TM 242 - Bearer of Bad News
Aug. 11th, 2008 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arrow_of_apollo242 - Write about a time that you were the bearer of bad news.
"Your father's waiting for you in his study."
When I was a kid, those were the most chilling words ever spoken, and my mother always delivered them with the kind of heavy portent that usually accompanies Oracular pronouncements and eulogies. I couldn't stand hearing those words any more than I could stand the long walk across the room from the door to the huge and heavy wood desk. My father would take off his glasses, set them down, fold his hands and wait.
I always knew why I was being sent to my father's study. As you'd guess, it typically had something to do with my getting in trouble. Maybe I'd gotten into a fight at school, or broken a flower pot in the backyard tossing the Pyramid ball around. When my parents got divorced, the little boy inside of me was glad that I'd never again have to make that walk and hear those words.
After the Cylon attack, I came to enjoy coming to the Admiral's quarters for meetings and talks. My father and I, in the middle of this insanity, found a kind of rapport that we had never managed before everything ended. Sometimes, I would come bearing a stack half as tall as I was of paperwork. And other times, it would just be to chat, very often over a glass of something strong.
I knew the meeting would be tense when I walked into it. Baltar's trial was in full swing, and Saul Tigh had taken the stand, drunk to the gills and been broken down, not that he needed Lampkin's help. But I was hoping that my father and I would be able to maintain our professionalism.
He blamed me for Tigh, accused me of feeding Lampkin privileged information about the Colonel and his wife and New Caprica-- things I couldn't have known. He called me a liar. He called me a coward.
My hand was up and my fingers on my wings before I realized it, but even when the gravity of what I was about to do hit me, I didn't hesitate. I knew damn well what I was saying and what I was telling my father, without equivocation. And I took those wings off and put them on that huge and heavy desk, standing my ground.
That was how I told my father that I was resigning my commission.
And now I find I'm afraid of that walk again.
(402, not counting direct quotes)
"Your father's waiting for you in his study."
When I was a kid, those were the most chilling words ever spoken, and my mother always delivered them with the kind of heavy portent that usually accompanies Oracular pronouncements and eulogies. I couldn't stand hearing those words any more than I could stand the long walk across the room from the door to the huge and heavy wood desk. My father would take off his glasses, set them down, fold his hands and wait.
I always knew why I was being sent to my father's study. As you'd guess, it typically had something to do with my getting in trouble. Maybe I'd gotten into a fight at school, or broken a flower pot in the backyard tossing the Pyramid ball around. When my parents got divorced, the little boy inside of me was glad that I'd never again have to make that walk and hear those words.
After the Cylon attack, I came to enjoy coming to the Admiral's quarters for meetings and talks. My father and I, in the middle of this insanity, found a kind of rapport that we had never managed before everything ended. Sometimes, I would come bearing a stack half as tall as I was of paperwork. And other times, it would just be to chat, very often over a glass of something strong.
I knew the meeting would be tense when I walked into it. Baltar's trial was in full swing, and Saul Tigh had taken the stand, drunk to the gills and been broken down, not that he needed Lampkin's help. But I was hoping that my father and I would be able to maintain our professionalism.
He blamed me for Tigh, accused me of feeding Lampkin privileged information about the Colonel and his wife and New Caprica-- things I couldn't have known. He called me a liar. He called me a coward.
My hand was up and my fingers on my wings before I realized it, but even when the gravity of what I was about to do hit me, I didn't hesitate. I knew damn well what I was saying and what I was telling my father, without equivocation. And I took those wings off and put them on that huge and heavy desk, standing my ground.
That was how I told my father that I was resigning my commission.
And now I find I'm afraid of that walk again.
(402, not counting direct quotes)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 06:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 02:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 06:28 pm (UTC)How are you? I haven't seen you much.
Still wearing a suit? ::smirks::
I can't believe they made you president. I'm not trying to sound like a bitch, Lee, but you're--you're Apollo. You're a Viper pilot.
That'd be like making me an Admiral.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 08:41 pm (UTC)I was. I'm not anymore. This feels right. Okay, maybe not the President thing, because that had to happen, but being on this side of things.
*laughs* You watch, Starbuck, you just jinxed yourself. You'll make Admiral in five years now.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 08:44 pm (UTC)Being on what side of things? The Chair Force side? ::laughs:: Only teasing, Lee. Let's hope you can still take it.
I'll keep the jock smock, thanks. I look weird enough in a dress, I don't think I could pull off President Roslin's power suits
or her shoeswithout looking like a frakking moron.no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 09:11 pm (UTC)I can take it. Hell, I'd rather have it said to my face like that instead of the stuff the Quorum says behind my back.
Shut up, Kara, you cleaned up fine. I guess.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 09:18 pm (UTC)I don't know why you'd want to have anything to do with politics, honestly. I prefer my enemies shooting at me where I can see them and shoot back.
You guess? Wow, Lee. Stop, your compliments are making me blush. ::Snorts::
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 09:43 pm (UTC)Yeah, but most of these people's shots you can see coming a mile away.
I call 'em like I see 'em. Besides, you don't even like my suit.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 09:46 pm (UTC)Yes, but you can't blow them up. Or can you? Because if so, I could consider a career change.
I didn't say I didn't like your suit. I just said it was funny that you were wearing one because you're a pilot. I hear some women go nuts over guys in pinstripes.
They just remind me of Baltar.no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 10:27 pm (UTC)Well, all right then.
Eugh. If I ever look that smarmy in a suit, you have presidential permission to airlock me.no subject
Date: 2008-08-13 04:13 am (UTC)Duly noted.no subject
Date: 2008-08-13 06:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-13 02:09 pm (UTC)I only left you standing so as not to ruin your future political career.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-13 04:45 pm (UTC)