(no subject)

[river_meimei]

The rafters have a few advantages.

They're comfortable, for one thing! (If you're River Tam.) And interesting. And sometimes you find candy. And they provide a fun change of perspective.

And sometimes they're a good way to find people.

Comments

[nita_callahan]

Especially when those people are really oblivious to the third dimension of their surroundings.

(Nita's got garlic in one pocket and a cross in another, okay? There's only so much vigilance she can handle.)

[river_meimei]

River leans forward, considering the scene below. (This involves folding over her extended legs in a pike stretch. River considers this a perfectly comfortable way to sit.)

There was candy stashed away in a crook of the rafters. River has appropriated it, and now there's an M&M heading for the tabletop in front of Nita.

(It's aimed to miss Nita's drink, if she has one. Because River is nice.)

[nita_callahan]

It misses her tea, but bounces off her manual. She jumps, startled, and looks up.

[river_meimei]

River may be in the rafters, but she's not lurking in the shadows there; besides that, she's wearing layers of pink. She's visible, if you happen to look.

She's also peering down at Nita.

[nita_callahan]

Nita blinks.

". . . Hi."

[river_meimei]

"You're monitoring," River says seriously, and possibly in greeting.

She turns another M&M over between her fingers, absently exploring.

"Hi," she adds.

[nita_callahan]

Rueful: "Not as well as I thought I was, I guess." She props her chin on one hand. "What's up?"

She's only talked to River Tam a couple of times, but she's kind of hard to forget.

[river_meimei]

"Me too."

"It's a collaborative effort."

[nita_callahan]

She looks curious. "What are you monitoring?"

[river_meimei]

"You can't see him." River says this earnestly, seriously -- as if she intends this to be a useful answer to a colleague.

"That's the point."

[nita_callahan]

Nita blinks. The first thing she thinks of is

(ne'er was a dream So like a waking)

her functionally invisible attacker. (If you can't remember a face, you may as well never have seen it at all.)

"You can't see what you're monitoring? That must make things difficult."

[river_meimei]

"We'll find out," says River, with a quick half-smile. It lights her face like a secret, just for an instant.

She lets one leg drop down alongside the rafter, and turns the momentum of that leg-swing into a smooth uncurling that carries her to her feet. River's short, and the ceiling is high; she can stand even here, and walk in small careful steps towards the wall nearest to Nita's table.

[nita_callahan]

Huh.

"Okay."

Nita watches her walk, wondering if that's the end of the conversation.

[oneman_onevote]

It probably helps that this person has a habit of finding dark and shadowy areas and occupying them in any case. And one person's change of perspective is another's comfort zone, because even several years to get used to Milliways doesn't kill old habits.

Like reading in the comparitive dark, which what Havelock is doing at the moment; sitting comfortably against one rafter, legs extended along another, and altogether blending in quite nicely.

[river_meimei]

River, in layers of fluttery pink, blends in less well.

That doesn't seem to bother her, however. She rests her cheek on one updrawn knee, studying Havelock. Waiting, perhaps.

[oneman_onevote]

She's a little to one side of him, and it takes until he tilts his head fractionally, turning a page, that he catches a glimpse of pink at the corner of his eye and stills to focus on her for a moment.

Then he nods in polite recognition.

[river_meimei]

River is motionless a moment longer, watching him in silence.

Then she uncoils and rises to her feet in one unselfconsciously graceful motion, and begins pacing along the rafter towards Havelock's shadowed corner. She's barefoot, and her toes spread against rough-sanded wood; it's easy to balance this way, and to be silent.

[oneman_onevote]

He watches openly, noting the fluid way she moves, the way she doesn't need to look down to be perfectly assured even though a fall from this height could hurt badly.

It's both familiar, and not, from watching his fellow students at the Guild. Moving in shadow, they are always holding themselves tense and alert for danger or competition so that sometimes, against all logic, they are more obvious. It would be very easy, he thinks, for the eye to slide past River if she wanted it to.

[river_meimei]

River brushes a hand down a vertical support beam, and then steps daintily around it with her hand curled on an edge for balance; it's a dancer's move, or would be with the slightest bit more flair.

But it doesn't, in this moment, have that flair. Havelock isn't wrong.

She paces down the rafter towards him. A yard or so from his outstretched foot, she crouches comfortably down on one knee, folding forward to rest her palms against wood.

[oneman_onevote]

"Hello," he says, after a few beats of comfortable silence.

They haven't spoken that often, all things considered, but enough for Havelock to know that River will get around to what she wants to say in her own time. There's still no reason not to be polite and make a start on a conversation.

[river_meimei]

"Hi," River says, with a quick ghost of a grin. It flickers across her face, fast and open, and fades back into sobriety.



"I have," she says carefully, paying attention to each word as she pronounces it, "a message."

[oneman_onevote]

"Oh?" he says, and shuts his book to give her his undivided attention.

(It's something in a language that looks something like Arabic, but isn't. Language Masters don't just earn themselves.)

[river_meimei]

River's gaze drops to the book for a second, at the motion or perhaps at the sight of the writing, but she doesn't linger on it. Her eyes return to Havelock, and then to the shadows around them.

Softly, "People listen."

That's not the message.

[oneman_onevote]

"Often," Havelock agrees calmly.

He doesn't glance away, but looks politely inquiring.

"Would it be preferable if they did not?"

[river_meimei]

"In the specificities."