river moore

         She was quiet for an…awfully long time, seeming to just look at him. Like he didn’t quite know where he stood in the rest of his life he realised he really didn’t know where he stood with River either. He’d told her he didn’t intend to leave her but he also had wanted to give her space. What he’d promise her hadn’t really been what he delivered and Hastalik was realising he needed to stop promising people things he couldn’t be sure he’d deliver on. The only thing he was sure he could promise River was that he wouldn’t leave, at least not completely, but he knew at this point it was probably bogged down by the promises that had turned out to be lies.

        Fortunately she eventually spoke and one corner of his mouth pulled up in a smile. “No, I can call you Miss Moore if you like though,” he joked, stepping further into the office as he held up the bag. “I tried to do this a few days ago but turns out not texting or talking to someone means you’re super behind in their life and you end up going to their old job and having to eat two people’s worth of Chinese food on your own, there was no other option.”

         Placing the food down on an empty part of the desk he continued to look at her hoping that his light way of speaking was not going to cause her to yell at him. “I know I could have texted but I didn’t really want to just text you.” Saying he missed her before he knew if he was welcome felt premature so for now that felt enough. “So Chinese food seemed the perfect option, even if we don’t have a cheesey movie to go with it,” he concluded, brushing hands through his puffy hair as nerves obviously moved through his body. He’d considered bringing his laptop so they could watch The Half of It but didn’t figure her office would be comfortable.

“That might be weird,” she responded bluntly at his suggestion to call her Miss Moore. Not even the students called her Miss Moore. She was essentially the same age as most of them and younger than some so they all just called her River. 

He was clearly trying really hard to make things feel like nothing had changed but his trying so hard only made it more obvious that things had. “You could have still texted though,” she said as she closed her binder and set it off to the side. “I’m still technically working. My office hours don’t end until another hour so, I mean, you can stay but if a student shows up then you need to leave.” She wasn’t saying it to be rude but just to make a point that he should have given her some form of warning that he was going to show up at her work. 

Been Forever || Hastalik&River

        Hastalik’s mind had been a sort of fog since the return to Opulence from the coven. For the first few days he’d been on edge about whether the coven may have been able to follow them, but when that fear subsided he just didn’t really know where he stood in his own life at all. He’d thought once he’d fulfilled his promises he’d stop compartmentalizing his life, and he had, but the fallout was just a mess. Work had been really the only thing he’d handled but he wanted more than that, he wanted to feel a part of the world again and so he reached out to River.

        Well the first day he attempted to, it turned out River had also got a new job and so heading to the shop she’d been in before ended up being a fruitless act, he’d eaten the Chinese he’d bought for the two of them in the park with Tali by himself while he tried to work out when River’s office hours were since the girl who was working there recognised Hastalik and didn’t figure it would be wrong to tell him of River’s new job. 

        Fortunately with her new schedule he could plan a little better. It was another two days before he could go and see her but once more he arrived at her work, the correct one this time, with a large bag of Chinese food in hand. His rings catching on the plastic and his chest rising and falling with nerves he approached the door to Amara’s office cautiously, seeing she was already with someone he waited outside, trying to control his breathing.

         Finally when the student left he stood, no others waiting, and gently knocked on the half open door. “River?” he called, the smell of Chinese food had probably already made it’s way to her nose while he’d been waiting, the same order they usually made perhaps she’d known it was him.

@missrivermoore​

She’d just started to lean back in her seat, relieved that this student meeting didn’t end up taking more than half an hour and would be able to hopefully relax a bit when there was another knock at the door. The young witch couldn’t help but let out a sigh as she glanced at the clock hanging on the wall to her left. Overall she was enjoying working as Amara’s teacher aid, but by far, office hours were the worst. The students always either had the silliest questions that would easily be answered if they just read the prompts properly or already knew what they were doing and just wanted to talk about it for an hour to confirm and just ‘double-check because they weren’t sure.’ “Come in!” She called out to the person at the door and sat up straight ready to receive the next student but the person who entered wasn’t a student. She hadn’t noticed the distinct smell of Chinese food that wafted through until she saw the bag in his hand and the dots slowly started to connect. It had been a while since she last saw him so her initial reaction was to stare at him while her heart suddenly pounded in her ears. It was probably a full minute later before the shock wore off and her heart started to calm down and she was able to pull herself together. 

Pascal just stared at her when she explained the relationship between music and fire. He understand the point she was trying to make with the emotional impact of a song. Things related to the senses tied back to memories easily. Smell, sounds, touch. But her relating the two didn’t bring him to any sort of new understanding, or even remotely justify the outburst that had caused the ashen crater before them. “I feel that way about the cold, but I don’t tear down a building with my magic every time it snows,” he commented flatly.

She looked up at him when she realized she’d done it again, an explanation for her actions that wasn’t really an explanation at all. 

........spotify playlist

the first half is classical type music with chill sad vibes that suit river and her style of music, the second half is modern music with lyrics and things that i think fit her character, emotions, and wants. i’ve also included excerpts from lyrics below from the first 10 songs in the second half that fit her the most. will probably keep adding songs as i see fit. 

About halfway through the walk out to whatever. damage to the forest awaited them, Pascal found himself equally regretting asking to see the damage and wondering what the hell River’s mental state must have been like to end up so far in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. He was irritated with the fact that his favorite Doc Martens were getting trashed and would take a ridiculous amount of. time to clean, but he didn’t say anything about it. He simply followed her to spot.

He could already see a small fraction of the clearing up ahead when River began to speak, and even with her warning he had underestimated the size of it. He stared out at it for a few moments, surveying the charred leaves and the burnt bark. It looked like the scarred margins of natural forest fires he had seen before, a geography that often took decades to restore itself. 

“Boy, your Henry David Thoreau teenage angst bullshit has really outdone itself this time,” he remarked. 

River stuck her toe into the darkened charred dirt, breaking through the cracked dry Earth to push back the burn and find the softer ground beneath. She glanced at him after his comment about her angst being bullshit and agreed with him. “I know,” she said as she focused back on the ground, turning over the burn and bringing out the fresh dirt that hid beneath, mixing it in so the minerals could encourage regrowth. “I..mm..Eth--” she began to say his name because he had always been her link to musicraft, her source of information and knowledge about her magic but saying his name now knowing what he had done and what he might do made her stomach churn and as she stared at the dirt she could almost see Ricky’s fingers poking up from beneath the ground. 

Amara nodded in approval. “That works great, actually. Especially the Thursday slot. A lot of students enjoy going to office hours on the same day, usually because the information is more fresh and because some of them schedule their classes so they’re on campus for one or two full days a week,” she explained. “Of course, if you find those hours don’t end up working best for you, or if something comes up one particular week, you’re always welcome to reschedule. Just be sure to send out an email to the class - I’ll show you how to do that later, don’t worry.” 

The waitress returned with their food quickly, as they’d both ordered salads. Amara waited for their server to leave before she began to answer River’s question. “Aside from getting to discuss great works of literature?” She asked in a light-hearted, rhetorical manner. “Honestly, I love the end of the term. In the two hour final exam block we have, I hold an optional discussion group after all the essays have been turned in if students want to discuss freely what their favorite lesson, novel, passage, whatever was. I’ve only been here for a year, but a good amount of students participate. No grades, no judgement - just discussion. That is my favorite part. With the little time we had together, they’ve learned something that is meaningful and important to them, and I love reaching that point more than anything.” 

When the food was brought out, River picked at it with her fork as Amara spoke. She could see by the way she explained it how much passion and joy she got from teaching and that in turn brightened and made River even more excited to work with her. It would be nice to be part of something that helped others and brought her so much enjoyment. It would be good to be part of something good for once. She just hoped she didn’t end up messing something up.

“I would probably marry Maya cause I couldn’t kill her and she’s like family anyway so we’d have a very platonic marriage but I’ll get unlimited baked goods. I would probably fuck Pascal if I could and then sorry Bella, but she’d be the one to die in this scenario.”

“Probably. I was about to, I think.”

“It’s hard but I expected that. If it wasn’t then it would have been easy for me to do on my own. He pushes me and I like the challenge. At first, I thought maybe he should be nicer about it but it’s better that he isn’t.”

“I kind of miss having someone around all the time. Colette’s house feels a lot emptier.”