(Untitled)

[lucetimods]

Who: EVERYONE
What: The Great One's Festival!
When: From early morning till early (or late, depending on how festivities go) evening of the 22nd.
Where: Mostly in the village plaza, though you're free to spread activities out elsewhere!
Summary: Today's the big day! All that planning and prepping is going to finally pay off as the day of The Great

Comments

seriously -- any day, any time. we'll make it work.

[slaying]

[ maybe you'll see her at the bar? or maybe at her house? or perhaps just out 'enjoying' the festival? buffy will always be fashionably dressed and well-coiffed. and friendly -- always friendly. you thought regular-flavour buffy was social and warm? this is a buffy with very little slayer responsibility left in her. she is a retired war hero gone domestic.

at the very least, she'll be spending time with friends and family and definitely dropping in on albert silverberg on one of the evenings. ]

Morning, April 24th

[consultmybooks]

[What with festival preparations and general family concerns, it's been a while since Giles has had much to do with any cousin that's not a staff member or a regular in the library.

But after the night he had last night, after those dreams...he doesn't know why or what he's hoping to accomplish, but Giles goes looking for Buffy first thing that morning.

It's never been unusual for him to dream about Willow and Xander being alive, living different lives, but Buffy? That's new. And, given the subject matter of the dreams, more than a little disturbing.

It doesn't take long before he spots Buffy wandering the festival grounds, being her usual social self. He's always found that strange about her. Admirable, but strange.

He cautiously approaches, a bag of some of Sheena's tea cakes clutched in his hand as a potential excuse for the meeting.]

Buffy?

[slaying]

[ yes, it's very simple.

buffy pushes her way through the disassembling festival booths. waking up this morning had been such an odd experience. like being sucked out of reality. and there had been a man -- a man who is her distant cousin but who, in that dream, had felt more important to her than any cousin had ever been. the good guys are always stalwart and true.

she can hear his voice even now; she clings to it. it centres her more than any of her efforts throughout the week have done. her identity as wife and mother is cracking and now she wonders if giles can help her. it felt -- paradoxically -- like he always has helped her. the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats. buffy crosses and uncrosses her arms...surely, she can find him?

and we always defeat them and save the day. there! at first, her face breaks into a wide smile...and then she feels strange doing that and so she tries very hard to settle on a carefully guarded and blank expression. the kind she has used so well in her very

[consultmybooks]

[Buffy and his aunt are the only ones to ever call him by his first name anymore. Not even his siblings do. He's always wondered about that, and so hearing Buffy trying to correct herself is...odd. But nice, because getting calling by his first name only ever feels right when Thursday does so, because she's his aunt and the closest thing he has to a parent. But not his siblings. Not his cousin.]

Hello.

[And now he's found her. And in the light of day, he wonders what the hell he's supposed to do next. How ridiculous he'll probably seem.

But at the same time, the memory of the dreams makes standing with her feel...almost comfortable.]

S-So. H-How are you liking the Festival so far?

[slaying]

It was alright. Nothing...I don't know -- other years seemed more golden, you know?

[ she frowns. so much frowning. ]

[consultmybooks]

[So much frowning. And that is strange.]

"Golden"?

[Don't old people talk like that? But he shrugs.]

It's probably different when you're on the production side.

Sorry to disappoint.

[slaying]

[ there is a look on her face that hasn't been there -- as far as she knows -- for a while. a look like she's getting a feeling. a hunch. a supernatural prod in the shoulder that something needs to be fixed. ]

I'm just not sure that it...lived up to expectations, you know?

[consultmybooks]

[He's about to protest, when something in his mind...nudges him. Some old, forgotten habit telling him to stop and think.]

...expectations.

Who's expectations?

[slaying]

[ she taps a loosely closed fist against her palm. a nervous habit. it hasn't come out since long ago -- when the retired war hero was a little less retired. ]

Haven't figured that bit out yet.

[consultmybooks]

I have my theories. [And he finds himself glancing a little past Buffy, towards the looming bulk of the Battle Dome.]

[slaying]

...Theories?

[ a pause. ] Rupert. I've...maybe there's another Shift happening.

[consultmybooks]

[Theories. He's about to share when Buffy's words drive them temporarily from his mind.

His reply is quiet and chosen very carefully.]

What makes you say that?

[slaying]

I've always been kinda -- good -- y'know? At telling when one was coming.

[ those prophetic dreams. in this topsy turvey version of luceti, they hadn't taken the form of vampires or demons. just gentle warnings before natural changes in their lives. ]

[consultmybooks]

[Nothing definite then. Nothing to do with the dreams. For a strange, mad second, he'd hoped that the dreams could be blamed on a Shift.]

Yes, you have been. Better than any of Robert's bloody mathematics and statistics.

[slaying]

Math's over-rated. I'd trust my gut over numbers any day.

[ she doesn't make eye contact and continues to look as though she's working something through in her mind. ] Do you...have we ever been in a cemetery before, Rupert? Together? I have this sneaking feeling that we were and...it's probably nothing.

[consultmybooks]

W-Well, I'm in the cemetary...often enough, but...

[Uncomfortable, as he always is when the issue of Willow and Xander are brought up around other people - even to Buffy, who was always a good aunt to them. But the uncomfortable frown changes into a...thoughtful one.

"Don't kill him yet."
"Why?"
"Because I'm asking you not to."

And even if Buffy won't look at him, he looks at her, almost as though he's never seen her before.]

I don't know...