Stark

It was time, Stark decided, to head back to his friends. Shipmates. Friends. He'd been away long enough. He'd met a daughter who was impossible and a son who was, if anything, even more so. He'd had enough Fandom Weirdness, in other words, to last for quite a while.

So he commed to the water planet and let them know he'd be back soon. It was good to hear their voices. And it would be good to see them all soon.

And as he often did, he reconnected his comms to the alumni network. A little more weirdness couldn't hurt, right? And another friendly voice was always a good thing.




[As usual, open for phone calls etc.]

Stark always missed Zhaan. This was a fundamental part of who he was, much like his tenous hold on his sanity or his tendency to babble. Sometimes he missed her more than others. Usually this was just something he accepted, something that bothered him on some level but not an immediate one. Usually it was a wistful sort of emotion, occasionally something stronger. Sometimes it was more immediate. Like today. Today it wasn't even just emotional. Today it was almost physical.

Staying cooped up his transport pod was not helping Stark in the least, which was why he'd landed on this small commerce planet. Doing something, even if it was just wandering through a marketplace looking for something more palatable than food cubes, had to be better than being left alone with his thoughts right now. Unfortunately for Stark, this particular commerce planet happened, at the moment, to be hosting more than a few Delvians.

Had Stark known about the influx of Delvians, he probably wouldn't have landed at all. Right now he wasn't in any shape to be running into blue people when all he wanted in the world was one particular, beloved blue person. One he'd been missing for far, far too long.

It had been merely an annoyance when he'd spotted the first Delvian woman. He'd simply turned and headed in a new direction. It had happened again, and he'd turned again, thinkin perhaps he should just head back to the pod.

And then he'd turned and crashed into two Delvian Pa'us. Having one eye, after all, led to a distinct lack of peripheral vision to one side. He stumbled backward, stared, paled, whispered "Goddess help me" in a tone barely audible even to himself and began stammering out an apology.

One of the priestesses had grabbed at his shoulder to steady him as he stumbled. She smiled, dismissing the apology as unnecessary, as did the other. "Are you all right?" one asked, "you look...unwell."

"Could we help?" offered the other. "Come, sit, before you fall over." She motioned to a recently vacated bench as she spoke. The first Delvian who had spoken nodded her agreement, gently pushing tugging Stark towards the bench. Part of Stark was having very happy thoughts at the idea of these two Delvians. The vast majority of him was appalled at that part and trying not to flail or run screaming.

"I..." Stark began, toying with the mask buckle at his neck in his effort not to flail. "I. No. No. This is. I...That is, you're...you're not. And I, no. You're not, even if you look...I need to go. Now. Need to go now. Need to be somewhere else. Alone." Leaving two confused Delvian priestesses behind him, Stark turned and fled in the opposite direction hoping he could manage to avoid anymore encounters with blue women on his way back to the transport pod. Perhaps being alone was his best option right now.

[I couldn't leave Stark entirely out of sex week even though just contemplating including him felt vaguely wrong somehow. Establishy unless you happen to be in the UTs or you're taking a break from your pollen-fueled sexcapades to call an alien. He'd enjoy that.]

They made it back, eventually, to the water planet. The Diagnosan, Chiana, Grunschlk and Stark all survived the trip, which was more surprising than the fact that they reached their destination.

The others had been busy while Stark and Chiana were off getting new eyes and a doctor, and all the tiny, tiny pieces of Crichton and Aeryn had been found. And then, somehow, they were put back together. It was good to have everyone back in one piece

Satisfied with the fact that he'd been right and his friends hadn't been dead at all and that they were now returned to themselves, Stark eventually slipped away back to the transport pod. He'd returned Chiana, he'd brought the Diagnosan back, everyone was back in one piece. He wasn't needed here right now and staying didn't feel right. In the discussion and excitement of new eyes, babies, engagements, and Rygel being suddenly pregnant Stark's absence wasn't immediately noticed, nor was the note he left. The note simply promised he'd return, as he always did, and that he would try his best not to be put into any boxes before then.

Once in the transport pod and away from the planet, Stark began fiddling with the comms. Maybe he'd get through to someone again.


[Stark will be back with everyone, eventually, so I can do PK Wars in my own special highly abridged way. And through the magic of being a glowy plot device he won't even miss anything important. And Rygel being pregnant? Never gonna not be funny. Open, if anyone would like to contact or be contacted by an emo alien.]

The trip to the Diagnosan was successful, in spite of Grunschlk. Stark had been disappointed the man was still alive, and was then immediately disappointed in himself for thinking such a thing. After the man had "robbed them blind" (Stark had winced even as he made this statement to Chiana) with fees for the Diagnosan and fees for himself, Stark had gone back to being disappointed that the man still lived after the ice planet.

But what was important was that Chiana had her new eyes and Stark could finally start dealing with some of his still at times overwhelming guilt. The unplanned confessions a few solar days prior had helped with that too. He hadn't MEANT to answer any questions so honestly, it had just seemed to happen.

And now one of the very first sights Chiana saw with her new eyes was Stark in an absolutely ridiculous hat.

"Drad!" she'd exclaimed. "Can I get one?"

"You can have this one," he said. "Except every time I put it down it keeps coming back. It always comes back. I can't get rid of it! I don't want it and I don't know where it came from and I want it GONE. Why won't it GO?"

Chiana had tried not to laugh. But not laughing was hard, and this was one of the first things she'd seen in far too long and she was going to enjoy it.
Unfortunately, the sound of her laughter had brought the Diagnosan (drunk, again) and his handler in.

This was more than Stark could take, so he'd stormed off, muttering darkly and wringing his hands, and shut himself up in the transport pod. The hat, much to his dismay, remained on his head.



[I had to delete 30 inactive userpics just to make this post just so I could use this icon. I think it was worth it.]

Previously, on Farscape, there was a nice safe water planet.

( In which season 4 ends, not with a bang but with some screaming )



[So that's a spoiler-tastic recap of the last few minutes of season 4. This is how David Kemper, magnificent bastard that he is, left us hanging with only a "to be continued" to cling desperately to. And for once I'm not craving cupcakes as I write one of these posts.]

Stark had grown tired of all the pacing and walking eventually. Now he'd taken to hiding in his quarters instead. He wouldn't have called it hiding, of course, but it was hiding all the same.

( Unfortunately, hiding does not cause cupcakes to miraculously appear )

[No transcripts were harmed in the making of this post. No cupcakes were harmed either, though the last one I brought home from work was cruelly stolen from me.]

They all made it back, relatively safely, aboard Moya. And, because they were all still the same people even after everything, they fled.


( Some things never change. Some do. )

Things were normal, or what passed for normal on Moya most times. But it isn't so simple as that. It's never so simple as that. Of course Stark was happy to be back on Moya. Of course he was glad to see his friends again. Of course it was a relief to be safe and free, for now. But it wasn't right. Things (and people) were missing here. Things (and people) had changed too much and not enough. Moya was a fine place to be, but Moya wasn't home. Not anymore. Someday this might be home again, but not now. Not yet.


[The bit under the cut mostly from transcripts of episode 4.21 "We're So Screwed: La Bomba." Also, the internet tells me that my show premiered 9 years ago today.]

Outside the box, things are changing.
( Inside the box...there is Stark. )


[Italicized bit taken almost straight from an episode transcript from the "We're So Screwed" trilogy. And I love that my canon has episode titles like that.]

Once again, Stark had sat in his cell for what seemed like forever. It might have been forever, for all he knew. Time wasn't such a fixed constant as people believed; Stark knew that well enough by now. It might have been days that he sat there, staring at the walls. It might have been weekens. Food still didn't come at regular intervals. He wasn't being starved. He was just always hungry. At least, with Scorpy, there had been food and water most of the time. And there had been the Chair. "The Chair the Chair remember the Chair..." Stark's voice trailed off as he realized what he was saying. First he missed food cubes, now he was almost wishing for an Aurora Chair to break up the tedium of endless arns in this cell. Maybe everyone was right and he'd been crazy all along. He felt crazy now.

The door opened then, interrupting thoughts of sanity or a lack thereof. This time it was food, or what passed for food here. And there was food, regularly even, for a few solar days after that. Stark was suspicious, but this was better than no food and so he ate.

( Inna box! (Finally?) )

Had Stark been conscious, he would have been muttering to himself about how he never should have left the island in the first place and how snow monsters and zombies were infinitely superior to Scarrans. But he wasn't conscious and so there was no muttering.


[Emo aliens do not get holiday breaks. Or something like that. At least he got a shiny box for the holiday?]