Comments | beyondtherift: open ✘ the bird you'd sworn you'd given up.

thehighestwing in beyondtherift

open ✘ the bird you'd sworn you'd given up.

Jun 14, 2011 01:28

Here's a face you haven't seen in a while, Chicago.

It may have only been months, but for Phoebe Donovan it's been a full year ( Read more... )

phoebe donovan, xander harris, michael vaughn, shawn spencer, fletcher hadley, parker, mio hongo

Comments 44

/SPAMS YOUR LIFE ;; xandtheman3 June 18 2011, 05:54:57 UTC

The last time that Xander saw Phoebe, it was during Subconscious Week. Phoebe Donovan was actually a hallucination, and it took him all week and nearly dying to figure that out. It took her response to what he found out from Buffy to realize she wasn't real, because his brain could not conjure up a response that would be Phoebe-ish enough in that moment. Then-- it was then that he knew she wasn't real like Buffy had hallucinated Willow, like so many people were hallucinating things that they refused to admit to themselves.

He knew the truth then, and he told her she wasn't real. She was gone, and he'd known it for much longer but hadn't been willing to admit it.

Xander is eating a burger that he got from one of those stands around. Seriously, all he does is eat food and wander Chicago's streets. WHAT? Xander Harris is eating? THIS NEVER HAPPENS. He nearly drops i at the sight of Phoebe in the middle of the street, but he shakes his head instead like he's trying to will away the sight of it.

"Oh, no, we are so... not doing this ( ... )

<333333333333333 thehighestwing June 18 2011, 06:48:07 UTC

Phoebe has not seen Xander yet. She's still wondering herself whether this is real or not, as it's been a whole year. A whole year and why would she suddenly be brought back here and now? None of it makes sense, not that it made sense to start with--not that Phoebe's a great friend of sense-making things, but she's still trying to be reasonable.

As reasonable as Phoebe Donovan ever gets.

"Get out of the way, you idiot!"

Headlights flash before her and that gets her moving. She narrowly misses being hit by the hood of the car, and she backpedals further until she's in the sidewalk, nearly colliding with one Xander Harris in the process.

"For fluck's sake," she says under her breath, and she wipes at her tattered jeans, glancing back at the car that nearly ran her over. Some people don't have manners. Sure, she was in the middle of the street, but she was evidently very distressed.

Phoebe finally looks up to see what she nearly collided with again--better another person than a car--and her eyes widen once she sees him. A nearby ( ... )

xandtheman3 June 18 2011, 09:47:05 UTC

Xander winces when the-- and the car. The car saw her. Well, the driver of the car saw her too. She has to be real unless he is hallucinating the car too. In which case, his hallucinations are getting way, way too elaborate, and he should probably just throw the towel in completely and let his mind make him believe whatever it wants.

He moves forward a the realization that it was her, that someone saw her and she's nearly getting hit. Xander reaches out her hands to keep her steady on her feet if he has to.

For fluck's sake.

Very Phoebe.

His brain could come up with those words too that she'd always say, but... but this is different. It's different because there was a car that saw her. It isn't just Xander seeing her, talking to her, interacting with her. There's another person involved so she can't be a hallucination ( ... )

thehighestwing June 19 2011, 20:32:24 UTC

She's thought about coming back before. She's thought of it dozens of times, though that'd mostly been during the first few months. Then the months kept ticking on by and Phoebe stopped wondering because she knew. It's not up to you once the Rifts are involved. For Wanderers it's permanent. They never go back to their universe. Once you're in Chicago there are other kinds of Rifts, and they can be permanent, too.

Some people are never seen again once they step through Rifts.

The place Phoebe ended up was strangely similar to Chicago, only it was far more apocalyptic, and it didn't have her friends. It didn't have Xander. It had other people, people she lost along the way, and she's not exactly the Phoebe that she was before. It's just not immediately visible.

Phoebe wraps her arms tightly around his waist, her face crumpling.

"... Yah, I'm real. What did you expect, an inflatable doll?" she asks, and it's meant to be in her usual tone but it's not, because she's missed him, and because she never thought she'd see him again, and ( ... )

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