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?

[buckingbronco.livejournal.com]

I take it you don't like that book.

[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?

[oliverplus]

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

[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]

[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.

[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.]

[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]

[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.]

[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]

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.]

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

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

[So that makes it okay!]

[elegantthestars.livejournal.com]

[patiiiiiiiiiient] Then they belong to the library, don't you think?

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

[Your patience, it is useless in the face of River's River-ness.]

Doesn't belong. [As if that's incredibly obvious and Inara should know that already.]

[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.]

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

[River waits nicely, settled in place with no outward signs of impatience; actually, she mostly looks hopeful, waiting for their pronouncement. Then again, it's possible she's also gotten a bit distracted by a nebula in her line of vision.

She kindly does not mention either of their handicaps. River is just that polite.]

[bwahahabeetle.livejournal.com]

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

I see. What exactly is wrong with them?

[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]

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?

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

[Sebastian closes the book and looks up at her] It's a bit classical, isn't it? Aloysius, what do you think? [to River] He can be terribly Puritanical at times, I don't know where he gets it from. Yet he falls so easily into temptation.

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

[She helpfully flips back to an earlier story, Rumpelstiltskin, and shows it to him.] Straw can't be spun into gold.

[bytwo.livejournal.com]

[Her face drops a little. Do not crush her dreams! D:] It's ahout faeries.

[Yes, yes, she is horribly inconsistent, what of it.]