(Untitled)

[river_meimei]

River's perched on a barstool, her ankles wound around the rungs. In front of her is a mug of hot chocolate, piled precariously high with whipped cream and foam. There are sprinkles of something green on top

Comments

[nneverwas]

Huh.

Huh.

Girl looks familiar.

She catches Aaron's attention on his way from the back door towards the fireplace, and he stops for a moment. He doesn't stare, just looks: the expression on his face says hang on, have I seen you before?

(He's seen this face, yes; not this girl. The other one was all wrong, an almost-perfect fake. This one's more... human, he'd like to say.)

If he watches her for another second he really will be staring. He ducks his head half-apologetically, starts to move on, hesitates. At least the floor won't mind if he stares at it while he's deciding.

(Talk to her or don't? Pretending to confuse her for the plastic girl would be a lot of work, but also good practice.

Well, when he puts it like that...)

Finally, shyly, he looks up again. There's a smile on his face, faint but friendly.

He takes a seat at the bar, two stools to her left: that's one empty seat between them, a polite barrier of distance.

With a nod to the Rubik's Cube: "You any, any good w-with those?"

[river_meimei]

It takes a second -- not long at all, but just long enough to notice the delay.

And then her head snaps up sharply, and her eyes fix on him with a sudden clear intensity; there's a poised readiness to her whole body abruptly, as if at any instant she might whirl into motion.

[nneverwas]

What the FUCK.

Aaron jumps in startlement, nearly falls off his stool, rights himself, and meets her eyes. His are blank and bewildered.

(Does she - what does she know? Is she just a basket case? Has he seen her somewhere outside the-- no; he'd remember.)

Tentative: "I'm s-- I'm sorry?"

Any maybe also a little bit afraid of her.

(More than a little. Shit, what is this, Miss Faker's evil twin?

Now there's an idea...)

[river_meimei]

"I can see you," River says softly.

Beat.

Almost normally: "No you're not." Almost, but her head is cocked at a birdlike, studying angle, and she didn't move in all his bewildered flailing. It makes her look subtly off-kilter.