复旧: [ visual | location: serenity ]

[comprehender]

She hadn't minded the city's change, not even having to go from one end to the other between the zoo and Serenity, or the extra miles between all her other haunts. The space between did a lot to alleviate and distract from the claustrophobia of two years in captivity weighing on her shoulders, two years of people leaving, two years of Not Much

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[ visual ]

[faderbroderson]

"River?" He almost calls her lilla amiralen, but catches himself. She's too lucid -- more lucid than Godric has ever known her to be -- and Godric is too familiar with Taxon's glitches.

[ visual ]

[comprehender]

She picks up the tablet and answers, pressing all the right buttons like it's second nature. (Which it shouldn't be, since she can't remember seeing anything quite like it in her life.)

"If you're looking for ransom, you've--" and she stops. Because the person she's looking at is Godric, and he wouldn't be looking for ransom but she has no idea how it is she knows that. It's all disconnected vaugeries and the overwhelming sensation of déjà vu.

"Godric," she says, trying the name out loud and utterly unsure. "What's going on?"

[ visual ]

[faderbroderson]

He smiles very openly. This is River how she should be, not River as she was made to be by cruel men who had no business playing with her mind. It's only a shame it probably isn't a permanent state of things.

"It seems you've been glitched. Do you remember where you are?" She remembers him, so it seems only logical she may remember other things.

[ visual ]

[comprehender]

River looks around her, huddled up with her back to the wall and blankets tangled around her legs. What she remembers is coming back in at an unsteady trickle of names and associations. "Serenity, Firefly class. And we're landlocked in a cave."

She stops long enough to consider and sort through the fuzz of what she can remember. "Taxon. That doesn't make any sense."

[ visual ]

[auntjenna]

Jenna just blinks for a while. Somehow this doesn't look like... River as normal. Jenna doesn't know River very well, but there was something very specific about her and whatever that was isn't there now.

"River?" she asks tentatively, wondering what could be happening now.

[ visual ]

[comprehender]

There's some hesitation before River asks, "Did you wake up here, too?"

Pay no attention to the fact that she's using the tablet like a pro or not questioning how this woman knows her name. She's trying to focus on the general gut feeling that this is definitely a person that gets taken, not one that does the taking. It's actually kind of comforting.

[ visual ]

[auntjenna]

O...kay... something is definitely weird here. Did River just spontaneously forget that she's ever been here? Jenna tries to think of something that might not be so scary if this is the case.

"Something like that." Though her waking up was over a month ago. "Are you okay?"

[ visual ]

[comprehender]

"Aside from being drugged and waking up in a strange place?" The scathing sarcasm here is only tempered by residual fear, and that's enough to have her actually looking down to assess herself. "I think so."

Then she pulls at the shirt she's got on. "These aren't even my clothes," said distracted and confused. Why would they want to change her clothes?

[Audio]

[imperial_long]

"Such language," Long murmurs in Mandarin. He only ever spoke to River at his arrival, and doesn't know her well enough to judge what is normal and what isn't. But he likes hearing the sounds of one of his native tongues, and the chance to speak it as well.

"I don't know of any 'Simon' here, but then, I have hardly met everyone."

[Audio]

[comprehender]

"I'm sorry..."

River doesn't know the voice, at least not enough to place it, but she falls easily into the meek, respectful tone usually reserved for the sternest professors and her mother's dinner parties. It's a good thing he can't see the look on her face that would ruin the general impression she's going for. "If you could tell me where I am, or where I might find my brother, it would be very appreciated."

[Audio]

[imperial_long]

He pauses. The question about the brother tells him nothing, but not knowing where she is? A glitch; it must be.

"I'm afraid I don't know your brother, assuming that's the Simon you mention. River, isn't it? Mayland Long, we spoke briefly before but you may not remember.

"This is Taxon, this place. Do you, ah, remember Taxon?"

[Audio]

[comprehender]

"My apologies, the name isn't familiar..."

(It is, but it's vague enough that she assumes he's one of her father's associates.)

The name 'Taxon' gives her pause, gives her the image of a city she knows but can't place. Maybe something from an old geography text or atlas, some small settlement near the docks that's been built up in recent years.

"Are we still on Osiris?"

my memory ain't what it used to be;

[comprehender]

Well.

That is definitely not the person River was hoping to see in her doorway, though she's hit by the eerie feeling of resemblance. Instead of pondering that particular bit of oddness, she throws a pillow at his head and shrinks back up against the wall with her blanket up around her chin.

"If your idea of getting into my head is drugging and kidnapping me, once was more than enough!"

Assumptions are apparently the catch of the day.

"You can't keep me here against my will. My father will have you bound by law and jailed for the rest of your natural life."

my memory ain't what it used to be;

[comprehender]

Okay, that was...

Weird.

Weirder.

But she refuses to let her apparent kidnapper just dismiss her like that. And if he isn't her kidnapper, then he at least has to know what in all the spinning worlds is going on. So she follows him out, pushes past unrecognized familiarity at her surroundings, and focuses on being very indignant.

"Tell me what happened, or at least where I am. I can tell we aren't in the air; I'd feel the grav working if we were." Her pause here is for emphasis. "You can't hold someone hostage, call them ridiculous, and not explain yourself." It's unethical, or something.

[visual]

[rose_tainted]

Rose doesn't know the young girl but she seems to be distressed and she can't help but be concerned for her. The language she uses strikes a chord with Rose because she remembers Jayne and Kaylee using it before. Maybe this girl was a friend of theirs.

"I don't think that Simon is here. Or, if he is, I haven't met him yet."

[visual]

[comprehender]

"Oh."

The disappointment carried in that one syllable is almost palpable, and River nods it back with a deep breath before continuing. "If you do see him, please let him know his sister wants to go home, and that I'm telling lǎo​bà this is all his fault."

She had been aiming for angry, but that just came out mostly scared.

( translation | father )

[visual]

[rose_tainted]

"I will, don't worry." Rose assures her with a small smile. "Promise."

Even if she didn't know what this Simon looked like in the first place. Still, her words intrigue Rose and she wants to know more about her.

"How long have you been here for?"

[visual]

[comprehender]

"Thank you," emphatic and genuine. She's not entirely at ease, probably won't be the entire time she's like this, but the ease of informative conversation is helping to quell the immediate panic.

"I'm not sure." Some part of her wants to say 'two years,' but there's no way that can be right. "How many other people are here?"