lucetilogs | Reunion and Time Traveling Finale

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Reunion and Time Traveling Finale

Who: Everyone!
What: The time-traveling group returns to find an invasion of newcomers.
When: November 20th and Onward
Where: Luceti enclosure
Summary: Who let all these New Feathers in here!? ...Wait, that guy's familiar...
Rating: May vary, as usual high ratings should be taken elsewhere

The adventure to the past is over; the villagers have all been sent home to their own time. But things are different. The changes of the past have echoed into the future. And the world has responded in the strangest way. Why are so many people here all of a sudden? And why are their memories such a mess?

Who really knows?

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[He may have his eye out for certain faces, but this likely isn't one he expects to see, while he's on his rounds in the shops.

Anya's had a lot to absorb upon waking up back here, but as soon as she managed some of her bearings her first beeline was for the clothing "shop". In this weather, there was no other choice.

Such as it is, he practically bumps into her -- and her into him, in her haste to find something warm.]

Hey! Watch where you're going, kid.

[No, this...this is not one he expects to see at all.

Giles had stopped by the shops earlier just to find something to wear instead of the pants. He'd circled back a little later to start trying to amass a collection of clothes better than his aunts' hideous selections, but finding anything in his size that didn't look hideously garish was so far proving a bit of a challenge.

So even on top of everything else, it's a task that keeps him sufficiently distracted enough that he doesn't see her coming until he's staggering back under the force of the collision, scrambling a little to hold on to his few finds.] S-Sorry! Sorry, my...

...Anya?!

Do I know you, squirt?

[She steps back as the not-quite teen gathers himself, a little taken aback at the tone in his voice. There was almost something familiar about it. Something very familiar about him, actually, but it just seemed...

nah.]

[The kid also looks a little...well, upset, at the sight of her. Or not at the sight of her. At the reminder of everything the sight of her brings up in him. Mostly grief. There hadn't really been a lot of time to process her death, in the midst of everything.

So he starts slightly in surprise to realize that she's even still looking at him, that she's even still there. Giles takes a reflexive step back, ducking his head in embarrassment.

So many things he could do right now, and Giles actually considers lying because this is such a hideously embarrassing shock. But, in the end, Giles decides to go for broke.] Um...yes, I'm afraid. You do.

...we used to own a shop together, if that helps. And I used to be a good deal, well, taller.

I've never run a shop here.

[Here. And then he says taller, and she frowns again, trying to get a better look at those features. Those strangely soft and youthful ...]

I co-owned a shop. Once. Except it wasn't here, it was back there. In the other place I can't call home.

[Because the harsh reality of that had sure rubber-banded into her face not too long after waking up here.

It sucked.

But this kid...]

So give it to me straight kid, okay?

[She wants it straight?

Okay, then. Even so, Giles finds himself taking off his classes to clean on the hem of his shirt, however, just so he doesn't have to look at her while he marshals his thoughts together.]

Well...rather a lot has happened, since you, um, well...since you died. The end result of one of those very long stories stands here before you.

[Rupert Giles - always one to use ten words even when three will do.] Which is to say...hello. Giles here. It's, um, it is good to see you again, Anya.

[And it actually really is.]

[It should have been the little adjustment of the glasses that gave him away.

For a moment she gets stuck on since you died, a bitter slap in the face that always was, because what could she do about it, while here, Alive and uselessly so.]

What?

[She blinks, shaking her head, trying to let his jumble of words - he really did talk too much sometimes, but maybe that was just another clue, another piece of the and then Giles was a twelve year old pie, and.

Giles was a twelve year old and it wasn't a ... shift? Experiment thing? It would all make a lot more sense if it could easily be something like that. And instead...]

Giles? Really? [Happy to see her again? She might believe that, from him. And in her bewilderment, she can't help a teeny giggle, at the absurdity of it. Not so much at him than at... everything and the absurdity of it all. But she hardens her expression again and looks at him, intently.]

Tell me something only both of us would know. [Something tangible and acceptable.]

[It is pretty absurd. All things considered, the laugh is probably the most normal reaction he's gotten to the current state of himself all day. Despite himself, Giles feels a faint smile tug at his mouth in reply.] Giles. Really.

[Then she looks at him again, however, and Giles frowns, his gaze darting left and right as he slips his glasses back onto his face. As though to find the answer there, even if it's more a matter of picking one particular "something" out of a throng of years.]

We first had the pleasure of meeting one another after your attempts to recover your amulet set a vampiric version of Willow loose on Sunnydale. [That was a while back, and as far as he knows, the Scoobies and the vampires involved in that particular mess were the only ones who specifically knew of Anya's involvement.]

Sufficient? [He's got more.]

[She wrinkles her nose. Of all the memories and moments that he could have pulled out, he had to go with that one?

In any case, they weren't at that place that was no longer home; they were in Luceti, which was an entirely different ballpark. She remembers. It's different here. They can relax.]

Okay, okay - you know what? We'll skip the rehash. Just give me a hug already. Okay?

[The other two that first occurred to him were Anya dressing up as a rabbit that one Halloween and Anya regaining her powers as a Vengeance Demon after being left at the alter.

All things considered, this seemed like the least offensive place to start.

But it's different, here - more than she knows, in fact, given everything that led to him winding up like this. And Giles is glad to be back, and glad to be back here with her.

So he looks decidedly relieved when she decides to spare him the rehash, and instead goes to give her a hug. It's definitely not the same as it used to be, but the intention is there all the same.] Fine by me.

[Of course it's not the same. He's smaller and shorter, for one thing.

Still it was a hug from Giles, and Giles still was one of her favorite people, all things considered. As much as a person could be a "favorite" of hers, something she would never truly admit. Even if it still was a little jarring, little boy and not a man Giles and yet.]

I missed you too. [More than she realized. She doesn't want him to melt away.] Are you going to grow up into big Giles someday?

[The feeling was decidedly mutual. Especially where Anya was concerned - other Scoobies had drifted in and out of his life here, and he out of theirs'. He'd even met Andrew, back before he'd ever properly known him. But somehow, he and Anya always kept missing one another.

A shame. He was...particularly fond of her, in a way that only Buffy and Dawn could match. In a different sort, but no less heartfelt.

When Giles pulled back, it was to nervously straighten his glasses and his awful sweater. At her question, he smiled wryly.]

Oh, presumably. In about forty or fifty years or so.

[Her expression falters, at that, as a slow realization hits. She had already been sent back once, so there was no telling how long this would last. It was bittersweet. It made her angry.]

... I won't get to see you grow back up.

[It's sad. It's heavy. She wanted Giles back in her life. Big Giles mostly, because that was familiar, but... at this point she'd take any Giles at all.]

[Giles' expression falters somewhat, as well, as the full realization hits. The full recollection of just where they are. It's nice, to be back...but the thing about Luceti is you never know how long it's for.]

...no. Likely not.

[Fumbling just a bit for something to say, he finds himself adding:] For, um, for what it's worth, I'll be staggered if I get to see me grow up, after all of this. [He was twelve years old in the middle of an apocalypse, back home...and he had already told everyone to leave him dead this time, if it comes to that.

But it was definitely...strange, and heavy, to hear it put like that. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Giles had internalized the idea a long time ago that he would be the one to die first - if not in battle, as he ultimately had, then from old age.

Now it seemed as though he was facing quite the opposite problem. ] I know this is, ah, hardly an ideal situation. But in my defense, it's not as though I was consulted.

Edited 2014-11-26 16:50 (UTC)

It sounded like things were really going to hell back there. [Which she might have wanted to see, at another time in her life. Another jarring thing. At the end, it wasn't what she had wanted. At the end she was fighting against it.

And what good had that done? She finds that she's biting her lip, and she feels... unsettled. Perplexed. Maybe a little queasy, after everything.]

... Let's cut it with the sad talk. It's not doing any good now. We're both here now, and that's... something. Maybe.

[Maybe Buffy had gotten to her. A weird thought, one she forcibly dismisses.]

Edited 2014-11-26 16:56 (UTC)

[Giles looks decidedly relieved to be off the hook for an explanation - and for the deliberate redirection away from sad thoughts. They've always been an easy trap to fall into, for him.] Agreed. It isn't.

We are here, and...well, we might as well set to work making the best of that. Starting with getting settled, of course. [They might not know how long they have to stay here, but if they don't at least try to make something of their newfound lives while they have them, they might as well not be here at all.] Sorry again for the, um, rather abrupt reintroduction.

[Giles gathers his bundle of clothes a little more securely in his arms, picking up this and that from where it had fallen on the floor, before he asks:] Have you found a place to stay yet?

I haven't... decided.

[Granted she had once lived moving from one apartment house to the other until ...]

I was at seven, before. Haven't checked it out yet, but ... I'm pretty sure none of my things are there now anyway.

Nor mine, likely. Though I have been invited back to my old house - forty seven, in this case.

[Giles shrugs - Buffy's probably still living at seven, he's never known her to live anywhere else besides that beach house, God forbid. But just in case...]

If seven isn't an option, I'm sure I could speak to everyone about you staying with us. The house has, um, apparently grown in my absence, in any case.

Really?

[It's more of the fact that the invitation came from Giles - Giles or at least, little Giles, she was still processing that they were one and the same, but there was something in the invitation that lifted her spirits, whether or not she would follow through on it. She didn't know his potential roommates and there was a certain amount of personal space she hadn't had for a while that Luceti provided, but.

She still smiles, in that moment.]

I'll think about it. I mean, anyone can live anywhere here. [Still an odd concept, but there was that pull about being around those who were familiar.] But we can still talk right? If I don't. And ... and visit...

[Continue here?]

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Reunion and Time Traveling Finale

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