[ physical touch can be hit or miss when river is in a state like this. she squirms away from eddie's hands, quietly whimpering 'no, no' - not because the touch is unwelcome but because it feels wrong. like blood slipping through fingertips as you cling to someone you love, all that pain, confusion, fear and despair. at the same time though, she ends up gripping his arms right back, holding on tight out of the same desperation that drove these two sisters to die in each other's arms.

it's all wrong. she tries to listen to what eddie is saying, but she hears screaming and crying too and only some of it is her own. so she shakes her head, holds on tight, and weeps. ]

It's not - we're not cool, Eddie. It's - dìyù shì kōng de, móguǐ jiù zài zhèlǐ, it hurts.

[ the memory is vivid and painful and sad, so terribly sad, the way all of the people here suffered as they laid rotting in the pit. river thinks of her brother and despairs for what it would've been like to be trapped so helplessly as their blood slipped through their fingers.

but eddie promised they would let them be together again, so river puts a hand over where he had drawn his x and looks up at him with a powerful desolation in her tearful eyes. ]

We have to get it out. Her face is gone. They couldn't see it in the dark but they could feel it. The roots, oh god, they're inside and outside and tearing me apart!

[ istredd said 'you need to protect your mind' but she isn't any better at it yet. they should probably take that break soon. she won't leave this room until they find the other sister though, her eyes darting around the room as she looks for one of the humanoid roots. ]