返回: [ holo | location: shelley]

[biverbam]

River is currently walking down a mostly abandoned street of Shelley two months ago. There’s a weight of something-about-to-happen pressing on her, just above her eyes, and she's looking for the source

Comments

[visual]

[justaddmarbles]

Holograms usually meant new people, and Glitch immediately felt sympathy for this young woman and her stumbling. He was also impressed by her recovery, and so felt compelled to give her the orientation.

"Hello! Welcome to Tax-"

Then he realized that she was not in the arrival room, and that he knew her from somewhere. Squinting, he cocked his head and recalled cryptic conversations that made too much sense, and noted the way her hair flowed around her like a stream. No, that wasn't right, she was-

"River!" And his grin was brilliant as he picked up his tablet and twirled. He'd remembered, he'd remembered and she'd come back. "I missed you! Well, before I forgot but that's...I've forgotten a lot. But you're back and and are you all right?"

[ holo ]

[biverbam]

All things Glitch being, well, Glitch, River isn't at the point yet where the slowly growing alarm in her will change its pace. She just looks at him a little confused, and then looks down at the rest of herself.

Then she looks up at the sky, at the sun, and shields her eyes from it a few seconds after imaginary spots started popping up.

"It skipped. Cut in line to get ahead."

All things Glitch being Glitch, that was still something to worry about.

[Visual]

[justaddmarbles]

He stopped short and stared because...no, not okay, obviously. Glitch leaned against the worktable and shoved his curls back from his face, frowning at her words.

"Skipped? What-" Then he thought of how long she'd been gone, realized he couldn't quite determine that, and shook his head. "What's the last thing you remember? What were you doing...before?"

Yes, asking direct questions could get dicey but River always meant something, he'd figure it out.

[ holo ]

[biverbam]

"Minus sixty-five degrees. To the east."

She's still staring up at the sun, waiting for it to make either a non-committal and uninformative shrug or explain itself. After a few seconds of none of the above, River looks down at Glitch and blinks with a line of worry knitting itself between her eyebrows.

"I blinked."

[ holo ]

[biverbam]

She doesn't recognize the couch, but she recognizes Angel and frowns.

"You weren't a part of it."

'It' meaning either her sudden shift forward in time or whatever it is that had happened while she was gone, the process of eliminating suspects is easier than wondering aimlessly.

[ holo ]

[biverbam]

"Time travel," she says with no small amount of distraction in her voice as she oozes between Extras and down the street like so much muddied water. "Gravitational force and velocity didn't change but the springs still jumped forward."

Ooze, slip, turn, keep walking.

[visual]

[not_theman_iwas]

The Doctor has a tendency to keep an eye out for new arrivals and people who look fairly... less than brilliant. Confused, maybe, like this girl. She flips on her Tablet's broadcast option just to check in. "Are you all right?"

[ holo ]

[biverbam]

The newness of the face makes River pause a moment in her aimless wandering in search of answers.

"I skipped," is about as good an answer as can be hoped for.

[visual]

[not_theman_iwas]

And the Doctor offers her a perfectly friendly smile to complement the new face. "Skipped what?"

[ holo ]

[biverbam]

At the smile, River's head undergoes a course correction from Interested Incline to Suspicious Tilt.

"July," she says casually, as if skipping July is just something everyone does.

[visual]

[captbrowncoat]

Mal was doing his usual lurking slash checking up on Serenity thing that he did at least once a day or more, when something on his tablet catches his eye.

It would have, anyway, because a confused person usually means something's happened, they've just arrived, or otherwise are in need of help. But since the person who appeared on the tablet was River, Mal's attention was immediately directed to her.

"River?"

[ holo ]

[biverbam]

"Captain."

It's a good voice to hear, all familiar and steady, so she makes her legs stop moving as if stillness is a sign of respect (this will probably not last long) and holds up her be-tableted wrist so she can see him properly. "I went for a walk," said with a kind of solemnity blanketed over the confusion, as if she's going to get in trouble for skipping ahead in time.

[ visual ]

[captbrowncoat]

"What happened?" Maybe nothing happened, but Mal knew from past experience that more often than not, River attracted trouble in all shapes and sizes. "Did you see something on this walk?" Because somehow he figured that something was bothering her, and again, past experience told him that if something was bothering River, it was a good idea to pay attention.

[ holo ]

[biverbam]

"Didn't see. Searching for the source and... I blinked." With that, River's fight for stillness begins its slow road to defeat as she rocks back onto her heels and looks up at the afternoon sun. "Blinked and the sun moved into now without any then."

She'd worry more about making sense, captain dummy talk sense, if she wasn't still trying to adjust to the fact that it's no longer morning, let alone no longer June.