First Night as the New Kid
Who: Xander Harris
Where: Gatetown, living area
When: Wednesday, June 16th, after midnight
Invited: Cassandra, Chloe, Faith, anyone who happens past
Status: Incomplete ( Read more... )
Where: Gatetown, living area
When: Wednesday, June 16th, after midnight
Invited: Cassandra, Chloe, Faith, anyone who happens past
Status: Incomplete ( Read more... )
Only one of the new arrivals was present, the man who wore an eyepatch. "He's missing an eye?" Sarah Connor had asked when Cameron had informed her about the events of the day at dinner. "I don't know," Cameron had replied. "I only know that he wears an eyepatch. I don't know what's under it." Sarah had given her that look--the one that let Cameron know she'd said something alien again--and continued eating.
(Nothing weird about it,) Cameron thought to herself. (Just accurate. I don't know that he's missing an eye. That's an assumption.) The man with the eyepatch was whittling. He looked up when Cameron said, "Can't sleep?" It was a common enough greeting when you met someone late at night.
"Ah...no," the man said. His one eye shifted to look past her for a moment, then he met her gaze again. "Are you...lost?"
"No," Cameron said. She studied him silently.
"Oh," he said.
John moved very quietly. Cameron didn't sense his approach until he moved into her peripheral vision. "Cameron," he said as he joined her at the open doorway of the tent. "You shouldn't disturb the neighbors this late at night."
Cameron looked at John. "He's not our neighbor."
John opened his mouth, then closed it and shook his head. He did that a lot. Then he looked at the stranger. "Sorry to disturb you. I'm John Kriegler. This is Cameron Connor, my fiancee."
"Xander Harris," the stranger said. He put his knife and the block of wood aside and shook hands with John.
"We came to take a look at the ship," John said, hooking a thumb in the direction of the vessel. "Not that we could really see much in the dark, but--" John shrugged. "It's a small colony. You've got to make your excitement where you can find it."
"Wouldn't you agree?" John said over his shoulder.
Cameron turned to see a small blonde woman step into the light spilling out of the tent.
Reply
Chloe kept her surprise to herself. She'd been returning from Moe's when she saw a pair of strangers lurking near their tents. She wasn't terribly concerned about it, but had crept closer to investigate, ready to raise the alarm if necessary. She thought she'd been stealthy enough but John Kriegler had clearly been aware of her approach. Interesting.
When he turned to look at Chloe, she saw his face and wondered what had happened to him. A number of long, thin scars cut diagonally across his face* from hairline to jaw. They were long-healed now but appeared to have been treated rather inexpertly when he'd acquired them. They should have ruined his appearance but instead gave him a rugged, piratical look.
He was dressed in boots, jeans and a green fatigue shirt open over a t-shirt. Nothing remarkable in itself save that it was a very common style of dress among men (or women) who were carrying a concealed firearm in their waistband. Chloe was willing to bet he was packing. (Is he expecting trouble?) Chloe wondered, (or just prepared for it?)
His...fiancee if Chloe had heard right, was a slender brunette dressed similarly, in boots, jeans, t-shirt and denim jacket. There was something subtly off about her, though Chloe couldn't put her finger on it. Body language, maybe.
"Hi, I'm Chloe Sullivan," Chloe said. That set off another round of introductions. She shook John's hand, briefly wondering if he were right or left handed. Right-handed probably, which meant his gun--if he had one--was ever so briefly inaccessible. As if sensing her thoughts, John ended the handshake a fraction of a second early.
Chloe looked up, only then realizing her gaze had flickered down to his waist as she contemplated the possibility that he was armed. (I've been hanging around Cassandra too long,) Chloe thought. John hadn't missed her appraisal and Chloe could almost feel him reassessing her.
Cameron shook Chloe's hand briefly, her eyes never straying from Chloe's face. That was part of her oddness, Chloe realized. Cameron tended to stare like a young child, as if she'd never learned the dance of eyes to avoid giving offense. Chloe wondered if she were mentally ill or brain damaged.
Chloe moved past John and Cameron to give Xander a brief kiss. "Faith's still out wandering, I assume?" she said.
*As seen in the "future war" scenes in Terminator.
Reply
Xander didn't know, didn't question, didn't dare look a gift horse in the mouth.
"Yeah, you know Faith. When she gets all hyped up, there's no tying her down." His poor choice of words painted an image across Xander's mind of the woman in question tied down, not a fantasy, but a memory and definitely not one that he wanted to indulge in right here and right now with strangers in his tent. The doorway -- flap way? -- of his tent. Whatever.
He studied them now, dividing his attention between John and his slightly off, slightly odd fiance. And I have got to stop labeling everyone as a demon, vampire or robot when they act weird. That was what the odd young woman reminded him of, however, a robot. Or maybe someone utterly lacking in social skills. Which brought up the question of John introducing her as his fiancee. Was it for protection of the girl or something else?
Right Xander, stop with the spying evil around every corner, Xander chided himself. Old habits died hard; new ones developed when traveling with an Immortal and a Slayer.
What was John's story? He reminded Xander of a soldier, a man who'd seen battle and not the kind one expected to walk away from alive or whole. Xander lost an eye and the woman he loved, former demon or no, to his battles with evil. Had John lost something to a war that they knew nothing about?
Then again, what did they know about this universe at all?
"Yeah, I grew up in a small town," Xander answered John. He slid over on the cot/bed, making room for Chloe, "We were all about making our own fun."
Reply
He'd had plenty of practice at making his own fun along the way. The fugitive lifestyle didn't lend itself to making lots of friends. The few he had made didn't usually last long. Sarah would announce a move with as little warning as possible and they'd be off, never to contact his previous friends again.
"Well," John said after some polite but empty chit chat, "we should be going. Actually," he said, glancing sidelong at Cameron, "we shouldn't really have barged in here in the first place. Sorry about that."
"But welcome to Gamma Town," John said. "I expect we'll see you around. Good night."
He ducked out of the tent with Cameron following. He led her away at a brisk walk. Cameron opened her mouth to say something as they left but John signaled for silence. When they were well out of earshot, he glanced at Cameron.
"What do you think of them?" Cameron asked.
John shrugged. "They seem nice enough. Friendly. Chloe noticed that I was armed."
"What does that mean?
"Nothing bad necessarily. Maybe she carries sometimes and recognized the look. Maybe she knows people who do. Maybe she just pays attention."
Cameron had nothing to say to that. They walked on in silence.
Reply
As they departed, Xander gave a quick glance at Chloe and returned his attention briefly to his whittling. He knew that they were both thinking the same thing, and he counted to one hundred and twenty before going to peek out to make certain that their visitors were out of ear shot.
"Well," Xander whistled, "That was weird and unusual."
The girl was weirder than her fiancee, and Xander's mind kept coming back to the Buffy-bot comparison. There was something that he didn't want to dwell on for long. "Is it just me, or do we attract weird and unusual?"
Reply
Lt. Jon O'Neill was taking a quick trip around the tents before turning in to his own, further down and around. He had an idea that the civilian patrols would be coming through, but they weren't quite to the level of handling weirdness, should it crop up. Oh, they were good enough, and they weren't quite under martial law anymore, at least as far as the police force was concerned, but it never hurt to have an extra pair of eyes.
Stopping outside the tent, he paused a moment before, "Settling in okay?" He was still in uniform; BDUs, t-shirt covered by a blue pocketed shirt, bar denoting 1st Lieutenant on his collar, boots with a billed blue hat that capped it all. He carried a sidearm, but like the rest of it, it sat and appeared simply part of the whole picture.
"I know it's probably kinda rough."
Reply
Xander had to remind himself again that this wasn't his friend Jon, and it wasn't actually so hard when Jon was dressed like a soldier, right down to the side arm. Still, that sense of familiarity in the face of the otherwise strange and unknown remained, and with it the slight hope that maybe he and Jon could find some sort of common ground and friendship again.
"Bed's a bit lumpy, but we're managing," Xander quipped, "You know, minus the electricity and indoor plumbing. But I'm just trying to think of it as an impromptu, long term camping trip. . . and when you've seen what we've seen, weird is just as normal as Fruit Loops in the morning."
Xander paused a beat, the hide-behind-humor mask dropping for just a bit as he turned serious, addressing the seemingly young man before him with the knowledge he knew of the other Jon. And it's sad when that thought isn't confusing at all. "So, checking on the newbs, or just feeling the need to be that extra set of eyes?"
Reply
He canted his head in askance, and a hand found a place in a pocket, his manner and mien turning more towards the casual. "Meant to ask about that, but it's a little late now." Jon paused, and the free hand moved in a circling motion, "The 'seen what we've seen' thing." A shrug gained, and to allay any potential suspicions, he continued, "Once the General gets back, and the Drs. Jackson, I'm back on basic guard duty, until called up to go offworld." He smiled thinly; if there was any question regarding his particular thoughts on the matter of where he was in the pecking order and where he believed he should be, there it was. At least he got to go offworld. "Maybe over a beer, later. There's a place down," here, he pointed off in the distance in the requisite direction, "there, called Moe's."
With Xander's bout of seriousness, Jon paused as he brought himself up to full height. It was a subtle action, but there, and his expression shifted to match the man opposite him. It wasn't a "contest" by any measure, and he was going to let him know it. "Civilian police don't have any clue what could go on. Wasn't the first time I ever heard about moving through parallel universes. Figured you could use a friendly face, if you were up. And, well... make sure the peanut gallery left you alone for at least a day. We have newspapers here, gossips-- you name it, it's found its way here."
In his position, as it was at that moment, Jon could afford to be a little more 'welcoming' than, say, the General. He had the same motivations, obviously, but his approach was now on a slightly different bent. He'd gotten good at appearing to be one thing, but actually something else, but that didn't play here. What did, however, was the fact that Xander had known him in a different reality (Ow, let's not keep going back to that!) and there was a great deal he could learn.
After all, how different could he be from there to here?
Reply
Chloe looked at Jon again. "Newspapers, huh? I'll have to look into that."
She'd need to find some way to support herself here eventually, and farming didn't appeal to her. She'd seen enough of farm life growing up around Smallville. It was useful, important work--but not what she wanted to do. The Gamma Town Gazette or whatever they might call the local paper was no Daily Planet, to be sure--but Chloe knew reporting.
Chloe grinned at Jon. "You're a little late to protect us from the peanut gallery. John Kriegler and Cameron Connor were just here."
Reply
With his world gone and dead, Xander knew better than most that life and friendships were precious.
"Not sure you'll believe me, but, if you want to hear stories, over a beer is the best way to hear them." As a matter of fact, if Xander recalled clearly, Jon -- and Daniel -- had been far more easily persuaded about the nature of vampires and demons after a few beers. The added fact that a few vampires had been dusted right before their eyes probably didn't help either.
Still, this wasn't the time to tell the other man about zombie apocalypses or anything that passed for normal in Xander's universe. Is there ever a time to tell people about that shit? Probably not, but he stood by his decision, for the moment, that this wasn't it.
Chloe's comment about carpentry drew Xander from his wandering thoughts. He gave a cant of his head, "Carpentry? Really?" That was something he'd look into. It was the one thing that he was good at, even with one eye, unless he pulled out the alien made prosthetic that they'd picked up -- meaning Faith had made him get fitted for and bartered her way into his ownership of it -- and though it worked great, it still felt alien. But carpentry . . . that was the one way Xander could earn a living, and it looked as though there would be no small want for carpenters here.
"Yeah," Xander nodded his head in agreement to Chloe's assessment of their visitors. "Those two were a bit to the side of the almost creepy. And it takes a lot for me to lean to the side of the almost -"
Xander stopped, something Jon said earlier finally sinking into his brain. "Um, Drs. Jackson? They wouldn't happen to have names like Daniel and Ami would they?" Because there was wildly weird coincidence and then there was not quite so wild and weird coincidence.
And what would the chances be?
Reply
Nodding his agreement to Xander, and giving the man a smile, Jon had to laugh quietly after. "Everything is best over a beer. Do you have any idea how many wars would never have started if they just talked it out over a beer?" He was a little more animated, and he shifted his weight, "Guess..." As if he knew the answer?
"Yeah.. I don't know either. I keep asking Daniel, when I remember to, and he hasn't given me an answer yet." After all, who would know better the socio-political potentials of races long past if they'd met over drinks at the local pub? It was one of many, many things that he enjoyed doing to his erstwhile best friend.
There, at least partially, came the answer to Xander's question. There was something, however, that shifted in Jon's manner, if only subtly. His back straightened; something Xander and even Chloe would recognize easily as the expression of protection, though of which, who knew yet?
"Yes, they would. Both of them." His eyes narrowed slightly before the question was asked, "You knew them?" It would make sense for Daniel, sure. Particularly if they knew the original copy, and him. Dr. Daniel Jackson would be part and parcel. But Ame?
Reply
Jon did better than most as he acknowledged Chloe. His gaze didn't linger overly long on her too brilliant green eyes; in fact, if Xander hadn't been watching for that ever so brief pause, he would have missed it all together. There was no way to not notice Chloe's eyes, it was just a matter of how people reacted. Some did a double-take, some openly gaped, and some, like Jon, barely missed a beat. The latter were few and far between.
Jon's shift from relaxed to alert -- or more rather, protective, didn't go unnoticed. It might have been a few weeks, but Xander recognized that shutting down-cautious-what-do-you-know-about-me-and-mine stance. Xander only just caught himself from taking a quick glance into the shadows, expecting to see Ami hovering somewhere there. Because typically, her presence brought up Jon's protective instincts faster than anything else did.
(This is tread carefully territory,) Xander thought. Flying blind, he was at a disadvantage, even with his previous acquaintance with Jon. Yes, certainly, there was a lot of the same personality there, but there were probably differences too, and those Xander just didn't have the ability to account for. He could make the assumption that Jon and Daniel still shared the same odd, off-beat friendship that the Other!Jon and Other!Daniel shared, if only due to the nature of Jon's origins. A small leap could be made that he might be more than friendly with Ami, but not necessarily, (Especially given Jon's White Knight complex). If this world's Ami Jackson was anything like the Other!Ami Jackson, then she would probably fall nicely under Jon's umbrella of protection.
"Yeah, we did," Xander said with a simple lift of his shoulders. He looked around to make sure they were still alone, but still lowered his voice. "You, Daniel, and Ami traveled with us for a while. It was pretty nice having someone along who could make quick extrapolations on cultures and knew languages." Again, Xander stopped himself before saying too much. It was better not to mention the Other!Ami's unique abilities, especially since this version of Jon didn't appear to share them and might not even know about them, if this version of Ami had them at all.
Reply
Merely noted, those green eyes, and filed away.
He finished the introduction with Chloe before he returned his attention to Xander. His manner and mien were settled into the more neutral, waiting to see which way the man before him would move, so to speak. Nothing physical, but he was looking forward to the explanation before he would say much more on the subject.
It wasn't a slam-dunk that Dr. Ami Jackson would fall under his wing of protection; there were plenty more SGC people here who had a vested interest in Ami's safety. Captain Jack Harkness, Daniel, the original copy, Dr. Weir.. and that wasn't to mention Lisa and Adam.
Nothing Xander said passed without consideration. Ami, Daniel and he had traveled together, but their strengths were in Ami and Daniel. He wasn't one who could identify cultures and languages immediately. Hell, he could usually tell if they'd point guns at them at the onset, but that was usually because, well, they pointed a gun or not at their arrival.
"Yeah, they're handy that way," that was something Jon could agree with. "She's offworld with Daniel, the General, and a couple of other people. Scientific mission. Shouldn't be too long before they come back. So, for now, Major Lorne is holding down the fort with Colonel Carter, team leaders Captain Harkness and Boone." They were well covered as far as protecting the site was concerned, but not only that, perhaps it was a hint in there regarding exactly who knew what about Ami. Assuming, of course, that Xander knew about Ami's particular abilities.
"Who else did you come in contact with?" After all, it stood to reason that if they were running in SGC circles, though he couldn't be certain that the three were in the SGC, there'd be others he'd recognize?
While he'd had his streak of protectiveness up, he relaxed a little in response to Xander's explanation, his expression shifting from the neutral to the more casual, relaxed, though there was still the feeling of give and take. He was at a disadvantage; he knew nothing of the other man, but he was known, including who he was. That bugged him more than a little, but he wasn't about to let that show, at least now. He had more pressing questions.
"What were Daniel and Dr. Jackson like in your ..." Reality? How about, "What were they like?"
Reply
"Who've we met? Let's see--you, General O'Neill, Col. Carter, the Doctors Jackson, Teal'c, a few others."
"As for what they were like--I imagine they were pretty much like the people you know. Or knew. We've met several versions of Daniel Jackson and a couple of you. They were all pretty much the same people underneath."
Chloe had a vague idea that Cassandra had met another Daniel Jackson working for the Russians at one point. He'd insisted on making her...close personal acquaintance, if Chloe understood correctly. Which didn't sound like the Daniel she knew, but that was many skips back--and before she or Xander had joined them in any case.
"What about you? You met any dopplegangers?"
Reply
He didn't continue that train of thought, however, and he came back to what Chloe had said. "Me, the general, Carter.. Daniel, Dr. Jackson.." He whistled softly, and nodded slowly. "So this is a 'been there, done that, but got stuck' sort of thing. Should be old hat at it now." There was a little curiosity as to what had been going on in those other realities, but in good times, there was so much to wrap his head around; what would it be like now?
Ow, my head!
Exactly.
"Oooooh.. right. Other 'me's walking around. Or," here, he ducked his head slightly, his brows rising, and he pointed in Chloe's general direction, accenting his words in gesture, "or are you talking about yous.. and mes.. and--" He shook his head quickly and raised his hand, waving the thought away. "Great way to get a headache." He cleared his throat and rolled his shoulders in order to straighten somewhat. "Haven't met you all before. Pretty sure the others haven't either, though I can't swear to it. It's been a few years..." He let his voice trail off before he shrugged and looked to Xander now, "It's the sort of thing best left to having a beer. Keeps the headaches away."
Reply
Really, though, what was the harm in making admissions and comparisons? It was curiously fascinating to Xander, though even the Jon he knew had never quite felt that way about it. He was curious about the man who said he knew a Xander from his universe; just uncomfortable with pursuing that conversation because Xander really didn't want to talk about the eye. Also, he wasn't so keen on finding out that there was a version of him out there that just might be all the things that Xander wasn't.
(Right, there's craziness for you. Getting jealous of your own doppleganger in a different reality,) Xander noted, (But, is it so different from being jealous of the doppleganger that's actually you in your own reality?) That thought process yet again underscored the true weirdness of Xander's life.
"Never met another me," Xander said, then paused for clarification, "Well, not while traveling around in our ship. But, yeah, that's one of those 'need-a-few-beers' to swallow that type of story." Xander had a strong suspicion that any stories about his world would fall into that category.
Jon's shift to casual, and labelling of Ami as 'Dr. Jackson,' spiked Xander's curiosity, but he didn't question it. Either he misread the young/old man, or Jon's reaction had been a knee-jerk reaction that fell under the 'Protecting Me and Mine' category. Having met the original -- General O'Neill -- Xander could buy into that theory as well.
"They're probably the same here, too," Xander followed up, willing to throw out a few breadcrumbs in order to gather up a few more. "The people we met, I mean. Like, you said Daniel's off-world, and that's totally up his alley. He's like super librarian archeaologist guy. Who's also a geek, but the women seemed to like him." Even if Daniel did seem to be oblivious to all of them except Cassandra.
"And Ami --" Xander paused a moment, actually finding it odd that he was referring to her by her first name while Jon wasn't. "She's hot. She's smart, too, though. Really smart, intuitive. Her instincts," (And her super psychic powers), "Saved our asses a few times.
"And she's hot." Because in all honesty, that had to be underscored and repeated. Xander had a great deal of respect for smart, hot women. And the fact that he was traveling with some very pleasing eye-candy, and had been for some time? Okay, worth a little shallow bragging. Just a smidge.
"But yeah, beer. And man, could I tell you some stories." Not just about travelling in other universes either.
Reply
Leave a comment