voice + action ✪ there must be some way to bring the hero home

[herotypical]

[ after a week of agonizing combat, buffy summers returns home with only exhaustion on her mind. despite all the excitement and crisis, there's little left to do other than collapse onto her bed and fall into a sleep fit for a weary, worn-out soul. morning sees her feeling no less -- shudder -- zombieish. the horror of the last week is bone-and-marrow deep and has yet to fully make itself known in her system. the slayer is running on auxillery humanity, stringing herself along from second to second until she can find a friendly face. find willow and...

and all she finds is an empty room. an empty closet. empty drawers. her best friend is gone. deported while she wasn't even looking. come the afternoon, after she's gotten the first onslaught of emotions out of her system, buffy sits alone on the empty bed. she addresses her journal: ]

Willow and I have this game we like to play. Willow Rosenberg. She was in town...but now she's not. [ a pause allows buffy to catch her breath. to stay strong. ] We call it 'Anywhere But Here' -- self-explanatory, really. Pick a fantasty-elsewhere to be and a fantasy-someone to share it with. I'm not talking about the obvious ones: home or family or anything even remotely whiffing of responsibility. I'm talking about fun. I'm talking about pure escapism. I'm talking Daniel Craig on the beach or Amy Yip at the waterpark.

I'll go first. Show you how it's done. [ but which escape route from reality should she take? ] The '88 Winter Olympics. The Saddledome. Calgary, of all places. Brian Boitano is taking the time to personally skate me through his gold medal routine. Perhaps there's hot chocolate involved. I, being made entirely of my own imagination, copy each move perfectly.

Got it? Good. Because now it's your turn.

[ when her broken little tribute to an absent friend is finished, she'll be searching out her injured pirate (wherever he may be convalescing) and it's off to good spirits, where she can be found working a shift behind the bar. ]

Comments

[asthehawkflies]

Yeah. It's good.

[He smiles slightly.]

I don't drink often myself, but I think if there's ever a time to drink, then it's now.

[herotypical]

After--?

[ a beat. a breath. ] Y-yeah. Probably.

[asthehawkflies]

Not everyday I'm conscripted to fight the undead.

[He smiles, a wry, somewhat bitter expression.]

Not an experience I'm in a rush to repeat.

[herotypical]

Technically? These guys...were not the undead. [ a wry, buffyesque delivery. ] But otherwise? That is my everyday. Conscription and all.

[asthehawkflies]

Oh well, if we're talking about technicalities...

[He grins and takes a sip of the beer, giving her an interested look.]

So, you regularly fight zombie hordes?

[herotypical]

...Vampires. Another kind of undead menace.

[asthehawkflies]

[Vampires. Huh.]

I'm fairly sure a few months ago I wouldn't have believed you, but since then I've met a couple of alien Norse gods so my idea of what is plausible or not has expanded.

Vampires. How do you end up as a professional vampire killer? I mean, do they have adverts or is a more covert thing?

[herotypical]

It's a calling. You're called. Well -- not you. You're not...qualified. Sorry.

[asthehawkflies]

...right.

And here I thought I was qualified for most things involving fighting. Ah well, got enough on plate back home as it is, I guess.

[herotypical]

...It's just--

You have one too many Y chromosomes.

[asthehawkflies]

Huh. I admit, that's not something you hear everyday. Not that I'm protesting. I know too many women who could kick my ass if I objected.

[herotypical]

It's just...always been that way. Slayers are always a she.

[asthehawkflies]

Sounds like an interesting selection process. You seem like the type who can handle it though.

[herotypical]

Hope so. Been doing it for pretty much a decade, now. If that doesn't equal out to expertise, then I dunno what does...

[asthehawkflies]

Surviving a decade in that kind of business definitely makes someone an expert.

[You have to become an expert or you'll die an amateur.]

[herotypical]

A-anyway. It involves a pretty high need for good aim. That's all I was getting at, before.

[ well. that and a supernatural talent for it. ]

[asthehawkflies]

Makes sense when you put it like that.

I make my living from my aim. I like a challenge.

[herotypical]

I'm afraid I'm more of a let's-have-fun-and-sod-the-results kinda gal. When it comes to challenges. I fight enough in my professional life, I don't wanna fight with friends. Or could-be friends.

[ sort of a lie. she does like competition -- but it's not prudent to admit as much. ]

[asthehawkflies]

Fair enough. I'm not gonna push. Plenty of reasons to not want to fight when you don't have to.

I guess... archery is both for me. It's my living and my greatest pleasure.

[herotypical]

Exactly how does one make living off of shooting arrows, anyway?

[asthehawkflies]

Same way you make a living off shooting guns except quieter.

[herotypical]

...Oh, please don't tell me you're some kind of gangster hitman gone Robin Hood.

[asthehawkflies]

I shot a bow long before I ever fired a gun.

And it was more kind of contract work for the mob. Consulting pays more.

[He smiles and shrugs, all a big joke, right?]

I'm military. Kind of.

[herotypical]

...Sounds like your life has a lot of kind ofs.

[asthehawkflies]

One way of putting it, I suppose. I've been a lot of things.