9: [action | accidental audio]

[steadfastest]

[Today the Malnosso have seen fit to dump off a shivering person into the woods behind the grocery store. Xander is semi-conscious, bruised, and only clad in a pair of New Feather trousers. The journal might pick up a faint moaning sound, and maybe mumbling

Comments

[ action ]

[slaying]

[ at least it's somewhere closeish to the public eye and -- sometimes -- buffy takes a shortcut through the woods. but she doesn't usually come across a tied up xander.

but once she sees him she is immediately on her knees and tugging at the restraints. ] Xander...

[steadfastest]

[Buffy, you just get a groan of sort-of recognition because the boy is not feeling this whole "consciousness thing." At least he seems unaffected by the experiment.]

[slaying]

[ she aims to get the most of his skin off the cold snow -- propping him into a sitting position after dumping her mittens. she needs her fingers to free his hands. ]

[steadfastest]

Mmmmmmph. No.

action; /tl;drs everywhere.

[forbricated]

[ caroline still hates the red hair. the irony in her being given a look that caters to her subconscious desire to be everything she's not is that it didn't take away the insecurities that constantly plague her. instead of being insecure about being blonde, she's insecure about being a redhead. it's a never ending cycle for this neurotic vampire. she'll never be happy with herself.

but dear god, is she hungry. the stefan diet of animal blood after being on damon's blood bag diet, is starting to feel less and less fulfilling. she'd been told there was blood on tap at seventh heaven, so here she is, wandering in to scope out the place and decide if she can manage scoring herself any - though she's not quite at the point where she'd consider compelling someone to do it for her or take elena up on her offer to get it for her.

she's detoured from that mission, however, when she spots a familiar patch of dark hair. ]

...oh my god, Xander?

lol

[steadfastest]

[Xander has had a chance, since Buffy found him, to put on some clothes. Nothing more complicated than jeans and a tee shirt, with a heavy flannel shirt thrown over it all. He is in Seventh Heaven, leaning over a bowl of cereal, which, from the looks of it, might have once been Lucky Charms. Except now it's mostly mush. In spite of coming out of the kidnapping so hungry, Xand doesn't really have the heart to eat.

He looks up when he hears his name, a quizzical look on his face. He's not sure he knows this redhead who seems to know HIM, at any rate. Still...something about her is familiar...Caroline?]

...Yeah. Yeah, it's me.

action;

[forbricated]

[ caroline grins brightly and momentarily abandons her sulky mood, taking up a bar stool to his right. ]

Buffy was right! People do come back. ...you didn't come back wrong somehow, though, did you? She said sometimes there's side effects.

[steadfastest]

[The newly-returned guy scoops a mouthful of marshmallowy mush into his mouth as he thinks of an answer. Wrong? Everything SEEMED okay. He didn't want to eat anyone, like that time coming back from the zoo. He didn't think he was a soldier of some kind. No, everything seemed totally...ordinary.]

I think I'm okay, actually. The only side effect would be that I was the unfortunate Xander in their "Let's See Who Can Punch Xander the Hardest?" contest.

[Action]

[sonatas_edge]

[Soul is in Seventh Heaven for the sake of being somewhere he has acquaintances and new friends... and somewhere that has a piano. He walks by Xander on his way over to the bar to get a drink (of the non-alcoholic kind).]

Hm? [Oh hey, he remembers talking to you about that missing witch friend of yours. Soul never did find her, so he hopes you did. He stops.] ... Xander, right?

[Action]

[steadfastest]

Dude. That's me. [Xander squints up at this guy, a little blearily, as he stirs his cereal for the hundredth time.] Hey. You're...that Soul guy, right?

[Action]

[sonatas_edge]

Yeah. [Pause as he looks Xander over.] ... You look like hell.

[Action]

[steadfastest]

Yeaahhhh, I know. [He picks up a nearby coffee cup with a slightly shaking hand.] You want to sit down?

[sittingtype]

[ at some point, John will wander down to seventh heaven for a meal and to possibly get away from his housemate and monkey. it might be no chinese take-away like the ones back in London, but it's good enough for a man who is currently reaping the benefits of not being plagued by a phantom limp and feels like he has reached the peak of physical condition. ]

[steadfastest]

[Your up is Xander's down, Watson. The boy is probably looking distinctly like he could use a doctor at this point. It was his idea to go directly to Seventh Heaven from the clothing shop; the clinic probably would have been a better choice. At the moment, a deep bruise is obvious up the left side of his face, from jaw to eye. The marks run beneath the collar of his shirt, spreading into the worst of the bruising along his side and chest. It looks like someone threw him into a wall.]

[sittingtype]

[ when John spots him, it actually takes him a few seconds to come to the conclusion that the boy sitting at the table is actually the real Xander Harris, going by his injuries and not just someone affected by the latest experiment, like he had seen with Caroline's red hair and Ciel turning into a cake (and his own improvement, the nagging doubt in the back of his mind reminds him), and he walks over. ]

Xander? You're back, then. [ it's a dumb observation, but this might be the first time he has seen someone come back from a kidnapping. ] Are you all right?

[steadfastest]

Hey--hey, Doc. I'm...feeling like a side of meat that just went through the tenderizer.

/quietly leaves this placeholder action

[slayersidekick]

[ A finally herself again Willow is bundled up in a bunch of other clothes and trying to enjoy the fact that she's herself and not her girlfriend. But she can't help being sad about it, too. She misses Tara. She's kind of just wandering for the moment, but the sight of Seventh Heaven is nice. It's warm in there. And Buffy might be in there, too. So she pushes the door open and looks around-

-And has to pinch herself. ]

Xander? Xander!

[ She'll be good and not tackle hug him, but there's definitely a best friend hurrying over, Xand. ]

XD

[steadfastest]

Will! [Xander immediately stands up. But he is clumsy, and soon chocolate milk is streaming down the front of his pants.] WILLOW!

♥?

[slayersidekick]

[ She's... not paying attention because he's now getting hugged. ]

You came back! Luckier than I was. [ Which is fine with her. It means she doesn't have to try to magic him into submission or something. ]

H-how do you feel?

♥!!!11!!

[steadfastest]

[And Xander is wincing and catching his breath with that hug. The Malnosso might not have screwed with him other than the beatings, but the beatings were bad.]

Nnng. Kinda like if you took your big toe and continuously smashed it with a mallet. Sorta.