milliways_bar | (no subject)

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[Immediately previous, in the Dreaming. Conversation.]

The air by the bar kind of...moves.

And then there is an Aes Sedai and a gunslinger of Gilead.

Roland lets go of Moiraine's hand and looks around. SSDD.

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"You haven't been to the Dreaming, have you."

River peers at him.

"She sleeps," she tries. "Fact of human existance."

"Yes. I mean -- while waking. As I was."

River's face dims, slightly.

But she doesn't sound upset, only matter-of-fact, when she says "There's no door. It doesn't function that way."

"No."

He studies her for a moment, then: "It's a fine place." Pause. "Think you'd like it."

Head tilt, watching him.

"The castle of the Dream-lord looks like the one I grew up in, in places."

A small smile.

Hopeful, maybe, or wistful. Or both.

She'd like to see it.

Roland wants her to see it.

Quietly: "No promises. But I'll speak to Moiraine, mayhap. When all this business is concluded. Would you like that?"

Smile widens, and warms.

She nods, and shoves her hair back absently.

"I don't know what the Garden will look like for you. It looks different for everyone." Pause. Slightly wry: "Joe brought his desert in with him."

Tranquilly, "Has flowers. That's what the word means."

"Unless you're Joe." Pause. "Apparently it looks different for Moiraine, but with mine -- roses, and apple and blosswood trees. And apparently morning-glories, now. That's new."

"Cacti have flowers. Prickly pears are pink."

It's absent.

Listening, she's smiling, small and soft.

Her eyes are on the table. Maybe she sees morning glories there, or apple blossom.

Roland shakes his head. "His Garden is a waste land. He likes it that way."

He is silly, says River's face.

She glances up at Roland, one finger tracing gently across the table. "Could be cactus underground. It's waiting. Dormancy between the rains."

Roland looks at River for a long moment.

"Don't suppose you'd want to see Joe's movie."

She'll understand, after she sees it.

River looks a little confused.

"He's not a director. The technological timeline doesn't fit."

Roland shakes his head. "No. The movie with him in it. The one that tells the story of what happened to him before he came here." Pause. "There are three of them, but I've only seen that one."

Roland read the little booklet on the inside of the DVD box.

A pause. She glances back at the table, fingers tracing the woodgrain.

A small smile.

"Okay."

"Good."

Pause.

"You might like Tuco."

Even Roland liked Tuco, a little.

"Okay."

She has no idea who Tuco is. But she's game.

"Soon, then."

And Roland settles back in his chair, smiling a little.

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