Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Nerd Wars Dissertation Hand In

Name: TangledThread

Team: Browncoat

Summary: Knit 8 baby, toddler, and kiddo sweaters.

Category: Geek Pride

INARA
Yes. Great. I wish you hundreds of fat children.

MAL
Aw, could you imagine that? Me with a whole
passel of critters underfoot? Hell, ten
years time I could --

With only 14 episodes and a movie we never got to meet any of the children and as such I’m knitting a sweater for each member of the crew of Serenity from the TV show Firefly. I’m knitting 8 instead of nine because Wash and Zoe will be sharing a sweater.

I have a detailed description of why for each sweater but that write up is for the reveal and I'm keeping the proposal to the point.

ZOE
I don’t give a good gorram about
relevant, Wash. Or objective. And I
ain’t so afraid of losing something
that I ain’t gonna try to have it. You and
I would make one beautiful baby. And I
want to meet that child one day.
Period.

So let’s meet the sweaters.






Shepard Derrial 'Don't call me Grandpa' Book never had children. However, at Southdown Abbey he set up a Co-op. He convinced a weaving mill to make their cones ends of hemp yarn available to anyone that would knit shirts for the orphanage.

The hemp tunics are incredibly sturdy and last through the wearings of several children. They also get softer with age. Like any knitting for charity, the shirts are executed with varying amounts of skill. Some are little masterpieces but most are dashed off by busy knitters in stolen moments of down time between their chores. The wood buttons are caved by the Shepherds. 




Three years after the visit to Canton Jayne receives a message to pick up his son. While he was pleased to have fathered a child he had no interest in stopping his career in "Public Relations". Jayne drops the child off to be raised by Ma Cobb. He sends a a vid message whenever he thinks of it, which is almost never, money with every paying job, and he takes the kid for a month ever year.

Ma Cobb has improved as a knitter but she still knits up every single scrap of what she has on hand and has a whimsical idea of what is tasteful.




Once Cassandra has been exposed to the verse and River has woken up life becomes easier for the Firefly crew. The Alliance doesn't have time to worry about hunting them down and River starts to leave the ship working her own jobs on occasion.  Mal is able to pick up the legal cargo just as often as any other and the pay is more steady.

Simon stays on board for Kaylee for a while but eventually decides that it's time to move back to the core. Kaylee is unwilling to leave to become a doctor's wife. They split as amicably as possible and the crew helps sets Simon up with a very expensive new identity that allows him to be a surgeon at Saint Lucy on Ariel

He's still estranged from his parents but when he marries another doctor and they have a child this hand knit sweater is delivered from a high end boutique shop with a card from Grandma.



Nobody knows why Inara, on the verge of becoming house priestess, let herself get pregnant. Or why she took an extended sabbatical and settled in a tiny cottage on Persephone. She is still invited to the parties of high society but chooses to live a rather quiet life.

Mal is the godfather to her little girl and he visits them as often as jobs bring them to the area. He and Inara are no warmer to each other, nor bicker anymore, than before and if Kaylee and Zoe whisper how the child is the splitting image of Mal there is no indication that he has any sort of notion she might be his.

Inara knit the dress while she was expecting. In her companion training she had learned making lace but she had never picked up knitting needles. It's also not surprising that her first, and only, knitted project was perfection. She would have it no other way and would do each stitch over until it was just right.




Kaylee is the one that finds a new ship medic for the crew. He may be in the top 30% of his class rather than the top 3% but he has a neat hand sewing up bullet wounds. He also worships Kaylee. 

After a year of him romancing her they get married and have a boy. There is never any talk of Kaylee leaving the ship and they raise him on board. The sweater is a gift from Simon from the same boutique shop that his mother sends gifts.





Simon will take an occasional trip on Serenity as the best way to see River. On one such visit Zoë pulls him aside and they have a long discussion that results in Simon checking the med supply of frozen blood and tissue on board. Not long after, Zoë takes a leave of absence and comes back pregnant with her and Wash's child. The sweater is a gift from Kaylee




 River knits her baby gifts. This sweater is cotton and silk blend for Inara but she usually knits in acrylic.

River points out that every baby needs to be able to protect itself. That the ties come in handy for tying things and acrylic will cut flesh before it will break. That it melts when exposed to flame. That it's indestructible and lasts forever. All very handy in an emergency.


 


Mal is tolerant but resistant to it all. It's years later until he marries. It's a good match too. She is strong and has a mischief twinkling in her eyes.

They set out making their own passel of critters and if Mal puffs up a bit looking at them in their brown sweater coats she knows that brown is the only sensible color for ship wear when washing happens about once a month with water so scarce. 


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Absolutely perfect.

Tygherknits.