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3 Sentence Ficathon, part two
See Part One here.
4. Babylon 5, G'Kar & Londo, post-canon, spoilers
any, the minimum amount of communication needed for a fix-it AU
Originally posted here
"And next time something like this happens," G'Kar said, sitting on the edge of Londo's bed in the White Star medbay, "which it probably will, given your minimal ability to make sensible life choices, the correct thing to say is 'I'm about to be taken over by an alien mind control parasite, G'Kar,' not 'Goodbye forever, it's been nice knowing you, no I'm not going to explain any of this'."
Londo, his shoulder swathed in bandages, glared up at him. "I was trying to protect you and everyone else."
"Yes, G'Kar. You're quite right, G'Kar. No need to let it go this far again, G'Kar."
"How long until we reach Minbar, again?"
"Two days," G'Kar said, grinning wolfishly -- although there was some other emotion underneath -- and making no move to leave.
"Great Maker, save me."
5. Babylon 5, early season one
any, low-effort illustration of something important
Originally posted here
"And for our next council business, I believe Ambassador G'Kar was going to bring forward the matter of the disputed border zone between the Narn Regime and the Centauri Republic near the former Narn agricultural colony on Delta-6. The map of the proposed --" Sinclair stopped when he actually got a good look at the flimsy hardcopy in front of him. He turned it around to see if it improved from another angle. It didn't.
"Is there something wrong with my paperwork, Commander?" G'Kar inquired from the Narn end of the council table.
"G'Kar, this is a crude drawing of what I guess is supposed to be -- is this blob a Centauri ship? And those are flames ... so I suppose the stick figures falling out of it with the Narn letters AAAAAA trailing after them are Centauri."
"Ah. You are correct. The map is under that."
"I object!" came from Londo's end of the table.
Delenn closed her eyes and appeared to be meditating. The Abbai ambassador was very obviously watching something on her tablet. Sinclair wondered if it was too early to break for a drink.
6. Murderbot, MB + Gurathin
any, "I adore floating." (Peggy Guggenheim)
Originally posted here
".... simply love it, can't think of anything I like more, nowhere I'd rather be than drifting upside down in a derelict shuttle that's about to be set on by raiders at any moment, wondering if death by asphyxiation or death by space pirate is more likely, and if either of them are likely to happen before my inner ear completely loses its ability to deal with the vertigo and I get space-sick. And on that note, SecUnit, how's it going with getting the artificial gravity turned back on?"
It would be going faster if you'd shut up and let me work.
7. Murderbot bookverse, MB + Mensah + Mensah's family
any, snowstorm
Originally posted here
For some reason I hadn't realized that it snowed on Preservation, but of course Preservation was a planet, with weather, and now snow swirled down in heavy, fat flakes outside the big front windows of the Mensah habitat. The Mensahlings were delighted and had been running in and out all morning, which kept me dividing my attention a dozen different ways, keeping an eye on them. Two of my drones had keeled over from frozen batteries and were thawing out by the heating unit in the habitat's central room.
"I'm sorry about the weather, SecUnit." Dr. Mensah approached me quietly, both hands curled around a mug of hot beverage. "It wasn't supposed to start until tomorrow, but the weather on a newly terraformed planet is often volatile. I hope your shuttle isn't delayed too much."
The shuttleport at FirstLanding was currently indicating mixed rain and snow, and a heavily iced-up shuttle pad, along with an announcement of another delay that was now pushing the shuttle back to an early evening departure with the possibility of further delays. I could picture the shuttleport all too easily, crowded with cranky, damp humans, based on my previous experiences with inclement planetary weather.
"I might leave tomorrow instead," I said. Two of the youngest Mensahs were building a fake human out of snow in front of the habitat, which I had never seen before outside of media. "I think you should have security until this weather stops. It would be difficult for FirstLandingSec to send anyone out here in case of an emergency."
"You are absolutely correct." Mensah sipped her hot drink. "I do need security. I'm very glad you're here to provide it."
Outside, the head fell off the snow human and the little Mensahs shrieked in what my analysis of their body language said was pleasure. The snow fell more heavily, and no one was making me go out in it. I had half a new season of MidSomer Station Murders to watch, and everyone in Mensah's family knew to leave me alone unless I talked to them first. There were worse places to be.
8. Murderbot, TV or bookverse, Bharadwaj
any, fossil footprints
Originally posted here
In a different universe, Bharadwaj could very easily have been a xeno-paleontologist. She loves rocks too much to give them up, and she's not that interested in the biology of living organisms (sorry, Arada). But there is something about the intersection between them that fascinates her. It's such a challenging, interlocking series of mental puzzles. Back in the old days on Earth, paleontologists were at least able to fall back on their deep understanding of their planet's current biology and likely development through prehistoric time. But on previous unexplored planets, there could be anything -- silicon-based life, life that bears no resemblance to anything that lives on the planet today.
It's not the field she went into, so all she can do with those tantalizing traces of long-vanished creatures, the bones and the tracks and the impressions, is catalogue them for other experts. And she supposes, as she takes some recordings of a particularly interesting creature's meticulously feathered fossil tracks to send to a colleague at PSUMNT, that perhaps the things she imagines as a hobbyist are more fun than what she might conjecture with a deeper understanding of xenobiology. Maybe her fanciful mental pictures of fantastic alien creatures are more interesting and colorful than the reality. Perhaps as a career, it would all be spectrography and timelines, without the bright beauty that makes it a fun escape from the more tedious aspects of her own career.
She'll never know, and so she finishes taking her pictures and turns back to figuring out the stratigraphy of this particular rock formation for her report on whether this site will provide a geologically stable location for a permanent colony. She likes this kind of job; it's useful, interesting work, and the samples she's taking on the side will keep her busy for months back at FirstLanding. And while she works, she thinks about fanciful creatures that might have left those odd, feathered tracks, wandering the landscape in a time long gone.
4. Babylon 5, G'Kar & Londo, post-canon, spoilers
any, the minimum amount of communication needed for a fix-it AU
Originally posted here
"And next time something like this happens," G'Kar said, sitting on the edge of Londo's bed in the White Star medbay, "which it probably will, given your minimal ability to make sensible life choices, the correct thing to say is 'I'm about to be taken over by an alien mind control parasite, G'Kar,' not 'Goodbye forever, it's been nice knowing you, no I'm not going to explain any of this'."
Londo, his shoulder swathed in bandages, glared up at him. "I was trying to protect you and everyone else."
"Yes, G'Kar. You're quite right, G'Kar. No need to let it go this far again, G'Kar."
"How long until we reach Minbar, again?"
"Two days," G'Kar said, grinning wolfishly -- although there was some other emotion underneath -- and making no move to leave.
"Great Maker, save me."
5. Babylon 5, early season one
any, low-effort illustration of something important
Originally posted here
"And for our next council business, I believe Ambassador G'Kar was going to bring forward the matter of the disputed border zone between the Narn Regime and the Centauri Republic near the former Narn agricultural colony on Delta-6. The map of the proposed --" Sinclair stopped when he actually got a good look at the flimsy hardcopy in front of him. He turned it around to see if it improved from another angle. It didn't.
"Is there something wrong with my paperwork, Commander?" G'Kar inquired from the Narn end of the council table.
"G'Kar, this is a crude drawing of what I guess is supposed to be -- is this blob a Centauri ship? And those are flames ... so I suppose the stick figures falling out of it with the Narn letters AAAAAA trailing after them are Centauri."
"Ah. You are correct. The map is under that."
"I object!" came from Londo's end of the table.
Delenn closed her eyes and appeared to be meditating. The Abbai ambassador was very obviously watching something on her tablet. Sinclair wondered if it was too early to break for a drink.
6. Murderbot, MB + Gurathin
any, "I adore floating." (Peggy Guggenheim)
Originally posted here
".... simply love it, can't think of anything I like more, nowhere I'd rather be than drifting upside down in a derelict shuttle that's about to be set on by raiders at any moment, wondering if death by asphyxiation or death by space pirate is more likely, and if either of them are likely to happen before my inner ear completely loses its ability to deal with the vertigo and I get space-sick. And on that note, SecUnit, how's it going with getting the artificial gravity turned back on?"
It would be going faster if you'd shut up and let me work.
7. Murderbot bookverse, MB + Mensah + Mensah's family
any, snowstorm
Originally posted here
For some reason I hadn't realized that it snowed on Preservation, but of course Preservation was a planet, with weather, and now snow swirled down in heavy, fat flakes outside the big front windows of the Mensah habitat. The Mensahlings were delighted and had been running in and out all morning, which kept me dividing my attention a dozen different ways, keeping an eye on them. Two of my drones had keeled over from frozen batteries and were thawing out by the heating unit in the habitat's central room.
"I'm sorry about the weather, SecUnit." Dr. Mensah approached me quietly, both hands curled around a mug of hot beverage. "It wasn't supposed to start until tomorrow, but the weather on a newly terraformed planet is often volatile. I hope your shuttle isn't delayed too much."
The shuttleport at FirstLanding was currently indicating mixed rain and snow, and a heavily iced-up shuttle pad, along with an announcement of another delay that was now pushing the shuttle back to an early evening departure with the possibility of further delays. I could picture the shuttleport all too easily, crowded with cranky, damp humans, based on my previous experiences with inclement planetary weather.
"I might leave tomorrow instead," I said. Two of the youngest Mensahs were building a fake human out of snow in front of the habitat, which I had never seen before outside of media. "I think you should have security until this weather stops. It would be difficult for FirstLandingSec to send anyone out here in case of an emergency."
"You are absolutely correct." Mensah sipped her hot drink. "I do need security. I'm very glad you're here to provide it."
Outside, the head fell off the snow human and the little Mensahs shrieked in what my analysis of their body language said was pleasure. The snow fell more heavily, and no one was making me go out in it. I had half a new season of MidSomer Station Murders to watch, and everyone in Mensah's family knew to leave me alone unless I talked to them first. There were worse places to be.
8. Murderbot, TV or bookverse, Bharadwaj
any, fossil footprints
Originally posted here
In a different universe, Bharadwaj could very easily have been a xeno-paleontologist. She loves rocks too much to give them up, and she's not that interested in the biology of living organisms (sorry, Arada). But there is something about the intersection between them that fascinates her. It's such a challenging, interlocking series of mental puzzles. Back in the old days on Earth, paleontologists were at least able to fall back on their deep understanding of their planet's current biology and likely development through prehistoric time. But on previous unexplored planets, there could be anything -- silicon-based life, life that bears no resemblance to anything that lives on the planet today.
It's not the field she went into, so all she can do with those tantalizing traces of long-vanished creatures, the bones and the tracks and the impressions, is catalogue them for other experts. And she supposes, as she takes some recordings of a particularly interesting creature's meticulously feathered fossil tracks to send to a colleague at PSUMNT, that perhaps the things she imagines as a hobbyist are more fun than what she might conjecture with a deeper understanding of xenobiology. Maybe her fanciful mental pictures of fantastic alien creatures are more interesting and colorful than the reality. Perhaps as a career, it would all be spectrography and timelines, without the bright beauty that makes it a fun escape from the more tedious aspects of her own career.
She'll never know, and so she finishes taking her pictures and turns back to figuring out the stratigraphy of this particular rock formation for her report on whether this site will provide a geologically stable location for a permanent colony. She likes this kind of job; it's useful, interesting work, and the samples she's taking on the side will keep her busy for months back at FirstLanding. And while she works, she thinks about fanciful creatures that might have left those odd, feathered tracks, wandering the landscape in a time long gone.
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Ahh, season 1 Babylon 5 XD G'Kar's drawing of Centauri stick figures going AAAAA made me giggle :)
And AWWW at Murderbot's snow day with the Mensahlings. The image of having to thaw out its drones by a ~radiator is weirdly cute! And lol at MidSomer Station Murders.
I also really enjoyed the Bharadwaj character sketch! Especially this bit: "that perhaps the things she imagines as a hobbyist are more fun than what she might conjecture with a deeper understanding of xenobiology" -- which is definitely a thought I've had peeking into other people's professions :))