lucetilogs | i know a place where you can get away;

Entry tags:

i know a place where you can get away;

Who: Dolce (

so_shik) and Gabbana (

quip)
What: Brooding with coffee.
When: February 5, morning bordering noon.
Where: Seventh Heaven.
Summary: Shiki and Cordelia reflect on recent comings and goings of Luceti while brooding over lunch and fashion. Girl time!
Rating: PG.

They were definitely overdue for a coffee.

Cordelia could only take so much of the apartment before she had to get out with a friend. Being her own company, despite knowing how awesome she was, was becoming boring and tiresome. With the departure of Angel and the coming of Spike, Cordelia had been wrapped up in brooding when the bleached vampire wasn't around and fussing over him when he was. It was so easy to fall back into that home life with someone from Sunnydale. She had never been close to Spike in the way she thought they were in the future, but they fell into a rhythm that was familiar. It made her ache for Angel on most days.

Thankfully, Shiki and her had decided to go for a coffee. It was a good distraction, she thought. And as much as she'd like to have an alcoholic beverage to make the day blur and end quicker, a coffee was a much safer bet. The hangover wasn't exactly a killer, but it wasn't welcome, either.

She waited inside Seventh Heaven for Shiki, unsure of the other woman's preference for sitting. She was still incredibly new to Luceti, and despite being here once or twice before, she still felt out of place. Huddled in her jacket, she kept an eye on the door for that familiar and most welcomed face. She never really had a girlfriend like Shiki before. Or a girlfriend. (If Harmony and her desire to eat her didn't count.) And it was something she felt like a child on Christmas about. Being able to do something normal with someone who understood the nature of her life was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Shiki by all means wasn't stupid. She knew that Cordelia needed the distraction and the company, and she was more than happy to oblige. Seventh Heaven felt like a safer option, if only because Shiki still wasn't quite sure how the other woman felt about Buffy in general. It seemed like a bad idea to take her to a place Buffy worked, and really, coffee seemed a lot more like a anti-brooding drink. You can't brood if you're hopped up on caffeine, after all.

And thanks to the Malnosso's decision to kidnap Neku on her birthday, she had her own reasons to be brood anyway.

It was just nearing noon when she realized she was running late. Dropping what she was doing inside her shop, she practically bolted out the door, barely remembering to lock it behind her as she darted across the plaza. She screeched to a halt just short of the Seventh Heaven door, making sure she looked presentable before heading inside and immediately spotting her friend.

"Hey! I didn't keep you waiting too long, right? Sometimes I kind of get wrapped up in projects and totally space," she rambled as she made her way over. "How about a window seat?"

Shiki looked as good as always. Cordelia the Teenager would die having Shiki as a friend. But she's glad that Shiki never met that Cordelia. She doubted that she would like her very much.

She smiled when she saw Shiki, shaking her head before she spoke, "No. I arrived a little later than we planned. Walking, no matter how big you take your steps, doesn't get you there any faster." If she were a vampire, or actually moved closer to civilisation, she wouldn't have this problem. But she couldn't let go of that apartment for a multitude of reasons. There had to be a reason for why Angel chose an apartment building so far away, other than being anti-social.

Cordelia moved towards a window seat. "That sounds perfect. I like spying on people as they walk on by." She was joking, but she was entirely serious about it, as well. People watching was a sport she liked to do. And it was better than having them invade her head.

And she'll let Shiki choose which particular window seat she would like. Cordelia always found Shiki's line of work interesting. Despite it being an interest of hers, the idea of Shiki keeping a business going here when there was no money interested her. It most likely kept her busy, but it possibly gave her a purpose in this feathery world where they were just puppets, just like helping the helpless did for her. "What kind of project made you space?"

"Tell me about it," she laughed. Even after three years of being in Luceti, she couldn't get over how long walking from House 10 to All Passions took her every day. She started to follow Cordelia toward the window seats, moving with ease through the restaurant before picking a cozy corner next to a front window, pulling out both chairs before having a seat herself.

"That's why I like to do it, to be honest. Watching everyone here kind of inspires me in the weirdest ways, I can't even figure out how to explain it." She waved down one of the waiters to let them know they were seated and unattended before she focused on the question at hand.

"It's what, February? I've got to start getting ready for the spring line. I'm thinking lots of airy ruffles and bright colors, like yellow. I mostly was just sketching...it happens a lot."

Shiki's manners would put Angel to shame. And he was forever the gentleman. Cordelia took a seat, taking in how Shiki behaved in cafe. Luceti was so different to what she was used to; Caritas was homey and friendly, what with her friendship with Lorne, and being in Seventh Heaven where she didn't really know anyone who was hired was like being thrown into another hell dimension. It would take some time getting used to this place, and the lack of family - green skinned and horned, especially when it came to bars and karaoke - here.

Cordelia grinned at the notion of normalcy in Shiki's treatment of her business. Luceti was like a smaller L.A., with fewer business and, she imagined, less competition. "Do you have much competition here?" Shiki was the only designer she had come across. And she was, without a doubt, her favourite. Bias not included. "You're the only designer I know. Unless Angel went to someone else for his black as night wardrobe." Which she doubted. Shiki was colourful where Angel was not. But, somehow, the two mixed well.

It comes with being raised in a proper family. Even if she didn't show it a lot of the time, Shiki did have manners...she just preferred doing things her own way versus the traditional way a lot of the time. Seventh Heaven itself was like a second playground for her; she spent a lot of time here meeting with her friends or for dates with Neku.

"Not much, no," she answered as honestly as she could. "There's a pony here, Rarity? She just started her own business, plus there's the general clothing store, too. Otherwise business is pretty much mine."

"And what great business it is," Cordelia grinned. She was lucky that Angel had very good taste in friends. She couldn't imagine her Luceti life without her.

Then, she blinked, arching her brow. "Did you just say pony?"

She just shrugged, arching her own brow. "I did. A pony fashionista. Her name's Rarity. She seems pretty decent though, even though I don't know her that well. But it's kind of weird, isn't it? Even for this place."

"A pony that designs fashion," she said. This was something Cordelia hadn't really encountered before. After a talking dog, she shouldn't really be surprised. "This place just gets weirder and weirder," she said, shaking her head.

"No offence to Rarity. I'm sure she's lovely." She had to remember tact went very big ways around here. Giles would most likely be proud.

"You're not from a world of talking ponies, are you?"

"Tell me about it. And sadly? I don't think that's the weirdest thing yet." And Shiki knew weird. Shiki was weird in and of herself, what with being in her best friend's body and being recently revived from the dead...but Cordelia didn't need to know any of that just yet.

"She's nice, from what I remember of her. She left and came back though, so I don't think she remembers me."

She giggled though. "No, totally not. I've seen weird but usually in the form of street performers, not ponies. But now I'm curious what's the weirdest thing you've seen back in your world."

"Besides Angel with his vamp-face on?" That had been rather scary, back in the day when she was unofficially Buffy's sidekick. Now, on most days that didn't end with "us", Cordelia found that face a source of comfort. (Unless it was Angelus driving.)

"Having a third eye on the back of my skull should take the cake. But some of the demons in Sunnydale are seriously ugly." For Cordelia, aesthetically pleasing demons were something she preferred. Thinking of the tentacled beast who haunted the Hyperion before they exorcised that place gives her the wiggins.

"Kind of glad I never had to really see that side of him, but what's this about a third eye?>/i?" Cordelia may have officially topped her 'weird.'

Cordelia rolled her eyes, not at Shiki, but at herself and this ridiculously horrifying story. She hated that it happened to her in the first place, but she learned a great deal. Money wasn't worth an egg sac at the back of your head.. "There was this demon that planted it's eggs in the back of your skull, and it kind of manifested into a third eye. I could see everything behind me. Trust me, when people say they have eyes in the back of their heads, it's not as fun as it sounds." As traumatising as that experience was, being pregnant within hours of doing the nasty with demonic spawn could possibly top her list of 'weird'.

"Eggs...uh...huh." She's not quite sure what to think of that one, but. "...and I thought my stories about the UG were weird. That takes the cake. And this all happened after you started being part of Angel's team?"

"This all happened because I was a part of his team," she says, though it's a lie. It's all because she was an unofficial member of the Scooby Gang. Buffy took the blame for that one. But Angel's not here to correct her, and she's kind of hoping he'll show up just so he can.

"What's the UG? Are they very anti-eggs in the head?"

"The sacrifices we make for friends, huh?" Something doesn't quite add up though, and Shiki's not sure how to approach it...so it's best that she doesn't.

"...it's. Well." She pauses then, trying to decide if Cordelia's a good enough friend to tell her secrets to. On the one hand, the other woman's seen a lot of weird stuff go down. On the other, Shiki tries to keep this particular secret on the down-low. "The UG's the underground. It's. Kind of where the dead go..."

Cordelia paused. She didn't need this spelt out for her, though, the issue she always had with Giles was tact, and she didn't want to come off as insensitive. How does one approach the 'Are you dead?' question without saying that? "No one from the living is allowed?" You still go the insensitive route, but it has to be better than asking the blunt question.

"Not exactly. Only players of the Game and the Reapers are allowed in there. And the Noise but I don't know if they count." She wasn't exactly freaking out...that was a good sign, wasn't it?

Cordelia's dealt with death. Her best friend's an undead creature. She didn't even want to think of Doyle.

She was trying to grasp what Shiki was saying. She hadn't heard of anything like this, hell dimension or her dimension, but she wouldn't put it past it actually existing. "So, if you're in this place, that means you're ..." She trailed off. Cordelia knew when to be sensitive, and this was one thing she didn't want to just blurt out and say. She felt a bit horrible that she'd pushed them into this corner; they had been enjoying a nice evening out, after all, being girly and free of any of their baggage. Instead, she'd dragged it right with her and had forced Shiki, too, as well.

"Was. Was dead." She immediately corrected her. That was only part of it anyway, and it was best to make sure Cordelia knew that in her time back home she was alive and well again. "For about three weeks. Some people aren't as lucky though."

She frowned, trying to piece this altogether. "So, you were dead, but now you're not. So, you've been resurrected?" Cordelia thought of it in terms of being a vampire; Shiki was dead and now she's not quite dead. But she wasn't as pale and broody as the vampires she knew.

The story wasn't something Cordelia was used to, but it wasn't something she could reject now that she had the little experience of Sunnydale and L.A. under her belt. She won't admit it, but learning about different worlds - and dimensions - is something she finds interesting. She kept quiet about it since that was Wesley's territory; he was the one to turn geeky over a new language he discovered,

"Something like that," she kind of laughed, realizing how awkward the whole thing sounded to someone not well-versed in the Game. She had only told a small handful of people in the village, and it never really got any easier.

Besides, how do you explain to someone that you died in an "accident", chose to play a Game to win your second chance and that you spent three weeks (and now three years) in someone else's body?

"People who die sometimes get a choice if they want to play in the Reaper's Game. In the Game, you have to make a pact with a partner and solve puzzles basically to survive for a week. If you survive the week without getting Erased, you get a second chance. Two...well, three, I guess, of my friends that are here were in the Game with me. All of us got our second chance though."

Well. Not exactly Joshua, but he was a special case. Shiki didn't feel like it was really her place to share that Joshua was the one who threw them into the Game in the first place.

"In the Game, you have to give up what's most important to you as an Entry Fee. If you win, you get your fee back. It's pretty simple, in theory, but really? It kind of sucked in a lot of ways. At the same time though if I hadn't been in the Game, I wouldn't have met my friends. All of this sounds crazy, doesn't it?"

If Cordelia was from a year or so in her future, she'd definitely understand the hyjacking body thing. But as Cordelia is a newb, she could only imagine how horrific this all must have been.

"Oh, I can imagine the suckiness," Cordelia said, a few beats after. It seemed like Shiki's world was no different from her own. Now she can see why she and Angel may have gotten along; both came from universes where hell dimensions pretty much existed. "And I'm sorry that you died. Buffy died back home and came back just a little while ago ... for me, that is. And it's kind of devastating.

I could never imagine being strong enough to do what you did." The Games, if anything, were another way for the Powers That Be in Shiki's world to show how powerful they were, in Cordelia's opinion. The situation was awful, and Cordelia was imagining the worst, but after hearing it, she could only admire Shiki for her bravery and strength.

"...I think Angel mentioned that to me once." She just blinked a bit, trying to remember any of the details. She couldn't help but gape though at that next sentence, an unreadable look on her face for a few moment.

"Strong? You really think so?" Sure, Shiki had thought about it once or twice, but she always just assumed it was because she was stubborn and afraid of staying dead. But then again...she stuck with the boys until the very end. She worked hard. She...

...really was kind of brave, wasn't she?

"I guess you've got a point. We went through so much in those three weeks that I almost don't even believe it. But I mean, it's not like you and Angel haven't had bad days too, you know?"

"Every day in L.A. was a bad day, especially for my hair!" As that was the only thing that mattered, of course. Cordelia wouldn't change those days even if she had the choice. It was her life now, and as much as she hated how it seemed to cage her at times, especially when she had a vision and could feel it throbbing at the back of her skull, she couldn't imagine her life without it.

"Sunnydale with Buffy was worse. Did you know she had the ego the size of a planet?" Possibly an exaggeration, but Cordelia hoped the change in topic from something dark and personal was something Shiki wanted. She didn't want to make her friend uncomfortable, despite how curious Cordelia was to hear the whole story. She might not admit it, but she loved history; she enjoyed hearing Angel's tale of Holtz, and she knew she'd enjoy Shiki's of anything. She could talk about how to thread a needle and Cordelia would be enthralled.

"But at least in Luceti your hair looks fabulous every time I see you. That makes up for it, doesn't it?" She grinned, easily and willingly going with the shift in conversation. They were here to hang out, not share gruesome stories. However, she couldn't help but roll her eyes a bit.

"Oh come on. Are we thinking of the same Buffy here?" She was more curious about what Buffy was like in her own world, hearing the story from someone who hadn't been in love with the Slayer once. Shiki wouldn't have minded sharing her story someday, but for now? Her attention had already shifted.

Cordelia laughed. Shiki was way too kind, sometimes.

She raised her eyebrows. "You don't believe me?" Of course, no one would. Buffy was different here. Even she saw that. But it didn't mean that Cordelia couldn't share a few stories about her. She could only imagine the sort of things Angel and Buffy - and Spike! - said about her to those they all had in common. "Buffy's the Slayer. The only one to die and come back to life. From the way I understand it, if a Slayer dies, another is activated. Hence Faith who, by the way, I'd steer clear of. She has some serious issues." Such as elbowing innocent bystanders in the face and trying to kill Wesley. Cordelia didn't think too highly of her. "Buffy kind of acted like she was superior."

"Well I'm not saying that." She sort of was, but at least Shiki was willing to give the other woman a chance to elaborate. "I got that much out of her. We've sort of talked about it...but she never really told me that part. Not really, anyway. But wouldn't she have been a bit superior anyway? I mean she was the Slayer for longer so she'd know more. It sort of makes sense."

Shiki needed to stop making really good points. The reason why Buffy came off so superior - besides the fact that Cordelia was given the impression the Slayer believed this - was the fact that Buffy was the Slayer. She was this big important person while Cordelia was a rich girl soon to be broke who struggled to even maintain her status as Queen C back in high school. "She likes to take charge. A lot. I remember I could've been off somewhere important but instead, I was stuck out in the cemetery with Xander to protect me." She wanted her tone to come off as unimpressed and detached, but instead, she sounded a bit nostalgic. She didn't realise it then, but those guys were her friends - even if they didn't like her as much.

"Jealousy aside," she waved her arm, "I get it now. When you've got this big burden of world saving on your shoulders, sometimes you have to act a little superior." She gave a bit of a shrug. "Didn't mean I had to like it. She's toned down over the years, it seems. The Buffy here is not so bad."

She gets it a lot more than Cordelia might give her credit for. As a girl who also fell as a victim of jealousy, she knows it's not that easy to accept. After all, didn't she spend a good deal of her time being jealous of her best friend? Eri was always prettier, smarter, more popular...better at designing clothes...everything. She can't blame Cordelia, not really. She tilts her head a bit though, seeing how she's not entirely sure which one Xander is.

"World saving kind of changes people, yeah. The Buffy here has saved the village once or twice, but I don't think she's let it go to her head yet. Besides, who says you can't be the one saving the world here?"

"Nice to know being here for three years doesn't take the Slayer out of a girl," she said, eyebrows raised. She knew Buffy had defeated a general - thanks to the guide - but to know she was still kicking ass and taking names ... It was a comfort and an annoyance, all at the same time. Cordelia couldn't help but always compare herself to Buffy. Xander could never shut up about her while they were together; it's become a complex for Cordelia.

She gave a shrug of the shoulder. Her saving the world was a joke. She wasn't made for it like Buffy and Angel. She was good at directing and ensuring the information got to the ones who needed it. "I don't think my shoulders could bear the weight. For one, I don't brood enough." She gave a grin.

"Some things don't change, I guess." She just challenged that look with a similar one of her own. Shiki was determined to like both of the women on the same level. "Don't worry about it too much. Besides, brooding's not always required. I think Angel just took it for granted."

Cordelia laughed. "Or he got away with it for a century." Of all the things she missed, she missed that. She found his brooding comforting. He hadn't changed over the years and she liked that one bit of consistency. The apartment felt very unbalanced with him gone.

With that in mind, she wondered how the come and go of this place worked. Was there a system? If you didn't fulfil this within five months, were you booted? She still grinned, though it felt a bit forced. "I wonder how long we're going to be here before we go home."

"Nobody else would be able to. You know that, right?" But she shrugs it off because talking about lack of Angel is still a sad place to be. Not that her answer to Cordelia's next statement was any less depressing. "I've been here for years...what does that tell you?"

"Besides the fact that this place has good taste?" She grinned, though, she could sense that that statement wasn't one to be particularly proud of. Cordelia wasn't sure how Buffy took being here for years. Cordelia could barely handle the idea of being here for a few months. Was it something people took pride in, being here for what felt like an entire life?

"Does it mean anything, if you've been here for a decade?"

"...you know, I'm not sure." Shiki had never really thought about it, to be fair. "I think the longest any of us besides the Malnosso have been around is, like, half a decade. Does that count, I don't know. I'm sure it makes them older and wiser and more likely to be trusted here, but that's just about it. No sort of prize for being a long-time member."

"That sucks. The Malnosso should probably change that. If there's a pot of gold at the end of a decade-long run, consider me a candidate." She hoped that that would be a massive pot of gold that she'd be able to take back home. Money wasn't much of an issue anymore, as family had taken priority in Cordelia's heart, but it never hurt to have a pocketful of coin.

Joking aside, Cordelia wanted to know if this was some kind of game to the Malnosso. See who was the best at surviving, see who took the longest to crack under the isolation and watching friends come and go. She wondered if Buffy ever would, or did, during her two or so years here. "It just makes me wonder, you know? Why would we be kept here for so long while our friends come and go?"

"You'd have a lot of competition in that case. Just remember that much." It was a nice thought though. How different would the attitudes of the people in Luceti be if there was a sort of prize?

She shrugged then at the second question. Even if it had been rhetorical, it was a question Shiki pondered time and time again. "Probably for the same reason they like to bring back the same people sometimes. That's what I don't understand. Why send someone home if you're just going to bring them back a few months later? I don't know if we'll ever get answers. We've been asking the same questions for way too long."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i know a place where you can get away;

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

please excuse my tardiness 8(

never excused 8| ...<333

CRIES INTO MY DESIGNER HANDKERCHIEF

BUT NOW IT IS RUINED ;~;