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[walk_ins]

River Tam and the Doctor were supposed to meet in the afternoon after she arrived.

That didn't happen.

In the middle of her second day, during Biochemistry, she's called for.

This is his office. It's a box-like white room, with hooks on the walls that no longer hold anything and a large desk that is entirely bare.

The man who sits behind it is far too tall; for the chair, for the room, for normal space. His eyes are a little too close together, and a little too big. He doesn't blink. Most of his head except for a narrow band around his eyes is covered with surgical cap and mask.

His arms at times seem too long, fingertips almost dangling over the far-edge of the desk. Blink and they're crossed, and you can see that that must have been an illusion; the forearms barely span the width of his body, the fingers are short and spatulate. Not the fingers of a surgeon.

This is the Doctor when he's making an effort. "Good afternoon, River," he says, with a voice like an accented cement mixer. Khud havternoon.

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[walk_ins]

The Doctor stands as soon as she sits; he is possibly a little taller, even, than he seemed, seated behind the desk.

He stares at her penetratingly; his eyes seems to shift microns closer together as he does. He clasps his hands together behind him, somewhere between his buttocks and his knees.

"Yesterday I think the timoh san cah frightened you, didn't they? The blue-handed children?" he growls. "Did they tell you lies?"

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

She looks up at him.

It's a long way up.

"I -- they --"

Down at River's hands, now, and she bites her lip.

[walk_ins]

"Perhaps they told you they killed your dama and montah, is that it? Killed them and ate their eyes?"

He continues to regard her unblinkingly. "No. Your brother, wasn't it? They tried to frighten you about your brother."

"I assure you no harm has come to him."

The Doctor does not need to say 'yet.'

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

She looks sideways, and up again, mouth falling open.

In her lap, her hands are beginning to twist together.

[walk_ins]

He continues. "We did capture him just after you were taken. He was being very indiscreet." Indiscreet makes a very ugly sound in his mouth, with his accent.

"But we don't intend to harm him. He's far too valuable for that. If he were not so much older than you--well, even now, we will get some use from him, after the operations."

The cloth over the lower half of his face moves; possibly he's smiling. "And then you will be together again."

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

River's mouth moves silently for a moment, and then she whispers, near-breathless,

"Simon?"

[walk_ins]

He nods. "Yes. He'll never be as talented as you, of course, but you'll be together again, and that's what you want, isn't it?"

He seems taller now, and mocking.

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

Anthy's breathing's sped up.

"She doesn't --"

She ducks her head again, and starts to shake it, back and forth, hunched over her tight twisting hands.

[walk_ins]

"She doesn't?" Definitely mocking.

He glides out from behind the desk, and takes her face in his hands.

This time his skin has the texture of decaying vegetation, too soft and hot, with an iron firmness under it. "Then you will cooperate, os pa."

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

A sharp indrawn breath, and Anthy freezes, staring up at him with huge eyes.

Her skin's crawling. Don't feel it. Just gotta float. She doesn't try to pull away.

"Y-yes."

"-- Os pa?"

[walk_ins]

"Bitch."

He shudders, and his eyes definitely move closer together, the cornea briefly touching. The shiver is that of a man walking into air conditioning on a hellish July day... or a man coming in his pants, to be honest about it.

She may notice, now, that she is floating; her terror and revulsion siphon away, replaced with a stupid cotton candy coating over everything.

His face changes. "You've got a secret. No steel-spined warrior of the White, you. What are you really, little devar?

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

The sensation's not unfamiliar, and it is something of a relief.

Anthy doesn't look away, and even when he says, You've got a secret, she only stares dumbly at him.

At Joe.

[walk_ins]

His hands are now Joe's hands, heavier, more dextrous and longer-fingered than the ones he had before. The sensation, however, is not the rough callouses of a tarnished gunfighter, but a feeling like a thousand slowly moving hairs brushing over her skin, and under it all, that steel-trap strength forcing her to look up at him.

It should be terrifying, the rage in that familiar face, and the stars in his eyes. But all her terror is running away, into his maw. When he speaks, she sees his teeth, not Joe's teeth, not that illusion that her brain has put between her and him, but broken vampire teeth, curving backwards into a black pit. He is eating her fear. And he is feeding well, today.

"You have something. A power that doesn't belong to you. Some benka-litis. White magic." His accent is thicker now.

"Cam him en tow." Open your mouth. "What did you take? Was it a can tah? A little statue of an animal? A rose? A ball? Was it a glowing ball? Cam him en tow." It's a Command, a compulsion. "Speak."

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

Long teeth, and sharp, like swords. She shudders, once, and is still.

Hands clenched. Lips pressed tightly together, though they're trembling; like she's trying not to cry, or like she's fighting against some compulsion to let her face go slack and stupid.

Her voice shakes, some.

"What do you mean?"

[walk_ins]

He shakes her now, by the shoulders, and changes. Only the teeth are the same, and the stars in eyes. His hands are burning brands, and his voice trembles with anger.

"Was it a sword? Was it a fruit you ate? What did you steal, os pa from the Ter?" Raging, he slips into the Unformed Speech of the Dins of End-World, the dark place the Graduates of this fine Academy are bound for and the ancient home of his filthy race.

He curses her thoroughly, with her brother's face. "Ras me. Ras me on. Do it now. From where did you steal the power I taste in your khef?"

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

Now her face goes slack, and then, abruptly, crumples.

"I'm sorry." A tear slips noiselessly down her cheek, and then another, and another.

She inhales, shakily.

"I'm sorry, onii-sama --"

[walk_ins]

Dios--not really, but then, she's not really River--scowls, and abruptly releases her. "If you will not answer to me, you will answer to the abbalah. When I leave this place with the Graduates, you will come with me, to Algul Siento. And beyond, for you. To Can Tah Abbalah. To the Lord of Spiders. To the Court of the Crimson King," he says, with malicious enjoyment.

A mocking smile, with those gentle lips and cannibal teeth, and he reaches up to touch his face. "Do you see your brother, then?" He understands her--tears the meaning from her mind--and full of contempt for humes and their babble, has no idea it's the wrong language. "Would you like to see my true face, damane?"

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

Anthy stares at him -- blinks, and another tear goes trickling down -- and says nothing.

It's Dios's face, with Akio's smile. She reaches forward, slowly, dreamily.

[walk_ins]

He shows her.