For All Mankind | 4x07 - Crossing The Line

Hello I have decided it's my turn to declare an Adamczyk Appreciation Day.

WIP Wednesday

I can't believe I've been watching For All Mankind and into space stuff generally for this long and have only just discovered that the real life Thomas Paine designed a flag for Mars. I had to work it into a fic especially since him telling Ellen about his love of the stars is one of my favourite moments in s2.

‘What was that you were working on?’ 

‘Oh that’s, it’s nothing really, a flight of fancy,’ Tom tried to pass it off casually, but secretly he was a little pleased when Ellen said, ‘Go on.’ 

‘It’s a flag for Mars, a proper flag. A true symbol for exploration, something for the whole world to rally around.’ 

Ellen was taken aback a little; she had always assumed he had been the one who demanded NASA use the Stars and Stripes back in ’69.

Tom retrieved the legal pad from where he had haphazardly hidden it. Ellen furrowed her eyebrows in an attempt to decipher the scribblings but Tom handily narrated.

‘If you notice, it goes diagonally upwards to represent progress, from the sliver of Earth, where we’re came to where we’re going. Mars is in the middle but the arrow to the star in the far corner is to show that it’s part of the journey not the final destination. I’m not much of an artist…’

‘I like it, it’s a beautiful vision. So how is the Mars program coming along?’

‘I’ve got time to daydream up flag ideas, I’ll let you figure it out.’

omg. I love him so much.

Jason Mantzoukas's Series 19 Interview | Taskmaster

This is exactly how I feel about the fic writers I follow here. 😘

Do you ever binge read someone's work on ao3 and get the urge to serenade them, like, hello my fair fic author you have wooed me with your excessive flowery metaphors and complete lack of plot, even your messy 3am fics with very visible flaws are gorgeous, your self indulgent dynamics have enchanted me, please accept my kudos

Can you tell me that you could pass up on this gorgeous man reclined on a sofa? Pshaw!

As @historysquib calls them, a Palate Cleanser fic:

Margo entered her office and shut the door softly behind her. Turning, she slumped against the door briefly and released a sigh. It had been the most tiresome of evenings. Three hours building support for a new proposal by the recently defected Sergei had been needlessly tedious. Margo was well practiced at moving political levers, but new Russian defectors had a break-in period for trust building in the wider political sphere that could not be abridged.

She turned to her drinks cabinet and turned on the lamp above it. She considered how many fingers of brandy that loss of time was worth, before finally settling on a light pour–any more would turn her out like a light as tired as she was. Margo pondered what she would ideally need to relax: a stiff drink or… Her thoughts trailed away and found their home on her sofa.

On her sofa Sergei reclined with a hand thrown back behind his head. The other hand was draped across his chest and trapped a creased report that threatened to slide to the floor. His relaxed countenance flooded her heart with warmth as she crossed the room towards him. She flicked on the lamp at the side table behind his head and observed his slumber. He looked markedly improved from his Lefortovo stay. His hair had grown back in, disheveled from his repose on what she knew wasn’t the most comfortable of couches. He seemed to be managing his traumatic stint in jail by leaving his frail self behind with wild hair, wilder beard and a filling out of his frame. It was an improvement of his physical health and image that she made no secret of liking.

Taking a seat near him on the coffee table, she set aside her brandy and removed the report from his grasp. Briefly scanning the report, she replaced it with her hand, she called to him softly, “Sergei.”

Sergei mumbled some indiscernible Russian in response and shifted slightly. Margo shook his hand lightly and called to him again. He blinked awake and smiled at her.

“Did you need your Soviet expert?” Sergei groggily asked.

Margo leant forward, “Something like that,” she drawled before placing a soft kiss on his smirking lips. Sergei responded slowly, kissing her softly in return. His hand came up to caress her face before sliding into her hair. Margo pressed a light kiss to his lips before she eased back to her seat beside him. She glanced at the time on her wrist and looked at him shrewdly.

“Were you waiting for me or for the resolution on your proposal?”

He grinned at her and levered himself up, leaning towards her to plant a kiss on her cheek before whispering into her ear, “Both, naturally.”

He drifted more kisses down her neck before she halted him, both hands clasping his head and redirecting him up to face her.

“Sergei,” she chided, eyes semi-serious. She was tired and needed to go to bed. The sooner she could maneuver him out of her office the better. She would get no rest otherwise. “I need to go to bed and you need to go home.”

“Ah, but home is where you are, Margo,” he replied quickly. “I cannot sleep without you.” He made to continue his onslaught of her neck, but was forestalled by Margo’s halfhearted evasion.

She snorted and shook her head, “And just now?” She gestured to the sofa.

"A convenient rest of the eyes,” Sergei rejoined. Margo raised her eyebrows. “It may have gotten away from me,” he amended with a shrug. He pursed his lips before smiling that absolutely obnoxious, and in no-way devastating, grin at her.

“Mm-hmm,” she nodded in response. “I'm off to bed.” She took off her shoes and bent to retrieve them. Sighing gratefully at their removal.

"Do you need help finding your way there? Perhaps an expert on navigation could help?” Sergei murmured with no small amount of cheek. “Perhaps another Soviet first?”

Sergei stood up and took her shoes in one hand and her hand in the other, pulling her to her feet.

“A Soviet first?” Margo questioned, exasperated.

“Exploring the bedroom of the NASA director, a first for all man-”

Margo interrupted him with a slap to the back of the head.

“Ah, woman!” Sergei cried in mock pain.

Margo walked briskly forward, leaving Sergei behind. She hesitated at the office door while Sergei stood rubbing the back of his head. The smile on his face sent shivers up her spine. She couldn't and wouldn't send him away no matter what she threatened and he knew it.

“Perhaps you are right. A Soviet first,” she said with some emphasis. At that she turned the lock on her office door and briefly stopped at the threshold of her bedroom, “You coming?” She called behind her.

Sergei followed diligently, carrying her shoes.

Good news, he ran away from the KGB, he's fine now

One of the biggest issues of moving to England as a person who is Ukrainian AND neurodivergent is not knowing how to answer the small talk question of "how are you", but today I was reminded that Ukrainian blessed me with the phrase that roughly translates as "living is hard but dying would be a pity" and can we please naturalise it so I can use it all day every day

They turned out the lights.

She settled herself under a blanket on the sofa.

Sergei chose to bed down on the floor.

Just before drifting into sleep, Margo remembered something. It hardly mattered, in light of everything else. In light of all the other reasons she had to be angry with him now. But still …

“Sergei. There’s one more thing I need to say.”

“Yes?”

“When I told you to grab that bottle, the ‘and don’t let them see you’ part was implied!”

“Margo. You said it loudly enough that they could hear you.”

Well. Perhaps he did have a point there.

“OK. Fine. Good night.”

“Good night, Margo.”

Chapters: 3/5 Fandom: For All Mankind (TV 2019) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Margo Madison/Sergei Nikulov Characters: Margo Madison, Sergei Nikulov, Original Characters, Irina Morozova Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-It, Really quite a mix of silliness with angst and eventual bits of fluff, Elevators Summary:

Canon divergence during 3x03 – everything has happened as in canon, with the kiss and with Sergei asking for the engine designs, until there is a knock on the door of Margo’s hotel room. But it’s not the KGB, it’s hotel staff there to follow up regarding a certain bottle of whisky…

I didn't recall that Adama had Reader's Digest Condensed Books in his quarters. Which makes me giggle quite a bit. I feel like the set designer did Adama dirty here. 🤣

I'm sure he could romance Laura with just about any book, but Reader's Digest Condensed Books? That would be a tough route for seduction.

ONE SET PER EPISODE: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA 1.06 — Litmus

She was the professional, everyone else was just playing at it. Tremble before her competence, intelligence and confidence!

- And we pulled that stupid prank on you. - Wiener schnitzel and sauerkraut. - Yeah, we thought we were so clever. Eva von Braun, right? But you– you just set it aside, and you put your head down and got to work.

FOR ALL MANKIND 1.02 He Built the Saturn V || 3.03 All In