祝寿: [ visual | location: serenity ]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

When the tablet clicks on, River is sitting cross legged and cross armed on Serenity's dining table.

She is staring at a cake. Pretty one, too, just three modest tiers of purple with blue hibiscus flowers made of sugar. It's almost like the aliens are trying to compensate for something! From the expression on River's face, however, this is the most disturbing confection in the history of all human existence.

"There isn't a reliable measurement for time," she tells the tablet. "Seasonal markers are arbitrary. Manufactured. Without a solid point of reference it all slides out of place-- Places." Agitation is winning out and she fidgets with a loose string at her elbow. "The appearance of punctuality can't be trusted." It is possible there are some Issues behind that statement other than turning nineteen, but she's not voicing them today.

None of this stops her from picking off a flower and nibbling on a sugary blue petal, though.

"I don't want it."

Get your free cake, Taxon! Hurry, before she peels all the fondant off.


[ ooc: PRETEND THIS IS FRIDAY backdating forever yay. \o/ ]

Comments

[ visual ]

[adeadringer.livejournal.com]

[ elena catches river's broadcast from her room in the castle, where she's still staying. the tablet's been in her hands for about half an hour as she's gone back and forth between calling stefan, but the visual of her with the cake floods the screen before she can make a decision. ]

River?

[ and then river makes her speech about birthdays as she analyzes the cake and peels and eats some fondant. elena's not sure what most of that meant, but the cake is rather impressive and hard to ignore. ]

Did you make that yourself?

[ visual ]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

No. [ nibble nibble. her mouth is turning a very distinct shade of blue. ]

It's a custom... It was given.

[ visual ]

[adeadringer.livejournal.com]

Custom for what?

[ after asking, she thinks for a moment, then realizes that there's only one holiday this month, and the color scheme of the cake river has is all wrong for that holiday. ]

Your birthday?

[ visual ]

[timedaughter]

...But what flavor is it?

[THE MOST IMPORTANT PART, RIVER.]

[ visual ]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

[ BUT JENNY SHE DOESN'T KNOW. ]

Statistics favor vanilla.

[ visual ]

[virtued.livejournal.com]

"Birthday?"

...how he managed to understand that from all that babble, who even knows. Possibly just a very good guess.

[ visual ]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

Stefan is definitely not someone she wants to see right now. Instead, she's focusing on nibbling her sugar hibiscus and letting go of any attempt at friendly conversation.

"All indications are based on a false assumption of measurement. Doesn't take into account popular theories of general relativity."

Pause.

"You can't have any."

[Visual]

[smecker.livejournal.com]

"As long as it's not blueberry, maybe I'll take some off your hands."

Hi, River. Paul rememmmbers you, weird blanket-giving girl.

He's got his chin on one hand, is looking at the screen with a wry smile.

"Yeah, so, time's fucked here like a baby left on a dingo ranch. Do you need a reason for a party?"

[Visual]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

Well, when he puts partying like that, "Yes. They made it mine."

This is her party and she can be a brat if she wants to, but she still leans forward to carefully sniff at the cake. Checking for blueberries.

"Coconut and sugar." Totally safe for consumption, Paul.

[ visual ]

[whoneedsrules.livejournal.com]

Hello, River. Have Elena's vampire ancestor masquerading as her twin sister smiling at you in vague amusement.

"Not a fan of baked goods, then?"

[ visual ]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

River's expression at present can be best described as 'oh go walk into a tomb.'

"Have preferences."

[ visual ]

[deniedthesight.livejournal.com]

[ angela remembers the young girl from the bar during the glitch where everyone thought they were in the fifties. she watches the display for a while, quiet for a bit before she speaks. ]

Who gave it to you?

[ visual ]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

[ river remembers angela, too. the full skirts and stockings. the lots and lots of bad coffee. it was one of the more memorable nights in taxon. ]

Cricetinae. [ the aliens have done this before, left people cakes. once they even sang but that seems to be an anomaly. after a pause to poke at a corner of fondant she continues with no small amount of bitterness: ] Probably shed in it.

video;

[thenormalsquint]

[And like usual, Angela doesn't understand a damn thing River says and her facial expression says as much. Those are just words. They never make any sense when they come out that girl's mouth.]

You say you don't want it, but yet you're eating it anyway.

video;

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

The hibiscus is superficial. An addendum to the main structure.

[ and so the nibbling continues. ]

[ voice ]

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

I think I definitely need a flower.

[ voice ]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

Hibiscus. Three of them left.

[mercenaryacare.livejournal.com]

Jayne just so happens to be down in his bunk, polishing up any bit of metal he can find in there, when he hears River's voice. After warily glancing towards the ladder, he realizes it's coming from his tablet. He's all set to tune out her babbling, but he catches movement out of the corner of his eye on the tablet, so he decides to see where she is and make sure she's not tearing anything apart.

Once he sees that mouth-watering cake and hears her say she doesn't want it, however, he races up the ladder so fast you'd think the devil was on his tail.

Less than ten seconds later he's in the doorway to the dining area.

"I'll eat it!"

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

There's a slight flinch, shoulders hunched in and curling down, when Jayne comes in.

"You're a glutton," she informs him, calmly pulling the rest of the flowers off to set them in an unfolded napkin. They're reserved, but the rest of the fondant wrapped mystery of association with time and relative birthdays is his for the eating.

And, because she's thinking ahead, "Don't throw it up."

[voice]

[numbersnfigures.livejournal.com]

The celebration of birthdays actually transcends cultures but is mostly only significant when an individual is at a particular milestone age, such as a bar mitzvah for a Jewish young man who has reached 13 and is now considered an adult in the eyes of the Jewish community, or a quinceañera to celebrate a Hispanic female's coming of age.

Have you achieved such a milestone this year?

[voice]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

No.

[ pause. ]

Sugar acts as overcompensation for egregious environmental flaws.

[visual]

[aintnoconvict]

"...should we run some tests on it?"

It should be noted that Glitch is very much in Not Trusting The Aliens mode and so any tests would be born more from paranoia than a quest for scientific discovery. Presently he's coming up with a Rube Golberg device with which to poke the cake with knives to see what happens.

[visual]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

Repeated knife poking might be a good idea, but River isn't about to do it herself. Breaking the fondant will let it all out, and she can't have that. (What it is and why the fondant is what's keeping it in is currently as mysterious as the exact flavor of the cake; River's nerves have only gotten her far enough to sniff at it.)

"Multiple tests."

[ location ]

[gotcouplings.livejournal.com]

"Ain't so bad, is it?"

Kaylee doesn't feel much better than River at the sight of the cake suddenly popping up on their ship--too many hamsters running around her baby for her liking--but that doesn't mean she isn't going to be her normal celebratory self. Birthdays are birthdays, even if they might be wrong.

"Look, this piece's real pretty," she adds, pointing to the designs on the side. "Must've taken at least some effort to get it lookin' like this."

[ location ]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

Celebration is fine in River's book (and where had he gone off to), encouraged even, but not with this cake. Not with the strong tingle of paranoia creeping solid sickly up her spine. Not with this cake.

Even Kaylee's cheer can't persuade her otherwise.

"It's proportional. Formulaic response to--" And she stops short to look up at Kaylee. "Simon's was better."