taxonomites | 忌辰: [ visual | location: the academy ]

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忌辰: [ visual | location: the academy ]

It's warm enough to go barefoot again. To sit in the grass for hours under Taxon's fake sun.

River is doing just that, curled up over in Wilde. All anyone will see of her when she turns the visual function on is the bend of ankle to one side of the frame as she props the tablet up to give everyone a good view of what it is she's looking at.

The building itself is smallish and unremarkable. What's inside is the real trick that keeps River's foot tapping anxiously.

"Three-hundred sixty-five," she says, and her foot pauses before moving out of frame. "Gregorian. Full circle. Measurement based on solar orbit doesn't count, but they all progress. Marches forward like it knows where it's going down here with spinning wheels where they bury you."

Her feet come back. Feet and calves and the hem of a sea-foam green sundress one might kindly refer to as 'ill-advised,' pacing a few feet in front of the tablet. A few feet closer to the building but no farther, sounding like she's walking tightrope when words start up again. "Snake eats its tail. Consumes and weighs the scales against venom..."

For most people it would be so simple to walk into a building.

"It's the way of things." River pauses, then. Feet stop pacing and slowly hair moves into frame and then her face as she bends down to look at the tablet. Her eyes look tired and determined in a terrified kind of way that can't be skewed much by being slightly upside-down. "It's mine, and I require assistance.

"Komma med din tanden."

Another pause, longer, and she looks away before leaning forward and clicking off the tablet.

[ ooc: HOLY CRAP ONE YEAR IN TAXON, ilu guys ridiculous amounts ♥ pretend this all happens on the 10th because I'm impatient, and be warned that this post will have a lot of Academy stuff (linked above) in it, in case anything from that kind of scenario isn't cool for you.

komma med din tanden - bring your teeth ]

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[A little weary, yes, but otherwise recovered from...from whatever had happened a few days before (not important, didn't matter, he was fine now after all) Glitch made his reply.]

H-how much assistance?

Walking. Put your feet down.

Right. [Gradually, he was getting the hang of Riverspeak.] I'll be there soon.

*

Glitch left the workshop, and via some tram travel and getting turned around twice he made it to the Academy. Eyeing the oddly non-threatening building suspiciously, he approached River. "This...you said it's yours? What is it?"

"Deception," she says plainly, still sitting in the grass with her eyes forward. If she goes into any more detail, thinks any more about just (what it is what it did what it pretends to do) what she's going into then she'll never make it in the door.

And Glitch could understand that, a bit, so he nodded in acceptance. More answers would come, or not, and the best way to find out was to stay right there. So he plonked himself on the grass beside her (solidarity) and took out his tablet to send a text to DG. Yes he'd gone off hero-ing again, yes he was sorry he hadn't warned her, yes he would be careful, and yes he'd make it up to her so long as she reminded him to.

Fine, everything was going to be fine.

Introductions (such as they are) made, Charley sits cross-legged in the grass, near River, watching the gathered crowd curiously. She doesn't know anyone here and -- as staring at people rarely seems considered polite -- finds herself studying the building. It looks ordinary enough, but practical experience suggests looks often as not deceive.

Glitch looked up (after also texting Buffy and Levi) and gave Charley a hesitant smile. She wasn't immediately familiar, but with his half-a-brain that didn't mean much.

"Hi," he said and waggled his fingers. "I'm Glitch, how d'you do?" Odd circumstances for an introduction, sure, but politeness won out.

ooc: I expect much threadjumping for a bit :D?

Charley offers a smile and a tiny, finger wiggling-wave in return.

"I'm Charley; and it's good to meet you, Glitch."

[occ: jump! jump! which is i hope to say i am not being terribly rude jumping about like this.]

It's at this point that Godric steps forward from the shadows. He's been there the entire time, having gotten there first, but in typical vampire fashion, he's been lurking. Although, he hadn't actually intended to lurk, or to surprise anyone. He'd just been quietly enjoying being perfectly still, as only a dead thing can be. Not usually one to revel in his vampire nature, having recently been human has given him a new perspective on things; one he's still working out.

But there are more people here now, and Godric realizes he's being impolite.

"Hello," he intones softly. "My name is Godric." He recognizes Glitch, though they haven't spoken much, but the girl, Charley, is new to him.

Charley startles but recovers quickly. Being in a strange place surrounded by strange (and in Godric's case, surprisingly stealthy) people, but that's hardly a reason not to be friendly. She smiles up at him.

"I'm Charley. I'm... well, a bit new here, I suppose."

It takes Kaylee a bit to actually get from the ranch to the Academy, and she arrives just in time to hear the tail end of introductions. She offers Glitch a smile and glances to check up on River before turning to introduce herself to the others.

"I'm Kaylee," she says, holding her hand out from habit more than anything. Not everyone shakes hands, and she knows it. Then it's back to watching River. Becoming as bad as Simon here, Kaylee...

River looks up with an almost-smile, close but not quite there, for Kaylee before she stands up.

"Almost there."

Glitch got to his feet as well, with a smile for Kaylee and a vague nod to Godric (he'd forgotten him, it had been a long time). He glanced at the building, then back to River for guidance. It was a motley group, to be sure, but they would be all right.

They had to be, right?

Her teeth?

Kaylee frowns a little at her tablet before turning it on. "What exactly are you needin' help with, mei mei?"

"We're going inside," she says, finally picking the tablet up so there's a clear view of her face when she answers. Kaylee shouldn't go in, though.

Kaylee shouldn't have to see.

"Don't wait up."

Alright, Kaylee does not like this at all.

She looks very carefully at River, and replies in as much of a warning-mother tone she has, "River, I don't think Simon'd...I don't think I like the idea of you goin' in there."

Oh, that tone. River bristles at it a little, hunches her shoulders and sets her jaw in a show of defiance in the face of something she agrees with.

"I know," and she sounds kind of distant in her acknowledgment. "They're expecting me."

As long as she knows it. Kaylee starts moving around more, though whether it's to reset things in the room or to move as quickly as she can to the Academy isn't exactly clear just yet.

"Can think of nicer folks for you to be a house guest to."

She frowns, but that's about the only objection to the movement Kaylee is engaging in that she'll make. "Not a house. It's the rocks you don't see."

A pause, and it almost sounds like she's trying to convince herself more than anything.

"Have to."

"Don't matter what it is, ain't friendly." Yep, definitely movement out of the house. Simon would kill her if she let River go in without, plain and simple as that.

"Alright, so you have to. Ain't doin' it alone, by any means."

"Empty," but she nods. Going in alone was never the plan. "We're gathering (http://community.livejournal.com/taxonomites/347047.html?thread=21071527&style=mine#t21071527)."

"I'll be there soon, then."

Seeing River's expression is enough to make Godric concerned, but it's River's message to him that has him walking out the door, following her dot. I require assistance, bring your teeth. An ignorant person might mock him for being at the beck and call of a teenage girl, but that person would indeed be very unwise.

At vampire speed, he reaches his destination quickly, stopping a few feet short of River and completing his approach at a more human pace.

"Litten Amiral, what's wrong?" he asks gently, constantly aware of the building nearby, on guard for trouble.

River feels him coming, even though his mind is closed again. It's the push of wind, disruption of molecules. When he gets there, she looks at him over her shoulder, not at all surprised by the suddenness of his arrival. It's the building in front of her that she's worried about.

"Need to own it."

For a second, her mouth hangs open like she's about to say something else, explain the why (Serenity), but nothing comes out and she opts instead to return to pacing.

Godric looks at River for a long moment, then at the Academy. Mentally, he's working through her words and coming up with his own.

"It's yours." It isn't a question. Godric knows all about tag-along buildings. "What's inside?"

She isn't looking at Godric or the building now, just keeps her attention on her feet as she lets her hair fall to cover her (scars, tiny little dots on her temples, her forehead, small and unnoticeable) face.

"Liars and thieves."

Step, step, turn, step, heel, toe, heel toe, turn, heel, toe.

"It must be dismantled." Doing so at home isn't an option, if River ever goes there again. It's too real, too dangerous. Here it's hers, full of stuffing that only looks like spiders. Here, horrible though Taxon may be, lonely and wrong, she has the option of walking in and tearing it down brick by brick. That's what they'd said, held out Serenity like a carrot and made the promise of catharsis the string she flew on.

Charley neither knows nor half-way understands the person who's shown up on her tablet display... but that's frankly never stopped her before. Certainly not if it seemed as though someone could use a helping hand.

"I'm sorry -- can I help?"

"It's--" (a requirement, a condition of the contract) "Group effort. Non threatening but it needs to be exterminated from the inside."

River doesn't know Charley, either, but the idea of safety in numbers is comforting.

Well, she still doesn't understand, but... she she thinks she understands the gist of it. Hopefully.

"I'll come to you."

She smiles reassuringly before switching over to the tablet's map and figuring out which direction she needs to head. Having made her mind up to do whatever she may, it's just a bit of walking and a ride on a tram before she's striding across the grass towards the Academy. She comes to a halt next to River, looking from her to the building and back again.

"My name's Charley. What can I do?"

Not that she has the faintest thought of what she may be getting into, but she's earnest enough about wanting to help, if she can.

[ooc: I hope I can in fact do that with a tablet...]

By the time Charley gets there, River is sitting next to Glitch (http://community.livejournal.com/taxonomites/347047.html?thread=21071527&style=mine#t21071527), waiting for reinforcements to trickle in.

"River," said as she looks up and without any context, because she's just that good with introductions. "We're gathering before the descent."

[ooc: it can! and I do believe we're converging on poor lovely Keri's Glitch thread above if you want to tag in there next. :> ]

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忌辰: [ visual | location: the academy ]

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