☄ it looks like there's not just one kind of strife -- but two on the earth
Who | Buffy Summers (cuzitswrong ) & Cordelia Chase (knowmypurpose )
What | The powers that be have sent Cordelia Chase back to the land of the living. She'd kinda like to know why. And also why she's on Buffy's new Slayer's HQ doorstep.
Where | Scotland, the castle. / Iron Age verse
When | Pre s8-Buffy / Post s5 Angel
How | Prose.
"I wish I had nothing to do with this fifth generation, wish I had died before or been born after, because this is the Iron Age. Not a day goes by a man doesn't have some kind of trouble. Nights too, just wearing him down. I mean the gods send us terrible pain and vexation. Still, there'll be some good mixed in with the evil, and then Zeus will destroy this generation too, soon as they start being born grey around the temples. Then fathers won't get along with their kids anymore, nor ghosts with hosts, nor partner with partner, and brothers won't be friends, the way they used to be." ☈ Hesiod, Works & Days
Buffy had a feeling that once upon a time, she'd actually liked surprises.
The good kind of surprises, of course. Surprise parties. Surprise, the boy you like asks you out. Surprise, you passed the pop quiz.
But somewhere along the line, all the magic and mystery of the word had managed to fizzle out. And now 'surprise' was sort of the enemy. It was a whole context thing. It usually came in sentences like : "Surprise, those vamps were waiting for the girls, and we lost a Slayer this time round." or "Surprise, the bad guys have psychics too, and they can see three steps ahead of ours."
Or her least favorite recently: "surprise, you're sister's suddenly a less than jolly giant."
As if she didn't have enough problems.
This latest brand of surprise, therefore, she couldn't help but assume automatically was not of the good variety, even if it sounded simple enough on the surface. As she made her way down to the foyer of the castle (it was weird how quickly it felt less like a castle, and more like a big spacious-y hotel / headquarters), she ran through a lot of negative possibilities in her head, walls all leaping up defensively. It'd be nice to see an old friend and be able to just smile and hug and maybe make awkward small talk, but things with Cordelia had been complicated enough without the whole five year gap since they'd seen each other.
So she froze halfway down the steps, arms folded, scoping out the woman standing there in the middle of the entryway, trying to not sound like this was bad news.
"I'm guessing Angel's not sending you around to sell cookies door to castle door."