we're a sorry bunch

[slaying]

Who: The Scooby Gang - slaying, univalent, slayersidekick, steadfastest, consultmybooks & likevegeta
What: Meeting & potluck.
When: Late evening.
Where: Spike's apartment, community building two.
Summary: There is nothing so perfectly traditional to the Sunnydale gang as holding important meetings over various kinds of food. I hope someone was on donut duty.
Rating: PGish. Just in case.

Comments

[consultmybooks]

Giles had grabbed one of the free chairs, and was watching Buffy carefully as she spoke. This was the first time since his first night here that he'd had the chance to get a halfway decent look at her. Since then, he suspected that she'd been rather desperately trying to distract him, and he'd more or less played along.

But this was serious. And, more than all of them, she knew what the hell was going on here. He was fine with deferring to her judgment on the matters of this world for that reason, but her acceptance of the situation worried him. Xander and Willow, at least, had seemed optimistic about their chances of escape, and even over the last week Giles had grown to depend on that.

"So, it's a case of 'the enemy of my enemy, then'?" he asked cautiously, once she'd finished. "Why are the Third Party so interested in us? It's not as though we actually have much of an impact on the goings-on in this world, or so it seems."

[slaying]

It was hard to do anything but accept her place here, in Luceti. A year and four months is a long time, and people who Buffy now trusted had been here a lot longer. But she would be lying if she ever claimed that the sudden arrival of the core gang with the welcome addition of her right hand man in Italy did not awaken some of those less accepting parts of her. Loving Kirk had been one thing that had made her complacent and happy to stay. Making friends? Gaining allies, in the absence of her usual crew? These things had settled her. Unlike Giles, Willow and Xander...she did not know of a Sunnydale she could ever return to.

"When I toe-to-toe'd it with their General, he claimed they were wanting to free us." But the face she was making clearly suggested that it was anything but freedom on the line. "Their version of it, of course, involved permanent death." Her voice dropped. This was a sensitive subject for them all. "See, in Luceti?--" Buffy stopped. She eyed Xander across the room and she walked closed to Giles

[consultmybooks]

Well, that is big news to Giles. He'd gotten used to thinking of Buffy as the sole exception to death - twice over, it seemed - but if the rules really were different here...that was something to think about. He raised his eyebrows, and then went for his usual coping mechanism - cleaning his glasses.

"So. When they say 'free', it's in the metaphorical sense, rather than the literal sense? Sound to me like religious fanatics.

I'd ask just how this was possible, by the way, but I suspect we'd be here all night if there was an answer at all."

[slaying]

"Giles, meet big-fat-question number one." Buffy sighed and leaned on the arm of Giles' chair. "They invaded the barrier to try and sell us all the farm. But I got the one-up on them and they retreated. Then, bam. Instant house-hold name."

It didn't go quite like that. Truthfully, Buffy had kept her exploits in the invasion to herself for the better part of the following months. It wasn't until the town meeting that she had gotten mouthy with what she had done. It had been a way to prove herself to the rest of the town. And to Cloud, of course. Who was gone. So many people were gone.

"As for the revival thing? It could be magic, sure. Or it could be tech. Who knows."

[steadfastest]

Spike's place. Xander hated it the second he stepped foot through the door. Yeah, and this place hated him. He could sense it, like when you walked into Uncle Rory's apartment after he'd thrown a four-day bender. You might step in a puddle of something, or trip over a body in the hall, or see yourself in twenty years if you didn't watch out.

Now he was standing against the wall, his back to the corner--which was sort of appropriate, really. A lamp was in his way, but he nudged it aside so that his back and palms were pressed against the wall. Buffy seemed pretty comfortable here. That look she was giving Spike seemed VERY comfortable.

Xander frowned. He took a deep breath and raised his hand. It was the one with the donut in it. He quickly raised his other hand.

"Uh, this 'Third Party'--you've fought them before. When they come, what do the people here do? Is there any kind of fortifications or whatever?"

[univalent]

One who was keeping their silence could only keep it for so long and patience was not Spike's greatest virtue. Nor was the ability to keep his mouth shut something he was reknown for.

Ignoring the question about the 'Third Party' and the fortifications entirely, Spike rolled his eyes and remarked, "Oh, come on, now. I'm not going to bite."

[steadfastest]

"Oh YEAH? We'll SEE who does the biting around here, Spike." What? Xander turned his face away from the vampire so he could mouth his own words with a pained expression on his face. Nice comeback, Xand. Clearly he's going to tuck tail after THAT one.

/momentary threadjack?

[slayersidekick]

Yeah, that just earned a sigh and a look from Willow. It was a good thing she loved him like a brother. Or a best friend. Or perhaps both. The point still stood.

[likevegeta]

It was like the old days. Not the good old days - not by far. The 'good old days' were the days he'd spent blissfully unaware that Sunnydale was a timebomb, before the Trio, when he had two best friends were very much alive and the most excitement he ever had was watching Star Wars and entering heated debates with Jonathan on what superhero would win in a fight. At least, that was what he had tried to tell himself the good days were. No, the 'good old days' were now the current days he spent in Italy with the girls. It may have been incredibly dull, it may have been filled with peril and mistakes, but he was surrounded by people who loved him, who trusted him, and who would do anything for him. These days were the first days that he could say with confidence that he would do the same in return

[steadfastest]

"Uh, nice timeline. So I'm Low Man on the Reality Evolutionary Totem Pole? I don't like this at all. Not one bit." Xander crammed another donut into his mouth. Then some cake. "What are those x's? Why's Spike's line upside-down? What's that big blocky thing?" So many questions.

[consultmybooks]

"It does seem you are at the disadvantage, Xander." They all knew what Xander would be facing in a few years, and Giles knew that most of them had reached the tacit understanding to keep as much of it from him as possible. He grabbed one of the deviled eggs and ate one. "Still, I'm second furthest, if that's any help." It probably didn't - Buffy and Willow together had let slip quite a bit, whether intentionally or accidentally.

He addressed his next point to Andrew, however. "That does raise a good point, however. Most of us are keeping secrets from one another thanks to this."

The timeline did help, though. It helped to see the situation laid out. It always did. And someone had thought to bring the onion flowers - it was Spike's apartment, after all.

[likevegeta]

"There are some events that can be told," Andrew turned towards the board, staring intently at it for a moment. "But there are some things that, mm, they can wait a while." Particularly the last two. The blonde shifted his weight and leaned back, his gaze skipping over all of them to land on last x, then the box.

"But that's all up to Buffy."

[slayersidekick]

For her own part, Willow had made a pot of stewy soup for the gathering and it was free for the dipping out of. She'd actually grabbed a drink and a bowl of her soup when she sat down, and then an egg once she realized they were there. Listening to everyone else, she was careful to take in as much as she could. It made about as much sense as anything had so far, but at least this way she knew everything was true. Buffy wouldn't let anyone lie to them about what had or hadn't happened.

Curling her feet up under her in the chair, she turned her attention to Andrew's board again.

[slaying]

Post-speech, Buffy was grabbing some stew. She balanced the bowl in one hand while she paused near Willow's chair.

"I know it's kind of like a brain overload." She smiled, smallishly. "But coping is possible. Promise."

[slayersidekick]

Willow glanced up at Buffy and gave a small smile. "Yeah. I hope so. It's just... so much to think about. I never thought there'd be a-a war here."

/threadjacks

[steadfastest]

"How is it really any different from the war we've been fighting for years, Will?"

Xander was trying to fill a bowl with stew while simultaneously balancing his Doctor Pepper and a donut in the other hand. He finally gave up and stuck the donut in his mouth for better filling abilities.

/so very, very late

[univalent]

The tension in the air was so thick, he could smell it. His demon was thrilled by it, taunted him with the temptation to let the corners of his mouth turn upwards in amusement that would no doubt unsettle a good portion of the room. While a smirk could mean a variety of things, to those who still viewed him as the vampire who crashed parent-teacher night it would give them a so-called tell-tale sign of that perception still ringing true. That was far from the truth, of course, but Spike quite honestly did not want to give them the truth. He doesn't owe them for anything, isn't required to step up and say that oh by the way, he has a soul now that can't be jostled loose in any way and kind of, sort of maybe saved the world and died this one time. Justifying himself to others isn't his style. He doesn't care what people think of him, let alone the people in this room...with maybe the exception of Andrew and Willow. Maybe. Depends on his mood and if he's up to listening to Andrew prattle on about more pop culture icons than a VH1

[slaying]

Once the speechifying calmed down and the crew settled into snackage, Buffy made the short jaunt across the room to where Spike stood. She turned away from them and created their own little bubble of conversation. "I think it's going...well." She intoned, flatly. It was clear she was a far cry off from settling on a verdict. "Everyone's keeping things from everyone else and unification is barely brushing seventy percent. Yay for being typically us."

Her body half-twisted, allowing her a glance back over her friends. Feeling detached from them was not a new feeling. It had caused a load of drama in the past, but now? Well, there wasn't much she could do about it. They were disconnected by more than just time. All of the disasters that stood between them.

[univalent]

There was a certain sort of imbalanced placed upon his dwelling of choice here in Luceti with these people in it that disrupted the sort of sanctuary it gave himself and Buffy that was safely tucked away from the prying eyes of those who wouldn't approve, understand or had no business voicing an opinion in regards to what they had been doing since their portion of the draft's enactment. The right way, but...not something to say with the lot gathered here. Not yet, anyway. Especially not with the sorts of looks they were giving him, Xander especially. 'Cause that would go over well.

He was a bit relieved when she sought him out on her own, glad for the opportunity to have a bit of honest conversation that didn't need a front or a filter - he was never very good at those, either. "Better than I'd hoped, though Patches--" Nevermind that Xander is pre- and sans- eye patch. "--looks about ready to melt into the wall."

[slaying]

"They trust me, despite the fact that I'm basically playing the fairy godmother of can't tell you that, yet. So that's kind of amazing."

More than amazing. A miracle. Buffy was no stranger to even the most peripheral of people calling her out on this kind of behaviour. And she wasn't sure how much pushing and tugging it would've taken for her to spill everything. They were them, after all. It felt horrible keeping secrets that were--essentially--theirs to keep in the first place. Like why Xander left Anya at the altar or how heartbreaking it was to hear Willow say Tara's name like she thought she was still alive. These burdens were too heavy--it was bad enough keeping her own secrets.

"And give it time and Xander will...cope. I mean, he did last time--right?"