we're all just kids who grew up way too fast;

[thoughts]

CHARACTERS: river tam and you! this is open to everyone ever.
LOCATION: the gardens
WARNINGS: only the general creepifyin' stuff for this one, i think!
SUMMARY: when the going gets sleepy, the insomniacs get going. river has more time on her hands and that means more time to explore the gardens and collect "supplies" for questionable things. this is a good place to be.
NOTES: this a catch-all for garden interactions in september. give me a nudge if you want to plot something specific out, but they can totally just bump into each other as well!


[ she doesn't mind the sleeplessness. to the contrary, she's happy for it, so terrified was she last month of going to sleep and never waking up again. this is the opposite and her body aches for it, it groans in the mornings and tenses at night and her brain reminds her that neither are really happening. time is lost between sleep cycles that never come, which means time is all they have left.

which is fine by her. she can hunt down her wayward fox, assuming it would look for something natural to burrow into. she can seek out flowers for her delusions of grandeur, because nothing is ever going to be as good as it has been. or, alternatively, she can just sit and watch and wait for nothing.

nothing is fine. nothing is better than the monsters that are waiting around the corner. join her for a bit of rest without resting. it's what all the cool kids are doing these days. ]

Comments

[thoughts]

[ it's part of what makes him fascinating. he ebbs back and forth like an ocean of secrets she couldn't begin to fathom out on her best day, and those are so few and far between that it's just easier to watch him go. we're all mad here. ]

We all have the same uniform. Like a club.

[ lost children trapped on a ship. it's not the academy and it's not the island but it is definitely going to show them something. they should all get together and go bowling. ]

I think that just makes us top of the class.

[thatsaflaregun]

[He laughs, wheezy and breathless, and even though she's just speaking in riddles and metaphor, because that's her way of things, like his inability to disassociate where and when he is at a given point is his. It doesn't sound like a good deal on either end.] First time that's ever happened.

[He glances down at her, smiling with a note of self-deprecation.] Ever think it's not worth it to be special, sistah?

[thoughts]

[ the grin that accompanies the song of his laughter ( both chiming from an old music box that's a lttle bit broken ) falters with his question - or maybe more the look in his eyes. river has to look away for a second, to sort through the thousands of thoughts that come to her in response.

the academy found her because she is special. they will never stop looking for her and her parents never even tried; simon lost everything somewhere inbetween. she stays quiet, considering. ]

Special is a subjective adjective. Words are a fallacious concept that vary with the lips that speak them, subjective. Subject. To bias.

[ a beat. ]

Simon likes to watch me dance. I borrow the song but my feet are mine and he smiles for me, sometimes. Just for me.

[ she pauses again, frowning for a second because her mind keeps going onto different tangents and they're all leading to the same place. if she had a map, it would be easier to get there more quickly; she looks up at him instead. ]

I think you're special. And I don't think that's a bad thing. But I might be biased.

[thatsaflaregun]

[But Desmond follows the rabbit anyway. It's not as if she makes sense to him- far from it. But that's no fault of hers. He perceives everything differently too and he just slams the lid down on most of his twisty, confusing thoughts and pretends everything is fine.

He doesn't delude himself that he'll have the luxury of that for much longer if this keeps up.

He smiles down at her, but it's less than dazzling. A bit resigned, really.] Yeah. Maybe that's not the bad part of it- being special. Maybe it's what people expect out of you when they realize that's what you are.

[Because that's where it all falls apart.]