capeandcowllogs | You know why yesterday was a lie

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You know why yesterday was a lie

WHO:

mobius_bound
WHERE: The harbor
WHEN: Today
SUMMARY: Cameron and River are both wandering around the city and run into one another.
FORMAT: Para to start, possibly quicklog after.

Hal's offer of conversation and medication had actually worked; Cameron managed to sleep, as much as she disliked it, and after a few days of staying inside, decided to go out. Not to watch people, not really, but to see something other than the walls of her studio and hear something other than her own thoughts.

Too many people was right out. So instead she makes her way to the harbor, noting the differences between water in California and water here. Darker, it seemed, and colder.

She puts her hands in her pockets and stares at it for a while.

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The sheer amount of voices and thoughts here, along with the lack of Simon, threatened to drive River ever-closer to the chaos she could feel looming in the back of her mind. She got restless, needing to walk, to dance if she could-- to do something other than sit in the darkened room and just hear uncontrollably.

So she wandered the new City the ghost in the machine tugged her into. Today was one of the better days; there had been no dreams last night. Her steps took her down to the harbour, attracted by the sound of waves and gulls and relative quiet. She stood for a moment, breathing in, and the enormous expanse of the sea felt something like the black, but warmer and more nurturing.

She continued walking, slowly, following the walkway where it led, but River stopped when she saw a figure silhouetted against the light several yards away. Even before seeing the other's face, River knew that it would be a mirror of her own... and yet, not. It had caused enough confusion over the last few days, that was for sure.

"Cameron," she said solemnly, though whether to herself or as a greeting call, even she wasn't completely sure of.

"Hello, River." There was no one else who would know her name and sound so similar - with the possible exception of Allison Young, but Cameron hadn't had a name then. Still, there's a pause before she manages to turn and look at the other girl.

Cameron has done a lot of research since Friday. Mostly tracking his movements in the last month, who he interacted with, and why. Outside of work, River was the last person John spoke to.

She's not sure what she thinks of that, in all honesty. What it means in the larger scheme of things. Still, she gives River a small smile. "How are you?" Cameron is still, even with the benzodiazepines, more than a little numb at the moment.

From Cameron's mind, River sees glimpses of memories-- another face in the mirror, John, smaller things-- but mostly, there is a lack of thoughts that most people have rattling in their minds at any given time. The other girl's mind is highly organized, and coolly distant; River sees a flash of binary codes. Closing her eyes briefly, River takes a breath, opens them again, and this time she sees strictly Cameron.

"Hello," she replies, slightly uncertain how to talk with her, especially as she feels the loss of some kind of purpose emitting from the other girl. "A little lost." She looks out at the sea, the wind gently stirring her hair about. "But they say you should follow the sound of water. To lead you out of the woods."

River's comment makes her think of lyrics to some song or another You keep looking but you can't find the woods while you're hiding in the trees. She understands the term and what it is supposed to mean - the more you search for something, the likelihood rises that it is closer than one would assume - but she isn't certain if River means it to be specifically addressed to her or in some other fashion.

In that sense, speaking with River is much more interesting than speaking with anyone else. "Lost is a good word for it, yes." There's a small ping of a headache but Cameron ignores it for it. "You spoke to him before he left. What was that like?"

She knows without asking who Cameron is talking about. John. Since their first, and only, meeting, she's associated him with peanut butter and apple juice. But mostly peanut butter, and she smiles faintly.

"Ate sandwiches together." Her nose wrinkles a little at the memory of peanut butter sticking to her teeth and the roof of her mouth. "He said he practically lived there, but he doesn't. He's gone home." River pauses for a beat. "I'm sorry."

She wonders at the change in expression but overall it would seem that John was nice to River - Cameron had said that he would be but it's good to have these things confirmed.

"He has gone home." Almost repeating. Almost. "Friday, at 7:23 PM. Thank you. Why are you lost?"

As they spoke, River has slowly edged closer until she's almost side-by-side with Cameron now. She listens to the words with a cocked ear; Cameron spoke in facts, and didn't use words beyond what was absolutely necessary. It was something River could appreciate. Not all words were necessary, and not all that was necessary manifested in words.

"The children left crumbs to follow back, but the birds ate them and there was nothing to follow come nightfall. Still had each other though. But Simon's not here, and there are no bread crumbs." A faint note of distress in her voice. "She's not sure... am I lost, or is he?"

Cameron watches as River comes closer, tilting her head in response to the other girl's interest. River is younger than her, younger than Allison Young had been when she died, but the differences are not immediately noticeable. She can see why people would confuse them in person.

Until one of them spoke, anyway. Even then, perhaps, it would not be immediately clear, though River has a very different fashion of talking than Cameron does. Normally.

"There are also no women who intend to cook you and your brother in an oven, here." At least, not yet. "Considering that your Simon and John are home - without us, but with us, as we are still there while we are here - because the timelines have stopped until we return to them but we are here, in this place, without them, then we are the ones who are lost. They don't miss us, because we aren't gone where they are. But they aren't here."

They aren't and Cameron and River were. She doesn't exactly frown but her face takes on an unhappy sort of blankness. "So we are lost. Where are you staying?" She can't imagine the MAC being a good place for River.

"Wouldn't be good for them anyway," River says with a half-smile. "Too bony, dig into their ribs."

She sobers again as Cameron continues; she wasn't sure how to feel about a River being back there while she was still here. Logically, she knew they are one and the same, just like the River who used to live where she was living now, but still... still, they were different. At some point, they might have been the same, but they've splintered. Same point of origin, different roads taken. "It's meddlesome," she says flatly.

"A safe place. Selina's. No eyes there that stare as you sleep."

"No, it wouldn't." Should she smile, like it's a joke? Maybe, but Cameron doesn't because she's uncertain. There is a sense of irony at work here that she does understand, to a limited degree, but those limits means that she cannot properly address it either.

"This place is meddlesome. The act of removing people from their timelines and putting them into different ones altogether is also meddlesome. Displacement is not something that should occur as freely as it does, here." Yet she doesn't think there is much any of them can do about it.

"That is good. Do you like it there?"

[ Registers the uncertainty, but is zero help with that, given her own ineptness when it came to social norms ]

"We interrupt your regularly scheduled program. Different lives. Brief lives." [ looks up to where the sun is beginning to set ] "It's a two-way ticket, but arrival and departure dates are undisclosed."

"Keeps the cold out, and the warmth in. It functions as a house." [ implicitly, 'but not a home'. ] "There are books."

[ Cameron follows River's gaze and a brief wind ruffles her hair before she tucks the loose strands behind her ear again. ] "Not nearly as efficient as TDE, however. At least with that you know where you are going, and when. There is some sense of forwarning." [ Not here, however, and it bothers her in the way all things she cannot directly affect but that directly affect her tend to. ]

"Books." [ Cameron nods; she's been amassing a small library of her own, here. ] "What is home, to you? Without your brother, is there one?"

[ That's an acronym whose meaning doesn't immediately pop into her mind. River decides it must be specific to Cameron's world, and directs a vaguely questioning look up at the older girl. ] "TDE?"

[ At the question, River doesn't have to think twice before shaking her head. ] "Home is Serenity. A ship, a boat in the black and the stars..." [ but most of all: ] "Simon is home. Defines it. Both necessary and sufficient."

"Time Displacement Equipment. A time-machine, like what the Porter uses, but it does not alter the genetic composition of those who use it. And it cannot be used without prior knowledge and warning."

[ Cameron considers this answer without saying anything for a moment, just watching this girl who looks like her yet isn't her; this one subject, however, there is more than a commonality. ] "Redefinition is required, then, until he arrives or you return. Will you try to redefine home?"

"Must require tremendous gravitational pull." [ she's curious and interested; physics had always captured her attention. ] "According to known scientific theory, time travel is technically possible. Haven't managed to figure out the logistics in our world yet."

[ River considers Cameron's question seriously. The only time she's tried to find a home away from Simon had been the Academy. ] "... she can try. Expansion of the definition may be beneficial." [ she hesitates uncertainly, looking downwards ] "Can't be certain of success."

Edited 2010-01-26 02:35 (UTC)

"Non-Euclidean geometry. It also requires a great deal of energy - electrical power." [ The one the Resistance held in 2029 had been in a decommissioned nuclear power plant. ] "Whether the original machine was developed by an AI or by a human being is unclear."

[ Cameron watches River's body language, turning over possibility and probability over in her head. ] "Would you like assistance? Success is never certain, River. But it can be nice to have help." [ She likes the other girl and recognizes that she is in need of something to refocus her attention on, before the glitch in her head constantly trying to fix John's location drives her insane. ]

"Artificial intelligence." [ that was an acronym she recognized ] "Two words. They mean a lot to you, like the other side of a coin."

[ looks over at Cameron through her hair ] "You would like an updated definition as well." [ as usual, River phrases her questions like statements ]

"Yes. They do." [ Cameron tilts her head but she's not certain what exactly River is looking for. After a moment: ] "I was built, not born."

[ A slight shrug. ] "In my current state, I am very inefficient."

[ River's usually not looking for anything in particular, and she accepts what Cameron offers with a headtilt of her head, eyeing the other girl thoughtfully. ] "It's a distinction. Is it an important one?"

[ incongruously, River thinks of dancing and sees a ballerina in a the middle of a pirouette. The image makes her smile. ] "We could dance together. Common ground to build on."

"To a lot of people." [ To her? It depends, really. It means she knows a lot of things people don't, and that she doesn't understand a lot of nuances that most people do. ]

"I like dancing. Ballet?" [ She hasn't seen River dance or move very often, but she finds the idea of the two of them both being interested in the same art form rather fascinating. ] "That would be nice, I think."

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