Re-posting from Comment fic comm
ETA: Never mind, looks like someone's taking over the comm! But still! I like having all my fic on my journal too. :)
ETA2: Edited, to hopefully take care of some unintended issues. It should be noted that the darkness River refers to in herself does not come from her Reader abilities, but I'm not sure that's obvious. Hopefully some of the changes help.
It looks like the comment fic community may be shutting down, so I'm re-posting what I just wrote for their latest post, which is a re-run post. The original prompt came from last January and the theme of the day was 'the darkness within' the actual prompt was: Firefly, River, something wicked this way comes (I think I did better at just general darkness, though it's all dark and Jayne sees it, so I guess??). It's a river and jayne focused short vignette. Pre-Rayne.
There is a darkness inside of River, a darkness that is roiling, turbulent, smog-like. She likes to think of it as living perhaps between two of her ribs or just behind her eyes. Most of the crew don't see the darkness. They just see a crazy girl, driven insane by science, by torture.
Jayne sees it.
Jayne sees it all the time.
He sees the darkness and he's scared. Like a little boy staring too long into the dark woods their best friend told them was haunted at their last sleepover, the one he no longer plays in because maybe, just maybe a monster will come out and grab him by the ankles, drag him down into the earth. He was scared of that and now he's scared of her because he sees in her eyes the same things he saw in that forest.
River isn't mad. She flows around him, sees through him. She understands. How could she not, when all his thoughts and feelings are just there? She thinks that perhaps Jayne is maybe the smartest of all the crew, to see the truth in her. The others deny what they see, don't understand. She likes that Jayne sees all of her as she sees all of him. And he won't be scared one day, because he'll learn to recognize her darkness as the darkness he holds in his own soul. That day will indeed be beautiful.
ETA2: Edited, to hopefully take care of some unintended issues. It should be noted that the darkness River refers to in herself does not come from her Reader abilities, but I'm not sure that's obvious. Hopefully some of the changes help.
It looks like the comment fic community may be shutting down, so I'm re-posting what I just wrote for their latest post, which is a re-run post. The original prompt came from last January and the theme of the day was 'the darkness within' the actual prompt was: Firefly, River, something wicked this way comes (I think I did better at just general darkness, though it's all dark and Jayne sees it, so I guess??). It's a river and jayne focused short vignette. Pre-Rayne.
There is a darkness inside of River, a darkness that is roiling, turbulent, smog-like. She likes to think of it as living perhaps between two of her ribs or just behind her eyes. Most of the crew don't see the darkness. They just see a crazy girl, driven insane by science, by torture.
Jayne sees it.
Jayne sees it all the time.
He sees the darkness and he's scared. Like a little boy staring too long into the dark woods their best friend told them was haunted at their last sleepover, the one he no longer plays in because maybe, just maybe a monster will come out and grab him by the ankles, drag him down into the earth. He was scared of that and now he's scared of her because he sees in her eyes the same things he saw in that forest.
River isn't mad. She flows around him, sees through him. She understands. How could she not, when all his thoughts and feelings are just there? She thinks that perhaps Jayne is maybe the smartest of all the crew, to see the truth in her. The others deny what they see, don't understand. She likes that Jayne sees all of her as she sees all of him. And he won't be scared one day, because he'll learn to recognize her darkness as the darkness he holds in his own soul. That day will indeed be beautiful.