It had been years since River had been to a party. Another lifetime, really. As a child on Osiris, she'd been made to go to them all the time, dressed up in some heavy silk dress with her hair curled and tied up with a bow. She'd protested every time, complaining to her parents about how dreadfully dull the events were, and that she never had anything to say to any of the other children in attendance, because they were all too stupid to understand how relativity worked. Of course, at the Academy, she would have given anything to have been back at another stupid party, trying her best to make small talk and dancing through the adult's formal choreography before she was caught and reprimanded.
This was not that kind of party. She had watched Selene's preparations with a keen eye, amazed at how many people her new captain seemed to be expecting. The message had gone out to all the new arrivals, an invitation to meet others like themselves, displaced from space and time. She'd seen Mal use such shindigs as cover for setting up business, too, although she doubted that this one would end in a duel. A drunken fistfight, maybe, but only if someone let the humans into the Wookie brandy unchecked.
As the first guests had trickled in, she'd stayed in the shadows, watching them to see what kind of people showed up to such parties. When it kicked into full swing, she found that it was too much, too busy, and vanished back into the ship. She focused on Quill's music as she sought out the safest place in the ship, curling up in the pilot's chair on the bridge. It afforded her a view of some of what was transpiring below, although she didn't have to see to know. But there, she felt isolated enough that she could relax a little, her senses finding some relief from the onslaught of so many people with increasingly lowered filters.
She rested her head against the back of the seat, smiling a little as she felt the throb of the bass line carrying through the ship. It helped her breathe a little easier as she focused on it, slowly cutting out the hustle and bustle of conversations below, her gaze focused out through the viewport. At this distance, the party seemed nice enough. Who needed to be closer?