Title: The limitation of knowledge
Fandom: BSG, Helo/Boomer
Disclaimer: Don’t own, don’t profit, blah blah
Spoilers: Nothing for anything that hasn’t aired yet
Summary: The memories have the vividness of dreams and that same disconnect from reality. She remembers but none of it is real.
Sharon isn’t sure how she feels about humans. Not yet. She remembers feeling love for the Chief-moments of bliss that made her feel as if she was made of air, as if she could pilot a Raptor blindfolded, as if she could survive in the vacuum of space. She remembers flying missions with Helo, their training exercises a routine, their patrols more so. She remembers their bond as only a friendship: jokes, and card games, and quick glances on his part when he thought she wasn’t looking, or when he was so tired or drunk or both that he didn’t care if she was. She remembers her initial awe of Adama, and her sharing a bottle with Starbuck, and passing Gaeta in the Mess.
These feelings aren’t hers, they never were, but a separate layer of the other Sharon’s memories is an ever present undercurrent, whispering steadily in the back of her mind. She has learned to separate it out, to let it run parallel and controlled, but the echoes of it still leach past the barrier, blend with self.
The memories have the vividness of dreams and that same disconnect from reality. She remembers but none of it is real.
What she knows is a much smaller pool. She remembers Galen, Starbuck, Adama. Love and friendship and devotion and the comfort of a team. What she knows is the wet of Caprica, seeping inexorably past the protective suit. The taste of blood in her mouth from Six’s elegant fists. The feel of pain from the wound in her shoulder, Adama’s hands around her throat, Starbuck’s gun looming in her face.
What she knows is Helo.
She knows the sound he makes when she bites his lower lip, a half smothered moan into her mouth which does funny things to her knees. She knows what comes after. She knows the smile he gives her when he wakes up for the first time with her in his arms. She knows the pattern of their banter and the texture of their silences. There is a small scar from a half-forgotten training accident on his left shoulder and she spends time on making sure she knows it too. She knows the feel of his child inside her, more than she knows anything else, even herself.
She is an interchangeable unit to everyone. A Cylon model identical to her hundreds of sisters, her mission the only goal in her life. A toaster enemy to be destroyed, wiped out without mercy, no different from the rest. She is interchangeable to everyone but him. He speaks to her and calls her Sharon. He looks at her and sees the woman he loves. She believes she is real and unique and apart because he does.
She knows so little: discomfort and pain and fear. She knows of memories that aren’t real and friends that aren’t hers. She knows the four corners of her cell, and the spare cool metal of her bed, and the ungainly shape of the prison telephone, and the rough threads of the blankets on her cot. She knows of distrust and hate and her otherness that marks her like a brand.
She knows Helo, and love, and the feel of his hands on her skin, and the look in his eyes as he holds her, and it makes it all worthwhile.
Fandom: BSG, Helo/Boomer
Disclaimer: Don’t own, don’t profit, blah blah
Spoilers: Nothing for anything that hasn’t aired yet
Summary: The memories have the vividness of dreams and that same disconnect from reality. She remembers but none of it is real.
Sharon isn’t sure how she feels about humans. Not yet. She remembers feeling love for the Chief-moments of bliss that made her feel as if she was made of air, as if she could pilot a Raptor blindfolded, as if she could survive in the vacuum of space. She remembers flying missions with Helo, their training exercises a routine, their patrols more so. She remembers their bond as only a friendship: jokes, and card games, and quick glances on his part when he thought she wasn’t looking, or when he was so tired or drunk or both that he didn’t care if she was. She remembers her initial awe of Adama, and her sharing a bottle with Starbuck, and passing Gaeta in the Mess.
These feelings aren’t hers, they never were, but a separate layer of the other Sharon’s memories is an ever present undercurrent, whispering steadily in the back of her mind. She has learned to separate it out, to let it run parallel and controlled, but the echoes of it still leach past the barrier, blend with self.
The memories have the vividness of dreams and that same disconnect from reality. She remembers but none of it is real.
What she knows is a much smaller pool. She remembers Galen, Starbuck, Adama. Love and friendship and devotion and the comfort of a team. What she knows is the wet of Caprica, seeping inexorably past the protective suit. The taste of blood in her mouth from Six’s elegant fists. The feel of pain from the wound in her shoulder, Adama’s hands around her throat, Starbuck’s gun looming in her face.
What she knows is Helo.
She knows the sound he makes when she bites his lower lip, a half smothered moan into her mouth which does funny things to her knees. She knows what comes after. She knows the smile he gives her when he wakes up for the first time with her in his arms. She knows the pattern of their banter and the texture of their silences. There is a small scar from a half-forgotten training accident on his left shoulder and she spends time on making sure she knows it too. She knows the feel of his child inside her, more than she knows anything else, even herself.
She is an interchangeable unit to everyone. A Cylon model identical to her hundreds of sisters, her mission the only goal in her life. A toaster enemy to be destroyed, wiped out without mercy, no different from the rest. She is interchangeable to everyone but him. He speaks to her and calls her Sharon. He looks at her and sees the woman he loves. She believes she is real and unique and apart because he does.
She knows so little: discomfort and pain and fear. She knows of memories that aren’t real and friends that aren’t hers. She knows the four corners of her cell, and the spare cool metal of her bed, and the ungainly shape of the prison telephone, and the rough threads of the blankets on her cot. She knows of distrust and hate and her otherness that marks her like a brand.
She knows Helo, and love, and the feel of his hands on her skin, and the look in his eyes as he holds her, and it makes it all worthwhile.
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Date: 2005-09-23 06:23 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-09-23 06:31 pm (UTC)Beautiful. Thank you for sharing DM. I loved it, I hope you don't mind If I archive a copy for my personal collection on my hard drive.
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Date: 2005-09-23 06:32 pm (UTC)Love your icon, btw!
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Date: 2005-09-23 06:58 pm (UTC)I love these characters so much , I get a kick when someone puts together such a nice piece, and explores Sharon as an indiviudual, again thanks.
Helo and her daughter are her world and thats all she wants to be with Helo and her daughter
Bob W
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Date: 2005-09-23 07:03 pm (UTC)I find Sharon utterly fascinating as a person: what makes her tick, what she thinks of her new life, etc...
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Date: 2005-09-23 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-09-23 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-23 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-23 07:04 pm (UTC)after the POD cast any little bit helps
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Date: 2005-09-23 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-23 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 07:43 am (UTC)She is interchangeable to everyone but him. He speaks to her and calls her Sharon. He looks at her and sees the woman he loves. She believes she is real and unique and apart because he does.
Because that passage is just gorgeous, not to mention summing up the essence of the relationship in a few short sentences. Helo's love for her is what allowed him to escape Caprica. His love also allows her to transcend her indoctrination and defect, despite the way she's treated in general after defecting. The show in general seems to be thematically all about love and its transformative/redemptive power. Not just romantic love, but love of family and so forth too.
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Date: 2005-09-23 07:46 pm (UTC)I needed to read this today, what with the spoilers I've read for tonight.
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Date: 2005-09-23 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-23 07:53 pm (UTC)Tonight's ep is one I'm looking forward to in a major way and also dreading. Either way, though, I'm pretty damn sure to love it for the drama.
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Date: 2005-09-23 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-23 10:48 pm (UTC)Actually I don't think I will be happy and I am seeing it tonight, in about 3 hrs
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Date: 2005-09-23 10:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 10:44 am (UTC)Bob
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Date: 2005-09-23 08:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-23 08:26 pm (UTC)considering the podcast and some of the discussions.
I think I remember reading your opinion on the podcast in
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Date: 2005-09-23 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-23 08:41 pm (UTC)My icon is from an Indian movie "Veer-Zaara" which is about a star-crossed love affair between and Indian pilot and a Pakistani aristocrat. It came out last year and I loved it. I am a Bollywood fan.
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Date: 2005-09-23 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-09-23 09:54 pm (UTC)That was poignant. I enjoyed how you differentiated her memories from her experiences. Well-done!
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Date: 2005-09-23 09:58 pm (UTC)I keep thinking about how odd it must be to have someone else's memories.
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Date: 2005-09-23 10:01 pm (UTC)I think that there's a lot to be mined with Sharon's relationship with her Galactica counterpart's past. I'd love to see what more they do with it, though already having Tyrol come to her cell at the end of the last episode was very well done. . . .
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Date: 2005-09-24 02:18 am (UTC)That was really lovely. I, too find the concept of Sharon's memories intriguing and how to distinguish between a memory of love and feeling that love itself.
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Date: 2005-09-25 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-24 05:17 am (UTC)This sums up everything. Such perfect characterisation :). It would be hard for anyone to be separated from the norm of their own "kind". We've seen time and time again that Cylons are like humans. They have activities they love to do (hmm, those Cylon parties...).
Thank you for sharing! :)
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Date: 2005-09-25 08:48 pm (UTC)We've seen time and time again that Cylons are like humans
I find the concept of the fact that they are "Other" but they are beings with souls quite the most interesting thing on BSG. Because by any criteria you care to name, they are not just machines any more.
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Date: 2005-09-26 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-09-25 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-27 02:44 am (UTC)She's no longer an interchangeable unit. Love with Helo, choosing Helo changed that
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Date: 2005-09-27 04:05 am (UTC)