InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "doctor i wasn't really trying"

River Tam (makemeastone) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2009-06-10 21:52:00

Entry tags:

!closed

WHO: River Tam and Topher Brink.
WHAT: Actually interacting in person.
WHEN: Evening.
WHERE: A recreational facility (sort of like the YMCA or something).
RATING: TBD.
STATUS: In Progress.

River had found the facility mostly on accident, wandering around one afternoon, but she had taken to spending a good deal of time there. She had missed dancing, more than she cared to admit. It wasn't exactly a productive pastime on the Serenity, and most of the time she had been in too distressed a state to think about it or her medication had left her too tired or unfocused to bother. She had danced on Jiangyin, but she didn't like to think about that. Postholer...digging holes for posts, and Simon would have burned with her. She missed Simon like she missed dancing. More, even. But she had found this place and there was a room with a bar along one wall and mirrors and wood floors. It felt like home, but there had never been a room like this in her home. Not on Osiris or Serenity. It was a more intangible sort of feeling. She'd taken to spending her time there, dancing until she remembered the steps.

Now it was quiet and the building was mostly empty. Most people didn't see the point in coming to places that relied on socializing or sound. River didn't mind the silence. There was enough noise in her head to make up for it. And she could still hear music, even if she couldn't actually hear it. It was soothing, in the face of such a strange and unsettling situation, to focus on the music in her head and forget about the rest. And, anyway, she had missed dancing.

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boygodofneuro
2009-06-10 10:06 pm UTC (link)

Okay, so maybe this wan't the best idea Topher'd ever had. Now, he was the first person to admit that his sense of direction was jack shit, but there was no way he was going to sit around and twiddle his thumbs in his room any longer. He couldn't do anything there but worry and wait and feel sick in that part of his stomach that always gets all twisty when bad bad things are about to happen. So he decided to just get up and go, to wander the town until this weird feeling disappeared.

Red faced and sweating, Topher came to a rather startling conclusion an hour later. He was good at a lot of things. But like, walking and stuff? Not one of them.

He had stumbled into the first room he found which looked a little air-conditioned, and very nearly flopped face first onto the cool wood. But as he threw open the door, he noticed something which made him freeze. River. And not just River, but River dancing. She'd always seemed a graceful sort, lithe and long-limbed like one of his actives, but somehow he'd never pictured her like this- all pirouettes and twirls, a million more of her echoing the movements on the mirrored of the hall.

He opened his mouth to speak, before shutting it again as he realized the futility of the action. Once, twice, three times he raised his hand, just slightly, as if to get her attention, but he could never quite bring himself to interrupt her reverie. Hesistantly, he resigned himself to the shadows where he sat and watched, unwilling to enter but unable to leave.

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makemeastone
2009-06-11 06:45 pm UTC (link)

River continued dancing, even though she could hear Topher's entrance above the music. No...that was wrong. There wasn't any music, or any noise for that matter, and she certainly hadn't heard Topher entering. The music was only in her head, as nice as it was, and she had felt Topher come in. His presence was suddenly there, but it wasn't startling the way some people were. He could hardly be considered methodical, the was Simon was, but it was oddly soothing. She stopped and turned, looking right at Topher and smiling.

Hello, she said, moving her hands to speak to him in sign language. You weren't interrupting, you know. I don't mind stopping.

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boygodofneuro
2009-06-12 03:45 pm UTC (link)

Sign language? Topher hadn't been expecting that. He knew it, if just barely, the result of many afternoons and a misspent youth. But he hadn't really expected anyone else to understand. Not River, anyway. He wasn't sure how she'd known he'd entered the room. After all, she been facing the other way, and he'd certainly hadn't made any noise. It must've been the mirrors, he decided. There was no other explanation. She's seen him in the mirrors...somehow.

Hello, he signed. His hands hovered in midair, his fingers twitching between motions, the deaf version of a verbal tick. I didn't know you danced. What exactly she was dancing to, he couldn't guess. No music, at least, none that he could hear.

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makemeastone
2009-06-12 06:38 pm UTC (link)

River knew a lot of things. She didn't always know she knew them, but she did. Sign language was just another skill she had taken to. And she knew that he knew, even if she didn't know how she knew that. Her abilities as a reader just worked that way sometimes. She cocked her head to the side, studying him, then sat down on the floor, beckoning him over.

She couldn't help smiling at the tick in his sign language. It was endearing, if such a word could be applied. Well, anyway, it was endearing to her. You don't know a lot of things. Now you know one more. She paused and smiled, thinking he probably hadn't known she knew sign language either. Or two.

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boygodofneuro
2009-06-16 01:58 pm UTC (link)

Topher liked River. He liked her openness and he liked her speech patterns and when she smiled he couldn't help but smile back. She was an odd duck, different somehow. Not different bad, just different. He hadn't ever made anyone like her, not now, not ever. But those quirks, that was proof of a creator if there ever was one, not that he believed any of the I.D.iocy, of course. But still. If there was a god, then he did good work.

Or two. Had he thought all that stuff, or actually signed it? To be totally honest, he wan't exactly sure. Thought, speech, the line was kinda blurry with him.

So, what is sky? No wait, that wasn't right. Up. What's up? What brings you to this place of fitness? Hey, he never said he was perfect. Just pretty close.

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makemeastone
2009-06-25 05:01 pm UTC (link)

River laughed, silent and more reflex than anything, because even she couldn't tell if he'd signed that stuff or thought it. Lines were blurring a bit more than usual for her. She knew what he was thinking about, to some degree. It wasn't like hearing thoughts for speech, more impressions than anything else, but she knew what he was thinking and it made her smile.

God does good work, she agreed. I like the work God did on you. You're interesting. Most people bored her after a while. Even Kaylee, for all that she was sweet and one of River's favorite people, bored her to some degree. Topher was anything but boring.

I missed dancing, River signed in response to his question. This seemed the place to do it. What brings you here?

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