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

[ 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. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Maybe I don't wanna hear some stupid cold detached report. [There are plenty of those to go around already. Nothing against your suggestion of it, Buffy. They do nothing for her, that's all.]

[ people grow detached for a reason. that's what she wants to say. she wants to unpack the fact that those reporting might not be able to say a thing should they invest too deeply in the terror. even buffy required distance just to be here at work. but... ]

Then I...I don't know how to help you. [ a pinched expression. apologetic. ]

[Well that must have come out wrong. Sheena looks right at Buffy until the slayer looks back.]

You don't have to help me. I think you did enough already. Really, okay? A weird orange juice alcohol drink is going into "more than enough" territory.

[ a tight half-smile of submission. she submits to sheena's insistence. ]

It's called a screwdriver. I mean -- if you ever want to order it again.

Because the chances of me coming in here and really really wanting to drink are huge, right?

[Maybe relieving the tension this way isn't working. She just can't stop trying, and she's finished her mini screwdriver by now. But her point should be pretty clear - she came to check on somebody, not to drink.]

Fair enough. [ she sees the point and exploits it: ] But now you know what to order when you're otherwise trying to be sly.

Hey! You're not supposed to call me out on being sly, I at least like to pretend it still works around here.

...Well. Then -- let me at least say that...too-soon or not, it's still appreciated.

No problem. I'm really sorry ahead of time if this is a bad question, but...how's Jack?

[Since they were there together and now Buffy is having out-of-sorts journal messages.]

Shot, actually. Clean through. But recovering. [ she collects the emptied glass from in front of sheena. ] Itching to break his way out of the clinic as soon as I allow it.

The part where you're better at keeping him in there than pretty much every healer we have is really saying something.

[There aren't words of comfort for this, are there? Sheena doesn't know them.]

He knows that if he runs, I'll always give chase. He's learned his lesson. He stays put. Though I don't blame him -- the clinic's not exactly oozing comfort.

Nobody can heal him fast enough, or something? I know a lot of them were drafted too so maybe they're still really tired...or d'you just think he's better off with people, y'know, watching?

Triage dictates that others get the healing effort before him, I think. It's still early.

Guess that means it's not bad enough that it's gonna- [kill him, but this isn't the thing to talk about with somebody who just said discussion of the draft was too much too soon.] ...Be a big problem. He'll be okay, anyway.

Some rest and relaxation. A little insufferable waiting on hand and foot. All in all, it probably could have been worse.

Yeah, I know what you mean. It's...gonna be okay though, y'know? Not just him, I mean all of it. We'll get somewhere.

[Where this optimism is coming from, so close to the dark and negative mood she was in when they found that new tunnel, is beyond her.]

We have to, don't we? There's nothing worse than standing still.

Sure there is. Going backwards.

At least you'd hopefully know how to go forwards again. Ideally.

Yeah, that's how it's supposed to go.

[Hard to deny that it doesn't always, though.]

[ a dry, unhappy laugh. ]

Here I am, trying to b optimistic...

Oh. ...Yeah, sorry. I'm probably not the best person for that.

I'm starting to fear that's the veteran's burden.

Y'know, I was gonna say that doesn't apply to the other people who've been around as long as I have but...well, that'd be a lie. Mostly.

[action]

herotypical - 2012-11-12 12:40 (UTC) - Expand

corrinesbell - 2012-11-12 16:09 (UTC) - Expand

herotypical - 2012-11-13 13:06 (UTC) - Expand

corrinesbell - 2012-11-14 14:39 (UTC) - Expand

herotypical - 2012-11-14 14:44 (UTC) - Expand

corrinesbell - 2012-11-15 14:02 (UTC) - Expand

herotypical - 2012-11-15 14:04 (UTC) - Expand

corrinesbell - 2012-11-15 14:13 (UTC) - Expand

herotypical - 2012-11-15 14:17 (UTC) - Expand

corrinesbell - 2012-11-19 02:03 (UTC) - Expand

herotypical - 2012-11-19 13:31 (UTC) - Expand

corrinesbell - 2012-11-20 17:13 (UTC) - Expand

herotypical - 2012-11-21 00:37 (UTC) - Expand

corrinesbell - 2012-11-21 15:14 (UTC) - Expand

herotypical - 2012-11-21 16:13 (UTC) - Expand

corrinesbell - 2012-11-21 16:14 (UTC) - Expand

herotypical - 2012-11-21 16:15 (UTC) - Expand

corrinesbell - 2012-11-21 16:18 (UTC) - Expand

herotypical - 2012-11-21 16:20 (UTC) - Expand

corrinesbell - 2012-11-25 08:14 (UTC) - Expand

herotypical - 2012-11-25 13:06 (UTC) - Expand