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deercountry2022-01-05 12:16 am
CRY FOR JUDAS [January Catch-All | OPEN]
What: A slayer arrives in Trench, finds a hole to hide in and gets ready to start slaying again.
When: Early January
Where: Around
Content Warnings: Will be tagged as needed.
I. (where judas went to die)
[It's been a few days since Faith's arrival, and for the most part she's shut herself up in an abandoned house in Crenshaw and left it at that. It used to be that she arrives in a town and immediately tries to establish herself as the toughest kid in the playground, but she's changed. Or she'd like to think she has, anyway.
She mostly leaves the house to get food, and when she does she comes back with bags full because frankly? Prison food fucking sucks.
One night, however, she decides she's going stir crazy from being pent up like this, and even though she didn't leave by choice, getting out of prison's something you're supposed to celebrate, not sit indoors and sulk about. So she'll find... something. She wonders aimlessly through Crenshaw late at night, and ends up at the docks with a bottle of whiskey and a plate full of gingerbread cookies. If she sees you coming she'll give a nod, but her stance around the cookies is protective. The whiskey she'll share but these cookies are hers.]
They always keep this marketplace runnin'? Figured it'd be cleared out by now.
II. (getting equipped)
[It's been a week by this point, and she's done sitting around moping. She's a slayer, and yeah, maybe she's not a good one, maybe she's an evil heartless bitch who fucked everything up because she was rotten to the core but she's a SLAYER. And there's plenty of things that need slaying.
She heads for Prufrock, starting with the whole weapons thing. She needs something with range. A bow or a crossbow or even a rifle, though she kinda doubts this place has much in the way of firearms. Eventually, she gets kind of lost and overwhelmed, so she'll stop a stranger and ask. And that stranger... is you!] Yo, help a girl out, you know where I can find something a bit less medieval? Like, long ranged crossbows and rifles and shit?
[Or alternatively, maybe she's visiting the Gate, to get some healthy slaying practice in. She thinks these people are wimps for coming and watching the real warriors kick the shit out of chained up animals but hey, Diana told her that some level of training's required before she goes out guns blazing and starts hunting for real.
And... as always, she was more or less exactly correct, and it makes Faith feel like shit to even think about. Maybe you've been paired up with her in a team, or she's just come out from fighting, or you're both just taking a break in between fights but Faith gives you a smile and a totally chill nod from a very chill and cool girl.] You got much experience in this? Killin' monsters n' shit?
iii. (i need noise, need the crack of a whip)
[And now she finds herself at the club. It was only inevitable. She's on night... 8? 9? And she's dancing in a crowd of people, feeling the rush of being surrounded by other people's heat and the music's rhythm bouncing against her skin. She's wearing tight leather pants and a tight fitting crop top that shows off a generous amount of her cleavage because Faith's isn't shy and she thinks modesty's a scam for virgins.
She needs to feel everything and nothing at once, because it's the only way she can silence the rage in her head and stop thinking. She does need a break every now and again, and she drops down into a sofa close to the bar that you just happen to be sitting next to and she lets out a breathless laugh.]
This place is dope as fuck. [And then she'll sort of slump lazily and turn to whoever she's next to.] You look like you could use a drink, huh? Makes two of us.
iv. (winter's mourning)
[She was just wandering about, hands in her pockets, patrolling the area for any monsters that need killing when suddenly she's gotten too close to a ritual that she had no idea about.
In a memory that's not hers, she looks around, alarmed at the new scenery.] What the fuck? Where am I?
no subject
[He's not really mad at Shawn anymore; they've both moved on, and Michael tends to get over things pretty quickly once they're over and done with. But he still thinks it was such a waste. It was never going to happen.
In the background, Eleanor's explaining the situation to the other humans. "Oh, it looks like paradise. But it's actually a filthy dumpster filled with our worst anxieties."
Shawn turns to the past Michael and asks witheringly, "Remember what I told you when you predicted you could do this for a thousand years?" That Michael's visibly upset, but the current one is more interested in talking about Janet now.]
She is! She wasn't supposed to be, but non-standard operating conditions or something - she definitely is. She's been helping the other Janets learn about personhood in her spare time.
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[She nods along with his explanation giving a kind of half smile. He really seems fond of his friends, it's a little adorable. It kind of reminds her of the Mayor in some ways.]
That's impressive. It's like that super old movie about the little puppet guy who wants to be a real boy so he starts lying his little wooden ass off? Pinnochiano or something.
I haven't actually seen it.
no subject
[Granted, he's had time since, but old Disney movies were not any kind of priority.
Eleanor and Michael are - begrudgingly in the latter case - explaining the situation to the rest of the humans further. Michael tunes it out. He knows that backwards and forwards, and watching his friends react isn't appealing.]
Can I just say? You're taking the whole "demon from torture hell" thing very well.
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[She crosses her arms and shrugs.] Beyond the fact that you've obviously already heard that enought aht you're lookin' at your past self and doin' the same thing, it's hardly like I've got any room to judge.
[She's actually tortured people. People who were trying to help her.]
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[Granted, he guesses he doesn't usually lead with this part. He did a lot of much worse things before he started in on this venture, the sort of things people usually picture when you mention torture hell.]
What I did to them here wasn't really that bad, all things considered. Could've been a lot worse - they're lucky they landed here with me. We all are. [He sighs, leaning against the back of the couch to watch them.] But I do still feel bad for trying so hard to hurt them. We're besties now, for real, so all the time I spent pretending to be just feels weird.
["You thought we would torture each other - and we did, for a little. But we also took care of each other. We improved each other. And the four of us became a team, so! The only thing you succeeded in doing was bringing us all together."
"Oh, Eleanor! That's it! My big mistake was bringing you all together - having you be soulmates, living next to each other. Next time, I'll spread you out, so it's more of a slow burn."
"Uh, NEXT time?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna erase your memories, make a few changes, and start over. Hopefully! Just gotta get the boss man to sign off. Wish me luck!" And with that, Michael's past self bounds out of the room. This being Michael's memory, Michael and Faith start to be dragged out after him.]
Woah, geez! [Michael grabs onto the couch - he's bringing the fucking couch, okay? Let's just slide on outside apparently.] I mean, I guess that makes sense. I know what they did in there, but I never saw it. Just found out later. In retrospect, I really shouldn't have told them what I was planning on doing - I was still very much in my "underestimating humans" phase, here.
no subject
There's nuances to this kind of thing. Some people really suck, some demons really rule, and some are just square in the middle.
[She never really had Buffy's whole biases and trust issues against vampires or demons conceptually, killing them was just her calling. She could hardly hate another animal of instinct and blood, those ones just happen to be more pre-disposed toward killing humans instead of vamps.
But... she slid into Buffy's skin and then she started to understand. Because it's wrong.
When the couch slides on out while Faith is thinking about her ex something, she tenses and grips onto the side hard, looking up at Michael alarmed.] The fuck?! God, that was freaky.
...What are they doing in there? [She will mercifully not share where her mind went immediately.]
no subject
Coming up with a plan to get around my whole reset. They knew I'd fix the environment, along with their memories, so Eleanor wrote herself a note and hid it in Janet. Only place I wouldn't look.
["So, whaddaya say - take two?"
"I don't know," Shawn grumbles. "I mean, what is this? All this work, for four people."
"The - the first attempt was actually very promising!" Michael insists. Alone with Shawn, there's little of that breezy confidence he showed to the humans left; he's trying, but it's coming off a little too desperate. "Let me just tinker a little, try again."
Shawn frowns. "Okay. But you're way out on a limb here, Michael. If this thing goes sideways again, you are done." Whatever that means, the past Michael seems to understand immediately; something like fear flickers across his face. The present Michael frowns at the scene.]
He's talking about retirement. It's the closest a demon can actually come to death. No offense, but what on Earth do you mean, you slay demons? You can actually kill them?
no subject
She nods along with Michael explaining retirement, and once again makes a note that this guy's boss seems like a real dick. She crosses her arms and slumps against the couch, letting out a snort of amusement when Michael asks if she can kill demons.]
Yeah? Ones on the human world, anyway. In Hell... I dunno, never been there. Most of what we deal with is just vampires, who other demons kinda look at as their fucked up ugly cousin, but we deal with all sorts of things, including demons. And they're sure as hell dead.
no subject
Oh, she's fantastic. Ruined this next attempt within a day. And then a whole lot more of them - it took me a long time to let myself be impressed by her, but it was impressive.
[Past Michael seems to be having a brief logistics touchpoint with Shawn and one of the other demons around now; it's not interesting. Michael folds a leg beneath himself, turning to try and peer back into the house. Can't see much, though, and he just looks around the Neighborhood instead.]
Huh. I mean, even a retired demon isn't really dead - their atoms get dispersed across the surface of a thousand burning suns, but you can still hear them screaming if you go out far enough. I actually had some people looking into whether or not they could be reconstituted... [But, well, now he's here, so that's somebody else's problem. He doesn't seem as though he was super emotionally invested in it anyway; it was really a matter of principle.] It's very rare for our kind to go to Earth. I've been, but the only people who tried to hurt me there were other demons, and they would have just dragged me back here to face justice.
'Course, we don't have vampires either. Probably would've fought one of those too, if we did.
no subject
Sounds like your world's a lot better off than ours, in that case. Ours is a fuckin' nightmare of constant near apocalypses. Town I came from had a hellmouth beneath it, meant that it attracted evil like honey attracts a fly. [And also her father figure/boss/corruptive influence built it to accomodate vampires and demons looking to feed or murder to their hearts content.]
Dunno what happens to 'em after I kill them, they might just go back to hell. I know my girl - err, my... friend's - my friend went to hell and he's a vampire, but he's got a soul so. [She shrugs. Don't ask about those two stutters. She'll bite you.]
no subject
Oh! Back inside now!
[The couch returns to its original position inside! They probably phased through the wall or something, it's weird.
"Alright!" Michael declares as he walks back in. "Let's try again, shall we?"
"You know what, bro?" Eleanor swaggers up to him, trying to get in his face as best as she can when she's more than a foot shorter than him. "Do your worst. We figured it out once, we can do it again. 'Cause you know what, Michael? Ya basi - "
The past Michael, smiling condescendingly at her, snaps his fingers. All the humans in the room immediately go limp. Over on the couch, current Michael's also focused on Eleanor, but he seems to be melting a little.]
Oh, Eleanor. Absolutely unstoppable. She was never once afraid of me when she figured it out, you know? I mean, maybe she was a little - trapped in Hell by a demon and all that - but she never let it show. Even stabbed me once! [He sighs wistfully.] I'm probably lucky she couldn't kill me.
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She glances at Michael as he gushes. It's a bit endearing, to be honest.]
Seems like a pretty big transition between the you in this memory and the one I'm lookin' at. How'd that happen?
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[Michael gestures vaguely - it's a long story, but that's sort of the gist of it.]
Things carried on from there. ["Alright, I'm going to go kill Janet now!"] They were really a lot better to me than I deserved.
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[She has no real right to say that, Buffy was so much better to her than she deserved.
That's the problem. She was better, and she needed to be better.]
Learnin' ethics as a way to teach you to be a better person seems like a pretty doomed method though.
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[Which obviously wouldn't have changed anything for him.]
She made me go to their classes and everything, that's what got us started hanging out. I gotta say, though, it was helpful once I decided to give a shit. Not like I had much of a way of knowing what was "moral". It's not exactly a list of good and bad things, but it can give you a framework for thinking about it, you know?
[This seems to be the end of the memory; everything just sort of unceremoniously comes to a halt. Michael stands.]
Oh, okay, I know this part. There's gonna be a giant deer.