OPEN ♔ I HAD BEEN DRESSED IN A COAT OF ARMOR.

[slays]

♬ Horse and I ; Bats for Lashes

WHO || Buffy Summers and YOU. (open)
WHAT || Insomnia strikes.
WHERE || Knight's HQ, the Kitchen
WHEN || Saturday night, around 1 am.
HOW || Actionspam or prose, multiple threads

Buffy stirred as she slept, her tiny body stretching to encompass the entirety of her bed as she steadily shifted about, propelled into unconscious action by the vividness of her dreams. They gripped her in a way reality had yet to since she ... well, since she couldn't remember when. She gave a quiet grumble of protest at the sudden aching pain that flooded her senses as she relived a four hundred-year-old memory.

White Doe you are, white doe you shall become!

The burn of fresh, present pain creaked through her bones as they snapped and altered. Her teeth gritted, but she did not scream. The Slayer did not scream, did not submit to the wills of men, did not allow them to be satisfied by controlling her. But, the agony was unbearable. She fell to the ground, fingers digging into the dirt, grabbing fistfuls of earth.

Her vision blurred, her mind edged dark, and for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever, the world around her was only blurred swatches of whites, blacks and greys. They slowly gained shape, but the colors had bled out and didn't return.

Flailing, she tried to scramble to her feet, but the attempt caused her to collapse, because her legs were not those of a human. They weren't intended to hold her upright on two. No, below her were the knobby, furred legs of a doe, unsteady and collapsing beneath her.

She tried to run. Across water, which cooled her hooves (hooves? Really?), but it warred against her. Rushing up from the waves, blue figures surrounded her, assaulted her, crushed her beneath the weight of them. It was all she could do not to drown as it filled her tiny doe lungs and she was forced back ashore on the beach of the island.

The monsters weren't going to allow her to leave. She was trapped. Trapped on this rock.

She wasn't sure how much time passed. Weeks. Months. It was all a blur of long runs through wooded areas. They were peaceful, but confining. The trees felt more like prison bars after so long. She was alone, locked away on a part of the earth that no man would visit. Until he did.

Seal of the Ocean. She saw him from where she hesitated on a rock, and her eyes widened, her body growing still and unmoving. He drew his bow, but he was too far off for her to see. She couldn't budge, too shocked that it was really him.

Too shocked to realize that her body was changing again, and when she could finally move, when she finally outstretched her arms to greet him, smiling wide and bright, she felt pain blossoming in her breast. Looking down, she saw the arrow planted deep in her rib cage. Blood flooded her heart, her lungs, and she gasped for a breath that wouldn't come, falling once more to the rocks below.

Seal of the Ocean made his way to her side, holding her, calling for help, though she could scarcely say she understood what came out of his mouth.

"Too late," she informed him. "I must speak ..." He held her in his arms, and she told him. "I was the Slayer. I let anger and hurt and pride betray me, and now I pay the price. Do not mourn. I die loved." Her vision blacked as her breaths grew more shallow, more gasped, more impossible.

And the inability to catch her breath, even as she gasped for it, jerked Buffy from her slumber. She shot straight up in bed, panting, wheezing, gulping down oxygen like it was a fire sale.

Different dream. Same end. Death. They always died. She didn't know who White Doe was, who Seal of the Ocean was, or what it had to do with her, but she could safely say that it could be added to the tiny collection of memories she'd managed to regain, none of which were hers, all of which were different gruesome deaths wrought on by demons and magic that she didn't understand.

She was sweating. She pushed the covers back, finally catching her breath, and reached up to wipe the moisture from her brow, pulling herself out of the bed. Hell. It felt like every time she shut her eyes, she was trapped in some ... some perpetual Hell. Somebody else's Hell, even. She took a moment to re-orient herself to the unfamiliar room, then shuffled her feet into slippers and ducked out of it entirely, leaving the door cracked behind her to remember which one was hers.

Making her way down the hall, she hung a left and found her way back to the kitchen. It was harder to find in the darkness, but at least she could say she'd been there before. Made it easier to find than Jack's office had been. She grabbed a piece of fruit off the counter and a paring knife, leaning over it and slowly cutting into the pulp of the fruit, biting her lip as every squish of its flesh reminded her of the sickening noise of the arrow in White Doe's chest.

One decent night's sleep. That's all she wanted. Why was it so much to ask? If her life was going to haunt her, couldn't it haunt her with the rest of her memories and not these ... Slayers?

Comments

<333

[slays]

Beats being somebody making with the creepy kitchen lurking at this time of night without the something on my mind excuse, right? [ Shrug. She's trying to deflect. Poorly. ]

[wildmind]

I hope you weren't implying anything about me. [It's said playfully over her shoulder as she reaches for a bottle of milk]

[slay]

[ innocent look. ] Not intentionally?

[wildmind]

I suppose I'll take it. [She sets to pouring herself a glass] So you must be new.

[slays]

God, it's like I'm wearing a sign on my back or something. Is it really that obvious?

[wildmind]

I hadn't seen you before. That's all.

[slay]

I blend well. Also, you know, the knighting ceremony was about a week ago, but I'm sticking with it being my blendy talents.

[wildmind]

Sometimes you can go years without meeting everyone anyways, or so I've heard.

[slays]

Big castle, huh? Makes you wonder how Wynn keeps track of everyone.

[wildmind]

I think he just has an exceptionally good memory.

[slay]

Any chance that's part of the knight training? Mine could use work.

[wildmind]

The mind is a tricky thing. [She moves to the table] But it can definitely be trained, with patience.

[slays]

Well, I was actually, uh, making a joke. But, good to know! With the mind training and all and -- is that part of the, uh, program here?

[wildmind]

I'm guessing you didn't get to look at the course catalog.

[slay]

There's a course catalogue? [ The look on her face is pretty distinctively "bwuh?" ]

[wildmind]

I'm guessing I'm safer staying in literal territory with you.

[slays]

Just until there's more settling in happening.

[wildmind]

[She seems to fix her with a sly eye for a moment, studying her from her seat, glass held between both hands]

It's not really so long ago that I was new here too. I certainly understand the feeling. [Amusement crinkles the corners of her eyes as she takes a sip] And I know just how useless all this empathy is too.

[slays]

Well, you'd be the first to own up to the useless empathy. I'll give you that. [ She chuckles. ]

[wildmind]

I'll spare you any of the usual advice.

[slays]

There is not enough time in the world to deliver all of the thank yous that earns you.

[wildmind]

We'll call it a raincheck then. [She finishes her drink] You can owe me one.

[slay]

Sounds fair to me. Just as long as the one I owe you doesn't involve slaying dragons or something. Little above my paygrade, currently.

[wildmind]

I'd rather slay my own, anyway.

[slay]

... Wait. You've -- ? Have you ... ?