Fic: Diptych in Amber II

Fic: Diptych in Amber I
Fandom: Blood Feud - Rosemary Sutcliff
Pairing: background Jestyn/Alexia and Jestyn/Anders, but mostly Alexia & Anders dealing with that
Rating: G
Beta: carmarthen
Disclaimer: still not mine
Sequel/companion piece to Diptych in Amber I. (You see what I did with the titles there? All titles should be this easy.)
Summary: “Why do you come back here,” she asked, “when you have all of Alexandria before you, and any sea you please?”

Anders drew back from her a little. “I cannot go home with the blood feud undone,” he said, low-voiced. “And I cannot finish the feud; and so - ”

Anders and Alexia talk.

Also on AO3, Diptych in Amber II

( Diptych in Amber II )

Firefly Monday: The Train Job

It is Firefly Monday again! Except it will soon switch to Firefly Wednesday, because Emma cannot make Mondays.

Today: "The Train Job," in which Inara brushes Kaylee's hair, while Kaylee looks totally blissed out and is all, wistfully, "Do you do this for your clients?"

And when Mal barges in on this, because he is always barging into Inara's shuttle without asking, which prompts this conversation:

Inara: "What did I say to you about barging into my shuttle?"

Mal: "That is was manly and impulsive?"

Inara: "I think the exact word was DON'T."

I do not understand why the writers thought that this whole 'barging into the shuttle without permission' thing so redolent of true love as to make it a recurrent motif - indeed, Mal and Inara's dominant mode of interaction. Please explain this to me.

Later in the episode, Inara smacks Mal across the face as part of a complicated plot to save him from a heist gone sideways. I think she probably enjoyed that.

ANYWAY. Having barged into Inara and Kaylee's hair-combing session without knocking, as he does pretty much every episode, because nothing says love like trampling the object of your affection's personal boundaries, Mal says, "You're servicing crew now?"

Kaylee/Inara. It is visible from space.

(And yes, I am afraid that all of these reviews are going to start with a logbook on the good ship Kaylee/Inara.)

Shepherd Book continues to be Mr. Exposition. I'm starting to think he is a spy - possibly for a faction within the Alliance that is against the men with blue hands? A very bad spy, because his fishing for information about Mal is also visible from space.

I like how Inara puts off his nosy questions by saying that she's been on the ship for eight months, but still doesn't actually know Mal. Never try to play a player, Shepherd Book. Bet Jayne would tell you everything he knows about the captain if you just lent a sympathetic ear, though.

I think probably we're supposed to take Inara's "I don't think I'll ever know the captain" at face value, but I like my interpretation better, because it makes more sense. Why does the show hang its hat on "Mal is a mysterious, mysterious man" rather than some quality that he actually has?

His sense of humor, sense of honor, witty one-liners, his chivalrous affection for his crew - I think any of these things would explain Inara's attraction to him better than "He's mysterious!" Does Mal seem actually mysterious to anyone?

***

In completely random observations: I love the faces Zoe makes when Mal and then Inara feed her the cover stories for how they're going to get out of this mess. Acting is clearly not her bag.