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Tweak says, "whobalobadobadooo"

Buffy Summers (slayer_comma_b) wrote in wariscoming,
@ 2013-03-16 05:38:00

Entry tags:

andrew bennett, buffy summers

Who: Buffy and OPEN
What: Buffy arrives.
When: Day.
Where: A busy street.

Everything hurt.

Ached.

Grated against her skin like sandpaper. Twisted her belly like sickness. Crushed against her bones like stone. It was all wrong. The harsh light in her eyes, the garish colors, this wasn't where she was supposed to be. There was emptiness where she had been held close in love. She had been formless and filled and now she was constrained by a form that felt alien to her.

This was wrong.

This was wrong.

Movement was no improvement on stillness, muscles creaked and bones jarred against tendons, but she endured it, her goal glowing gently in her mind, soft and peaceful and perfect in a world that was all harsh edges.

She was Buffy Summers and she didn't give up. She was going to get it back.

* * *

Anyone watching would see a small woman, neatly turned out in heels and a nice black dress (it was the one she'd been buried in). Her hair was smooth, her makeup was perfect. Only her expression -- vaguely horrified -- showed that something was not quite right.

She moved slowly down the street, looking at no one, flinching away when anyone got close to her, step after step until she reached a cross street. She looked both ways, and then looked again, squinting after something that wasn't there. She picked the direction that looked less crowded and started off again.

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thedemonslock
2013-03-16 03:43 pm UTC (link)

This was all a little surreal.

This wasn’t Andrew’s first trip through Lawrence. He’d passed through a few times before, back in his own world. The city here was much the same as it was back home, sometimes even down to the buildings. He knew the theory behind alternate universes as much as anyone that had personally known the developer of String Theory, but seeing it in reality was…something else. There were differences, of course there would be, but he was surprised at just how many similarities there were.

He was out and about now, trying to get the lay of the land. He wasn’t sure about the other vampires here, but he at least didn’t burn up in the sun. His powers were weakened, but he still had access to most of them. He couldn’t maintain any of his altered forms for as long and his physical capabilities were less impressive, but he was still superhuman in that regard. He wasn’t really sure why. Most vampires from his home dimension flat out lost most of their powers in the sun, but his were merely weakened. He wished he could chalk it up to age, but he’d never completely lost access to them the way others did. Sometimes he wondered about why. Sometimes he figured he probably wouldn’t like the answer. Today was one of the latter days.

He was avoiding notice today. It wasn’t easy, with the celebrity lookalike thing that so many people seemed to have here, but a dark coat, a cap, and dark sunglasses did enough to hide his resemblance. Something told him the white streak in his hair probably helped, too. He hadn’t been able to customize the coat with a sheath for his sword yet, but that was okay, the sword was the least dangerous part of him when he wanted to be dangerous. The lack of notice let him explore the city without the bother of constant stares when someone thought he was a celebrity, and it also let him people watch. He knew a little bit about a little bit, and he was pretty sure that an event as big as the capital A Apocalypse would be having metaphysical correspondences throughout the world. He wanted to see how it was affecting the people, and that was what he was focusing on at the moment.

Which is why he was able to spot the girl wandering around. He didn’t catch it right away, but there was a difference between someone who was walking to a place and someone that was just walking. If you were paying attention, and you’d been around long enough to learn the difference, you could pick out that difference. It piqued his interest, so he continued to watch. He figured she was just a new arrival, someone displaced and as confused as you’d expect, but she didn’t look just confused. She looked about the way he would expect an abuse victim to react, flinching away from human contact and looking generally uneasy. Maybe she was a native who just needed help, and if there was one thing Andrew was driven to do, it was help.

After all, he had a lot to make up for.

It had been a long time since Andrew just approached people, though. His social skills had atrophied. Besides, there was a chance this was a lure. Lucifer or some demon trying to trick one of the particularly redemptive or helpful displaced into approaching. So he wouldn’t approach, not right away. He’d follow first, keeping as inconspicuous as he could. If he decided this was legit, then he would approach her and see if she needed help.

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slayer_comma_b
2013-03-16 06:36 pm UTC (link)

Buffy stopped.

More wrong, somewhere behind her. This was a different kind of wrong than the grating wrong of everything, it itched through her body, a prickle and a thrill. Vampire. And strong, too. Instinctively the part of her that was the Slayer surfaced; her muscles relaxed a little from the tight grip she'd forced on them, and as she turned she had a predator's loose, arrogant grace.

She scanned the crowd, but couldn't seem to pinpoint what she sensed. She cast this way and that, and then squinted upward at the sun. She stared a moment too long, and tears formed in her eyes. But if the sun was that bright, then by everything she remembered there couldn't be vampires out now.

She must be wrong. No, she was wrong. Wrong...

She turned back, head drooping and feet shuffling as she lost the certainty of the Slayer. Just Buffy, trying to find... She'd settle for anything familiar. Where was she?

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thedemonslock
2013-03-16 07:36 pm UTC (link)

After following the girl for a bit, Andrew was beginning to think he’d been wrong. Maybe she was just a slightly skittish native out for a walk. Her behavior was a little off, but maybe that was just how she was, or maybe she was on something. It wouldn’t be the first time in his life that he’d misjudged someone’s behavior. Maybe this was just a waste of time after all…

The doubts vanished when he saw the girl turn. She was clearly looking for something. Had she caught on to him following her? He didn’t think he’d given himself away, not after years of shadowing other vampires and Mary herself, but was it impossible? He watched her carefully as he pretended to look at a text on his phone, and decided that yes, it was. She was looking for something specific, expecting to see something she recognized. Then she looked up at the sun…could she have sensed him? He was only weakened by the sun, but many self-styled vampire hunters even on his world still believed the misconception that they couldn’t withstand sunlight. Besides, there were other vampires here, vampires that might actually be burned by the sun. Could she have somehow sensed him and then disregarded it, thinking any vampire would have burned up?

That, he decided, was possible. It seemed more likely than just picking him out, especially as preoccupied as she seemed. Whatever doubts he was having vanished like a thin mist. That also settled any doubts he had about approaching her. A demon lure wouldn’t have tipped its hand like that, not when Andrew was already partially on the hook. So he waited for her to start walking again and then started after her, still causal, but picking up the pace a bit to walk near enough to be heard. Then, quietly enough that he wouldn’t likely be overheard by anyone other than the girl, he said, “You won’t find what you’re looking for on the street.” Hopefully she didn’t have a kill-first policy with cryptic vampires.

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slayer_comma_b
2013-03-16 08:31 pm UTC (link)

She heard the noise of the words, but the sense of them blended into the the noises that surrounded her. Feet against the pavement, motors and tires, people talking -- all equally senseless.

But the closer sense of vampire prickled along her spine... The sun was beating down on her head, but she remembered vampires, specific vampires that she'd fought. The memories were dim, like something viewed through murky water, but she remembered fighting and dust, always dust.

She turned again, not expecting to find anything, just responding as her memories told her to do. Find the vampire. Her eyes were wary, darting here and there, seeing but not understanding. Her hand fumbled for a stake, but she didn't have one secreted away in any of the usual places.

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thedemonslock
2013-03-16 09:15 pm UTC (link)

At first he thought she hadn’t heard him, but at her reaction his brow furrowed. Maybe this situation is a little more complicated than I thought… Something was wrong here. Her reactions made it seem like she was relying less on thought and more on instinct. That wasn’t always a bad thing, but here it could get her very seriously lost or worse. He was more sure now that she was displaced, but knowing that just made the situation worse. Given the way she was acting, seemingly on some kind of auto-pilot, it probably wasn’t the time to broach the whole story. He wasn’t sure if she’d even hear him if he tried. The one thing that seemed to be filtering through the confusion was her continued vigilance against the threat she seemed to sense.

Well, if that was getting through to her, maybe that was the tack to take here. He would have to get her to realize that he was what she was sensing, but only a fool would do that right here on the street, with innocent bystanders that would also have a front row seat if anything abnormal did take place. He’d have to try and get her alone first, or at least more isolated than this, then he could try and use what he was to get her attention. There was another way, but turning his mental sway up to eleven to get her focused on him wouldn’t really make a good first impression if she realized he’d done it. He also didn’t like the little voice in the back of his head that pointed out that it would also leave her in quite the vulnerable, bite-sized position. He wasn’t like that. He never had been, and he’d kill himself before he ever would be.

Instead of all that, he could rely on misdirection. “Not on the street,” he said again, this time with a little more urgency. He quickly scanned for an alley and then tilted his head in that direction. “Over there. If you’re looking for the vampire, I mean.”

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slayer_comma_b
2013-03-16 10:06 pm UTC (link)

The urgency of his tone got through where the words didn't, and Buffy's attention snapped to Andrew's face. The tilt of his head -- she unconsciously matched it. That meant...

Over there. She looked, but didn't see anything except more angles, more brightness, sharp shadows.

At that moment he moved, some trivial motion but it was too close to her. She sidestepped instinctively, right into the path of another passerby. In confusion, she backed away, her fists clenching.

She got a few stares then, not just from Andrew, and one woman even patted Buffy on the shoulder as she slipped by, but although the sense of danger refused to leave her, even in the state she was in Buffy knew better than to actually lash out. "No," she muttered, and pushed herself up against the wall where no one would bother her, a few feet from the alley Andrew had pointed out. The sound coming from her mouth startled her; she repeated it, her voice harsh, coming from a very dry throat: "No."

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thedemonslock
2013-03-16 11:09 pm UTC (link)

This was going from bad to worse. Whoever this girl was, she was clearly suffering a more intense shock than most did when they arrived. Something very bad had happened to this girl, and it was clearly still affecting her now. Not only that, but her increasingly erratic reactions to her surroundings were starting to draw attention. How soon before someone decided this was a case of harassment and called the police? The last thing Andrew needed was to explain to a cadre of armed officers why he was just trying to help this girl, or why those bullets were popping back out of his body, or why that taser really wasn’t all that threatening. The question was how to keep this from spiraling into that?

The vampire angle hadn’t worked, and considering even slight movements and the sound of her own voice seemed to unnerve her, he didn’t think there was much talking would do. He could try again, try to make himself seem as nonthreatening as possible, but with some of the bystanders paying attention now, he didn’t want to seem overly pushy. If it didn’t work and the girl just got more panicked, someone likely would dial the police. He couldn’t just leave her, not like this. She was liable to get herself hurt very badly, either through entirely mundane means or worse, if she was found by a demon or someone serving Hell. There was only one possibility left that could defuse this situation swiftly…

Damnit. He hated himself a little more every time he did something like this. Using his strength or his speed in a fight was one thing, growing wings for flight was glorious even if it was from a curse, but what he was about to do always made him feel like he was damning his soul a little more every time he used it. Still, he couldn’t deny that this situation made it fairly necessary. So he took a deep, unneeded breath and, as he felt another nail piercing his proverbial coffin, he turned on the charm.

At such a low grade, it wasn’t domination or even a compulsion. It was just enough mental influence to make him seem trustworthy and draw focus to him, to give his words the extra edge they needed to seem believable. Outwardly he just held his hands a little out from his sides and turned his empty palms out to face the girl. “It’s alright,” he said, the mental influence making sure she would hear his words. “Be calm. You’re safe here.”

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slayer_comma_b
2013-03-16 11:27 pm UTC (link)

That was exactly what Buffy wanted to hear. It matched the soft glow of her memory of where she had come from, calm and safe and everything was all right.

It wasn't instant, but slowly her expression softened, her eyes fixed on his like the gateway to paradise. Literally.

She opened her mouth but words weren't ready to come yet. She closed it again, nothing said. But then the longing inside of her coalesced into just one word: "Please," she begged. Please let me go back to where everything is soft and loving all the time. Please don't let this calm and safe place go away.

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thedemonslock
2013-03-17 12:34 am UTC (link)

Andrew smiled and nodded, keeping the charm at its current level as it seemed to be working. He wasn’t sure what could have happened to this girl to cause this, but he planned on finding out, once he could be sure she was safe and she was a little more up to talking. He carefully reached up and removed the sunglasses from his face so that she could see his eyes. He was hoping seeing his eyes would help humanize him, and maybe give her somewhere to focus on. “I understand.” And, in a way, he did. Four hundred years ago he’d woken up confused and alone, with a cold that went way more than bone deep and urges that he somehow knew were monstrous. No matter how many years he put between that night and him, he could still remember it as clearly as ever. He probably always would. So when he said he understood, there was a sincerity there that had nothing at all to do with his influence.

Carefully, moving slowly so as not to startle her, Andrew took a small step forward and to the side. The distance between them was maintained with the step to the side, but he was slightly closer to the wall now. He knew the distance would be important until he could really be sure she was calm, but hopefully the charm had done enough to keep her from being startled by him being closer to the wall. “My name is Andrew. I know you’re confused. I can help you, I want to help you. I promise I can take you to somewhere safe. I just need you be calm and to trust me a little bit. Can you do that?” He thought about the way her voice sounded, hoarse and maybe a little pained, and added, “I know talking is hard, so if you need to, just nod or shake your head for now, alright?”

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slayer_comma_b
2013-03-17 12:55 am UTC (link)

She turned to watch him, eyes only for him. Her face was like an open book, and when he said trust there was a flicker of hope and more than just a flicker of doubt. She'd trusted before, often, and most often that trust had been repaid. Her friends, her family...but it hadn't been enough. In the very end the only one she could really trust was herself. She was the Slayer, and it always came down to Buffy.

She cleared her throat. "I'm Buffy," she said. There was some effort in forming the words, and some pride. But the next moment that sense of completeness wavered. Where was she? And if she was Buffy, why couldn't she find her own way back?

"Will you take me back?" she asked hopefully.

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thedemonslock
2013-03-17 01:54 am UTC (link)

The doubt surprised him, but he didn’t show it. It was curious, but not more curious than her ability to sense him. This whole encounter had been a little strange, so one more thing was barely a blip on the radar at this point. He was glad she was still up to talking, hoping that the more she did the more she might start to come back to herself. Focusing on words and coherent thoughts had helped him, once upon a time. It was also good that she remembered who she was. It allayed at least a few of his fears about what might have happened to her.

"Will you take me back?"

That particular question he wasn’t quite as happy to hear. He knew the answer, and right now it was a resounding no. As he understood it, no one had found a way back through the Seal yet, other than some claims that it seemed to send people back as randomly as it dragged them in to this dimension. It did make him wonder, though. He’d been assuming from her behavior that she’d run away from something, but that question said otherwise. Maybe she was happy where she was, and the trauma came from the Seal tearing her away from it? It made a sick sort of sense, when he thought about it. He thought about lying to her, telling her what she obviously wanted to hear so that he could get her off the street, but he’d just asked her for trust. He wouldn’t get that trust by lying to her now. “No,” he said softly, an apologetic look crossing his face. “I’m sorry, I can’t. You were brought here like I was, like many others were, through a mystical Seal. So far, no one has figured out how to go back through voluntarily.” It might not have been what she wanted to hear, but it was the truth. “I can take you somewhere safe, though. With others who have been torn away from where they were. Maybe someone there could help.”

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slayer_comma_b
2013-03-17 02:13 am UTC (link)

Buffy's face fell, and as she took in what he was saying she leaned back against the wall for support. No way back. Only this harsh world. Heaven unattainable, only hell remained.

The grief seemed overwhelming, but it also seemed distant from her, held at bay by a barrier of calm.

"Am I dead?" was her next carefully formulated question. But it was the wrong one, and she knew it as soon as the words were out. Of course she was dead. The real question was "Are--" She paused, swallowed. "Are you dead too? Where is this place?"

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thedemonslock
2013-03-17 02:51 am UTC (link)

The look on her face said it all. Wherever it was she’d been pulled from, she seemed to think it was better than this. A warm home? A palace? Paradise? He wasn’t sure, but it had to have been something serious to leave her in a state like this. Her next question did a good job of answering his own, though. She thought she was dead. There weren’t many places you could go after death that were better than being alive. Somehow this girl thought she’d been pulled into this world from Heaven. For all he knew, she had been, and that would probably rank up there as one of the most unfair displacements of this apocalyptic war. Even if it hadn’t been Heaven, if it was good enough that she thought it was real, Andrew at once envied her and wept for her. It would be nice to have that kind of peace, the kind of peace he would never have, and to get pulled away from that…it had to be horrible.

Her questions also left him in a bit of an awkward position. If he continued to be completely honest with her, he would have to tell her that no, she wasn’t dead but that yes, he was. If she was clear enough to do the math, she’d know that meant he was the vampire she’d been sensing. Maybe she’d be coherent enough to also realize he’d had plenty of chance to hurt her and hadn’t, but given her earlier instinctual reaction, he wasn’t sure. Still…she’d been pulled from Heaven, or somewhere close to it. The last thing she needed now was lies. “We’re in Lawrence, Kansas. The year 2013.” Oddly that was the easiest question to answer. “As for your other questions…no, you aren’t. And yes, I am.”

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slayer_comma_b
2013-03-17 04:18 am UTC (link)

That didn't make any sense. Kansas was on Earth, Buffy knew she was dead, and...oh, he was a vampire, and somewhere in the back of her mind alarms were going off, but they were far away. Besides, maybe he had a soul. Buffy shook her head, irritated.

It was a completely natural movement, thought connected to body, and then suddenly it dizzied her just how unnatural it felt, muscles and tendons and bones, movement and everything was still wrong. But it was too abrasive not to be real.

So Buffy straightened, pushed away from the wall and bravely faced up to the harsh world of a peaceful city street. This was Kansas. The United States. Earth. The Solar System. And she was stuck here. But she could manage, all she needed to do was...

The next thing to do was...

Was...

She'd managed to completely forget Andrew, even, lost inside her self, searching for something to want.

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thedemonslock
2013-03-17 01:50 pm UTC (link)

Andrew watched as Buffy digested everything she was telling him. Now that she was calm she seemed to be processing things a little easier, although she still seemed off. Of course, that made sense, now that Andrew knew she’d either been dead or just recently not-dead when the Seal pulled her here. It wasn’t an easy adjustment, being dead and then suddenly waking up to the world again. He hadn’t been in Heaven in the period between having his throat ripped into and waking up alone, or if he was he had no memory of it, but it still wasn’t an easy wake-up call. He wished he could say that this place would give her the time she needed to adjust, but it probably wouldn’t. War never really allowed for little things like personal peace.

When she pushed off from the wall he just watched, thinking she was going to start walking again. She seemed to have some kind of purpose for a second, but then as she stopped, that seemed to fade. That was for the best, because he still needed to tell her about the rest of what was happening here. He didn’t move any closer, but he did tilt his head and call her name gently to get her attention. “Buffy, listen. The hole in reality pulling people into this dimension isn’t the only problem here. There are some other things you should know, but I don’t know if the middle of the street is the place to talk about them. The place I mentioned, it’s an apartment complex that somehow or other has the funding to provide people like us free housing. We should go there, I can get you set up with a roof for while you’re here and tell you about the other things you need to know here. Alright?”

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slayer_comma_b
2013-03-17 06:40 pm UTC (link)

She pulled herself back to the present situation with an effort. Problems, not on the street, check. Of course there would be problems, there were always problems. Why else would she be pulled back from death but to solve some kind of problem?

And there was never only one problem. Problems spawned problems like vamps spawned more vamps.

But meanwhile, the idea of somewhere to sit down -- if she couldn't have heaven, she'd take that. It wasn't what she wanted, but it was better than wandering the streets. Wasn't it? Maybe she should be asking more questions, none of this really made any sense, but...

Panic rose in her. It didn't make sense, and it was all wrong, and... She was breathing hard, she didn't know when that had happened, but the air in her lungs was cool and crisp and irritating. She wasn't sure she'd recognize sense if it did a jig right in front of her face. This was all normal, it had to be normal, she remembered streets and crowds and apartment buildings...

"Okay," she said, looking at the vampire, trying not the breath so hard. She couldn't remember what he'd said his name was, but his face was becoming familiar. He knew what he was doing...

She made the effort to say something that wasn't strictly necessary. "Lead on, MacDuff."

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