milliways_bar | (no subject)

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[OOM: Old friends never really leave. Or maybe it's that they never really stay.]

River should be in bed, by ship's time. She was, earlier.

She's awake now. And quieter than sometimes, maybe, but not bleary-eyed, and it's nothing strange for her to be wearing only a loose sundress over biking shorts and bare feet.

The chairs by the fire are comfortable, though, and she's curled up in one now, her hands wrapped around a mug of hibiscus tea. She's watching the room, more or less; it's as hard as ever to tell what she might see in it.

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"Good enough," Axel replies.

River glances at him, eyes lifted but head still bent.

"You do."

It sounds like a statement. It might be a question anyway, or it might not; River's diction is not quite that of normal people.

That gets a blink.

"...Huh?"

River blinks, too. Her gaze drops.

Softly, "He can watch."

"...Who?"

He can tell she's not quite 'right.' Not on the same wavelength as most people. Kind of hard to miss, at this point, at least for someone like him.

River makes a slight face.

She does not appear to appreciate the question.

Axel frowns slightly, and drinks his tea. He wonders how to approach this one; she reminds him a little of Namine, when they'd first found her.

Something by the hearth seems to catch River's attention, and she tilts her head slowly, focus settling on the stones there.

"We'll call it a quest," she murmurs after a time, sounding a little tired. "Down the yellow brick road."

"And what world is that in?" Axel asks.

"Depends on the construction facilities."

He's silent again.

So's she, head limp against the back of the armchair.

Truly they are both scintillating conversationalists.

Oh, Axel can be a brilliant conversationalist, but he tends to bounce himself off of other people, in the normal course of things. The better to understand them. The better to get them where he wants them. The better to get them to want to be where he wants them.

...She's hard to bounce off of.

The fire cracks and pops.

River does tend to hamstring conversational expectations.

"It doesn't comprehend," she whispers at length, without lifting her head.

"That's what they'd say."

"Yeah?" Axel asks.

He'll find a way in. He always does. Even if it's sharp and pointy. Not that he has a reason to go there, but the thought passes through his mind.

River's eyes flick to him.

After a long moment: "Fire in the darkness."

Axel's silent again, looking at her. Then,

"You see the things that are there, that can't be seen. Interesting."

River's face tightens fractionally. So does the set of her shoulders.

She says nothing; only watches Axel, silent and motionless.

Axel tilts his head at her, and gives her a considering look.

"What do you see, that nobody else does?"

River's eyes drop and slide sideways, her head tilting a little with the gesture; she's silent.

Then, "Nothing."

That word carries a lot more weight with Axel than it would with most other people. He looks away.

"...Yeah?"

((ooc: and I must beg slowtime. Is love, yes? :D?))

River closes her eyes, just for an instant; maybe it's only a slower blink.

"Everybody sees something."

[OOC: Absolutely, oh yes. I was thinking of doing the same soon, anyway. *grins* Is laaate.]

"But you see Nothing?"

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