That does bring up the darkly funny image of intercepting Reaver comm calls were they're glaring at the viewscreens and screaming at each other in some way that actually works as communication.

why is there this Reaver asteroid belt where they all hang out-- way too closely to one another, but anyway-- waiting to entrap some luckless, what, space tourists?

Because this is home, and they've been moving out from there, but some are faster at it than others. Also, as others have mentioned, they may sometimes bring their toys home to play. On the other side, we've been shown time and again that there are a lot of rubes out there. Even on Serenity, not everyone knew that it was a dangerous area until Wash told them. Some group heading off to settle a moon might not realize that it was an area to be avoided.

That brings up something else, though. I didn't notice actual screaming. What I did hear sounded like what River heard in Bushwacked, sort of unrealistic sounding screams, so I kind of assumed that anything we heard was leftover psychic screaming for dramatic affect.

We're given the impression that they're relentless killing machines. As in, they don't rest, they don't lurk, they don't scurry, they don't have a homebase. (IIRC from the show, they were actually encroaching on civilization.)

Not exactly. Wasn't it the pilot where Mal says that maybe they're full? I don't think that the reavers thought that they were dead, just that they (Serenity) weren't running and they (reavers) weren't hungry.

Except the logic that most of those victims screaming on their radios probably should have known to space themselves rather than be captured alive by the Reavers.

Above, I wrote how I didn't think that there were necessarily folks screaming then and there. However, even if there were, we've been shown more than once that most people didn't really believe in reavers, that they thought they were made up stories. It stands to reason that if you didn't believe they were that bad, you might try to live long enough to discover that you were wrong, at which point it might be too late to do anything about it.

eta: I type too slowly.

I don't know what they could have seen, but like I said above, it probably wasn't Reaver leisure time.

Heh. I'm thinking Reaver leisure time is going to involve screaming. However I lean on the side of it not being the Reavers doing it.

Does Reaver Leisure Time involve Reaver leisure suits?

Is it still a leisure suit if you replace the polyester with human skin?

Depends. Is it plaid human skin?

If it'd been the psychic screaming, we would've been seeing it from River's POV. Also, there was a definite radio quality to the sound when placed against the ambient sound on Serenity.

I kind of assumed that anything we heard was leftover psychic screaming for dramatic affect.

But when Wash turns the radio off, the screaming goes away.

I think Joss needs to make Reaver comics. Or an animated Reaver spin-off.

It sounded the same as the screams on Bushwacked to me. Maybe River was psychically hearing screams that had been on the radio?!

But when Wash turns the radio off, the screaming goes away.

I missed that. I guess I need to see it yet again. Darn. I guess five times a charm.

Seriously, on the fourth viewing, there were still several things I missed, often, but not always, because of laughter or other noise in the theater. I've watched for the 'noculated line since the first time, and still haven't heard it.

The commas, they are all mine!

They were also looking at something on the monitors in addition to the screaming. ETA: cross-post.

With "leisure time" I was actually thinking back to SoCal's Leisure World.

Oh, I think Joss needs to try his hand at a Broadway musical: Reaver!