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[gidge]

PICK YOUR POISON
PIC PROMPTS / TFLN / RANDOM SCENARIO
HAN SOLO velocities	BETTY MCRAE bombsheller	RIVER TAM subsulcus	RIVER TAM (AU) comprehender
SIMON TAM vest	BRIA THAREN exulted	NADINE CROSS bridaled	GU JUN-PYO toddler
available on special request: veronica sawyer, benjamin linus, imani, maria deluca, mushu, poseidon, niccolò machiavelli, malik al-sayf, chloe

Comments

lies and slander

[vest]

The parting from Serenity had been tense, a hundred different arguments just under the surface between the crew the Tams end up having to leave behind. Tearful as they disembarked to the Roci, in some parts -- mostly Kaylee's, being honest, and a bit from River as they all hugged out their goodbyes -- and Simon still isn't sure this was the best decision.

Better than wandering on their own in Alliance territory, though. That's what he keeps telling himself as this new crew gathers around to hear him speak. River is elsewhere, sleeping (he hopes) through this dredging up of the relevant and painful past she avoids.

This is a talk he's given before, always to near strangers, always in an effort to better help his sister. It's unsettlingly easy to retread, a story he knows by rote. Still, he stands at the head of a table, tense and uncomfortable, hands clasped behind his back to hide any tremor, the whiteness of his knuckles whenever he tenses.

"Before I start, you need to understand that River wasn't always like this. When we were kids, she-- She was correcting my spelling by the time she was three. Correcting my textbooks not long after. And I graduated from MedAcad in the top three percent of my class at eighteen." He considers for a moment making the distinction between gifted and gift, and opts not to, instead pressing forward. "She managed to be the smartest person in the room, whether it came to dance or language or physics. She learned everything as easily as you or I learned how to breathe."

He shifts his stance a little, moves to cross his arms across his chest.

"When she was fourteen doing her first graduate courses, the government approached us about a school. It had the most challenging program, promised to let her learn as much as she wanted without having to slow down for her other classmates. The caveat was that there were no visitors allowed on the campus. But River wanted to go, so our parents signed the papers and she left."

There's a moment of quiet, then. The memory of it hitting him a little harder, along with the realization of just how far they've gone since then. Simon wipes a hand across his mouth before tucking it back against his elbow. "It took a few months before I realized the letters she was sending me were coded. Simple enough to crack, but still well hidden from any censors her letters had to have gone through. And straight to the point.

"They just said, 'They're hurting us, get me out.'"

He pauses there to let it settle over this new crew, looks around and waits for a reaction outside of the normal disgust or horror. He sees none, and so he goes on.

"Our parents didn't care, so I used what money I had to find people that would help me. It took two years, and in that time she had... Gotten worse." Easy enough for them to figure out just what that means. "I had to pose as an Alliance officer to get in and be shown around. They showed her off as a psychic in their new defense program, achieved by cutting into her brain, altering the way she perceives things -- her ability to control what she perceives."

Simon's mouth twists into a bitter frown, grim and uncomfortable.

"After I got her out, we ended up on Serenity and have been on the run since. We were both marked as fugitives, and our parents disowned us, so it wasn't like we had anywhere else to go."