(Untitled)

[river_meimei]

Sometimes, you come to the bar to talk to people. To see and be seen; to get something tasty and maybe rare; even to peoplewatch while you brood, or to hope someone will distract you from the inside of your head.

And sometimes (if you're River, anyway) you come because ten peop- nine people on one ship is somehow more crowded and more empty all

Comments

[sky_high_max]

Max notices her sneaking past and peers over the bar, looking down at her.

Her mother-instincts kick in instantly.

"You okay?"

[river_meimei]

No response, for a minute.

Then River lets her head fall back against the side of a cabinet under the bar, and breathes out, and looks up at Max.

[sky_high_max]

She smiles a little, lowering her voice to be as non-threatening as she can be.

"I'll leave you alone, if that's what you want."

She's guessing that's true, since she's hiding and everything.

[river_meimei]

"I'm not," River mutters, after another silence.

It's not exactly welcoming; it's not exactly hostile, either.

Mostly just tired.

[bev_marsh]

"River?"

Bev doesn't speak up with any conscious thought of stopping her--she's more confirming to herself that it is River, that she is back at Milliways.

[river_meimei]

River takes another two steps as if she hasn't heard, and then hesitates, glancing over her shoulder.

[bev_marsh]

Bev smiles, hesitant and a year older than the last time River saw her.

"Hi."

[river_meimei]

"Bev," River says, after a minute.

It's more statement than greeting, on the whole.

[emptiedstreets]

A small noise catches Ronan's attention as he hunches over a tablet of notebook paper at the Bar, scrawling away at part of his revisions for a mathematics exam in two days.

He leans forward, looking down into the area behind the Bar itself, then arches an eyebrow at River.

"Hallo, there," he drawls, not unkindly. "Funny place to sit."

[river_meimei]

River looks at him sidelong, through a tangled curtain of hair, and doesn't answer.

[emptiedstreets]

"You... wouldn't happen to know much about finding derivatives of a cosine?" Ronan continues, resting his elbows on the Bar. "Because I'm effing stuck and--"

A small pause.

"Of course she bleedin' knows about cosines," and this is mostly muttered to himself. "And probably finding the tangent of--" Slightly louder, "--ah, sorry, right, you can go... back to sitting, then."

[river_meimei]

...

Any other day, he'd likely get more of a reaction; all the same, River's staring at him. Just a little.

[song_tra_bong]

Mary Anne doesn't stop her, just watches her vanish behind the bar. She waits a few minutes, counting seconds in her head before crossing the room and taking a seat on a barstool.

"Hey."

Her eyes are focused on the wall in front of her, but it's doubtful that's what she's talking to.

[river_meimei]

Breath in, and breath out, and then River glances in Mary Anne's general direction without otherwise moving.

How Mary Anne would know this is unclear, since there's a large wooden bar between the two of them, but the narration likes to establish these things anyway.

[song_tra_bong]

Mary Anne traces abstract swirls in the general area of River's line of sight. Or what would be her line of sight, if she could see through the bar.

"Haven't seen you in a while," she says.

"I'd ask if things are okay...but that seems sort of obvious, huh."

She isn't really expecting an answer. Lack there of will probably not stop her from talking.

[river_meimei]

There's a pause.

Then, from under the bar: "Ka."

It's a mutter, as if River's directing it at the floor.

"Just keep her turning. Doesn't matter."

More tired than anything else.