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Tweak says, "Viva La Vie Boheme!"

ben_skywalker (ben_skywalker) wrote in makebelievecomm,
@ 2011-03-25 19:41:00

Entry tags:

ben skywalker, river tam

Who: Ben and River
What: A walk!
Where: The castle and beyond!
Why: Because they want to walk. Nosey.
Rating: PG-13 for safety's sake?
Status: Ongoing and private.

Ben stretched his arms behind him, and cracked his neck to the side before stretching again and finally pulling out of his room. He rechecked the white shirt he was worn, straightening it out while he was at it. It was nothing all that spectacular, but it was comfortable for a walk. The long sleeves would be sufficient enough for any lowering temperatures there might be, and it went well with the jeans he'd managed to scrounge up since being here.

He had his lightsaber with him, as always, clipped securely to his belt along his waist. Feet began clipping the stairs as he quickly worked his way down them, running his fingers through his hair to keep it ruffled up as he liked it, and then hopped the last few to the ground beneath. At which point he began to make his way towards the courtyard, looking for the woman he was meant to meet up with.

He rubbed his hand at the stubble of beard he had growing, since being here, and was rather impressed by it. He liked it, and really? It would probably give his father a hernia, but maybe not? Who cared, though, he wasn't here. Might as well make the best of it, and if that meant a goatee? Go for it.

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dancingtam
2011-03-26 02:15 am UTC (link)

Despite an instinctual urge to be barefoot, River slipped on a pair of boots. It was completely for practicality's sake, of course, but the task was still a mundane one. The simple logical fact was that River needed to go out and the boots were a necessary step. She didn't know the terrain - or the person who she was going to meet. Her combat boots meant that she could get away or potentially fight if the pressing need came.

Not that she wanted to be triggered or somehow forced into fighting. Quite to the contrary. River had already been feeling quite over stimulated and she didn't have any medication or Simon to take care of her. The amount of medication had gone down since Miranda, but it was still a fear in the back of her mind. The fact that it wasn't an Alliance planet had helped calm her a bit, but that still wasn't enough. She had wanted to get about and look around. While she had already been told that there wouldn't be a way for her to leave and get home, she wanted confirmation for herself. Given her experience with space travel, it was a little difficult to believe the crew of Serenity wouldn't be appearing any minute now to save her, whisk her back off planet, and let her return to her normal life.

Well, her normally abnormal life.

River put on an oversize sweater before carefully making her way down to the courtyard. When she got there, she hesitated and looked around a bit wide-eyed and unsure. Simon would've killed her for agreeing to go on a walk in a place she didn't know with a person she didn't know. It was likely a good thing her brother wasn't there at that moment.

"Hello." River said quietly, looking at the man who was already there. She assumed he had to be the one who had asked about taking a walk. It didn't take being near him or picking up on anything to gather that. "I'm River."

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ben_skywalker
2011-03-26 07:01 am UTC (link)

Ben would understand the need to feel protected around strangers. He'd been kidnapped, and had attempts on his life since he was a child. Hell, since before he was officially born. It made him just the slightest bit paranoid; not to the degree that he thought this girl might try to kill him, but enough so that his lightsaber came with him wherever he went. That and his father was convinced a Jedi should never leave without one. It was their life line.

That being said, he was also open into the Force; spread out in it, ready for anything out of the ordinary to throw him off, or warn him of danger. So when he heard the woman's approach, he'd already sensed her presence before she spoke up, and he was turning around to smile when he noted her. First thing he noticed was she was beautiful.

He smiled and bowed his head a moment, before lifting his eyes back towards hers, "Hello, River. I'm Ben. Pleasure to meet you."

He offered her a hand to shake, while watching her eyes. He too, was rather fond of space travel, so it was hard for him to believe he was stuck here. He just needed access to a ship, and he'd be gone in minutes, "Thanks for joinig me, I'm definitely looking forward to it."

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dancingtam
2011-03-26 10:59 am UTC (link)

He was polite and, as far as she could tell, there weren't any homicidal thoughts radiating from him. It was a nice bit of reassurance after being brought to this planet. Even if she had been rather thrilled thus far by having some food that wasn't just protein, the bad had far outweighed the good. Even actual food hadn't been able to cheer her spirits. Having a nice person to interact with held a certain potential that nothing else had yet. That, of course, meant that there wasn't a certain risk like there had been at Jiangyin. River really didn't want anyone trying to burn her at the stake again, especially now that Simon and the crew wasn't anywhere nearby to rescue her.

She hoped to avoid that by being at least partially honest and as alert as possible. She looked the man over, trying to size him up as a whole. His physical build reminded her a little of Jayne, though she had a feeling that was likely where the similarities ended. "Hello, Ben."

After a moment's hesitation, she brought her hand up in a fluid movement to shake his offered hand. Her tone was quiet as she talked, but she didn't look down or away as someone shy might've done. "I'm rather curious about the geographical layout and accompanying local societal structure. I'm pleased to have someone to look at it with. They said the planet is called 'Imagination,' but no one really had much else to offer up."

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ben_skywalker
2011-03-27 09:03 am UTC (link)

"I've had to do some questioning, and mild bit of exploring to figure out what exactly this place is. From what I can gather, this is somehow a place settled between time and space, a kind of central rift. It's somehow dragging people from different places in time, and dimensions, straight into this place. This...void," he shrugged before glancing back towards her.

Continueing his way forward, he sighed, "It's a bit unbelievable to me, but not entirely unheard of. The concepts are definitely there, and the math is somewhat plausible, but not to this degree. This is a bit off of the rest of it."

At least as he understood it. He was from a Galaxy and universe that understood space travel and dimensional rifts decently enough. The Force was said to touch between them, then of course, Hyperspace itself was a bit of a rift, in and of itself.

"I can't really figure what else this might be, that's about the easiest explination I can offer," he shrugged, before looking to her, "How about you? You seem rather scientifically inclined."

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dancingtam
2011-03-27 01:32 pm UTC (link)

"Undirected dimensional space rift. Theoretically plausible, I guess, but never something explored in-depth where I'm from. Too frivolous." River walked alongside him, but started to look around at the mention of Imagination being the void. If this place was the void, there had to be something doing the pulling. Figuring that part out seemed like a good way to unlock the mystery surrounding all of this. Still, she had one more prominent thing in her mind. "That would mean my brother and the crew won't be able to get to me."

Then he asked her about what sort of explanation she could offer. River almost smiled, but she made herself avoid the immediate explanation that she had been wondering about. It was easiest to assume something had gone wrong with her brain and that it was all a mass delusion of some sort. Granted, the general feeling she got off the other occupants of the castle made it seem improbable, but that would've made it an extremely elaborate delusion. Not impossible, but extremely elaborate.

"Scientifically inclined, but not a reliable source. Your explanation seems as likely as any, especially if people are being pulled in from different dimensions." Which would explain why no one had heard of the Alliance.

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ben_skywalker
2011-03-30 08:50 am UTC (link)

He blinked hearing her, raising a brow as he turned his gaze into her direction, before clearing out his throat and cracking his neck to the side, "Dimensional rifts are hardly explored where I'm from either; however, we have seen intra-galactic travel, we've seen time flows, and time rifts in small cases before. Further, our means of traveling large distances through space, require us to jump into a sort of semi-alter dimension we call 'hyper space'."

He grinned, realizing he was probably rambling now, before clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth, "Your brother and crew? You think you're in trouble here?" Not to say he didn't think so either, but he wanted to hear the reasonings from other people as well.

"If it's any consulation, I imagine that I won't be getting any rescueing either, so I suppose that means we're on our own. I guess survival training might actually come in handy, go dad huh?"

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dancingtam
2011-03-30 07:18 pm UTC (link)

"Time flows and time rifts?" River perked up at that and the mention of "hyper space." It was a fascinating concept to hear more about. Perhaps she would get a bit more of a grasp about the concept by talking to him. It wasn't like she had access to a wealth of knowledge on the topic... though perhaps she would have to look at the computer and see if that had anything she could access about the topic. "We can fly short bouts of long distances by doing a 'jump.' It's a good way to eat up fuel and we usually just fly at a lower speed to get where we're going, but it's probably the most similar experience I would've had with the topic."

Still, the question about if she was in trouble made River pause. How honest could she be with him? Even without getting too close to him or catching onto any thoughts, there seemed one simple way of gauging that. A joke could easily get an easy reaction out of someone.

"The last planet I was taken involuntarily on, I was to be burned at the stake for being a witch. I'm not and the crew rescued us before they lit the wood up. The memory still upsets my brother, I'm sure." But there was also no harm in sharing something she had said in public over the computer system. "But my brother had been acting as my doctor."

"Survival training?" She glanced at Ben, curious as a whole what that had entailed.

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ben_skywalker
2011-04-01 08:23 am UTC (link)

"Hyperspace is achieved when we break free of the gravitational pull of a celestial body, then we can whip ourselves between Time and Space, and travel great distances within hours or days. It takes only maybe a week to travel the length of the Galaxy," he offered, before sighing as he looked towards the distance.

"We don't often require fuel, we use sublight and hyper drives that use energy. They pull in and reconstruct ion particles in the space around the ship and convert it to energy," he nodded before making his way out of the castle.

"People often times will become violent and dislike what they don't understand, it's sad but it's the basic nature of people in general I think, unfortunately," he shrugged, looking into her direction, "Glad to hear you're alright though. I assure you, I will not be putting you to fire at a stake."

Then as she asked about survival training, he shrugged, "Jedi go through training, trials, learn how to survive in the wilds of both space and most planetary enviornments. We're taught how to make food, how to ration, how to stay warm, make shelter. Even use the Force and the natural world around us to our advantage."

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dancingtam
2011-04-01 09:07 pm UTC (link)

"Fascinating." River paused in her step, her forehead scrunching a bit as she tried to process the details associated with it. She, of course, immediately went about trying to think what force it would exert on the ships doing such. Firefly would likely be unable to stay in one piece. It had a hard time going through atmo, at times, without losing chunks. No, it would likely require something smaller and better built. "The physical force exerted on the ship in doing such must require a different means of building ships... different than in my universe, I mean."

"And that's good to know." River glanced at him and smiled a little before resuming walking. "There seem to be a lot of people in this castle with a lot of different backgrounds. Destroying everything not understood would be detrimental to the seeming cause for the castle. I don't think you seem the sort; I can only hope everyone else agrees with that."

Then he mentioned Jedi and the Force. River paused and blinked, her mind immediately straying to Shepard Book. It seemed the Force was real, or at least to him, but it didn't make logical sense to her. "I don't think we have the Force in my universe. Good things to know, though."

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ben_skywalker
2011-04-02 09:25 am UTC (link)

"We have reinforced hulls and bulkheads, made of durasteel and some of the best alien technology in the world; you barely feel the physical exertion. Shields too, though those usually go down before we enter Hyperspace, there's no need for them. No idea if we do make them any differently than your ships," he grinned as he walked with her.

He kept his hands pinned lightly in front of him, fingers laced together, before tilting his head to the side and popped a brow, "Curious, River. How old are you? I only ask because you seem knowledgeable beyond your years. You sound like you know as much as my dad, or my Uncle, and really? That's like centuries old."

Joke of course, Luke and Han weren't that old, "And don't worry so much about people. They're fickle, but I think we're going to be alright. And the Force is in every universe, it's probably just viewed or felt differently."

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dancingtam
2011-04-02 04:36 pm UTC (link)

"Definitely not like our ships." River almost laughed a little at the thought of the little Firefly ship in relation to reinforced hulls and bulkheads. She liked the ship just fine - it was home, after all - but it definitely would never be able to be retrofitted in such a way. As fascinating as the concept was, and despite the ease it would give the ship in delivering cargo faster, it seemed like it would be impossible for the technology to ever progress to the point of allowing any adaptation for Firefly. Making ships able to do it would make Serenity obsolete and, frankly, River didn't really want to do that... if she ever got back to Serenity. "Serenity has a problem going in and out of atmo in one piece. I miss it."

"Twenty." River didn't bother to look at Ben over the remark, but kept walking. The statement and all possible accompanying thoughts were fairly easy to guess as it was a statement she had heard before in one form or another. Her biggest question stemming from that was if it was a good thing or bad thing he had compared her to family members. "There's a reason I said you might not like me."

"Most people are predictable. Makes it easy to worry." River had, after all, been able to see into a lot of bad people. It was easy to take a slight prejudice. Even once on Serenity, a lot of her exposure to good people had been to the crew. On a lot of planets, she didn't get to go off the ship or she didn't get to interact with people. "And in my universe, there's science. Not much else."

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