Sunday Snippet: On Ice

The Last Ship continues to blow my mind. I love the words that come from Chandler's mouth. Is the man perfect? Hell, no. But I'd totally back whatever play he wanted to make, even if it blew up in our faces. Can't wait to see what Blond Ambition tries to pull this week. And I have to say, the whole building of a wall thing, making the regional borders permanent, haunts me a little. I'm very interested in how that whole thing plays out. And hey… I get to see a familiar face on this week's episode!! YAY!!

Killjoys stayed dark and twisty and I won't complain. I'm saddened by the loss of a character who became a favorite. I'm also really interested in finding out what the hell is up with the faux scarbacks Evil Delle has working with her. Because that's a snag I want to see play out.

Dark Matter dialed the tension back a little and I'm okay with it. I continue to be amused by the little callbacks to the Stargate 'verse—this week it was a personal shield—and hope the inside references don't get to be too much. We'll see how that goes.

No Strike Back this week, but I did finish up season two of Babylon 5. I'm taking a small break to start on some 80s movies with my daughter and I've also got season one of Killjoys on tap. I'm revisiting the first episodes to see if there are some seeds planted that I missed. :)

And that's it for television this week. Tonight's post is from On Ice, a novella built around the prompt of one character having enough of the other's brattiness and deciding to show them who's boss. A totally fun scenario to play with.

Here's the mini-blurb:

A battle is brewing between opposing magical factions and Paley Knoff and Birk Southampton are charged with readying their troops. Paley thinks Birk is taking the threat too seriously and when he ignores her in favor of adding more training, she pushes him a little too far, leaving him no choice but to put her on ice until she remembers who's in charge.

And a preview snippet…

Paley Knoff rolled her eyes. "Can we please move the hell on from deflecting fire ball attacks?" She met the gaze of her fellow instructor.

Birk Southampton narrowed his eyes. "Not yet. Only half the class is proficient." He turned and began an incantation to make more projectiles.

Paley whined. "But it's so booorrrring." Her tone grated on her ears, but they'd been at the same exercise for half the day.

Birk glanced back over his shoulder. "Maybe, but it's better than half our students being dead." A dozen fiery orbs hovered in the air beside him.

Paley couldn't argue. "Okay, true. But at least let me take the ones who've mastered the skill and—"

Birk cut her off. "No. We stay together. I'm not bucking protocol because you have the attention span of a gnat." The balls followed him when he moved to the center of the room.

His admonishment stung. She never liked being called on her bullshit. Something Birk managed to do on a regular basis.

Stomping to the middle of the training area, she whipped up a batch of matching flame missiles. "Heads up, people. The master has deemed more work necessary." She launched the first volley. "Let's all get it right this time." A brief flash of satisfaction flared when two students worked together to destroy the fire ball.

And a surge of pleasure filled her when Birk's mouth thinned to a slash across his face. If he wanted to call bullshit, she'd retaliate by hurling insults. If she pissed him off in the process, she'd consider the achievement a bonus.

She'd scored a direct hit, based on Birk's intense focus for the next thirty minutes. He tended to ignore anything but his goal when he got riled, preferring to stew in silence. Taking turns making the flaming orbs, each put the group of twenty students through their paces. By the time Birk decided they passed muster, Paley almost leapt with joy. Finally… they could move on to something more interesting.

And maybe get back on schedule.

I'm going to love seeing how these two get together. Okay, I know how they're going to work things out, but it'll be fun getting all that on the page. LOL

That's it for this week.

Cheers!

Skye