N e w: Y o r k

[brainpanned]

Who: River and York
What: Lovely day
When: 20th Afternoon
Where: Starts out York's house.
Rating: Cute?

Comments

[freelanceryork]

She was lucky that it wasn't Tex who showed up at the door-- Tex, actually, was upstairs laying in a hot bath, because all of her muscles ached. She'd worked out today until she physically couldn't do it anymore, and had to sit until she was able to stand again. Then she'd gone upstairs for a bath. That was.. about five minutes earlier. So it was York who was tugging that door open. And it was York who broke into a smile and lifted both eyebrows. And it was York who moved an arm out in a grand gesture for her to come into the house.

"River! What a great surprise, D and I were just talking about you. Come inside." Well, they hadn't be talking so much as arguing. Delta wanted to know more about the experiments done to her. York didn't want to ask.

[brainpanned]

The matter of the Academy was a strained one. She'd talked about it...sometimes. Simon usually did the talking, back on Serenity. He knew what had happened, a little. Not as much as she remembered, locked away in that dark dark place, but he could put it into a coherent form. The Doctor knew because he must -- and he knew everything. Ianto knew for Ianto's sake.

Otherwise, it was bits and pieces of information, scattered about town. York would know in due time, when it was for York's sake.

The sight of him had her smile, but it soon faded into an expression more curious. "You ought not water your flowers with blood." River stepped inside, following first his gesture and then allowing her eyes to wander the full breadth of the grand manor. "They'll grow up with dreams of genocide..."

[freelanceryork]

"Yeah.. that was Tex, not me. Apparently, Church brought someone home and she wasn't too pleased. Shot her. Shot him a few times, too." He smirked some and shrugged up a shoulder. "That's Tex for you.. she doesn't always fail to pull the trigger. Sometimes she actually does. She waves her gun around a lot, but.." He glanced back to where he'd known it had happened, and the holes in the floor. "She's got it bad for Church. She's sort of defensive about him. And she's.. well." He smirked some and looked back at River. "She's different."

[brainpanned]

"I know."

She had felt it all over Church when they'd last met. After some interesting situations that would possibly (probably) be awkward to explain. Her hand traced the contours of a nearby vase that had likely come with the house, as she didn't see anything breakable lasting very long in a house filled with Spartans.

Turning a little, she saw the places on the walls splattered with invisible memories of blood and shivered. "I know. He wants her jealous. Wants her for himself. Wants a different face but you can only have so many masks." Personally, she liked the mask he put on with her and it had her half-turn, smiling secretively in York's direction.

[freelanceryork]

Alone. Alone. Alone.

Alone is a state of mind not a state of being you can be alone while surrounded by others Delta hears me understands me wants me but Freelancers keep him away fragile minds fragile people but people are no more fragile than we are people break and so do we its only a matter of timetimetime

Time.

And it was then that the strange egg-shaped device went quiet, even though the case almost seemed to have a pulse, beating in the circling arms of the young soldier wrapped around it.

Broken.

[brainpanned]

broken too. as well. also.

River pressed her cheek against the pulsing shell and closed her eyes.

also alone

Again, she rocked the egg in the space of silence, listening to every word. Images came in the form of data, loosely based on the limited color spectrum seen by humans. And so many things...River now understood. Church. Delta. York. Texasmiss too? No, Texasmiss was complete. Skewed. Her clockwork was out of tune but she was finished.

Not alone. The thought came more firmly. Punctuated. Then:

I can hear you.

[freelanceryork]

A man with two broken arms cannot splint the broken arms of a fellow man leaving two men with four broken arms and no way to help one another there is no way to help broken things dried up glue doesn't fix shattered glass breaking a second vase does not repair the first makes no sense

There is no sense

no sense

He broke him he is repairing him repairing him he'll come back will be back back for you I can hear you too but you are not me I remember I know I know her I need Erastis want to forget but then I lose myself I am memorymemorymemory nothing left but memory logic is in the hall with Saint John the Apostle the Apostle I need ErastisErastisErastis where is the Alpha

While she wasn't screaming, Epsilon wasn't exactly being soft-spoken, and the container pulsed on.

[brainpanned]

River kept up. Somehow. She filed away strange words into new compartments, swearing to remember them later and ask York. York? John? The data matched but the names didn't. And all eventually put away into a neat file.

She stroked a hand over the pulsing egg, as if physical contact could calm it.

Alpha has forgotten
Alpha is empty
Alpha is

River began to flinch, now and then, making soft, mental shushing noises as if to a child. Epsilon was making her head hurt. At some point these began to be thrown out as tendrils of the TARDIS; a soft lullaby of mathematics sung in the voice of the universe, not as smooth coming from River's memory, but an acute imitation in slow, precise equations.

[brainpanned]

River grimaced and was soon shifting in place, awkwardly. Families were tricky business, and she was beginning to get the feeling York would be both welcomed and threatened with death. Especially from the part of her family that lived in the mansion. River winced at how the Doctor would take this news.

Of course, York was eager, but River held up a hand in pause, pressing the flat of it against his chest. "I ought...talk to him. First." Prepare him, more like.

She was also curious how Delta would react to being inside the TARDIS.

He'd reacted well to the music and the familiar wavelengths she'd attempted projecting towards Epsilon. That made her frown, remembering something. "You -- When she was screaming. Delta translated. What was the language?" Perhaps if she could learn to imitate it, the next time, Delta wouldn't be necessary. And York wouldn't bleed.

[freelanceryork]

"You can talk to him first, you can take all the time you need. You don't have to explain yourself if you don't want to.. we can just be friends. We are just friends." Though York clearly wanted more, he wasn't going to push, and he wasn't going to ask. He'd only known her a month, maybe a little more. And that was moving much too fast.

"Delta.. I.." He glanced aside, then back at her. "I don't know." It was very rare that there was something he didn't know, when concerning Delta. Furthmore, "Delta can't put a name on it, either." It was rarer still when Delta couldn't pinpoint it.

[brainpanned]

River smiled a little, and carefully leaned forward to put her weight against York, sliding her arms up about his neck in a hug. York wanted it to be more and -- and so did she, right? There was of course the problem of River not knowing exactly what "more" meant. She understood romance on such an elementary level.

'I don't know.'

His answer made her pull away, frowning a little with her head tilted sideways. "You don't -- Delta doesn't know?" Even more confusing. She pulled her hand away to bite nervously at her fingertips. "Can he teach me?"

[freelanceryork]

"It's not really a language. I can't.. explain it very well. And it doesn't have a name. D's having some trouble with it too, he wants me to explain it using a math problem but I think my brain's been through enough trauma today, we can give it a break." He was joking, clearly, and offered her a little smile.

[brainpanned]

Smiling, the kiss brought her back to some form of awareness, and at least her eyes focused somewhat against the shape of York. A hand came up to affirm his presence, resting along his cheek, thumbing the skin beneath his bad eye. Such a shame. He had such beautiful eyes.

A moment later, her expression became more curious. Softer when she spoke. "She called you John. Saint John the Apostle." Epsilon had, as they talked. It was something that stuck with River after they'd calmed the AI. Knowing York's real name, River felt a strange sense of accomplishment in herself.

[freelanceryork]

He smiled some and shrugged up a shoulder. Delta began to speak.

"Saint John the Apostle, he was one of the first Apostles that joined with Jesus Christ, the iconic leader of the Catholic and Christian religions here on Earth. John was one of the most trusted of Christ's men and he was one of the first to see him rise from the tomb, resurrected after three days of lying deceased after having been crucified and run through with a spear. Saint John was known as many things, such as the Apostle of Charity, Beloved Apostle, Beloved Disciple, Giovanni Evangelist, John the Divine and John the Evangelist. He was--"

"Thank you, Delta." York flashed a grin over at him, before looking at River again. "Saint John. Because I'm the only Freelancer who does things because they're right, and not because I'm ordered, or because I'm paid. It was a teasing nickname they gave me. Jonathan. That's my name. Jonathan Sullivan.. I gave myself the last name. We actually don't have last names.. but I liked the way it sounded. John Sullivan."

[brainpanned]

River listened curiously, head cocked in almost an animalistic fashion. She didn't believe in the Christian myths. Physically, they were impossible by the standard laws of nature. Unfortunately, since coming to this town, she was forced to make several concessions:

If the land of Israel were situated on just such a broken patch of space and time, then it was very likely Jesus Christ could have risen from the dead. And if Noah had Time Lord technology then it was more than possible that his Ark could have held two of every species.

Of course, this complex line of thought meant that River zoned out a little bit until York started talking again. "Ark." Muttered once before she began to listen. This time her head dipped to the other side. "John Sullivan." She smiled halfway. It felt nice on the tongue -- none of that chalkiness from which so many others' names suffered. "John." She would still call him York, but now she had an inner label for the real man -- not the Freelancer.

Her other hand cupped his face and she smiled. "John." Re-

[freelanceryork]

"Not to be confused with John 117, Master Chief. He's sort of the savior of our world and all that jazz.. saves humanity, blows up the Covenant.. But it keeps repeating. That's why Tex left us, ended up here. It's all.. very complicated." Clearly. Still, he lifted both hands to cover hers and he smiled easily.

"Tex is Allison, of course. Allison Stark. From Texas, even though she's actually Agent Nevada." Which was a strange combination. "But I guess she really isn't." Not if what River had concluded (and Delta had agreed to) was true.

[brainpanned]

As Epsilon calmed, so did River. Her grip relaxed until it was not quite as death-like around the egg and she began the gentle, almost imperceptible rocking from side to side while her nerves vibrated with memory. Thick, viscous thoughts that circled around her as she forced her ears to stop ringing. She kept a steady flow of those numbers in her mind, ready to jump at a moment's notice to calm the AI.

They're not here.

River wished she could make the hurting stop, but she couldn't. She couldn't do anything but watch and wait and hold her close in her arms, cooing in that odd brand of math as she looked to Delta.

[freelanceryork]

Delta was also studying River, keeping track of her vitals, and trying to decipher some brain-patterns.

"She finds you to be very comforting, River. You are calming. She has this effect on any AIs that she comes into contact with, except for, apparently, Erastis, where she shows them the memories that they themselves cannot experience. She has done it to me on many occasions before. This is why she was removed and placed into that capsule and hidden in the Freelancer Headquarters. She and Agent Washington were a pair, she attempted to kill herself in his mind."

Don't want to be alone don't want to be alone anymoreanymoreanymore need to forget want to forget please stop stopstopstop why did they hurthurthurt why did they hurt please stop I haven't done anything nothing at all nothing please make it stop I don't want to live it.

"She kept repeating the same memories over and over in Washington's head. He knew about it but he lied so that they would not attempt to delete him as well."

[brainpanned]

River continued the little stream of numbers into Epsilon upon hearing the distress. A little louder. There was always distress in the AI, despite her fretting. Delta's assurance that she was a comfort was hardly helpful (but did make her feel better on some self-gratifying level.)

"Is she...is there a way to help?" Softly, she raised her eyes to look at Delta. Epsilon wasn't human. There weren't medications or treatments like the ones Simon had tried. There wasn't even a complete nervous system. This was how Simon must have felt, she concluded, weak and powerless and desperate. Somehow, River found more respect for her long-missing brother.

"If..." She licked her lips, searching for the words. "If by putting her into one. Into togetherness with the alphabet...if she's a broken gear, will it collapse the machine?"

[freelanceryork]

"Outcome: unknown. But it is my understanding that should she be put back into place within the Alpha, that she would not longer share the burden of memory alone. I would be able to help her explain away some of it. Sigma would be able to help her creatively reduce the stress levels she would cause. Omega would be able to create an outlet in the form of anger or rage that could help reduce anxiety. With all parts together, broken parts should become mended in stead of causing the structure to collapse. I am, however, concerned for the well-being of the Freelancers that these AIs still reside within, should we all be collected back into the AI." Even as Delta spoke, Epsilon lulled into silence, listening to his words. Logic. Something the memory desperately needed.