| Nobody's Real |
[05 Nov 2005|02:19pm] |
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mood |
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----Non Journal Entry-----
"Alright everyone. Pencil's down."
The room was filled with silence as the littlest Summers girl looked up from her test paper at the middle aged man in front of her. He wouldn't be half bad looking if it wasn't for that little problem that he was going completely bald. They called him Mr Clean behind his back. Something about him cleaning floors that intrigued her. Her very last class for Philosophy was done. Exam complete. She wasn't quite sure if she was going to get a good grade, but there was no time to think about that now. She was completely free.
The tests gathered up and put on a pile on Mr Clean's desk, he dismissed them with a cheery wave and told them that most of them would be seeing him again when they had to take the class yet once more. Heh. That was always key, threatening people with failure and the abstract humility of being stuck with the same teacher year after year. Dawn gathered up her belongings into her bag and stood up. Last exam for the last class. This week had been so insane with all these exams. Maybe that was because she has chosen to take some harder classes this semester. In any case, she was glad to get the hell out of there.
"Hey Summers." Which made her look up. She was the only one with that last name in the class after all. And plus, she was popular to boot.
She gave him a look, the guy was tall, lean and muscular. He was quite the hottie if she could say so herself. And she'd been waiting most of the semester for him to ask her out. He hadn't yet, which she didn't know why. It was obvious he had a thing for her. They flirted back and forth and yet nothing was ever done about it. She was going to ask him out herself one of these days, she just hadn't .. well.. gotten around to it. She blamed it on her busy schedule though usually it was just that she hadn't gotten up the nerve to.
"Yeah?" she inquired since it was obvious he wasn't going to speak without giving some sort of prompt. Maybe he wasn't as smart as she thought he was.
"There's a party tonight at the old Mill. You wanna come?"
"With you?"
"Who else?" He flashed that cocky grin that made most females (including her) melt into a pile of goo. So it was no surprise that she said yes without hesitation. A date. And a party. Things were looking up for the weekend. Things were quiet after that, Dawn headed back to her apartment which she lived in with a couple of girls off campus. She no longer lived with Buffy, mostly because Buffy had insisted that she experience the fullness of life and not have to wait up worrying about Buffy coming back from patrol every night. Speaking of the Slayer, Dawn had hit her messages to find her sisters voice wafting up from the speakers.
"Hey Dawnie.. listen I'm going out of town for the weekend. Nothing to be concerned about. Just a little relaxation. I'll call when I figure out where I'm staying."
Dawn deleted the message and sat down at her desk. The rest of her roomies weren't home apparently. Off studying or hanging out with their boyfriends or whatever those girls were apt to do. She got along with them well enough, but it wasn't the same as having Willow or Anya or anyone else around. Most of them didn't get the whole Slayer thing, or even demons and vampires for that matter.
Flicking through her email, which was mostly spam (Click here to have a big dick? Oh my god *click click click click click click click click click* no such luck. Woe) she saw that there was some discussion on a messageboard she frequented. There was some kind of mystical activity going on in a little place called Searchlight back in the states. Normally it wouldn't make much difference to Dawn, but something caught her attention. She wasn't sure what it was, just that she felt this need. This urge. Staring here in the face from a computer of all places.
She had some free time. Classes were over. Buffy was out of town. There was no one there to stop her and tell her she shouldn't go. No one said it was dangerous or gave her a long lecture about going in unprepared. None of that. Which is why she jumped at the chance. She'd go, come back even before Buffy knew she had gone. Perfect plan.
Dawn picked up the phone and started to make a few phone calls. With any luck she'd be on a flight out to the States in no time.
And the whole time she was planning and packing, she didn't once remember that she had a date.
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[05 Nov 2005|04:54pm] |
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mood |
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 curious |
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The rest had done Illyria good. She could feel Searchlight changing, in the distance, as she had rested, calling more people...vampires, all supernatural creatures could feel it. Perhaps there would be some way to release the memory of Wesley, Angel...that battle.
Illyria came back to herself in a cave, seated on the hard ground, nothing had bothered her, including the bats and other night creatures that inhabited this cave. She needed sustenance, and to explore, find lodging in this city, close enough to sense the power out in the desert, yet far enough away to resist it's pull. It wanted violence and she was, as yet, not prepared to fulfill that wish.
She rose smoothly to her feet, her movement silent and graceful as she exited the cave and headed for Searchlight.
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| Blowout |
[05 Nov 2005|06:03pm] |
Hayden was sprawled in one of Unseen Insights' many chairs, a laptop open before him and a pack of cigarettes in one hand. He stared at his empty inbox and rotated the pack against the table. One corner at a time, it rapped lightly at the wood. Hayden knew he was on the receiving end of Liam's dirty look, but didn't care.
He sighed and leaned against the chairback. Three days since the email, and nothing. Hayden ran two fingers over the bridge of his nose, and then scraped his chair back. "Out for a smoke," he told the shopkeeper, and closed the laptop.
Once outside, he reclined against the storefront and crossed his ankles. The shredded hems of old jeans hung over brown boots, and his flannel shirt was untucked. Hayden cupped his palm around a cigarette and squinted his eyes as he lit it.
The car was a mess. Eva had been living in and out of her old Neon for some time; after Vegas, California. She had wanted to see the coast. After California, home to her parents in Arizona, for her birthday and a few more days of happy and presents and her mother's annoying nannying, before heading home. That's what Searchlight was now; home. People always told her, "home is where your heart is", but Eva preferred to believe "home is where you have a sock drawer". So back to Searchlight, for now.
For the most part, she was a loner. Eva didn't know many people in Searchlight, and when she was there, she didn't get out much – save the occasional ass-kicking from an airhead Slayer she couldn't help but cross paths with. Still, she was only human and a social creature. On a whim she decided to seek out the one friendlier face in her memory - the shopgirl, Emmy, who had been very nice, her association with a certain Slayer notwithstanding.
Never extraordinarily observant or careful, Eva found it necessary to dig amidst a pile of fast food wrappers and other refuse in the well of the passenger seat just as she started pulling up in front of the weird little store, lifting her head to curse and glare only after the lurch of the car and the scrape of metal against stone – hubcap to curb. What had she just done?
( Can I help you? )
( Wait...me? )
( Huh? )
( B.F., Nevada )
Eva quickly scribbled her phone number on the pad of paper beside the cash register, feeling with one hand in her jacket pocket to make sure she had her wallet to pay whomever had taken care of her car outside. She felt confused and more than a little jumbled inside, but it was better to be doing something than spending all of her time waiting for something to happen, she reasoned.
"Great. Thanks," she said, her mind running a mile a minute ahead of her. Without another word, she stepped out the door.
After she left, Hayden ripped the page off the pad and tucked it in the pocket of his jeans. He grabbed the laptop off the table and began to climb the flight of steps to his apartment.
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| Equilibrium |
[05 Nov 2005|08:51pm] |
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------ Non Journal Entry ------
The moment the Watcher had returned home, his clothes had been shed and a hot shower had been run. Pale skin had begun to turn a startling shade of red from where the scolding water had beat down against his body. He seemed to be scrubbing at his body, trying to erase the remnants of Elfleda and all the impulses, wants and desires, she seemed to have awoken in him.
His hands raked through his hair and then curled around the wet strands as whispers plagued him and a familiar ache in his chest caused him to cough before his legs seemed to collapse out from under him. There was a dull thud as Matthew’s weight hit the ground before the soft shaky exhalation of breath leaving his chest seemed to echo off the walls.
He remained hunched on the ground of the shower for a few moments as the spray of water cascaded over him. His eyes slid shut as his head tipped back and the water flowed over his face. Matthew remained this way for a few moments before he parted his mouth to catch the water and then rinsed it around his mouth and spat it back out.
A hand scratched over the scarring across his chest and then that same hand flattened against the ground of the shower until his weight was rested there and Matthew rose to his feet. His other hand turned the shower off and he stood dripping wet for a few moments, his body seemed to be tense and muscles just would not and didn’t seem to want to relax. It was like he had downed too many cups of coffee and he was barely able to keep his body from shaking.
Matthew stepped out of the shower and wrapped the towel around his narrow hips and secured the material in place with a tuck in of one corner. He picked up another towel and rubbed it through his hair before slipping the towel around his neck.
Just as he neared the doorway, a sudden ache in his chest stopped him and he leaned heavily against the doorway. His hand flexed at his side as he almost felt the slip of Elfleda’s tongue across his skin and he tried to deny it but he couldn’t, his heartbeat had just raced.
“There’s something seriously wrong with me,” Matthew murmured as his hand went to the necklace surrounding his neck. After his little interaction with the Corruptress herself, he had taken to wearing the necklace but the moment he had a protection object of his own, he’d give the necklace back to Kris.
He moved through the apartment and wandered into his room, he was about to pass by his laptop without checking his emails when a small flashing window caught his eye. He leaned over the desk and held his weight with one hand and used the other to access the window. “Another email from Hayden,” Matthew muttered as he opened the file and took a moment to read it. The more he read, the wider his eyes got, “Fuck me.” He muttered with a soft groan as all his worst fears had just been realised.
Matthew settled into his chair and sighed wearily as he stared at the information in front of him. He felt that perhaps he had far too much going on – the monster in that building, Rhiannon, the disappearances and now the Scourge. Given his current emotional state, it was hard to even begin to prioritise but as a Watcher, his first priority was his Slayer and even if she didn’t want to know right now – she needed him.
Both elbows settled on the wood and each hand found its way to Matthew’s face before they slid through his hair and wrapped the back of his neck as his forehead met with the desk. “Deep breaths, in and out.” He muttered quietly as he tensed his arms and the grip on his neck seemed to tighten.
As Matthew rested there and did his deep breathing, he shivered as he almost felt hands slipping over his back and he jerked away from the desk as he was very sure he had heard a voice in his ear. His eyes were wide as they darted around his room and he swallowed hard just before forcing himself to calm down.
Sleep would help, he hadn’t gotten enough of that in the last couple weeks so sleep would help. Matthew didn’t bother with changing, he just dropped onto his bed and curled up on his side before his arms wrapped the nearest pillow.
Whilst his intention had been to sleep, Matthew couldn’t seem to do anything of the sort. His eyes took to staring at the far wall until he forced them shut and tried to forget every thought running through his head.
The Watcher had not come away from his meeting with the Corruptress unchanged and those changes were just starting.
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| Going Back Home |
[05 Nov 2005|10:00pm] |
Jill had forgotten how cold Baltimore could get in November.
So as she sat in her wheelchair at the cemetery where her mother Janice was buried, the shivering attorney was silently grateful Daniel Richards had kept some of her things in his house. Even with the breath visible from her quivering lips, Jill was warmer than she would’ve been had her old leather jacket not been there.
Then again, most of the chill was probably a combination of sitting in front of her dead mother and the healing her body continued to do following Rhiannon’s attack the week prior.
Wolfram & Hart’s medical team did a fine job patching her up, but Jill was still confined to a wheelchair, just to make sure she didn’t re-open the wound. Having one’s gut ripped open once was painful enough; the lawyer didn’t really fancy reliving the experience.
“Hi, mom,” Jill said quietly, her voice quivering nearly as much as her lips.
Standing behind her, hands on the chair, was Dan. Pretty much the only family Jill had left, which was fitting, considering Jill and her family had been the closest thing Dan had to a family of his own. Growing up, Jill often called him Uncle Dan, and she loved hearing his stories of cop work and heroism almost as much as she loved hearing Paul’s.
Of course, that was before she found out what her father really was.
( Everyone's corrupt, even the good guys )
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| From twenty thousand feet |
[05 Nov 2005|11:34pm] |
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mood |
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 chipper |
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Who would've thought I'd get into this whole schooling thing? I mean I know Mom was always getting on me about finishing highschool and then Buffy was pretty much always like Mini Mom about school. I think most kids rebel in highschool and don't take it seriously. How was I supposed to do that when my sister was the Slayer? Worrying about the world ending was totally more important then studying for some exam. That was until I realized that because she hadn't gone to school, and couldn't that she .. y'know wanted better things for me. I mean after Mom died, we didn't have ANY money. So I guess I learned then when it was important. But of course, big nasty demons always have a way of putting things in perspective.
So I went with Buffy to Italy. I thought it was so cool! I mean I still do. I love Italy. I wanna go back there sometime, see my friends. With a little pushing from Buffy and me gettin off my duff and getting to work I decided to go to college. Besides Willow made it sound like so much fun. Getting to be in a place where Buffy totally couldn't tell me what to do. Having all those new fun college experiences was awesome. I got to grow up. Be a normal girl for once. Hang out with friends and do normal things. It made me appreciate Buffy alot more. I guess that's why we got along much better after Italy. I helped out of course, when she would let me but I knew the sacrifices and the normal stuff I was getting to have because she couldn't. I felt like I owed her to have as much fun as possible and be as normal as possible in the time I was given.
Almost done with school now. I'm supposed to graduate next year. But things are happening. Weird stuff back in the States. I'm gettin kinda spooked. Wondering what's the 411. And then I found out.. okay well I looked online and it was saying something was going down in Las Vegas. Now I know I'm supposed to be studying and I like it so much but can't hurt to go over and peek my head in right? Maybe a little vacation is what I need. Just a tiny one. I won't even have to like tell Buffy I'm goin. Heck I'm old enough now to do what I want yeah? It's not like I'm giving up my studies to get back into this lifestyle. I know that's not what Buffy or Mom woulda wanted. But it wouldn't hurt to help out a little bit.
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