(Untitled)

[alorn_bear]

Belar's been busy out in the mountains. People've been using them, after all, so he really wants to make sure nobody gets hurt and stranded up there. It'd be seriously bad press if they did and nobody went to bring them back in. Now, though, he's in the Bar with his sign up as per usual

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[river_meimei]

River, drifting by towards the couch, pauses to peer at the sign with some interest.

What she's seeing there is up for debate, particularly since she doesn't seem to be focusing on the incrementally shifting count-down that's the one moving portion of the sign, but she seems interested.

[alorn_bear]

At some point the count ends and the top half of the sign winks out. Belar opens his eyes, looks up, and smiles.

"Hey there, River."

[river_meimei]

River blinks, lifting a startled hand to brush over the area where the sign was a moment before.

"Hi," she says to her hand, and glances at Belar a moment later.

[alorn_bear]

"Sorry. Standard procedure," says Belar. "I don't need it, so I put it away. How've you been?"

[river_meimei]

"Tactile holography," she agrees.

A moment's pause, and then her gaze drops to the table.

"I'm fine."

Either this is something of a lie, or there's someone else for whom that's not entirely true. It's hard to tell which. She doesn't seem actually upset, though.

[alorn_bear]

Well, not really, but Belar's not the kind of god to push a point.

He lifts one eyebrow and nods. "Can I get you anything in the meantime? I was kinda thinking I could use a chocolate milkshake myself, and it's just as easy to order two as one..."

[river_meimei]

River studies him.

"Got a fondness for sugar," she informs him, and there's a faint smile to go with it. Can't fool me, that smile says.

[alorn_bear]

"Well, you just see right through me, don't you," says Belar with a grin. "There's nothing wrong with a fondness for sugar as long as it's judiciously managed and spaced out with exercise and proper eating habits, you know? Besides, most of the time I wind up living on high protein diets. I really could use the taste of something that wasn't fish right about now."

[river_meimei]

"No," River tells him earnestly. "Opaque. The molecules are refracting according to standard parameters."

Beat.

And half a smile, lopsided and reluctant. "Okay."

[alorn_bear]

"They don't have to," says Belar. "They're only refracting that way because I told them to."

But he grins, and calls over one of the wait-rats. "If you could bring the lady and me some chocolate milkshakes, please- and I think maybe something in the dessert family wouldn't go amiss either- that'd be great, okay? Thanks, dude."

The rat scampers off for the kitchen.

[river_meimei]

River's head tilts slowly.

Curiously, "How?"

[alorn_bear]

"Well," says Belar, "if you can bring your Will to bear on the world around you, and do it in such a way that the local reality has to listen, and then release your Will- then what you're holding in your mind happens. That's how I do it, anyway."

[river_meimei]

River frowns, though after a moment she nods slightly.

She looks... troubled, a little, and wary. Not of Belar precisely, though.

[alorn_bear]

"It's kind of tricky. Not everybody human can do it," says Belar.

The rat arrives with the shakes, and with a fine example of fried ice cream. There's some drizzly green sauce for it, which turns out to have a bit of wasabi in.

No, really, it's good.

[river_meimei]

River accepts her milkshake with both hands and an absent smile for the waitrat. (Just because it's absent, though, doesn't mean it's only automatic politeness; River doesn't remember that kind of thing, usually.)

"I don't want to," she says finally, and glances at Belar.

"I." Her fingers loosen around the milkshake, and curl tighter. "Forget."

[alorn_bear]

"That's okay," Belar says gently. "It happens."

He makes a rather unbecoming gurgling noise with his straw.

"Hey, I meant to ask you," he says, "have you ever been sledding? Like out in the snow?"