three ☀ video / optional action

[deshabille]

Who: Mal
Broadcast: Fleetwide!
Action: On the Caprine if anyone desires it! I'm flexible.
When: 6/20.

[As in her first broadcast, Mal can be found tinkering around in the engine room, elbows-deep in something interesting and greasy. This time, though, she seems pensive, deep in thought, perhaps about Deep Subjects and Philosophies.]

[She is, in fact, thinking about something entirely different.]

[When she speaks, it's in tones of airy contemplation, meant to disguise the fact that part of her thinks this is a terrible idea.]

Here is an interesting thing: vampires, for all their reputation for seduction, really aren't that good at it, at least where I come from. When you're always hungry, you mostly rely on people leaving windows open at the right time and then being a bit woozy from blood loss. For the really old ones, the ones who can barely stand without crumbling to dust and really hate sunshine, that's the only way they can eat, and if they tried to seduce anyone their arm would probably fall off.

[She twists at a mysterious innard of the ship with a wrench, tongue in her cheek.]

We've had enough excitement for a while, I think, so why not something boring instead: tell me about romance in your world. Describe the sorts of flowers you like to kill for love. Rate yourself on a scale of one to ten, complete dunce to Casanunda, if you like.

Actually, everyone should have to do that. That's compulsory. I will genteelly admit that I am a nine. [Liar.]

Comments

[deshabille]

[Mal is quiet for a moment, digesting this. Her own relationship with her family is tenuous at best, but she understands family bonds at least in principle. The fact that Elena is willing to, if not defy them, then at least push back against them, gives Mal pause. She wonders who exactly Elena is standing up for, who she has learned from.]

It's never as simple as that. Any sort of person has the potential for good and evil in them. Or neutral, at least.

What do you think they'd think of you now?

[A cruel question, perhaps, but an important one.]

[forgetyourusedtobe]

I don't know.

[It's not an inherently cruel question, but it's not one that Elena was necessarily prepared to answer as evidenced by such an automatic and quick answer. She's not being defensive or intentionally evading answering altogether with a non-answer. It's still an honest answer even if it doesn't lean any particular one way and Elena's jaw still works a little to push out more words without anything coming out of here. She stops it once she realizes she's doing it though. At least long enough to give her some space to really think about it how to explain her answer.]

[Because she feels like she owes an explanation for it to be acceptable. Not really to Mal, but to herself.]

I want to say they'd be proud of me. [What kid doesn't want their parents' approval? No matter how much they might rebel against them, approval and acceptance is what everyone needs and kids need it most of all from their parents.] But I honestly don't know if they would be or if they'd be disappointed.

I don't think they'd love me any less though. No matter what. I don't think-- [She stops short.] They weren't my birth parents, but they never treated me like I was anything less than their daughter. And I don't think it's possible for that love to go anywhere, no matter what you might disagree about or if you're disappointed in them or not.

I know I didn't love them any less even after I found out the truth about them. I was confused and I still have a lot of questions that will never be answered, but I still love them.

[deshabille]

[This is entirely foreign territory to Mal. She never had a particularly close relationship with her parents, and she hasn't spoken to her mother since she went cold bat. She is, in her own way, a disgrace. It doesn't bother her, doesn't eat at her conscience. She has reformed herself in the crucible of transformation and war, and who she is now is someone she likes quite a lot.]

[Still, she can understand what Elena is talking about, even if only in principle. She can respect it.]

Some people have remarkably strong family bonds. [Some people - some vampires, even - but not her.]

[A small smile forms on her lips, showing a hint of teeth.] It's funny. Your family would have hunted mine, once upon a time.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

They probably would have. [Elena reflects back a wry smile.] It's a little Shakespearean with hopefully less bad decisions involved.

[But that is likely a very slim hope given the Gilbert family's ability to leave well enough alone and their propensity for eliminating themselves one by one. That's a little bit too morbid of a thought for Elena to think though. So, instead, she presses on to ask,]

You weren't close with anyone in your family?

[deshabille]

[There is a thin smile here, a shake of her head.]

Not really. We had a few differences of opinion.

[Namely, that they absolutely loved snacking on necks, and Mal had other ideas. About self-preservation, and morality, but mostly the former.]

[forgetyourusedtobe]

Do you ever miss any of them then?

[Even in a detached way would be a better answer than not at all. And it's the latter that Elena is expecting, she just still has to ask.]

[deshabille]

[She shrugs, a fluid motion.]

Not really. I miss the idea of family, I suppose. But I have a new family now.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

[Her smile is a little softer now at that.]

One you've made for yourself?

[deshabille]

Mmhm. Exactly.

It's better that way. [In her opinion.]

[forgetyourusedtobe]

Do I get to know anything about them?

[She talked an awful lot about her parents, after all. It seems only fair that Mal cough up a little bit about the family she does care about.]

[deshabille]

Have you met Polly Perks? She's here.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

No, I haven't. Have you known each other a long time?

[deshabille]

Oh - not so long in the grand scheme of things. A year, a little more. She's my sergeant.

[This extremely proud. She will always be proud of her sergeant.]

[forgetyourusedtobe]

[The pride would be an incredibly hard thing for Elena to miss.]

I guess a lot of things happened for the two of you then?

[How else could you explain having that close an attachment to one another?]

[deshabille]

Oh, you know. Hijinks, close calls, high-speed chases. That sort of thing.

[Her tone is flippant, but her eyes are soft, as they so rarely are. There's real love there, the kind that doesn't die.]

We fought together. Fight together. I don't think we're quite done fighting.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

Not done fighting back home or here?

[Hopefully Mal means back home. She'd prefer it if Mal means back home anyway. It's bad enough that they're stuck here without adding to it.]

[deshabille]

Back home. It's - we've been at war for ages, it doesn't seem likely to stop anytime soon.

[Not that they're not trying. It's just a terrifically frustrating uphill battle.]

[forgetyourusedtobe]

Within or outside?

[deshabille]

Outside. More or less. The official wars are with our neighbors, but, well, whatever infrastructure there was has been essentially destroyed by this point.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

And it's out of the question to stop fighting with neighbors?

[deshabille]

Not out of the question, no, but upper management is somewhat excitable and tends to forget how to put the sharps down and talk like adults.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

[Elena can't help but snort at that and looks a little apologetic. She shouldn't laugh.]

I'm pretty sure that's not a problem limited to your world.

[deshabille]

No, I'm quite certain it's not. Still, it's exasperating when it happens. I feel like I ought to be able to bang some heads together and change things, but apparently that doesn't count as diplomacy.

[IF ONLY, THOUGH.]

[forgetyourusedtobe]

[Elena giggles.]

I don't know. Diplomacy is about bringing people together, right?

[deshabille]

Forcefully, at high speeds, if I have anything to say about it.

[Mal is so good at tact, obviously.]