Reunion and Time Traveling Finale

[lucetimods]

Who: Everyone!
What: The time-traveling group returns to find an invasion of newcomers.
When: November 20th and Onward
Where: Luceti enclosure
Summary: Who let all these New Feathers in here!? ...Wait, that guy's familiar...
Rating: May vary, as usual high ratings should be taken elsewhere

The adventure to the past is over; the villagers have all been sent home to their own time. But things are different. The changes of the past have echoed into the future. And the world has responded in the strangest way. Why are so many people here all of a sudden? And why are their memories such a mess?

Who really knows?

Comments

[strangelyliteral]

[Of course it's not the same. He's smaller and shorter, for one thing.

Still it was a hug from Giles, and Giles still was one of her favorite people, all things considered. As much as a person could be a "favorite" of hers, something she would never truly admit. Even if it still was a little jarring, little boy and not a man Giles and yet.]

I missed you too. [More than she realized. She doesn't want him to melt away.] Are you going to grow up into big Giles someday?

[throughthedark]

[The feeling was decidedly mutual. Especially where Anya was concerned - other Scoobies had drifted in and out of his life here, and he out of theirs'. He'd even met Andrew, back before he'd ever properly known him. But somehow, he and Anya always kept missing one another.

A shame. He was...particularly fond of her, in a way that only Buffy and Dawn could match. In a different sort, but no less heartfelt.

When Giles pulled back, it was to nervously straighten his glasses and his awful sweater. At her question, he smiled wryly.]

Oh, presumably. In about forty or fifty years or so.

[strangelyliteral]

[Her expression falters, at that, as a slow realization hits. She had already been sent back once, so there was no telling how long this would last. It was bittersweet. It made her angry.]

... I won't get to see you grow back up.

[It's sad. It's heavy. She wanted Giles back in her life. Big Giles mostly, because that was familiar, but... at this point she'd take any Giles at all.]

[throughthedark]

[Giles' expression falters somewhat, as well, as the full realization hits. The full recollection of just where they are. It's nice, to be back...but the thing about Luceti is you never know how long it's for.]

...no. Likely not.

[Fumbling just a bit for something to say, he finds himself adding:] For, um, for what it's worth, I'll be staggered if I get to see me grow up, after all of this. [He was twelve years old in the middle of an apocalypse, back home...and he had already told everyone to leave him dead this time, if it comes to that.

But it was definitely...strange, and heavy, to hear it put like that. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Giles had internalized the idea a long time ago that he would be the one to die first - if not in battle, as he ultimately had, then from old age.

Now it seemed as though he was facing quite the opposite problem. ] I know this is, ah, hardly an ideal situation. But in my defense, it's not as though I was consulted.

[strangelyliteral]

It sounded like things were really going to hell back there. [Which she might have wanted to see, at another time in her life. Another jarring thing. At the end, it wasn't what she had wanted. At the end she was fighting against it.

And what good had that done? She finds that she's biting her lip, and she feels... unsettled. Perplexed. Maybe a little queasy, after everything.]

... Let's cut it with the sad talk. It's not doing any good now. We're both here now, and that's... something. Maybe.

[Maybe Buffy had gotten to her. A weird thought, one she forcibly dismisses.]

[throughthedark]

[Giles looks decidedly relieved to be off the hook for an explanation - and for the deliberate redirection away from sad thoughts. They've always been an easy trap to fall into, for him.] Agreed. It isn't.

We are here, and...well, we might as well set to work making the best of that. Starting with getting settled, of course. [They might not know how long they have to stay here, but if they don't at least try to make something of their newfound lives while they have them, they might as well not be here at all.] Sorry again for the, um, rather abrupt reintroduction.

[Giles gathers his bundle of clothes a little more securely in his arms, picking up this and that from where it had fallen on the floor, before he asks:] Have you found a place to stay yet?

[strangelyliteral]

I haven't... decided.

[Granted she had once lived moving from one apartment house to the other until ...]

I was at seven, before. Haven't checked it out yet, but ... I'm pretty sure none of my things are there now anyway.

[throughthedark]

Nor mine, likely. Though I have been invited back to my old house - forty seven, in this case.

[Giles shrugs - Buffy's probably still living at seven, he's never known her to live anywhere else besides that beach house, God forbid. But just in case...]

If seven isn't an option, I'm sure I could speak to everyone about you staying with us. The house has, um, apparently grown in my absence, in any case.

[strangelyliteral]

Really?

[It's more of the fact that the invitation came from Giles - Giles or at least, little Giles, she was still processing that they were one and the same, but there was something in the invitation that lifted her spirits, whether or not she would follow through on it. She didn't know his potential roommates and there was a certain amount of personal space she hadn't had for a while that Luceti provided, but.

She still smiles, in that moment.]

I'll think about it. I mean, anyone can live anywhere here. [Still an odd concept, but there was that pull about being around those who were familiar.] But we can still talk right? If I don't. And ... and visit...

[Continue here?]