Serenity Valley.

[badinlatin]

Everyone was off in their own corners of the ship as Wash started to approach the atmosphere around 60 miles above the Serenity Valley memorial's principal landing docks. Mal almost hopes that at least some of them are heading off toward Milliways at the moment, but he knows not to hope for everybody to do so.
And every name’s a father or a husband or a son
Mal's turning over a silver chain endlessly between his fingers, reading the tags - Reynolds, M / 57th Overlanders / Shadow - for the millionth time as he lets his legs swing beneath him while sitting on the crosswalk between the two staircases at the back of the cargo bay. He feels Serenity beneath him descending at a mildly steeper angle now, and if Mal closes his eyes the feeling of vertigo rushing to his head almost knocks him backwards.
or a daughter or a brother or a cousin to someone
Mal can't sit still anymore, even though sitting while Wash lands the ship would have probably been advisable; he stands just as the engines rotate toward the ground beneath them, and almost trips down the stairs. He reaches the bottom of the staircase, both booted feet landing with a solid thud, and Mal makes a beeline toward the cargo bay door controls. Even with the sound of the air through the engines that Mal always pays attention to when the ship lands, his footsteps echo in the bay, sounding like thirty men all at once.
or a name might be a classmate or a friend you may recall
Serenity finally comes to rest at port, a minute before Wash calls an all-clear to lower the bay door. Mal doesn't hear this. He's too busy staring out the small porthole in the bulkhead.
there’s nearly sixty thousand fallen names / still waiting at The Wall
Malcolm Reynolds' ship Serenity is situated at the far end of the eastern port control, with a view toward the two-story sandblasted building and the valley itself beyond. He can't lay eyes on the graveyard yet and for a moment he considers this a small blessing. All he can seem to focus on this very second is the lip of the valley, almost a straight drop twenty meters or so beyond the memorial building itself.

Comments

Arriving

[badinlatin]

The cargo bay door is lowered by Mal's own hand without really focusing on what he's doing. It's easy enough to push a button to kickstart the mechanism without too much thought behind it, and this is probably why Mal jumps as the doorframe begins to whirr.

The tiny porthole that had been Mal's only view of the outside increases exponentially as the door opens. So does the number of shallow breaths he finds himself taking. The ramp finally clunks hollowly against the ground.

Does it keep you awake at night, Sergeant?

Mal doesn't move.

Re: Arriving

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

Mal may not be moving, but someone is, to judge from the sound of approaching footsteps.

Zoe's not looking at Mal as she draws level with him. She's looking out at the valley, calm and composed.

One might even go so far as to say serene.

"So." Level, controlled. "We doing this or not?"

Re: Arriving

[badinlatin]

Mal snaps out of

You will always lose

whatever he'd been musing, shooting Zoe a glance. He shouldn't be surprised Zoe didn't leave him. She did follow him this far.

"Suppose we are. Naomi?"

Re: Arriving

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

"Wash has her."

Simply.

"Wasn't too keen on th' thought of bringin' her along."

Serenity Valley Memorial

[badinlatin]

The building visible from port control is a relatively new addition to the grounds of Serenity Valley. The graveyard - identical markers for the innumerable laid to rest there - was taken care of with almost more urgency after the battle than assisting the survivors, whereas the structure directly in the path of all incoming travelers from the docks was completed in the summer of 2516.

The change in temperature from the heat outside to the air conditioning within does just as much to remind a visitor that they've entered a solemn place as the kiosk in front of the entrance meant to outline the various exhibits on the sprawling first floor, and maps for the various battle site markers along the Valley. There's a section of wallspace dedicated to each military unit assigned to Serenity Valley during the battle, with standalone false walls in the center of the great room outlining movement of troops.

The three walls of the great room displaying surviving memories of the soldiers who fought in the battle curve, and there's no hard angles until two opposite walls buttend into the fourth - completely flat, and no pictures adorn it.

REMEMBER OUR FALLEN

All soldiers that could be identified are named here, miniscule print engraved into the walls.

Re: Serenity Valley Memorial

[river_meimei]

Simon insisted on boots, today, and won the argument.

River is still walking as if she's barefoot: heel rolling to toe, slow and silent. Meditative.

Her head is tilted up, canted a little to one side, and she studies the clean graven walls with a detached and almost dreamy absorption.

Re: Serenity Valley Memorial

[badinlatin]

Mal makes his way toward the back of the room once he realized what was written across the entirety of the fourth wall, and steps even with River, about a yard to her left.

"Lot o' folk, isn't it?" Voice artificially flat, staring nakedly at River studying the wall.

Re: Serenity Valley Memorial

[river_meimei]

"Five hundred thousand two hundred and one." That's absent.

It's a minute before her gaze slides sideways to settle on Mal, though her head stays tipped upwards.

Re: Serenity Valley Memorial

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

Inara stops as they enter, instantly struck by the place. It's visually one of the most powerful things she's ever seen, and her breath slows as she takes in the wall of memories.

After a moment, she is able to move and crosses to the list of names engraved in the wall. She reaches up and traces a few of the names with her fingertips.

Re: Serenity Valley Memorial

[badinlatin]

Mal hadn't tried to make his way to the looming wall in the back of the memorial just as of yet. It's the scenes depicted on the displays in the center of the room that gain Mal's attention as he enters, and he finds himself staring at a vid-progression of troop movement. Little purple and brown lines scrolling across the mounted vidscreen, accurate to the point of fading to almost nothing as the timeline dictated the loss of life progressed.

It's so...flat. Like a kid's science project.

Mal continues to stare.

Re: Serenity Valley Memorial

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

Inara looks over to Mal. She doesn't want to crowd him, standing over him like a mother hen. She moves over to the displays and stands a few feet away, ready if he needs her.

Serenity Valley Graveyard

[badinlatin]

Nothing has grown naturally in the Valley or its surrounding area since the War, so walking the wide path toward the only place in sight that is not some shade of dust or charred rock is slightly disorienting.

The path follows the north end of the cemetary before leading straight down the center of over half a million graves spanning one entire end of the Valley. There are no discernable divisions amongst the gravemarkers - there are numbers etched into the top of each stone and grids one can use at each cemetary entrance to find a loved one - but no indication of affiliation except military unit identification.

The vast majority of the gravestones have no marker at all, beyond Lost at a particular area of the Valley, and these often have more flowers and decoration than those with names. There are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, all in their own thoughts, almost oblivious to others except for a knowing nod, sometimes a supportive pat on the shoulder as they pass one another.

Five hundred thousand white stones in a clearing, the only spot of green as far as the eye can see.

Re: Serenity Valley Graveyard

[badinlatin]

Mal never saw any of this. He heard about it, from others who were here or lost loved ones here - "They're planting trees, making the place real nice for those who'll never leave" - but he never even dared to look at pictures.

He numbly heads toward a kiosk, trying to locate a couple names that come to his mind.

(We're not gonna die, Bendis, you know why?)

He doesn't find any that he recognizes, although the list of those Lost at North Cliff feels as though it could scroll for several pages. This section of graves are clustered together, and Mal abandons the grid display to move off onto a secondary path, an even clip and a clenched fist outward displays of how fast his mind is working.

Re: Serenity Valley Graveyard

[gonna_live]

Kaylee finds that it's difficult not to walk with her head lowered. Very difficult.

So when she lifts her head, from about ten feet behind Mal (she's been following like this the whole time) --




It's so many.

It's one-sixtieth of the number of people on Miranda.

It's so many.




So Mal hates the Alliance. Kaylee can't bring herself to do that. But her eyes are getting suspiciously bright.

She lowers her head again. Nobody needs to see.

Re: Serenity Valley Graveyard

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

Just scanning the gravestones from a short distance, there's no way to tell Browncoat from Alliance.

Zoe's okay with that.

She walks closer anyway, picking a row at random, glancing at the gravestones on either side as she moves down it.

Re: Serenity Valley Graveyard

[ff-ambassador.livejournal.com]

Inara has seen pictures before, of course, but the reality of the place, the sheer number of white on that rare bit of green, hammers home what occured here.

A passing woman, older, probably a mother, nods to her, tear tracks visible down her face. Inara nods back, not sure what else to do.



"If it's Alliance trouble you got, you might want to consider another ship. Some on board here fought for the Independents."

"The Alliance has no quarrel with me. I supported Unification."




She bows her head and begins murmuring in Mandarin a Buddhist prayer for the dead.

Re: Serenity Valley Graveyard

[badinlatin]

Anna Kavanagh, 'Old Anna' to her neighbors in the Lavinia highrise in which she used to live, makes a yearly trip to the graves of her two sons. More precisely, two markers - one with her son's name on it, and the unnamed marker immediately to her son's right. She's the only other person here besides Mal's crew Mal really takes notice of, if only for the weight in his gut telling him that that could have easily been his mother.

Old Anna and Mal pass each other wordlessly, even though both take notice of the other.

Arriving at Inara's side, he overhears the end of her prayer, wanting to make a comment about - from what little he understands of Buddhism - it's all about how life is nothing but death and suffering.

Maybe Buddha's got something.

The Valley Itself

[badinlatin]

Most people avoid looking down into the Valley itself when they come to visit, preferring to focus on calm, clean grave markers and polite remembrances.

Those with the stomach for it - or the memories of having been there - do not turn away from the Valley at the far end of the graveyard.
As I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death
In many ways, the Valley appears almost exactly as survivors of the battle left it: near to two months of constant shooting, bombing and fire left the ground charred and broken, a pit. There are railings along the very edge of the Valley nearest the graveyard, with petite electronic plaques outlining where precisely certain troops were stationed and how they moved during the course of the conflict. Some railings also sport small religious icons - the central railing closest to the graveyard itself has a wooden HoTei Buddha carrying a rosary.

The major difference to the soldiers who dare to return to the Valley is this: it's empty. No bodies, no tanks, no sandbags or other pathetic attempts at shelter.

This is what we did.

No one walks down into the Valley, but not because anyone forbids them to do so. They choose to stay at the edges, sometimes throwing flowers over the railings. The same style path leading from the Memorial to the graveyard connects several small pylons within view - site markers for specific engagements, again decorated by families of men and women who fell there.

Re: The Valley Itself

[gonna_live]

Once upon a time Kaylee acquired a picture.

It's been the cause of a little trouble.

She's kept it. And without telling anybody --

Her hand tightens on Simon's arm. Whispered: "Hold up a minute?"

[simon_doctor]

"Mm?"

They're walking slowly; he stops.

"What is it?"

Re: The Valley Itself

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

Zoe never thought she'd come back here.

But if she's gonna go back, she's gonna do it properly.

Walking alongside the railings, it doesn't take all that long to find a plaque showing where the 57th Overlanders were stationed.

Re: The Valley Itself

[badinlatin]

Mal's striding to Zoe's side as she finds herself in front of the plaque for the Overlanders gives Mal a frightening sense of deja vu, the strongest he's had since they've landed.

It gives him pause mid-step, but he recovers and moves to Zoe's side again.

Craning his neck over the side of the railing, Mal sees literally hundreds of flowers in various stages of decay littering the ground.

"Huh."

Leaving

[badinlatin]

It's a long walk back to his crew after he had excused himself for just a moment, and Mal returns with the same stoic expression he's been attempting to maintain throughout the entire visit, with varying degrees of success. He rejoins his crew in front of the memorial building, offering a short smile.

"Sorry to hold y'all up."

Re: Leaving

[gonna_live]

"You didn't," says Kaylee, quietly, sitting on a low stone wall. Eyes moving from the sky to Mal. Others are around; Kaylee feels the need to answer. "Not a jot."

Re: Leaving

[badinlatin]

Mal still looks like he can't decide whether holding it together is a more worthwhile action than hiding in a corner, and he retains an ashen expression when he hears Kaylee reply.

Addressing everyone: "Let's get out o' here."

No one needs that order repeated, and Mal's platoon crew retreats from Serenity Valley. Inara walks at Mal's side most of the way, a frequent touch exchanged between them. Eventually however, the captain drifts toward his mechanic's side.

"You weren't too bored."