tushanshu | first verse ☯ video;

[ River's sitting in her suite in the Water, evidenced by the soft colours and natural materials in her background. She touches the screen carefully, teeth pinching her lower lip as though she doesn't know recording has started -- but then she starts speaking without changing anything, so maybe she does know. ]

High chance of improbability even in this 'Verse, can't go between-between-between. Even if you use orthogonal coordinates, meeting at right angles. Two wrongs to make a right, two rights to make a wrong, the graph is broken. Order of chelonii or testudines but even the largest can't hold a city. Can't check the book, no chapters on waking up in new places.

[ She seems briefly frustrated, whether at the improbability of her situation or merely her own inability to verify what the kedan told her is unclear. She hadn't had the opportunity to think on it much with being drafted into the bottle, with all that had followed that and now that she did, she was still no better equipped to explain anything. Her fingers tangle in a dingy chain around her neck, tugging at a small ring and charm that seem very tarnished. ]

I'm supposed to have a job.

---

((OOC: Relink for River's permissions post too, if you haven't filled it out yet!))

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No, the last time, it was more like somethin' big flew into us.

[On purpose. Songbird does that.]

She? Oh, the ship? Hm. Not much of a mariner myself. Prefer to keep my feet on the ground.

[ she laughs a little ]

That's not much better.

Maybe not. Hard to leave a place when everyone's tryin' to keep you there.

[ River looks suddenly, incredibly sympathetic. ]

Yes, it is. Sometimes someone has to come for you.

[Booker has to laugh faintly.] Yeah, I guess that was my job.

Was it?

[ She senses a story here, leaning forward toward the screen. ]

Who?

Ah. Her name's Elizabeth. She's here now. Safe.

[That last bit is Very Important Information.]

[ And River inexplicably seems to pick up on that, because she nods solemnly. ]

She knows it.

[Booker considers that for a moment, and finally nods.]

I think so. She's happy. No one here is tryin' to hurt her.

That's what Simon tells me too, when I wake up from bad dreams.

Well, it's true enough, mostly. I've been a lot worse places.

[And he and Elizabeth both have enough nightmares.]

This Simon a friend of yours?

[ That's something River knows intimately about; nightmares are too common for her too. ]

My brother.

And did he save you from a tower?

[Because that's what Booker did for Elizabeth.]

Yes.

[ So while it might not have been a literal tower, the concept was the same. ]

He came to take me away from all the bad people, he put old River to sleep and the new one woke up.

Sounds like a good brother. Is he here with you? [He kind of hopes so, for her sake.]

No... he wasn't there when I woke up. Simon broke his promise.

[ Despite that, she sounds more sad than angry at him for it. Truthfully, she doesn't blame him for that but she worries about him anyway, if she's gone. ]

I don't really think that's a promise he could keep. This place brings in who it wants, we don't have much of a choice in the matter.

I'm sorry he's not here, though. Hopefully he will be, someday.

[Because frankly, this place is Booker's paradise, and he'd want anyone he cared about to be here.]

I know.

[ It's not said to be snotty but it's definitely something she's gleaned from her few weeks here. ]

They need him. They get shot... a lot.

Sounds like the kinda situation me and Elizabeth were in. Who's 'they'?

The crew of Serenity. A family that isn't blood.

They must live pretty dangerous lives, to be gettin' shot at a lot. Your brother is a doctor?

Yes. He's the very best... they called him a prodigy.

[ Ironically, for all the things River herself can do... she always thought her brother was brilliant. ]

Still, it's too bad he's not here with you. And the others, too.

[Booker assumes everyone would be happier on the turtle. He sure is.]

For now... maybe it will change. Inara was here.

[ She read back on the network as part of teaching herself about this place and found the many entries from the Companion. ]

Here but not gone, not from the ship.

What, you mean, like... in both places at once?

Re: video;

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