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.

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Mordred watches her, curiously but not openly.

River wanders.

She stops, after a while, to look at an armchair.

No one's sitting there, or anything. She seems to find it interesting, though.

There was no one sitting there. Now there is a Mordred, just like that, as if he had always been there.

He doesn't say anything, just watches her with great golden eyes.

River doesn't jump. She just tilts her head a little and looks at him.

He mimics her, tilting his head in a mirror image of her.

"You are alive, no?"

She nods.

"You're not." It's calm, and matter-of-fact.

"Ghost," he agrees.

She accepts this equably, and settles in the next armchair over.

Well, she sits on one arm of it, propping her feet up on the other arm, and leans her head against the back.

He still watches her, curiously.

"How can you tell?" He wasn't trying hard to act alive, but still, he generally looked it.

"You are."

See River be helpful.

She raises a hand in a vague gesture. "The lights flicker."

He draws his knees up to his chest, linking his hands in front of his ankles.

"Around me?"

She shrugs.

Sometimes, is possibly the impression that shrug sends. Probably.

That's fine, he can understand that.

"I'm Mordred."

"River," she says solemnly.

"Last name?"

"It's a secret."

Beat.

"River Tam."

She looks at him expectantly.

"Full name is Modredus Ambrosius Arturus, I shall not tell if you won't." A quick grin at that.

She nods solemnly.

"Latin."

"Bastardized, but yes."

"Linguistic changes over time."

"Latin to Romano-British to Church Latin, the Angles' speech to Old English to Middle to Modern...I know"

"Smart," she tells him, with a tiny smile. "Did your homework."

He shakes his head. "No, just watched. I was dead for nearly all of it."

She looks sympathetic.

His lips twitch, and then he shrugs.