Video: Not Okay With Imminent Doom

[dino_zarf]

[Filtered from the Serenity crew]

[Throughout the message, Wash keeps glancing at something just off screen. He's not exactly his usual happy goofy self.]

A lot of things recently have gotten me thinking. Some of you have kids, right?

[He glances to the off screen object again and sighs slightly.]

What's it like?

Comments

Video

[likescats]

[Yes hello I hear you are looking for parents. Death is more of a proud grand/great grand father these days but still....he remembers]

I HAD A DAUGHTER. FOR MANY YEARS. HER NAME WAS YSABELL. IT WAS....INTERESTING AND UNEXPECTED...BUT NOT UNPLEASANT. ...I DO NOT BELIEVE I WOULD CHANGE MY ACTIONS EVEN IF I COULD.

I HAVE A GRANDDAUGHTER NOW AND SHE'S QUITE THE REMARKABLE YOUNG LADY. THOUGH I MAY BE....SOMEWHAT BIASED.

Video

[dino_zarf]

Ahh!

[Somehow Wash has managed to miss the skeleton on board for the first year.

His utter shock is followed by a bit of a sheepish look.]

Uh, sorry, surprised me.

Had? That sounds...

[even worse than what he's facing]

Video

[likescats]

YES. I GET THAT A LOT.

[You get used to it.]

SHE AND HER HUSBAND DIED IN A CARRIAGE ACCIDENT WHEN SUSAN WAS SIXTEEN.

[He didn't take it well.]

video;

[sweetmotherofgod]

It's the best.

[Grinning, big eyes. She's all about parenting, apparently.]

My kid's not - biologically mine, but he's amazing. Nothing I've ever done is even close to being this rewarding.

video;

[dino_zarf]

I... it wasn't that I didn't want kids. But I never realized just how much until I was here.

permavid!

[sweetmotherofgod]

I didn't. Like, at all. Kinda dicey territory with me for a whole bunch of reasons that are no fun to drop on a stranger, but I had being a mommy firmly in the never column. Then it happened, and it's - perfect.

[She shrugs - easy, happy, but still totally unable to explain it.]

You thinking about it?

voice.

[kutte]

I got a son.

[ there's a pause, then-- ]

That's a pretty complicated question, man. Having kids is heavy.

voice.

[dino_zarf]

It's... been on my mind. Since I got some things in my locker. And then everything that happened recently really brought it all into focus.

I'm going to have a little girl.

voice.

[kutte]

Shit. Congratulations, man.

[ is that the correct response?? it feels like the correct response, tranquility or no. ]

You worried?

video, private;

[jondrette]

[Eponine doesn't know what causes her to do it, but she's going to admit to this man something she's never really told another soul. Her brother doesn't know, certainly her boyfriend didn't. She swallows, and speaks.]

I was with child... once.

video, private;

[dino_zarf]

You...

[You look awfully young for that]

I... wouldn't have expected that.

video, private;

[jondrette]

Oui.

[Seventeen when she'd died.]

I was young, fifteen. [She swallows hard.] Please, m'sieur, you must not tell my brother. [She recognized Wash from when she visited her brother.]

video

[fertilefeet]

[She tilts her head slightly, watching him.]

I have no children myself, not yet. Among my people though, children are one of our greatest joys. I have played with others children though and it was so wonderful. I look forward to when I will.

video

[dino_zarf]

I always liked kids. Things here have me thinking about it a little differently though.

video

[fertilefeet]

They are wonderful. [Differently though?] How so?

[video]

[surveyor]

[A few months ago Levi wouldn't have given a second thought to answering this sort of question- the idea of him having children of his own is fucking hilarious, let's be real here- but given everything he'd experienced during his trip back home before being sucked onto the Creepy Deathship, well...

He'd be lying if he said his brats haven't been on his mind. He'd picked a pretty shit time to be yanked away yet again...]

Define "have".

[video]

[dino_zarf]

[Bit of an odd question, really. What does he mean by have, anyway?]

Actually got a chance to star raising, I guess.

[surveyor]

[Levi considers this condition for a moment.]

...They didn't start out as mine to raise, but it looks like that's what's happening anyway.

["Raise", of course, being something of a loose description, nowhere near a perfect one but as close as Levi can really get. He'd be tempted to use 'training' in its place... Except that what he's having them do isn't really something that can be trained. He guesses his situation applies to the man's question, and so he continues:]

My Squad, [he offers,] I'm responsible for them now.

[...For better or for worse.]

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[inafadingcrown]

[Galadriel's face always seems to soften when this topic comes up.]

I have a daughter- and grandchildren also. There is no greater joy.

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[dino_zarf]

That's the impression I'm getting.

[Yet he seems... glum about it]

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[inafadingcrown]

[Gently:] Yet you seem in low spirits.

[private]

[yardbird]

Honestly?

They were the happiest years of my life.

[private]

[dino_zarf]

I was afraid of that.

[hedoniste]

Terrifying. All the time.

( ...ilde.

there's a lot else she might say, actually - about lying awake thinking about everything she had to turn off and put away and lock up and what if they fell out of bed and hurt themselves? about how she thought she'd calm down as they got older and she didn't, really, she just found new things to lie awake thinking about and how if they don't end up in therapy it'll probably only because therapists will be in short supply the older they get and the worse the state of infrastructure becomes.

she won't talk about what it's like to lose one. )

[dino_zarf]

Was it worth all that?

[Fear was why he waited so long. Too long. Too late.]