A chance meeting.

[river-dancing.livejournal.com]

River shuts the door to her dorm room behind her, then strides off down the corridor.

She'd been sitting, researching potential coding sites, when a tickle of discomfort twitched through her abdomen. Not pain, or anything quite so easily identifiable. Maybe I'm just hungry. She'd glanced at the glowing clock-display on the cabinet-top. Lunch was over six hours ago...

That's why, barefoot and clad in sweats and a overlarge T-shirt, she clambers down the concrete stairwell towards the vending machines on the first floor. Outside the windows, the last touches of evening twilight glimmer across the campus lawn as dusk takes over from the day.

She pads across the cool tile, jingling the loose change in her palm. The coins rattle as the machine's pay-slot swallows them, and the discomfort inside of her twists again. She thinks a moment, then chooses a chocolate bar with the inexplicable legend "HERSHEY'S" emblazoned across it and turns back towards the stairs. A little chocolate, and this bad feeling will just melt awa--

There, across the expanse of tile and carpet, stands another woman. Dark-haired, slender and almost gaunt, about the same height as River, with eyes shining pale and blue in the fluorescent illumination.

River stands very still, suddenly realizing the true origin of the discomfort, and whispers, "Drusilla."

Comments

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

[OOC: Holy crap! Grab the popcorn and dim the lights! We're in for a *SHOW* people!

[river-dancing.livejournal.com]

[ OOC: *evil laugh* ]

[bluemanoncampus.livejournal.com]

(OOC: ::settles in and passes a soda to Martin::)

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

[OOC: Popcorn?]

[bluemanoncampus.livejournal.com]

(OOC: Don't mind if I do, thanks! ::starts munching::)

[river-dancing.livejournal.com]

[ OOC: This may take a while. I believe Dru's player is on the East Coast, so she'll likely be posting come the morning. But then, trust me, things'll get interesting fast. ]

[aka-vala.livejournal.com]

[river-dancing.livejournal.com]

[ OOC: *grin* Astonishing. 22 comments so far and all of them OOC. Yaaaaaay for the draw of a neat idea! *is slightly drunk* ]

[crazyvampchick]

OOC: Bless you for defending my location, honor, and total lack of spare time. :)

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

[OOC: So far the premise is great, but I think they're missing a second act. What do you think?]

[river-dancing.livejournal.com]

[ OOC: *pokes you* *grin* Wait for it. I started the post, and she's on the East Coast... stuff'll most likely start getting good tomorrow morning. *gives you the hairy eyeball* ;) ]

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

[OOC: Well then... I'm just going to go to bed and think up a bunch of prime numbers to throw at you for tomorrow. And why am I getting the hairy eyeball? This is pure squeeish glee going on here!]

[bluemanoncampus.livejournal.com]

(OOC: I'm just waiting for the previews, actually. I hear that the new Mirrormask one is on. :-P)

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

[OOC: Oooo. I love trailers.]

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

[OOC: WE WANT THE SHOW! WE WANT THE SHOW!]

[OOC: *Waves at everyone else* C'mon people! Chant with me!]

[OOC: WE WANT THE SHOW! WE WANT THE SHOW!]

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

[OOC: Unfortunately somebody already spoiled me for the ending. I don't want to ruin it for you, but suffice it to say you won't look at the butler the same way again.]

[river-dancing.livejournal.com]

[ OOC: The butler? Damn! I was sure it was the gardener! ;) ]

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

[OOC: My money was on the aging porn star. Ah well.]

[river-dancing.livejournal.com]

There is something intangible in the air between the two of them, some strange, indefinable connection. More than just the uncomfortable sensation twisting inside of her. It's almost as though, between the two of them, there's a yawning abyss. And part of River is drawn, wanting to step closer, even while another portion of her mind is frantically trying to marshall its defenses.

Thoughts and images and memories skitter along the edge of her consciousness, no perceivable order or coherence --

-- standing in a burning, with her lovely trapped beneath fallen debris, while hated enemies flee the holocaust --

-- kissing grandmama's neck all red, making her a daughter the same way nana once watched being done to her --

-- standing in a library, surrounded by books and papers, the scent of old paper in her nose, and in front of her a dusky-skinned girl, and she brings up her sharp sharp nails and --

-- glee inside her at the sight of the box for her birthday, her birthday, the table and chairs done up all special, just for her, so very lovely --

-- beneath a stained-glass window, the stink of blood all around and a beautiful madman with his lips stained sanguine fucks grandmama on the slick stone floor in front of her and she feels something breaking inside her and --

Oh, God, River manages to think, desperately. Snake in the woodshed. Snake... in... the... woodshed...

[crazyvampchick]

Drusilla is wearing a shimmering white nightgown, and her hair is unbound, falling down her back. The look in her eyes had been unfocused as she stared up at the stars and named them all.

The look in her eyes was sharp and hard as she slowly turned to look at River. "Little one," she said softly. "Little babbling brook who thinks to play in the river. What brings you out into the darkness?"

[river-dancing.livejournal.com]

"Broken," River intones, ever so softly. "Fractured. Shattered. Like a mirror in a thousand thousand pieces, each fragment still seeing a tiny scrap of the spectacle that broke it. Rock goes into the still water, splash, ripples spreading out across the pond and back again, reflecting upon itself from the furthest short, echoes coruscating into chaos come again..."

She narrows her eyes, seeming to awaken slightly from her reverie. "Hunger drew me out from sanctuary, hunger, twisting like a kitten tangling yarn inside me. But not mine. Yours."

[crazyvampchick]

"You think you feel my hunger, little one?" asks Drusilla. "You feel a pale reflection. A shadow, hiding in the corners." She smiles maliciously. Her gown rustles as she takes one small, half-step forward. "Waiting in the shadows. Thinks she can play with fire without being burned. Without being hungry. But Daddy is always hungry for more."

OOC: I am COMPLETELY UNSPOILED for Serenity. FYI.

[river-dancing.livejournal.com]

[river-dancing.livejournal.com]

"I've already been burned," River replies, cool, emotionless. "Not by him, not by you, but burned all the same. Chair, and stake, and needles always thirsty." Without volition, she takes a step forward herself. "But someone came for me. Sent word, and he came. Pulled me out of cold and black, woke me, but found me less and more than I was."

She blinks, and cocks her head at Drusilla, as if to find a better perspective. "No one came for you. Just hands, two by two, not so blue, painted red with agony and the dust of centuries."

[river-dancing.livejournal.com]

As she draws closer to Drusilla, River starts to angle to one side. Not as though hoping to run, no -- more like the behavior of two particles which, until they are a certain distance from each other, draw themselves together magnetically. But at that given distance, they begin to circle around, like paired celestial bodies locked in a constant orbit.

River, still half-tranced, considers Drusilla with no little curiosity. "Apollo goes to rest, and you come walkabout. Looking, hunting, searching for the shadow that once was yours but now clings to someone else. A girl. Dark-haired, young and graceful, seeing omens in the way the dew clings to the morning grass and hearing the stars whisper to her from the night sky..." River's brow wrinkles as she looks at the vampire, wondering. "Very much the way that you were, once upon a time."

She nods minutely. "Pale shadows, calling blood to kin, dancing round one another where night comes to meet day."