closed RP threads

[soulmakingsound]

ＣＬＯＳＥＤ ＲＰ

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closed rp for [gorramvera]

[soulmakingsound]

[soulmakingsound]

There are some things that are better, after everything that's gone on. Mal seems to put more trust in her, letting her act as co-pilot on her good days, of which there seem to be more. Simon isn't constantly fussing over her, now that he's got Kaylee to distract him. And there's a quietness to her head. Oh, she still hears, still feels. It still comes in fits and starts. But there's a peacefulness there, too.

The ship is on auto-pilot for now, so River perches herself on one of the catwalks to listen to the quiet hum of the ship's engine for a while.

[gorramvera]

Things are better but they are different too. For now, the Alliance is off their tail and everything feels like it used to...but it also feels different. With Book and Wash gone, the world feels different and Jayne doesn't like it much. At least Inara is back and it's fun to watch her and Mal dance around each other. But Jayne worries about Zoe. She's holding on but he can see the pain in her eyes when he catches her staring off in the distance. He doesn't know how it's possible but somehow she is quieter than before.

River is quieter too. Normally that would make him worry but she seemed to be better. He didn't know how that was possible because it didn't seem like it should be but she was rarely damaging his calm these days. If anything, he almost enjoyed himself around her which is odd.

Climbing up the stairs to one of the catwalks, he munches quietly on an apple as he decides that maybe he should head to bed. Everyone else seems to be in bed. Except not.

"Gorramit, girl!" He curses when he nearly stumbles over River.

[soulmakingsound]

She still doesn't sleep well at night. Still has nightmares of The Academy that she can't quite seem to shake. New ones now, of fighting off the Reavers. All that blood she sees when she closes her eyes.

She doesn't like to dwell on it. She did what needed doing.

And then Jayne is tripping over where she's laying and she sighs, standing and straightening her dress out. "Should've knocked."

for Eason

[soulmakingsound]

River grabs her jacks set from her room, shushing a fussing Simon. She's in her twenties, now. And besides that, she can handle herself.

Once Simon is taken care of, mostly, she hurries down the hall to Eason's bunk, climbing down and sitting on the floor to set the game up.

[diceyimpulse]

He narrowly avoids smirking at Simon as the two take their leave from the dinner table. The man looks like he's swallowed an entire lemon whole, and something about it is satisfying to Eason, who can't quite stand his smug intellectualism.

Simon's protection of his sister is another thing. He can't argue with that, even if he's pretty sure he's the last of what she needs saving from up here. He leaves the door to his bunk cracked and grins when she slips in.

"Got an earful, didn't you?"

[soulmakingsound]

"He worries so." River rolls her eyes, but it's affectionate; she can't quite fault Simon for worrying about her. He is her big brother, after all.

"If anything you ought to be warned about me." It's meant as a joke, but it stills her hands a moment, contemplating how true that statement is. She soon shakes it off and finishes emptying the bag of jacks onto the floor.

"Are you going to join me or not?"

[diceyimpulse]

"Join you on the floor?" Eason looks River over with amused incredulity. The jacks are a pretense, of course. He's not unfamiliar with the game, but he hasn't played it since a long time before he left the orphan's asylum. With a sigh, he sets the brakes on his chair and transfers onto the floor with a rather graceless shuffle.

Eason crosses his legs and gives River a grin. "What warning do you figure you need? 'Excessive snark ahead?' 'Side eye so cutting it could kill a man?'"

closed RP for heyhohey

[soulmakingsound]

River feels a little out of place. A friend from school had insisted they go out, since it's Friday night and it's 'practically illegal' not to go out on a Friday, apparently. So she'd dressed up for a night on the town.

They'd ended up a club, where the the stamp on her hand indicates that she's 20 and can't be served alcohol. So she's sipping at her cola, watching the people move across the dancefloor. Unsure whether she should join in or not.

[heyhohey]

Not too far from where River is hovering, there is another wallflower, standing alone. He's dressed in shades of black and crimson, face pale and painted lightly around the eyes with a little makeup.

Herbert had wanted to go out dancing, and...well, he had gotten Distracted. So Alfred had agreed to split up for a bit and meet up at home.

He's holding a drink, but he doesn't seem to be drinking it, bright blue eyes darting to and fro around the room. Accidentally, he makes eye contact with River - the sheepish, tight-lipped smile doesn't match the way he's dressed.

[soulmakingsound]

Ah yes, that awkward smile one feels obligated to make when one makes eye contact with a stranger. She returns it, and raises her glass in silent greeting to the young man who'd locked gazes with her by happenstance.

After a few minutes, River sighs and sips at her drink again. This isn't her sort of dancing. So she goes to stand closer to the sheepish looking young man, leaning in to be heard over the music. "You don't dance either?"

College AU Line for possessum

[soulmakingsound]

Friendship

[soulmakingsound]

It had seemed easy enough, watching the videos. Simply math, turned into art. Into a symbol. This was something she could do. Something she could replicate. And besides, she found the process relaxing. Making knots, counting, keeping track of patterns.

Which is why she shows up at Peter's door one day, clutching a bracelet in her hand. The main strands were a deep forest green and a rich chocolate brown. The thinner strands woven throughout were a golden colour. She's hopeful he'll enjoy the present.

[possessum]

Peter's more than grateful for a distraction in the form of one River Tam. The paper he's meant to be working on is a headache, and he's very happily turning away from his laptop to answer the door instead, the usual grin appearing on his face to see her.

"Hey, River." Said as easily as anything: as if he was expecting her, even. Showing up to each other's rooms is just a norm for them; it's never something they really need to plan. She can come any time she needs to, and he knows he can do the same.

Peter's the usual mixture of curls and crumpled clothing, comfortable and a little messy all at the same time, as his eyes drop down to what she's holding in her hand, smile softening to a curious thing.

"What's that?"

pumpkins scream in the dead of night

[soulmakingsound]

River is Excited. She was never allowed to trick-or-treat as a child, and now that she can, she very much wants to. There's a party on campus as well, but that isn't starting until later. Plenty of time to ask strangers for candy, first.

She'd seen what Peter was considering for a costume, and had decided to take it upon herself to help him be a little... spookier. Tis the season, after all.

So she knocks on his dorm door, arms laden with bags of goodies to prepare for the night.

[possessum]

Peter hasn't really thought much about Halloween, in the past few years. There was a time when he was younger and it was a big deal, and then when he got older it became about taking Charlie around on those spooky nights. But there's been nothing like that in recent years. Mostly, it's just another holiday to try and ignore.

Until he found out that River's never celebrated it before, never even gone trick-or-treating. It didn't take much coaxing from her to get him onboard; Peter's more than happy to help River reach all of the things she missed out on as a child. He knows how much was taken from her.

That said, he's still... severely lacking when it comes to costume creativity. But he has picked up some more decorating things and made his dorm room look a bit spookier by the time River comes over: there are some moody orange lights strung up over the windows, and a few rubber bats and skeletons dangling from nearby surfaces. An eyeball or two.

When the knock comes, he opens it up right away, smiling at her as he holds up a little skeleton he's trying to detangle.

"I find this humerus... Get it? Humerus?" Peter...... He snorts and reaches to take some of the bags from her, brows lifting curiously—

"What'd you bring?"

[borntolove]

It's the summer of 1816 in - London and The Tardis materializes into a winter wonderland...

[soulmakingsound]

River is always fascinated by all the places the TARDIS can go. All the wheres and the whens that it can travel to. And here, now, she peeks her head out of the door -- and it's snowing.

"Lovely," she sighs, looking quietly awed and excited.

[borntolove]

The Doctor steps out behind River, and he's smiling, "Snow. Real snow." Ten is catching a few snowflakes on his tongue.

"Don't just stand thar. We havef lots to do after all. The question is - what first?"

post-Stand AU for brandnewkey

[soulmakingsound]

Now that things seemed to have calmed a bit, the crew had agreed to break up for a time and scavenge for supplies before coming back together in the house they'd found to set up camp in. River had gone with Simon, of course.

Or at least that was the plan.

She'd followed a trail of berry bushes, gathering them in a bowl she'd brought with her. But the next time she called to Simon, he hadn't called back. Another shout, another lack of answer.

River sits against the trunk of a tree, bowl of berries next to her. Realizing how lost she is.

[brandnewkey]

Vegas was gone. There was no concrete memory on the brain that explained how this was known; it just was. Down to the last brick, it was gone. So was every single person that'd been known to be in it. Even the Rat Woman. Even Julie Lawry. Even Randall Flagg.

And it should have been that so was Lloyd Henreid.

There came a point after the first day of not knowing where the fuck he was or how to feel that Lloyd Henreid finally had to get up and move again. An impulse at least part of him remembered having in the last minutes he could recall. Not everything made sense. He remembered the pandemonium. An electric crackle in the air. Trying in vain to do the right fucking thing. He remembered saying no.

He was always going to remember saying no. And how once the fear was gone from saying that, the hurt bubbling underneath it.

But no fucking idea how he got out.

But the desire to keep moving was still there. It hadn't left him, and it kept his legs under him especially when his stomach started to growl. When the wind started to bite and remind him to close that goddamn leather jacket.

And the Wasteland in whatever part of it (somewhere north maybe) really wasn't all that different from how the world had been before, not for Lloyd. More dead bodies sure. But gas to be siphoned. Food and ammo to scavenge. Safe places to find to fall asleep.

This'd be the first time he saw someone else alive in a long time, and at first she was so still he almost thought she wasn't real.

He knew how to forage a little, as much as any poor country kid does after part of a life of summers spent living outdoors until dinner time, finding your own fun, and finding things that grow to eat was sometimes part of that. He knew oranges and apples and strawberries and blackberries and even honeysuckles by that token, and so it didn't feel at all strange to start picking when he found something he knew wasn't likely to make him sick.

The girl did, though, and for a minute, halfway between a motion, all he could do was stare.

[soulmakingsound]

She remembered berry picking, back home. A book Simon had bought them to identify which berries were safe to eat. She remembered berry picking in the little village they'd stopped in on their way to Boulder. The one that had needed a doctor. The one that tried to burn her as a witch. And so she'd found a metal mixing bowl in an abandoned kitchen and begun to gather.

But now she waited. Better to stay in one spot. Easier for Simon to find her if she stayed still.

She only sat up when she saw the man a few metres away. Her hand touching her boot where her knife was hidden, despite the tears streaming down her cheeks. "You're not my brother."

closed thread for [desertpowered]: a first party

[soulmakingsound]

River can't quite help the butterflies in her stomach at the thought of Paul coming to visit Persephone. It's as close to a home planet as the crew has, and there's a comfortable sense of familiarity there. Enough for them to dock for a few days and relax before their next gig.

Tonight, they're having a small bonfire beside the ship. Chatting and laughing and telling stories as they wait for their guest of honour to arrive.

[desertpowered]

When Paul arrives, he's clad in what he said he was going to wear - nothing with a high collar, a shirt, but with more formal pants. Nothing that would draw too much attention to himself, but also enough that River will know it's him when he comes.

He brought wines from Caladan as something of a peace offering, since he'll be dealing with relative strangers and wants to make a positive impression when he can.

[soulmakingsound]

He looks perfect, River thinks. The setting sun behind him making the halo of his curls glow faintly in the dimming light. She runs over and throws her arms around his neck happily, hugging him tight. "Your face is a comfort," she says, reaching up to cup his cheeks and get a good look at him. Not over a vid screen for once, but here and real and solid and whole.

"You brought offerings. The others will be pleased. Come say hello?"