InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Morituri Nolumus Mori"

Jean-Luc Picard (tea_earlgreyhot) wrote in marinanova,
@ 2013-02-16 19:46:00

Current mood:	uncomfortable
Entry tags:	buffy summers, data, jean-luc picard, lacus clyne, rose tyler, seven of nine

[ day 206 ] action :: open
[It’s very late at night in the prison, if anyone is still awake or out and about. Were anyone to pass through Sector 0 they might find an older gentleman in his Starfleet uniform sitting on a bench in the recreation area. He’s quiet and still, somewhat unassuming. He might even be mistaken for peaceful from far away. But were anyone to come closer, they’d find that he has somewhat of a perplexed look on his face, troubled or thoughtful perhaps. And his gaze is turned up to the top of the dome. Obviously he’s not as peaceful as it might initially seem.]

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	doesntdamsel 2013-02-20 03:12 am UTC (link)
	She notices that look of familiarity and it's nice, comforting. She sits down on the bench next to him and looks up as well. "I'm sort of a night owl and I don't need much sleep anyway. Four hours is kind of a lot-ish for me. Thinking deep thinky kind of thoughts or just general sleeplessness?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

tea_earlgreyhot
2013-02-21 03:43 pm UTC (link)

"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before." As he quotes the ancient (in his time) words, his look turns to one of amusement.

And finally he nods. "Yes, there are always deep thoughts, Buffy. And I've never been one to succumb to an overabundance of sleep either. Life has always felt too short to waste it away in bed."

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doesntdamsel
2013-02-21 09:51 pm UTC (link)

She just sort gives him a blank look at the quote. It makes sense in the context of the conversation, but she has no idea where it's coming from. The look she gives him is a soft, sort of sad look. "You really are like Giles 2.0. Which is totally a good thing, by the way. I miss him."

That's an understatement. She pushes away sad thoughts though because it's not going to do her any good and it won't add to the conversation. "Basically, yes. I enjoy a good sleeping late as much as anyone, particularly on Mondays, but I I'm too restless, I guess, to really just be still and lay in bed."

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tea_earlgreyhot
2013-02-23 09:22 pm UTC (link)

“In that case I will take that for the compliment in which it’s intended. I am curious though, were this Giles to arrive here in this prison, would you be glad to see him?” He knows that he had mixed emotions about seeing Data here. Back home the Android had given his life for him, taking Jean-Luc’s place to destroy the Scimtar. Seeing him here was most definitely a mixture of joy and sadness.

He can completely relate to that restless feeling. In fact, he can relate to it right now. “What do you do to fill the time, I wonder. Both here and at home where you are from.”

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doesntdamsel
2013-02-24 05:26 pm UTC (link)

She doesn't hesitate a moment. "Yes. Yeah. He's--" she stops and clears her throat. "He's dead back home so..." she shrugs a little. "Yeah. I'd...probably do some rib cracking hugging and make him move in with me, which he would hate so much, for a while before I let him go down the hall."

She purses her lips, twisting them to one side for a moment. She could omit things like slaying and pretend to be a normal twenty-something. If Jean-Luc didn't believe her here though...

"A lot of things. Back home, I did the barista thing for a while. Now...I sort of am jobless. I spend most of my time trying to save people." She looks up at him. "I'm a vampire slayer. I'm stronger than I look, faster. I heal like I'm on crack. It's sort of a destiny since I was sixteen."

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tea_earlgreyhot
2013-02-24 08:57 pm UTC (link)

It’s not unlike the way he had directed both Data and Seven to reside in an apartment with him. So he understood the need to keep those one cares about close in this unfamiliar place, especially those that you might otherwise not have back at home. “Yes, in the unfamiliar, it is in our nature to cling to any familiarity.”

Unfortunately he doesn’t really understand the ‘crack’ reference. But that’s beside the point because he’s both impressed and curious about what she just told him. “Even the smallest, most unassuming of creatures can do great things. I believe I may have underestimated you, Ms. Summers. I had not considered that you might be a heroine.”

He pauses and shakes his head. “Something of which I would never call your destiny as saving people is a choice. Someone with those same abilities as yours may have chosen to do something completely different. Tell me about Vampire Slayers. Are you the only one? Are there others like you here in this prison?”

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doesntdamsel
2013-02-24 09:26 pm UTC (link)

"It's okay. I get underestimated a lot." She says it with a flippant sort of tone. It's true. In fact, she often uses that her advantage. She draws her brows together as she takes a deep breath, trying to decide what's relevant and what she shares because Jean-Luc may not realize it, but he's asked a loaded question. "There was. Faith. Here. In prison, I mean. She...isn't here anymore. At home...I used to be the only one and then...I sort of died for like five minutes and...new slayer. After that, I needed an army so...my best friend and I, we sort of came up with this plan to make all the girls that would be slayers, slayers, but now...back home--things are going pear-shaped and slayers are losing their mojo and I'm still mojo having and so...it's a whole complicated kind of thing. There was supposed to be only one. I kind of messed that up. I don't do rules very well."

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tea_earlgreyhot
2013-02-25 05:21 pm UTC (link)

At her mention of dying, his brow furrows. He's also concentrating on trying to take all the bits she's giving him and piecing them together to make sense of it all. Buffy has a manner of speaking that he's slowly getting used to. But it's still a work in progress. So for awhile after she's done, he's still contemplating over everything she's just told him.

But finally, he tilts his head and looks in her direction. "First, I'd like to say that I'm sorry you've experienced death. I know from personal experience that it can be traumatic. But I also know that it's not the act itself, but what happens in the aftermath that defines us. Obviously, you're quite extraordinary."

He pauses. "What you're saying is that usually there is only one with your abilities. And that when one dies, there is then another. And your death created a new Slayer in spite of your having ultimately survived. Correct?"

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doesntdamsel
2013-02-25 07:49 pm UTC (link)

She shrugs a little at his commentary on dying. "It's not like there's a choice. You have to keep going and figure it out. I just...didn't quit." Which is a defining trait for Buffy, but not one she considers that extraordinary. Her head tilts to one side. "Did you die too?"

She nods a little at his summation of how the slayer thing works. "Pretty much. Later we used magic to make more slayers so there's...maybe 100? But they're all kind of losing their oompf, except for Faith, the one that's a slayer because I died."

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tea_earlgreyhot
2013-02-27 07:03 pm UTC (link)

Not quitting is something that they both have in common. And Jean-Luc finds himself respecting the young blonde even more than he already had. There was certainly something to be said for never lying down and taking it. "That is the question, yes. I nearly died when I was a young, arrogant fool of a boy. A dagger through the heart in midst of a bar brawl. And once again in a Lenarian attack during what should have been peaceful negotiations. Another time the Enterprise was caught in a temporal loop in space. We all died many times over until we understood how to break the loop. There was the Borg and... as Kaman..."

He drifts off, deep in thought for several moments before he draws in a deep breath and squares his shoulders. A curt nod. "Yes, I've died many times over under the strangest of circumstances."

It isn't the first time he's heard people mention magic, which of course can be perceived in many different ways. He's seen species with amazing talents in his time that might seem magical to his own ancestors. "Have you any idea what is making their power deplete? One would think having their help might relieve some of the burden from you and this... Faith."

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doesntdamsel
2013-03-05 08:52 pm UTC (link)

Buffy feels some sort of paternal warm-fuzzy thing with Jean-Luc. He reminds her enough of Giles that it was triggered almost immediately upon meeting him. His age and his demeanor toward her has only reinforced that.

"Like Ground Hog Day minus Bill Murray." She had a day like that but thankfully there was no dying.

"Willow tried to explain it to me once. There was something about a cycle and recharging and power returning to some kind of pool. Possibly there were Wheaties involved, but that was probably a metaphor. Basically there's only supposed to be one. Two will be tolerated. Three or more gets kicked out of the super exclusive slayer club."

She hesitates and then nods because that had been the idea. "It did. Does. Did. At least until a faction of them decided they wanted to kill me for ruining the nice, normal lives they had going on."

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tea_earlgreyhot
2013-03-05 10:45 pm UTC (link)

"Ah, with power comes both responsibility and the potential for corruption. There are some, Ms. Summers, who fail to handle responsibility with any sort of grace. There are some who might grow drunk on power and continue to crave more. But I will tell you from experience that although the path might be the more difficult one, those who traverse the road of using said power without abusing it can and will have the final say."

He can speak from experience as those who had sought time and again to corrupt Starfleet had been defeated. The Borg had been defeated. And even the Q had eventually learned to not only tolerate but respect humans. "You do very well to remain steadfast in your beliefs, to cling tight to those you can trust to keep you honest, and to keep both feet firmly planted to fight for what you believe to be right. Therein lies a true hero, Buffy, someone to look up to and admire... perhaps even to emulate."

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	doesntdamsel 2013-03-06 03:31 am UTC (link)
	Buffy smiles a little at his words. She understands them, appreciates them and it makes her a little teary because she misses Giles so much and it's different knowing he's dead rather than in England or Scotland or someplace that's not here, but very much in the world. "Being heroic shouldn't be so hard. There might be more heroes if it weren't." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

tea_earlgreyhot
2013-03-06 04:46 pm UTC (link)

"It's true. And yet it can be said that the greatest moments in history have spawned from ordinary men and women making difficult decisions and there by all world altering moments are fraught with difficulty in which the individuals in them have the chance to either be heroic or take the route bared with the least obstacles."

He offers Buffy a small, soft smile. "It is something of a tangled web, as it should be in spite of how we might want for a path less complicated."

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doesntdamsel
2013-03-06 07:32 pm UTC (link)

"It's the hard things that make you be the hero." At least that's how she interpreted what he said. The context of her life provided a good deal of her interpretation as well.

"It's funny, because you're all hero-y too and in a different way than I was. You always think of the apocalypse as the way your apocalypse went, but everybody and every world has one and it's all personalized. Like, is there a division of the PTB: Apocalypses personalized for you!."

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