(no subject)
Oct. 18th, 2005 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
river_meimeiThe grating of the floor is cold under her cheek. River's eyes are closed, lashes dark against her wan face.
She's dreaming.
The outdoor classroom, again. White tented roof, floor and desks of pale wood. The public gardens surrounding the tent are green and lush; couples walk the paths, murmuring together. Water ripples sofly over lilypads in the nearby pond, and everything is drenched in light.
It should be peaceful.
"Why don't we all lie down?" suggests the smiling teacher. "A little peace and quiet will make everything better."
"No," River's younger self is protesting. "No."
"River?"
The other students are obediently curling up, closing their eyes, relaxing into the wooden floor.
"No!"
The teacher is lying down, too, still smiling, showing them how to behave. But her voice is sharp. "River, do as you're told."
High and desperate, "No!" and the scene shifts, perspective shatters, the world is made of light and then River is barefoot on the wooden floor, standing among her younger self's sleeping classmates.
She's wearing the electrode-studded bodysuit and slit-sided tunic that were burned long ago, when she was free of the Academy and could wear her own clothes again, and a rivulet of blood trickles down her forehead from the tidy hole of their mind-probe's entrance wound.
She's dreaming.
The outdoor classroom, again. White tented roof, floor and desks of pale wood. The public gardens surrounding the tent are green and lush; couples walk the paths, murmuring together. Water ripples sofly over lilypads in the nearby pond, and everything is drenched in light.
It should be peaceful.
"Why don't we all lie down?" suggests the smiling teacher. "A little peace and quiet will make everything better."
"No," River's younger self is protesting. "No."
"River?"
The other students are obediently curling up, closing their eyes, relaxing into the wooden floor.
"No!"
The teacher is lying down, too, still smiling, showing them how to behave. But her voice is sharp. "River, do as you're told."
High and desperate, "No!" and the scene shifts, perspective shatters, the world is made of light and then River is barefoot on the wooden floor, standing among her younger self's sleeping classmates.
She's wearing the electrode-studded bodysuit and slit-sided tunic that were burned long ago, when she was free of the Academy and could wear her own clothes again, and a rivulet of blood trickles down her forehead from the tidy hole of their mind-probe's entrance wound.
