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

[godbent]

Do you mean that beach in France?

[herotypical]

Not just the beach. The whole area. I'll bet there are croissants on every corner...

[godbent]

Yeah...? [You know she's playing to humor Buffy, but it's sort of bumming her out. She's not really totally paying attention now, instead muttering just off camera to herself to try to will a ball of light into existence]

[herotypical]

[ she watches the blank space. thoughtful. ]

Not a fan of French cooking...?

[godbent]

I wouldn't say I'm for or against it. [Distantly, again, because she's still tinkering with this ball of light. Okay, it's formed, but...

What was the proper incantation for it...?]

[herotypical]

You have had one. Haven't you? A croissant?

[ if she's paying attention to the light, she's also certainly pretending she isn't. what a reminder of her absent friend. ]

[godbent]

Of course I have! Those are the french muffin things with lots of air in them!

[herotypical]

That's...a very singular way of putting it. You know, sometimes they fill up all that air with chocolate. Or jam. And dust the whole thing with almonds.

[godbent]

[She makes a noise of agreement there before she clicks off the audio so she can say the incantation to complete the spell on the orb. When she comes back on, the books in her hand and she's walking with it open]

Did she put together any note things?

1/2

[herotypical]

2/2

[herotypical]

No. I mean -- yes, back home. Always. But now she just sorta knew it all and actually...

How about you let me look?

[godbent]

No, you shouldn't. I just want to know if you found anything like that. To be honest, I don't even like them.

[Her voice is laced with a bit my sympathy now. How could it not be?]

[herotypical]

[ deep breath; keep calm. ]

She liked to keep tidy notes for teaching. I bet there were some. Once. But the room's just...

It's empty, Haruhi. Nothing left behind.

[ no notes. no anything. ]

[godbent]

[She really wants to say "good," because people writing those notes really disturbs her. But she's got no idea if Buffy would even appreciate that, so she just makes some noise to make it clear she heard that and continues following her ball of light on the other end of the journal.]

[herotypical]

...Do you have anyone else? Some other teacher?

[godbent]

Not for the way your world runs things, but I've got Helios teaching my his discipline. They're not 100% compatible, but it's closer than some others I've looked into.

[herotypical]

I wish I could recommend someone else from home who'd...but no. The three of us who are left aren't really words-and-spells people.

[ a half-lie. spike, she knows, knew some things. but spike isn't someone she wants to unleash on the girl.

or maybe's the other way around. haruhi isn't someone she wants to unleash on the vampire. ]

[godbent]

It's fine. I can't reasonably except slayers to be involved in it, and that vampire guy seems pretty weird anyway. ...wait who- oh, right, her.

[herotypical]

[ right. her. ]

I know one or two things. But I...I dabble more on the meditative side of all things mystical from my world.

[godbent]

Meditative, huh?

[herotypical]

Mmhm. With crystals. It sounds so new-age-y but it's actually...relaxing.

It helps.

[godbent]

I'd like to see that.

[Crystal...]

[herotypical]

What? Like spectate?

[ she understands that haruhi likely doesn't mean that. but -- eh. some stands had to be taken. ]

[godbent]

Yeah, sure, why not?

[herotypical]

Meditation is supposed to be relaxing and you know what's not relaxing? Having someone watch you. It couldn't go down like that.

Now, if you were trying to meditate too...