My BSG story
Apr. 18th, 2005 04:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieI posted it a long time ago on the yahoolist, but I thought I wanted to have it on lj, so slightly modified, here it is. Oddly enough, it is not Kara/Lee because there is no way I could write as well as a whole bunch of k/l writers. This is Six, and Helo/Boomer.
Spoilers for up to Ep 6 of S1.
Mechanical
I. Six.
She likes watching him.
She likes to watch him ask for help. He flounders, looking desperate and she likes it. She likes his weakness. It makes him invincible. You cannot break someone who always bends.
She likes to watch him talk to himself, to her (she isn’t sure which is which any more, either), muttering around corners in a strained, emotional voice. She likes to watch him suffer. It reminds her they are different. That he is human, weak, unique.
She likes to watch him following women with his eyes. Lt. Boomer (sometimes she wonders if she left in him a taste for Cylons), Lt. Starbuck (sometimes she wonders if she left in him a taste for blondes), any woman between sixteen and sixty (and then she knows he has always liked all women, any woman. Before her, after her, during.)
She likes him when he denies God, because it means she gets to try harder.
Sometimes, she isn’t sure what she is. A mechanical tracer implanted in his brain? A figment of his imagination, an invisible reminder of his guilt? She doesn’t know any more. It doesn’t matter. She is real to him and so she is real to herself.
She likes watching him.
II. Boomer on Caprica
Helo sleeps, exhaustion marking every visible surface and plane of his face. She is fascinated by the concept. What would it be like to feel tired? Terrified? In love? He is all three at the same time. She can tell. She can tell by his ragged breathing, harsh even in sleep. She can tell by the way his eyes dart everywhere as they wander across the maze, by the way his fingers twitch on his gun. She can tell by the way he looks at her when he thinks she is not watching: hopeful, puzzled, intense.
She is not really Sharon Valerii, his friend and pilot. She has never flown with him, joked with him, ate with him, been with him. Not before Caprica. Not on the ship he speaks of, the mechanical refuge of his dreams. The other Sharon did all that. Somehow it bothers her.
She has reported to Six that Helo is a good man. But can men be good? Can they be good according to the Cylon standards? He is a good man, whatever that means, any definition.
He came back for her. She ponders the thought. He tucked her in, he cooked her toast and he came back to rescue her from the Cylons, unaware of the irony and the setup. Frightened, alone, hopeless, he came back for her. Helped her on her feet, kissed her on the forehead. She can still feel that phantom kiss. His voice soothed, his hands shook. Her hands shook too.
Maybe the Cylon designers did too good a job with her.
What would it be like to feel tired? Terrified? In love? And she realizes she knows.
Spoilers for up to Ep 6 of S1.
Mechanical
I. Six.
She likes watching him.
She likes to watch him ask for help. He flounders, looking desperate and she likes it. She likes his weakness. It makes him invincible. You cannot break someone who always bends.
She likes to watch him talk to himself, to her (she isn’t sure which is which any more, either), muttering around corners in a strained, emotional voice. She likes to watch him suffer. It reminds her they are different. That he is human, weak, unique.
She likes to watch him following women with his eyes. Lt. Boomer (sometimes she wonders if she left in him a taste for Cylons), Lt. Starbuck (sometimes she wonders if she left in him a taste for blondes), any woman between sixteen and sixty (and then she knows he has always liked all women, any woman. Before her, after her, during.)
She likes him when he denies God, because it means she gets to try harder.
Sometimes, she isn’t sure what she is. A mechanical tracer implanted in his brain? A figment of his imagination, an invisible reminder of his guilt? She doesn’t know any more. It doesn’t matter. She is real to him and so she is real to herself.
She likes watching him.
II. Boomer on Caprica
Helo sleeps, exhaustion marking every visible surface and plane of his face. She is fascinated by the concept. What would it be like to feel tired? Terrified? In love? He is all three at the same time. She can tell. She can tell by his ragged breathing, harsh even in sleep. She can tell by the way his eyes dart everywhere as they wander across the maze, by the way his fingers twitch on his gun. She can tell by the way he looks at her when he thinks she is not watching: hopeful, puzzled, intense.
She is not really Sharon Valerii, his friend and pilot. She has never flown with him, joked with him, ate with him, been with him. Not before Caprica. Not on the ship he speaks of, the mechanical refuge of his dreams. The other Sharon did all that. Somehow it bothers her.
She has reported to Six that Helo is a good man. But can men be good? Can they be good according to the Cylon standards? He is a good man, whatever that means, any definition.
He came back for her. She ponders the thought. He tucked her in, he cooked her toast and he came back to rescue her from the Cylons, unaware of the irony and the setup. Frightened, alone, hopeless, he came back for her. Helped her on her feet, kissed her on the forehead. She can still feel that phantom kiss. His voice soothed, his hands shook. Her hands shook too.
Maybe the Cylon designers did too good a job with her.
What would it be like to feel tired? Terrified? In love? And she realizes she knows.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-04-18 10:05 pm (UTC)Wah! Great line! I'm not wild about that storyline, but these are some good, insightful little pieces.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-18 10:35 pm (UTC)I don't find the Caprica storyline particularly interesting (it holds up least well on rewatching), but I feel a great deal of pity for Helo who has had by far the rawest deal of all the main/recurring characters. Constantly on the run as a human lab rat, discovering that the woman he loves is one of those who blew up his world and is not even human. And yet he has feelings for her. Notice how he is in denial that there is no such human as Sharon. Because it would make past years a lie.
I also find Boomer-C rather interesting as a character because she is the only Cylon who seems to have "fallen in love." It strikes me that this feeling of love is something all Cylons want to experience but do not have. They keep talking about God's love (or is it just Six?) but if God can feel love but they can't, in order to be closer to God they have to be able to feel love as well.
On the show, I am a sucker for the Kara/Lee theater of pain, and Adama (Roslin gets my teeth on edge for some reason). But I think I've read too much excellent K/L-centric fic to want to write any.
Btw, noticed you like Farscape? My favorite show...Ever. Crichton is Lymond in space.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 02:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 02:05 pm (UTC)Farscape is great. I'm working my way through it slowly--although I keep getting distracted by SRK--and I am currently in the middle of Season 3. I've only read King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnet, but I have book 1 of the Lymond Chronicles in my to-read pile.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 02:16 pm (UTC)I loved King Hereafter. It's in my top 10. I have however never finished it. I was a few pages shy of the end, I read the end and I knew what happened and I just couldn't make myself finish it. Loved Thorfinn and Groa too much.
How Far into Farscape are you?
no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 02:20 pm (UTC)Actually, I wouldn't say I'm a Dunnett reader yet. I love the history in King Hereafter, but had trouble getting into the characters. I got thru because I'm descended from the Norwegian King Herald Harfagr and his grandson was a minor character. Still, I am a sucker for good historical fiction and willing to give her another go. I've always enjoyed Sharon Kay Penman for historical fiction, but I realize she's a little more romancy than Dunnett.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 03:18 pm (UTC)Wow.
Penman is good, but I like Dunnett a whole level better. You have to read her in the right mood though. At first (both with Lymond and KH), I went along going "characters are boring" and then it's as if a switch turns on and I went "ahhhhh...so they are thinking all the things behind what they are saying" And then I stayed in bed the whole day without eating reading Game of Kings. But she is pretty idiosyncratic.
I do like Penman. My favorite of hers is Sunne in Splendour because I adore Richard III, but her Welsh trilogy is good too. She has a tendency to lose herself in too many characters though. I remember starting "The Reconing" and realizing the character she's been following for 100 pages just died and the POV switched completely.
Eidth Pargeter wrote good historical fiction as well.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-20 01:11 pm (UTC)I am about 75 pages into the first of the Lymond Chronicles. God, that woman has an amazing writing style.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-20 02:11 pm (UTC)So glad you like Lymond. Those books consumed my and my best friend's sophomore year in college (I still remember meeting her with bags under her eyes right after her physics exam. She told me she stayed up till 6 and I asked "studying?" To which she replied "No, finishing Pawn in Frankincense")
Woyld love to chat about them once you are done with GoK.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-20 03:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-27 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-27 02:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-27 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-27 04:34 am (UTC)*reads again*
no subject
Date: 2005-08-27 05:05 am (UTC)