Discovered in Temptation
Mar. 15th, 2007 10:08 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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discoveredinaljA next view of the universe, a different perspective. Paradise may prove portable.
Contrary Virtue
Part Ten
The glaring moonlight confronted them like an accusation.
It was a gibbous moon, just short of full, the pocked face, warped and menacing. Such light shed upon their covert operation was far too abundant for comfort.
They had reconnoitred the vicinity for any hostile forces and then lingered in the shadows, biding their time at a strategic position with a clear view of the jetty. So far there appeared no official or military interest in the group of assembled travellers.
That could change in an instant.
Bodie glanced aside at RD. He was pleased to note the appearance of calm and alert focus in his companion. Likely he could be relied upon if there were a sudden call for defence.
Bodie considered the people waiting there at the landing. Some seemed eager, others sad or frightened at the prospect of departure. Overall there was a pervasive feeling of agitation that did not bode well for his own prospects. Since he and RD were to act the part of callow students, they could wish for their audience to be of a sympathetic, civilised sort.
If their fellow passengers were running scared, the attitude well might be "every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost".
Again Bodie's assessment was drawn to his companion. "Cop" he had declared himself, and tonight it was a claim easily believed. RD was sleek and poised, deliberate and dedicated to the impending action, utterly unconcerned with self-preservation.
That last gave Bodie pause. "You take care tonight, mate."
The crisp nod he received in response was a surprise. This man crouching in the gloom seemed almost a different species of creature than the one of his prior knowledge.
With a stab of visceral pain that might have been regret, Bodie wondered if the RD of his journey was a being of his own device. Had he imagined the lonely soul who clasped him in the chill of the night? Who chuckled at his clowning jokes, smiled tolerantly at his tendency to quote poetry, stood in innocent awe of the natural beauty surrounding them?
Had that vulnerable person who needed Bodie to defend him ever existed? Or was it a wistful creation of his own desire, ephemeral, imagined then and now vanished?
He found the possibility of such weakness in himself disturbing.
However, these weren't advisable reflections for a soldier about to see action. Angrily he thrust all such considerations aside. He drew out of himself an equally cool and capable mien.
"Guess we'd better make our presence known, eh?"
They stuffed their camp packs into an old canvas rucksack left over from Bodie's merchant navy days, then hiked a short distance away from their place of concealment. Assuming an air of nonchalance, they entered the coastal path and strolled up to the jetty.
Amongst the confusion of passengers and luggage, they sought the steamer company's representatives.
One brittlely polite and harried individual appeared marginally in charge of the operation.
Bodie approached him with more aggressive assertion than he wanted to show for the sake of his assumed identity. But otherwise, he despaired of ever getting the man's attention. When he did at last receive notice, the response wasn't comforting.
"More passengers? How many, just the two of you I hope? Oh dear, I just don't know about this. The ferry may be crowded to the point of foundering as it is. And the Zodiac's motor is being difficult again. I really don't know." The man ploughed his fingers into his bushy eyebrows in a nervous gesture.
Great. Just what they needed, makeshift arrangements falling apart around them. And judging by the prevalence of women, children, and elderly fogies in the crowd, he and RD would be first on the list of healthy adult males to be left behind on the landing.
With a tolerant smile just touching his lips, he slung his arm casually over RD's shoulder and sauntered toward the support boat. It was a trim enough little craft. But judging by the pathetic coughing noises issuing from its dripping engine, it would be going nowhere fast tonight.
For a brief interlude, they watched two crew members attempt to persuade the engine into performance.
RD first showed signs of unrest, then overt irritation. He inched ever closer to the unsuccessful operation. Finally he stood in a manner that inflicted his moon-cast shadow over the field of endeavour.
The sailors glared up at him. "Step aside twit. Tough enough without trying to fix it by bloody Braille."
RD shook his head and gestured meaningfully toward the motor.
Before the crew could grab him and toss him head first into the drink, Bodie intervened. "Me mate here's a mechanic. Wants you to give him a shot at it."
Hell, he hoped he'd got RD's meaning straight. And that the man wasn't delusional to boot.
But RD was nodding vigorously at this assertion, patting his own chest emphatically.
"'S matter? Cat got his tongue?"
"Tha's right, 'twas a leopard. So what?" Bodie grinned, challenging them instantly. It seemed clear, his planned persona was already useless. Might as well assert himself fully, large and in charge. Allowing no pause for rejection of his perfunctory "permission to come over," he slung his rucksack on board, followed it with experienced sea going grace, and efficiently turned to hand RD into the unstable Zodiac.
He'd be damned if they ever forced them back onto the jetty without a fight.
RD pounced on the mechanical problem. One of the sailors held a torch, the other a propane lantern, shifting to best illuminate the effort.
Bodie, interpretting his friend's gestures, handed him tools, made encouraging suggestions, and attempted to assuage the crew's continued vocal doubts over allowing a passenger such a free hand.
A minute's observation persuaded Bodie of his mate's adept expertise. It also became apparent that the engine was seriously lacking fully functional components, that RD was desperately jury rigging the repair, and that the entire enterprise might backfire on them, both literally and figuratively.
What did they have to lose in the attempt, though?
RD eventually wiped his begrimed hands on a rag, and gestured for their united attention.
"Is it fixed?"
RD waffled with a gesture, indicating a chancy proposition. He nodded, then holding his hands high and low, shook his head in a vigorous dissent.
"Well, which is it, yes or no?" the gruffer of the two sailors demanded.
"I think he means, it'll run in the middle RPMs, but you shouldn't rev it too hard or let it idle too low," Bodie explained, and RD nodded enthusiastically.
"You got all that from him flapping of his wings there?"
But the other sailor elbowed in at this point. "Who cares so long as it'll turn over? Go ahead, let's see what you've got."
Pursing his lips in intense concentration, RD adjusted the machinery and started it up. The engine popped explosively, coughed, sputtered, then whirred into continuous cycling.
"Run and tell Mr Britches," the mocking sailor indicated their frazzled superior's inelegantly lumpy posterior aspect, which was particularly prominent as the portly man bent over to examine some luggage on the landing. "Tell him best not to overload the Zodiac with bags, but we can take on a few passengers. Better make it sharpish before the poor old girl gives up the ghost again. And bring some extra oars, just in case, eh?"
As his mate ran to comply, the crew member turned to Bodie in a confidential aside. "Into your life jackets and get low in the bow. Maybe his royal pain-in-the-arse won't notice I've given you lot the aff until it's too late to say nay."
Gratefully, Bodie complied, dragging RD away from the roughly idling machinery.
Together they crouched in the shadows of the high riding prow, sitting directly on the bottom of the boat, feeling the surf end slapping the flexible polymer underside. As an added bit of camouflage, they held the navy blue rucksack across their knees, burying the highlights of their faces behind it.
"Tha's right. Pretend that we're someone's valise," Bodie whispered with a delighted chuckle. He snugged himself closer to RD. Excitement was pumping him up, the thrill of the undertaking giving him a jubilant high.
The gruff sailor obligingly directed the blinding light of his lantern toward the viewers on the landing.
His crew mate leaped lightly aboard, and started handing-in the passengers. "Easy, there. Just one long step down, mum. Wait for the next rise. That's it. Well done. Keep the kiddies coming. Next. Mind that bag. Keep sliding forward, everyone, right toward the bow. Fasten your life jackets all the way. Criminy, mate. Tell that ginormous bloke to wait for the ferry. That much tonnage and we'll capsize for sure. Well, his missus can disembark if she wants, and go along with him so they don't split. There, there. No problem. They'll let you on the ferry boat, mum, promise. Tha's all, can't take a single 'nother body. Cast off. See you lot back onboard."
The engine sounded deeper, their swift acceleration lifted the craft's prow higher, a livening fine spray misted their faces, and they had to lean hard back against the inflated curves of the boat to keep from being roughly tumbled. Bodie glimpsed the hard edge in the gleam of RD's grin. He hadn't noticed the broken tooth before this. It suited the harsh new image of his friend he was forming.
To their relief, the Zodiac made it to the ship without having to resort to plying the oars. This fact earned RD a friendly slap of congratulations on his shoulder from the crew, who then put in a good word for the two passengers to the purser. That worthy promised to find them berths come hell or hurricane.
The gruff sailor placed them in an obscure corner of the lower deck. "You'll be out of the way during all the hurly burly, getting that barge load of whingers stowed when the ferry arrives."
Bodie raised his eyebrows askance.
"Look. I dunno when the Company turned into such a cowboy outfit, taking on more passengers than they can properly berth, all the while raking in the geld hand over fist. But me and Rallby were looking to be marooned at the landing, left guarding the Zodiac with nothing better than oars for defence. And you lot were dead certs for stranding 'til the next run of the ship and then the next after that, days, maybe even weeks. In my book, that int right."
"We don't want no trouble with the management," Bodie began, chameleon-like, settling comfortably into the cadence of the sailor's speech.
"Fully 'preciate that. But you two paid yer passage, Company took your fare, and yer've a right to be onboard. Purser's an officer, knows yer about, so no question of stowaway-ness. Just think it'd be best to stay out from underfoot, low profile, 'til we're fully underway. Captain won't bung you overboard. Fairly sure we haven't sunk that low." And he chuckled at the image.
Bodie felt less secure in the assumption, but he let the matter ride.
It was a scant perch a few yards up from the water line, measurable by half a dozen paces, neatly crammed with maintenance supplies and a small rubber raft.
Bodie and RD soon left off standing on their weary feet, clambered into the raft, and stretched full length along its bottom, snuggled together for comfort. Alternately they stared up into the jewel bedecked firmament and out over the glossy black waves to the dark shaded shoreline.
The ship weighed anchor and got underway with an absolute minimum of noise, by Bodie's expert nautical assessment. The perception of stealth was difficult to avoid, and he wondered how much of this was precautionary versus absolutely necessary. This consideration ratcheted his unease several notches tighter.
The intense smell of diesel fumes combined with the rough cross-cut wave action near the anchorage rendered RD acutely ill. He lay flat on his back with his arm folded over his face, his pale grey lips open upon puffing exhalations.
Instantly in his marine element, Bodie spoke comfortingly. "She'll ride easier once we're well away from land."
After the fuel fumes cleared on a rising breeze of speed, and the ship's action settled into a smoother way, he pulled RD to sit upright. Supporting him in a hug, he held him looking out at the vast dark view. "Stare at the horizon. That way your eyes will agree with your inner ear and settle the argy-bargy for you."
He smoothed the ruffled curls, then continued petting them for his own pleasure. Feeling his mate ease into the caress reminded Bodie of his prior reflections upon the illusory nature of his friend's vulnerability. Maybe both images of RD were true, the strength and competence of the man, but also the need for an ally in defence.
When he thought about it, perhaps Bodie had arrived at the same juncture. Maybe this want of his, this craving he felt for RD, wasn't inconsistent with perpetuating his own power.
Pretty Willem's prowess allied with the Royal Derby's tempered steel edge. The immovable object joined with the irresistible force. They seemed a thoroughly lethal combination against their enemies.
As if to remind him of the contrast, of the sweet vitality of the universe, the water came suddenly alive, glittering quicksilver, rippling the surface, swift forms gliding, barely submerged in the element.
"Tuna, a whole great school. Bluefins. Crikey, just look at the size of them. There must be dozens."
Intense with exhilaration, RD leaped to the rail, leaning far over the side as if he might himself dive into the gem faceted waters to join the race.
And surmounting glory with grandeur, a larger form broke the surface, fully eight feet of arching length which paused midair to defy gravity, shimmering midnight blue and lightning white, then plunged into the depths, lofting the frothing foam sky high.
"Dolphins. Atlantic humpbacks. Magnificent things, see them, there and there? And more beyond. Look at them, just look at that!"
Temporal, transient, glorious.
They watched the jubilant crowd as it was left astern, the speed of the ship returning them soon to their own proper realm.
"What do you think of that, heh? Quite a performance."
"G- grand." Heartfelt, painful.
This halting tribute, too, was carried away, all over, scattered upon the wind and ocean's waves.
Bodie buried his face in RD's curls and laughed aloud into the silken chaos.
Theirs was a match made in hell, perhaps.
Though surely it was to be affirmed for them in heaven.
Title: Contrary Virtue
Author: asymphototropic [attracted toward the light but never quite arrives]
Slash or Gen: slash
Archive at ProsLib/Circuit: yes
Disclaimer: No infringement intended, the author does not own "The Professionals"
Contrary Virtue
Part Ten
The glaring moonlight confronted them like an accusation.
It was a gibbous moon, just short of full, the pocked face, warped and menacing. Such light shed upon their covert operation was far too abundant for comfort.
They had reconnoitred the vicinity for any hostile forces and then lingered in the shadows, biding their time at a strategic position with a clear view of the jetty. So far there appeared no official or military interest in the group of assembled travellers.
That could change in an instant.
Bodie glanced aside at RD. He was pleased to note the appearance of calm and alert focus in his companion. Likely he could be relied upon if there were a sudden call for defence.
Bodie considered the people waiting there at the landing. Some seemed eager, others sad or frightened at the prospect of departure. Overall there was a pervasive feeling of agitation that did not bode well for his own prospects. Since he and RD were to act the part of callow students, they could wish for their audience to be of a sympathetic, civilised sort.
If their fellow passengers were running scared, the attitude well might be "every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost".
Again Bodie's assessment was drawn to his companion. "Cop" he had declared himself, and tonight it was a claim easily believed. RD was sleek and poised, deliberate and dedicated to the impending action, utterly unconcerned with self-preservation.
That last gave Bodie pause. "You take care tonight, mate."
The crisp nod he received in response was a surprise. This man crouching in the gloom seemed almost a different species of creature than the one of his prior knowledge.
With a stab of visceral pain that might have been regret, Bodie wondered if the RD of his journey was a being of his own device. Had he imagined the lonely soul who clasped him in the chill of the night? Who chuckled at his clowning jokes, smiled tolerantly at his tendency to quote poetry, stood in innocent awe of the natural beauty surrounding them?
Had that vulnerable person who needed Bodie to defend him ever existed? Or was it a wistful creation of his own desire, ephemeral, imagined then and now vanished?
He found the possibility of such weakness in himself disturbing.
However, these weren't advisable reflections for a soldier about to see action. Angrily he thrust all such considerations aside. He drew out of himself an equally cool and capable mien.
"Guess we'd better make our presence known, eh?"
They stuffed their camp packs into an old canvas rucksack left over from Bodie's merchant navy days, then hiked a short distance away from their place of concealment. Assuming an air of nonchalance, they entered the coastal path and strolled up to the jetty.
Amongst the confusion of passengers and luggage, they sought the steamer company's representatives.
One brittlely polite and harried individual appeared marginally in charge of the operation.
Bodie approached him with more aggressive assertion than he wanted to show for the sake of his assumed identity. But otherwise, he despaired of ever getting the man's attention. When he did at last receive notice, the response wasn't comforting.
"More passengers? How many, just the two of you I hope? Oh dear, I just don't know about this. The ferry may be crowded to the point of foundering as it is. And the Zodiac's motor is being difficult again. I really don't know." The man ploughed his fingers into his bushy eyebrows in a nervous gesture.
Great. Just what they needed, makeshift arrangements falling apart around them. And judging by the prevalence of women, children, and elderly fogies in the crowd, he and RD would be first on the list of healthy adult males to be left behind on the landing.
With a tolerant smile just touching his lips, he slung his arm casually over RD's shoulder and sauntered toward the support boat. It was a trim enough little craft. But judging by the pathetic coughing noises issuing from its dripping engine, it would be going nowhere fast tonight.
For a brief interlude, they watched two crew members attempt to persuade the engine into performance.
RD first showed signs of unrest, then overt irritation. He inched ever closer to the unsuccessful operation. Finally he stood in a manner that inflicted his moon-cast shadow over the field of endeavour.
The sailors glared up at him. "Step aside twit. Tough enough without trying to fix it by bloody Braille."
RD shook his head and gestured meaningfully toward the motor.
Before the crew could grab him and toss him head first into the drink, Bodie intervened. "Me mate here's a mechanic. Wants you to give him a shot at it."
Hell, he hoped he'd got RD's meaning straight. And that the man wasn't delusional to boot.
But RD was nodding vigorously at this assertion, patting his own chest emphatically.
"'S matter? Cat got his tongue?"
"Tha's right, 'twas a leopard. So what?" Bodie grinned, challenging them instantly. It seemed clear, his planned persona was already useless. Might as well assert himself fully, large and in charge. Allowing no pause for rejection of his perfunctory "permission to come over," he slung his rucksack on board, followed it with experienced sea going grace, and efficiently turned to hand RD into the unstable Zodiac.
He'd be damned if they ever forced them back onto the jetty without a fight.
RD pounced on the mechanical problem. One of the sailors held a torch, the other a propane lantern, shifting to best illuminate the effort.
Bodie, interpretting his friend's gestures, handed him tools, made encouraging suggestions, and attempted to assuage the crew's continued vocal doubts over allowing a passenger such a free hand.
A minute's observation persuaded Bodie of his mate's adept expertise. It also became apparent that the engine was seriously lacking fully functional components, that RD was desperately jury rigging the repair, and that the entire enterprise might backfire on them, both literally and figuratively.
What did they have to lose in the attempt, though?
RD eventually wiped his begrimed hands on a rag, and gestured for their united attention.
"Is it fixed?"
RD waffled with a gesture, indicating a chancy proposition. He nodded, then holding his hands high and low, shook his head in a vigorous dissent.
"Well, which is it, yes or no?" the gruffer of the two sailors demanded.
"I think he means, it'll run in the middle RPMs, but you shouldn't rev it too hard or let it idle too low," Bodie explained, and RD nodded enthusiastically.
"You got all that from him flapping of his wings there?"
But the other sailor elbowed in at this point. "Who cares so long as it'll turn over? Go ahead, let's see what you've got."
Pursing his lips in intense concentration, RD adjusted the machinery and started it up. The engine popped explosively, coughed, sputtered, then whirred into continuous cycling.
"Run and tell Mr Britches," the mocking sailor indicated their frazzled superior's inelegantly lumpy posterior aspect, which was particularly prominent as the portly man bent over to examine some luggage on the landing. "Tell him best not to overload the Zodiac with bags, but we can take on a few passengers. Better make it sharpish before the poor old girl gives up the ghost again. And bring some extra oars, just in case, eh?"
As his mate ran to comply, the crew member turned to Bodie in a confidential aside. "Into your life jackets and get low in the bow. Maybe his royal pain-in-the-arse won't notice I've given you lot the aff until it's too late to say nay."
Gratefully, Bodie complied, dragging RD away from the roughly idling machinery.
Together they crouched in the shadows of the high riding prow, sitting directly on the bottom of the boat, feeling the surf end slapping the flexible polymer underside. As an added bit of camouflage, they held the navy blue rucksack across their knees, burying the highlights of their faces behind it.
"Tha's right. Pretend that we're someone's valise," Bodie whispered with a delighted chuckle. He snugged himself closer to RD. Excitement was pumping him up, the thrill of the undertaking giving him a jubilant high.
The gruff sailor obligingly directed the blinding light of his lantern toward the viewers on the landing.
His crew mate leaped lightly aboard, and started handing-in the passengers. "Easy, there. Just one long step down, mum. Wait for the next rise. That's it. Well done. Keep the kiddies coming. Next. Mind that bag. Keep sliding forward, everyone, right toward the bow. Fasten your life jackets all the way. Criminy, mate. Tell that ginormous bloke to wait for the ferry. That much tonnage and we'll capsize for sure. Well, his missus can disembark if she wants, and go along with him so they don't split. There, there. No problem. They'll let you on the ferry boat, mum, promise. Tha's all, can't take a single 'nother body. Cast off. See you lot back onboard."
The engine sounded deeper, their swift acceleration lifted the craft's prow higher, a livening fine spray misted their faces, and they had to lean hard back against the inflated curves of the boat to keep from being roughly tumbled. Bodie glimpsed the hard edge in the gleam of RD's grin. He hadn't noticed the broken tooth before this. It suited the harsh new image of his friend he was forming.
To their relief, the Zodiac made it to the ship without having to resort to plying the oars. This fact earned RD a friendly slap of congratulations on his shoulder from the crew, who then put in a good word for the two passengers to the purser. That worthy promised to find them berths come hell or hurricane.
The gruff sailor placed them in an obscure corner of the lower deck. "You'll be out of the way during all the hurly burly, getting that barge load of whingers stowed when the ferry arrives."
Bodie raised his eyebrows askance.
"Look. I dunno when the Company turned into such a cowboy outfit, taking on more passengers than they can properly berth, all the while raking in the geld hand over fist. But me and Rallby were looking to be marooned at the landing, left guarding the Zodiac with nothing better than oars for defence. And you lot were dead certs for stranding 'til the next run of the ship and then the next after that, days, maybe even weeks. In my book, that int right."
"We don't want no trouble with the management," Bodie began, chameleon-like, settling comfortably into the cadence of the sailor's speech.
"Fully 'preciate that. But you two paid yer passage, Company took your fare, and yer've a right to be onboard. Purser's an officer, knows yer about, so no question of stowaway-ness. Just think it'd be best to stay out from underfoot, low profile, 'til we're fully underway. Captain won't bung you overboard. Fairly sure we haven't sunk that low." And he chuckled at the image.
Bodie felt less secure in the assumption, but he let the matter ride.
It was a scant perch a few yards up from the water line, measurable by half a dozen paces, neatly crammed with maintenance supplies and a small rubber raft.
Bodie and RD soon left off standing on their weary feet, clambered into the raft, and stretched full length along its bottom, snuggled together for comfort. Alternately they stared up into the jewel bedecked firmament and out over the glossy black waves to the dark shaded shoreline.
The ship weighed anchor and got underway with an absolute minimum of noise, by Bodie's expert nautical assessment. The perception of stealth was difficult to avoid, and he wondered how much of this was precautionary versus absolutely necessary. This consideration ratcheted his unease several notches tighter.
The intense smell of diesel fumes combined with the rough cross-cut wave action near the anchorage rendered RD acutely ill. He lay flat on his back with his arm folded over his face, his pale grey lips open upon puffing exhalations.
Instantly in his marine element, Bodie spoke comfortingly. "She'll ride easier once we're well away from land."
After the fuel fumes cleared on a rising breeze of speed, and the ship's action settled into a smoother way, he pulled RD to sit upright. Supporting him in a hug, he held him looking out at the vast dark view. "Stare at the horizon. That way your eyes will agree with your inner ear and settle the argy-bargy for you."
He smoothed the ruffled curls, then continued petting them for his own pleasure. Feeling his mate ease into the caress reminded Bodie of his prior reflections upon the illusory nature of his friend's vulnerability. Maybe both images of RD were true, the strength and competence of the man, but also the need for an ally in defence.
When he thought about it, perhaps Bodie had arrived at the same juncture. Maybe this want of his, this craving he felt for RD, wasn't inconsistent with perpetuating his own power.
Pretty Willem's prowess allied with the Royal Derby's tempered steel edge. The immovable object joined with the irresistible force. They seemed a thoroughly lethal combination against their enemies.
As if to remind him of the contrast, of the sweet vitality of the universe, the water came suddenly alive, glittering quicksilver, rippling the surface, swift forms gliding, barely submerged in the element.
"Tuna, a whole great school. Bluefins. Crikey, just look at the size of them. There must be dozens."
Intense with exhilaration, RD leaped to the rail, leaning far over the side as if he might himself dive into the gem faceted waters to join the race.
And surmounting glory with grandeur, a larger form broke the surface, fully eight feet of arching length which paused midair to defy gravity, shimmering midnight blue and lightning white, then plunged into the depths, lofting the frothing foam sky high.
"Dolphins. Atlantic humpbacks. Magnificent things, see them, there and there? And more beyond. Look at them, just look at that!"
Temporal, transient, glorious.
They watched the jubilant crowd as it was left astern, the speed of the ship returning them soon to their own proper realm.
"What do you think of that, heh? Quite a performance."
"G- grand." Heartfelt, painful.
This halting tribute, too, was carried away, all over, scattered upon the wind and ocean's waves.
Bodie buried his face in RD's curls and laughed aloud into the silken chaos.
Theirs was a match made in hell, perhaps.
Though surely it was to be affirmed for them in heaven.
Title: Contrary Virtue
Author: asymphototropic [attracted toward the light but never quite arrives]
Slash or Gen: slash
Archive at ProsLib/Circuit: yes
Disclaimer: No infringement intended, the author does not own "The Professionals"
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-03-15 05:21 pm (UTC)I think what I love best are the details you weave into the stories, particularly the animals. I thought we'd left them all behind, and then you come up with the Tuna, followed by Dolphins. Wonderful!
And RD spoke again! Always something worth celebrating.
My favorite line in this chapter? "Pretty Willem's prowess allied with the Royal Derby's tempered steel edge."
Now I can be content for today. Tomorrow I'll go back to checking every few hours. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-17 02:07 pm (UTC)I would send a carrier pigeon with a message, "new part today" but the weather here has decided to be dreadful again, and I fear she might get lost, or eaten by the turkey buzzards.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-17 03:13 pm (UTC)*checks* *sighs disappointedly*
Well, soon perhaps!
no subject
Date: 2007-03-15 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-17 02:14 pm (UTC)As to RD's speach, I had a particular diagnosis in mind. I'm torn between the dramatic impact of a return to speaking, and medical reality.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-17 03:15 pm (UTC)I'm really curious to know what's actually wrong with RD. Miracles are much less interesting than facts.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-17 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-15 11:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-17 02:17 pm (UTC)Anyway, more today, barring ice storms, wind gusting to 50 mph, or major flooding. Ha.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-16 02:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-17 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-16 04:06 am (UTC)Temporal, transient, glorious.
Absolutely.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-17 02:35 pm (UTC)But if I write "a school of spectacular tuna" it evokes stacks of garish tins in the market aisle, brown paper sacks with student's slightly squished sam-itches, or maybe tupperware with mayonnaise and lettuce at an office meeting.
sigh. Done ranting. Thank you very much for NOT going snicker snortle over that paragraph, but rather having a moment of admiration for their survival against the odds.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-16 04:10 am (UTC)And sex.
Oodles and oodles of sex.
That doesn't make me shallow, does it?
no subject
Date: 2007-03-17 02:40 pm (UTC)Difficult to work into the current situation.
Would you settle for, erm, a possible sequel to this fic? One with sofas and beds and suchlike mod cons?
But, heh, I haven't entirely tossed out the possibility. Lemme see what comes up in the next 48 hrs.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-17 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-16 10:54 am (UTC)Loved the beauty of the tuna and dolphins, and the thrill for Bodie and RD as they watched them.
Hope there is more soon!
no subject
Date: 2007-03-17 02:49 pm (UTC)I know Doyle's meant to be the artist. But I have concluded Bodie, being a world traveller and fond of quoting literature, is an avid admirer of beauty. To me, this attribute is not out of character, and I hope fans of Bodie can allow this suposition without groaning.
I think he is a born thrill seeker, a bit of an adrenalin junkie, and seeing the natural wonders of the world is as much a thrill for him as the danger of soldiering.
Doyle, being the artist, and bearer of a gentle inner soul, would be thrilled right along side of him, and snuggled close, the better to share the moment.