Mal/River Prompt 20 - Battered Dreams

[ana_sedai]

Title: Battered Dreams
Author: Ana Sedai
Rating: PG
Character(s): Mal
Prompt: 003 - Daydreams
Word Count: 992
A/N: 20/100 for Mal/River Joss100. Oh, and I have no idea of the name of Mal’s hometown, so I just made one up.

Summary: Mal remembers youthful hopes.

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There was a time when Mal

Comments

[ninamazing]

Oh, Ana. You took me from skeptical to COMPLETELY COMPLETELY LOVING OF YOUR MAL BACKSTORY AND YOUR MAL THOUGHTS AND EVERYTHING INVOLVING THIS SERIES.

<3

Your Mal/River is so fantastic.

[ana_sedai]

Hey Nina! Thanks a bunch. I might've said this before, but the praise of the praiseworthy is one of the highest compliments one can receive, and I do appreciate it. :)

Just as a slight aside, which part(s?) made you initially skeptical? I'm honestly interested because this is, after all, my first big fanfic project, and it's helpful to know what to avoid and/or fix in future installments.

[ninamazing]

(Very late comment that I'm posting just because I feel really like I should answer your question, and I'm rereading all your fics as a way of not doing my Feedback Control Systems problem set. :D )

First of all -- *LOVES INTENSELY* :DDDD

And second, I wouldn't worry about my skepticism. It's weird for me to think about post-Serenity Mal in any sense, and you throwing Jenny Mitchell in the first paragraph threw me off. It's such a normal name, of a normal person, and a boy with a crush is such a normal life thing ... it was just totally out of sync with the crotchety space captain in my head. But I think that's what you were going for, so it ended up working damn well. :)

Grrrr, school! I miss my M/R peeps.

Awww. Rereading this and just crumbling inside. Melting, more like.

[ana_sedai]

Oh yeah, Nina on capslock is always a good sign. Unless she's ticked off. ;)

Mal is an angry person. He's got enough issues to keep a bustling psychiatric clinic in practice all by his lonesome. And he's a good man. Add that all up, and you've got one messy brainpan. I friggin' *love* writing these! :D

And I love you too. :)

[faythbrady]

This is so totally Mal. Not good enough for the woman but secretly wanting more and way Kudos for the reasoning beind the Inara fetish. I always thought he'd have had someone at home waiting for him too. I heard tell that his homeworld was called Shadow- or maybe that's just fanon?

[ana_sedai]

Yes, his home*world* is Shadow, but I figured that they'd have quite a few towns or settlements on it.

As for Inara, glad I got some logic in there. Sometimes it's safer to want things you know you can't have. Thank you!

[felicity_dream]

@ faythbrady: In Mrs. Reynolds, Mal mentions Shadow.

Anyways, I love this! Mal is so angst-ridden that it makes the whole situation so funny. It is so ironic that Mal is an obstacle to himself and River getting together.

[ana_sedai]

Funny, huh? Not *quite* the reaction I was going for, but hey, what the heck. Gives me something to watch out for, at any rate. And I'm thrilled that you're enjoying these.

[gwenfrewi72]

Another fine job. I so love how you write Mal.

[ana_sedai]

Thank you. I love writing him. He's just so gosh-darn *noble* and complicated and a host of other adjectives.