Aug 31 - Emotional Logic (FR-13)
Aug 31 - Emotional Logic (FR-13)
Author: mmooch
Chapter Summary: **Part of the 2018 LiveJournal’s Twisted Shorts FaD** challenge. Ethan’s spell takes a wildly different turn. WARNING: Character Deaths
Crossover: Star Trek
Rating: FR-13
Word count: 1465
Challenge: for the livejournal 2018 August Fic-a-Day Challenge. Also #287 ‘Joined at the Core’ by Andii.
Timeline: season 2 BtVS ‘Halloween’; during the original ‘The Wrath of Khan’ for Star Trek (2285 by our calendar)
Disclaimer: BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. Star Trek characters belong to Gene Roddenberry. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Sunnydale
All of Ethan’s careful preparations fell apart because of something he didn’t know. If he had, he might have enjoyed the irony of being undone by a random event. As it was, he couldn’t appreciate the joke because it upped the cost of his Halloween prank from a little of his life/magical energy to all of it.
For most of the people affected by the spell, they only experienced a slight ‘out-of-body’ feeling as they transformed into their costumes then back to their own bodies. However, one person had a different reaction…specifically a petite blonde Slayer. She and Ethan were the only two causalities of the evening.
While the coroner couldn’t find a cause of death for Buffy Summers, Ethan Rayne looked like he had been sucked dry - almost mummified in appearance without the cloth wrapping. Experience magic practitioners knew what killed him. What Giles didn’t understand was why Ethan would sacrifice himself to kill Buffy. The Ethan Rayne he knew was far too selfish to do something like that.
It was a good thing the Watcher never uncovered the truth about his Slayer’s death..That it was an accident made possible by something he did when he gave Buffy a tea with mimosa and horehound to help her connect to her Slayer essence. Because Ethan never intended for the effects to be permanent, he made sure that those two ingredients were nowhere near his store - even going so far as to not handle them himself for a month before he opened the store.
So it was just bad timing that Buffy wanted to understand her Slayer side more after her brush with Spike at Parents’ Night, and also that part of making that happen was mediation and Giles’ special tea blend.
And that meant a heartbroken Joyce Summers had her daughter’s ashes - or what she thought were her daughter’s ashes - interred after an ‘accident’ with the paperwork at the mortuary resulted in Buffy’s cremation. An accident engineered by Giles, who also replaced Buffy’s ashes with a Jane Doe’s remains in order to ensure that nobody or nothing could use those ashes in any kind of supernatural ceremony.
USS Starship Enterprise
When Buffy shook off the odd feeling in her head and opened her eyes, there was something very strange about her surroundings. Nothing appeared familiar to her. And she seemed to be having trouble getting her eyes to look where she wanted them to. “Umm, hello? Can anyone tell me where I am?”
The voice that answered her sounded close…like right next to her kind of close. But she still couldn’t control her body, so she couldn’t look for the guy. “You appear to be in my mind. Do you have hostile intentions?” a soft male voice inquired calmly.
Huh, inside somebody else; that explained a lot. Unfortunately, it didn’t explain enough. “Depends on if you are the one responsible for me being here. Where is here, by the way?” she asked, figuring to get the answers the old-fashioned way.
“I am unsure how this occurred, yet I am quite certain it was not my doing. It is rather disconcerting to have another being in my mind, able to access my thoughts and memories,” the voice replied. It was a rather nice voice, even if Buffy couldn’t quite place the accent.
“I didn’t think anyone could out-stuffy Giles. Do you wear a lot of tweed, too?” she teased.
The man sounded confused for a moment, “Tweed?” He thought for a moment, then recalled the necessary information. “That was a cloth commonly found on Earth. However, as I recall, it went out of use in the…late 21st century.”
He was talking about it like it was the distant past. That threw Buffy for a serious loop. “Huh? What century is it now?” she asked very nervously, not sure she wanted to know.
Unusual question for her to ask, but then again, she was a voice in his head; the whole situation was rather unusual for him. Still, it helped to cooperate. “The current date is 8130.4.”
While she wasn’t sure how it happened, Buffy could guess where she was now. “You’ve got to be kidding! I suppose that makes you a Vulcan named Spock? And you serve on a spaceship with…oh, what was their names again? Kip, Kit, Kirk? That’s right, Xan went as James T. Kirk. Umm, and there was a Bones, and Scotty, and…ugh, some guy with a very strong Russian accent. Oh, who did Wills go as?” she asked herself.
“How do you know the people I work with?” Spock demanded.
“You’re probably gonna think I’m crazy, but seeing as how I’m in your head, I’m not sure what that would say about you,” Buffy said. “The last thing I remember before showing up here was trick-or-treating in Sunnydale, California in the year 1997. I went as you, Xander dressed as Kirk, and Willow was…Uhura! The black chick on your crew. You know, you guys need more females as part of your main cast,” she pointed out.
Spock was even more confused by her rambling; she simply wasn’t making any sense. “Our main cast…I do not understand your meaning.”
“Star Trek was a TV show - a couple, actually - and I’m pretty sure the costume I wore was from a movie. Maybe this means I’m in a different dimension; Merrick mentioned those. Ooo! Maybe there’s a TV show about my life in this dimension!” she exclaimed excitedly.
“Was your life interesting enough to turn into a show?” he inquired. Since that medium of entertainment went by the wayside a long time ago, he wouldn’t have heard of it anyway.
Buffy caused Spock’s shoulders to shrug, then answered. “Horror show maybe. Are there demons and vampires in this dimension? That’s right, you aren’t human, so you might not know.”
“I am half-human,” he corrected her, “but have never heard of these vampires or demons - except for in literature references.”
“Huh, I wonder if that’s because they’ve been wiped out or if it is a different dimension. Is there a way to see if the town of Sunnydale ever existed?” Buffy asked. “It might not prove things either way, but at least it’s a place to start.”
Spock appreciated her rational approach, and said so, “Most logical. I will begin a computer search immediately.”
Surprised that he wasn’t freaking out, Buffy pointed out, “You know…you’re awfully calm about our situation.”
He tilted his head slightly and replied, “Panic would serve no purpose. We must focus on finding out how this happened and if it can be reversed. In order to begin my search, I need your name.”
“Buffy Summers. I was born in Los Angeles, California, United States of America on January 19, 1981. What if it can’t? Be reversed, I mean,” she clarified.
“Then we must learn to co-exist,” Spock concluded evenly.
Buffy had a sudden thought and began laughing. “It’s just lucky that I went into your mind during your time period instead of the other way around.”
“Why do you think that?” he inquired.
“How would you feel being in a woman’s body almost - how many years ago?”
“About 300.”
“Yeah, on a planet where people had only reached the moon,” Buffy finished. She didn’t think it would go over very well for either of them.
“That would have been uncomfortable,” he agreed. “Plus there would be the chance that you thought you were crazy if you heard me in your mind. At least I have a little experience with different lifeforms who communicate in unusual manners.”
“Oh well, I’m guessing after the first couple Spock-isms, Xander would have figured it out for me. It still blows my mind that Star Trek is real,” she said.
Spock answered, “Imagine my shock that we are a fictional show in your universe.”
“Yup, you win the weirded-out award.”
A few days later…
While she watched all the drama happening on the Enterprise, Buffy was wondering about one thing in particular. “Is it logicalthat you haven’t told anyone about me yet?”
Spock was concerned about the humans he worked with overreacting to his dilemma. They didn’t need the distraction at the moment. “Given our current crisis, I felt it was not a priority. After Khan has been dealt with, then I planned to get help for our situation,” he promised.
She was grateful that he hadn’t forgotten about the plan to split them apart, but that wasn’t what she was thinking. “So you’re not worried I’m an evil alien trying to influence your actions?” she asked.
“I think that you would have found somebody better suited towards your approach - perhaps somebody fully human with a love of the past,” Spock pointed out logically.
Buffy knew who he was referring to. “Such as Kirk?”
“Indeed.”
A/N: I know it’s horrible of me to do this on the last day, but my Musie is a crazy bitch!
Author: mmooch
Chapter Summary: **Part of the 2018 LiveJournal’s Twisted Shorts FaD** challenge. Ethan’s spell takes a wildly different turn. WARNING: Character Deaths
Crossover: Star Trek
Rating: FR-13
Word count: 1465
Challenge: for the livejournal 2018 August Fic-a-Day Challenge. Also #287 ‘Joined at the Core’ by Andii.
Timeline: season 2 BtVS ‘Halloween’; during the original ‘The Wrath of Khan’ for Star Trek (2285 by our calendar)
Disclaimer: BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. Star Trek characters belong to Gene Roddenberry. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Sunnydale
All of Ethan’s careful preparations fell apart because of something he didn’t know. If he had, he might have enjoyed the irony of being undone by a random event. As it was, he couldn’t appreciate the joke because it upped the cost of his Halloween prank from a little of his life/magical energy to all of it.
For most of the people affected by the spell, they only experienced a slight ‘out-of-body’ feeling as they transformed into their costumes then back to their own bodies. However, one person had a different reaction…specifically a petite blonde Slayer. She and Ethan were the only two causalities of the evening.
While the coroner couldn’t find a cause of death for Buffy Summers, Ethan Rayne looked like he had been sucked dry - almost mummified in appearance without the cloth wrapping. Experience magic practitioners knew what killed him. What Giles didn’t understand was why Ethan would sacrifice himself to kill Buffy. The Ethan Rayne he knew was far too selfish to do something like that.
It was a good thing the Watcher never uncovered the truth about his Slayer’s death..That it was an accident made possible by something he did when he gave Buffy a tea with mimosa and horehound to help her connect to her Slayer essence. Because Ethan never intended for the effects to be permanent, he made sure that those two ingredients were nowhere near his store - even going so far as to not handle them himself for a month before he opened the store.
So it was just bad timing that Buffy wanted to understand her Slayer side more after her brush with Spike at Parents’ Night, and also that part of making that happen was mediation and Giles’ special tea blend.
And that meant a heartbroken Joyce Summers had her daughter’s ashes - or what she thought were her daughter’s ashes - interred after an ‘accident’ with the paperwork at the mortuary resulted in Buffy’s cremation. An accident engineered by Giles, who also replaced Buffy’s ashes with a Jane Doe’s remains in order to ensure that nobody or nothing could use those ashes in any kind of supernatural ceremony.
USS Starship Enterprise
When Buffy shook off the odd feeling in her head and opened her eyes, there was something very strange about her surroundings. Nothing appeared familiar to her. And she seemed to be having trouble getting her eyes to look where she wanted them to. “Umm, hello? Can anyone tell me where I am?”
The voice that answered her sounded close…like right next to her kind of close. But she still couldn’t control her body, so she couldn’t look for the guy. “You appear to be in my mind. Do you have hostile intentions?” a soft male voice inquired calmly.
Huh, inside somebody else; that explained a lot. Unfortunately, it didn’t explain enough. “Depends on if you are the one responsible for me being here. Where is here, by the way?” she asked, figuring to get the answers the old-fashioned way.
“I am unsure how this occurred, yet I am quite certain it was not my doing. It is rather disconcerting to have another being in my mind, able to access my thoughts and memories,” the voice replied. It was a rather nice voice, even if Buffy couldn’t quite place the accent.
“I didn’t think anyone could out-stuffy Giles. Do you wear a lot of tweed, too?” she teased.
The man sounded confused for a moment, “Tweed?” He thought for a moment, then recalled the necessary information. “That was a cloth commonly found on Earth. However, as I recall, it went out of use in the…late 21st century.”
He was talking about it like it was the distant past. That threw Buffy for a serious loop. “Huh? What century is it now?” she asked very nervously, not sure she wanted to know.
Unusual question for her to ask, but then again, she was a voice in his head; the whole situation was rather unusual for him. Still, it helped to cooperate. “The current date is 8130.4.”
While she wasn’t sure how it happened, Buffy could guess where she was now. “You’ve got to be kidding! I suppose that makes you a Vulcan named Spock? And you serve on a spaceship with…oh, what was their names again? Kip, Kit, Kirk? That’s right, Xan went as James T. Kirk. Umm, and there was a Bones, and Scotty, and…ugh, some guy with a very strong Russian accent. Oh, who did Wills go as?” she asked herself.
“How do you know the people I work with?” Spock demanded.
“You’re probably gonna think I’m crazy, but seeing as how I’m in your head, I’m not sure what that would say about you,” Buffy said. “The last thing I remember before showing up here was trick-or-treating in Sunnydale, California in the year 1997. I went as you, Xander dressed as Kirk, and Willow was…Uhura! The black chick on your crew. You know, you guys need more females as part of your main cast,” she pointed out.
Spock was even more confused by her rambling; she simply wasn’t making any sense. “Our main cast…I do not understand your meaning.”
“Star Trek was a TV show - a couple, actually - and I’m pretty sure the costume I wore was from a movie. Maybe this means I’m in a different dimension; Merrick mentioned those. Ooo! Maybe there’s a TV show about my life in this dimension!” she exclaimed excitedly.
“Was your life interesting enough to turn into a show?” he inquired. Since that medium of entertainment went by the wayside a long time ago, he wouldn’t have heard of it anyway.
Buffy caused Spock’s shoulders to shrug, then answered. “Horror show maybe. Are there demons and vampires in this dimension? That’s right, you aren’t human, so you might not know.”
“I am half-human,” he corrected her, “but have never heard of these vampires or demons - except for in literature references.”
“Huh, I wonder if that’s because they’ve been wiped out or if it is a different dimension. Is there a way to see if the town of Sunnydale ever existed?” Buffy asked. “It might not prove things either way, but at least it’s a place to start.”
Spock appreciated her rational approach, and said so, “Most logical. I will begin a computer search immediately.”
Surprised that he wasn’t freaking out, Buffy pointed out, “You know…you’re awfully calm about our situation.”
He tilted his head slightly and replied, “Panic would serve no purpose. We must focus on finding out how this happened and if it can be reversed. In order to begin my search, I need your name.”
“Buffy Summers. I was born in Los Angeles, California, United States of America on January 19, 1981. What if it can’t? Be reversed, I mean,” she clarified.
“Then we must learn to co-exist,” Spock concluded evenly.
Buffy had a sudden thought and began laughing. “It’s just lucky that I went into your mind during your time period instead of the other way around.”
“Why do you think that?” he inquired.
“How would you feel being in a woman’s body almost - how many years ago?”
“About 300.”
“Yeah, on a planet where people had only reached the moon,” Buffy finished. She didn’t think it would go over very well for either of them.
“That would have been uncomfortable,” he agreed. “Plus there would be the chance that you thought you were crazy if you heard me in your mind. At least I have a little experience with different lifeforms who communicate in unusual manners.”
“Oh well, I’m guessing after the first couple Spock-isms, Xander would have figured it out for me. It still blows my mind that Star Trek is real,” she said.
Spock answered, “Imagine my shock that we are a fictional show in your universe.”
“Yup, you win the weirded-out award.”
A few days later…
While she watched all the drama happening on the Enterprise, Buffy was wondering about one thing in particular. “Is it logicalthat you haven’t told anyone about me yet?”
Spock was concerned about the humans he worked with overreacting to his dilemma. They didn’t need the distraction at the moment. “Given our current crisis, I felt it was not a priority. After Khan has been dealt with, then I planned to get help for our situation,” he promised.
She was grateful that he hadn’t forgotten about the plan to split them apart, but that wasn’t what she was thinking. “So you’re not worried I’m an evil alien trying to influence your actions?” she asked.
“I think that you would have found somebody better suited towards your approach - perhaps somebody fully human with a love of the past,” Spock pointed out logically.
Buffy knew who he was referring to. “Such as Kirk?”
“Indeed.”
A/N: I know it’s horrible of me to do this on the last day, but my Musie is a crazy bitch!