taxonomites | [holo] if you tell me where you're going i'll tell you where you're bound

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[holo] if you tell me where you're going i'll tell you where you're bound

Simon is dragged into Taxon mid-eyebrow raise. "Yes, of course, captain." There's no mistaking the sarcasm in his tone. "And would you like me to--"

He breaks off, looking around. It only takes a moment for his expression to shift from barely contained irritation and impatience to worry. "River?"

That worry is slowly ratcheting up into panic. "Mei mei, answer me."

When no answer is forthcoming, Simon sags just a little, his face going grey. They can't have captured them. There had to have been a warning of some kind; it's not as if the Alliance can simply... take them, without anyone realizing. He has to push away the thoughts of what they did to River, the havoc they wreaked on her mind; if anyone could do it, it would be the Alliance. But he can't have failed her again.

"Tiānsà de èmó," he mutters, panic hardening into anger and resolve. If the gŏushĭ bùrú Alliance is behind this, he'll find a way to get her out, again. He'll do anything to keep River safe.

Glancing around, he sees the tablet, and slips it in his pocket before heading down the steps and towards the door.

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[OHGOD SIMON! She'll just be bolting out of Serenity just now, heading for the Sanctuary. Not a long run, all things considered, even if she's running past nonsense and crazy and religious nuttery.]

Simon! Don't move, don'tmovedon'tmovedon'tmove. There are nets but I have scissors so don't move I'll cut you out.

[Disclaimer: She doesn't actually have scissors.]

Riv-- River!

[He's pushing at the door now, stepping outside.]

I'm not moving, mei mei. I'll stay right here.

[She sounds mostly coherent. As coherent as she ever does, these days. And they're probably not real scissors, but still-]

Don't run with scissors, River.

[She's too busy to Face at him for that last bit, what with the occasional "oof" as she runs through small crowds of Extras.]

On my way, can't move can't think they don't think Simon they don't it's nothing fluff and...

[And the whud of doors opening and closing in the Sanctuary, then she's speaking through pants as she pads her way through the lobby and cranes her head around to see which hallway to go down.]

Said I'd find you. I'll find you don't hide. This isn't--

[Then she's running again down a hallway to the right, full tilt.]

Isn't a game, Simon.

[It's sound advice! She could poke someone's eye out, hi Simon is an old woman trapped in a twenty five year old's body.]

I'm staying right here, River. I promise, I won't leave.

[He's going for calming, and mostly hits it. It's a stressful day, all right? He's on edge.]

I understand. I'm not hiding, I'm staying right here.

[He's thisclose to just haring off on his own, tracking River down. But she'll find him much more easily than he could find her, so instead he leans against the wall and busies himself studying his surroundings.]

There's one last transmission, "Coming, said I'd find you I said. I was looking I looked," before it dissolves into breathing hard as she runs. River can't remember how to get to the room, but she can feel her brother. Little pings of worryworrybrothersisterworryconfusedcleanpressedSimonSimonSimon that she follows like radar until she sees him and can't decide to smile or cry.

Because he's right there all real and solid and a person and she'd looked and she couldn't make him but he's there anyway and it's been so long...

"Simon?"

Ignore the hitch in her voice as she stands there and stares like he isn't real, but she has to make sure because she doesn't know if she really knows. If someone can steal Inara then they could steal Simon, and River hates this place for making her not know what she ought to.

Her words send a pang through him. Simon had hoped she hadn't been in... Taxon long, but it appears he left her alone. Again.

When River appears, he holds out a hand, trying his best to project something along the lines of homehomehomesafety. They still don't fully understand how her gift works, but something has made her wary. He can't read minds, but he knows his sister.

"Of course it's me, dummy. I'll always come for you, remember?" Hand still outstretched, he inches closer, making the last move hers.

She grabs his hand first, checking it for solidity, for purchase, and then she reaches out and just barely ghosts her fingers across his face. His cheek, the bridge of his nose, SimonSimonSimonhome, and River smiles even as the light glints against that stupid silver bracelet.

"Slowpoke."

Simon stands still, lets River do what she needs to in order to reassure herself that he's... real? Here? All of the above, maybe.

The smile is all the permission he needs, and he moves forward that last inch, hugging her gently, chin resting on top of her head. "I'm here now."

It's an attempt at lightheartedness, but mostly it's just guilty.

It takes a second, then a sigh (relief and exasperation and full of finally), but River hugs back. His guilt surges and her stomach turns two degrees counter clockwise but she still hugs him back. Clings, even, grabbing fistfulls of cloth at his back like it'll make a difference in whether he disappears or not.

"Everything shifts and I can't see, duì bu qǐ," and she can't tell if she's apologizing for not finding him sooner or for thinking he wasn't really him.

Honestly, it's probably both.

Simon lets her hug as tight as she needs, stroking her back and then her hair, trying his level best to be calm for her, not not exacerbate the anxiety she's clearly experiencing.

"Hush, mei mei." Kissing the top of her head, he sighs. "Nothing to apologize for. I'm here now."

Another kiss, and then again, more quietly, "I'm here now."

That one was more of a promise to himself.

River hushes when he says it, then squeezes her eyes shut and concentrates. Focuses on the feel and weight and density and all the things she couldn't make with a gorram hatch when he wasn't there that's here now.

Breathe, focus, concentrate. There are things he needs to know.

With a gulp, another sigh, she starts, "Someone hollowed her out. Bits disappeared and replaced... There are imposters."

Then, more frightened and with that much more clingclingdon'tmakemego, "There are ants all over."

"Hollowed who out, River?"

Pause, wait for it, oh God Simon what have you done. "You haven't been taking--" He breaks off, just thinking calm calm calm stay calm, because her body is tensing up again. "Is the ship here?"

Obviously she hasn't been being treated, not with him gone.

Quietly, whispered (quiet quiet or she'll hear you) right into Simon's shirt, "Inara."

But then he's tensing, too, and there's a wall of steely soft solid worry and she knows what he means. River's been without that kind of treatment in near a month, but she nods when he asks.

"Can't go yet, there is a coup. Mutiny. She'll hurt you."

Edited 2009-07-24 22:46 (UTC)

"Inara," Simon repeats, slowly. It's not as if he doesn't trust his sister's instincts, but... Inara? The situation must be complicated in some way he can't see yet.

He's going to kill the captain. Or at least, sneak in another sucker punch and lecture.

"Who, River?"

River pulls back and looks at him. The situation is complicated in ways he probably won't see even when he meets Adira.

"Inara," again, urgent because a) duh she just said this, and b) Simon won't kill the captain if Adira beats him to it. Adira in a Companion suit and this whole thing makes River twitch.

Simon looks right back, puzzled and not a bit worried. A month and a half without her medicine. She's-- well, if River is allowed out of his sight for the next month or so, she should consider herself witnessing a miracle.

"Inara will hurt me." Have patience with him, little sister, Simon's not as fast on the uptake as you. And, you know. He's half convinced this is crazy ramblings.

River is strangely okay with the idea of sticking close to Simon for the next month. Or two months, or year. The Academy is here, and with that she's just dandy lacking miracles and keeping her brother.

She picks up on the complete and bothersome lack of worry and suspicion, oh brother dear, and more than anything is rutting frustrating.

"Yes!"

And she's pulling him, not at all playful, to move. It's time to move, to run and hide so they can live to bicker another day and the rooms in the Sanctuary are as good as any. He can hatch all the meds he wants, she won't even whine when time comes to take them, but right now they have to get safe.

Like he'd even let her go again willingly. And best not to share the news about the Academy just yet; save it for when he can get properly intoxicated and go smash things.

He's the slow child, forgive him.

"River, I don't think--"

But then she's tugging him along, and Simon follows, easily enough; he can contact Inara later, try and find out what exactly set River off. It's easier to just follow, for now.

River thinks she knows a rifle that could help with that, but she's not at all sure they could stop glaring at each other like wolves trying to assert their dominance long enough to get to the intoxication part. Boys are dumb.

She rolls her eyes, hard, at the 'I don't think.' Because no, Simon, you don't. At least not right now.

"The insides gone and there's... We have to fortify a base of operations."

And River keeps pulling him along behind her, looking sideways at doors and turning around corners until she finds one she thinks is appropriate. This might take a while.

Simon does not yet know about this rifle. Once the news is broken to him, he will, of course, wish Kaylee and her new beau well, and retain only the politest interactions. He'll also quietly wish horrifically painful boils in private places on the man. (Sorry, Dean; it's nothing personal.) And yes, boys are dumb. Which is why River is never allowed to have one of her own.

"Shhh, shhh, mei mei." He's trying to comfort her, already wondering if he can beg, borrow, or steal a sedative so she can get obviously well-needed sleep while he slips away to rifle through the drawers in Serenity's med-bay. "All right, we can fortify."

It's a good thing where River is concerned, Simon has unlimited patience.

That initial meeting will be priceless and painful. Somewhere in the back of her mind, River is dreading it simply for the kick it will deliver to Simon's chest, but that's not something she can worry about right now.

Speaking of things she's not, she is certainly not in a mood that can be easily placated. Almost guilty that she wanted Simon here so badly that he came, (and this is so much further from where he should be) and almost frantic with the need to keep him safe, to stay together, now that he is here.

"Here," she says, sighs, and opens a door at seeming random. "Get sticks. We need sticks so she won't know we're here."

Kaylee is a grown woman, just as he's a grown man. They made no promises to each other, and she's free to see anyone she likes. That doesn't mean when Simon finds out, he won't be taken aback.

"Okay, all right." This is mostly humoring River, but all the same, Simon's aware that her gift makes this something more than the influence of a month and a half-- and someone is going to catch his anger about that, later-- without her medicine. "Where do we find these sticks?"

That's the part she's dreading somewhere, way in the back behind the panic and the crazy.

But then he's asking her and she doesn't know. Where do we find these sticks? It echos around in her head for a moment while she bites her lip and thinks, eyes darting all over the room as she presses her back against the door once it's closed behind them and then she sees it. Wood. Made into things and but it's there and some part of her knows that it won't help, that this is delusion and splinters are useless, but River is moving toward it all anyway and saying, "Here it's here all of it is FAKE," before she lashes out.

Her feet are bare, but she's kicking in the door of a low cabinet with a shriek anyway. They're lost in the woods, in the candy house, everything smells sweet and when the witch finds them she has to make sure she won't devour him, and sticks are what she needs.

He'll survive.

Simon's content to let her find the sticks until she kicks out with her feet-- they're bare, and of course in addition to letting her go without medicine shoes have fallen by the wayside, as well-- at the cabinet. He springs for her, pulling her back and onto the floor, in his lap.

He ignores her frantic struggle and the way she's jostling him, concentrating on holding her still and close. "River. Mei mei! Shhh, stop." Holding her tighter, when her struggles become slightly weaker he adds a slightly rocking motion. "Shhh, shhh."

She will not go quietly into that good lap.

River is thrashing and straining, mewling like a cat dumped in a full bathtub and kicking the air. Doing what she can to get up and break things, "I have to, Simon. She's out there, she's there and everything she sees is fire. Everything is--" Nothing she does would hurt him at all, though there's a thought that bubbles up from the bottom (move just so, jab back, knock him out) concerning it that terrifies her.

Eventually, though, she sags back against him, still muttering, "Waves, it comes in waves and when she screams the walls of Jericho could fall," through tears and rocking her head back against his chest. Still straining, still anything but still, but she's resigned now.

[holo] if you tell me where you're going i'll tell you where you're bound

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