舞: [ visual | location: castle summers ]

[biverbam]

Believe it or not, Castle Summers has a well stocked library, though when it shows up on the tablets it looks a bit like it's been hit by an extremely localized tornado. There's a pile of books in the middle of the room, some open and some closed with a few sprinkled on top that look as if at some point in time they'd been journals, with a River

Comments

[Visual]

[notabuymoron]

"Hey. Are you okay?" Casey's only just met the girl, but she had talked about the singing thing as potentially killing people.

[Visual]

[biverbam]

"She lives," exclaimed from her place on the floor as she pumps a fist in the air. Then her hand just stays there and turns as River examines it.

[Visual]

[notabuymoron]

Casey's relieved to see River's visual feed start up again, but he also feels kinda stupid for being concerned for someone he barely even knows.

"So you're gonna be fine? Well...uhh...okay, then."

Cuts off his own feed.

[Visual]

[biverbam]

River, being persistent and also a troll, brings the feed back up.

Unfortunately, the sole reason she does so is so that she can stick her tongue out at him in a great display of cross-eyed childishness. He may not be Jayne, but he certainly sets himself up to be treated as such.

[ visual ]

[biverbam]

Eventually, River picks her tablet back up to respond, though she goes right back to her spot on the pile. "I didn't break anything."

This is said like it means she's so very superior.

[ visual ]

[biverbam]

She's starting to think of him as a schoolboy. A very old, very tall schoolboy with an incredibly restricted diet. Though if he calls her 'little mouse' River might have no choice but to punch him in the face again.

"Not hard," she scoffs, and while it's admittedly a very low blow it's also true, which makes it okay.

[Visual]

[breakmychest]

Spike isn't quite sure what to make of this dance. It's a lot weirder than most of the dances he's seen. And the song's got odd lyrics. It makes him think of Drusilla.

He applauds at the end and smiles at the screen. "Nice moves, pet."

[Visual]

[biverbam]

"There were strings," River says, but it sounds like she's smiling. It's been a long, long time since she's been applauded for a dance recital.

[Visual]

[breakmychest]

Spike tilts his head curiously. "Strings?"

[Visual]

[biverbam]

"Involuntary movement dictated by the presence of a contagion of unknown origin. We are plagued."

The good news is she sounds pretty okay with the idea.

[greenballadeer]

The images Lorne's picked up are enough to bring him almost to tears, if he had tear ducts. He brings his face close to the tablet. "Oh, I'm sorry, baby doll. Are you alright?"

[ visual ]

[biverbam]

River isn't sure what he means; she doesn't know Lorne or what he can do (though she has an idea as to what he is, and the fact that his face isn't melting off is already all kinds of points in his favor) so she just brings her face just as close to her own tablet and studies him.

"Are you?"

Re: [ visual ]

[greenballadeer]

"After seeing what I just saw?" Lorne's voice is soft. He shakes his head. "Can't say I am. Your destiny looks like something by George Orwell. I don't know why anyone would do that to you, honey."

[ visual ]

[biverbam]

After seeing what I just saw--

There's a flinch, backwards, before she sets her jaw and frowns. River isn't used to others knowing things about her without having to be told; especially not things like that. "It was a mission."

And then, in an attempt to change the subject:

"And you're green."

[ location: castle summers ]

[likeajoan]

Who even knows why Buffy felt the need to go to the library today, it's not as though she's an avid reader. The most likely explanation is the one where she thinks she might have lost one of her hoop earrings in there the other day, and that she's looking to retrieve it.

Of course, when she walks in and sees River collapsed in a mess of books, this gives her reason to pause. Pause, blink and finally state the following:

"Well, thank god Giles isn't here anymore."

She genuinely never thought she'd say that.

[ location: castle summers ]

[biverbam]

It's not funny. Really, very not funny, like the termites in the walls they want you to think aren't really there (they don't eat wood and that's where the confusion lies, because lies work just as well on support beams) or the myriad of ways for a body to die.

River laughs anyway; a short burst of hahaha that stops as abruptly as it started as she cranes her neck to look at Buffy from her spot on the floor.

"Don't worry," and she's expressionless despite the previous display of inappropriate laughter, "empty bottles don't break."

[ location: castle summers ]

[likeajoan]

Hey, Buffy will take inappropriate laughter over none.

"And crappy books don't get less crappy?" She ventures, taking a guess at River's meaning as she walks over to where River is sprawled, avoiding putting her heels through any more leatherbound demonology. "Are you okay?" She asks, offering River a hand-up. She can't help but feel a level of concern, here.

[ location: castle summers ]

[biverbam]

"They aren't," not the books or the people or the beams, herself included, and River just looks up at Buffy's hand for a moment from her spot on the floor. It's a hand and it's a weapon, all made up of protection that doesn't look quite right in Taxon's light.

She takes it anyway.