Post-Event Reaction Log!

[lucetimods]

Who: Everybody
What: Post-Event Reactions
When: Today (and tomorrow too)
Where: Anywhere
Summary: Most of Luceti was back to their normal selves. Not only that, but they now remembered their trips to other worlds. So how 'bout that?
Rating: Whatever

This is for today and tomorrow, since not everyone will be fully reverted until then. Remember to tag your characters in!

Comments

[herotypical]

A shallow shake of her head. She wasn't a part of that all of us. Not anymore.

"...S-sorry."

[all7seas]

"Eh. Well."

[herotypical]

Nope. She couldn't live with that. This was, after all, the more important apology. For many reasons.

"I w-wasn't Shifted. Not then. And I know I should've just asked and I--"

Forget words. She held her arms open; pleading, practically, for some acceptance beyond eh and well.

[all7seas]

"That's not myself anymore, savvy? That's not me. That's not mine," he found himself telling her before taking her up on that offer. This time there would be snuggling, and lifting. Lifting her up and settling her on the countertop and not caring that she hated that sort of thing.

[herotypical]

At this point? Buffy equally did not care that she hated that sort of thing. Instead, she hooked her heels behind his knees and drew him nearer.

"...Noted, Captain."

[all7seas]

"Far, far in the past. Long ago. So long ago now that I barely recall any of it." Lies. "Like it never happened, eh? So we can all forget that page. Forever, maybe. Forever and ever."

He rested his forehead on her shoulder for a moment.

[herotypical]

Fingers on his back. Light, at first. And then committed.

"If you want me to? I will. Forget it."

[all7seas]

"Why would you want to remember? Why would anyone?"

[herotypical]

"Because..." Oh, she breathed deep and hugged him close. "Because none of us can really pretend our pasts are any different than what they're supposed to be. Believe me, I tried it last week. Remember?" A dry smudge of humour as she kissed his temple.

"None of us can. Not even here. Not really. Not even Captain Jack Sparrow."

[all7seas]

"....You don't think less of him for it?" It was with a very careful, circumspect, almost cool tone with which he asked the question. Jack didn't dare accept this tender comfort yet. He had to make certain that she would not scorn him for the contents of that forbidden page.

He could never bear scorn of any flavor; not when it was because of that.

[herotypical]

"I'd have some choice words for the rest of your family." You shouldn't try too hard to imagine that, Jack; it was probably a painfully easy sight to visualize. "But you? Jeez. How could I? What does that have to do with what I think about you, huh?"

[all7seas]

Because one of these days, Buffy Summers, you are going to realize that he is far beneath what you deserve.

"Dunno. Just. Thought it might."

It was hard not to feel defensive of his family at her words. Teague had raised him to be such. You didn't speak ill of family to those outside it. You had to protect it, with a smile and a pleasantry if possible. And you ran through or shot any man who impeached the family name. That was Teague's way. That was grandmama's way. Her pride was legendary.

[herotypical]

She sat back. "If I was ever gonna think less of you for something, it wouldn't be your family tree. You'd understand this if you'd ever witnessed a Very Harris Family Christmas."

Xander's family was a wholly reprehensible lot and she loved him regardless. "Anything I might've said or not said or almost said -- last week? So very not representative of my real-me's actual feelings on the matter. Savvy?"

She could say that at least. Thank goodness 'Annie' had never appropriated it.

[all7seas]

He would have to take her word for it. He'd never NOT taken her word, Jack realized with the tiniest dose of misgiving.

"Not real-you's feelings. I savvy, Annie."

[herotypical]

"And hey. It isn't like we're not both products of broken homes here, am I right?"

She twined a dread through and around and between her fingers. Counting beads and remembering the most important feather in her hair. Today, of course, her hair didn't have a single ornament or braid -- straight, hardly styled. Consciously au naturel.

"So what if yours in a little more broken? I don't care. I mean I care. In a caring and loving way. I just don't...care in the other sorta way."

[all7seas]

Her father's abandonment -- Jack knew that had hurt her. He didn't feel hurt for the most part over his own misfortunes, or not in the usual way. He'd grown adept at shielding himself from it and would deny anything of the like til the day he died, just as he would deny that his was the most broken of their homes. His father, after all, had stayed.

He turned his head just enough to kiss the side of her neck.

"'S not broken. Look around, eh?" he joked. "Norry didn't knock it down last week."

[herotypical]

Oh, sure. But having Hank not show for her mother's funeral was nothing in comparison to seeing Teague's signature on his mother's death warrant. She shivered.

"James. I have to apologize to him, too. He...wait. Oh. My God."

[all7seas]

"What. Was he shifted out of his barnacle-encrusted shell?" Another kiss and Jack drew back slightly and let his palms settle at her waist.

[herotypical]

"Well. Me and him spent the worst part of an hour arguing over whether I was the Slayer or not. His Slayer, really. He thought he was a Watcher, which means he must've..."

Was that how the Shift worked? Wherever you went, you then thought you were from there? Oh. That poor man. Living a Sunnydale life; seeing all that happened to them and to...her.

Her shoulders squared. "Huh."

[all7seas]

Jack had arrived at the same conclusion almost simultaneously. "...Well THIS should be interesting."

[herotypical]

"And he was buddy-buddy with Willow which means he must've gone back to...oh."

A slight frown. "He's not home right now, is he? Maybe we should -- hmm. Stroll on the beach?"

[all7seas]

"I'm game if you are." He (needlessly) lifted her down from the counter.

[herotypical]

And she (needlessly) allowed this -- but left her hands on his arms. Now that things were slowly righting themselves, she hardly wanted to let go.

"I'm...very game. All kinds of game."

[all7seas]

Continued here.