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jaggedwolf · 8 months

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TSCOSI Ficlets #5

Waking up in the body of your AU self

Sana woke with a cough. That and the clanging of metal was almost loud enough to camouflage the small voice going "oh, fuck." It took only a second of steady breathing to place the voice as Violet's and another of opened eyes to spot her.

Sana may have been the one lying on the med bay cot, but Violet was the one who looked wrong - a ponytail her hair should be too short for, Arkady's IGR guard jacket instead of her own sweater or crew jacket.

"Captain Tripathi." One of Violet's hands was shoved into her jacket pocket, an upturned chair behind her. There was an intensity to Violet's gaze that didn't seem entirely medical. She'd seen Violet calmer when faced with an actively bleeding patient.

No blood here, only a growing headache. "Violet, an update? Last thing I remember is piloting the ship. How long was I out for?"

"Less than an hour." Violet frowned. "I-I had to shift here to monitor you."

The door slid open with a beep, Arkady striding through. At least she looked as Sana expected, tank and tactical pants and close-cropped hair.

"Thought I told you to comm me as soon as she woke up, Liu." Arkady glowered as she leant back against the end of the cot.

"It hasn't been that long." Sana lightly nudged the small of Arkady's back with her foot. "I'm sure Violet was about to."

Arkady froze. Something sick curled in Sana's gut at how Arkady's shoulders relaxed once Sana jerked her foot away. It curled tighter at the wary looks Violet and Arkady traded.

"I was," Violet finally said. "Your scans were normal, Captain. It could've been simple dehydration."

"Dehydration." Arkady crossed her arms, apparently ending whatever shared moment they'd had. "Seriously?"

"Why exactly would I lie, First Mate Patel?" snapped Violet, shoulders hunched. "I know it wouldn't end well."

Arkady made a sound of frustration. "Wasn't an accusation." She stepped in between Violet and Sana, making eye contact with the latter. "Wasn't. I was the only one near you when you fainted. Anyway, need anything else from Liu?"

"No?" Sana's headache wasn't subsiding, but if asking for painkillers would trigger more of whatever she witnessed, she'd rather hold out.

"Great!" Arkady swept Violet out the medbay with an unexpected swiftness, though Sana caught sight of Arkady scanning something to open the door. Shit. That was the final straw. You didn't lock exits on a ship.

Only an hour, impossible. Who's turned her crew against her and each other? Who's managed to turn Arkady against her? Made them willing to keep her prisoner on her own ship?

Arkady must have noticed her growing panic, because she approached the cot with her hands up and a grin that didn't reach her eyes. "Captain, it's Liu. She's completely harmless. Even if she wasn't"-Arkady snorts-"she knows you've got eyes and automated systems on every part of this ship."

Arkady jerked her head towards a table where a tablet and gun lay. "Everyone else has been at their stations. Jeeter's in his room, and Krejjh is sha-"

"You left a gun here?" asked Sana. The tablet unlocked itself at Sana's touch, displaying a single camera feed of the mess hall. A swipe showed the airlock. Another Violet walking down a corridor. Another a small bedroom.

"Already feeling good enough to test me, Sana?" Arkady's fingers twitched. She tapped the single holster on her hip, no others to be seen (how had Sana missed that, she shouldn't have missed that.) Arkady forced her grin wider. "Come on, we solved my little paranoia problem ages ago, right?"

"Right," said Sana, letting the instinct to reassure her best friend take over as the full realization of what she held in her hands hit her.

Sana wasn't the prisoner of this ship. She was its warden.

Salacious Rumors

elionated: hey hey hey GossipGeneral57: No. elionated: but whyyyyyyy elionated: how could you betray me so, best of friends and best of admins? GossipGeneral57: You could file an appeal via the link on the deleted thread. GossipGeneral57: I would reject it, of course GossipGeneral57: This is a *celebrity* gossip board, the FAQ specifically outlines the requirements for discussing someone.

elionated: yeah well your requirements are dumb if people dubbing some dwarnian soap opera count as celebs and not the FRICKIN CREW OF THE RUMOR elionated: do you have any idea how much time I spent putting together that post? gathering theories from all over the net? listening to those reports? elionated: my post had citations man, mr yusof would be proud GossipGeneral57: I don't want to think about our old lit teacher reading your list of crew combinations ordered by how likely they are to be sleeping together.

elionated: so you read it then? :D GossipGeneral57: Obviously. It was one of your posts, after all elionated: :D GossipGeneral57: I have qualms on ranking (3) there. I think (4) and perhaps even (5) are likelier candidates given the opportunity of time.

elionated: are u kidding me what about my evidence GossipGeneral57: You mean the part where you came very close to breaking our doxxing rules via a partially covered profile screenshot that as you said, proves "she's okay with sharing"? elionated: research! the very bedrock of this board! GossipGeneral57: The name and anagrams of it aren't even particularly unique. elionated: gotta give the people whatever i can find

elionated: you know who else might have an opinion on this? the other people who left comments before you DELETED all my hard work GossipGeneral57: You always have backups. GossipGeneral57: I would also like the board to not get purged via government order elionated: ugh fine elionated: i guess if we're all gonna die in some dumb war i'd rather be able to post gossip during

GossipGeneral57: ...I don't have objections to discussing this topic in our encrypted messages, however elionated: ha I KNEW IT elionated: ok who do you think is banging other than the obvs GossipGeneral57: Hold on, I'm pulling up your list again and-seriously, the entire crew? Didn't Mr Yusof also cover not taking giant inferential leaps? GossipGeneral57: (Mr Yusof I'm so sorry) elionated: you gotta read the archive on the structure of dwarnian emrehs, the one in footnote 11 elionated: i'm just saying that krejjh seems like they'd be all about sharing cultural traditions ;)

Awkward Comfort

“There’s nothing to be done,” Park says, and he knows it’s a mistake as soon as the words leave him. Foolish, foolish, foolish.

Captain Tripathi doesn’t snap at him. Instead, she lets out a shaky sigh, head leaned back against the wall that separates her from the medbay where Patel’s fighting for her life, Liu and McCabe doing their level best to help her.

Park needs - wants? - to expend at least a similar level of effort in monitoring the captain. He has never seen (or heard) her so unsettled, or so despairing. He sits down next to her on the hallway floor. The movement is not very graceful, and something in his right knee twinges.

“You’re not wrong,” the captain finally says. Her voice is as wry as ever, but with none of its usual mirth. “The time to do something would have been before leading Arkady to an ambush.”

“Captain Tripathi,” Park reasons, “with the intelligence we had, we all thought the deal was legitimate. There was no way we could have-”

Her gaze turns steely. “My best friend got really hurt because of that ‘legitimate deal’, forgive me if I’m not in the mood for IGR-standard ass-covering.”

Park flinches.

“Park-that wasn’t fair of me. It’s-”

“No,” Park interrupts against his instincts, fingers curling around his scarred knee, “I think that’s a fair assessment.”

He pauses for a moment, turning his next words over in his head. He often wishes Shelly was with him on this strange turn his life had taken, but especially now, when she would’ve at least gotten some joy out of his struggles to offer comfort, if not having any advice of her own.

Park slowly says, “I also believe my ass-covering to be accurate as well. Not even Patel could blame you.”

Captain Tripathi snorts. “You did a poor job listening in if you thought Arkady wouldn’t be the last person to blame me.”

“She has some degree of self-preservation. And an excellent medic working on her.” Park thinks back to the few files he’d dug up on Liu’s time by O-11, the hours of work rewarded with little actionable intelligence. “If there was a warning sign, I’m sure Patel will regale us on the matter when she recovers.”

“She would.” The captain shakes her head. “She will. I’m going to stick around out here, Park, but you don’t have to.”

“Is there something that needs to be done elsewhere?” An easy opening for her to dismiss him. He rather hopes she doesn’t. Getting up would be a far less graceful process than sitting down. Worse yet, Park finds he doesn’t like the idea of her waiting alone, even if the alternative is his stilted company.

“No.” Sana’s eyes focus on him. He has the uncanny feeling she’s figured out something about him. “Not at all.”

Mundane AU

"It can't be that bad, dude," said Brian, sounding very reasonable as he took a sip of his hot chocolate. "Wasn't it already kinda bad?"

"Yes." Violet stared out the cafe window. The bright sunlight only aggravated her hangover, but it was far too late for her to hide from the day. "I also thought the week couldn't get worse than the department chair telling me that the direction of my dissertation was completely pointless. While my advisor said nothing."

Brian winced, even though she'd already told him this. He had his own horror stories about grad school, from before he'd dropped out. But that wasn't why Violet had texted him this morning.

"What happened?" asked Brian. "Did your advisor say something?"

"No," said Violet, almost wishing she had. "Your friends, the ones I met last night?"

"Arkady and Sana, yeah." Brian grins. "It seemed like you three hit it off. Sorry Krejjh and I had to head out early, moving has us beat."

"We did," admitted Violet. "After the bar, they showed me the flower shop and tattoo parlor." She grimaced. "I think I drank too much - I vaguely remember them insisting on walking me home?"

"Dude, that doesn't seem like that big a deal," said Brian. "Arkady's had to sleep it off on our couch plenty of times."

Violet cut to the chase. "Brian, when I woke up today, there was a bouquet of flowers on the nightstand. And next to it, a sketch of a tattoo design."

"Tattoos like the kind you swore off forever?" joked Brian, who had heard all about the very ill-advised hip tattoo decisions Violet had made in undergrad.

"It, um." Violet blushed. "It incorporated my current one. It actually made it look pretty good? The point is, I texted them this morning. Only I...thanked Sana for the flowers, and Arkady for the tattoo design."

"You didn't," protests Brian.

"I did. I didn't even realize until they texted me back." She leaned across the table to show him their replies. (Sana: You should thank Arkady for those! :D, Arkady: uh what liu? think you meant to text tripathi)

The disbelief was evident in Brian's eyes. "I introduced you guys to each other, Violet."

"Yeah, and you said 'this is Sana and Arkady, they run the flower shop and the tattoo parlor down on Rumor Street'. You never actually said who ran what!"

"You were in their shops!"

"We didn't actually talk about work that much. And they kept bouncing ideas off each other, I just thought they knew each other that well."

"Well, they do," said Brian, frowning. "But Sana's tattoos!"

"What about them?" asked Violet, taking a big gulp of her coffee.

"Isn't the woman with tattoo sleeves more likely to be the tattoo artist?"

"Arkady has a tattoo too, a number on her shoulder," argued Violet. Embarrassed, she mumbled her next defense. "I...thought of that puzzle. You know, the one where a town only has two barbers and-"

"-and you have to pick which one to get a haircut from, and one of them has a great haircut while the other one doesn't?" Brian's face lights up in recognition and amusement. "Kinda only applies in a town that only has two barbers, Violet. I think Sana got hers before she even moved here?"

"I probably seem like a complete idiot," said Violet, fidgeting with the handle of her mug. "Or worse."

"I don't think they'll hold it against you." Brian glanced at his phone after it lit up with a notification, smiling at whatever it was. "Not their style."

Wrist Kisses

When Violet returned to Arkady's room, her first order of business was falling back on the bed. Her second was a bone-deep sigh.

A snort of amusement came from where Arkady's desk stood. "Another talk-through?"

"Yeah." Violet closed her eyes. She would be eternally grateful for Dr Robinson's crash course. But the universe was still short on doctors, let alone non-IGR ones, and Violet hadn't helped that shortage when she'd decided to leave Telemachus for a spot on Sana's new ship. The least she could do was consult over calls. It meant squinting through poor video and only being able to offer her words, not her work.

She didn't mind. Even for the worst of those calls, she'd found it terrifying and satisfying and thrilling all at once. She hardly knew which of those were the best ways to feel.

"Bad call?" asked Arkady. Closer, this time.

"No, just some long ones."

Arkady hummed in acknowledgement. Violet blinked her eyes open in time to find Arkady hovering over her, the mattress sinking a little deeper with their combined weight. She grasped Arkady's face in her hands. Ran her thumb over the short hairs around Arkady's ears. It was grounding, holding Arkady, in a way that made Violet feel uncomfortably selfish.

"Sorry," said Violet, "I was planning on showering before I swung by."

"Yeah, Liu, you're absolutely filthy from uh, spending all day talking to people. Really contaminating my room," teased Arkady, who then turned her head to press a slow kiss to Violet's left wrist.

"I could go shower now." Violet shifted her arm to give Arkady better access. "There's still time before dinner."

Arkady shook her head, and responded between kisses that made their way up (or was it down?) Violet's arm. "Well, you've already ruined the sheets. We shouldn't waste it."

#now in 2023 #tscosi #starship iris #ficlets #sana tripathi #park and sana #violet and arkady #violet liu #vas

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