melt your silver down / kiss your lover's face / the sirens start to sound

[herotypical]

Who: [Bad username or site: lists_to_port title= @ livejournal.com] & [Bad username or site: slaying title= @ livejournal.com]
What: a battle dome date
When: july 9th
Where: the battle dome
Summary: one part training exercise, two parts tourism
Rating: r -- for violence. and then who knows what. better to be safe than sorry idek?

Buffy Summers asked Jack Sparrow to meet her at the battle dome. It was a plan that had been discussed before the pirate had disappeared and now that he was back? Well -- she cared very little for dawdling. They had dawdled before but now was the time for seizing. She had yet to overcome the horror of waking up alone for yet another morning when she had expected to be the furthest thing from it.

People change. And Buffy mused quietly upon the changes to be found in Jack as she waited just outside the dome's entrance. She had a bag-o-weapons at her feet and a plastic bottle filled with some sort of over-sugared juice in her hand.

Comments

[all7seas]

"Oh. Well. You've this ring, eh? It's an old Irish sign. I only know it because me dad's Irish a ways back, even though he was raised in England. Claddagh. Eternity, savvy? Means for always."

[herotypical]

Buffy didn't look back from the doorway.

"The hands represent friendship, the crown represents loyalty... and the heart..." She belatedly realized that she was quoting the explanation verbatim from when she had received it. "It's not real, Jack. Put it away."

[all7seas]

"Love. Means love. Why would I put it back? You should wear it, Annie; silver suits you, you know."

[herotypical]

"...I'm not gonna wear it."

She strained to listen for more noises, but they had died down. She wondered if she had heard anything at all. Maybe it had been something from outside the simulation. For a moment, she had almost forgotten that there was the rest of the village waiting for them, just beyond a door.

[all7seas]

"Buffy, you're not----" He stopped, and shrugged. Sometimes she was sensitive about odd things. Out of force of habit more than anything, Jack slipped the ring into his pocket.

[herotypical]

"...Maybe we should go. Shut the whole thing down before another fight breaks out. There's nothing that says we have to fight. Not real."

[all7seas]

This date had been her idea, but leaving now would feel somehow...incomplete. Still, Jack didn't need to stay. He certainly didn't feel the need to see more vampires. Horrid things. So he nodded slowly, trying to get a read on her. She didn't seem troubled, but...

"It's...it's up to you, sweetheart. Whatever you like."

[herotypical]

Footsteps on the staircase. Buffy waffled; stay or go?

"Shut it down." She slammed the bedroom door. It should buy them enough time to get the hell out of dodge. The Slayer tried to imagine the layout of the simulation room itself and edged along this fake one until the high-tech console resolved itself out of the wall.

She toggled a few switches and pressed a wonderfully threatening-looking red button just as a light and maternal woman's voice filtered through the closed door: "Buffy? Honey?"

And it was gone. All gone. And she was convinced she had made it up. Wishful thinking.

[all7seas]

Jack watched as the bedroom melted into nothingness--the bedroom, the house, the streets, the trees, his beloved car, the mailbox, the Magic Box---all gone. Just her slight figure standing far away across the large sound stage that housed these illusions.

He put a hand in his pocket, but her pictures were gone, as was the silver ring.

[herotypical]

A steadying breath. Well, that was a bad idea. Buffy drew her palm across her face and pushed off of the console.

[all7seas]

"Buffy? You alright?" Jack walked toward her, slowly; his voice echoed alarmingly in the space around them.

[herotypical]

"Oh, you know. Just hit by the world's worst case of deja vu. I'll live."

She stood straighter and turned towards Jack. "...Sorry about the car. I know you wanted to go back to it. But you can probably find a bandit-infested racetrack here, too. Sometime."

[all7seas]

"Only if you come with me, Annie. And---" there was the suggestive waggling of the eyebrows again, but then he caught her expression and shut up on that topic.

"Here----you look awfully shook up, love."

[herotypical]

"...Did you hear it?"

[all7seas]

"Hear....what?"

[herotypical]

...Oh, thank goodness. She seemed relieved by his confusion.

"N-nothing, Jack. Just -- must be the tech. Makes all kinda weird noises."

[all7seas]

"Then let's leave it bloody far behind us." And he offered her his arm, still oblivious to what she had heard and not suspecting anything out of the ordinary.

[herotypical]

"...So a picture, huh?"

She took his arm and lead the way faux-cheerily out of the room. A new subject for a new mood.

[all7seas]

"Aye! Of you. A pretty, smiling picture of you. I want one, savvy?"

He tucked his arm close against hers and matched her for cheer and stride. Perhaps once they were out of this building, she would relax a bit more.

[herotypical]

"You don't have a wallet to keep it in," she joked.

[all7seas]

"Then I'll have to find some other way to treasure and admire it, Buffy. You smiling and laughing. Yes. This."

[herotypical]

"I'll give one to you on one condition."

It was a condition she was going to regret, surely: "You're in charge of photography at Dawn's birthday party, when she comes back."

[all7seas]

Oh good HEAVENS she was going to regret this so hard. So. Hard.

"DONE!"

[herotypical]

Regrets or no regrets, at least she'll be able to enjoy the festivities without stopping to wonder if she should take a picture of this or that. Though putting her trust in Jack's wonderings instead? Well. Well. It was about time he did a thing that earned him a stern shin-kicking.

"...And you can take your pick from those photos. Win-win."

[all7seas]

"Then you'd best smile for me, Annie. No sad girl that day."