Sixty-Third Explosion

[god_is_a_dude]

[Written]

Today's sciences assignment is really stupid. Come on, what's with this junk? I learned this years ago, but I still need to fill all this out. Jeez.

[...Okay so like guys, seriously, if your characters can/would get through these filters and comment on them, please feel free. Particularly this first one]

Comments

[slaying]

[You're staring out the window, Haruki? Well, then you might just see Buffy barrel her way past. She's been spending an awful lot of time outside, recently. Even if the temperature is dropping.

Anyway, she spots the boy through the glass and seems to hover a moment--convincing herself into or out of something. She's unabashedly staring back inside--give a moment, she might screw her courage to the sticking place and backtrack enough to knock on the door.]

[slaying]

If that's what fate is, then it's got its greedy little fingers in an awful lot of honey pots. Whole worlds of honey pots, and so many hero-types--among others, of course--plucked out. [Her nose wrinkles. Definitely something she has been pondering.] Almost like--hmm--like siphoning the energy out of everything else into this one spot.

[Twisted Buffy logic is now at work; be wary, Haruki. She's going to bring in some contextless examples from her own world.] So what if fate isn't just non-linear, but also like a something that can be collected? Like how a key isn't just a key but can also be a bundle of energy. Are we all people with fates and destinies and somehow that's the big fat rub?

[god_is_a_dude]

I think that's looking at it too objectively. I mean, the Mal- you know, I'm going to call them the Organization, "Malnosso" is a stupid name - have openly admitted they pick and chose who goes in the barrier but not who comes to this planet. And then the planet isn't the cause or anything...

[...A pause, and then he thinks about this in a very trippy way.] I mean, think about it a broader picture. Fate is too linear, and calling it something like an energy or a force makes it all too grounded. Seems like it's more about the connections of all living things. But well - see, Rem said there isn't one rope. That makes sense, to think there's an underlying single connection is stupid.

[slaying]

[And now it's vaulted into the realm of too much for Buffy. Linear is what she does best, after all. See the Big Bad, find it's weakness, bash it's skull in. A nice straight, easy formula to get through life. All the fate stuff she manages by the seat of her pants--after all, it's destiny. If it's supposed to happen, it will. Her first death taught her that.

However, instead of trying to engage the theory as a whole? Buffy grapples onto Haruki's last statement. A little of her frustration with being taken so far away from what she had wanted to subtly introduce into the conversation bleeds through.] Just because you say it's stupid, that doesn't magically make it stupid.

[god_is_a_dude]

[GLARE. And then a light sigh before he lets it go with-] Whatever. The point is that assume that's a single commonality in a population this size is- well aside from being alive, I guess.

[...Pause, and then he quickly throws out-]

And before you correct on vampires or whatever I'll settle for animate.

[slaying]

Animate's fine with me--I won't go hauling out the dictionary. Mostly because I don't actually own one.

[But she's moved on. The irritation at all this side-chatter is getting to her and the subject of true interest comes bursting forth:] When did you get back, anyway?

[god_is_a_dude]

Just before the body-switching crap, more or less.

[...Figures she would go back to this]

[slaying]

Yeah--ditto here. [Looking thoughtful, like she's planning her conversation carefully in advance.]

[god_is_a_dude]

Pit I didn't see you there, I guess.

[...Snort]

[slaying]

Even if I had seen you, it's not like I would have remembered it.

[And so comes the clincher:] Do you remember again, this time?

[god_is_a_dude]

'Course I do. What I wanna know is why you don't.

[slaying]

I'm not just missing memories--I've got...fake ones, I guess. I don't remember being taken or gone or any of it.

[god_is_a_dude]

What, so you just have some weird gap or something?

[slaying]

Not really, no. I remember being here, but everyone else tells me I wasn't. Thinking back my memories of being here aren't exactly matching with the rest of my memory-outfit. More pastels and warm fuzzies than there should be.

[god_is_a_dude]

Huh. Well it could have been drugs or something. Iunno. I can't much say I recall the procedure this time, but... I recall the cells.

[...He trails off there]

[slaying]

Can you tell me what they were like?

[There's a new edge to her voice. The last time she questioned him? She had been curious. Now she wanted to force herself to remember.]