Daisy • Fury's Hammer/Badger (daisywillrocku) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2014-09-30 15:48:00 |
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The reality of being on Earth-th-at-Was hadn’t truly sunk in yet. It was just another planet, one of many that Wash had seen, and a very nice one, at that. It had free, fancy lodging, and a decent job that he’d only had to do a little more work to get than he’d grown accustomed to. The Feds weren’t so bad, either; they’d even let him go on a mission that involved beaches. And because he was getting a little bit of flying in, he was able to appreciate more of the sights and experiences of actually living on one planet than he usually did. Which was how he’d ended up in the museum, staring at dinosaur skeletons. He knew the stories about dinosaurs. They’d once ruled the Earth, and then lost it, going extinct. Humanity had been so desperate not to end up like them that they’d taken to the stars and left their original planet behind, making new planets to call home. They’d fashioned them after Earth, but everything that was actually Earth had been left behind. Dinosaur skeletons, for instance. He’d thought this excursion would be fun, like getting to see enormous, real versions of his toys, but it was rocking his worldview a little bit. So to speak. “Tyen shiao duh,” he said, staring up at the enormous skull of the Tyrannosaurus rex. “They’re bigger than I thought they would be.” -- Daisy was scarily short on friends, and things to keep her busy. So when Wash had said something about liking dinosaurs, well, she decided that it was time to drag someone to a museum. Which she did and now she was leaning against a wall watching him stare at a T-Rex skeleton. It was almost funny. “The Rex ain’t even the biggest one that walked the Earth.” she smiled a bit. She brushed hair out of her eyes. “If I had to pick a favorite, though, it’d be the Raptors. I blame Jurassic Park on that one, though.” she’d say after a moments thought then a grin. “have you been introduced to that movie?” she grinned, well if not, she had something else she could show him. Because dinosaurs? Were actually pretty nifty. And she didn’t really have a ton of likes beyond punching people in the face, quaking things to pieces and so on. Fury had molded her life so much she wasn’t sure what she liked anymore. She’d enjoyed it, though, but it was a little infuriating to be so useless here and now. *** “But look at the size of its skull,” Wash said. It was hard to put into words precisely why that astonished him so much. It was partly because the only dinosaurs he’d actually ever seen were miniature toys or pictures in books. If anyone had managed to preserve dinosaur skeletons and bring them along on their flight from Earth, he hadn’t seen them. More probably, they hadn’t bothered, or had been forced to leave them behind because they were just too big and heavy and wouldn’t be of any real use to anyone in space. If they had been brought along, they probably had been dismantled and the bones used for weapons or tools or tent poles, and then broken and lost over the thousands of years since. And Wash had been playing with toy plastic versions of the things, and never once thought about it. Until now. It was blowing his mind a little bit. “Show me the Raptors,” he said, eager for more. “And the… Jurassic Park movie? Never heard of it.” He looked around at all the skeletons, wondering which one was a raptor. “I understood why people left Earth behind. I just never realized how much they left behind.” -- Daisy smiled as she pushed off the wall. “Alright.” she’d lead him down the exhibit until she found the Raptor. “Dinosaurs were pretty amazing. And huge. I think Massive is more like it. And they’re still finding bones to this day of new species.” she’d smile a bit, thinking how easy it would be to totally destroy things like this. But it wasn’t something she’d ever do. Merely it was a thought. She always thought about such things in some capacity. “We should find it for you to watch. It? Is amazing. With the warning they took a ton of liberties with what dinosaurs were around when, but well, still amazing. The second and third movies weren’t awful either.” she grinned a bit. “Raptors were vicious bastards by all accounts, kind of nifty, though. And there were those that flew, too.” she found his fascination fascinating, it was like showing a little kid the wonders of the world. “We do a pretty good job of fucking up the place, but yeah I bet we left a ton behind.” --- There was plenty of history to be found in the stars. Five thousand years of human history, terraforming planets, living on them and abandoning them for others. There were histories of the planets themselves, and they had retained some of the history of Earth. But so far as he knew, there was no one left there. No one still trying to discover old fossils, learn new things about what had happened on the planet. It was used up and no good to them anymore. And that suddenly struck Wash as, truly, being a real shame. “What’s it like where you come from?” he asked. “Or when you come from. You’re on Earth? Is it anything like this?” His curiosity wasn’t limited to Earth. Interest in different cultures, people and lifestyles, was part of what had kept him traveling. He liked seeing the sights, having stories to tell about the weirdest things people did on the strangest planets. But he’d never thought he’d end up acquiring stories about Earth. -- “Yep. It’s pretty much identical to this time and place. A few events are different, but the vast majority is the same.” she smiled a bit. “It’s really eerily similar. Things are almost perfectly identical so when something isn’t exact, it throws me off. Sometimes it’s just a different business being somewhere I’m used to seeing another one. But it’s like we diverged and stayed course pretty close together, a hair apart.” she shrugged a bit. “But we don’t have this problem, with people just appearing. This is truly this places’ own issue. Special, isn’t it?” she shook her head a bit. Earth was special, and she had a rare talent to mimic one of the Earth’s own natural powers, so she liked the Earth. Not necessarily the people on it, but oh well, you couldn’t have it all. “What was home like for you?” she asked curiously. -- “Special,” Wash agreed, sardonically. That was definitely one way of putting it. He wasn’t a huge fan of it, if he was being entirely honest, but it was more the timelines being messed up than the appearing and disappearing. But he didn’t want to focus on that. He stared around at all the skeletons instead. “Depends what you mean by home,” he said. “My home planet was nothing like this, nor most of the planets I’ve visited recently. This is more like one of the core planets, with the wealth and availability of resources and all. And the government.” Though they were nothing like the Alliance so far as he could tell, thank everything for that. “I didn’t really live on a planet anyway, I was on a ship. Her name was Serenity.” -- She laughed softly at that as she looked at him. “Special is right. I suppose that’s a perfect way to describe this place.” she looked around at the dinosaurs, the skeletons were fascinating. She loved them there was so much they could tell the world. It was amazing to think creatures like that walked the Earth. “Wow that sounds… interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever really thought about living on another planet. It must have been nice, living on a ship then, exploring the galaxy.I’m a little jealous.” she smirked a bit as she looked over at him. “What was it like, living on a ship?” then a small smile “sorry if i ask too many questions.” -- “Earth’s past tense by my time,” Wash said. “And my home planet was so polluted… nobody should want to live there. Besides, I wanted to fly. See the stars and the other planets. And I did,” he added. It was an ongoing thing for him, not something that he could accomplish and then be done with, but he’d done quite a bit of it. “It’s weird being stuck on one planet for this long. If I weren’t flying planes, I’d be going crazy. “Although there’s still time for that,” he tacked on musingly, staring at the allosaurus. “I’m trying to fend it off as best I can. Keep busy, you know. There’s nothing here quite like living on a ship.” He didn’t mind the questions, but he didn’t quite know how to answer them. The life on Serenity had meant different things to different people, and it wasn’t the only ship he’d lived on. “I flew a lot of ships before I was on Serenity. She was different, the best ship I’ve flown, and the people were different, too. A lot of captains rule with money and fear and so on… Mal wasn’t like that. He made us more of a family. And I got married to his second in command… so I stayed, longer than I’d planned. And now here I am-- no ship, no wife. Zoe’s here, but she’s too young. Not married to me yet.” Daisy seemed apologetic for asking the questions, and yet, this was as close as Wash had gotten to actually talking to someone about his problems. He almost fell into melancholy, but shook it off and shot his new friend a jocular smile. “Guess that life is almost as extinct as the dinosaurs now. Almost, not quite.” -- “I can’t even imagine.” she said honestly as she listened. “I’ve only been on planes, really, and from what I’ve heard, it’s vastly different.” she looked up at the taller skeletons. “I think it’d be amazing to see the stars and planets from space. I bet it’s beautiful.” “Good leaders make for better living, no matter the situation. I know working under my boss is better than I could have gotten, so I’m glad for that. Even if he’s a pain in the ass sometimes.” she laughed a bit as she shook her head. She loved Fury like a dad, really, even if he was triple tough on her sometimes. It was okay, she needed it. “That sounds… awkward, actually.” she said after a moment. “I don’t even know what to say to that one.” she frowned a bit at it, she didn’t want to say she was sorry, she didn’t know how it affected him or anything. But she at least looked concerned. “Well as long as you got your friends it counts, right? Different place and time but they’re still your friends.” -- “Most ships in my time can do both,” Wash said. “Fly over a planet like a plane, and break atmo.” From what he’d been reading about spaceships, it didn’t really seem that they were built for that. Then again, a lot of the larger ships in his time and place weren’t really good for navigating over land either. Serenity was special in that respect. He sighed. “Tech here isn’t quite advanced enough, seems like. But if you ever get a chance-- go into space. There’s nothing like it. You’ll never want to be stuck on one planet again.” Not that he had wanted to be on just one planet to begin with. But that was neither here nor there. He shrugged. “It’s not as awkward as you might think.” Surprisingly, that was true enough. He and Zoe seemed to have an unspoken understanding about how to handle the whole thing, which was to act as if they weren’t married, and not try to make it into something it wasn’t. “It’s sort of like she’s not quite the same person; my wife’s back home somewhere. She’s the person she was when I first met her.” That might not make any sense. But then, a lot of people didn’t understand him and Zoe at first glance. “Anyway, yeah, I’ve got my friends. Don’t see them nearly as much since they don’t have much use for a pilot, but it’s nice to have them around.” -- “I would love to, I think. It’d be an interesting journey, to say the least.” she’d been a lot of places thanks to her work. But that would be a first and be awesome too. She’d love to see space. “It happens, we’re tech-dumb some weeks. Some times Stark surprises us all with fascinating new stuff. But generally we’re behind a lot of civilizations.” She didn’t mind. “Oh well that’s good then. At least. Awkward would be bad.” she smiled a bit. She wished her boyfriend was around. Although that would probably end poorly for the poor boy. Her boss didn’t like him much. Which was okay, in the end. “That’s a shame, really. They should have use for you anyways.” she smiled. “I have my boss and a teammate here, although I haven’t seen my boss since I arrived like months ago, and my teammate and I aren’t exactly close.” she shrugged a bit. She let the conversation lapse as she showed him more of the dino exhibits. Interesting company but it was a nice breath of air. --- |