02 - Ink and Paper

[everybody-lives.livejournal.com]

[look who's on the Plane!

River, all tucked up into a large, overstuffed armchair, turned to one side so that her legs can hang over one of the arms. She's clean for once, no dust or dirt or much of the universe -- her hair is freshly washed and pulled up with a pair of hairsticks. There's a small table to her right with a hot mug of tea.

She's occupied with scribbling in a familiar blue journal]

Comments

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

[raised voice] No, no, I wouldn't want it for myself, but I wouldn't just push it away if someone gave it to me, either! I saved you, River!

[everybody-lives.livejournal.com]

[she standing now, eyes sparking]

No you did not. You suspended me.

[she tosses her journal into the chair]

I don't even know why I bother writing anymore.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

Because this---[rushes to the book and picks it up]---this is your life, River! You write in it now because you're not dead! You may have a smaller world to explore in there, but you're still living!

[everybody-lives.livejournal.com]

[she keeps a specific, defined space between her and the journal. She would never admit it, but she feels exposed without it]

It's not real. I stopped playing at make believe right about the time I got over my tendency for scraped knees.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

How isn't it real? I can feel it, I can touch it---am I not real?

And you're an archeologist. All that time in the dirt? I imagine you've got knees to rival the schoolyard racers.

[everybody-lives.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're real enough.

[her fingers itched into a fist at the thought]

But that place isn't. It never was.

[she glances involuntarily down at her knees]

And that's just rude.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

But you're alive, River. Alive. You can think these things because you're there to think them.

That's brilliant, don't you see?

[everybody-lives.livejournal.com]

I'm bits and pieces trapped in a data core, fitted together by the kindness and whimsy of a little girl. How is that real?

How is that brilliant?

[was that sarcasm?]

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

And you'd rather be dead?

[everybody-lives.livejournal.com]

[simply]

Yes.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

[gapes for a moment, then becomes furious] Well, I'm not about to just let you die!

[everybody-lives.livejournal.com]

[she's nose to nose with him now. River never did quite get personal space]

No, you're not.

But you're not letting me live either.

So what's left?

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

[the Doctor's far too angry to care about personal space]

There's no where else but in between! You had to go off and sacrifice yourself when I could've done it! And then you're furious because I don't want to have to watch you die?

[everybody-lives.livejournal.com]

[that's good, because neither does she]

Of course I had to! You were about to go and make a mull of it. You were trying to make sure I never met you.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

I was trying to save your life!

[everybody-lives.livejournal.com]

[finally, bitterly]

Well, you didn't.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

Well, can't win all the time, can I?

[everybody-lives.livejournal.com]

[ouch - that hurt]

My life, or lack of it, is not a game. You're impossible.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

Just a bit unlikely.

[takes a breath]

So you're miserable, I'm miserable. Neither of us fits in and we're here. So. Tea?

[everybody-lives.livejournal.com]

her brow knits at the suggestion he is miserable, but she doesn't ask. She's still too put out]

Fine.

[she holds out one hand]

My journal, please.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

[slight smirk] What's in here that you don't want me to read?

[everybody-lives.livejournal.com]

[a completely unaffected glance]

Your rules, not mine.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

My rules are idiotic.

[hands it over all the same]

You're not trapped here, you know. Merge with another's reality, you could travel again.

[everybody-lives.livejournal.com]

[a bright, game smile]

Not surprising, considering the man making them!

[but now she's curious]

Merge?

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

Even moreso the woman who's following them.

[wide grin]

Tea first. I'll be right back.

[drops from the Plane, returns with tea]