itinere | Beginnings are hard | Open Network + Action

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Beginnings are hard | Open Network + Action

[Action + Network]

Action

Two seconds earlier, Buffy had been walking toward the room in the Alpha Complex that she didn’t share with anyone. She’d opened the door, stepped through and started to unzip the orange jumpsuit she wore. Two seconds ago she’d been in an underground complex and now...she wasn’t.

Her hand freezes on the zipper of her jumpsuit then falls to her side (it’s only unzipped about an inch).

“Toto...I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” she murmurs. She’s pretty sure she’s not in San Francisco either. There are some pretty important landmarks missing, like the bridge, and the beach looks suspiciously more like the one in Sunnydale than in San Francisco. This calls for an exploration, and some damn information. If she were more certain about the population here, she might find something inhuman and evil to beat information out of, but since nothing is jumping out at her to volunteer, she’s going to have to stick to finding things out in a much more polite way.

She really wishes (for the billionth time since being pulled into the Alpha Complex) that she wasn’t wearing a bright orange jumpsuit. She’s pretty sure it doesn’t inspire trust in anyone. She slips her hands into her pockets as she starts to walk and finds the PDA that was definitely not there before. Her brow furrows and she starts poking at buttons, eventually pulling up the network:

text

Echo one nine, is anyone there? I’m pretty sure I just mixed my military and trucker walkie etiquette, but seriously? Is anyone there?

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[ She could be cautious and wary with Buffy around. Just saying. However, if they're stuck here, Buffy is happy to have her sister with her. At least she can fight the threats against her rather than trusting someone else will.]

Those are the kinds of Christmases I can handle. We could do a photo card. Spike is here?

[ That's going to complicate things ~~or so she thinks~~.]

Where are you? I'm coming to find you. I think a sister hug is in order. Also me checking to make sure you're the right size, species and not a robot.

[ Knowing Spike and Buffy's history, Dawn feels a little awkward talking about Spike with her sister. But in her world, Buffy has been busy with police and government and Spike and Dawn have gotten very close. So, it is what it is. Right? ]

Yeah. He's safe.

[ Safe as in not evil!Spike and safe as in not going up in flames. Maybe that accounts for everything. Probably not. ]

I'm on main street, right next to a park with an awesome looking playground. Definitely hug time. I swear I'm normal size and that I didn't do this!

[ It's a little awkward for Buffy as well. Things are different when (where) Buffy has come from. That's going to be a fun conversation. ]
Good. You haven't seen Willow or Xander, have you?

[ Because with three of them showing up here at once, it feels purposeful and that's not a good thing. Her assurances that Spike is safe do cover a lot of bases. She assumes Dawn would have used different words if Spike were evil. ]brb

True to her word, Buffy finds the park with the playground in some what record time. When she sees Dawn, she breaks into a jog, moving toward her sister and enveloping her in a hug. Maybe there's some sort of bigger evil reason for them being here together, but at this moment, she doesn't care. She's just so glad to see Dawn safe and sound.

Negatory on the rest of the scooby gang. I'm still trying to figure this place out so that we can tell if they're here or not.

[ But why bring just some and not all. Dawn is hyper worried about this because she's always been concerned about being used against Buffy for something again. She never wants Buffy to have to quit or lose or give her life for her again. ]

--

When she spots her sister, however, it becomes a slow motion movie scene cause Dawn is jogging toward her too. The only thing that keeps it real is that Dawn stops short and stutter start stops into a hug instead of making a crashing, or even smooth, transition. Yep, very Dawn, very Summers girl-y.

"You know we have to quit meeting like this, all apocalypse-y but in a Stepford kind of way." She realizes that her sister is holding on longer than usual. Harder. Just... more. "Hey, I just saw you yesterday, ya know."

Buffy is more worried that someone is getting them all out of the way for some reason. It's probably for the better that Dawn slows and stutter stops. Buffy would have knocked her down and felt bad about it.

"We really do. I like it better when we meet over the coffee pot in the morning." Yes, she's holding on harder and longer. When Dawn says she saw her yesterday, Buffy loosens her hold a little and shakes her head. "But I didn't see you yesterday. I haven't seen you in two months. I was--there was this place underground with awful fashion sense. I was there and you weren't."

That hasn't even occurred to Dawn yet. She thinks they've been brought here for a reason, that maybe they've been pulled into another universe for a reason, a spell maybe, summoning help. Which means there's probably a big bad here somewhere. She has no idea who or what it might be, but anything this seemingly perfect has to have a seedy underbelly.

When Buffy pulls back to explain the impossible to her, Dawn's features scrunch up and she shakes her head before finally coming around to acceptance. They both know that impossible things are possible.

"You were in another place with awful fashion sense? That's gotta be one of the other universes that Anya used to tell us about but in a very 'we're not in Kansas anymore' kind of way. Were there munchkins? Please say there weren't munchkins. Are you okay?" She's looking her sister over now for any bumps or bruises.

Buffy tends to see the worst in a situation because she often sees the worst of a situation. The helping thing would be a much better reason to be here. Like Dawn, she suspects there's a seedy underbelly as well, or at least a load of dangers. The upsides to this place is it has Dawn and she's got her slayerness. She can handle most anything else thrown her way.

She wishes it weren't the truth, but she wouldn't lie to Dawn about something like that. Besides, Dawn can probably feel it in the way Buffy holds on a little too tight, a little to long.

"The food was much of the yuck too." Dawn's wording make Buffy smile. "That's kind of exactly what I said when I showed up here." About Kansas, she means. "No munchkins and no singing. There was a wizard, sort of, but in the creepy detached way, not the friendly medal giving way." Buffy squeezes Dawn a little. "I'm fine. I'm okay. You too?" she asks, tucking a strand of Dawn's hair behind her ear.

That's something Dawn has come to learn about her sister as she's gotten older. Buffy thinks of and does the harder things so that others don't have to. Others, including Dawn herself, maybe most importantly Dawn herself. If there's anything Dawn has the most clarity on now, it's her sister and she's glad for that. She sees Buffy clearer now than she ever has. And Dawn likes to think that Buffy sees her too, that she's strong and can help even if she doesn't do all of the heavy lifting as her sister does.

Her nose wrinkles at mention of yucky food. They're all spoiled, of course, having the creature comforts that they do. Once thing can change and ruin an entire experience. "Well I passed by a grocery store earlier so we know there's food here, like, yummy real food. We can gorge ourselves on frozen dinners and ravioli." Yes, this is real food. "I'll probably be performing some of my famous food experimentation too so... prepare yourself to be a taste-tester extraordinaire."

Assurances that Buffy is okay are welcome because she's seen too much and been through too much not to believe that Buffy had been somewhere else where time moved differently or whatever so that Dawn still had Buffy where she was. Buffy's been through some stuff that Dawn wasn't there for and Dawn doesn't like that one bit. "More than okay. I'm rocking school and helping you when I'm not studying. Of course now I guess that's on hold, but... yay no school?"

It's just sort of what Buffy does. She knows that Dawn is strong and capable and that she can help. It's never really been the problem with letting Dawn help. The problem is that if something happens to Dawn, Buffy won't be able to function. She's got this idealized idea of what Dawn's life should be like, what she wants Dawn's life to be like and it's hard to let go of that. She's beginning to, slowly and she's starting to get to the point where she just wants Dawn to be happy. If that means helping the scoobies out, Buffy is willing to go with it, at least to a point.

They are spoiled and Buffy hadn't realized how spoiled until she'd ended up in the Complex. "And pizza. Don't forget the pizza." Definitely real food. It's not as if Buffy is much of a cook. "Just leave off the anchovies if I'm taste testing," she requests with a pleading expression.

It's a relief to have Dawn accept her story without question. She knows it's a difficult idea to wrap one's brain around, but it had happened. Honestly, she's just glad that the others didn't have to worry about her. Buffy smiles at that, finally releasing Dawn. "The sister part of me wants to celebrate, but the school counselor part of me wants to encourage you to keep learning and don't fall behind."

She takes out the PDA and electronic key she'd found in her jumpsuit pocket. "Want to go check out this apartment they've got for us?" Yes, she's assuming Dawn is staying with her.

"Oh my gosh..." Dawn says the words dramatically as they start walking together through the streets. She even adds an over-the-top eyeroll just to push her teasing over that edge as she likes to do. "How can you not like anchovies? They're the caviar for people who don't actually like caviar."

Dawn got the same key card and is quick to nod. "I so wanna check out the new apartment. This whole place has that too good to be true feeling. But hopefully.... nope, I'm not even gonna say it. Yay new apartment!"

She links arms with Buffy, just for the contact, both for her because she likes having the reassurance of Buffy being there and for Buffy since apparently she was in some other place where there was no sister time. "It's not like I'm lacking in smarts. And I have my laptop and kindle so there'll be plenty of reading. I even saw a bookstore here that I'm gonna check out later. So never fear, I'll keep wording... some of it not even fictional."

"Because they are tiny, oily fish," Buffy responds. "I don't like caviar either. Or fish, unless it's fried and in a sandwich." She's kind of a picky eater, she's realizing, or at least she was pre-soylent days. Right now, she might pick anchovies over more soylent. "Face it. You're a food weirdo," she chimes, teasing as well.

"Definitely sticking with yay new apartment." Of course, now her brain is spinning with all the ways that the new apartment could go wrong. It could be gross. It could have nothing but anchovies or it could be haunted. Nope, definitely shouldn't go down that road, and yet...

The contact is appreciated for both reasons, but for Buffy it's the reassurance that Dawn is there and she's Dawn. Honestly, she's okay with it just being her and Dawn and no one else, but she will be reassured to have other people she cares about here, which is probably wrong but it is what it is. Even superheroes aren't perfect. "Sounds like a plan, Stan. Do you ever wonder who Stan is and why his name gets used so much?"

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Beginnings are hard | Open Network + Action

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