fandomtownies | The Park, Monday Afternoon.

River had decided to paint the ducks again. Instead she found Tim.

"You're back!" she cried, throwing her arms around him.

Tim grinned, and stumbled slightly at the unexpected hug. When he recovered, he hugged her back. "Hi." he smiled.

"How was your trip?" River asked, taking a seat next to the pond.

"Oh," tim sighed, sinking to the ground, picking up a flat stone. He tried to skip it but it plunked solidly into the water.

"It was good." he said. "I got to see some of my friends, turns out that the guy I went to check up on is in fact harmless. Mostly."

And hadn't helped him in the least decide whether or not to try to stay after the summer session ended.

"So do you think you will stay?" River asked.

He blew out a bit of air. "I don't know. I'd like to. I've got a lot of friends here. But Fae are still leaking out of the Leeside, there's still gonna be problems. On the other hand, the stuff I've set up back home hardly needs me to be there really. At the moment I'm more of a figurehead."

But being in New York again reminded him just how much he'd missed it. Missed the apartment, His mom, even Neil and got help him, Yang. He deliberately didnt' think about T'ing.

River just nodded, not feeling any need to comment on either his words or his thoughts. "I'm happy you're here now. I've missed you."

"I missed you too." Tim said. "Which reminds me, I got something for you." He rummaged in his bag for the cheap New York Souveneires he bought people. He pulled out two.
"Would you prefer the Statue of Liberty Snowglobe, or the Viewmaster?"

ooc: in case it's only an american thing, Viewmaster is a little red toy that you look into, and hold up to the light. Insert one of the discs it comes with, (cardboard with little slides in it) and pull the lever on the side to switch slides. In this case, surprise surprise, the slides are of New York city.

River looked at the two objects, blinking. Finally she picked the snowglobe. "Thank you," she said, shaking the globe and watching the snow fall. "I like this."

"It's been really busy here," she said. "Most recently, people thought they were someone else. And there was a carnival where I got a pink rabbit. And Phoebe was a mermaid. And I've met a woman called Jane who is funny and drinks a lot. And I've split up with Tyler. And I killed Proty but Pippi got him back to life." She shook the snowglobe again.

((ooc: we have those, just didn't know what they are called.))

People thinking they were someone else seemed to be a weekly event around here. As was someone turning into an animal. Though this was the first he'd heard of them turning into a mythical creature. "Mermaid's a new one." he said.

"Uhm, what happened with you and Tyler? Why'd you split up?" It seemed like the less traumatic topic between that and killing the painted octopus.

"He suddenly decided I was crazy and childish and that he didn't believe in Berthold." River noticed the anger in her voice. She wished she could stop being angry, but it kept coming back.

Tim's mouth dropped open. He didn't ask if Tyler had actually seen Berthold be cause he knew that didn't matter. if someone didn't believe in something, seeing was not believing. But that seemed strange to him, Tyler deciding he didn't believe in Berthold. Had he gotten amnesia? Did this mean that Tim now had to follow through with his threat? He should ask Nadia.

Of course Tim being Tim, all he could really think to say was, "What?"

"He thinks I'm crazy and childish and he doesn't believe in Berthold," River repeated, now looking quite miserable. "I hate being mistaken about people."

Tim awkwardly put a comforting hand on her shoulder. He thought of all the people back home who'd been afraid they were crazy because they could see creatures no one else could. Creatures that were supposed to be imaginary. And all the people who would have thought them insane if they'd known about it. But those people were not insane. They were select. Chosen. More alive and awake inside than those who could not, or would not see them.

he thought all those things, and opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. Because he couldn't think of a way to say it without sounding stupid.

He didn't have to say anything, as River picked it up anyway. That felt comforting. "Don't like being mistaken about people," she said, smiling a little. "So tell me what happened at home?"

"Well like I said, the leeside is still leaking things. I'd kinda thought they were all out, but apparently there's still some stragglers, like Ilya's cousing Yaroslav the Vampire. Who, it turns out, is a good guy, but not a very good Vampire."

"So bad vampire equals good guy?" River asked. Both Buffy and Giles had told her about the badness of vampires.

"I can't speak for every Vampire, but Yaroslav's harmless. Mostly. Kind of a Drama Queen, and kind of a Dork, but mostly harmless."

"Sounds entertaining," River replied.

"he can be. he's kind of a study in contradictions."

River nodded. "So how's T'ing?"

Tim's wry smile might have actually been a grimace. "She's good, back from China. Brought her new boy friend with her, who's name I ~~refuse to~~ can't remember." He'd managed to keep any residual bitterness from his voice.

By this point, he was, if not quite over her, then definately closer to that than the beginning of the summer. It wasn't easy to completely get over someone you'd had a crush on for years.

River just nodded to that. Then she smiled again and dipped her foot in the pond.

"How's the water?"

"Wet." River splashed some water.

((ooc: bedtime!))

After her very strange encounter at Hitsuzen, Sakurazaki continued her trek through town, having more on her mind than when she began, which had defeated the entire purpose. But then she noticed Tim by the duck pond; perhaps getting her mind off things wasn't so impossible after all.

"Now here's a face I haven't seen for a while," Sakurazaki smiled lightly as she approached Tim, hand idly drifting up to cover the scar on her chin.

"Hey!" Tim greeted her. "I just got in an hour or so ago, just haven't made it as far as my room yet. How've you been?"

Sakurazaki considered a few things...the pain in her side, her rough weekend, the headache she'd obtained from her conversation not too long ago. Despite all that, she smiled and concluded, "Good. I've been good. Just got back from a weekend away myself. Did you head back home for a bit, too?" It had been a while since she'd seen Tim; she wasn't even aware that he'd been gone...

"Yeah I had to go home for a week to check up on my mom. Another refugee from the Leeside moved in, a Vampire. I had to make sure he wasn't evil."

"I assume, since you're here now, that everything was okay with the vampire?"

"yep, he's harmless. Takes him like, five minutes to turn from a bat into human form and back again."

Sakurazaki arched an eyebrow. "Five minutes?" She imagined how Evangeline-san would react to one of her kind being so pathetic, and it ended in his complete desimmation. "How does a vampire like that get by?"

"Honestly I don't know. But a lot of the Fae tended to band together for mutual protection. Maybe just like the Hobgoblins or other smaller Fae he got really good at hiding."

"That sounds feasible," Sakurazaki nodded. "I'm glad that your weekend went well, and that your mother does not have a dangerous vampire to worry about."

"Yeah me too." Tim said. "Oh, that reminds me, though, I'm not sure why. I got something for ya." He reached into his duffel bag and pulled out a miniature Statue of Liberty.

"Something for me?" Sakurazaki couldn't help but laugh at that unexpected surprise, and she took up the little statue with a thankful bow, inspecting it a little. It made her think that she should try to visit New York before too long. "Arigato, Tim, that's very thoughtful of you! But now I feel bad because I have nothing for you from my trip to Japan."

Tim grinned. "Hey don't worry about it. How was your trip home?"

Sakurazaki drew in a deep breath, considering her options to describe it without revealing too much. "Busy," she gushed, settling on that as she exhaled. "Kind of rough. I'm glad it's over."

"So not so much a sentimental return home as, you had a job to do?"

Sakurazaki nodded gravely. "Precisely."

"yeah, mine was like that too."

The Park, Monday Afternoon.

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