BtVS: Alternate Lives

Who: Janie OT Sin
Where: Some quiet cafe somewhere
When: Monday night

Janie needed to be at home. She had a boyfriend, a child, homework, housework... probably actual work somewhere, but didn't want to do any of it. She just wanted to be young, like the other students at college. Young, and carefree, and partying, which was why she'd stayed on campus long after her classes were over.

Monday wasn't always a party night, but for some reason it had been this week. She went to that party and stayed until she was shooed away from the dorm room, then stumbled to a cafe. Hopefully caffeine would wake her enough to go home and face reality.

Of course, she was slumped over on the table beside a full cup of coffee thirty minutes after getting to the cafe.

Who: Everyone & Their Monkey's Uncle
Where: Avarice
When: Pick a day last week.
Status: Completed
Note: I apologize if some of the editing is f-ed up. Sometimes it's hard to catch the line breaks among a sea of text.

( Read more... )

WHO: Spike OT Janie and Cassie, and OTA
WHEN: Friday night
WHERE: Downtown LA, near Shooting Star etc.
WHY: Read on ...

There was a lot to be said for having a cease-fire with the Slayer crowd. For one thing, you could gather a lot of information when nobody was trying to jam a two-by-four between your ribs. And the word on the street ... on this street, anyway ... always brought something interesting to someone who paid attention.

Spike crushed out his cigarette and got a look around the street. It was quiet tonight. Most of what was going on, went on indoors, and it seemed like most of the people who were going about there business were already where they wanted to be.

One young woman, though, about whom he'd heard some interesting stories lately, he hadn't seen yet. And the chances of his finding her alone, or nearly so, seemed good tonight.

"It's time," he said aloud, to nobody in particular. Nobody at all, as he was alone, perched on the edge of the roof of the building that housed his bar. "Time to fix what went wrong. Not long now, pet ... you're probably expecting me."

He smirked and raised a fresh cigarette to his lips.

Who: Cassie and Janie (OT Xander)
Where: Shooting Star Comics
When: Tuesday evening


Singing quietly to herself, little Cassie Allen found herself at Shooting Star all evening once again. She really didn't mind, since, as Andrew worked there too, she could man her store AND see her boyfriend anytime. And it wasn;t like she had much of a social life outside of Andrew, really. Lucy had been busy with Ash and with her band lately, and Dawn had gone from being strangely absent to sharing a mun with Cassie, which made it kind of hard to see each other too much. Shut up.

Anyway, the store was fairly empty tonight, so Cassie was letting herself have some fun with work. She was wearing roller skates with her bellbottoms and smiley-face tee, grinning as she finished stocking the new releases for the morning.

Ahh. It felt like nothing could ruin the mood she was in tonight, right?

....RIGHT???

Who: Janie OT Cassie
When: Wednesday evening
Where: A cafe somewhere

Janie sat at her table, and frowned at her drink and sandwich. Why was she in this odd, impostor cafe? This was not the Sugar Shack. The proportions of sugar to caffeine were all wrong, and the customers all seemed too- normal? Was that the right word?

It felt weird and disorienting, even more than her recent time shenanigans. When a girl walked by with a little rat dog in an overpriced purse, she couldn't take anymore. The cell phone went into her hand and she dialed the first number she could think of.

"Cassie? I'm at a weird cafe near Hollywood. Please visit me, I need sanity."

WHO: Xander OT Janie and all
WHEN: Monday evening
WHERE: Chloe's Sugar Shack

Xander was having a rough week, but not too bad overall. In addition to the comic shop, where he had cut back his hours, he was working construction elsewhere in the city, a job that tired him out but brought in more than enough money to maintain the apartment he and Janie shared, and to even cover the occasional sixpack, Playstation game and (with any luck) something to replace the nasty sherbert-colored carpeting.

He was relaxing, and halfway through a Clermont-era X-Men comic he'd picked up earlier. The place looked the same, smelled the same, but he hadn't been in here in ... it seemed like ages.

Who: Lynn, Janie OT Future kids
Where: She sent an email/ Sugar Shack
When: Sunday



Want to go back home? Parents found out about us, my Mom is ordering everyone to go back NOW. Sorry :(.

xo
Lynn

Lynn sat at a table, and glared at her Mom, who happened to be annoyed at both her and her father.

"Why can't I stay? You're no fun."

"You don't belong here."

"Neither do you. I want to stay."

"Not in a million years."

"Mom!"

"Quiet and wait for your friends to arrive. If this happens again, come to me right away!"

"It wasn't my fault. You probably did it, and you're blaming me! I can't even travel like you do!"

"I had nothing to do with this! Quiet!" Both sat in silence, and waited.

CHARACTERS: Chaz Burnes, Janie Taylor, and OPEN
TIME/DAY: April 22, early afternoon.
SETTING: Ronald Regan High School
WARNINGS: TBA
STATUS: Incomplete
NOTE: Multiple threads are fine by me.

( I shouldn't have woken up this morning. )

Who: Anyone with half an excuse to be there
Where: Regan High School Gym
When: Saturday Night, 4/17

Yay Prom Night! God, it was her Senior Year and Camille was ready for it to be over with! Too many freaks at this school. Hopefully they would weed out some of the weirdos at the private college that she was attending in the fall. Still, with only a few weeks left of school (seniors finished early), she might as well enjoy it. With her date, one of the cute jocks from the football team, and her perfect dress. Tonight had better be perfect for her, or someone was going to pay dearly.

The gym was decorated fairly well. The junior class, who was always tasked with putting on the Prom, had picked out a 'Spring is in the Air' theme, which, lucky for them, matched well with Camille's dress so her pictures would turn out good and she wouldn't clash with the background. The gym was decorated with lots of pink and purple flowers, and fake trees were set up everywhere in an effort to give the gym a 'spring' feel.

Who: Janie OTA
When: Friday Afternoon
Where: Shooting Star Comics

Janie didn't officially work at the comic store, but she seemed to be there more than some employees. Today, she went from quietly freaking out to moping. A heavy, heavy sigh would be followed by pacing, and dusting. If a customer was in, she welcomed the break from her angst and pretended to be an employee.

Right now, it was quiet. She sighed, and stared at the dolls on display.

"Aragorn, you're handsome and your significant other gave up eternity for you. You never had to worry about what we do."

And another sigh.

WHO; Xander OT Janie
WHEN: Thursday afternoon
WHERE: Xander and Janie's apartment

Xander had had a long, increasingly-awkward conversation with Lynn the other day. He'd been trying to digest the gist of the conversation since then.

What it all boiled down to was that, at some point in the near future, he and Janie would have the sex, and the result of having the sex would be having the Lynn.

As to when and how this would come about, he didn't really know, and Lynn couldn't have answered most of that any way. And he certainly didn't want to hear about that from his daughter even if she could ... She could have told him the date it would happen, but Xander had been too dumbfounded at the time to ask, and too busy avoiding the hell out of Lynn since then to bring it up again.

The hard part was knowing that Janie would have to know about this. Otherwise, future-Lynn was bound to blurt it out at the dinner table in fifteen or sixteen years and thereby put Xander in the doghouse.

On the other hand, it gave him fifteen or sixteen years to tell her, "Oh, by the way, I knew we'd have a daughter, and I might have accidentally not-quite flirted with her at Chloe's one night."

Xander knew he'd just have to bite the bullet and let Janie know what was what.

What he didn't know was why anybody woudl bite a bullet. It just sounded like an incredibly bad and painful thing to do.

He bought dinner for him and Janie and set the table in their small, cozy apartment, with its nasty orange carpet (mostly covered by dark rugs, now), and waited for her to get home.

WHO: Xander OT Janie
WHEN: Monday afternoon, March 29th
WHERE: Downtown LA

Xander pulled up at the curb of the three-story building a few blocks off the Sunset Strip, the back of the car full of the assorted odds and ends he'd collected while living with the Marcheses. There was a military-style duffel bag full of clothes, a milk crate full of shoes, several other milk crates full of video tapes and books. A large banker's box full of comic books. And topping it all off, a brand-new TV, VCR/DVD combo, and a PS2 that wasn't new, but worked well enough. The car itself was a ten-year-old Taurus station wagon, white with a few patches of red primer on the left side.

Climbing out of the car, he looked up at the second floor balcony facing the street and smiled. It was a far cry from the place in Oxnard, and it wasn't nearly as his recent digs, but it was his, and that instantly made it cool.

A cab driver honked, and Xander jumped and got out of the street, then took a look around to see if his roommate had arrived yet ...

WHO: Xander, OT Janie, Courtney, any others
WHEN: Tuesday night
WHERE: Chloe's Sugar Shack

Xander had taken over a table near the back corner of the cafe and had a small stack of comics in front of him. He was saving money to move out ... he was being good ... but a few early issues of the Avengers had popped up at the store, and he had nabbed a few of them before the regulars descended on them.

He looked up as the door opened, expecting Janie any minute now ...

Who: Janie OT All
Where: Reagan High School
When: Tuesday Morning

Janie was in a pretty good mood. The previous night she found out she got into college. What was better than that news, was that she was awarded a partial scholarship with work study.

That meant she could move out of the apartment, go to college AND have a job. It was everything she wanted. She sat through homeroom, grinning like a fool.

Then the announcements started. Someone thought it would be smart to tell the ENTIRE school that she'd been accepted to Cal-Tech and awarded a scholarship. That meant people would know she spoke English. Hopefully no one paid attention.

The time traveler tried to shrink into her desk, hoping her jeans and white tank top somehow made her blend into the class more.

Who: Ben, OT anyone
Where: Avarice
When: Monday, March 8th
What: Much like the hair-metal thread... it's just some goofy fun. To once again quote Chapelle's Show: It's a celebration, bitches... enjoy yourselves.


Benjamin Bale occasionally had some... rather odd ideas for themed nights at Avarice. One of his finer moments had been 80s Hair Metal Night. Well... this one? Had the potential to be as memorable, but possibly for horrific reasons altogether.

Yes, tonight was Bring Your Parents Night at Avarice. Any teen that brought at least one parent to to the club would be entitled to free drinks for the evening. Why this odd choice of themes?

Well. First and foremost, Ben loved people's money. And if he could find a way to bring MORE people into Avarice by showing parents that they COULD hang there without seeming skeevy, and show kids that their parents could hang there and not have to slice their coolness factor in half... bingo. More customers.

Then of course... there was the primary reason for this. The humor. Ben knew that everyone around here had been through a LOT lately, and sometimes, nothing helped more than some laughter, and good memories. And really: other than seeing people reliving the glory days of Poison and Winger (actually, did Winger HAVE glory days?), what could be funnier than watching the kids that normally swagger through the club with Ben-level cockiness looking freaked out and having a wiggins because their parents were there either being the world's funniest cockblocks, or god forbid, getting their OWN groove things going?

Oh, hell yes. This had so much hilarious potential that Ben couldn't resist. Even if it DID put him in the same vicinity as the parents of roughly half of the girls he'd tried to bed in the last year.

WHO: Xander OT Cassie and Janie
WHEN: Tuesday night
WHERE: Shooting Star Comics

The comic shop was quiet tonight. Xander had finished restocking and was eying a row of dolls ... umm, "action figures" ... trying to figure out if he could dust them without looking girly. Deciding against it, he picked up a copy of the latest Amazing Spider-Man and settled behind the counter.

Things had settled into a comfortable groove. He was putting away money and it looked like he'd be ready to get an apartment in the next few weeks. Janie was still in school, but he thought she seemed less freaked out by ... life in general.

Who: Janie Open to anyone and multiple threads
Where: Venice Beach
When: Feb 18, 2001

Since Lucy died, Janie wasn't sure how much time passed, or where she was all of the time. She spent a lot of her days with Xander, or trying to work out a formula to fix everything. There had to be a way to fix it, to bring her friend back.

She hadn't dealt much with death, and never with someone she considered a friend. If she could somehow go back...

No, because that would create a paradox. She needed to avoid that. Somehow, she ended up at the beach where she first got lost in LA. She was in the same spot, and furiously scribbling on a piece of paper before giving up and resting her head in her knees.

Why did life have to be so unfair?

Who: Chloe, OT Janie and Xander
Where: Chloe's house
When: Saturday night

Bah! Enough of this crap. Chloe was tired of everyone putzing around, trying to figuure out ways to get Bella back. Chloe missed her friend, and wanted her back. So... granted, she wasnt MUCH of a witch, but she was still a witch, damnit!  Time to use those powers!

So she did the only thing she could think of. She invited Janie and Xander to her... rather large home, and told them to bring Janie's time machine if they could. She had an idea.

Dressed in a pair of Gucci jeans and pink cami, she paced back and forth in the living room, waiting for her friends to arrive.

WHO: Xander OT Janie
WHEN: Monday, December 21
WHERE: Chloe's Sugar Shack

Xander had asked Janie to meet him at the cafe after he finished work. He had picked up something for her from the store, and he kind of wanted to reassure her that he wasn't going to try to move too fast.

He was a little annoyed at himself for just assuming that she would be moving in with him right away. That had been a little dumb. At least she had been less stressed when they sorted things out.

He heard the door of the cafe open, and he tucked the box under his coat.

When: (December 13th)
Who: Janie OT Vito
Where: Their apartment

Janie needed to tell someone about what happened the other day... Not Xander, because she'd said way too much to him recently and there was the whole misunderstanding about moving in together.

Not that she didn't really like him, but she just wasn't ready for it. She didn't think she could handle- this wasn't what she needed to talk about. She wanted to discuss what happened in front of the flower shop. He worked with people that might know what, if anything to do about it.

"Vito?" she asked "I need to talk to you."