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glad_ficsTitle: Pilot
Challenge:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
prompt_in_a_box Round #34: prompt from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dropsofviolet, Round #23: There's too many things I haven't done yet, too many sunsets I haven't seen. (Many The Miles, Sara Bareilles)
Word Count: 701
Rating: K
Notes: Avatar/Firefly fusion! I blame the Firefly quote prompts from June and July that I've been wanting to work with since then. More short fics like these should be coming in the next few days.
--
The far side of the city resembled nothing so much as a waterless port. Boats lined up on either side of the path, which was itself crowded with stalls, shops, and stands, every last one populated with people desperate to sell their wares. Every kilometer, the path was broken by a sterile chrome building - an official Alliance center, with restrooms, infobooths, vidphones, and police on stand-by for any unseemly happenings.
It happened more than you would like to think. This planet wasn't Rim, but it was a distance from the Core.
Two dark-skinned siblings, a boy and a girl, entered one of the centers. The boy was immediately drawn to the nearest infobooth, where he started scrolling through the list of docked ships. Rather than checking for their intended destination, it was quickly apparent that he preferred to look over the ships' makes and models. The girl gave him a fond, exasperated look as he waved her over, shouting about some upgrade or refit a frequent visitor to this planet had gotten since they were last here. She walked away, choosing an open vidphone after a moment's indecision.
The wavelength she choose responded immediately: an elderly woman appeared on the screen, disappointment radiating from every last wrinkle. She bore a strong resemblance to the girl - or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the girl bore a resemblance to her, as the girl said, "Nainai, please," before she was cut off.
"None of that nainai business, Katara," the woman said, frowning. Katara sunk in on herself in the face of her grandmother's anger. The miserable look brought out some sympathy in her grandmother, whose expression brightened reflexively. "Oh, Katara," she said gently. "I'm not mad with you and your brother for leaving, not really. I just wish you had told me."
"We would have! I wanted to, but - " Katara glanced at her brother, crowing over some schematic or other he'd gotten his hands on. "Sokka was afraid you would say no."
Her grandmother snorted. "After all that work he put into that pilot's license? I knew what he was planning. You, though. You are a surprise."
Katara smiled and shrugged. "I don't know, nainai. Sokka kept talking about what it's like to fly up in the black, and you hear on the Cortex all the time about how nice it is on other planets, and I - I want to see the sky. Not the clouds at home, or the smog here. Real sky."
"Hmm." The sound was wistful, nostalgic, but Katara misheard it as skeptical, and panicking, added, "And it's not like I'll have nothing to do - I'm not bad with engines, Sokka always says he flies better after I've looked over his ship, and - "
"Katara, Katara!" her grandmother burst in, laughing. "You don't need to explain yourself any further to me; I understand. You and Sokka have fun, and send a wave home every once in awhile, alright?"
"Okay!" Grinning, Katara signed off with a "thank you, nainai!" and ran over to her brother, still poring over blueprints. "Sokka, Sokka, nainai gave her approval!"
"Uh-huh, that's nice," he said absently. "Would you look at this design? It's streamlined for fast reentry with a fifty-two percent decreased chance of burn-up!"
Katara sighed, and looked up at one of the scrolling news vids. What did she care about streamlined ships? "Sokka, shouldn't we - did you say fifty-two percent?" Actually, she cared quite a lot about streamlined ships. Pushing her brother out of the way, she stared at the blueprints. "That's incredible, that's years ahead of most ships on the market."
"I know!"
"Where did you find this?"
"Oh, it was nothing," he said, all confidence and braggadocio, "I just peeked into a little encrypted file hidden a few layers down in the Cortex. No biggie."
"Sokka!" Katara shouted, smacking his shoulder. This drew attention from some nearby customers, so she lowered her voice and hissed, "You can't hack the Alliance while in an Alliance center!"
"Sure I can," he said, grinning. "I just did! Now, come on," he added, "there's a ship headed towards Persephone that just got our names added to the manifest."
"Sokka," his sister said petulantly, and he laughed, leading her back out into the crowd.
Challenge:
prompt_in_a_box Round #34: prompt from dropsofviolet, Round #23: There's too many things I haven't done yet, too many sunsets I haven't seen. (Many The Miles, Sara Bareilles) Word Count: 701
Rating: K
Notes: Avatar/Firefly fusion! I blame the Firefly quote prompts from June and July that I've been wanting to work with since then. More short fics like these should be coming in the next few days.
--
The far side of the city resembled nothing so much as a waterless port. Boats lined up on either side of the path, which was itself crowded with stalls, shops, and stands, every last one populated with people desperate to sell their wares. Every kilometer, the path was broken by a sterile chrome building - an official Alliance center, with restrooms, infobooths, vidphones, and police on stand-by for any unseemly happenings.
It happened more than you would like to think. This planet wasn't Rim, but it was a distance from the Core.
Two dark-skinned siblings, a boy and a girl, entered one of the centers. The boy was immediately drawn to the nearest infobooth, where he started scrolling through the list of docked ships. Rather than checking for their intended destination, it was quickly apparent that he preferred to look over the ships' makes and models. The girl gave him a fond, exasperated look as he waved her over, shouting about some upgrade or refit a frequent visitor to this planet had gotten since they were last here. She walked away, choosing an open vidphone after a moment's indecision.
The wavelength she choose responded immediately: an elderly woman appeared on the screen, disappointment radiating from every last wrinkle. She bore a strong resemblance to the girl - or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the girl bore a resemblance to her, as the girl said, "Nainai, please," before she was cut off.
"None of that nainai business, Katara," the woman said, frowning. Katara sunk in on herself in the face of her grandmother's anger. The miserable look brought out some sympathy in her grandmother, whose expression brightened reflexively. "Oh, Katara," she said gently. "I'm not mad with you and your brother for leaving, not really. I just wish you had told me."
"We would have! I wanted to, but - " Katara glanced at her brother, crowing over some schematic or other he'd gotten his hands on. "Sokka was afraid you would say no."
Her grandmother snorted. "After all that work he put into that pilot's license? I knew what he was planning. You, though. You are a surprise."
Katara smiled and shrugged. "I don't know, nainai. Sokka kept talking about what it's like to fly up in the black, and you hear on the Cortex all the time about how nice it is on other planets, and I - I want to see the sky. Not the clouds at home, or the smog here. Real sky."
"Hmm." The sound was wistful, nostalgic, but Katara misheard it as skeptical, and panicking, added, "And it's not like I'll have nothing to do - I'm not bad with engines, Sokka always says he flies better after I've looked over his ship, and - "
"Katara, Katara!" her grandmother burst in, laughing. "You don't need to explain yourself any further to me; I understand. You and Sokka have fun, and send a wave home every once in awhile, alright?"
"Okay!" Grinning, Katara signed off with a "thank you, nainai!" and ran over to her brother, still poring over blueprints. "Sokka, Sokka, nainai gave her approval!"
"Uh-huh, that's nice," he said absently. "Would you look at this design? It's streamlined for fast reentry with a fifty-two percent decreased chance of burn-up!"
Katara sighed, and looked up at one of the scrolling news vids. What did she care about streamlined ships? "Sokka, shouldn't we - did you say fifty-two percent?" Actually, she cared quite a lot about streamlined ships. Pushing her brother out of the way, she stared at the blueprints. "That's incredible, that's years ahead of most ships on the market."
"I know!"
"Where did you find this?"
"Oh, it was nothing," he said, all confidence and braggadocio, "I just peeked into a little encrypted file hidden a few layers down in the Cortex. No biggie."
"Sokka!" Katara shouted, smacking his shoulder. This drew attention from some nearby customers, so she lowered her voice and hissed, "You can't hack the Alliance while in an Alliance center!"
"Sure I can," he said, grinning. "I just did! Now, come on," he added, "there's a ship headed towards Persephone that just got our names added to the manifest."
"Sokka," his sister said petulantly, and he laughed, leading her back out into the crowd.
