over her sternum, with a red heart over her own. “It’s supposed to be like the squiggles of a brain, sir,” said Vicks. “But blue because you’re always calm.”
“And you’ve got heart,” Levi added, smirking. “I did that, too.”
Tobias, still behind her, held up his own shaving mirror so the double reflection would show the wings he’d drawn over the entire length of her back. “Because you keep us under your wing,” he said. “What do you think?”
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed. “They’re all beautiful. Thank you.”
“This is definitely one of the better off-world rituals,” said Vicks, twisting to see the tree Levi had painted on his bare back. “Do you think we can come back next year?”
“Maybe,” Gryff agreed, wetting a finger to smooth a smudged line on one of Tobias’s painted cogs.
Levi reached toward his chest, as though about to scratch at the Cowardly Lion-esque Badge of Courage that Vicks had drawn for him, and stopped, dropping his hand again.
“Something wrong?” Tobias asked. They were pretty sure the paint was hypoallergenic, but Levi had never been as comfortable with public partial nudity as the rest of them.
The sociologist squirmed. “I just don’t like having stuff all over me. How long until we can get cleaned up?”
“Not until after the feast,” said Gryff. “Don’t you want to come show everyone how much your family loves you?”
Levi smiled. “Yeah, I do. I guess I can put up with it that long.”
Vicks clapped him on a paint-free shoulder. “That’s the spirit.”
THE END
Current Mood:
dorky