we have found our solace here in this unexpected place

[herotypical]

Who: slaying & lists_to_port
What: there is a tradition that needs to be upheld on the eves of horrors.
When: sunday night.
Where: good spirits, at first. then elsewhere.
Summary: debriefing and de-traumaing and all kinds of good stuff.
Rating: danger danger high voltage -- things get r-ratedish. fair warning!

Back on Friday, Buffy had scribbled a tense little note to Captain Jack Sparrow:

Need some time. Don't worry. Mission accomplished -- no deaths. Just gotta look after me for a bit. Good Spirits on Sunday night?

-- Buffy

After returning to the village, Buffy had wanted nothing more than to find the pirate and curl up next to him. But the fight with Derek had been harder than she would care to admit and she wanted to scrub as much of that from herself before rejoining the rest of Luceti. She had Giles to look after and she had her own mind to tend to and she spent hours focusing on those meditation crystals -- begging for peace. Peace was so far away.

But on Sunday, Buffy took a long long bath. She put loose, fashionable curls in her hair and she took the luxury of all the time in the world to dip into her make-up drawer and line her eyes and mascara her lashes and pick a natural, light lip gloss. The aim was to look healthy if she couldn't look happy.

She walked into Good Spirits with apprehension in her step and looked around for the man she had asked to meet with her there.

Comments

[all7seas]

"It...it ran far and fast, Annie." Silences were made to be taken advantage of, and he made himself available once more as a pillow. Jack had not eaten authentic curry in a very long time, except for some of the strange and delicious versions that found their way into the Caribbean from one route or another.

[herotypical]

"Sometimes," she admitted in a fashion that suggested she knew quite completely that this is no new news. "Sometimes I talk too much."

Mostly she was filling space as she settled back into enjoying a pirate-pillow. And thinking about curries. Were the spicy? Did they have to be spicy? Normally, she asked Derek about cooking questions -- but he was best with Italian. Maybe she should ask Raven on this one.

[all7seas]

"Mmhmm. And me so in love with the quiet, normally." It was a telling irony, but Jack's mental filters were far less staunch under this sort of circumstance. There was a reason women tended to slap him whenever they caught up to him.

[herotypical]

"R-right."

Quiet. She can do quiet. And not sulky, dangerous quiet. Not like a big cat waiting for the trigger to set her off and pounce. She can just be pleasantly, unproblematically quiet. Quiet and caught up in wondering about curry. And naan. What even was that?

[all7seas]

"Meaning I'm in...meaning I love listening to you speak, Annie. Is what I meant. Ironicalness--I can manage it, sometimes. Other times apparently not."

He could do quiet too, though. Just quietness and holding a girl---Sparrow could manage that at almost any time.

[herotypical]

As long as that speaking wasn't about vampires or death or ex-boyfriends. Or possibly also about icecapades because no one ever wanted to listen to her talk about those. She nodded.

But eventually this being quiet thing crumbled, anyway. "What's a naan? I mean -- you weren't talking about grandmothers, right?"

She had to ask. Too many of his stories involved cannibals.

[all7seas]

"Bread. Annie? You have no idea what you're doing with the Indian dishes, do you."

Warm and quiet amusement flavored his tone. Watching her try to do this would be fun.

[herotypical]

She had no idea what she was doing with most dishes. "Oh. Bread. Sure. I knew that." Slowly, Buffy compiled a checklist. Perhaps she could start next weekend. She would need a few trial runs -- this she was sure about.

And why couldn't there be someone here from India? Or why couldn't Jack have preferred Japanese food? Then she would have been laughin'. "I've never been a big fan of hot food."

Gosh, she could be such a wuss for such an otherwise tough individual.

[all7seas]

"This entire prospect terrifies you, doesn't it. Not all of it's hot, Buffy. Some of the curries are quite mild for the fainter-of-heart."

It would amuse Jack to be privy to her thought process. He was part Indian, and probably the last person she'd ever think to ask.

[herotypical]

"I am not terrified."

[all7seas]

"So terrified."

[herotypical]

Buffy should have known this day would eventually come. The day when Captain Jack Sparrow fully realized the power of calling her dauntlessness into question and how easily such a move could be used to encourage her in even the most unexpected directions. Buffy Summers didn't like being told what she was incapable of or afraid of. She didn't like having things decided for her. The pirate held fast to freedom on the waves and she clung to choices. Never mind that it wasn't much of a choice when someone was deliberately winding her up to it.

"Just you wait -- then you'll see how very not terrified I am. In fact? That curry can just go ahead and be terrified of me, instead."

[all7seas]

"Don't worry, love; I'm certain the curry is positively shaking."

Uh oh. If the curry does not taste good, he reminded himself, I must act like it is the best curry I have ever had. Ever.

[herotypical]

"...And they're not normally supposed to shake, right?"

Because she had no idea and she had better clear this up right now in case he wasn't just making a joke. "Just -- just checking. I don't know what kind of curries you're used to."

This was a disaster just waiting to happen.

that tag earns this icon.

[all7seas]

"Darling? The curry I want to be used to is your curry, savvy?"

And just to remind her to not worry quite so much about curries and the making of them when she was still in bed with Captain Jack Sparrow, he once again captured the longest of long red feathers between his fingers and twisted it very lightly.

...that poor monkey. i can now never disassociate it in that icon from buffy. it's scary.

[herotypical]

"H-hey." Her protest softened and a shiver shook her shoulders. That wasn't playing fair. Surely, it wasn't. But he was the pirate and she could hardly expect him to play fair. She was even beginning to suspect she didn't even want him to.

Muahahahaha

[all7seas]

Jack relaxed his hold on her and instead stroked down through the soft feathers, caressing rather than teasing.

"YOUR curry. However much it.....manages to shake or not shake."

[herotypical]

"Assuming I'm even ever going to make one -- 'cause I might not, you know. Why would I? Slayer, not a chef."

Well, now she was simply being obvious. But maintaining any kind of face seemed irrelevant when presented with those touches. She got comfortable again.

[all7seas]

"Beautiful slayer," the pirate amended. The title drew his thoughts down different avenues--particularly down one that Buffy often thought he did not want to talk about, ever: business.

The truth was, he was more curious about that than anything else, in spite of himself. It represented so many of his interests, none of which he felt he had complete control over. And this bothered him.

"That new vampire you were so worried about: what became of that business?"

[herotypical]

"...Katherine?"

She sighed; no leads. No nothing. And Derek's situation had consumed her so. "Kinda tough to track a thing I can't feel. But I at least know what she looks like. I'm guessing she's hiding out but I've had amped up patrols ever since."

It was no small piece of frustration that she couldn't locate this vampire. Worse yet, that it was beginning to sound like a kind of vampire she would sincerely have trouble defeating. "I'm sick and tired of vamps with hypno-powers. They all seem to get it standard -- other world vamps, I mean. Back home there were a lot less with that ability. I'd only ever met two."

And one had killed a Slayer and the other had been one of her bite-scars.

[all7seas]

"Yet another reason we shouldn't make much of a public show of...anything. After what happened with Derek and all..."

[herotypical]

"Not to mention another reason to work harder at the meditation."

Mental fortitude had always been her weak point. Easily manipulated, easily hypnotized. Her willpower was fantastic but it required her to realize she was being influenced. "You know -- brain training."

[all7seas]

"Right. With your Watcher." Jack rolled over again and sat up. He straightened out his hair, pushing the bandanna back into place.

[herotypical]

"No, actually." Giles had given her the crystals but she hadn't asked him to help her. This was probably a bad idea -- she needed him. "Alone."

[all7seas]

The pirate spent a few moments searching over the side of the bed for his trousers before realizing they weren't there. He'd been led here in a sheet, after all.

"Alone? Hm. You know, Annie...just a thought and all...but perhaps that's not a very wonderful idea. There's plenty of meditating types here who could help you."