Prompt 50: Different Ways of Seeing G 3/4 Firefly

[sunnyd-lite.livejournal.com]

Title: (to be determined) (3/4)
Chapter Title: Different ways of Seeing
Set: Post Series Pre Movie
Rating G
Prompt: "A thin line between"
Word Count: 2080
Disclaimer: I am the almighty Joss, beware my wrath. Umm I mean I did not create these characters or this universe. Joss said go playth, and here I play!
A/N: My muse went on strike this week (okay she was over playing with Stargate Atlantis) so this one is unbeta'd. Still expecting this to be four parts. Here's hoping for helpful prompts!
Part One The Call and Part Two Veils
Summary: Playing connect the dots.


Staring at her scene, Inara contemplated playing connect the dots with all the planets and moons they'd traveled to in this last week. She was sure they'd make a delightful lace pattern, criss-crossing as they did. The only commonality between them was that none of them were Sihnon.

She wouldn't raise the issue with Mal yet. Could the man be more infuriating? But that didn't mean she couldn't ask the pilot.

A Companion was not to use her skills blatantly, which was the reason Saffron had so incensed her. To play all the members of a crew was only tipping your hand. This crew had been safe from, what had he called them? Her wiles? However, desperate times called for desperate measures.

Gathering her skirts, Inara began to rise from the settee when Wash surprised her by buzzing through with notice of another wave, the fourth since Companion Wong's call informing her of the Conclave.

She hadn't received that many personal waves her entire time on Serenity. It was both disconcerting and reassuring that the others had not forgotten her during her journeys.

"Blessings be," she stated opening the dialogue.

"Blessings be," her caller replied, revealing herself as Companion Smythe, another who'd forgone the traditional life at the House. In fact, she'd been the only other professional who'd attended the Ball on Persephone. Surely...

"Any more duels to your name?" This was accompanied by a cocked eyebrow and green eyes that were twinkling.

"You may wish to watch for laugh lines," Inara gently chided back. She slowly, unobtrusively exhaled the breath she'd been horrified to find out she'd been holding. It was too much to think that little incident wasn't noted, but at least it was not hanging over her. In fact, such an overt greeting was a clear sign of alliance. It was too useful a card to be thrown upon the table in the opening hand, otherwise.

Smythe responded with an appropriate head tilt, then relaxed into a more serious demeanor. "Companion Serra, I was a few years behind you at the House, and I do not wish to presume, but I, too, had several conversations with Mistress Chang."

Holding her pose of polite interest, Inara parsed that statement for both its meaning and why Smythe might be telling her that. If true, Smythe had also been being groomed for leadership. All the students met with the Mistress at least once in their final year. Those conversations were more philosophical than instruction.

Mistress Chang had stressed that knowledge was the life blood of any organization. Intelligence of both internal and external forces. That you forever should analyze for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. An average companion looked to herself and the immediate situation. Others would view their surroundings and actions from both a personal and client point of view. And a few, a very few, would apply it to both the macro situation for the House, as well as their own micro needs.

She wondered if Smythe was one of the latter.

The why was always the more interesting of the two questions. Was this a challenge? Or an offer of skill and support?

"I've just come from the Central worlds, time for the annual physical. While our services are so needed out here, it is instructive to return to the fold now and then."

"True, being amongst those who share a calling can be, refreshing."

"But there are times when periodic interaction is enlightening in a way that continuous practice is not."

So she'd noticed changes as well. On Ariel she'd met with a few of the other free-lancers during their medical leave. It was all oblique references and pointed looks—what had once been her primary language before she'd left the Mother House – she'd learned that the autonomy of the Guild was being infringed upon. An inspection here. A demand for external reports there. Things were changing, and not in a way she favored.

"We should meet for tea. Do you know Companion Tam and Companion Kralwinski?" Inara offered. Was this serious enough for a face to face, or was Smythe just testing the waters?

"I'd be pleased to meet them. Have you had the pleasure of meeting Companions Singh or Haan?"

"It is always delightful to be amongst sisterly company. Would the evening before the Conclave be convenient?"

They spoke further on fashion and some mutual worlds they'd visited, ensuring that the content of the call was hidden within the minutia. Smythe had achieved her objective. Those who shared her worries were gathering. Now she had to ensure her own presence. And that meant...

This time as she tired to exit her shuttle she came face to face with Simon.

"Um well I heard about, I mean, well River mentioned you had a GO board. I should have asked sooner, but would you like to play? I used to play well. I even beat River, at least until she turned nine."

Whether she ranted now or in an hour wouldn't affect her arrival time on Sihnon. And Simon's blend of competence and lost lamb had always pulled at her affections. It may have been another indication of the deterioration of the House's ideal, but she smiled and swept her arm, indicating he should enter.

"It has also been a while since I played. Shall I prepare some tea before we start?"

Simon tripped as he crossed the threshold, "Tea? That would be nice, as is your room. I hadn't realized with the drapery, and bed oh this is also your work place um"

She swallowed the grin that threatened to mar her features, Simon did blush a delicious red that many Companions would give their eye teeth to duplicate at will.

"Welcome, if you care to sit, I'll pull out my board." While she and Kaylee had almost completed packing her clothes, she had not yet sorted out her other belongings. Given her recent conversations, she may not be able to postpone that task for much longer. Shaking off that thought, she gathered the board with its nineteen by nineteen intersecting lines and a purple cloth bag holding the black and white coin size pieces.

"If you could sort the pieces, I shall start the tea." She withdrew to the other side of the shuttle, both to prepare the tea and to give the doctor time to acclimatize to the fact he was now in a Companion's lair. She heard the clattering of the stones as he sorted them into piles of black and white.

Bringing the teapot with her fine china cups, she settled the tray on the table beside the settee.

Juggling the tiny cup with a couple of pieces Simon suddenly blurted out, "I once met with Mistress Chang."

She raised an eyebrow, and commented, "You are fortunate, indeed."

He almost dropped the cup, and did drop the black playing pieces. "No, no. Not like that, she was an honored guest at a party my parents dragged me to in hopes of me meeting a nice girl to further my illustrious medical career."

He said it all with a straight face, but she could see the desire to roll his eyes. On the face of it, he and River were nothing alike. Luckily she had learned to see beyond the surface.

He looked down at the pieces and blushed again, "I''m sorry, did you want to start? I can take white."

"You are my guest, why don't you start?" Go let one analyze the opponent's style. She knew that Simon was strong in reaction to a threat, but how was he in initiating an attack?

He placed a piece on fourth line from the corner. It was a traditional opening, but one a little more daring than she'd expected. They spent a few minutes taking turns in setting up their defenses. It was as he was first slapping one of her stones, setting it up for future capture; he mentioned in a delusory tone, "I remember my parents discussing the last Companion Conclave. It was quite the stir for a few months. I recall that Chang was not a universally endorsed leader."

Taking a sip of tea and pretending to study the board, she nodded. "Yes, we were told that the Alliance wished for someone more amicable to their stance on the war. I was unsure how they thought the Guild could assist the War Effort. Traditionally the Houses choose no sides in conflicts, bad for business."

"I could see how a market that's not limited by political views would assist in maintaining revenues," was Simon's diplomatic reply as he put one of her pieces in ataris by placing a black piece on its third side. Luckily it was a piece she'd already decided to sacrifice in order to swallow his long diagonal territorial line.

He was skilled. Had she known, they could have been playing the entire time he was on Serenity. It was a missed opportunity.

"Mistress Chang's concern was to maintain the Guild's independent status. More tea?"

And that is what she had done, at least for many years. The rumours had noted that many of the higher officials, both elected and civil servants, were no longer partaking of a Companion's company. That was a blow to the Guild.

"River tried that trick as well. Our rule was no breaks until the game was done, she'd be pouring me drinks until I had no choice but to lose or wet myself, and what exactly is IN this tea. Does the Captain know you've got truth serum on board?"

"I believe that you exaggerate its relaxing properties. How is River?"

They were both placing pieces in the board in quick succession. He'd started with a beginner's line but with some interesting projections. He was trying to defend that territory, but she had been eating away at his liberties, hemming his pieces in.

"You mean now that she is not a ship? Scarily enough, the time outwitting the bounty hunter seems to have helped her. It's not a prescription I'd ever heard of, but who am I to argue with results?"

"Sometimes we do not know our own strength until it is tested." Although she punctuated that comment by capturing three of his pieces she thought it was a safe enough proverb, one that applied to both Tams although she doubted he'd ever see it as such. She knew the world he'd left behind, that she'd left behind. But, for her, the escape was always only temporary. No, of the two of them, he was the one with courage.

"River always surprises me. Even before," He sighed and dropped his head before looking over the game board.

"You're going to win, aren't you?"

"Simon, you know it's a thin line between victory and defeat in Go. The tide could turn with any play." And while in general that was true, wait a moment. She glanced up and noticed his posture, the confident way he held the pieces.

This was still Serenity. Here she still had some freedom from her role. "And when was the last time River beat you? I can see you've had much practice." He'd created a true snake eyes, both protecting his pieces and devouring territory. While he flailed about, he was very competent at the things he did well.

"Well, once Father decided my pursuit of River was ill-advised, I'd sometimes play for information, or money." The last was off handed, but one from his station knew the game nearly as well as a Companion.

"Should I let the Captain know he's got a hustler aboard? He does dream up the most amazing uses for his crew's skills."

"We are not crew." And the very blankness of that statement sent chills down her back. Did the Captain realize what he had in the doctor? "Despite rescuing us from the kidnapping revivalists, that one fact is clear. And I think that might be game."

She could only agree, with both statements.

Go was a game of fluid strategy. Of reading the situation as it was and as it would be. Her game with Simon had been a useful reminder of that.

She'd been looking at where they'd been. That was not the correct mind set. Serenity's recent past was a knotted thread. She needed to see, like in Go, not just the present but the future. Especially if it formed a picture that did not please her.

And the final part, Tea and Turning Points, is found Here

Comments

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

As always, lovely use of voices. I really enjoyed the politics of the conversations. Very clever.
And you must play GO? I know only the basic concept, but your description of the play, but more importantly its implications, wove into the story really well.
Very nice.

[sunnyd-lite.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reading and commenting. I'm glad the politics is seeping through with grace rather than a sledhammer (hopefully)

And I am very pleased that the GO game, both itself and its metaphoric intent worked for you!!

*Grins* Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed comments!

[artemis-rain.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is beautiful. I love the subtle give-and-take of information, the unspoken meaning even more than what is said.

Also, I'm so happy to see some interaction between Simon and Inara. They come from similar social classes and backgrounds, and they have so much in common in that area, but they hardly ever get screentime together to show that relationship!

I did notice a couple of little typos, though.

The only commonality between them was that none of them were Siohon.
Should be "Sinhon," I think.

and, And that is was she had done, at least for many years. Should be WHAT she had done.

Again, gorgeous story. I absolutely adored it!

[sunnyd-lite.livejournal.com]

Firstly: Thank you for catching the typos!! (they're fixed now) *grin*

Secondly: Simon and Inara...I'm glad that scene worked for you. I had fun with 'hustler Simon'. I just have fun with Simon *grin*

Thirdly thank you so much for your generous and detailed comments, they really make my day.