Good stuff, and really got the voices down! Especially Mal's, I think actually. Some choice lines.

OK, so River is saying that something is at the freezing point of water, when it needs to be at normal human body temperature... ah, but now I've looked at the comments on the entry at Joss100 and been spoiled! I was thinking blood, but then whether that would be a bit too metaphorical for River... anyway, cool!

Thanks Sam! At the Reel Life interview/presentation/speech thing, someone asked Joss Whedon who his favourite character to write for was and he saud it was Mal and River because "Mal is like poetry, and River is poetry". I think I get what he means - about the Mal part anyway!

And you can have the broken bits of cookie left in the packet, since Jackie beat you to the answer but you got it as well!

Btw, you described the fic as post-OiS but pre-movie. Is the film supposed to be compatible with the series timeline? I wasn't quite sure... for the most part it looked possible, but there were one or two things that didn't seem quite right... like hadn't Simon and Kaylee actually looked like they were getting together by the end? Of course, Simon might easily have found a way to mess things up again, but at least enough that I'd have thought Kaylee wouldn't have been surprised at Simon's expression of interest in the film.

And wasn't the operative the same actor as the bounty hunter after River in OiS, or am I imagining things?

And finally, would you be up for a little bit of betaing, pretty please? (I realise from a previous post of yours re WaDaDM that I won't be in a position to return the favour for a while...)

There's a fair bit of ret-conning in the movie (Simon being aware of the specifics of the experiments being run on River goes against the discoveries he made in Ariel; Mal saying "That don't make you part of my crew 'less I conjure it does" in the movie goes against the "We covered this, you're on my crew" comment he made in the show). I'm choosing to believe that the movie is compatable with the series, just with a few glaring mistakes. Yes it did seem as though Kaylee and Simon were about to get together, but it's completely possible that he put his foot in it (again) or that maybe she was just surprised that he would talk about regretting never sleeping with her as opposed to never having a relationship with her ("you mean... as in sex?" that seemed to me to be the source of her surprise, rather than the fact he was interested in her in the first place)

Nope, different actor, different nationality, different character. Jubal Early was played by Richard Brooks and The Operative was played by Chiwetel Eijofor (I'm sure I've spelt that wrong somewhere!)

Finally - absolutely! And it might not be all that long before I ask you to repay the favour, if you're still up for betaing Destiny that is?

Ah, my mistake!

Yes, I guess it's possible to harmonise the two, if one pretends a couple of things in the movies never happened... or regards them as misremebered incidents inserted in the timeline in the wrong place. *g*

And excellent! Aha, yes, the return of Destiny! Yay! Will very gladly beta. Was really enjoying that one - thinking back, your writing has matured a lot since then, so rewrite not a bad idea. Look forward to it!

Mine will be with you before long, but I need to get it off my laptop onto a floppy and then to internet cafe, or alternatively get laptop plugged in at home etc. - but shouldn't be too long!

your writing has matured a lot since then that's putting it politely! The first chapter is ropey but the second? Gah! So yes - complete re-write is in the works, and is going pretty well I think, but it could be a week or so before I'm happy enough with it to send it to you.

And can I just say yay for more writing from you? (Oh and the moments-lost email is probably best, I'm having to take tomorrow off work to sign for a package so I won't be able to check that one till Monday)

Emailed to moments-lost and darth_rosenberg - wasn't quite sure of moments-lost address.

Thanks!