you're in the jungle, baby / you gonna die

[lucetimods]

Who: All draftees
What: Fighting the Third Party... and perhaps the wildlife.
When: June 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. (Characters will be pulled out at 11:59 of the 6th.)
Where: An as-yet unmapped by the Malnosso tropical rainforest.
Summary: Here are your details. Try to stay alive, won't you?
Rating: Anywhere from PG to R.

No cut for you. Most of you will know how this works by now; if you don't, follow the lead of the others, or perhaps look to the last draft's fighting post for ideas. Don't forget to use your handy dandy character tags. Go forth and conquer thine enemies!

Comments

[simplestgift]

She and I have spoken. When she heard I'm friends with Jack...she acted strangely. But she was nothing but charming, if a little...[Creepy?] I can't explain. Then she said once that she would like to be friends, but she and I were on opposite shores. But when I talked to her after that, she seemed charming again.

[consultmybooks]

An odd duck, for a goddess. If it weren't for Buffy telling me that she had proven violent, I'm not sure I would have believed it.

She had her...[creepy?] odd moments, but I'm not one to judge in that regard.

[simplestgift]

I still don't believe it, half the time. We only have Jack's word for it.

[consultmybooks]

Buffy seems to think that there's a threat involved.

[simplestgift]

Which she heard from Jack.

[consultmybooks]

Which she heard from Jack, yes.

And if she hadn't asked for my help, Kennedy, I might not have gotten involved at all.

At the very least, the extra protection around the house can't hurt.

[simplestgift]

No. It can't. [He fiddles with the St. Michael pendant again, gaze distant.]

[consultmybooks]

...if it's any consolation, I hope he's overreacting to this as well. Buffy and I have had a remarkable lack of enemies in this place that have needed both our attentions. I'd love for it to stay that way.

[simplestgift]

...I punched him in the face and called him a liar, last week.

[consultmybooks]

...even if that wasn't called for in this particular instance, that was certainly called for.

[simplestgift]

I don't make a habit of punching anyone. Something about him...not him, but things he does...no.

[Something tells him it's not Jack at all.]

[consultmybooks]

He can set people on edge, yes.

[Whereas, as far as Giles is concerned, it's more or less always been Jack.]

[simplestgift]

If he tries. [Kennedy can remember being provoked into that awful, terrifying rage, feeling the rush of catharsis in his onslaught against an enemy he could finally control...then the horror of realization that this existed inside him at all.]

I don't understand it at all.

[consultmybooks]

[Jack just...generally has that effect on people, it seems.]

I don't think anyone does. With the possible exception of Buffy - she must see something in him.

[simplestgift]

[But Archie isn't used to rage like that. Annoyance, certainly. Impotent anger. But not rage like he experienced. Still...it wasn't Jack at all.]

Such anger doesn't frighten you?

[consultmybooks]

Anger on who's part? Yours'? Mine? His?

[simplestgift]

[Just...anger.]

Nothing.

[consultmybooks]

...yes, it does.

Especially in regards to him.

...one of the reasons he and I prefer to avoid one another's company is that I nearly killed him once, Kennedy. During an experiment.

[simplestgift]

[Archie raises his eyes, listening, a silent invitation to continue the story.]

[consultmybooks]

[Giles does, after a second's pause.]

Between Buffy and I...you know what a vampire is back in our world, don't you?

[simplestgift]

A demon in a corpse.

[consultmybooks]

Exactly. A demon possessing all the corpse's memories and even a semblance of their personality, but no capacity for conscience, compassion, or love.

...for a week, that's what I was.

My past experiences with Jack had been less than encouraging. I fished him out of the river when he had just returned for a kidnapping, only for Buffy to warn me later to avoid him and use her name to keep him away if I couldn't.

So the next time we met, it was only fitting that I couldn't talk. He stole my grandmother's pocket watch. Buffy got it back for me later, but it was still a...decidedly humbling and humiliating experience.

Later on I had to listen to her worrying and fretting over the fact that he possibly had feelings for her, how frustrating it was having him in her life, how she didn't know how to deal with him.

All of these things together gave the vampire more than enough incentive.

[simplestgift]

They seem to need little enough as it is.

[consultmybooks]

It's true that most newborn vampires will feed first on the people they knew as humans.

...but Jack was the first one it wanted. Not Buffy, or Andrew, or Xander. Jack.

[simplestgift]

Because he stole your pocket watch.