Four Bells: [Voice] Somewhat Unwell

[noprevaricating]

Doctor McCoy?

[It's Kennedy, and he sounds awful.  It's been a couple of days since he's left his room or contacted anyone over the journals.]

Are you in the clinic at the moment? Fever and aches aren't as much to my liking as I'd first thought. If I die before I make it there, please make sure Captain Jack stays out of my things until I return.

Comments

[ voice ]

[tothelibrary]

If you die?

[ this is not how we go about not worrying people, archie. ]

[ action ]

[noprevaricating]

[He hesitates, trying to think of how to approach this. He gestures toward the chair by the bed, from which Jilly had read to him.] Sit down. I'd like it if we... [Had a conversation? He gives a helpless shrug.] If you talked to me a little.

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[tothelibrary]

[ dawn's smile is pretty much edging in on radiant, and she abandons the books to come sit, tucking one leg underneath her and bringing the other up to rest her chin on her knee. ] It's a deal, but only if you talk back too.

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[noprevaricating]

Aye-aye, sir. [It's spoken with a gigantic grin. He coughs a little.] Tell me a story about Dawn Summers. A true one.

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[tothelibrary]

Something nautical, sailor. [ dawn considers stories for a second. most of the really interesting ones are also horrifying, but that's par for the course. and he asked for true, which means by the letter of the law no memories created via monk. (she's dreading explaining that one.) ] Okay, so. Once upon a time, there was a junior in high school named Dawn Summers. She lived in a house that used to seem pretty big, but once you filled it with really noisy teenage girls it got ridiculously small and suddenly barren of all the mochi-- it's a kind of ice cream-- said high school junior bought with her own money and stuck in the freezer to enjoy at an undecided later date.

[ she stops and grins, wryly. ]

...Just so you know there's no moral or happy ending here, they were always eating my food.

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[noprevaricating]

Was this the so-called army of Slayers?

[ action ]

[tothelibrary]

The soon to be super powered locusts, yup. [ she shifts position a little, stretching. ] What about you? I want to hear a true story about Archie Kennedy.

[ action ]

[noprevaricating]

Archie Kennedy. [He pretends to think hard.] I believe I've heard the name somewhere. Isn't he that devilishly handsome lieutenant who proposed like a fool to the prettiest woman in Luceti?

[ action ]

[tothelibrary]

[ dawn is starting to wonder if archie has a pavlovian type need make her turn bright red and tongue tied. she doesn't do lack of words-- she actually does surplus of words, ask anyone-- so it's a new and weird place to be.

...but buffy (and spike, admittedly) didn't teach her to stay quiet, so despite the red face she'll tease back. ]

I knew he was a serial proposer. You tell a guy you'll be his Cleopatra and he still asks other random hot girls to marry him. [ she's not debating his hotness, here. ]

[ action ]

[noprevaricating]

[Or his foolishness, for the matter. He doesn't press the matter that she has the only proposal he's given here. Instead, he breathes out a thoughtful sigh.] A true story about him. Well. [Most of his true stories are about Horatio. That, or stories about him and Horatio getting drunk and doing stupid things, and she doesn't need more cause to think he's a drunkard.]

What sort of true story?

[ action ]

[tothelibrary]

[ dawn is actually of the opinion archie is both the niftiest thing since sliced bread and not at all foolish, but that's neither here nor there. ] How about... one from when you were a kid.

[ she pauses, fiddles with the hem of her pants. in for a penny... ] I could tell you one, too. If you don't mind a looser, more philosophical version of truth.

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[noprevaricating]

Philosophical truth? [He grins.] What does that mean?

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[tothelibrary]

Um. [ saying anything at all was an impulse, and dawn shrugs helplessly. how do you explain 'oh, and then monks made me so all my memories before i was fourteen are fake' to someone without saying the actual words? ] So, my world's all magic-y, right? Well. Me as a kid is... I mean. Memories are real because you believe them, and they're subjective anyway so if a bunch of people remember something, it becomes the truth in a more philosophical way.

[ hopefully archie can read between the babble lines, because he's actually the first person she's told herself about this, and it's not the easiest thing ever. ]

[ action ]

[noprevaricating]

[He watches her carefully, his fevered brain trying to piece it together.] You remember things that didn't happen?

[He doesn't make the leap to "artificially created," of course, but he gets what she's hinting at. It sounds like madness, but he can hardly leap to conclusions about that sort of thing. He's seen things that don't exist, and isn't mad (anymore), so why couldn't she remember things that didn't happen? Wait, she said a lot of people remembered...and now he looks confused.]

[ action ]

[tothelibrary]

[ she nods, still fiddling with her hem. ] Like... fourteen years of things. It's complicated and I should probably explain when you're not all grody and sick.

[ right, looking at the person you're talking to. dawn looks up and offers a tiny smile. ] Sorry, I've never actually told anyone this myself. People either already knew or I didn't talk about it, so... it's a little weird.

[ action ]

[noprevaricating]

Fourteen years? On top of your other memories? [She can't bring this up and then just let it go.]