day one} {lonely hearts still beat the same

[gradesbuzzed]

His body still ached. A part of him couldn’t acknowledge what had happened to him, how Klaus had captured and possessed him. He couldn’t do anything about it. It was as if he was watching what Klaus was doing but was unable to stop him. This frustrated him more than he wanted to admit - not that anyone was banging down his door. Luckily, his life

Comments

[isaywe_party]

Buffy was pretty sure that this wasn't anyone's game.

Granted, she didn't have any other answers, but yanking her out of a portal through time takes some pretty big doing and didn't give her the fun and games feel. In fact, she isn't really feeling much of anything other the warm body she's hitting as she gets spit out of the portal and followed by the ground as they both collapse into it.

"Ow," she groaned, before pushing herself up onto her hands and then looked at the guy beneath her in confusion. "Oh. You're not Willow."

[gradesbuzzed]

Before he got stepped out of the clearing, something knocked him to the ground. Or, rather, someone was thrown at him? A blonde someone? Except, he hadn't see the throw itself. In fact, she dropped out of thin air. Of course, all this led him to - who the hell was she?

"I'm...not," he said, looking up at her. "Are you?"

[isaywe_party]

"No. I am not either." She slid off him, pushing herself to her feet, before extending her hand to him. "I'm Buffy. Who are you?"

[gradesbuzzed]

Alaric pushes himself to his feet and shakes her hand. "Alaric." Buffy? What kind of name was Buffy? "Do you know where we are?" He wasn't about to utter Klaus' name until he knew what side she was on.

[isaywe_party]

"Not a clue," she said with a frown. "One minute I was in future Manhattan, and the next I was ... here. I'm supposed to be in Now Manhattan. Why am I ... not there?"

[gradesbuzzed]

"Future Manhattan," he asked, glancing around them, in case they were being watched. Upside, she said Manhattan, so she was from - well, New York at least. That was something, wasn't it? "Are you actually asking?"

[isaywe_party]

"I was holding out hoe that there might be an answer?" she said sheepishly. "Otherwise, it's just me -- thinking out loud."

[gradesbuzzed]

"Think away," he said, stepping back. "Do you usually get sucked through..." Was that what a portal looked like?

[isaywe_party]

"No. That was a new thing." Buffy glanced around. "As is this."

[gradesbuzzed]

"Wherever this is," he added. "Guess, there's only one thing to do." And with that, he was off, heading off into the trees, expecting Buffy to follow after.

[isaywe_party]

Buffy will. After she's finished staring stunned, and done being confused.

"Hey! Wait up!"

[gradesbuzzed]

"Keep up!" he calls back, heading through the trees. He can't just stand and do nothing. Once Buffy does catch up, he gets chatty. "I take it this isn't normal for you. It's not for me either. But, we can't just stand and talk about it. We could just be in another state."

[isaywe_party]

"And which state would that be? Middle-of-Nowhere-akota?" Buffy shook her head. "This is like nothing in the states I've ever seen."

[gradesbuzzed]

"How many states have you been in?" he asked, not pausing. "This could be Virginia. Montana. Colorado. It could even be the Black Forest. We could be in Europe. People don't just appear in a countryless forest."

As they stepped out of that part of the forest again, Alaric stopped, his gaze directed upwards.

"...With a castle."

[isaywe_party]

"Whoa," she says softly. "That's even bigger than my castle."

[gradesbuzzed]

"You have a castle?" he asks, looking at her.