A Gift for Embolalia
Feb. 24th, 2012 09:10 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
scifishipper.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
pilots_presentsTitle: Time Capsule (the butterfly effect)
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rayruz
Summary: Kara gets her hands on a camcorder and gets a new perspective.
Characters: Kara, Lee, Kat, Hot Dog, Chief, Cally, Dee, Roslin
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Beta Thanks:sci_fi_shipper
Author Notes: Forembolalia’s prompt “home movies”
Static.
12:00 1| 1| 01
“Kara!”
Lee adjusts the towel around his waist, trying to hold it up with one hand while the other slaps out to block the lens.
“Smile, Apollo. The camera loves you.”
“Get that thing out of my face.”
Duck. Weave. Apollo in all his glory. “That’s not what you said to the documentary chick.”
He tugs the towel around his backside and turns his back to her. “I was trying to be professional.”
Zoom in on just the right amount of ass as he shimmies his way into his skivvies. “Oldest profession in the worlds.”
He turns. The view slides up his body to his face, brow knit in frustration but a glimmer of something in those blue eyes. Maybe it’s the light. “Are you filming my ass?”
“Recording your posterior for posterity. Future generations are going to want to see this.”
“Okay, give me that thing.” He reaches out as the camera jerks away.
The voice behind the camera is low and sultry. “Come take it from me.”
Feet. Floor. Cackling as Lee gives chase down the hall.
Static.
22:38 14| 1| 01
“What are you doing with that thing?”
Zoom in on Kat, down to her sports bra, glaring over the top of her cards straight into the lens. Not happy.
“Making porn,” Hot Dog says next to her. He deals out the cards. He’s topless. “Gonna sell it around the fleet.”
“I’ll have to find some way to make some cubits once I’ve bled you all dry.” Kara sets the camera on the table. She flashes the cards to the lens. One pair. Nothing to celebrate.
“Get it!!”
Hot Dog lunges for the camera, but Kara quickly swipes it away. Legs dangle under the table. Some are bare. “Not in this lifetime,” she announces. “Ten.”
“I’m in.”
“Me too.”
“I raise,” Lee’s voice announces. “Twenty.”
“Thirty,” Kara counters. The grin is present even in her voice.
Kat scoffs. “I fold.”
“Same.”
“I see your thirty and raise you another.”
“Ten?”
“No, thirty.”
Someone let’s out a long whistle. Lee’s knee sways for a moment. “You’re bluffing.”
Another pause. “You’re dreaming it,” Kara says.
“I call.” Cards hit the table. “Colors.”
Kara pushes back from the table.
Static.
14:37 6| 3| 01
“Need any help?” Chief calls out from his spot in the line. The deck crew and pilots stand in a line in front of the Blackbird. A gap is left to show the white cursive “Laura” on the bow.
“I got it, I got it!” Kara hisses off screen. The scene tips and sways and shudders and finally stills. “Is it on?”
“There’s a red light,” Dee answers.
“Okay good. No, guys, move your asses in. Kneel if you gotta.”
Kara jogs into the view and steps up next to Apollo, wedged between him and Cally. “Alright. You’re on.”
Lee clears his throat. His hand brushes Kara’s.
“Madame President, on behalf of the crew of Galactica, we wish you a fast recovery and look forward to working with our Commander in Chief again soon.”
“So say we all,” the crew answers in chorus.
Kara jogs quickly around and out of view.
Static.
16:02 6| 3| 01
“What do you think Madame Pres?” Kara asks.
The camera shudders, the image blurring and sharpening until it focuses on Laura Roslin lying in a hospital bed. She has color in her skin and a smile on her lips. “That was wonderful, Lieutenant Thrace.” Laura points towards the lens. “You organized that?”
“We nearly lost you. And nearly got Baltar for president.” There’s a barb of bitterness in the voice behind the camera. “Believe me, everyone on Galactica is grateful. Did the doc say when you’re gonna be back on your feet?”
Laura sits up a little bit straighter. “He wants to keep me here a few more days, but I feel fine. Better than I’ve ever felt, actually.”
“That’s great.”
“I’m not dying,” Laura says.
“Yeah. That’s gre—”
“I’m not dying,” Laura repeats, with heavy emphasis on the last word.
“…shit.”
Static.
03:16 21| 4| 01
“And here we see the CAG in his natural environment. Let’s see if we can get a closer look.”
Lee lies on his side. His back to the camera.
“This wild creature requires a significant amount of rest because it expends the majority of it’s energy enforcing rules that no one gives a flying frak about, attempting to maintain a sense of order and decency when the rest of us wish he would realize that it’s going to drive him—and us—completely insane. Well, more than we already are.”
Lee grunts something angrily, but doesn’t turn.
“It seems we may have disturbed the wild CAG. Unfortunately for it, it hasn’t evolved the proper—”
“Would you get that frakking camera out of my face?!” Lee booms as he whips over towards the camera. His face is contorted, eyes narrowed, lips curled into a snarl.
The camera drops, Lee’s rack occupies only the top half of the frame. A pause. “Good to know you can still feel something.”
Static.
22:03 21| 4| 01
“The wild Starbuck’s diet consists of 98% booze and 2% blood of cylon raiders.”
Kara splutters, alcohol dribbling down her chin as she spins around. “Where did you find that?”
“We’ve been spotted.”
“Lee!”
“Perhaps if we stand very still she won’t notice us.”
The camera shudders, zooms out then in on Kara’s chin.
“Give that back! Lee!!”
He laughs. “Alright, alright. Here, take it.”
Lee’s chest.
“Not so fun on the other si-”
Static.
17:41 5| 5| 01
“—ficial. Say it. Go on. Say it.”
Sam Anders in the bunkroom. Alive. In Galactica’s bunkroom. He is dirty and he has got a shotglass in his hand.
He rolls his eyes. “I, Samuel T Anders, owe my life to Captain Kara “Starbuck” Thrace.”
Cackling. Sam smiles.
“The whole thing, the whole thing.” Kara prompts.
“No. I can’t. You’re… okay, you’re really recording this? The light is blinking.” Sam gestures towards the camera with his pointer finger, and suddenly seems to find this hilarious. “You’re actually!”
Close up on Sam’s shoulder. “Of course I’m recording this. This is a momentous occasion,” Kara says.
Off-screen, a squeal as the hatch is pulled open. Lee’s voice. “Guess they’ll let anybody in here, these days.”
After a moment of fumbling the camera settles on the table. Lee stands in the open doorway. “Hey. Hi.” Kara jogs into view and throws her arms around him. “Wanna meet my man?”
“Your man?”
“My personal property.” She gestures off-screen left. “Right, Sammy?”
“Don’t call me Sammy.”
She laughs as she makes her way back to him, grinning all the while. “How does it feel to be my personal property?” She vanishes from screen.
Lee watches for a moment, eyes dark and downcast, before he notices the camera. He reaches for it.
Static.
11:23 19| 5| 01
Grey clouds, scrubby grassy and a river.
There are a couple of tents – work and otherwise, civvies pitching them.
“Humanity’s new frakking home,” Kara’s voice.
Sam shrugs, takes a deep breath. “It’s a planet, and it’s not radioactive. I’m good with this.” He’s shivering in his sweatshirt.
Kara mutters something unintelligible and turns to walk towards the small cluster of tents. She pushes back the flap of the largest tent – the Fleet HQ on the ground. Officers huddle around a table, along with Gaius Baltar and his greasy hair.
“Get that camera out of here?” Baltar shoots a stern, nervous look past the camera.
“Why Doc, I thought you’d want this monumental geological survey recorded for future generations,” Kara says with a hint of a snarl.
”The term is Mister President.” Baltar straightens his tie. “But I believe you have a point. Very well then.” He goes back to work, pointing out ridges and valleys on the map.
Lee looks up at Kara. He frowns. “Captain Thrace, we could use your help with this.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“What happened to recording for future genera-”
Static.
18:05 4| 9| 01
Music blares, laughter echoes. Lights flare and blur and finally settle to show strings of lights surrounding a platform, where people swirl and dance. “And this is Founder’s Day,” Kara’s voice, over the music. “Founder my ass.”
She pans the crowd. The Admiral is suspiciously absent, Ellen is tripping all over Tigh, and Lee’s sharing a drink at a table with Dee.
“Only good thing about tonight is the open bar. Thanks for the tip, Dee.”
Dee’s too far away to hear. So is Lee. But he looks up. Straight towards the camera.
Kara scoffs. “Frak this. I need a dri—”
07:14 5| 9| 01
Kara’s bloodshot eyes stare into the camera, elbows on her knees as she holds up the camera. She opens her mouth to speak, but instead, thinks better of it, and lets out a long sigh. Early daylight shines on her face.
“I frakked up.”
Her jaw clenches and unclenches.
“Last night, I… I slept with Lee. And he told me he loved me. And I said I love him. And… shit.”
She swipes her bangs out of her face.
“He’s still asleep. Right now. And… I don’t know what I’m going to do. I watched this tape. I hadn’t actually watched since I got this thing. It’s weird. Looking at it. Tigh said something about survival instinct. Make your choice and don’t look back. And I guess it’s time to make a choice.”
She stares at the lens for a moment longer and turns the camera around.
Static.
23:37 28| 10| 01
Low Battery
“Kara, come on!” Lee’s voice rasps, pleading. But the only thing on screen is Kara’s bare chest.
“Hang on a second,” she says. She steps back, smirking as she studies the lens, all satisfaction. Behind her, Lee is stretched out on his rack. Bare but for his skivvies, much like Kara. Wherever the camera is situated, it has the perfect view.
Low Battery
“What are you doing over there?” he asks, irritated as he pushes himself up onto his elbows.
“Nothing,” Kara says, quickly crossing the room, sliding over him and straddling his hips. “Now, what were we doing again?”
Low Battery
Lee lies back against the sheets, pulls Kara down over him for a searing kiss. She plants her palms on his chest as his hands tangle in her hair. Soon, there is no space between their bodies—hips shifting against each other, chests pressed together, limbs entwined, lips locked.
Low Battery
“I love you,” Lee murmurs, pressing a kiss to her temple.
She sits back. Smiles. “I love you, too.”
Lee’s hands skim down her back, she arches as his hands slide below the waistband of her briefs.
Static
Black
Author:
rayruzSummary: Kara gets her hands on a camcorder and gets a new perspective.
Characters: Kara, Lee, Kat, Hot Dog, Chief, Cally, Dee, Roslin
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Beta Thanks:
sci_fi_shipperAuthor Notes: For
embolalia’s prompt “home movies”Static.
12:00 1| 1| 01
“Kara!”
Lee adjusts the towel around his waist, trying to hold it up with one hand while the other slaps out to block the lens.
“Smile, Apollo. The camera loves you.”
“Get that thing out of my face.”
Duck. Weave. Apollo in all his glory. “That’s not what you said to the documentary chick.”
He tugs the towel around his backside and turns his back to her. “I was trying to be professional.”
Zoom in on just the right amount of ass as he shimmies his way into his skivvies. “Oldest profession in the worlds.”
He turns. The view slides up his body to his face, brow knit in frustration but a glimmer of something in those blue eyes. Maybe it’s the light. “Are you filming my ass?”
“Recording your posterior for posterity. Future generations are going to want to see this.”
“Okay, give me that thing.” He reaches out as the camera jerks away.
The voice behind the camera is low and sultry. “Come take it from me.”
Feet. Floor. Cackling as Lee gives chase down the hall.
Static.
22:38 14| 1| 01
“What are you doing with that thing?”
Zoom in on Kat, down to her sports bra, glaring over the top of her cards straight into the lens. Not happy.
“Making porn,” Hot Dog says next to her. He deals out the cards. He’s topless. “Gonna sell it around the fleet.”
“I’ll have to find some way to make some cubits once I’ve bled you all dry.” Kara sets the camera on the table. She flashes the cards to the lens. One pair. Nothing to celebrate.
“Get it!!”
Hot Dog lunges for the camera, but Kara quickly swipes it away. Legs dangle under the table. Some are bare. “Not in this lifetime,” she announces. “Ten.”
“I’m in.”
“Me too.”
“I raise,” Lee’s voice announces. “Twenty.”
“Thirty,” Kara counters. The grin is present even in her voice.
Kat scoffs. “I fold.”
“Same.”
“I see your thirty and raise you another.”
“Ten?”
“No, thirty.”
Someone let’s out a long whistle. Lee’s knee sways for a moment. “You’re bluffing.”
Another pause. “You’re dreaming it,” Kara says.
“I call.” Cards hit the table. “Colors.”
Kara pushes back from the table.
Static.
14:37 6| 3| 01
“Need any help?” Chief calls out from his spot in the line. The deck crew and pilots stand in a line in front of the Blackbird. A gap is left to show the white cursive “Laura” on the bow.
“I got it, I got it!” Kara hisses off screen. The scene tips and sways and shudders and finally stills. “Is it on?”
“There’s a red light,” Dee answers.
“Okay good. No, guys, move your asses in. Kneel if you gotta.”
Kara jogs into the view and steps up next to Apollo, wedged between him and Cally. “Alright. You’re on.”
Lee clears his throat. His hand brushes Kara’s.
“Madame President, on behalf of the crew of Galactica, we wish you a fast recovery and look forward to working with our Commander in Chief again soon.”
“So say we all,” the crew answers in chorus.
Kara jogs quickly around and out of view.
Static.
16:02 6| 3| 01
“What do you think Madame Pres?” Kara asks.
The camera shudders, the image blurring and sharpening until it focuses on Laura Roslin lying in a hospital bed. She has color in her skin and a smile on her lips. “That was wonderful, Lieutenant Thrace.” Laura points towards the lens. “You organized that?”
“We nearly lost you. And nearly got Baltar for president.” There’s a barb of bitterness in the voice behind the camera. “Believe me, everyone on Galactica is grateful. Did the doc say when you’re gonna be back on your feet?”
Laura sits up a little bit straighter. “He wants to keep me here a few more days, but I feel fine. Better than I’ve ever felt, actually.”
“That’s great.”
“I’m not dying,” Laura says.
“Yeah. That’s gre—”
“I’m not dying,” Laura repeats, with heavy emphasis on the last word.
“…shit.”
Static.
03:16 21| 4| 01
“And here we see the CAG in his natural environment. Let’s see if we can get a closer look.”
Lee lies on his side. His back to the camera.
“This wild creature requires a significant amount of rest because it expends the majority of it’s energy enforcing rules that no one gives a flying frak about, attempting to maintain a sense of order and decency when the rest of us wish he would realize that it’s going to drive him—and us—completely insane. Well, more than we already are.”
Lee grunts something angrily, but doesn’t turn.
“It seems we may have disturbed the wild CAG. Unfortunately for it, it hasn’t evolved the proper—”
“Would you get that frakking camera out of my face?!” Lee booms as he whips over towards the camera. His face is contorted, eyes narrowed, lips curled into a snarl.
The camera drops, Lee’s rack occupies only the top half of the frame. A pause. “Good to know you can still feel something.”
Static.
22:03 21| 4| 01
“The wild Starbuck’s diet consists of 98% booze and 2% blood of cylon raiders.”
Kara splutters, alcohol dribbling down her chin as she spins around. “Where did you find that?”
“We’ve been spotted.”
“Lee!”
“Perhaps if we stand very still she won’t notice us.”
The camera shudders, zooms out then in on Kara’s chin.
“Give that back! Lee!!”
He laughs. “Alright, alright. Here, take it.”
Lee’s chest.
“Not so fun on the other si-”
Static.
17:41 5| 5| 01
“—ficial. Say it. Go on. Say it.”
Sam Anders in the bunkroom. Alive. In Galactica’s bunkroom. He is dirty and he has got a shotglass in his hand.
He rolls his eyes. “I, Samuel T Anders, owe my life to Captain Kara “Starbuck” Thrace.”
Cackling. Sam smiles.
“The whole thing, the whole thing.” Kara prompts.
“No. I can’t. You’re… okay, you’re really recording this? The light is blinking.” Sam gestures towards the camera with his pointer finger, and suddenly seems to find this hilarious. “You’re actually!”
Close up on Sam’s shoulder. “Of course I’m recording this. This is a momentous occasion,” Kara says.
Off-screen, a squeal as the hatch is pulled open. Lee’s voice. “Guess they’ll let anybody in here, these days.”
After a moment of fumbling the camera settles on the table. Lee stands in the open doorway. “Hey. Hi.” Kara jogs into view and throws her arms around him. “Wanna meet my man?”
“Your man?”
“My personal property.” She gestures off-screen left. “Right, Sammy?”
“Don’t call me Sammy.”
She laughs as she makes her way back to him, grinning all the while. “How does it feel to be my personal property?” She vanishes from screen.
Lee watches for a moment, eyes dark and downcast, before he notices the camera. He reaches for it.
Static.
11:23 19| 5| 01
Grey clouds, scrubby grassy and a river.
There are a couple of tents – work and otherwise, civvies pitching them.
“Humanity’s new frakking home,” Kara’s voice.
Sam shrugs, takes a deep breath. “It’s a planet, and it’s not radioactive. I’m good with this.” He’s shivering in his sweatshirt.
Kara mutters something unintelligible and turns to walk towards the small cluster of tents. She pushes back the flap of the largest tent – the Fleet HQ on the ground. Officers huddle around a table, along with Gaius Baltar and his greasy hair.
“Get that camera out of here?” Baltar shoots a stern, nervous look past the camera.
“Why Doc, I thought you’d want this monumental geological survey recorded for future generations,” Kara says with a hint of a snarl.
”The term is Mister President.” Baltar straightens his tie. “But I believe you have a point. Very well then.” He goes back to work, pointing out ridges and valleys on the map.
Lee looks up at Kara. He frowns. “Captain Thrace, we could use your help with this.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“What happened to recording for future genera-”
Static.
18:05 4| 9| 01
Music blares, laughter echoes. Lights flare and blur and finally settle to show strings of lights surrounding a platform, where people swirl and dance. “And this is Founder’s Day,” Kara’s voice, over the music. “Founder my ass.”
She pans the crowd. The Admiral is suspiciously absent, Ellen is tripping all over Tigh, and Lee’s sharing a drink at a table with Dee.
“Only good thing about tonight is the open bar. Thanks for the tip, Dee.”
Dee’s too far away to hear. So is Lee. But he looks up. Straight towards the camera.
Kara scoffs. “Frak this. I need a dri—”
07:14 5| 9| 01
Kara’s bloodshot eyes stare into the camera, elbows on her knees as she holds up the camera. She opens her mouth to speak, but instead, thinks better of it, and lets out a long sigh. Early daylight shines on her face.
“I frakked up.”
Her jaw clenches and unclenches.
“Last night, I… I slept with Lee. And he told me he loved me. And I said I love him. And… shit.”
She swipes her bangs out of her face.
“He’s still asleep. Right now. And… I don’t know what I’m going to do. I watched this tape. I hadn’t actually watched since I got this thing. It’s weird. Looking at it. Tigh said something about survival instinct. Make your choice and don’t look back. And I guess it’s time to make a choice.”
She stares at the lens for a moment longer and turns the camera around.
Static.
23:37 28| 10| 01
Low Battery
“Kara, come on!” Lee’s voice rasps, pleading. But the only thing on screen is Kara’s bare chest.
“Hang on a second,” she says. She steps back, smirking as she studies the lens, all satisfaction. Behind her, Lee is stretched out on his rack. Bare but for his skivvies, much like Kara. Wherever the camera is situated, it has the perfect view.
Low Battery
“What are you doing over there?” he asks, irritated as he pushes himself up onto his elbows.
“Nothing,” Kara says, quickly crossing the room, sliding over him and straddling his hips. “Now, what were we doing again?”
Low Battery
Lee lies back against the sheets, pulls Kara down over him for a searing kiss. She plants her palms on his chest as his hands tangle in her hair. Soon, there is no space between their bodies—hips shifting against each other, chests pressed together, limbs entwined, lips locked.
Low Battery
“I love you,” Lee murmurs, pressing a kiss to her temple.
She sits back. Smiles. “I love you, too.”
Lee’s hands skim down her back, she arches as his hands slide below the waistband of her briefs.
Static
Black
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 02:31 pm (UTC)Seriously, that was wonderful. I love the concept and how her being able to look back at her and Lee's interactions through the video led her to making a different choice this time.
I also love the way you use the camera as the mechanism to tell the story. It's concise but affecting. Also, 'posterior for posterity' is HIGH-LARIOUS! :D
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 02:33 pm (UTC)This wild creature requires a significant amount of rest because it expends the majority of it’s energy enforcing rules that no one gives a flying frak about
The wild Starbuck’s diet consists of 98% booze and 2% blood of cylon raiders.
Stellar dialogue!
no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 04:39 pm (UTC)And Kara's narration is pretty hysterical throughout. Awesome banter! (And I loved the consicseness/economy of it too!)
no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 05:14 pm (UTC)I love the ending of this same section. “Good to know you can still feel something.” Simple, devastating.
The ending makes me think--you know, for the first couple of seasons, Kara's capacity for being off-handedly cruel was pretty astounding. Of course she was acting out of a place of pain, herself, and sassy badassery makes up for a lotta sins, but still... Anyway, reading this, I thought: I actually believe that she (canonically, even) did have the capacity for the kind of self-awareness that you (O Anonymous Author!) show here. If she'd ever had the chance to look her behavior in the face--whenever she had to actually confront Lee's pain...
So this was powerful, for showing that about Kara, I thought.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 06:24 pm (UTC)Umm yeah, exactly what you said.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 08:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 05:28 pm (UTC)The story was fun. The snippet feel of it was great. Just the high points of the down times. Lots of good humor. I loved her showing her hand to the camera. She SO would do that.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 08:50 pm (UTC)So say we all.
I'm really glad you liked it!
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 06:32 pm (UTC)This was totally my favorite part :) Thank you SO much for this! I love what you did with the prompt, and the moments Kara chooses as the most important parts of who she is - especially the last few. I just hope they find a battery recharger!
This was exactly what I needed today! <3
no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-25 06:03 am (UTC)Now I'm itching to get my hands on the outtake reels!
no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 10:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-03 12:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 08:53 pm (UTC)I'm such a visual person, I'm glad it came through in the writing.