milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

The door opens, and River wanders in.

She looks to be in a reasonably good mood; at least, she's looking around the room, rather than staring at the floor or the air, even if her gaze doesn't quite settle quite normally. It's the tall boots today, rather than bare feet, under a loose floral skirt, and a couple of shirts in layers.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Roland considers.

"Perhaps at first, as it did all of us. But I think he would settle in well, after he grew used to it."

Cort often went to Gilead Low-Town, after all, for carousing.

This makes sense.

She looks at him, after a little bit. "No students."

It might be a question; it might not. It might be about Cort, or about Roland. Hard to say, sometimes.

"Not here, for me. Not any more." A pause. "Jake passed his trial, as I passed mine."

She wraps her arms around her knees, and looks at him.

"All grown up now."

It's a sad smile, now.

"You say true."

She nods.

Solemnly, "Say sorry."

Roland looks at her for a moment. The smile fades.

Quietly: "No reason to be. It happens."

Her gaze wanders off again. The fire is interesting.

After a while, she tells it, "You like it. Teaching."

Roland nods. "I do. Didn't think I would, but I do."

"Good at it," she comments mildly, to the fire.

"I do well enough, it seems." A small smile. "Though Eddie could still be a bit better. Doesn't clear leather quite fast enough."

River looks at him sidelong. "Talks too much," she says solemnly.

River likes Eddie.

"That he does. Though at least he doesn't have a hat."

She looks thoughtful.

"He could."

"So long as he isn't as tender of it as Cuthbert is his, I care not." Dry.

She tilts her head back against the chair and looks at the ceiling.

"Joanie likes it."

"Joanie," says Roland, "is a tiny elephaunt."

River nods happily.

"With water."

Everybody seems to be a fan of the elephaunt but Roland.

He regards River.

"Which would you have preferred? Cort's lessons, or Vannay's?"

Roland wasn't around when it was spraying Cuthbert with water.

She rests her chin on her knees, and studies the floor. A little warily, "Hit people."

And now he looks at River more closely.

"Have you ever used a weapon?"

She looks away.

"No touching guns."

Then, sulkily, "Only an object. They see it wrong."

Guns.

Roland is very interested in this. "How do you see it?"

A sidelong glance at him, through her hair. "Eyes."

She looks away again. "With my brain."

A very small smile, now. Quietly: "She who shoots with her gun has forgotten the face of her father. Is it not so?"