Ariel: Running around Bravo like a kid in a new house. Touching everything. Playing with everything. Skipping down the corridors and singing to herself.
Em and Trev: Waiting for the operation to restore Em's sight as children on xmas eve. He is just itching to give her the earrings to match the dress, and, for the moment, the joy of Em, as the sun to night, shines bright.
Kyra: Torn between desire and obligation. Kieran told her, "to whom much is given, much is expected." She is tired, weary and in need of a vacation. Although she would not admit it, she is tired of being strong, tired of being "the one" that everyone looks to for help. She is also terribly conflicted with what her "gift" is meant to be. John's request puts her back in harm's way, or more to the point, puts her in a position of more death and destruction, from her hands. Death is death, and no matter the cause, the idea of more killing is more than she can bear at the moment. She longs for a walk on the beach with Papa.
John: Not himself. The memory of Cait and the future of Ariel color every perception. The brotherhood has framed the argument for a return to Kulmyk such that he cannot say no, or at least has not found a way to say no without losing every last sense of who he is and the feeling sits nauseous in his gut. To return without Kyra is nothing less than martyrdom. To return with her, based on their last exchange, seems unlikely. Only the urgency of events stave off depression.
Tom: About to break under torture.
Tabood: About to be apprehended. About to walk the same plank as Tom.
The Hood: Fears of a secret cabal solidified. Paranoia grows in step with ruthlessness.
The Brotherhood: Waiting on John's decision.
Von: Knows something is amiss. Kyra won't answer her comm. Neither will John or Rog for that matter.
Dr X and Mairi: Exploring their options for Em and the operation.
Rog and Yul: Enjoying their new found privacy. Doors locked. Comms turned off.
Taren: Uneasy in the presence of so many Kulmyks. Uneasy with the whispers of their request.
4 comments:
Consider this addition of Round the Horn as more notes and thoughts than story. Almost every entry is lacking, incomplete and I feel as frustrated with the entries as Kyra and John do with their individual situations.
Case in point:
Does Ariel skip through Bravo like a new home or does she look at the craft as an alien vessel, as everything that represents what she no longer has, as a sense of closure that a page has turned, that mom ain't coming back?
Is Kyra really this conflicted? Her reaction to John seemed very out of character, almost as if she had forgotten everything Papa ever taught her. And, this entry implies that Kieran didn't do much to "answer her plea" as much as lay a guilt trip on her. Now what good is a "Kieran" if they don't provide some perspective and wisdom?
Is John really this out of sorts? Again, he seems to be acting out of character, a little too morose, a little too emotional, a little too un-John like. Or maybe, perhaps, there is a side of John we don't know. He is asked to lead, to take command by the brotherhood, but he seems incapable of even sorting himself out at the moment.
What is really going on in the new relationship between Em and Trev? I always fear relationships that start fast, get too intense too quickly. Trev and Em have been together in close quarters for more than two years. Why now? Will it last? Or is this just a mind-frail that an inexperienced Mairi has mismanaged? I feel very suspicious about this new found union. Then again, I've been wrong before. :-D
In short, I think this chapter reflects the confusion of Bravo. Nothing is as clean and clear and tight as one would like. Loose ends, inconsistencies, behavior odd.
I have always very much like the chapters where everyone gets synchronized, where in a story that jumps through time and from character to character we hear what they are doing or thinking or saying at one particular moment. This one comes across as is, a collecting/tion of thoughts and as a moment of rest as little new information is given.
I'm not sure about your questions and I know they are hypothetical or rather that you will answer them yourself, and perfectly as only you can, but given Ariel's behaviour throughout the skipping is not far-fetched. The visit with her mother would have made a great difference to how she would accept and understand her mother's death especially since we know not what was said in Cait's conversation with her daughter. Also she has been welcomed, she has become close to at least two female characters and Ariel is an exceptional child anyway - an example would be when she and her mother were about to leave Kulmyk - and so to hear of her skipping, of her seeing Bravo as something to explore seems right enough.
Kyra has been through the mill not just recently but for two years, as you said she is tired, weary and in need of a vacation, the list is long and all the while has been the constants. If it had been anyone but Kyra, we would have seen something like this a long time ago, something out of character and contrary to all that she has learned and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the previous scene from that point of view, especially as it relates to John.
John seems to be exactly what he should be, even if that state that he occupies at this moment is defined as not himself. To lose his wife in such circumstances after their having had to leave Kulmyk, to be left with a daughter and to have the choices ahead that he has, to feel as he does about Kyra still and continued after Cait's death and to need her too, to need her skill.
I'll get back to Kieran later, but for now in regards to Em and Trev their relationship may or may not last, at this moment it doesn't 'matter' as much as what they can do for each other, both sexually and emotionally, in short I don't think that anyone except yourself, because you are the only one that has to, and that includes Em and Trev to some extent, is questioning or planning or wondering too much about what the long-term future will bring them, but are enjoying seeing them get closer.
Don't take any of the above as true opinion, haven't had a chance to mull it over and only read the chapter once so far. :-)
Love to you, x
This is a great chapter and there is no need to beat yourself up about it :]
In my humble opinion part of the enjoyment for the reader is playing with those little dangling threads and wondering, dreaming, searching... and then tuning in for the next part!!!
Miladysa, thanks for the feedback. I find it very hard to read what I have written with any objectivity. All I tend to see is what it is not, what it could have been, where I was lacking in imagination or skill. So easy to forget that the reader brings none of that to the table. :-)
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