Not my "verse. belongs to Josh. I'm just pushingh the plastic dinosaurs around his sand box.

continuation of Interludes (thanks for the patience) Our BDHs have made it to the skyplex (The Message, not War Stories)

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (part 1)

River wished she could see Jayne's face when he opened his Big Damned Present. She knew Jayne had no concept of almost 1,000 squares of platinum (200,000 credits in real cashey money). So she spent a few of hers (Whatever it was, 柑月球 did have a one million square available credit limit) in advance and ordered casino chips, white, red, green, black, and purple with Jayne's picture on each one and captioned "Hero of Canton" as a touchy-feely way to make the numbers on the credit chits seem more real. She didn't realize how popular they would end up being -with both crews- although Monte's crew thought of it more as an inside joke they didn’t entirely get.

*****

Memories of Tracey met the crew as they saw the huge displays lighting the black around the ‘plex. An entire chapter of their lives together that ended badly, one of the few they ... just plain lost. They connected with Mal's friend Amnon for help securing rooms suitable for moderately successful traders and a safe deposit box for all those credit chits.

Mal spent a bit of Serenity's share renting a conference room for their first evening and provided a meal for them, including strawberries for Kaylee. He also commandeered Jayne's chips so everyone that needed it (Kaylee mostly, he was thinking) would have the visual aid to get a better sense of what they would be doing over the next few days: meeting with "investment advisors" to help them decide what to do with the money. Seems none of them had any real idea.

*****

Simon Tam

At first he thought it was ridiculous, needing a visual aid to understand 885 squares of platinum, 2 years pay as a brand spanking new trauma surgeon on Osiris. How did he describe it-淫量仨支付? In Truth it was only numbers on his bank statement. His frozen bank balances paled in comparison to the Tam Trust, the family legacy. But seeing it piled in the center of the table with bowls of food around it, put it in an entirely different perspective.

It dredged up all of his resentments: the few girls that allowed him to seduce them for a shot at the family fortune and/or the prestige of being a doctor's wife; the many young women who just blew him off as an inept social failure; his colleagues who laughed at him behind his back for just not being able to connect on any level other than professional; River for having to rescue her and become a fugitive living with psychopathic thieves on a 狗屎 smuggling ship that might, despite Kaylees assurances, drop right out of the sky without notice; his parents for almost everything including having to rescue River, at all, alone, disinherited, making both of them fugitives; Kaylee for loving Simon Tam, shiniest most 清秀混蛋in the whole 'verse, poor as a sewer rat as he was, being a fugitive and all.

All it was at that moment was a sad commentary on his life, a reminder of all he lost, a target on his back if any of the myriad predators on the ass-end of the 'verse discovered his (their) secret, which then made him resent Jayne who would get drunk and brag about his fortune to some tchen wah triggering a shootout on a skyplex with no way to escape. It was useless to him. May as well buy in at the casino at New Vegas and head for the roulette wheel and drop it all on black.

Even with the entirety of 9 diamonds, River could not be repaired. She would remain his damaged, 妹妹 permanently exiling him from the life he desperately dreamed of. He could not buy his career back, could not return home. Even if the warrants for him were dropped, he would always live in fear of Blue Sun's killers, River's hands of Blue. His impulse at that moment was to convert it all into coin, pick some random backwater on the rim, hire Mal to fly him there and slowly dump the entire pile out of the garbage hatch. Maybe some town would raise a statue to him, have a riot and proclaim him the Hero of Podunk.

Of course, now a supply of medicine with dubious efficacy would be strictly a matter of supply, not how well the latest crime went. And now he resented Malcolm 他妈的Reynolds for being right. No way could they burrow deeply enough on Bellerophon or Presephone to avoid those seeking River. Half-a-million credits could not unhitch them from that废物 scow.

*****

Kaywinnet Lee Frye

It was all Kaylee could do to not cry for joy. She lived her dream already. She loved her captain, he treated her like his 妹妹,only yelled at her when she seriously deserved it ... mostly. Serenity was her home, her girl that cared for them all as well as she took care of Serenity, except for that blown catalyzer... She had Simon in her bed every night and sometimes in the afternoons since the BDB. And while the crew could not/would not replace her biological family, they were still her family.

Inara paid for all the clothes she and River bought back on Bellerephon for these meetings, since they had to act the parts she constructed for them. Even so she wanted for nothing except a diet with more strawberries and less tofu, maybe real steak once in a while. Maybe a set of nicer tools, the occassional tube of low friction grease, maybe chip in for parts when things got tight again, she was a low maintenance kind of girl. She spent almost none of the 500 credits.

As far as she was concerned, most of it could go back home to her parents to make their lives easier, help her brothers and sisters get some education or capital to start their own dreams.

*****

Jayne Cobb

Jayne was having daymares since that gorram box showed up for him. It took him a while to figure out what it was. At first he thought it was his cut, then he looked at it. His picture, Jayne Cobb, Hero of Canton, it brought tears to his eyes remembering that statue and the free tasty and good whiskey and that stupid kid that took that shotgun blast for him.

Then he started thinking about all the ways Jayne Cobb could get drunk and start bragging about that money. Or he could just go on a spending spree, start dressing like some core world dandy, put on airs like Simon, become prey for people like him. Yes Jayne probably knew better than any of the others exactly how big a target was on his 屁股Even on relatively safe Bellerephon, 500 credits felt scary. He bought some clothes, nice boots, fancy hat to rival Badger's infamous bowler, but more suited to his line of work.

This was an even better payday than Simon's hospital heist; better than the promised reward that almost got him spaced after the job. If he could survive long enough to get used to his wealth, he could start his own Heart of Gold. He learned enough from Inara and Nandi to run one right. ,鬼he could buy his own boat, crew it and be the captain. He had lots of dreams that did not end up in an early grave. But surviving is the key.

*****

Inara Serra

Inara was very good at her profession, and very profitable until she walked away from the high priestess position at House Madrassa. Renting the shuttle from Malcolm Reynolds was not the most profitable move she could have made, but it did allow her some space to reassess her life and goals. Then she stupidly fell into infatuation with the kindest most frustrating man she had ever encountered, like some silly public school girl.

She didn't need a visual. She saw the numbers and they meant something to her. She was raised, housed, educated, fed, and clothed by the guild which promptly on her maturity presented her with her indenture, the bill she had to pay off for her freedom. She had paid much of it down, but could never be with Mal completely until it was completely paid off. It wasn't complicated, she just didn't want to explain it.

This was a godsend. Enough to settle her indenture with a little left over. It gave her options, options that scared and excited her in equal measures. She could withdraw from the guild and spend her life with Mal. She could stay in the guild and spend her life with Mal until they tired of each other, then borrow money from the guild to buy her own ship. She could borrrow what she needed to buy her own ship and continue working. Yes Inara Serra had several simple choices, but even simple choices could be very difficult.