#arkady is showing her support for violet | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jaggedwolf · 3 years

Text

air support, we need you (or: tscosi 2x09)

some bomb dropping, ofc, spoilers below duh

same game, top three things i had feelings ‘bout in reverse order

3. time skip time! Everyone could use a bit of a breather, even if it can’t live up to Arkady’s goat farm dreams

I thought all the planet assignments made sense, even if the completionist in me wanted it to differ more from the split that had already happened this season

ok ok the shipper in me was 50-50 but we’ll address that later

2. my man park!! is back!!!

Showing up with an anti-aircraft missile launcher as a wedding gift. I kept joking that Park would keep up his finale trend of showing up as a surprise being cool (as cool as Park can be anw), and thought it wouldn’t happen till it did!

and him also quietly saying the defector wasn’t Shelly....Park...are you going to talk about this...

narrowly avoided extended crew singing for the third time, will he keep up this success rate?

I would take a mini-episode that just followed Park in the second half of the season (Park: I am an independent man who needs no crew)

1. Arkady attacking Krejjh because she thinks they’re an enemy, AND then McCabe pulling a gun on her to make sure she didn’t run away. Bro. Bro, that shit was a direct hit to the id. Do I even have words for how good that was

Knowing what was about to happen as soon as Arkady said “You” in that tone of voice, ugh

Krejjh saying Arkady instead of First Mate Patel in desperation, and then brushing it off with a :D after

But god, McCabe. They’ve been so compelling this season, and yeah, maybe they’re approaching everything like a nail with the hammer they’ve got that shoots bullets, but the point is, it fuckin works

Arkady buys the threat (the promise of her crew’s safety?) more than she buys Krejjh’s reassurances

(though reading the transcript, Krejjh specifically telling Arkady “Science Officer Liu will never forgive you”, not “forgive us”, is excellent too)

“the only authority figures yet to disappoint me” / “I’m not an authority figure” / “you don’t get to decide that” is just like. embedded in my mind. just McCabe going no, you don’t get to run verbally either.

Do you ever think about how Arkady and McCabe had like, different kinds of fucked up childhoods compared to the rest of the crew. Like obviously McCabe ending up an agent so young and the stuff about their family suggests a pretty secure background, but it feels like the IGR and Dwarnian war starting when they were 12 gives them a kind of cynicism that meshes well with Arkady’s, in a way that’s distinct from how Arkady and Violet’s morbidness mesh, or Arkady and Sana’s pragmatism

ok more character feels under the cut

don’t scandalize the grandparents

A married man!

Impressed he made it through the season with no baddies wrecking his oxygen

Always ready to point out that Arkady is actually as much of a nerd as he is

AKA I didn’t realize it was a Mozart reference till he said so. Arkady defies the jock-nerd chart

okay who of Arkady or Krejjh is gonna tell him about MMA fight outside, or did they do a whole team debrief. For Arkady’s sake I’m hoping not the latter, though I guess everyone else would like an explanation for McCabe’s gun-pointing??

likes solving problems without guns, would prefer solving them by FLYING SPACESHIPS

Krejjh watches McCabe’s gun strategy work on Arkady and goes “do you folks really live like this?? why???”

I do love that their first thought on what to do next is to run a bunch of supplies around, probably between human populations that are going to be a wary at seeing a dwarnian show up. (Eat it, Eejjhgreb)

Kinda wonder if their feelings about getting choked out by their buddy are in fact more complicated than “it’s chill dude, please don’t do something stupid”

The cutest vow

who needs to calm down your crewmates with annoying words when you can just point a gun at them

Seriously where is the human-dwarnian war AU where it lasts longer or happens later where McCabe is the baby sniper posted to Arkady’s unit and they squabble a bunch (and perhaps kiss? When I wrote my third ever ficlet for this fandom never did I anticipate actually being interested in that)

what % of their Mirzakhani choice was thinking “what if Arkady tries to run from the goat farm and no one’s around to point a gun at her” jk jk

Their exclusion of Park from authority figures that didn’t disappoint them is fascinating. Is it that he left hoping for Shelly when it probably wasn’t her, or that he isn’t an authority figure anymore, a combination there of?

Or worst of all, is it that when he didn’t kill Krejjh back in 1x10, that really was a disappointment, no matter how much it might’ve been mixed with relief, and you can’t undo that moment?

What if they and Park talked. But I don’t think Park is going to goat planet, so that seems unlikely.

Their apology to Sana for heightened Martineau security! And Sana reiterating the profound gratefulness bit, gah

mostly read other people’s words and yet sparked consideration of two different OT3s, her power.

you know what, everyone deciding Sana is the best person to read words makes complete sense

There was one specific moment this episode that sent my mind into a tizzy about V/A/S, and it was Arkady going FINE GO ASK THE CAPTAIN THEN at how firm Violet was that Tripathi would be the one driving her, not Arkady.

I need you to understand that my V/A/S OT3 opinions are such that my shipping feels were more set off by that than Sana and Violet telling Arkady they were proud of her for choosing goat planet or whatever, like I don’t even know what dynamic was so captured by that argument, rip at Arkady having to be systems apart from them again

Though ofc my heart was buoyed by Sana’s earnest “Kady, you do more than that”, I want these two to go do a job together again, I miss that

To shift gears, I cannot believe “Lenny” started out as Sana being absolutely furious at the people threatening her crew and has ended up a teasing in-joke between her and Park, my Sana/Park shipping feels were very content. (When does Sana learn that Park didn’t get to hear the long list of fake crimes the Rumor crew specifically confessed to Lenny? This must be fixed. Tell him about the diamonds!)

Campbell said “Park, let me show you where we’ve been sleeping.” and my brain went. Wait. This is actually a good OT3?? Park is already unnerved by Sana’s earnest captaining, he should get unnerved by Campbell’s default magnanimity, please consider this

this is also where I point out that all these major characters have very convenient names for indicating ships solely via letters. V/A! B/K! S/P/C! This may solve my ot3 tagging problem...

get off that cotton candy boat, vi

Haha I loved that line from Doc Robinson she’s so no-nonsense, love Violet agreeing to work with her

Doc also said menders and I thought about this post again and also the team split and ahhh

But no, I very much liked Violet gently crushing Arkady’s goat farm dreams, and the two of them awkwardly discussing the very awkward stage things are at while still getting a feel for how the other operates

These nerds are trying and I’m still fond of them

at some point I was gonna make fun of Vi for not being able to drive before realising 1. she probably didn’t want to deprive the others of a vehicle 2. that would be incredibly hypocritical of me

wait does the igr have excellent public transport when they aren’t bombing it i take back every bad thing i’ve said abou-

*ahem* same question about the MMA fight debrief I had for Brian, it would be so funny if the situation was so rushed that like, Arkady+McCabe explain to Brian on the farm and Krejjh has to tackle everyone else

tick, tock, walking bomb, when it stops, nobody knows

arkady is so whumpable, and this show knows it

Redundant, but love how terrified of herself she is after hurting Krejjh and how strangely reassured she is by McCabe’s gun antics. And how she doesn’t like thinking of herself as an authority figure on the ship even though she literally is as First Mate

is ready to monologue about all major life events and the crew frickin knows it

is trying to help herself and stuff, still grumbling about it. in worse shape this season than last - probably all the constant discussion of the inevitable war just kept building stuff up and she kept ignoring it because haha who wants to deal with this prickly mess of a person haha

did i mention she’s the best

hope she gets her full goat farm dream one day, even if it’s not on actual goat farm

#tscosi #tscosi spoilers #jaggedwolf rambles #real rambling times yikes #mine #tscosi reviews

34 notes · View notes

the-official-account · 3 years

Text

10 of favorite Tscosi dynamics except they're all pairings/facets of pairings I made up

Because writing fanfic takes time I don't have rn. (Reblogs vv appreciated)

2.06 spoilers.

Brian and Juniper: Two academics on the run from the IGR? You KNOW Brian ship-hopped to nuezo and I bet he has stories. These two are eachother's bad influence and Violet can physically feel herself aging when they're together.

Krejjh and Campbell: Campbell starts calling Krejjh his cousin. This jokes has never not worked and it delights him. Also, if you like four armed krejjh, Campbell lends them a pair of reading glasses so they can pop the lenses out and look official while they help with the paperwork load required to forged IDs.

McCabe and Campbell: this will get it's own post cause I've already written in the discord about them but you might have to remind me.

Park and Sana: it is a FACT that park makes the best coffee. Sana finds this out and finds herself coming to him again and again and just standing there while he uses the espresso maker, trying to figure out what he does different (its the grind size, I know a lil about coffee) and Park just kind tries to keep a straight face cause she isn't subtle. But Sana makes pretty shit coffee and the arrangement just starts to become a them thing. Park cuts her off on late nights and she boos him. At one point he offers to just show her but she's like "well, you know, well, you see there Park, you know, well, I kinda maybe, suppose I, I don't know, just got used to you doing it?" They like to reminisce over the morning brew (Park and Sana WILL be friends. For this i will say FUCK cannon.)

Violet and Krejjh: krejjh starts to learn what Violet's imposter syndrome related anxiety flare ups look like and starts hyping her up. Violet realizes this but doesn't really say anything, she just goes to krejjh when she's trying a new outfit for a little good ol' "GASP! Science officer Liu, you look so dashing—SO handsome that the stars would turn to look at you." And violet gets really into it like "and they'd be right to!" Arkady finds this all deeply endearing.

Thasia and Krejjh: i cry about this daily. Thasia and Krejjh finding eachother as two dwarnians in love with humans and isolated from their culture to feel accepted in eachother? Thasia's an important figure and becomes sort of a mentor to krejjh, while they really admire how Brian's going on to become the first humany...scholar thingy? And they become eachother's buddies! Important parts of their support system!

Oakley and krejjh and McCabe: so I have a headcannon that all of these three have a kind of observant social mode. You know, the be quiet and smile and judge the vibes type thing. So if they meet on the Iris II Oakley is all soft-spoken and wide-eyed at krejjh, and McCabe is there kinda rolling their eyes (affectionately) and chatting to krejjh, who's kinda eyeing Oakley like "what's eir deal?" But then Oakley gains the confidence to go up to them and ask "so what was it like to grow up without gender? Also hi, I'm non binary." And mccabe is like "noooo, kid." And krejjh is like "Oh idk. It just kinda was. Maybe i should have a better awnser by now, cause Sharpshooter McCabe asked the same que—" "NOOOO, KREJJH"

Violet & McCabe: violet grew up in Minnesota, and to my limited knowledge that state is very rural. They both went on to join the IGR. They don't have all that much in common but this, at least, gives them a way to relate to eachother. They also seemed very repressed and anxious in a simular way during their respective arrivals on the iris, and I think they could be eachother's krejjh and thasia. I'm not saying they ARE, but especially with the rest of the crew gone? And how they both of their siblings to worry about? Yeah I see potential.

Brian and park: ping-pong tournaments have NEVER gotten so intense. Park gets a violent light in his eyes.

Shelly and park: they're QPPs but park is still the wifeguy. I will not be taking questions. (If you're here from the discord, NO, Shelly is NOT a horse!)

#tscosi #edil drabbles on about tscosi #the strange case of starship iris #krejjh #brian jeeter #violet liu #juniper liu #sana tripathi #jin seon park #rj mccabe #ignatius campbell

15 notes · View notes

iriscasefiles · 6 years

Text

Vignette 6: Rock On

It’s one of the unforeseen benefits of living with a bunch of smugglers, she supposes.

The IGR had never said, exactly, that your song purchases were being monitored (that all your purchases were being monitored), but on the level of instinct, you knew you could be arrested for almost anything, if you gave the Republic a reason. People vanished for less.

Maybe it’s a stupid thing to have missed, in the grand scheme of the universe, in the stark chill of everything else they’d been asked to sacrifice in 2180, but Jesus, Violet has spent years longing for that rock concert feeling, the group therapy of screaming to the heavens, the thrum of the bassline in her bones.

Of course some students at Harmony kept throwing shows after the ban on unlicensed crowds. That probably went without saying. Violet had attended a string of them. A lot of kids had. It had been exciting in the beginning, with a tinge of something almost like playing pretend. Secret agents.

The best student band at Harmony was called And The Destroyer. Leanne Tao, the lead singer, had an energy that seemed to shred the air around her, making the room shimmer like a heat mirage. None of their lyrics were openly political, but it wasn’t hard to unpack the metaphors a little, read between the lines.

Violet stopped attending concerts the day Leanne Tao went missing. It wasn’t a conscious decision, exactly, just something that happened.

Sometimes, after a long shift at work, Violet would dig up a track or two from what was quickly feeling like her distant youth. With ten hours of carefully modulated facial expressions behind her, it felt good to sneer, to dance alone in her apartment, to let her elbows be sharp, let her feet kick.

She always listened on headphones.

(It wasn’t a conscious decision, exactly, but--)

But now, suddenly, there’s no need to be secret anymore, no need to hide her listening habits from anyone. If anything, her days of rock ‘n’ roll rebellion seem almost embarrassingly tame. It still feels good to crank the volume in her new room, which is cramped and bare, hardly bigger than the foldout twin bed, and yet already more comfortable than any of her living quarters since college. It’s like slipping on an old jacket, surprised to discover it still fits.

On this, the dawn of her life outside the Regime, Violet finds herself listening to a lot of break-up songs. Maybe it’s not surprising, really. Not a lot of singles out there explicitly about leaving behind the totalitarian system that ground you into the dirt as it continued to demand your gratitude, but something in the door-slamming, “goddammit, I’m out of here forever” of a good break-up anthem feels apropos.

“What the hell,” screams Leanne Tao from the speakers, revived in decibels if not in body, “what the hell were you expecting!” and the truth of it thrums like a bassline, or a heartbeat.

It’s not quite right to listen alone. These songs were made for crowds, for fists in the air and chanted-along choruses, but Violet doesn’t know how to ask anyone to join her. She thinks about it sometimes. She can’t shake the thought that Arkady would get it, somehow, which is kind of ridiculous since all Violet knows of her taste in music is “Whiskey in the Jar” and the occasional folk song Arkady will hum but never sing--not where Violet can hear, at any rate.

The Rumor is not a large ship, and the living space in particular is clearly the bare minimum for a long-haul craft. There’s a workout room, and the cargo hold to pace around in if desperation really sets in, but it’s easy to get restless, with the walls so close and the rest of the universe so far.

Violet’s gotten good at a certain kind of mental sleight-of-hand, at never seeing anything head-on, at closing off parts of her own mind and walking away from the door while maintaining an illusion of stillness. Sometimes she feels like she’s learning how to walk again on a healing leg: the cast comes off and the muscles aren’t prepared to support that old weight. Each step hurts a little. Dancing, somehow, is easier. Singing is easiest of all.

Violet cranks up the volume and shouts along. “What the hell, what the hell!” The walls aren’t particularly thick, and she knows the others must be able to hear her, at least part of the time.

Nobody tells her to stop.

Nobody asks her to turn it down.

#vignettes

116 notes · View notes

fira211 · 6 years

Text

Late Nights (A Ship With No Headlights): A Starship Iris Fic

Inspired by Krejjh always cheating at cards (and a shout-out to Vignette 8 which is available to Patreon supporters)

"Hey Krejjh, can I ask you something?"

Krejjh looked up from their controls and grinned. "You ask I answer, our lady Arkady.”

There was a long pause before a long-winded sigh echoed through the ship. "I won’t ask who helped you with that nickname. Honestly, I probably don’t want to know.”

“You probably shouldn’t.” It was Crewman Jeeter. Of course it was Crewman Jeeter. There were few people with enough leftover mental space, and not enough sleep, to spend time on nicknames. Honestly, in the name of fixations, there were worse. At least this one didn’t end in Krejjh mumbling in alien languages they didn’t even speak. “You had a different question though?”

“Why do you always cheat?" Arkady asked.

Krejjh’s face twisted in confusion. “That’s your question?”

“Violet asked about our deck of cards, sans the one card, the one you ate,” Arkady said, and ah. That made sense. Arkady wanted to know for Violet. It’s as though squishy feelings reminded Arkady she was allowed to be curious. It was like watching a plant being watered after a long drought. Confusion, followed by growth.

It was kind of great to watch. A little odd, since it left Arkady stumbling around like a lost baby animal sometimes, but great. Arkady had feelings. Krejjh was never going to forget that.

Speaking of things they’d never forget: “Plastic is not as edible as I had hoped. Still, easier going down than some hot sauce!” Krejjh said.

“I’ll take your word on that,” Arkady said with a dismissive hand-wave, “but it made me wonder, why do you always cheat?”

Honestly, what kind of question was that. "It's fun!" Krejjh replied.

"But, it doesn't seem to help you win?"

"Pfft, that's not the point of cheating." Cheating wasn’t to win. Well, sometimes it was. Mostly it was to make Crewman Jeeter laugh. To make Captain Tripathi hide a grin in her coffee. To make First Mate Patel roll her eyes but also hide a small smile in her tea. Now, too, to make Crewman Liu tilt her head in confusion, but giggle, just slightly. There were many reasons for cheating, few of them for winning. Or at least, winning the game at hand.

"I mean, it's supposed to be," Arkady said.

"Then people are cheating wrong,” Krejjh said.

"You are one of a kind, Krejjh," Arkady said. She even sounded like she meant it.

"I do try." Krejjh said, accepting the compliment. From Arkady, they knew it was a compliment. Even if Arkady didn’t realize.

"So it really is just for the entertainment value,” Arkady said, still sounding disbelieving.

"I mean, yeah, mostly,” Krejjh said.

"Mostly?"

Ah right, Krejjh tended to forget Arkady noticed verbal slips. Worse habits to have, but it did mean she wasn’t one to play poker with. "You really wanna get into this?" Krejjh asked.

"Wouldn't mind,” Arkady said, a little mockingly, “but I mean, seems like the week for feelings. So if you have them, shoot.” She even leaned back against the wall, as if she was willing to wait for Krejjh to tell her.

Sometimes Arkady was a good person. Well, no, she was always a good person, but she was often so bristly, like a scrub brush, that you forgot how helpful she was. Then she’d go around and do stuff like ask pressing questions and offer to listen, and even show how actively she was listening.

It wasn’t surprising that her and Violet were slowly spinning into each other’s orbit. They both needed to be listened to, and they both were really good at it.

“I have at least two feelings,” Krejjh said. They did. Squishy feelings for her future spouzze, and delight at the universe in general. Any other feelings were probably gloomy and unnecessary.

“Two more than me,” Arkady said.

Krejjh laughed. “You have at least two: annoyance and a crush.”

“Bite me. No, not literally. Anyway, this is your talk time.”

“Eshalzo,” Krejjh muttered, then a little more loudly, “I guess it's... three? Three things. It's fun, is the biggest one. I like making everyone laugh. And I guess... I mean, not to get too heavy, but I grew up in a really political household? Like my entire sense of self worth was supposed to be tied up in responsibility and prestige and I hated it from the get go. So I bailed out and did the earth equivalent of 'running away to join the circus'. And I found out what fun was. What life was. And I guess it's just a reminder to myself that even if I'm a pilot for a renegade group. Even when things gets rough, I'm not here because I have to be, and I don't have to be stern and serious. And yeah. So… there’s your daily dose of Krejjh feels I suppose.” They grinned up at Arkady, who rolled her eyes, but nodded.

“Fair, and the third?”

“Ah, well, it’s a bit…” Krejjh wiggled a little.

“I promise not to laugh,” Arkady said.

Krejjh smiled, “It’s not so much funny, as a little morbid? I suppose? But if anyone would understand... So, it's a reminder. Of me. To all of you.”

“Krejjh,” Arkady said, a small catch in her voice. She always did cotton on faster than most, and Krejjh isn’t surprised she gets it.

Still, they continued, “If something happens. If something bad goes down. I'll still be here. If I go out. Or if war happens again. Or if Eejhgreb tattles and I have to disappear. When you replace me, I'll still be here. You'll get a new pilot and they're gonna come in and ask why the deck is missing a card and you'll say ‘oh, that was Krejjh, they were a riot’ and I'll still be here. Like a space ghost! But a friendly one.”

“Krejjh—”

“It's a little silly but it's harmless. And I'm having fun now. And you'll remember me later,” Krejjh said, a little out of breath from rushing it out. Feelings were hard.

“Krejjh. I say this with the most sincerity I can muster. We won't replace you,” Arkady finally said.

“You will. You'll have to.” Not that Krejjh expected to go out anytime soon, but they didn’t have any issues with the thought of it happening. Death wasn't scary. Being forgotten was scary. So they made sure they put reminders in place.

They didn’t think to do that, back home. Who would have thought Krejjh would run away? Even Krejjh hadn’t until they did. They weren’t sure how many people remembered Krejjh. How many were already forgetting Krejjh. Eejhgreb knew they were still alive, but Eejhgreb also sounded like they were going to do their level best to forget that. That’s what scared Krejjh.

“No. We'll... Ugh... You're gonna make me say it. We'll replace a pilot. But we won't replace you. We can't. No one could.”

Krejjh looked up, and Arkady looked away. There was an angry slant to Arkady’s mouth, and her brow was crinkled, but Arkady always got angry about her feelings. That she had feelings about Krejjh was… Well, it was pretty damn cool.

Krejjh gave Arkady feelings. This was the greatest day ever. “I am pretty one of a kind,” Krejjh said, trying not to relish too much in the glory and make Arkady annoyed.

“If you like,” Arkady said, trying to be dismissive, but Krejjh knew, “anyway, that's probably enough emotions for one night. So I'm to bed. Try not to crash us before morning.”

“No promises,” Krejjh said, letting it go. They didn’t need to gloat. Today, anyway. Besides that: “... Hey Arkady?”

“Yeah?” Arkady asked, shoulders going tight.

Krejjh threw them a softball. “I also carved 'Krejjh was here' under the controls.”

Arkady’s shoulders, dropped, then shuddered a little, as though Arkady was holding back a laugh. Win. “... Of course you did. Night Krejjh.”

“Night,” Krejjh said, and then, because they really couldn’t let things go, “and uh, actually though, thanks.”

Arkady waved a hand. “Don't mention it. Seriously. Don't. We're even on emotional vomiting and that means we take this to our graves.”

“I mean the chances of us getting graves...” Krejjh joked. There were few people they could make that joke with.

Arkady chuckled. “Metaphorical graves,” she said, walking out the door.

“Fair,” Krejjh said. “Night, First Mate Patel.”

“Night, Pilot.”

Krejjh grinned and turned back to their controls. If they reached out and traced the words they carved, well, no one could blame them.

They left their mark on this home.

#fira writes #tscosi #starship iris

60 notes · View notes

jaggedwolf · 4 years

Text

TSCOSI Ficlets #2

Not being from the US

"So, Jeeter, what'd you learn this week?" Arkady plopped into the seat opposite him, stealing one of his fries. "The horrors of Fahrenheit?"

"Man, that was day one of international student orientation. We're on to way more advanced terrors now." Brian considered a token protest at the fry-theft. Eh, he'd get her back when she got dessert.

Arkady shrugged off her backpack. "Why do you even bother still going?"

"It's mandatory."

"Like you give a crap about that."

"Gotta be up to date with all these cultural differences."

"You're Canadian."

"Hey man-"

"And you told me you spent every summer in the States, anyway," Arkady said, looking suspiciously at him. Well, she tended to look suspiciously at a lot of things, so it wasn't the worst sign. "There's no reason for you to subject yourself to-"

A wide grin crossed Arkady's face. Oh no. "Wait, they're also an international student, right?"

"Maybe," said Brian defensively.

"Now, remind me what you said about their cheekbones?" Arkady's voice sounded even more delighted.

Brian pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his head, and buried his head in his arms on the table. His voice muffled, he said "Drinking with you was a mistake."

"I for one, could not be happier that Tripathi took pity on a couple of freshmen and did us that favor."

Brian groaned. Three months into the school year and he still didn't understand how or when Arkady and him became friends.

"Should have guessed you'd be a poetic drunk." Arkady clapped him on the back. "Woah, speaking of-"

She tugged his sweatshirt. Brian reluctantly looked up, following her gaze to find the subject of their discussion striding towards them.

Yep, Krejjh looked about as handsome as they always did. That was fine. Their pace slowed as they approached the table. "Hey, it's Brian, right?"

"That's him," chimed in Arkady. "And I'm going to get some actual food now instead of skimming off Jeeter's"

She abruptly stood up and left. Krejjh seemed startled by her departure and asked "Is this a bad time?"

They sounded oddly hesitant, not at all like how Brian had heard them speak with their friends.

"Nope." Brian shoved back his hood. "Arkady's just like that. Do you want a fry?"

Holding your hand in mine

Arkady's always appreciated privacy. Couple of decades of sleeping in crowded rooms will do that to you. Being alone can be nice.

Being alone sucks a hell of a lot more when you're dying in one of Zone Z's dim-lit hallways.

Asshole shot her and her comms before she took care of him, and she supposes she'll only have his body for company as blood spurts out from under her collarbone. The instinctive pressured she applies slows it down. Not quick enough. He'd picked his shot well.

It's a waiting game now. She might as well distract herself. After all, hiding from the world in foolish dreams is a talent she's cultivated.

It's easy to paint a picture, as the world becomes fuzzy. No one could fault her for it. If someone wants to, she's not exactly going to be around to take their complaints. She squeezes her eyes shut. Folds herself smaller into the corner. Presses the heel of her right hand harder into the bleeding wound. Ignores how slick it feels. She's going to lose this fight, but like hell she's not clinging on all the way down, fingernails dug deep into life.

Back to the imagining.

What does she want, in these final moments?

What doesn't she want, is the better question. Her dreams had always been too stupidly big for reality. And yet. This is...this is a better death than she ever thought she'd get. Not much more to ask for. To her mind's rendering of the scene, she only adds a couple of selfish touches.

Long, soft fingers curl over the back of her right hand. They push insistently, added pressure to the wound, steadily, as if confident they can fix this. Fingers she's seen idly drum the table in the mess hall, fingers she's seen wrapped around a hypodermic syringe, fingers she felt trail through her hair just this morning. A presence that refuses to leave.

A rougher palm meets that of her left hand. The resulting grip is firm. Gentle. The calluses have a different contour from her own. Earned from building, where hers were made from breaking. They press against each other in a way that feels right anyway. Feels right, like twice-offered new beginnings. And even now, offering more.

It's good, Arkady thinks, that this is how it goes. Her alone.

Wouldn't be fair to them any other way.

Lesbian gaze

The ship turns out to be a monstrous patchwork, but Tripathi promises it'll fly, so she busies herself with staring at her new ID card. Arkady Patel. The card is new, nothing like the faded, scratched-up one in her back pocket. She'd gotten that one when she enlisted, been excited as hell about it, actually.

"Hey, Arkady?" asks Tripathi, sounding apologetic and swiveling the pilot's seat. "Could you check the local channels to see if they're tracking us?" Tripathi nods her head towards one of the panels.

She grunts in affirmative, shoves the ID card into a pocket and makes herself useful. She's mostly blocked out the pain. The channels are clear, takeoff goes without a hitch, and an hour later, they're as free as can be.

She could fish out that ID card again. There's a lot of people she's imagined being. Arkady Patel's the first one she actually will. If the IGR doesn't end up finding them first, that is. But that's not the name echoing in her head.

That would be Sana Tripathi.

Who's busy piloting, which means she can get away with looking her over. Tripathi's hair had been longer back on Cresswin, a single black braid that moved with her head through with every point made in those meetings snuck into. Now, Tripathi's hair isn't even shoulder-length. Nice and practical. Grey roots too. Tripathi seemed a little young for that. Not that she actually knew the woman's age, come to think of it.

There was a lot she didn't know about Tripathi. Maybe less if she counted Cresswin, and maybe she should, since Cresswin's what landed her here but - people changed. From time. From the war. From working a shitty job day-after-day. Easy enough to slip on an old skin if it got you a desperately needed crew member.

Not that it matters. She isn't looking for the noble, non-existent hero her teenage self had fantasized about. Now that she's on the IGR's bad side, she's pretty fucking good with settling for a place to sleep and food to eat. She can wait this out. See who Tripathi ends up being, and see if Tripathi figures out she isn't worth the trust.

Till then, she'll keep an eye on her new boss.

Low Expectations

It's ludicrous, he thinks, how exposed he feels without his eyepatch. Even more so when Violet's gloved fingers rest on his skin where the edges of the eyepatch would have. No matter. The feeling is a sign he has let himself become too comfortable. He's been far more exposed.

"Can you open the eyelid?" asks Violet.

There's that familiar half-second where he expects his range of vision to expand, and it grates on him, that his body has not yet adapted to its new reality. He opens his eyelid as wide as he can.

If Violet is perturbed by the sight of an empty eye socket, she doesn't show it. Her head comes closer to inspect it, fingers shifting slightly along his skin, and he tilts his face towards her to make it easier.

"Thanks," mutters Violet.

His hands start to tremble.

They're not in Violet's line of sight. He has the time to compensate, and the freedom to move his hands, so as carefully as he can manage, he grips his knees. He forces himself to start speaking, informing Violet of the current status of his eye socket and how the IGR had healed it.

It's no challenge to keep his face still. Whatever they do could only hurt more with unexpected head movements, they'd told him.

Eventually, Violet pulls back. Her fingers leave his face. Before he can even take a breath of relief, Violet pauses midway through turning to grab something, a concerned look on her face. "Park, you're shaking."

"I-" When Park looks down, he sees that his knees have joined his hands in trembling uncontrollably. His mind blanks. "My apologies," he acknowledges, "it shouldn't affect the checkup."

"What?"

He'd given an uninformative answer. Needed a better explanation. "My head. It shouldn't affect my head, so-"

"Park," interrupts Violet quietly, a slow frown taking over her face, "I think we're done for today."

Wooing with sharp-edged gifts

As soon as Arkady was unhorsed for the last time, and her opponent declared the victor, Sana appeared out of nowhere to act as her crutch.

"You should be escorting Rumor, not me," Arkady pointed out, her helmet weighing down her free hand. Her left foot throbbed when she put any weight on it. "Who knows what she'll get up to without your supervision?"

Sana huffed, her armor clanging against Arkady's. "I could say the same about you. Besides, Krejjh is handling her fine."

Sure enough, a glance behind revealed Krejjh eagerly chattering away to Sana's steed. They swung a leg over to ride even that short distance to the stables.

"Showoff," muttered Arkady. "Krejjh bribes your horse with too many sugar cubes."

"Be that as it may," continued Sana, "I'm afraid there'll be no escaping the medical tent today. It's tournament day! We're safe, you need to get your leg taken care of, and if something happens you'll have the simple pleasure of saying 'I told you so', won't you?"

"It's not a pleasure."

Sana ignored her, holding up a flap of the tent they'd arrived at for Arkady to hop under. She did so, making sure to look as annoyed as possibly, and Sana followed, supporting Arkady over to the nearest cot...where Violet stood expectantly.

Sana flashed a quick grin at Arkady. "You know what, Kady, you're right, I should go check on Rumor. Just remember you did your best out there." With that, Sana nodded at Violet and exited the tent so quickly it was as if she were never there.

Arkady frowned at Violet. "Liu. Wasn't your shift yesterday?"

Looking amused, Violet replied. "They're hardly going to complain about an extra hand. Let's get that armor off your leg."

They did. Arkady winced the whole time, cursing herself for her choices. Jousting, really? Arkady would have fared better in the melee, her own two feet and her weapon of choice to depend on.

They could hear cheering from the lists from even inside the tent. Another bout ended, then. Violet examined Arkady's foot, fingers pressing various spots around the swollen ankle.

As if reading her mind, Violet asked, "Why the joust?"

Embarrassed, Arkady shot back, "You mean, why'd I pick something I'm so piss-poor at?"

"You won your first two bouts," said Violet mildly.

Oh. She'd been watching.

Of course she'd been watching, how else would she have known to come to this very tent? Even Sana's encouragement didn't extend quite that far.

Violet continued, "You've never mentioned it when talking about other tournaments."

The simple, foolish answer was the smallest prize the winners received. A single rose, fresh from the royal garden, to be presented to whoever they chose.

The melee was an ugly, crowded thing. It was not the melee's rose lauded in those songs she'd loved as a child, snatches of music caught in taverns and lyrics sung in street games, and it was not the melee's rose she had wanted to give to Violet. It was not the melee she had wanted Violet to see her fight in.

It was not after the melee she had wanted to broach a topic she had thought unbroachable.

Yet it was the ugly things in life that Arkady was good for, and so she was left here with empty hands and another injury.

Arkady half-smiled at Violet. "Thought I'd try something new."

"I...don't think that's the whole answer," said Violet, but she didn't press as she normally would have. She turned to her satchel, retrieving a cloth bundle and unwrapping it to reveal a dagger, sheathed in dark leather. It was good work, deceptively simple. She wondered how much coin it had cost.

Violet took a deep breath and then spoke slowly. "You probably haven't been counting the days but, um, it's been a year since you saved me from that ambush. A little less than that since you cleared my name."

Had it been that long? Had it been that short?

Violet pulled the dagger out of the sheath. The dagger's edges gleamed in the snatches of sunlight filtering into the tent, but Arkady only had eyes for the sharpening of Violet's gaze.

"You told me, once, that I didn't know what you'd done. What you'd do." Violet sheathed the dagger. "I do now."

She offered out the dagger, pale fingers around the sheathed portion of it, her face tentative yet determined. "A gift. A thank-you. You don't"-A short laugh escaped Violet-"Refuse it if you will. I just thought I ought to say it."

"I-" For once, Arkady didn't have the words to respond.

Instead, she took the dagger, and let the slowly growing smile on Violet's face be answer enough for them both.

#ficlets #tscosi #tscosi ficlets #arkady patel #the ficlets keep happening idk #arkady and brian #arkady and sana #violet and park #arkady and violet

32 notes · View notes