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[gidge]

PICK YOUR POISON
PIC PROMPTS / TFLN / RANDOM SCENARIO
HAN SOLO velocities	BETTY MCRAE bombsheller	RIVER TAM subsulcus	RIVER TAM (AU) comprehender
SIMON TAM vest	BRIA THAREN exulted	NADINE CROSS bridaled	GU JUN-PYO toddler
available on special request: veronica sawyer, benjamin linus, imani, maria deluca, mushu, poseidon, niccolò machiavelli, malik al-sayf, chloe

Comments

[quixano]

Being honest, Holden doesn't give the slightest damn about Mal's bad mood.

It's true that the Roci had accidentally led the Alliance here, and he's genuinely sorry for that, but there's a lot more at stake now than the Tam's problems. There's the genetic modifications the Alliance is engaging in, there's the possibility of another government finding out about and coveting (and having? he hopes not, goddamn) the protomolecule. There's the matter of his own crew's safety and whatever state this battle has left the ship in, and the fact that they're now enemies of the Alliance. They'll be targeted, too, and no one from their own system is going to lift a finger to help them with this. There's the fact that he's been played, and somehow ended up in the middle of another fucking mess.

But at that comment, he turns towards Simon and takes a half-step in his direction. Someone whose comfort he does care about here, right now.

"No," Holden says, firmly. Then he looks back at Mal. "No. He owes me nothing."

[vest]

Simon's expression doesn't change, steely and tense even as Mal moves to step between him and Holden.

"Then he owes it to me." If incidentally whatever it is trickles back to Holden, then so be it. But Mal is pissed. "Near a year now we can't get half the jobs we need to get by, and this ain't the first time keeping these two on almost cost us people on my crew." It is not lost on any of them that this could've ended very badly, with or without the Roci there helping them. It's the closest call they've had since Jubal Early, and by far the most destructive to the ship since the last time it got sabotaged by Mal's fake wife.

It is not lost on Simon that there is now a distinction between himself and River and crew. There hadn't been, once upon a time. It had been nice then.

"I told you I'd tell you what I know." His grip tightens a little around River, but otherwise his face is still. "I didn't mean to imply it would be just you."

As if apologizing for semantics choices when literally under fire is going to save this situation.

[quixano]

Right at this moment, Holden's hand terminal crackles to life.

"Captain? What's your status? Hey, Captain? Hoss? Hoss!"

This is only going to escalate if Holden doesn't...pick up.....

[vest]

That does seem to, um, take most of them by surprise. A bit of the tension in the cargo bay bleeds away. Kaylee even manages a short, surprised laugh, probably borne mostly of shock and fading adrenaline.

Mal just looks annoyed, and motions dismissively for Holden to answer.

[quixano]

Truthfully, he would've answered with or without Mal's approval, but he'd been as surprised as anyone else when it started going off.

"Alex, I'm fine," he answers, interrupting the pilot mid-word. "We're done here," said as much to his crew as this one, "so ready the Roci for me to reboard."

[vest]

That's where Mal sneers.

"Leaving so soon? Surprised you ain't Alliance after all. Act like 'em enough."

[quixano]

Holden had not, actually, turned off the line on his hand terminal. So it's Amos's offended voice that filters through.

"The hell's he mean by that?"

"Amos," Holden says quellingly, before looking back at Mal. "If you need help with repairs -- "

"I'll take care of that," Naomi interrupts, completing Holden's sentiment. "I can see some of the damage from out here. Nothing I can't handle."

"You heard her. But after that, I'm taking my crew home."

[vest]

Kaylee shouts out a thank you and Mal just looks increasingly annoyed. Mostly that he has one less thing he can hold against this man who has unintentionally nearly gotten them all killed. Holden certainly isn't the first to hold that distinction, and Mal manages to be on friendly terms with them, but...

The crew starts to murmur to each other around them. Jayne complaining as usual, Kaylee excited to meet new people, Inara speaking up to remind Mal that she does still need to be dropped off at the temple whenever they've finished with this--

"Ain't the only one leaving, then."

It's not a direct threat, not a direct promise to leave the Tams with Inara when they drop her off to fend for themselves. Book has already told him his intentions to stay on Haven after they bring Inara to her own destination, but there's a clear enough implication to the rest of the crew as he stomps off to fume elsewhere.

Certainly clear enough to Simon and River.

Whatever relief Simon's posture had gained after the fighting was done is gone, he's all tense again as the crew looks between each other and River looks at Mal and making a small sound of distress as he goes that Simon tries to sooth with, "We'll be okay, mei mei, it's okay."

It's Wash that chimes in to break the tension as Inara breaks away to follow Mal and probably make the argument worse. "He didn't mean that. I mean, he probably didn't mean it." Which gets Zoe giving him a look.

shitty bridge tag

[quixano]

What happens is this: Holden offers the Tams shelter aboard the Roci.

There's no complaint from the crew, not verbally, and nearly all of them would've done the same thing. The exception is Amos, but he's also learned to trust Holden's judgement. Alex welcomes them in his warm, fatherly way, cooks for them; Naomi treats River with gentleness and respect; and Prax offers them kindness in his soft, unassuming way. Amos accepts them as current, temporary fixtures on the ship, and treats them accordingly, neither warm nor cold.

Simon brings up the promise of explanations again, if for this crew, and they let him.

(Let, not force.)

lies and slander

[vest]

The parting from Serenity had been tense, a hundred different arguments just under the surface between the crew the Tams end up having to leave behind. Tearful as they disembarked to the Roci, in some parts -- mostly Kaylee's, being honest, and a bit from River as they all hugged out their goodbyes -- and Simon still isn't sure this was the best decision.

Better than wandering on their own in Alliance territory, though. That's what he keeps telling himself as this new crew gathers around to hear him speak. River is elsewhere, sleeping (he hopes) through this dredging up of the relevant and painful past she avoids.

This is a talk he's given before, always to near strangers, always in an effort to better help his sister. It's unsettlingly easy to retread, a story he knows by rote. Still, he stands at the head of a table, tense and uncomfortable, hands clasped behind his back to hide any tremor, the whiteness of his knuckles whenever he tenses.

"Before I start, you need to understand that River wasn't always like this. When we were kids, she-- She was correcting my spelling by the time she was three. Correcting my textbooks not long after. And I graduated from MedAcad in the top three percent of my class at eighteen." He considers for a moment making the distinction between gifted and gift, and opts not to, instead pressing forward. "She managed to be the smartest person in the room, whether it came to dance or language or physics. She learned everything as easily as you or I learned how to breathe."

He shifts his stance a little, moves to cross his arms across his chest.

"When she was fourteen doing her first graduate courses, the government approached us about a school. It had the most challenging program, promised to let her learn as much as she wanted without having to slow down for her other classmates. The caveat was that there were no visitors allowed on the campus. But River wanted to go, so our parents signed the papers and she left."

There's a moment of quiet, then. The memory of it hitting him a little harder, along with the realization of just how far they've gone since then. Simon wipes a hand across his mouth before tucking it back against his elbow. "It took a few months before I realized the letters she was sending me were coded. Simple enough to crack, but still well hidden from any censors her letters had to have gone through. And straight to the point.

"They just said, 'They're hurting us, get me out.'"

He pauses there to let it settle over this new crew, looks around and waits for a reaction outside of the normal disgust or horror. He sees none, and so he goes on.

"Our parents didn't care, so I used what money I had to find people that would help me. It took two years, and in that time she had... Gotten worse." Easy enough for them to figure out just what that means. "I had to pose as an Alliance officer to get in and be shown around. They showed her off as a psychic in their new defense program, achieved by cutting into her brain, altering the way she perceives things -- her ability to control what she perceives."

Simon's mouth twists into a bitter frown, grim and uncomfortable.

"After I got her out, we ended up on Serenity and have been on the run since. We were both marked as fugitives, and our parents disowned us, so it wasn't like we had anywhere else to go."