Well, of course, they're pirates. Bandits, actually, in Spain in the 70s and 60s BCE.
Leaving aside issues of gender, as I am about to do -- Mal and Zoe followed Sertorius to Spain after Sulla won in Italy, and supported him there, but Mal grew more and more disillusioned, and deserted after Sertorius' death (and thus, just before Pompey's victory.) He and Zoe take to a life of small-scale trade and banditry, and over time build up a small force of their own -- Jayne, another deserter (probably from Pompey!), provides extra muscle, while Kaylee, a local Spanish girl, serves as a kind of guide and supply-master. Inara is also Spanish (maybe originally from a Phoenician family?), but from a wealthy background -- her family has problems of their own in coming to terms with Roman control of the region, and she and Mal still have the romance thing going.
Book remains a mystery: he's Roman, and Mal and Zoe suspect that he was once someone important -- maybe a proscribed senator who managed to escape from Sulla.
Simon and River... well, Mal and Zoe assume that they're runaway slaves, but that isn't at all the case. They're from a wealthy Roman family, but their parents sent River (who still has her strange psychic powers) to some kind of Greek cult center in Southern Italy, from which Simon had to rescue her. Now they're on the run, too!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-03-28 06:42 pm (UTC)Leaving aside issues of gender, as I am about to do -- Mal and Zoe followed Sertorius to Spain after Sulla won in Italy, and supported him there, but Mal grew more and more disillusioned, and deserted after Sertorius' death (and thus, just before Pompey's victory.) He and Zoe take to a life of small-scale trade and banditry, and over time build up a small force of their own -- Jayne, another deserter (probably from Pompey!), provides extra muscle, while Kaylee, a local Spanish girl, serves as a kind of guide and supply-master. Inara is also Spanish (maybe originally from a Phoenician family?), but from a wealthy background -- her family has problems of their own in coming to terms with Roman control of the region, and she and Mal still have the romance thing going.
Book remains a mystery: he's Roman, and Mal and Zoe suspect that he was once someone important -- maybe a proscribed senator who managed to escape from Sulla.
Simon and River... well, Mal and Zoe assume that they're runaway slaves, but that isn't at all the case. They're from a wealthy Roman family, but their parents sent River (who still has her strange psychic powers) to some kind of Greek cult center in Southern Italy, from which Simon had to rescue her. Now they're on the run, too!
And basically, they
fightcommit crime!