001 // you are the moon

[diomedea]

Who: River Tam and YOU
Broadcast: Fleet-wide!
Action: SS First Breath
When: After the shuffle!

[River is eating her dessert and thinking to herself. And then, suddenly, she smiles.]

Little planet, your moon is here. Calling to the home star, zero one zero one, she is safe. He is a small planet but he has so much gravity, he pulls her, safe, safe, sleep now shh.

[And then she looks into the camera with a smile.]

She can dance here, it's safe, far away from the watchful eyes, the sterile hands that grasp and pull. They drag her under, but not anymore. Can't cross the verse, the veil, the plane, like a curtain between the players.

She is safe here, little albatross. She can fly now.

[And then she tilts her head a little and laughs happily.]

Hello!

Comments

[action]

[diomedea]

[She presses her finger to her lips.]

It's a secret. She won't tell, but you were the same.

[She smiles softly.]

You're very warm.

[action]

[mysunnydisposition]

[ Okay, yeah, talking while looming over her is way too awkward. Steph steps a little closer and folds her legs so she can join River on the floor. ]

The same as...? I'm confused.

[ She seems like a sweet girl, but this is harder than having a conversation with Cass back when the word "no" seemed to be 75% of her vocabulary. ]

[action]

[diomedea]

Same as the other one.

[She sighs a little and looks at her, exasperated.]

Promises, promises, won't tell about the bats. It's a secret, she understands.

[action]

[mysunnydisposition]

Oh! [ She gets it now, she thinks, and she grins. ] It's not really that big a secret here. Not the way it is at home. Kind of hard to hide when two of us showed up in costume...

[action]

[diomedea]

She doesn't comprehend. Is there shame?

[How it just seems like Tim was being obtuse.]

You're not afraid of me.

[action]

[mysunnydisposition]

It's... habit, I think. Keeping it a secret. Back home, it was pretty life or death. [ ...bad phrasing, and she regrets it the second she says it. "Life or death" means something different when you haven't actually been in the room with the blood and the sweat and the power drill - she didn't understand it before, not really. Her expression flickers, and she tries to push the image back down. ] And Tim's always been paranoid. I wouldn't take it too personally.

...should I be afraid of you?

[action]

[diomedea]

Don't like it when I pull at the threads.

[She tries to leave it behind, he does, but she can't.]

Why is there so much blood?

[action]

[mysunnydisposition]

[ Steph tenses, going completely still for a second. She could pretend she has no idea what she's talking about, but she's pretty sure that wouldn't fly with River, no more than she can lie to Cass. ]

I didn't know you could... tell...

[action]

[diomedea]

It's very loud. The more to try to ignore it the louder it gets. Worry and it all spins up.

[action]

[mysunnydisposition]

It's not... [ Steph hunches forward a little, pressing her closed fist against her sternum like she needs the pressure to remind her it doesn't hurt anymore. She can feel the scars under her knuckles, through the shirt, but it doesn't hurt. ] It's just a thing that happened. My fault in the first place, and it won't happen again.

[ If she says that enough, she'll convince herself it's true.

She looks up and studies River's face for a moment. ]

Do you have to turn that on, or can you tell all the time?

[action]

[diomedea]

It's always there. Whether she wants to or not.

[She smiles softly.]

You and the Other Bat are the same, little moons, but tied together. It's nice.

[action]

[mysunnydisposition]

[ Steph flushes pink, but she's grinning a little as she does. ]

Tied together, maybe. I don't know about the same... He's very serious. And intense. You probably noticed.