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calic0catIt's here at last!
*****************************
Title: #107 Preparation - Part 8
Arc: Life With Heero
Author: Calic0cat <calic0cat@fastmail.fm>
Story Completed: March 3, 2007
Genre: Shonen Ai/Yaoi, Friendship, Romance, Domestic, Drama
Pairing: 1x2x1
Rated: FRT (Fan Rated suitable for Teenagers)
Warnings: Language (Coarse Language, Profanity)
Archives: At my site http://www.calic0cat.net and at Mediaminer.org under Calic0cat. Anyone with archive permission for my other fics can help themselves; anyone else, please ask.
Disclaimer: Duo and Heero and the rest of the GW gang aren't mine. This story is. Nuff said.
Author's Notes: This is an open-ended arc focussing on Duo and Heero's lives together, starting about two years after Endless Waltz. The length of each story in the arc will vary, anywhere from ficlet to multi-part. Warnings, rating, genre, and POV will vary from story to story as well. The arc as a whole will probably never truly "end", but the smaller plot arcs within it will.
'Thinking'
"Speaking"
*** Time passing or scene change
#################################################
The first faint hints of artificial dawn had barely begun to appear when Hilde quietly dressed and tiptoed down the hall. A quick peek inside the bedroom as she passed by confirmed that Rick was still sound asleep. She hadn’t really been serious when she’d threatened to make him sleep on the couch yesterday but, after spending most of the evening going a few more rounds over what he’d finally referred to as “your damn sheds full of worthless crap”, she’d been *quite* serious about sleeping in the spare room - alone.
Continuing on through to the kitchen, Hilde rubbed her eyes and smothered a yawn. Not that she’d managed to do much sleeping; she’d been too busy wracking her brains for any memories that might lead her to some valuable salvage today. She hadn’t had much luck with that, either, which made getting an early start even more important.
Bypassing the coffee maker - she didn’t want to risk the odour waking Rick up - she grabbed a bottle of apple juice and a couple of granola bars on her way out of the house. Her family had stored worthwhile salvage in those sheds; she just knew they had. And she was going to find it and prove her Doubting-Thomas partners wrong. She had over three hours before the time that they were all supposed to be there; if she worked fast, she should manage to find something *really* good before they arrived.
After all, this time she was going to do things *her* way. And she was going to start with one of the small sheds, just the way that she’d said they should in the first place.
***
Checking her watch, Hilde looked around the - relatively - small shed that she’d been working in and groaned in discouragement. A whole hour of hard labour and she’d only cleared about ten square of floor space. She hadn’t found anything worth mentioning; just a handful of rusty old tools and half a crate of glassware produced by the colony’s short-lived glass factory that *might* have a bit of antique value - *if* the right collector could be found. The building was filled with small items that were going to take forever to inventory.
Just as Rick had predicted, annoyingly enough.
“Maybe I’d have better luck elsewhere,” she muttered irritably, tossing a broken picture frame in the general direction of the ‘junk’ pile. “Maybe one of the big sheds that none of us have looked in yet will have something interesting to offer...”
One could only hope.
Exiting her previous worksite, she ignored the other small shed and headed for the nearest larger storage building. A quick trip around the outside confirmed that the wall braces were securely in place and an equally quick tour of the crowded interior verified the integrity of the support columns. As she checked the interior supports, Hilde kept an eye out for anything noteworthy but nothing particularly caught her eye.
Thinking out loud, she murmured, “Well, the methodical approach hasn’t exactly been very productive. So, maybe it’s time for a change of pace...” Closing her eyes, she spun around in a circle. “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe!” Halting, she pointed and opened her eyes. The corner of an old heating and cooling unit jutted out from a heap of smaller equipment. She grimaced and sighed; it didn’t exactly look very promising but... “Oh well, guess it’s as good a place to start as any.”
***
“Dammit!” Hilde cursed wearily, glaring at yet another disappointing ‘discovery’. Nearly half an hour wasted on uncovering a barely-visible shuttle engine only to find that the damn thing had already been stripped for parts. She was down to only an hour before the others would arrive and she still hadn’t found anything worthwhile.
“Dammit!” she swore again, venting her frustration in a good swift kick. The steel toe of her boot sent a corroded piston spinning across the aisle to clatter against another pile of scrap.
Maybe the guys were right. Maybe this really was a complete waste of time. Maybe she wasn’t finding anything worthwhile because there wasn’t anything worthwhile to be found...
“No.” Hilde set her jaw in stubborn denial. “There’s got to be *something*...” The salvage yard had been in her family for years; at least some of this stuff had to have been kept for a *reason*. She just hadn’t looked in the right place yet.
A brief survey of the building’s remaining towering piles of scrap failed to produce any exceptionally promising areas. After shifting and somewhat haphazardly digging through several stacks of vaguely interesting-looking but ultimately disappointing crates - decade-old golfing magazines would only bring a few creds at the paper recycling station - and accidentally discovering a hidden ‘room’ between them and the wall - the less said about Great-uncle Johnny’s illegal still, the better - Hilde decided to return to the shed that they’d been working in at the end of the previous day. There’d been a bulky, half-buried silhouette in one back corner that had been nagging her memory all morning and she’d finally figured out that it reminded her an awful lot of an early 30s Boeing Colony Hopper. Very few were built and fewer survived; even a partial hull would have considerable value on the historical spacecraft market.
‘I’ll let my two explosives-experts partners deal with the disposal of Great-uncle Johnny’s stash of rather dubious looking and probably highly volatile potato whisky,’ she thought as she left the building. At least this particular ‘find’ proved that, valuable salvage or not, imploding or otherwise knocking down the sheds without clearing them out first would *not* be a good idea.
Smirking in satisfaction, Hilde added silently, ‘And Rick can take care of inventorying Great-grandma Mildred’s “Playgirl” collection; maybe some of those issues actually have some collectible value.’
Before entering the partially-inventoried shed, Hilde threw a cursory glance at the nearest wall brace. It looked exactly like it had the last time that she’d checked it. With a shrug, she decided not to bother making the complete round; none of the safety braces had needed adjustments all week. Besides, Duo had just checked them all yesterday afternoon. Why waste valuable time checking them again now? She had a lot of work to do if she was going to get that possible Colony Hopper revealed before the guys showed up.
#################################################
Keep your fingers crossed, folks, the muse seems to be on a (slight) roll here...
*****************************
Title: #107 Preparation - Part 8
Arc: Life With Heero
Author: Calic0cat <calic0cat@fastmail.fm>
Story Completed: March 3, 2007
Genre: Shonen Ai/Yaoi, Friendship, Romance, Domestic, Drama
Pairing: 1x2x1
Rated: FRT (Fan Rated suitable for Teenagers)
Warnings: Language (Coarse Language, Profanity)
Archives: At my site http://www.calic0cat.net and at Mediaminer.org under Calic0cat. Anyone with archive permission for my other fics can help themselves; anyone else, please ask.
Disclaimer: Duo and Heero and the rest of the GW gang aren't mine. This story is. Nuff said.
Author's Notes: This is an open-ended arc focussing on Duo and Heero's lives together, starting about two years after Endless Waltz. The length of each story in the arc will vary, anywhere from ficlet to multi-part. Warnings, rating, genre, and POV will vary from story to story as well. The arc as a whole will probably never truly "end", but the smaller plot arcs within it will.
'Thinking'
"Speaking"
*** Time passing or scene change
#################################################
The first faint hints of artificial dawn had barely begun to appear when Hilde quietly dressed and tiptoed down the hall. A quick peek inside the bedroom as she passed by confirmed that Rick was still sound asleep. She hadn’t really been serious when she’d threatened to make him sleep on the couch yesterday but, after spending most of the evening going a few more rounds over what he’d finally referred to as “your damn sheds full of worthless crap”, she’d been *quite* serious about sleeping in the spare room - alone.
Continuing on through to the kitchen, Hilde rubbed her eyes and smothered a yawn. Not that she’d managed to do much sleeping; she’d been too busy wracking her brains for any memories that might lead her to some valuable salvage today. She hadn’t had much luck with that, either, which made getting an early start even more important.
Bypassing the coffee maker - she didn’t want to risk the odour waking Rick up - she grabbed a bottle of apple juice and a couple of granola bars on her way out of the house. Her family had stored worthwhile salvage in those sheds; she just knew they had. And she was going to find it and prove her Doubting-Thomas partners wrong. She had over three hours before the time that they were all supposed to be there; if she worked fast, she should manage to find something *really* good before they arrived.
After all, this time she was going to do things *her* way. And she was going to start with one of the small sheds, just the way that she’d said they should in the first place.
***
Checking her watch, Hilde looked around the - relatively - small shed that she’d been working in and groaned in discouragement. A whole hour of hard labour and she’d only cleared about ten square of floor space. She hadn’t found anything worth mentioning; just a handful of rusty old tools and half a crate of glassware produced by the colony’s short-lived glass factory that *might* have a bit of antique value - *if* the right collector could be found. The building was filled with small items that were going to take forever to inventory.
Just as Rick had predicted, annoyingly enough.
“Maybe I’d have better luck elsewhere,” she muttered irritably, tossing a broken picture frame in the general direction of the ‘junk’ pile. “Maybe one of the big sheds that none of us have looked in yet will have something interesting to offer...”
One could only hope.
Exiting her previous worksite, she ignored the other small shed and headed for the nearest larger storage building. A quick trip around the outside confirmed that the wall braces were securely in place and an equally quick tour of the crowded interior verified the integrity of the support columns. As she checked the interior supports, Hilde kept an eye out for anything noteworthy but nothing particularly caught her eye.
Thinking out loud, she murmured, “Well, the methodical approach hasn’t exactly been very productive. So, maybe it’s time for a change of pace...” Closing her eyes, she spun around in a circle. “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe!” Halting, she pointed and opened her eyes. The corner of an old heating and cooling unit jutted out from a heap of smaller equipment. She grimaced and sighed; it didn’t exactly look very promising but... “Oh well, guess it’s as good a place to start as any.”
***
“Dammit!” Hilde cursed wearily, glaring at yet another disappointing ‘discovery’. Nearly half an hour wasted on uncovering a barely-visible shuttle engine only to find that the damn thing had already been stripped for parts. She was down to only an hour before the others would arrive and she still hadn’t found anything worthwhile.
“Dammit!” she swore again, venting her frustration in a good swift kick. The steel toe of her boot sent a corroded piston spinning across the aisle to clatter against another pile of scrap.
Maybe the guys were right. Maybe this really was a complete waste of time. Maybe she wasn’t finding anything worthwhile because there wasn’t anything worthwhile to be found...
“No.” Hilde set her jaw in stubborn denial. “There’s got to be *something*...” The salvage yard had been in her family for years; at least some of this stuff had to have been kept for a *reason*. She just hadn’t looked in the right place yet.
A brief survey of the building’s remaining towering piles of scrap failed to produce any exceptionally promising areas. After shifting and somewhat haphazardly digging through several stacks of vaguely interesting-looking but ultimately disappointing crates - decade-old golfing magazines would only bring a few creds at the paper recycling station - and accidentally discovering a hidden ‘room’ between them and the wall - the less said about Great-uncle Johnny’s illegal still, the better - Hilde decided to return to the shed that they’d been working in at the end of the previous day. There’d been a bulky, half-buried silhouette in one back corner that had been nagging her memory all morning and she’d finally figured out that it reminded her an awful lot of an early 30s Boeing Colony Hopper. Very few were built and fewer survived; even a partial hull would have considerable value on the historical spacecraft market.
‘I’ll let my two explosives-experts partners deal with the disposal of Great-uncle Johnny’s stash of rather dubious looking and probably highly volatile potato whisky,’ she thought as she left the building. At least this particular ‘find’ proved that, valuable salvage or not, imploding or otherwise knocking down the sheds without clearing them out first would *not* be a good idea.
Smirking in satisfaction, Hilde added silently, ‘And Rick can take care of inventorying Great-grandma Mildred’s “Playgirl” collection; maybe some of those issues actually have some collectible value.’
Before entering the partially-inventoried shed, Hilde threw a cursory glance at the nearest wall brace. It looked exactly like it had the last time that she’d checked it. With a shrug, she decided not to bother making the complete round; none of the safety braces had needed adjustments all week. Besides, Duo had just checked them all yesterday afternoon. Why waste valuable time checking them again now? She had a lot of work to do if she was going to get that possible Colony Hopper revealed before the guys showed up.
#################################################
Keep your fingers crossed, folks, the muse seems to be on a (slight) roll here...
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 04:08 am (UTC)I've got a reeeeeally bad feeling that one of the sheds is gonna collapse. Likely the one Hilde's checking right now. Meep! Had that feeling since Duo went "did you hear that?" when he and Hilde were in there... not good, not good! I hope your muses work with you and get the next part out soon. 'Cause, you know, you're killing me with the suspense here. *wince*
no subject
Date: 2007-03-06 03:43 am (UTC)As for the sheds - well, after all, the four partners are the ones doing the work specifically because the sheds are in too poor of condition to meet workplace safety regs, so... Yep, definitely a little suspense here, so I'm sincerely hoping that the muse cooperates in getting the next part done in a somewhat more timely fashion.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 04:19 am (UTC)*peeks between fingers*
Ohhh boy, definite foreshadowing of doom there.
I hope she survives her corner-cutting!
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Date: 2007-03-07 06:21 pm (UTC)*gives it a drink and some chocolate*
*offers it a footrub*
Oooooooh... don't let that sucker get away NOW! O.O I shall channel Scooby; 'Rut roh!' :P
This piece is very spot on... I can totally see Hilde being pushed by the attitudes of three tired and cranky guys into doing someting exactly like this.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-08 06:47 pm (UTC)As for Hilde - glad you liked it and thought that it sounded plausible. I didn't want her to come across as foolish, just as very human and therefore likely to make errors in judgement when overtired and overstressed. Even though Rick and the guys are equal partners with her in the business, she's the one with the biggest emotional investment in the place because it belonged to her family and that makes a big difference. She can't help taking the whole thing a bit personally and the guys aren't quite getting that.
OT: Sentinel?
Date: 2007-03-08 01:34 pm (UTC)I just spent a very entertaining couple of hours reading some of your Sentinel stories (both on your site and at 852). I came to your site through Symbiosis on 852 and spent the last about an hour and a half (with breaks because that pesky thing called RL demanded my attention) reading your Lifebond Series. I liked them very much. I thought it was 100 % pure Blair the way he reacted in the Lifebond Series, not letting himself get carried away and talking Jim out of it instead of going for the collar "solution". And the mile-a-minute monologue the small Blair in Symbiosis gave Jim...another one of the 100% pure Blair moments :-).
Going back through the reviews I saw that you had planned to continue both those universes....
Is there still any hope for more of those stories or have your Sentinel muses left you completely? That would be very sad, but if that were the case I would still know where to find stories I know I'll like reading again :-).
Re: OT: Sentinel?
Date: 2007-03-08 06:58 pm (UTC)I do still plan to write more in the Lifebond universe (plot outlines and completed scenes exist but need to be turned into actual stories) and I hope to write more in the Symbiosis universe (existing material here is more sketchy).
None of my stories/series (in any fandom) have been abandoned. I still have every intention of completing them - eventually. I've just been struggling with writer's block for a very, very long time now. Take heart in the fact that one of my two recent postings is for a story that I hadn't posted anything for in nearly a year and a half - and the other is for one that I hadn't posted for in over six months. Sooner or later the TS stories will get their turn.
Re: OT: Sentinel?
Date: 2007-03-09 07:29 pm (UTC)I'm happy to hear there will be more Lifebond someday :-) and I hope the muses will be so kind to tell you more about Symbiosis too :-). I'll be looking forward to it, but you take all the time you need.
Writers block can be a real PITA. I think I kinda know how that feels...I was only able to get about a handful of stories from my muses over the course of the last 7 years that I have been reading fanfic and occasionally trying to write too. And some of those still are unfinished because my muses tend to just up and leave me just before the story is complete :-(.
So the best of luck with your writing :-).