minimouse | Day Eighteen

Who: River
Where: Outside the Barracks
When: ...Day 18
Rating: PG

Status: Closed / Finished
Summary: River wanders out of the barracks and encounters an invisible Jan, and a Pyro who doesn't want to be in Riverfell anymore. After brief discussions with both of them, River uses her stone to go back to DauphinMare - though she is reluctant to do so - and takes Lily with her to the infirmary.

River had awoken in a room in Riverfell, and she understood this. And she was not afraid. And she was fairly certain that she was not the only one. But she didn't know where the others were. Or who the others were.

She hoped that Kyle was not one of them.

Easing her way out of the room, she glanced down the hall and started making her way in the most probable location of the exit, hoping to encounter no one. She stumbled across a man with weapons who was giggling as though mad, but evaded him easily - she did not think he was terribly intelligent.

Moving outside, she started listening for sounds of activity, hoping to find one of the DauphinMarians to rescue. Spotting the Black Castle, she thought that might be a good place to start and headed off in that direction. Though how far she got was anyone's guess.

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Jan had started to move away when she felt the presence of Belle's mind slide out of hers. Oh, shit.

John shook his head. "I don't know. Jaime went out to find a wand for Kat, but I haven't seen either of them since," he admitted. "They were probably headed up toward the business district though. If I had to guess."

He gestured to his hair, then to her, and kind of grinned. "Fashion statement?"

Jan moved closer to River. "We're on our own," she murmured to her, and she suddenly, very badly hoped the last thought she'd gotten from Belle had been ... well, from Belle.

And was he seriously talking about her hair just then?

River turned her head in surprise to hear Jan so close, and her forehead wrinkled together. "Always," she said in the general direction of the familiar voice. Her tone echoed surprise that Jan would feel the need to point that out.

Looking back to John, she took a strand of her hair and twirled it in her fingers. "Fashion statement," she echoed, though her tone was more of a question. She paused. "Magic because the logic eludes me," she murmured softly, wondering if that was revealing too much.

She turned her head in the way that he had indicated, and had started to move in that direction, when she paused. "You first," she said to John.

Though originally said as a statement, she belatedly added a bit of an uprising to the last syllable to make it more of a question and less of an order. She was still suspicious, but he was so far proving to be cooperative.

"I know this is going to sound fucked up," he said as he started to walk, hands at his side and lighter in one, "but can I go back with you guys? I ..." he hesitated, then shrugged again.

He caught sight of the tussle between the barracks, but he kept walking. They were seeking now, right?

Jan continued to walk before she shrugged invisible shoulders. "You can come. It won't be our call if you get to stay though."

John nodded, but he hadn't expected anything much. He glanced over his shoulder toward the pink-haired girl. "I'm John."

River frowned at Jan, not liking that she couldn't see her. She half reached out to touch where she thought Jan was, and then changed her mind. Jan probably wouldn't like that. She harrumphed a bit before turning attention back to John.

"You and what army?" she scoffed a bit, before she snorted, looking away to calm her thoughts before she turned back to regard John. Her expression softened, and became one of curiosity. Her eyes drifted down to his lighter, and then back up to his face.

"Sad grass becomes happy..." she murmured softly. "Catalysed the reaction to cause the change and was not happy with the results? Wished to be separated?" she frowned, rolling her eyes at herself. "Obviously not. But catalyst did not cause the separat... metaphor is faulty," she scowled. "Full of holes and errors and..." She took a deep breath, and exhaled it slowly.

"River," she murmured to John. "I am River."

It was a sign of trust, and good faith. She would not have said her name if she had not started to change her opinion about him.

"Nice to meet you," he offered as he strolled past the castle. This wouldn't look like anything much to anyone watching; they knew him and they'd surely just assume he was taking the girl somewhere.

He still tread cautiously past the scene of another fight - this one apparently about over - and he started to look around. He knew where the wand shop was, but he didn't see Jaime there.

Then he frowned. He'd just passed ... a blonde head. Kat?

It didn't have to be. There were other blondes, after all. Shaking it off, he looked around.

Jan frowned as she caught sight of something in the shadows of a building. "Oh, jesus," she swore quietly as she started toward Lily's still form.

She wanted to find out how many were unaccounted for still ... but she couldn't project, and she hadn't heard anything else from Belle.

"Can you take her back?" she asked River as she drew one of the stones out of her pocket.

River frowned at the hovering stone, and assumed it had an arm attached to it that she could not see. She followed along the invisible arm, guesstimating the probablities on arm length based on where the stone had first appeared (a pocket, she assumed) and followed up to the shoulder before looking approximately where she assumed the head of the phantom voice was.

Well. At least now she knew that it was corporeal. But she shook her head.

"Wish to stay and help others!" she argued, though he voice was a low mutter. "John can take her."

It was a weak and faulty arguement, and she knew it even as she said it, accepting the stone from Jan. She felt the power coursing through her fingertips, and she frowned, moving to hand it back.

"Cannot use magic," she said, genuinely because she didn't think she could. "Logic escapes me."

"John can't, because if he shows up there with Lily like this, they'll lynch him on the spot. Lily can't do it by herself, and you don't ... have to understand or use magic. The magic's all in the stone. Just hold on tight to her, and wish to be back in DauphinMare. Back with Kyle," she added on a whim, hoping that would encourage River.

Jan wanted to keep going, to find out if there were any others out here, and how the fight was going. If she needed to help with that.

John glanced around, keeping an eye out for anything that looked like trouble. Or anyone. He'd managed to shake Tyler earlier, but that didn't mean he'd stay shaken.

River had been opening her mouth to argue - no intention of going and leaving others behind when she was able to defend herself - but Jan said Kyle, and her resolved weakened. She frowned at where she thought Jan's head was.

"Low blow," she complained in a mutter, twirling the stone between her fingers. The magic was all the stone? She merely had to wish to be back with Kyle and there she would be? That was an intriguing notion, and she wondered if Teddy knew that magic worked that way. Perhaps it was a mystery even to wizards, and that was oddly comforting.

She eased her way down into a crouch next to Lily, reaching for the girl's hand tightly. She wondered if she could return to Riverfell after she went back to DauphinMare.

She wondered if she would still want to save people if she were totally safe with Kyle, and that pained her. She thought she should, but she couldn't confirm if she would or not.

But she supposed that was not the thought for now. Gripping tightly to Lily's hand, she wished to be back with Kyle and waited for the stone to work it's illogical magic.

Jan watched as River and Lily faded from view, and she turned to John. "Anyone up in the castle?"

He shook his head, then shrugged. "No. Not that I'm aware of, anyway." He licked his lips. "Anyone ever told you it's weird to talk to an invisible chick?"

"Not really. I don't do a lot of talking when I'm invisible, usually. Defeats the purpose."

So there were, as far as she knew, two captives accounted for, leaving seven - but without Belle, she had no idea how many were actually still here.

Exhaling, Jan started toward the barracks again - and when John didn't follow, she frowned. Then remembered. "C'mon," she called softly. "Heading back to the barracks."

Day Eighteen - River

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