Prompt 174 -- Sea Change
Title: Sea Change
Author: mabus101
Rating: PG
Word Count: 476
Prompt: 174 -- Water
Characters: Dawn
A/N: This was inspired by the recent discussions regarding Dawn's seemingly-lapsed Keyness, as well as much older discussions about the monks of Dagon. Regrettably, given the prompt, I couldn't work Dagon the fish-god and the Cthulhu mythos in--I hear Dawn's been linked with that too. Cut line from Eliot's "The Dry Salvages".
"You could have made me anything," she said. "A lab rat, a rock in the desert, a book in the Sunnydale library...a drop of water in the ocean."
"Would you rather have been that?" the monk asked. "Don't you like your life? We could--"
"I like it!" she answered hastily. "Being human is good, really, really good. I just mean...I was kind of obvious once she had some idea what she was looking for. You could have made the Key impossible to find."
"I wonder," said the monk, "if you really understand the difficulty of the problem. Glorificus was attuned to the Key, drawn to it. Given time, she could have found it no matter where my brothers placed it."
"But she didn't have time," Dawn insisted. "She had to perform the ritual. Everything had to be just right, including the timing. The next alignment won't come around again for thousands of years, and I really hope I'm not still alive then, cause we'd be talking serious wrinkles."
"True," the monk agreed. "The ritual. Tell me, what else did the ritual entail? Go on--even if I were an impostor, you have just pointed out that the details will do me little good."
"Well, um...she had to bleed me. Or I had to be bled, anyway."
"And does a drop of water have blood?" The monk's eyes twinkled.
"Wait, are you saying you wanted the ritual to go through?" Dawn's jaw clenched. "What, you wanted the world destroyed?"
The monk began to chuckle, then noticed her fist balling up and stopped. "Dear me, no. The Key was meant to be used. It could have been used in any form. What we did was make it difficult. We gave the Key will."
"Will?"
"A mind of its own. Your mind." The monk sighed. "Of course, anything can be subverted. But we made that subversion as difficult as possible. My brothers shaped the Key into a form that would make bending its power to the use of another possible only for a brief window of time, under problematic circumstances. Given more time to work, perhaps we might have set that window at an even more advantageous period for you, but she attacked too soon. Your energies can never again be drawn on by another. Well--I should not say 'never'--again, any conditions might be bent somehow--time travel, perhaps? But it would be difficult beyond measure."
Dawn puzzled that over. "By another?"
"As I said, Miss Summers...we gave the Key will. And you are the Key."
"I'm just a girl."
"You are a girl. But we did not make you to be just another drop in the ocean. You are the seafarer. And one day, when you are ready, you will set sail. That is why I have come--to wish you a grand journey."
Author: mabus101
Rating: PG
Word Count: 476
Prompt: 174 -- Water
Characters: Dawn
A/N: This was inspired by the recent discussions regarding Dawn's seemingly-lapsed Keyness, as well as much older discussions about the monks of Dagon. Regrettably, given the prompt, I couldn't work Dagon the fish-god and the Cthulhu mythos in--I hear Dawn's been linked with that too. Cut line from Eliot's "The Dry Salvages".
"You could have made me anything," she said. "A lab rat, a rock in the desert, a book in the Sunnydale library...a drop of water in the ocean."
"Would you rather have been that?" the monk asked. "Don't you like your life? We could--"
"I like it!" she answered hastily. "Being human is good, really, really good. I just mean...I was kind of obvious once she had some idea what she was looking for. You could have made the Key impossible to find."
"I wonder," said the monk, "if you really understand the difficulty of the problem. Glorificus was attuned to the Key, drawn to it. Given time, she could have found it no matter where my brothers placed it."
"But she didn't have time," Dawn insisted. "She had to perform the ritual. Everything had to be just right, including the timing. The next alignment won't come around again for thousands of years, and I really hope I'm not still alive then, cause we'd be talking serious wrinkles."
"True," the monk agreed. "The ritual. Tell me, what else did the ritual entail? Go on--even if I were an impostor, you have just pointed out that the details will do me little good."
"Well, um...she had to bleed me. Or I had to be bled, anyway."
"And does a drop of water have blood?" The monk's eyes twinkled.
"Wait, are you saying you wanted the ritual to go through?" Dawn's jaw clenched. "What, you wanted the world destroyed?"
The monk began to chuckle, then noticed her fist balling up and stopped. "Dear me, no. The Key was meant to be used. It could have been used in any form. What we did was make it difficult. We gave the Key will."
"Will?"
"A mind of its own. Your mind." The monk sighed. "Of course, anything can be subverted. But we made that subversion as difficult as possible. My brothers shaped the Key into a form that would make bending its power to the use of another possible only for a brief window of time, under problematic circumstances. Given more time to work, perhaps we might have set that window at an even more advantageous period for you, but she attacked too soon. Your energies can never again be drawn on by another. Well--I should not say 'never'--again, any conditions might be bent somehow--time travel, perhaps? But it would be difficult beyond measure."
Dawn puzzled that over. "By another?"
"As I said, Miss Summers...we gave the Key will. And you are the Key."
"I'm just a girl."
"You are a girl. But we did not make you to be just another drop in the ocean. You are the seafarer. And one day, when you are ready, you will set sail. That is why I have come--to wish you a grand journey."