teleios } { memory theater overflow

[kiss_evilgoodbye]

Comments

for fatima }

[kiss_evilgoodbye]

[from here]

Buffy blinks for a second not really catching the reference, mostly because she's not as educated in Women's Studies as she probably should be. "What-failing?" It takes a moment for her to read between the lines and then her eyes widen again.

"Oh, you mean talking about boys? I never mind talking about boys. I haven't had good boy talk in ... long time."

[dust_of_life]

Fatima was silent for a moment. And then, out of nowhere, her face split into a grin. She even laughed a little, softly and gently.

"Me neither," she admitted. "The whole jumping from multiverse to multiverse doesn't leave a lot of time for slumber parties and conversations that don't involve pointy objects."

Oh, Fatima Merali was a warrior. But she was also a girl. And, in fact, she liked being a girly-girl. She just...didn't get the chance very often.

[kiss_evilgoodbye]

Buffy laughs again. "I couldn't even really get that when I was in my own universe. Everything was about saving the world. A little girl time turned into a very valuable commodity."

[dust_of_life]

"I know the feeling," Fatima said, shaking her head a little bit. It wasn't to say that she was ashamed, embarrassed, or even annoyed by the work she and the Order were doing to save the world. It was just that the Cainites got to live forever. She only got to live once. Sometimes, she wondered if they understood how little time she had to cram in everything she wanted to experience out of life.

Then again, until Zelien, until crawling out of her own grave and making certain resolutions not to slam any more doors shut, Fatima herself hadn't realized how much she wanted to experience.

"Didn't even have my first boyfriend until I was whooshed off to Zelien."

[kiss_evilgoodbye]

"Oh, I had boyfriends. And those boyfriends were great big bad life choices." Well, Angel and Spike mostly. She knows that she needs Angel and Spike because she wouldn't be Buffy without them. "Except for Riley. Riley was pretty decent but I think that was part of the problem."

[dust_of_life]

"I went on a lot of first dates," she said with a slight shrug. "Just...never really got to the boyfriend stage. I realized the problem when I dated Jamie Goldstein. He was sweet and charming and cheerful and I found myself realizing that if he saw a vampire, he'd probably wet himself and get killed. Broke it off after the goodnight kiss."

Slammed that door shut on his face--literally and metaphorically.

She shrugged. "Civilians getting involved with my life? It's messy. I think half the reason I was attracted to Sam was because he already knew about the things going bump in the night."

[kiss_evilgoodbye]

Buffy nods slowly for a moment. "My first boyfriend was a vampire. That ended badly. Then there were a couple things that didn't pan out and then I dated a guy who ... to put it simply was a hunter. I screwed that up. Then there was another vampire, which also ended badly."

She pauses for a moment. "Now I'm just ... playing it by ear."

[dust_of_life]

Fatima did her best not to wrinkle her nose at the mention of dating vampires. Things were definitely different in Buffy's world. It would be inappropriate to cast aspersions.

But...ew. Seriously. Ew.

"In the multiverse, that's all you can do really," she said with a shrug. "Take things as they come. Although, the most important thing I've learned from my experience, if you don't mind hearing it, is that you should try to get as much living into your life as possible."

[kiss_evilgoodbye]

"I'm trying. Really, the living, I can handle. It's the getting me to stop dying that's the problem." Because really, she's not looking to break a world record here. Not that there is a world record for dying - if there is, she probably holds it - but she doesn't think it needs to be improved upon.

Once would have been good enough.

[dust_of_life]

"See, for me, it was dying that got me to start living."

Which was way more of a confession than she was used to giving someone she'd only known a short while. But again, anyone Auntie Diana could trust was worthy of the truth. The good, the bad, and the very, very ugly.

As most crawling-out-of-your grave stories tended to be.

for elektra }

[kiss_evilgoodbye]

[from here.]

She pauses, then nods. She isn't really the kind of person who forgets, especially when it was something she was focused on for so long. It takes her a moment to form the actual words, however, because the memories aren't as clear as they used to be.

"It was ... nice. Soft. Which is a weird way to explain it, but ... it's like they wanted you to be comfortable there, and when I came back, everything seemed harder and sharper than it was before." She pauses, one hand rubbing the opposite arm gently. "I felt safe there."

[likethetragedy]

Elektra says nothing for a moment. Eventually she manages a smile. Is it good to be validated about your experience with death? She doesn't know. It was nice to hear all the same.

"I know what you mean." She glances around as if looking for something. "I don't regret coming back to this now." Which says it all really. She did at first. She hated Stick for robbing her of peace and abandoning her to the wolves. Life gets better as it tends to. She wouldn't trade this life for anything now.

[kiss_evilgoodbye]

"I ... it's complicated." She knows that feeling of regret well. "I was really depressed for a while. It took a lot for me to get my head back in the game and figure out what I needed again. But there are still moments where I wonder if it was really better to bring me back versus leaving me dead. If me alive does more harm than good."

[likethetragedy]

Elektra smiles bitterly. At least that's a common experience. She wondered sometimes if it was only her. Maybe she had come back wrong from all the resisting she did on the way back.

"Maybe it's that way for everyone then." She sounds almost relieved before admitting, "I was trapped in a cycle of violence once I came back. I wasn't brought back out of the goodness of anyone's heart. They wanted to use me and I didn't want to be used. My coming back was probably more harm than good for a long time." Or not. The people she killed deserved to die certainly. It's all about perspective. One thing that's consistent about Elektra is that she's hard on herself.

[kiss_evilgoodbye]

Buffy recognizes that sentiment all too well. "Slayers are kind of the same way. I mean, I know part of my friends bringing me back was because they loved me, but it was also because they needed me. They needed me to be the hero and save the day because that was my job."

for hal }

[kiss_evilgoodbye]

[from here]

"Understandable. Dumbo does have an excessive amount of the creepy factor usually present in old school Disney. Dawn never liked the clowns." Among other things. But Dawn was her mother's daughter so they tended to bond over similar things, and she liked to stick to the Princesses.

[refusestofall]

"I'm with her on that. Clowns can be pretty damn freaky."

[kiss_evilgoodbye]

"I've seen freakier. My thing is robots, personally. I've met far too many who were just ... way too real for my taste." And have tried to just Single White Female people without people even realizing it.

[refusestofall]

"You'd hate my world. The skitters got this huge robots that they control - we call them mechs. The sound they make - I sometimes hear it in my sleep." he shook his head.

[kiss_evilgoodbye]

"Oh, see - those robots I don't mind. Because they look like robots and act like robots and I can blow those up with a rocket launcher and not feel bad about it. I'm talking about the creepy robots that look like people and act like people and try to date my mother or take my place or have my consciousness shoved into them out of some misplaced good intention to keep me safe."

[refusestofall]

He just looked at her a moment, and then shook his head. "I think you may have me beat on screwed up things in our respective worlds again."

[kiss_evilgoodbye]

She laughs softly before shaking her head. "My world is pretty screwed up, that's for sure. But at least we're not post-apocalyptic, so I think you have me beat there."

[refusestofall]

"From the sound of it, it's really only a matter of time for you." At least that was his impression. He didn't know the reality of her world anymore than she did his.

[kiss_evilgoodbye]

"You would think? But the end of the world is pretty much going to happen over my dead body."

She means that literally. Unfortunately.

"If it does go bad, I probably won't be there to see it."

[refusestofall]

"You're lucky in that. Though I've gotta say, I'm surprised we've held out as long as we have. I was pretty sure I'd be dead by now."