06 . the sleepy town expedition.

[necrolord]

Who: necrolord, Gideon, Harrow, Paul, Kaworu, "Shannon," Mako, Ford, Shiro, Ruby, Luna, Faith, Willow, Ezra, Zhongli, Perell.
What: An intentional family-and-friends roadtrip to a forbidden holy ruin. A less-intentional catacombs adventure.
When: 3/14.
Where: Sleepy Town and the Catacombs.

Content Warnings: Sleepy Town-typical themes of grief, loss, and surreal landscapes. Catacombs-typical horror per the March event. Also, note all the usual warnings of this character.

[ See this doc for info! ]

Comments

[slayerskiss]

Why're you apologizing? Not your fault you were murdered. [If Willow blames herself at all, Faith might punch her in the mouth. She gets enough of that from Tara.]

I get it. I don't even know if I want her here. [For many reasons, some selfless, some selfish. Even more selfish are the resons she does want her here.] Feels weird making our bed on my own, though.

[frogfear]

No, I mean the whole repeating myself thing.

[It's frustrating more than anything. Repeating conversations that she's already had that she simply can't recall. She's already had her moment of wondering whatever possessed her to leave the safety of the house with Maul, and that's passed quickly into holding him solely responsible for her death, even if he was under the influence of one of Trench's monsters at the time.]

In Deerington, I was always really torn between missing my friends, and not wanting to wish a literal nightmare town on anyone.

[The last reference flies over Willow's head with their previous conversations lost to her, and she just looks puzzled.]

Huh? Buffy used to help you make your bed?

[slayerskiss]

Still hardly your fault, though. [Faith shrugs.

She wonders, not for the first time, what it's like to have friends you miss. She doesn't miss Buffy. That'd be... unfair. Stupid. She's better off without her. She's not allowed to miss her.

She just wants closure.]

I think it was our bed? [She doesn't seem too bothered. It was their bed.] Apparently having two slayers at once means we're just along for the ride in all the bullshit prophetic dreams. Most of them were just me and her in an apartment, full of unpacked boxes, and an unmade double bed. So we'd just... make the bed.

Now it's just me making it.

[frogfear]

It's just... frustrating sometimes. Not being able to remember stuff. It makes everything way more complicated, and no solution in sight so far.

[Not that she ever would have wanted anyone to undertake the weight of the sacrifice Deeringon seemed to require from her circle of friends to restore a lost memory. Oscar had lost a leg to help one of his friends, and Ironwood had sacrificed an arm for Ozpin.

She's quiet for a moment as she contemplates the dream, and the possible interpretations of Buffy and Faith, making the bed together in a still packed apartment. Then the deeper meaning of Faith now making it alone.]

That kind of makes sense, with being connected by the source of your power and all. That sharing dreams might be a thing. Not seeing her now could mean a lot of things... it could even just be because this is a totally different world from home.

[slayerskiss]

Yeah, I mean... I get it. I don't know, have you asked Bones or Ozpin about it? There might be some solution. [She shrugs. She's not exactly an optimist but she figures Willow needs the boost at least.]

I think it's just that she's... not here. Whenever we were there together, neither of us could really say whose mind we were in, hers or mine, the only thing I was sure of was that we were both having the same dream. [It still doesn't surprise her that Buffy kept that to herself. She wonders, internally, if Willow ever figured out that she was lying when she said she didn't get off on murder.] I still get Slayer dreams. Had a couple about the Leviathan.

She's just wholly absent, I guess. It's weird.

[frogfear]

I haven't asked our friend here, no. A bunch of us at home are already working on it, though, and Ozpin's looking into it too. We'll figure it out, though. It's just taking longer than I'd like.

[It makes an odd amount of sense, not being able to tell whose mind they were in, or whose dream it started out as. Even Buffy's absence from Faith's dreams now seems reasonably able to be explained away.]

That'd be my guess - why Buffy's not in your dreams now, I mean. That it's because there's now a whole different world separating the two of you.

[slayerskiss]

Well... you'd been working on regaining your magic for a while too. This is rich as fuck coming from me, but you just sort of have to be patient with these things. [She shrugs.

She nods along to Willow's explanation, giving one last parting glance to the statue.] Yeah. Guess so...

Well... there's a whole lot more around this place. Feel like taking a tour? You know more landmarks than I do.

[frogfear]

Oh, I know... I feel like forgetting everything means I lost a lot of ground on the magic front too.

[She lets out a sigh. She's trying not to feel discouraged, but it certainly hasn't been easy by any stretch. Faith is right, though, she knows the situation calls for an infinite amount of patience. It doesn't make it easy.

She tears her attention away from the statue, and nods.]

Yeah, let's go take a look around. Maybe we can even find some stuff that got left behind or something.