(Firstly, I'm so sorry for not replying sooner! Apologies for any "oh, god, did she hate it?" angst I've caused!)
Ooooh, this is gorgeous. I adore how you worked in the song, and just how much isn’t explained. I shall now clutch your words and my wild fancies to my chest. Brace for babbling!
Every mind she’s ever read. Oh, man. Knowing so many people that intimately, and feeling them *not there* anymore... *shivers*
“Yes.” It is a nightmare. He doesn’t ask her if it is also the truth. I love how it could be either way: these could be flashbacks or it could be her... I have this awesome image of her walking into a room in Serenity and triggering the memory like a hologram, playing out in front of her.
the warmth and happiness and the off-key song without words. *whimpers* I love that’s how she remembers Kaylee.
The engine is cold. It keeps her going through space, pushes her through time, but without Kaylee it is just a place, a part of a ship. It is no longer a home, and Serenity is not happy. Okay, I’m going to go quite a bit left-field here, but there’s a scene in Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather (paraphrased! It’s been a while) where Death is telling Susan: “Well done, the Hogfather has been sacrificed, the sun will rise tomorrow.” And Susan is all: “Uh-huh. What would have happened tomorrow if the Hogfather had lived?” “A ball of molten gas would have appeared over the horizon.” It’s like, Serenity is still *functioning* just fine, but *everything’s wrong* and I love that in a horrified sort of way.
River imagines dying stars bursting to life somewhere else and babies growing in the darkness.
She cradles her stomach, but Zoe doesn’t see. Ooh, Zoe is(was) pregnant. I *love* that fandom idea, and now I’m thinking that she either never finds out, or there’s no time to properly come to grips to that before The End and that hurts so bittersweetly.
There is no one to dream, and so it all falls on her, fast-forward flashes while she sleeps, hundreds and thousands of things she should not know, things meant to die with their people.
She knows why the worlds will die and all the universe with them. God. *God* That makes me flail with delight. I’m pretty sure it’s not what you intended, but I’m totally reminded of a line I read about Neil Gaiman’s Death; how she was there at the beginning, and at the end. It applied to people’s lives, but I’m entranced by the idea that River is there, bearing witness to the end of the universe.
Thank you for such a beautifully quiet, aching apocalypse...
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-09-23 12:59 pm (UTC)Ooooh, this is gorgeous. I adore how you worked in the song, and just how much isn’t explained. I shall now clutch your words and my wild fancies to my chest. Brace for babbling!
Every mind she’s ever read. Oh, man. Knowing so many people that intimately, and feeling them *not there* anymore... *shivers*
“Yes.” It is a nightmare. He doesn’t ask her if it is also the truth. I love how it could be either way: these could be flashbacks or it could be her... I have this awesome image of her walking into a room in Serenity and triggering the memory like a hologram, playing out in front of her.
the warmth and happiness and the off-key song without words. *whimpers* I love that’s how she remembers Kaylee.
The engine is cold. It keeps her going through space, pushes her through time, but without Kaylee it is just a place, a part of a ship. It is no longer a home, and Serenity is not happy. Okay, I’m going to go quite a bit left-field here, but there’s a scene in Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather (paraphrased! It’s been a while) where Death is telling Susan: “Well done, the Hogfather has been sacrificed, the sun will rise tomorrow.” And Susan is all: “Uh-huh. What would have happened tomorrow if the Hogfather had lived?” “A ball of molten gas would have appeared over the horizon.” It’s like, Serenity is still *functioning* just fine, but *everything’s wrong* and I love that in a horrified sort of way.
River imagines dying stars bursting to life somewhere else and babies growing in the darkness.
She cradles her stomach, but Zoe doesn’t see. Ooh, Zoe is(was) pregnant. I *love* that fandom idea, and now I’m thinking that she either never finds out, or there’s no time to properly come to grips to that before The End and that hurts so bittersweetly.
There is no one to dream, and so it all falls on her, fast-forward flashes while she sleeps, hundreds and thousands of things she should not know, things meant to die with their people.
She knows why the worlds will die and all the universe with them. God. *God* That makes me flail with delight. I’m pretty sure it’s not what you intended, but I’m totally reminded of a line I read about Neil Gaiman’s Death; how she was there at the beginning, and at the end. It applied to people’s lives, but I’m entranced by the idea that River is there, bearing witness to the end of the universe.
Thank you for such a beautifully quiet, aching apocalypse...