taxonomites | 梦见: [ location: serenity

River hasn't been sleeping, not well, not since Dawn, and when the tablet clicks on from its place amidst a haphazard pile of flowers to show Serenity's cargo bay.

Every few seconds she walks across the frame (step step heel turn step heel turn step turn step step step). She's holding her necklaces (one a cross, the other a locket of vervain) taut enough to dig in at the back of her neck but not hard enough to break, and if she'd hold still one might notice some impressive bags under her eyes.

It's been days. Multiples. She can see them stretching out in front of her nose, a snake of exponential progression winding into a giant coiled ball, growing and growing until mass present exceeds the limits of volume and everything breaks. Maybe that's how they'll get out, eventually. The city will be too full of snake-days and their husky skins to let the barriers stay in place...

River snorts an unamused little laugh as she turns back around. "That's not likely. Adjustments... It's thoroughly biodegradable husk."

A beat passes and she stops, heel on the ground and toes in the air ready to make another step. Any second now.

"Smells like a graveyard," is her only irritated observation before she's off again.

(Step step heel t urn step heel turn step turn step step step.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Stefan takes the tablet from her, squinting at the map and eying the dot like some sort of beacon indicating long lost buried treasure. That's not what he'll find there, but maybe... answers. Something that will help shed some light on the mystery of River and make him able to help her more. He wants to help her, and it's been a long time since Stefan's wanted to genuinely go out of his way to help someone so disconnected from the things he was involved in. Elena was tied to him, as was Vicki and Caroline, but River? Had nothing to do with the mess in Mystic Falls, yet... He wanted to help.

In a way, it made him feel more like that boy River had glimpsed while their minds were linked than anything else had in a very long time.

"Thank you," he says. "Whatever happened? I'm sorry."

River ignores him, opts to curl up and slide down to lay on the cold, dark metal of Serenity. Not Veritas, not the estate on Osiris, not a torn hospital-issue mattress underground.

Overall, it's much more comfortable and her eyes start to droop.

"Next time," she informs him with a belated sniffle and wipe at her nose, "ask permission."

"Okay," Stefan says, setting the tablet down and scooting over to her. Yet, despite being told to ask permission for one thing, he doesn't for another, picking the girl up by her arms just enough to guide her head into his lap as he settles back against the bulkhead. Her necklace is retrieved from his right and placed into her hand.

She doesn't object or fight it, just draws her knees up a little higher and fists her hand around the locket.

Then she reaches for the capture with her free hand and hugs it to her chest.

"Made it," River offers as her eyes close, sleepy conspiratorial and friendly, demeanor fluctuating like so many ripples on the waters surface. "Thought it was a carrot but it was a root."

梦见: [ location: serenity | accidental visual ]

i try to sleep, they're wide awake, they won't let me alone;

i try to sleep, they're wide awake, they won't let me alone;

i try to sleep, they're wide awake, they won't let me alone;

i try to sleep, they're wide awake, they won't let me alone;