(no subject)

[shanaqui]

Title: Commune
Author: twilightsrain/edenbound (ficjournal)
Summary: Her senses are a comfort to her.
Rating: PG
Characters: River, Simon
Pairing: None
Warning: None
Spoilers/Timeline: In-series
Disclaimer: Joss is boss.
Author's Note: Written for 100_women.


River likes to sense things, with her own five senses, now. Simon has noticed it -- her eagerness to touch, taste, smell, hear, see. She wanders Serenity brushing her fingertips over the smooth metal and listens to the whispered secrets of a faithful ship. He's seen her smile suddenly in delight at nothing at all, her whole body pressed to the wall and her ear against it, listening for what he can't hear, feeling the vibrations of the ship all through her, through the ship itself, through space and reality.

When the labels on the food aren't sending her into screaming hysterics, she likes to open a tin and take something just to taste, leaving the tin there, open, so someone else has to eat it before it spoils. She just takes a tiny thing to taste and Simon likes watching the smile spread on her face when she tastes it -- whether she used to like it back at home or not, she smiles. She smiles, and for a while he is glad.

And her eyes. They scare him, sometimes, intense and lost, dark and unhappy with sadnesses he would so love to take away. But then she'll see something -- anything, an ordinary object, usually, and she'll spend time admiring it. He gets the sense that as she looks at it, runs her fingers over it, she's taking it in and finding its place in the universe, and that's what gives her such joy in touching it. Simon wonders, sometimes, if she will ever be able to place herself firmly in the 'verse. He suspects not.

Sometimes she smiles at things that aren't there, and he wonders what she sees -- visions, hallucinations, memories. Sometimes they make her scream, or cry, and then he holds her, her face buried in his shoulder to hide her eyes from what she doesn't want to see.

She likes to touch most, he's seen. Engine parts, food, clothes, people -- she touches. As if making sure of them, as much as everything else. And him, most of all. She brushes her fingers up his arm curiously, touches his cheek as if the contact will help them understand each other as they once did, presses close to him in search of comfort. She creeps into his room at night and curls up beside him, not closing her eyes or moving at all until he reaches out to bring her closer, wrapping his arms around her.

Her senses seem a comfort to her, most of the time, and Simon encourages it, letting her touch him, watching her as she walks around the ship barefoot as if communing with nature, communing with the metal and the vibrations.

Comments

[tea-and-snark.livejournal.com]

Another lovely stroke with comparing "communing with nature" to River's experience of Serenity - it's spot on, and also fits in with the eerie imagery of Objects in Space. I like how this is from Simon's POV, as he tries to puzzle out exactly what his sister is experiencing while at the same time content just to watch her. There's one thing I would change:

so someone else has to eat it before it spoils or something

You don't need the "or something" at the end of this sentence; other than that, this was a smooth read and a nice look into the Tams' heads!

[shanaqui]

Thanks. ♥ And thank you for the suggestion!

[shanaqui]

Thanks. :D