(Untitled)

[steedtoherpeel]

It'd been a very long time since he'd had the luxury of sleeping in late or lazing about, and his body was out of the habit. He sat up with a jerk and took stock of the scene while he tried to work the twinge out of his back. He was surrounded by dark wood, tall shelves, ancient books. He had clearly fallen asleep over his work

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[dishabille_mal]

Maladicta had been in a patently bad mood since the start of what had to be her very least favorite month. The mists, fog, rain and permeating gloom reminded her of her dearly departed Uberwald. Uberwald, the place she'd left for Borogravia, because it had been preferable to Uberwald. The fact that the sun was shining over the gloom and, occasionally, both through and during the rain just sort of pissed her off more. She also found herself humming Walking in Sunshine on occasion and was not terribly amused by it, even though the only person to blame for it was herself

[steedtoherpeel]

He'd crouched down to begin gathering up his things and jumped at the voice. "... it isn't the worst I've ever made." He gave the woman a thin smile. "Can I help you?"

[dishabille_mal]

"I was about to say the same," Maladicta replied, still smiling. She absently deposited the spanking red jacket on a handy tree bough, and walked over to crouch easily and on the balls of her feet with, of course, somewhat infuriatingly perfect balance, to pick up a Dictionary.

"Though you'll excuse me if I don't touch the silver or the killing bits, old habits die hard. Er, so to speak."

[steedtoherpeel]

... well, that was not particularly comforting. Of course, if you're transported while performing an exorcism, ending up in some demonic dimension wasn't out of the question. "I see. Dare I ask?" He spotted the book in her hands and reached for it.

[fangyandgrr]

Spike had been in a rotten mood ever since Buffy's headstone had appeared, and the familiar figure on the beach didn't do anything to help it. "Sodding hell, not you again," he grumbled, nearly turning and heading back the way he'd come.

[steedtoherpeel]

"I could say the same to you," he said, half irritated and half relieved. "But I'll restrain myself. Dare I ask what's happened?"

[fangyandgrr]

"Oh god, I have to give the bloody song-and-dance, don't I?" Spike heaved a heavy, put-upon sigh. "You're on an island. No one knows how you got here or how to get back home. Oh, and I'm human here. Surprise!" His mouth twisted into something approaching a smirk.

[steedtoherpeel]

Hm.

He considered that for a moment.

"Congratulations," he settled on, repacking his case carefully. He wasn't sure if he should accept this or rail at his subconscious for not offering something more entertaining as delusion.

[callmecassandra]

She didn't really mind the starting rain, or even the chilly weather, but her laptop did. Thankfully, Jill'd offered her hut when Babs spoken weeks ago about coming to the beach. Her innocence was almost refreshing - honestly, if Babs was still back home, she probably would have taken the girl under her wing for a few months.

Robin did good work.

In any case, she was working on bundling up a few things where she sat on a blanket on the edge of the sand, her wheelchair not more then a few feet behind her and to the left. She noticed the man when he'd appeared, of course, but what caught her nose was both the sulfuric smell of burnt circuitry, and the sharp, ugly tang of burning plastic. She heard him before she'd the chance to say anything - Bugger.

British, then. She looked up from where she was sitting some dozen feet from him. "Do you need some help?"

[steedtoherpeel]

He carefully pried the no-longer-on-fire laptop out of the sand and shook it out just a little. "I'm afraid," he said, offering her a rather wry smile, "that I'm somewhat beyond help at the moment. Or at the very least, this is."

[callmecassandra]

She held out her hands for it, hoping he'd take the hint of the chair and her not getting up. "Can I see it? Parts of it may be salvagable."

She paused. She supposed, if she thought about it, that-

And then she got a good look.

And then the accent.

Barbara, as much as she wasn't a fan, would have had to be dead to have not seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She was more of a Wendy fan herself, but Anthony Stewart Head was more then just Giles, but like this-

She'd not actually seen anyone appear out of thin air before. "You're new here, aren't you?"

[steedtoherpeel]

"Just a moment." He gathered up the rest of his things rather hurridly, making sure to keep the athame and stakes tidily in the back of the bag. He scooped it all up and brought the laptop to her.

"Terribly new, I'm afraid." He offered the still faintly warm MacBook. "I'll be honest; I won't be upset if it's beyond repair." A slight pause. "Frankly, it deserves what it got."

[scoobys_heart]

Despite the rain, Xander still liked to take the long route home from the compound. Things were still tense with him and Clark so really, the less time at home the better. Give the other teenager space, that's what Xander was doing...or so he rationed in his head.

His mood and slump of his shoulders about matched the weather...until his head popped up at a familiar voice saying a familiar name. When it was followed by a British slang word in a voice that was definitely not Spike's voice, Xander took off running.

He stopped only a few feet from the man, restraining the urge to just hug the man. "Giles?" He asked in a small voice that he should be embarrassed about, but after the month he'd had...he couldn't bring himself to care.

[steedtoherpeel]

He looked up as the boy skidded to a stop in front of him -- he would never stop thinking of them as children -- and then his face broke into a relieved expression. "Xander." A familiar face. Thank god. A familiar, competent face.

"Are you all right?"

[scoobys_heart]

Well, in this case Giles was right. This Xander was about five years and one-eye younger then the one he left. The thought did occur to Xander to ask Giles when he was from, about what was happening at home...but it all went out the window when Giles spoke and confirmed, that yes, this was Giles and not some clone from another universe and therefore the island just adding insult to injury.

Being only slightly careful of his broken hand, Xander flung himself forward and hugged Giles tightly. "Am now." He said, slightly muffled against Giles' shoulder.

[steedtoherpeel]

He wrapped his arms around Xander, abandoning his attache case for the moment. He'd noticed the second eye and broken hand, and that'd be asked about -- but later. Once Xander allowed him to breathe again.

He patted Xander's shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry. We'll figure it out."

[nobledonna]

Donna hadn't exactly been getting out of the Compound much lately, what with her tropical vacation (which was how she was forcing herself to think of it lest she decide she was insane instead) suddenly turned rather soggy. Still, there came a point when a little bit of rain was preferable to another moment in that stuffy concrete fortress, and so she'd tromped outside into the mud, holding a copy of Cosmopolitan, which she planned to hold over her head if it started beating down too hard.

She hadn't gotten terribly far when she saw the man with the flaming laptop. And here she thought she was one of those people that always tended to break computers just by touching them.

"Oi," she said, "I think that voids the warranty."

[steedtoherpeel]

"Good," he said, quite honestly. "I never liked that machine anyway." Well, at least he was still apparently in England, or at least near enough that there were English folk about.

He kicked a little extra sand over top of the machine to make sure it was out for good and bent over to pick it up and brush it off. The scorch marks were satisfying to see. He offered a brief smile to the woman. "Could you tell me where I am?"

[nobledonna]

Oh, bugger. "You're new, then," she sighed. "Sorry, mate, I'm so not the one to be giving you the run-down, as I'm still half convinced I'm just going mad myself. You didn't turn up in a blue box did you?"

[steedtoherpeel]

Ah, well then. That makes some sense at least -- at least the sort of sense that being tossed to another dimension always made. "I'm afraid not. What you see is what I have."