The Long Goodbye: Introduction, Prologue, and First Chapter
28 Dec 2017Kyndi the Badass Space Chick
OOC introduction: Hello everyone!
This is an exciting time for me (and hopefully for you as well). What you're about to read will be a little different than Kyndi's usual logbooks. The story that needed to be told was bigger- much bigger!- than what the constraints of her usual first-person style allowed. Here is a proper novella, in "proper" format and third-person style, covering a range of situations and characters. The truth of Kyndi's past will finally be revealed, amid settings that will be familiar for anyone who reads Marra Morgan's and M. Lehman's logbooks!
Without further ado, I've typed up the prologue here on Inara, with it and the complete first chapter found here.
Thanks very much for reading, and I hope you enjoy!
-Kyndi (Matt)
The woman was barely conscious, saturated as she was with cheap whiskey and expensive
onionhead. A half-smoked joint barely remained in place between a pair of trembling fingers, the last of
her fine motor skills channeled into holding it against her lips for a delicate inhale.
Even Kyndi Jane McCaskill’s long-accustomed body could only handle so much abuse, and it was
with a suddenness that her stomach cramped and emptied itself of its contents. The woman doubled over,
vomiting forth an entire day’s drinking on her bunk, the putrid mess running down to the deck. It was the
most she’d moved all day, the unpleasant act nudging her thoughts closer to the coherent.
She was running from what she had to do, and she knew it. Her last shreds of rational thought
twisted themselves into self-depreciation. With no one around for whom to put on cocky airs, she was free
to wallow in her fear and trepidation.
I’ve spent so long searching, she thought. So long, and so many credits invested, and so many
dead leads- and now that I’ve got one, I’m trying to kill myself with booze and herb. Figures.
The woman wiped her lips with the back of her hand and spat the last of the bile from her mouth.
Dark purple hair clung to the side of her face, clumped together in sweat and grease. She hadn’t worked
since receiving the news, telling herself that she’d set down on an uninhabited planet to clear her head.
What ended up happening was a week-long bender, smoking and drinking her entire stash of
booze and onionhead. The harder drugs had been consumed almost immediately, and since then she’d
been at war with sobriety itself.
But it was a war destined to be lost, if for no other reason than because she was running out of
both narcotics and excuses. The mess around her could wait- she was in need of help. Help getting clean,
and help from a friend. Cleanliness came first. Nearly falling off her bunk, the woman crawled
to the shower unit, sitting on its floor fully clothed and barely reaching the controls.
The initial blast was a shock- but then, it was supposed to be. Cold water soaked her skin and her
clothes, the week’s accumulated grease washing out of her hair. For a long time, she simply sat there,
letting the water do the job of clearing her head. In time, she would sober up and set right the mess she’d
made of her surroundings. But that was the easy part.
Kyndi was in for a journey, and she’d need a companion. She’d need a friend. She’d need
someone who was quick to action and slow to judge. Someone she could trust. A list of half-remembered
contacts formed in her drug-addled mind, with several names coming close before finally being
discarded. In the end, there was only one choice- and she didn’t know if he was dead or alive. A weak
smile curled one side of her mouth.
No, she thought. He’s alive. And if he isn’t- I’m going to kill him!
For the rest of the first chapter, click here!