Giving it the sci-fi try: new Saiyuki fic
As ever, I am of (at least) two minds about this piece. It's been a really, really long time since I've tried to do anything that would qualify as science fiction, and I've never tried to transport or transpose fandom into a science fiction setting. Figuring out the details for this bold new universe is already proving to be challenging! (I worry that I may have tried to cram in too much already...)
Furthermore, I'm not even sure how to introduce it. I don't even really have a title. *sigh* Perhaps there's something to be said for copy-pasting the basic fic informational form today...
(tentative)Title: Visitors From the Back of Beyond
Summary: Hakkai and Gojyo receive an unexpected guest.
Rating: Currently PG. Later: who knows?
Notes/Warnings: Science fiction AU; general weirdness and wtf-ery; eventual shabby attempts at humor and poking fun at the genre; established relationship--Hakkai/Gojyo, in no particular order; the occasional swear or two; the usual thoughtless, self-editing you've come to expect from me.
Now, on with the show!
=====
Hakkai looked out over the fields with satisfaction. The land was awash with red-great masses of red flowers that trembled as the wind picked up fitfully now and again. Everything was calm and quiet and agreeably warm in the early summer sun, and there was a nice cross breeze coming in through the windows of the little house. Then there was a rattle-thump behind him. Hakkai looked over as the hatch to the cellar flopped backward. Gojyo pulled himself halfway through the square opening. He rested on folded arms for a minute, then shimmied up onto the floor, closing the hatch once his legs were clear.
"All set," said Gojyo. "The solar circuits are working right again."
Gojyo smiled and patted the hatch beside him. Though he sounded nonchalant, Hakkai could tell by the sweat on his brow and the grease and dirt that streaked his arms and hands, that the job had not been as easy as he made it out to be. Hakkai brought him a drink and a rag on which to wipe his hands. Gojyo took both with a grateful look.
"Mmm," said Hakkai. "Tell me, do you think we might be able to increase the capacity further? I'd hate for all this sunshine to go to waste."
"Dunno," said Gojyo. "Maybe, but we'd have to run more lines, inside and out, to make that work, and some of those junction boxes are kinda old…"
Hakkai moved back to the window, observing the landscape. A minute later, Gojyo joined him, slinging a thankfully clean arm around his shoulders. He sipped from his glass with his free hand.
"It's looking good out there," he said. "But I still say you ought to plant more than just the red ones."
"Kanaan would have liked it," said Hakkai.
He stared out a little more, imagining the two of them-he and Kanaan- running through it all, maybe having a picnic. Holding hands. Kanaan's head leaning against his shoulder, the scent of her hair wafting up. Hakkai sighed. If only…
Gojyo cleared his throat and Hakkai had the presence of mind to feel guilty.
"Sorry," said Gojyo. "I didn't mean to put my foot in it."
Gojyo tensed, but he didn't pull away. He set his glass down on the windowsill.
"Not at all," said Hakkai. "I rather think she would have liked you as well."
Hakkai tried to add Gojyo to the fantasy, but it was too strange, that intersection of past and present, of longing and knowing what was and was not possible, and the idyll dissipated. He made a conscious effort not to feel disappointed.
As it was, Hakkai was quite happy, quite content, with the way things were at the moment. There was peace on the planet, and the few troubles of the large metropolitan areas never seemed to reach this far out, frequent alien crash-landings notwithstanding. Hakkai had his land, which he found to be suitably isolated from the neighboring farms. He had books and clothes and all the sorts of material goods that made life comfortable. Hakkai had Gojyo too, tending the mechanical bits and pieces that kept their little corner of the universe running smoothly. Gojyo tended to Hakkai himself, as well.
Hakkai allowed himself another glance at Gojyo. Gojyo didn't say a word, didn't even twitch, but kept his eyes on the world outside the window.
Gojyo had arrived two years before, surviving the crash of his ship with great aplomb, getting his bearings within a week and settling in as if he'd lived here all his life. And when he'd cobbled together a new ship and had had the opportunity to continue his footloose and fancy-free exploration of the galaxy, he had, instead, stayed. Hakkai, though baffled, had been and still was grateful for the company. After all, Gojyo had come along so soon after Kanaan had died…it was only natural to latch onto something-someone-in so trying a time, if only to keep from drowning in one's lonely thoughts. So lonely, after sharing all one's life with another person. All that trust, love, intimacy. That unshakable bond, snapped.
Hakkai shook his head. Now was not the time to think of such things. He looked out over the flowers once again. It was hard not to imagine it as a great spill of blood. Her blood. But that was ridiculous. Not everything red in the world was blood. Hakkai flexed his clawed hands and tried not to think too hard about how it felt to rend flesh from bone.
He looked at Gojyo again and forced himself to smile. That red hair, those red eyes, were so different from his own-from those of his species-that Hakkai had had difficulty, in the beginning. For though Gojyo had neither claws nor fangs, he was strong, strong enough that Hakkai didn't make the mistake of treating him as if he were fragile more than once or twice. Gojyo could hold his own, and for that, Hakkai was grateful. Gojyo's arm was warm and weighty around his shoulders. He leaned subtly into the comfort of the embrace.
"Hey Hakkai!" said Gojyo.
From the tone of his voice, Hakkai gathered Gojyo had already tried, and failed, to get his attention.
"We've got company," said Gojyo.
"Company?" said Hakkai.
Gojyo's hand, warm as it was laid across his cheek, gently turned Hakkai's head ten degrees up and to the left. A golden dot of a spaceship was rapidly descending, square over the center of the red-flowered meadow.
Gojyo removed his hand, and Hakkai sighed. He stroked his jaw thoughtfully.
"Not again," he said. "This is the third time this growing cycle."
It seemed every time he finally got that particular field planted and flourishing, someone landed a spaceship in it. Perhaps in future it would be best to leave it fallow. Hakkai was not normally a man who was frustrated with the mysterious ways of the universe, but he really was rather partial to the red friss-flowers from both an aesthetic and culinary point of view.
Hakkai sighed again. Even the parts of the field that weren't burned to a crisp would be inedible, thanks to a backwash of what was, no doubt, super-heated chemical propellant of some kind or another.
"I'd better order some more seeds," Hakkai said. "And put in a request for a cultivar."
Gojyo set a data pad down on the windowsill in front of Hakkai.
"Way ahead of you," said Gojyo. "Seeds'll be here next week. Been waitlisted a couple months on the machinery, though. Seems like there's a lot of incursions these days to clean up after."
Hakkai frowned.
"I don't see why there can't be more species using less harmful methods of transportation," said Hakkai. "Our last visitor, Kougaiji…"
"Yeah, I know," said Gojyo. "Steam-based propulsion. Very clean."
Truthfully, the field had been soaked and knee-deep in mud for a week afterward, but it was better than toxic chemicals and having to wait around for a machine that cleaned the soil. The plants had held up remarkably well, once they'd been trimmed back and given time to produce new growth.
"I suppose we ought to prepare some sort of welcome," said Hakkai. "If you could-"
Gojyo cut him off with the wave of a hand.
"I know the drill," said Gojyo. "I'll go look for Hakuryuu."
He snorted and let go of Hakkai's shoulders with a squeeze.
"Never thought I'd be glad for a lizard," said Gojyo.
"You know perfectly well how fortunate we are to have an organic translator," said Hakkai.
He turned a stern face on Gojyo.
"Imagine if we only had the planetary language database," said Hakkai. "Hakuryuu is far superior to any mechanical computer, and in cases like these I am all too glad to have a lizard like him around."
Hakkai knew Gojyo was only joking, calling the little dragon a lizard, but Hakuryuu was invaluable and he did have feelings that could, all too easily, be hurt.
Gojyo sighed, and raised his hands in a gesture of defeat.
"Yeah, I know," said Gojyo. "Up shit creek without a paddle."
Hakkai raised an eyebrow. Two years of close association with Gojyo had brought him a good understanding of his language's peculiarities. Unfortunately, he had yet to train Gojyo out of using some of the more…colorful…idioms and figures of speech.
"Sorry, sorry," said Gojyo. "Look. I'll go look for Hakuryuu, and then I'll wash up real quick."
"I'll start the incursion paperwork," said Hakkai. "Amazing, how such events create such bureaucracy. You will, of course, be joining me for first contact?"
The way he said it was less of a question and more of a statement.
"Uh," said Gojyo.
It was obvious to Hakkai that Gojyo had planned to get out of it somehow. It pleased him how quickly Gojyo did an about face and capitulated.
"Yeah, sure," said Gojyo. "Like I said, Hakuryuu, then shower, and then…"
He held up his hands, placating. Hakkai smiled.
"Then we will walk the fields together," said Hakkai. "I believe we may have an hour or so before our guest-or guests-arrive."
He glanced out the window at the descending ship. It grew incrementally larger as he watched.
"My," said Hakkai. "They are coming in a bit fast, aren't they?"
He looked pointedly at Gojyo.
"You had better hurry," said Hakkai. "They will be here soon, and you will be there to greet them whether you are cleaned up or not."
"Right," said Gojyo. "I'm going now."
Gojyo strode out of the room.
Hakkai turned back to the window. His viewing of the flowers would have to be put aside. He found himself with little appetite for such things when he knew that, all too soon, the illusion of beauty and growth and peace would be destroyed by the golden dot hovering in the sky. He sighed again and focused on the data pad that lay before him.
For the third time in as many months, he called up the appropriate protocols and paperwork. Hakkai snuck one more glance at the incoming ship before he settled in to pick at the twenty-eight-pages-in-triplicate (not counting the loss of property subsection which was, in itself, an additional eleven pages) first-contact form. Hakkai felt a headache building behind his right eye already, and he had barely even begun.
It was going to be a long day.
=====
I'm thinking...well. I'm glad to have finished a first scene, at least. The second scene is looking a little trickier than this one, though I've already made some forays. It (meaning this story as a whole) is all a bit nebulous right now. I'm going to go give it some more thought.
~later
Edit: The continuation of this fic can be found here.
Furthermore, I'm not even sure how to introduce it. I don't even really have a title. *sigh* Perhaps there's something to be said for copy-pasting the basic fic informational form today...
(tentative)Title: Visitors From the Back of Beyond
Summary: Hakkai and Gojyo receive an unexpected guest.
Rating: Currently PG. Later: who knows?
Notes/Warnings: Science fiction AU; general weirdness and wtf-ery; eventual shabby attempts at humor and poking fun at the genre; established relationship--Hakkai/Gojyo, in no particular order; the occasional swear or two; the usual thoughtless, self-editing you've come to expect from me.
Now, on with the show!
=====
Hakkai looked out over the fields with satisfaction. The land was awash with red-great masses of red flowers that trembled as the wind picked up fitfully now and again. Everything was calm and quiet and agreeably warm in the early summer sun, and there was a nice cross breeze coming in through the windows of the little house. Then there was a rattle-thump behind him. Hakkai looked over as the hatch to the cellar flopped backward. Gojyo pulled himself halfway through the square opening. He rested on folded arms for a minute, then shimmied up onto the floor, closing the hatch once his legs were clear.
"All set," said Gojyo. "The solar circuits are working right again."
Gojyo smiled and patted the hatch beside him. Though he sounded nonchalant, Hakkai could tell by the sweat on his brow and the grease and dirt that streaked his arms and hands, that the job had not been as easy as he made it out to be. Hakkai brought him a drink and a rag on which to wipe his hands. Gojyo took both with a grateful look.
"Mmm," said Hakkai. "Tell me, do you think we might be able to increase the capacity further? I'd hate for all this sunshine to go to waste."
"Dunno," said Gojyo. "Maybe, but we'd have to run more lines, inside and out, to make that work, and some of those junction boxes are kinda old…"
Hakkai moved back to the window, observing the landscape. A minute later, Gojyo joined him, slinging a thankfully clean arm around his shoulders. He sipped from his glass with his free hand.
"It's looking good out there," he said. "But I still say you ought to plant more than just the red ones."
"Kanaan would have liked it," said Hakkai.
He stared out a little more, imagining the two of them-he and Kanaan- running through it all, maybe having a picnic. Holding hands. Kanaan's head leaning against his shoulder, the scent of her hair wafting up. Hakkai sighed. If only…
Gojyo cleared his throat and Hakkai had the presence of mind to feel guilty.
"Sorry," said Gojyo. "I didn't mean to put my foot in it."
Gojyo tensed, but he didn't pull away. He set his glass down on the windowsill.
"Not at all," said Hakkai. "I rather think she would have liked you as well."
Hakkai tried to add Gojyo to the fantasy, but it was too strange, that intersection of past and present, of longing and knowing what was and was not possible, and the idyll dissipated. He made a conscious effort not to feel disappointed.
As it was, Hakkai was quite happy, quite content, with the way things were at the moment. There was peace on the planet, and the few troubles of the large metropolitan areas never seemed to reach this far out, frequent alien crash-landings notwithstanding. Hakkai had his land, which he found to be suitably isolated from the neighboring farms. He had books and clothes and all the sorts of material goods that made life comfortable. Hakkai had Gojyo too, tending the mechanical bits and pieces that kept their little corner of the universe running smoothly. Gojyo tended to Hakkai himself, as well.
Hakkai allowed himself another glance at Gojyo. Gojyo didn't say a word, didn't even twitch, but kept his eyes on the world outside the window.
Gojyo had arrived two years before, surviving the crash of his ship with great aplomb, getting his bearings within a week and settling in as if he'd lived here all his life. And when he'd cobbled together a new ship and had had the opportunity to continue his footloose and fancy-free exploration of the galaxy, he had, instead, stayed. Hakkai, though baffled, had been and still was grateful for the company. After all, Gojyo had come along so soon after Kanaan had died…it was only natural to latch onto something-someone-in so trying a time, if only to keep from drowning in one's lonely thoughts. So lonely, after sharing all one's life with another person. All that trust, love, intimacy. That unshakable bond, snapped.
Hakkai shook his head. Now was not the time to think of such things. He looked out over the flowers once again. It was hard not to imagine it as a great spill of blood. Her blood. But that was ridiculous. Not everything red in the world was blood. Hakkai flexed his clawed hands and tried not to think too hard about how it felt to rend flesh from bone.
He looked at Gojyo again and forced himself to smile. That red hair, those red eyes, were so different from his own-from those of his species-that Hakkai had had difficulty, in the beginning. For though Gojyo had neither claws nor fangs, he was strong, strong enough that Hakkai didn't make the mistake of treating him as if he were fragile more than once or twice. Gojyo could hold his own, and for that, Hakkai was grateful. Gojyo's arm was warm and weighty around his shoulders. He leaned subtly into the comfort of the embrace.
"Hey Hakkai!" said Gojyo.
From the tone of his voice, Hakkai gathered Gojyo had already tried, and failed, to get his attention.
"We've got company," said Gojyo.
"Company?" said Hakkai.
Gojyo's hand, warm as it was laid across his cheek, gently turned Hakkai's head ten degrees up and to the left. A golden dot of a spaceship was rapidly descending, square over the center of the red-flowered meadow.
Gojyo removed his hand, and Hakkai sighed. He stroked his jaw thoughtfully.
"Not again," he said. "This is the third time this growing cycle."
It seemed every time he finally got that particular field planted and flourishing, someone landed a spaceship in it. Perhaps in future it would be best to leave it fallow. Hakkai was not normally a man who was frustrated with the mysterious ways of the universe, but he really was rather partial to the red friss-flowers from both an aesthetic and culinary point of view.
Hakkai sighed again. Even the parts of the field that weren't burned to a crisp would be inedible, thanks to a backwash of what was, no doubt, super-heated chemical propellant of some kind or another.
"I'd better order some more seeds," Hakkai said. "And put in a request for a cultivar."
Gojyo set a data pad down on the windowsill in front of Hakkai.
"Way ahead of you," said Gojyo. "Seeds'll be here next week. Been waitlisted a couple months on the machinery, though. Seems like there's a lot of incursions these days to clean up after."
Hakkai frowned.
"I don't see why there can't be more species using less harmful methods of transportation," said Hakkai. "Our last visitor, Kougaiji…"
"Yeah, I know," said Gojyo. "Steam-based propulsion. Very clean."
Truthfully, the field had been soaked and knee-deep in mud for a week afterward, but it was better than toxic chemicals and having to wait around for a machine that cleaned the soil. The plants had held up remarkably well, once they'd been trimmed back and given time to produce new growth.
"I suppose we ought to prepare some sort of welcome," said Hakkai. "If you could-"
Gojyo cut him off with the wave of a hand.
"I know the drill," said Gojyo. "I'll go look for Hakuryuu."
He snorted and let go of Hakkai's shoulders with a squeeze.
"Never thought I'd be glad for a lizard," said Gojyo.
"You know perfectly well how fortunate we are to have an organic translator," said Hakkai.
He turned a stern face on Gojyo.
"Imagine if we only had the planetary language database," said Hakkai. "Hakuryuu is far superior to any mechanical computer, and in cases like these I am all too glad to have a lizard like him around."
Hakkai knew Gojyo was only joking, calling the little dragon a lizard, but Hakuryuu was invaluable and he did have feelings that could, all too easily, be hurt.
Gojyo sighed, and raised his hands in a gesture of defeat.
"Yeah, I know," said Gojyo. "Up shit creek without a paddle."
Hakkai raised an eyebrow. Two years of close association with Gojyo had brought him a good understanding of his language's peculiarities. Unfortunately, he had yet to train Gojyo out of using some of the more…colorful…idioms and figures of speech.
"Sorry, sorry," said Gojyo. "Look. I'll go look for Hakuryuu, and then I'll wash up real quick."
"I'll start the incursion paperwork," said Hakkai. "Amazing, how such events create such bureaucracy. You will, of course, be joining me for first contact?"
The way he said it was less of a question and more of a statement.
"Uh," said Gojyo.
It was obvious to Hakkai that Gojyo had planned to get out of it somehow. It pleased him how quickly Gojyo did an about face and capitulated.
"Yeah, sure," said Gojyo. "Like I said, Hakuryuu, then shower, and then…"
He held up his hands, placating. Hakkai smiled.
"Then we will walk the fields together," said Hakkai. "I believe we may have an hour or so before our guest-or guests-arrive."
He glanced out the window at the descending ship. It grew incrementally larger as he watched.
"My," said Hakkai. "They are coming in a bit fast, aren't they?"
He looked pointedly at Gojyo.
"You had better hurry," said Hakkai. "They will be here soon, and you will be there to greet them whether you are cleaned up or not."
"Right," said Gojyo. "I'm going now."
Gojyo strode out of the room.
Hakkai turned back to the window. His viewing of the flowers would have to be put aside. He found himself with little appetite for such things when he knew that, all too soon, the illusion of beauty and growth and peace would be destroyed by the golden dot hovering in the sky. He sighed again and focused on the data pad that lay before him.
For the third time in as many months, he called up the appropriate protocols and paperwork. Hakkai snuck one more glance at the incoming ship before he settled in to pick at the twenty-eight-pages-in-triplicate (not counting the loss of property subsection which was, in itself, an additional eleven pages) first-contact form. Hakkai felt a headache building behind his right eye already, and he had barely even begun.
It was going to be a long day.
=====
I'm thinking...well. I'm glad to have finished a first scene, at least. The second scene is looking a little trickier than this one, though I've already made some forays. It (meaning this story as a whole) is all a bit nebulous right now. I'm going to go give it some more thought.
~later
Edit: The continuation of this fic can be found here.