action + joint post ✪ out of some sentimental gain -- i wanted you to feel my pain

[herotypical]

[ buffy and spike have been out a-missioning -- only it hasn't gone quite as...merrily as they might have hoped. you see, they’re back a little early. spike decided to make an escape attempt and, in doing so, he’s brought malnosso justice down on both their heads. it’s all terribly unfair.

their punishment? one doozy of a bodyswap. spike is buffy and buffy is spike. and neither of them are too pleased about it.

sartre once claimed that 'hell is other people'; however, a situation like this makes a convincing argument that hell is, in fact, being other people. after they argue their way out of a proverbial wet paper bag and manage to find better clothing than the new feather garb they're initially given, they'll be available (throughout the next few days) to be mocked or sympathized with or awkwardly avoided all around town, depending on the individual.

find top comments below for either buffy's thread or spike's thread or -- if you’re looking for a thread with both of them -- buffy and spike. buffy’s tags will come from deadhero and spike’s tags will come from heroatypical. please don’t hesitate to tag all three options if that’ll float your boat. ]

Comments

[theoniongirl]

....Nothing important.

Did you happen to notice anything...strange...this morning?

[heroatypical]

[He nodded.]

The sun, yeah. Nice and bright. Didn't burn a bit.

[theoniongirl]

Okay. Not burning is good.

[...] Does it usually?

[heroatypical]

For me? Yeah. [He started to cut his eggs a bit more properly this time. Slowing down.] I take if you haven't seen 'Spike' this morning then. Well, here's the spoiler alert, Jilly. That's me. Spike. In perky and happy Slayer form.

[theoniongirl]

Oh.

Oh! [One hand went over her mouth as the full realization of what that meant sunk in. It helped this morning make a great deal more sense, but that wasn't really a relief.

It might not be messing with their minds, but she wasn't really sure this was much better]

But you were on a mission. They didn't mallynap the both of you, too, did they?

[or...] Oh. God. Did something happen while you were out there?

[had they died?]

[heroatypical]

I tried to make a break for it.

[He stuffed some more eggs into Buffy's mouth. Chewed it. And continued.]

Didn't quite work out. They whammied us with a body swap. Here I am.

[theoniongirl]

So you didn't die.

[there was a huff as she released the breath she hadn't realized she was holding]


...Thank God.

[heroatypical]

Not again, anyway.

[He's up to two, after all.]

[theoniongirl]

...I guess this gives us first hand knowledge of what they'll do to anyone who rebels.

[its' quiet. It's been awhile since Horatio had talked of rebellion, but they'd always known there would be a cost. This was minor, really, compared to what was possible. But then, from what Spike was saying, he'd only been trying to leave. Not attack them]

[heroatypical]

Buffy says it's temporary.

[He sounds more dubious. This is a punishment. So why wouldn't it be permanent?]

[theoniongirl]

If it's like a mallynap... [she nods]

Those are temporary, yeah. Usually for a week or two at the most.

[heroatypical]

But it's not a mallynap, is it? Could be bloody permanent.

[theoniongirl]

Even the death penalties aren't permanent. At least, there's someone who can remove them.

[it wasn't a promise. Afterall, what guarantee did they have that that option would always be there? Or always work? But she keeps her tone encouraging]

[heroatypical]

It's a bloody punishment. Do you have that much faith in these Malnosso types that you think I ought to just wait about for it to fix itself?

[theoniongirl]

[there's a faint look of surprise before she laughs.

It's soft...not a humorous sound. But it's still a laugh]

They kidnapped us. They do experiments. They make us fight their wars. I don't have faith in them at all.

[she shook her head] But, whatever they want from us, it seems to involve us being...ourselves.

We've had others from other enclosures. We've seen how different it could be. I don't think they'd want to risk everyone here thinking they've shifted to that attitude with us, by leaving you two in the wrong bodies.

[heroatypical]

Or maybe they would. Set an example. See to it no one ever tries the same stunt I did again.

[Hell, if he was running the Malnosso, it's what he'd do.]

[theoniongirl]

Except punishing you also means punishing Buffy. Who's hurt the general of the Third Party. Twice.

That...doesn't seem like the best move to make.

[heroatypical]

You want to make a big example? You choose someone that matters. As far as this place is concerned, I don't amount to anything.