Tara Maclay (
insectreflection) wrote in
bigapplesauce2015-03-31 05:28 am
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Strong like an Amazon [OPEN]
"Your shirt," Tara says, her brow knitting in a worried frown. It's spattered with red.
The last thing she sees is Willow's horrified face, as she collapses and everything goes dark. She doesn't have time to consider what this means. It just seems to happen.
And then she's... elsewhere.
Everything is soft and warm, and she know Willow's all right. She must be grieving, she must be in pain, but she will be okay. She has her friends, and she's strong. She'll heal and prosper and be safe. So will the rest of her friends. It's all going to be okay.
She doesn't know how long she's there. It can't be too long, but time seems to have no meaning.
And then she's not. The sunlight is harsh and bright, and there's all this noise. Traffic.
A lot of traffic, all around her. She's... in the middle of a round-about? It takes several long minutes for her to take in her surroundings. Gigantic buildings, tourists, cars. The noise is deafening. She looks down at herself, her jeans and blue sweater... the dark red stain and hole in her sweater, just over her heart. She touches it, but the skin there is unharmed, whole.
How did she get here? Where is here? The questions are too many for her to order in her mind, and she's not sure exactly what's happening. She has to collect herself for a minute to stop from panicking.
And she seems to be stuck atop the base of a monument. The granite is warm against her back, and it's just a little too far down for her to feel comfortable jumping. Especially given how shaky she currently feels.
"E-excuse me," she calls out to a passer-by. "I'm sorry, c- could you help me?"
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"Hey," he calls back, waving and darting to the monument's base. She seems okay from here, just startled and disoriented, pretty much the norm for someone who's just been torn from their universe and unceremoniously dumped into another. "You're gonna be okay, don't worry." Maybe they should start with the more immediate problem. The more immediate, much more explainable problem. "Just, uh - we're gonna get you down, all right?"
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She nods nervously, scooching carefully towards the edge and letting her feet down over the edge. At least the guy she called over is tall and strong-looking. He can probably catch her if she falls. Not wanting to jump from here, she carefully turns over and lets herself down the ledge as gently as possible, grateful when Daniel makes sure she gets down okay.
"Um, th-thank you," she says, stepping back and tucking her hair behind her ears.
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"It's okay," he says again, moving back to give her the benefit of space and hovering one hand halfway between a reassurance and a wave of greeting. "This is, um. I know it's a lot to take in at, at first. You're, ah." Puzzlement ripples across his features briefly as he determines the best way to put it, then decides there really isn't any point. It'll hit just as hard either way. But there's no keeping the note of apology from his voice as he continues, softly, "you're in another universe."
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"Is this, uh," she begins, wringing her hands a little and tugging at her sleeves. Her last memories are starting to make themselves painfully clear in her mind. "Is this s-some sort of after-life?"
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Okay, so that's going to have to be added to Daniel's mental FAQ - doubly so, considering he'd briefly wondered the same thing himself.
Suddenly the obvious, if oddly nonexistent, bullet wound makes a lot more sense. He grimaces.
"No," he says gently. "Just a normal - well, I wouldn't say normal. But, uh, pretty sure it's nothing like that. You came through a Rift. Space-time distortion, actually kind of frequent here."
He keeps his tone level, almost conversational, trying to stagger the information flow somewhat. It's the most he can do to make this transition less overwhelming or terrifying than it probably already is.
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"Like a portal," she says, more to herself than anything else. How does he know this? It doesn't seem like he's the one who brought her here.
She's about to ask where exactly 'here' is, when she realises she doesn't even know his name, and here he's talking to her about space-time distortions. "Um, sorry, I'm Tara," she introduces herself awkwardly. She tries for a smile that barely clocks half a second.
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God, was she shot literally seconds before she came here? That might be an uncommon thing to have in common with a person, brushing against death, so he leaves that where it is. For now, anyway.
"Daniel." His second attempt is a sadder, if somewhat more successful, tug at one corner of his mouth. "I know it's, it's kind of a lot. You're on Earth," and hopefully that's a reassurance and not deeply unsettling that Earth would be included in the standard introductory fare, "and you're in Manhattan, New York. August, 2013."
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"I've been dead for eleven years?" she continues, this piece of information hitting a little harder than the other ones for some reason. Her brain is still catching up with her. She's doing to need to sit down. She's just going to... sit down right here, on these nice stone steps.
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The bullet hole did make it fairly obvious, and questions about the afterlife on top of it.
He slides down onto the steps next to her, expression tightening in sympathy.
"I'm sorry," he murmurs finally, fully aware of how useless it is as a consolation. "Your shirt, it's - well. I saw the injury. I wasn't sure you were aware of it."
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"I was..." she begins, not sure if this is really something he needs to know, but she'd like to go through it for her own sake. "I was in my room, and Willow was standing in front of me. And then there were these loud noises, and suddenly Willow had red on her, and.. and she looked... so scared." Her face twists in despair at recalling Willow's expression. She never wants to see her girl like that. They'd been so happy, finally, after everything that happened.
She draws a shaky breath, her vision having become somewhat blurry. "And then I passed out, and I was somewhere else.. Somewhere warm and bright. And then... I woke up here," she forces herself to continue.
She doesn't know if she was ever dead, if that's what it was that she remembers, but she certainly would've been if she hadn't ended up here. Judging by the holes in her sweater.
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Some days he really, really loathes the Rift.
Daniel wishes he could promise some measure of safety here. His brow creases, shoulders dropping.
"You're okay now," he says softly. "And you are alive, I can tell you that. We haven't figured out any ways back but, uh." His smile grows wry, quietly self-deprecating in an attempt to lighten the weight of everything she's just said. "Well, I can also say you're not the only one who's, ah, died before coming here."
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She blinks in surprise at the news she isn't the only one though. How can they really know it's not some form of after-life then? Well, presumably not everyone dies first. Though given the possibility of dying in your sleep, or too fast to notice, how would they even know for sure?
"Did... did you...?" she asks, looking over at him, letting the question hang unfinished.
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"I guess my point here would be," he swings back toward sympathy almost immediately, meets her gaze steadily, "that you're not alone."
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She smiles at his reassurance, and this time it manages to stick, even it's a little watery. She studies him for a moment, taking him and his aura in. It's warm and solid, unwavering, and makes her feel like she can trust him, like he's safe. As far as welcoming committees go, she thinks she got lucky. And there's something else there too, which she can't put her finger on. Perhaps it's a remnant on his multiple deaths, though she thinks that would feel fouler. Not that it did for Buffy.
"Do you have a phone?" she asks after several long moments. She doesn't expect it to do any good. Not if what he's saying is true. But she can't not try.
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"I do." He scrambles to pull it out, hesitates, then resigns himself to the explanation required there as well. "All the rifties - people like you and me, people who come through - we all have one. For contacting each other since we, ah, can't really leave the city. That's probably one of the first things we should get for you."
It's not a terrible leap to assume what Tara might want with a phone, and he's not about to deny that. He holds it out.
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She pushes those questions aside for the benefit of the phone for the moment, though when she gets it it takes her a moment to figure it out. It doesn't have buttons. Oh, alright, like a laptop touch-pad, only it's the screen itself, okay... That makes sense. 2013.
She tries Willow's phone first. Then Buffy's house. Then the Magic Box. All of which give her nothing but error messages, and after that she decides it's silly to keep trying. She might go through every number she knows later, but not here, feet from where she apparently fell through an interdimensional portal, with a bloodied shirt and teary eyes.
"Thanks..." she says, handing it back with a weak smile. He probably knew it would be no good, and he let her try anyway.
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"It'll be okay." He can only say it with relative confidence - explaining the Rift's less savory side effects isn't really going to be helpful in this situation, and it's hardly all that relevant currently - but reassurances feel all in all pretty necessary. "I mean, I, I know it's overwhelming. But a lot of people here have been displaced, taken from their homes, like us. We're still looking for a way to get it to send us back. I don't think we'll ever stop looking, honestly."
He burrows his hands loosely in his pockets, mirrors her smile with a small, melancholy shade of one.
"The good news is that there's housing, money and resources for however, um, however long you're here."
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Tara realises now that she can feel it. The - Rift, that's what he called it. She can feel it in the air and the ground, like how she can feel magic and the Earth around her. Everything feels different and strange and foreign. Not malevolent, but not exactly friendly either...
"Housing? Um, how...?" she begins, not sure which question to ask, just wanting him to elaborate.
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He nibbles his lower lip briefly, internally debating how much else he should say, then presses on.
"Fair warning, though." He doesn't want to scare her, not when she's already so clearly disoriented and recently adjusting, but he has a disproportionately large number of friends who have been too poorly treated by the factions to not say something about it. He can't help but feel it's his responsibility on some level, seeing as neither ROMAC or the Rebels are likely to be up front about it. "Not everyone gets involved with them. They, ah - don't always work to the individual's best interest? 'Disreputable' is, um, is a word I might use."
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"Well... what's my alternative?" she asks, frowning. She doesn't want to involve herself with some big organisation if she can help it, especially one that comes with a disclaimer like that. And her requirements aren't exactly high, but she still needs to eat. And she'd rather not have to steal by putting magic whammies on someone for it.
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"There are more independent parties." One hand rubs under his jaw thoughtfully as he mentally constructs the least alarming way to put it. "Er - powerful sorts. We get a lot of, of different people coming through here. And not all of them are people, per se, or - well, not all of them are human, I should say."
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"What.. sort of non-human?" she asks cautiously. Is he talking about things like vampires or demons? Or something else?
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No avoiding that one, either. And it's better she get a warning sooner rather than later, if only to avoid a repeat of Daniel's case.
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"Lucifer? What, uh, what does he look like?" she asks. She doesn't want to accidentally bump into him. While she thinks she would probably notice soon enough, it's good to know more.
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"Not what you'd expect, believe me." The smile he shoots in her direction is a startled, raised-eyebrow quirk of one side of his mouth. "Kind of - alarmingly average-looking. Bit taller than me, probably mid-forties, but he doesn't typically go, you know, out and about."
Just when he's dropping in on Daniel to chat about morality and Ascension. Daniel grimaces a little, hastily pressing that thought aside, because now is definitely not the time to be thinking about that. At all.
"You can probably tell," he assures her. "He sort of - carries himself a certain way." Though Daniel had been lucky enough to have some leftover sensory capabilities, honed enough to pick up on the fact that the man he and Iman were drinking with was not a man at all.
His smile eases a little, settles into something less confused. "Not all new for you?"
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She shakes her head a little at the question, pulling up her knees a little and wrapping her arms around them. "I sort of... live on the Hellmouth," she answers. "Demons and vampires are pretty standard fare. The occasional hell-god." She nods, pressing her lips together in a smile, as if this is perfectly normal. Well, it is for her, but it wasn't quite public knowledge even in Sunnydale.
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"Don't think we have any of those here," he says in a tone of mock sincerity. "Hellmouths, that is. Or. Well. We might. Standby for that one."
Some of the drawn-up tension that's been building in the line of his shoulders since her arrival unravels, and he leans back a little more comfortably, bracing one hand behind him for support.
"You shouldn't have too much trouble adjusting, then," he says companionably, angling his head slightly. "The Rift likes to make things difficult occasionally, but I don't think it's ever gone down the route of hell-gods."
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She's not going to go into the specifics of her personal experience with a certain hell-god. "That's definitely for the best," she answers with a nod. "I wouldn't recommend it."
"Um... Are you human?" she asks suddenly, then realises how blunt that came out and tries to backtrack a little. "I mean, I, I don't mean to be rude, just. There's something, something off about you." Oh, that sounds even worse, and her face twists awkwardly.
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"No," he admits simply. There isn't any point in hiding it, especially when he doesn't fully understand it himself. He hasn't gotten any warning bells or quiet thrills from the infuriatingly silent senses locked in the hindmost part of his skull, but the fact that there's nothing about Tara he can detect is no less incomprehensible than if there had been. "Mostly, yes. But when you make a habit of dying reversibly, sometimes you come back a little changed."
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"It's, it's alright," she says quickly, reassuringly. "I don't mind. One of my friends has died twice, and she's alright. And another's an ex-demon. And um, one used to be a ball of mystical energy," she continues, smiling encouragingly.
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But she's adaptable, and that's a good sign. Daniel rolls his shoulders back in a quick, tensing stretch and looks up, shading his eyes against the sun.
"We should probably set you up with a phone, someplace to stay. You good to walk?"
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She nods and gets to her feet, brushing herself off. That hole and blood stain is really noticeable, isn't it? She worries her lip a little, glancing up at Daniel.
Well, she'll have to try at some point, right? And Daniel's just admitted to being not entirely human, and he seems trustworthy, so...
She gathers her thoughts, drawing in power from her surroundings. "Exsercio," she says quietly, sliding her hand over the hole, which knits itself together as the stain fades away and disappears. She makes sure the same thing happened to the hole in the back as well. At least now she'll blend in a bit more easily.
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"Magic?" he mouths, curiosity and worry currently carrying the day in the heavy knit of his frown. Then, louder, he quickly adds, "I can set you up with one, no trouble," and tilts his head meaningfully.
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"It's just a few spells," she adds awkwardly. Partly out of modesty, but mostly to obfuscate exactly what she's capable of. Especially as she isn't sure herself. It's not the same here. She's drawing on different energies, and she's not sure what kind of effect they will have on her. She'll need to be more cautious than usual.
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"Best not to do it too visibly," he says, apology heavy in his voice. "Though, I dunno, I imagine a lot of people here are used to the weird and unexplainable. But the factions, erm, there are two of them: ROMAC, which is government-oriented and the Rebels who are...well, not - they generally keep an eye out for that sort of thing." His expression becomes slightly more strained. "Another reason I chose to fly under their collective radar."
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"I think I'd like to too," she answers. "Avoid them, that is." They might not be as bad as they seem, but she'd like to know more before she goes running to them.
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He makes short work of purchasing her a network-accessible phone.
"Rifties only," he explains, handing it to her. "Not sure how far along you were, er - eleven years ago? I was pulled from 2005, so it wasn't that much more advanced than what I was used to."
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"2002, yeah," she answers with a nod, clutching the phone with both hands. She'd managed to call from it, so she's sure she'll figure out what else it can do. "Our phones still have buttons," she adds with a small smile and a shrug.
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He moves down the street at a meandering pace as he scrambles to put together his next order of business. Housing. Right.
"Housing's gonna be a little more difficult," he admits. "I've got a place I'll be moving into soon, but it took a while to scope out. In the meantime, hotels might be the safest bet if you wanna stay clear from the factions."
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"Right," she answers slowly, falling silent as she contemplates this. Is he intending to pay for that too? She doesn't want to ask. She's not sure she would even feel comfortable accepting.
At least it's warm, so she wouldn't freeze to death or anything if she can't find somewhere. And maybe... if she finds somewhere that would be empty anyway? Unlocking doors isn't too difficult. Then there's still the matter of buying food. Perhaps she could convince someone into giving her a loan? That way she could pay it back and no harm would be done. She gnaws worriedly at her lip.
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"I'll cover it," he assures her gently. "Don't worry. Rifties, we - we kind of help each other out, especially if you're trying to stay away from the factions. The person who met me when I came through let me squat in her place until I could find someplace better. It's not a problem."
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"Are-- Are you sure?" she asks, a bit breathlessly. "I mean, I'll pay you back as soon as I can!" she quickly promises.
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Thankfully, Tara doesn't strike him as someone who would do either of those things. She's been so unquestionably polite that he doubts Peter could form any misgivings about her, though given that it's Peter there's a high probability he'll just find reason to invent some.
He pulls out his own phone and texts the number of the phone he just bought.
"That's my number," he says. "In case you need anything. Even if it's just to talk."
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"I... Thank you," she says, trying to find a way to inject it with as much gratitude as she's feeling. "I mean, really. Thank you." She doubts she can actually stress it enough.
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"You're welcome." He starts fiddling with his phone, pulling up a map of nearby hotels. "Now let's see if we can find you someplace to stay."