dì​sì​; the red shoes.

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

[River is sprawled out on the ground - again, let's be honest, she's done this sort of thing before - with multi-coloured markers and a book of fairy tales stolen from the library on the Plane. On first glance she appears to be annotating it; on further inspection, it becomes clear that she's not so much annotating as editing, crossing out whole sections and writing new ones in the margins, pointing out fallacies, and occasionally drawing diagrams. She's fixing it, you see! Making it better. It may or may not be a very valuable edition.

You'll thank her later.]

Comments

[bwahahabeetle.livejournal.com]

[And Ted will be poking around because -- let's face it, the Plane is interesting! And there are lots of people he hasn't met yet. So anyway, he catches sight of River and heads over, looking curious.]

Hi there. What are you up to?

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

[She glances up, halfway through an explanation of horse's larynges, and why they're unsuitable for human speech. In a minute she'll move on to a description of weather patterns and why no amount of talking to the wind will cause it to blow people's hats off on command.]

Fixing the narratives.

[bwahahabeetle.livejournal.com]

[He quirks an eyebrow, but nods, looking serious.]

I see. What exactly is wrong with them?

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

Faults in the reasoning. The decapitation of a horse's head results in instant death; suggesting it can live without a body doesn't conform to any known laws of biology. [At the end she just seems to be loling at the ridiculousness of the plot. Oh, River.]

[bwahahabeetle.livejournal.com]

[He gives River a bit of a grin and nods, leaning to look at the book]

That's very true. What else have you fixed?

[buckingbronco.livejournal.com]

I take it you don't like that book.

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

[She absently taps a pretty pink marker against the open page.] Doesn't follow the physical laws. Hundreds of unexplained phenomena: spinning straw into gold, alteration of physical shape - it doesn't make sense.

[Because God knows River herself always makes sense.]

[buckingbronco.livejournal.com]

I don't think fairy tales are really suppose to make sense. They're more just for fun.

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

[She kind of... stares at him blankly for a minute, then returns to adding an annotation to Cinderella, explaining helpfully that, even if it was possible to turn rats into humans, they would need years of training before they could acquire the social skills necessary for employment as coachmen.

After a moment, she glances up at him again.] It's for later.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

[bear in arms, Sebastian leans over to look at the writing] I always get in trouble for writing in books. I suppose it's very important to someone or other that they stay as they are. What are you changing?

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

[Her attention is a little more caught by Aloysius than Sebastian, as it happens - and she half-smiles at the bear.] There's stories.

[And then, suddenly, she gathers herself and her book up and flips to a certain story, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, so she can offer it to Aloysius politely. She hasn't touched this one yet, aside from a quick notation about the difference in masses between bears and humans.]

It's for you.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

Aloysius thanks you kindly for it. [With the seriousness of a child playing grown-up, Sebastian uses his hands to support Aloysius taking the book from River]

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

Bù​yòng​xiè​.

[And then she rests her hands behind her back while waiting for Aloysius to finish reading it, somewhat like a student waiting for the teacher to look over a set of problems. One hopes Aloysius is a reasonably fast reader.]

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

[Aloysius and Sebastian sit down together to read, Aloysius in Sebastian's lap and the book open on Aloysius's lap. They also read it together, Sebastian turning the pages for them. Alas, they are not the speediest readers in the world, but we can forgive them because one has stuffings for brains and the other is a bear.]

[oliverplus]

[watches her curiously, trying to work out what she's doing] Do you have a favourite version of those stories?

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

[Oh, he gets a little bit of a face.] Not relevant to the context.

[And then she scribbles more on the page. 'Her godmother scooped out all the inside of it, having left nothing but the rind; which done, she struck it with her wand, and the pumpkin was instantly turned into a fine coach, gilded all over with gold ' he might read, if he was so inclined to be nosy.]

[oliverplus]

[raises an eyebrow] What's not relevant?

[looking over her shoulder, he catches a few words of that notation--enough to work out what she's getting at] Uh...you do know those are fairy tales, right?

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

Yes. [Patiently, with a face that says 'and your point is?']

[oliverplus]

Well...fairy tales aren't gonna be like real life. I mean, stuff's gonna happen that couldn't normally.

[elegantthestars.livejournal.com]

River, dear, I don't think they'd appreciate you ruining their texts.

[can't help but smile, though]

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

Not ruining. [River is all kinds of patient in explaining this, as if it's very very obvious.] Fixing. There's faults in the reasoning.

[elegantthestars.livejournal.com]

That doesn't make them any less someone else's. [kneels beside her, watching] Maybe they have their reasons for writing it that way.

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

[Starting to sound a little annoyed.] They were in the library.

[So that makes it okay!]

[bodilesswarrior.livejournal.com]

[approaches slowly, amused and curious] Looks like one of my Saturday nights. [...yes, actually, this is exactly thing kind of thing Barbara did for a fun weekend as a teenager, and those memories are at the forefront now]

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

[- Well, that captures River's attention, definitely. And a shy smile.]

You could.

[She has extra markers! And another book she hasn't started on. Which she may have just moved a bit in invitation.]