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Morgana opened her eyes to find herself in a cave, facing a girl roughly her own age, wearing bulky, warm clothes and sitting cross-legged on a boulder.
This was definitely one of the strangest dreams she'd had, and by now Morgana considered herself quite the expert on strange dreams.
The girl on the boulder stared at her intently. "You're a very weird phenomenon," she said.
Morgana had learned, through trial and error, that it was best not to engage with her fever dreams any more than necessary. Sometimes she ended up seeing things that haunted her for weeks.
"You don't belong," the girl said, cocking her head, which caused her long, tangled hair to fall over her eyes.
Morgana glanced around the empty cave. "No, I certainly don't."
"I don't mean here," the girl said, extending a hand, inviting Morgana to climb up the stone and join her. "I mean anywhere."
Morgana paused to think about it for a minute but then decided if she was going to be stuck in this dream for a while she might as well get comfortable. The girl turned out to be much stronger than she looked.
"Whereas I suppose," Morgana said, as she settled into a more or less comfortable sitting position, leaning her back against the wall of the cave. "You belong in wherever this is." Sometimes her dreams told her interesting stories. She could never recount them to anyone, not even to Gwen, but the times when she didn't wake up screaming were rare, and she liked to cherish them.
The girl shrugged. "I don't really belong anywhere. The place where I'll be what I'm supposed to be, it doesn't exist yet. Not even in here," she pointed at her head. "But I let them believe the right things. I find slots to slide myself into so it doesn't show. You should try that."
Morgana still had only a vague idea of what the girl meant. "Of course," she said.
"I don't live in this cave," the girl said, as though she could hear Morgana's thoughts. "They left me here because Mal didn't trust Jayne not to sell me to the highest bidder, again. So they left me here for safekeeping while they run the job."
Morgana tried thinking of something else.
"This isn't really a dream, you know," the girl said. Now Morgana was convinced the girl was a mind reader.
"Right," Morgana said, "Just another slice of reality."
The girl sighed. "The 'verse is a big place. All kinds of things can happen. All kinds of things get created. They call it magic, but it's really not." She leaned closer, looking into Morgana's eyes as if she was struggling to read the words on a page. "You have a gift." She leaned back again, bringing her knees up and wrapping her arms around them. "Those always come with a price."
Morgana sighed. It was the most depressing not-a-nightmare dream she'd ever had.
"Close your eyes," the girl said, looking at her feet. She looked up, when Morgana didn't follow the instruction. "Close your eyes," she insisted. "It's never as bad when you've got your eyes closed." The girl's smile was slightly crooked, although it seemed genuine, which was disturbing in its own way.
Morgana closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The girl's fingers settled over her temples and after a moment she felt the girl's lips touch her forehead.
She opened her eyes to see Gwen standing by the dresser, putting things away. It was broad daylight. She hadn't slept so well in months.
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Dear Jain, since we are both familiar with Firefly and Leverage, I would like to ask the most important question of all: who wore it better?
The troubled dad who keeps the team together:
The mom who does the heavy lifting when it comes to the emotional well being of everyone and uses her people skills to make a living:
And the kids:
The slightly scary/crazy girl with the mad skills:
The guy who always saves everyone's life with his ~book learnings~:
The guy who's only there to punch things (except not really):
I know who my winner in each category is! Go on, take your pick. :)
Bonus round:
MAGICAL SOLUTION IS MAGICAL.