byakkoyagirl | Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Second Dream Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Forwarded to late night

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Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Second Dream Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Forwarded to late night

[Around the afternoon, Paprika was released from the experimental alternate universe and went back to being her cheery dream girl self. And, like most others, she thought she was spared from the continued experiments.

Oh how wrong she was.

Like on the first night she arrived in Luceti, Paprika is going to be dropping into people's dreams through teleportation. Prepare to get your dreamspace invaded citizens of Luceti. Please don't kill her for this - she really doesn't want to imagine the crazy stuff you dream of.]

[ooc: please read this and fill out this (if you haven't already) before posting here o/]

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[The Slayer and the vampire start to fight, each blow expressing ferocity and hate on a primal level. This is an old fight, a habitual fight, one they've fought many times before. Giles watches them calmly. He glances over at Paprika as she approaches, and then looks back. He's incredibly pale and, while the rest of the dream is stark and nightmarish, he seems slightly...faded.]

You picked an unfortunate time to drop by.

[She smiles a little at that. Giles looked horrible, but she was glad that he was okay.]

The Malnosso are the masters of timing. I really wish I knew their secret.

So do I. It's amazing what knowledge can do when it isn't in the hands of unknowable, omniscient psychopaths.

Sorry about it, by the way. It's still thinking with its teeth, and it doesn't seem much inclined to do otherwise.

Don't worry about it. [Her head turns around to see the two fighters clashing and then turns back to him.] Mind explaining to me why there are two of you? Or should I just figure that out myself.

I think I'm what's...left. I'm what it's using to keep pretending. Or what it should be using. It doesn't seem to care that much. [He also glances back again at the fighting, but his expression is a hopeless, bitter one.]

But we haven't been fed in a while, and so it's not that interested in thinking clearly to begin with.

Fed? ...Why do I have feeling you don't mean food.

I mean food, yes.

Just...not your sort of food. [He looks back at her, evidently sympathetic.]

Paprika, you are a very kind and understanding individual. But when it called us a monster, it was being unfortunately literal.

...Huh. [Right, the fangs. Vampire most likely.] Well you aren't a monster. Whatever that is sure, but not you.

[Giles shakes his head.] It is me. Thanks to the Malnosso, that thing is me. It moves my body and talks with my voice and it knows absolutely everything I do.

I know exactly what is happening to me, Paprika. Can you imagine for a second just how that feels? When it's awake, we are one and the same and I know it. I just don't care. I know why I've said everything I've said, why I've done everything I've done, why I think every thought I think while I've been this way.

The only thing that's changed now is that demons really can't dream.

[Giles looks away from Paprika, up at the black sky, and he is trying very hard not to let his voice become a sob.] It hurts, and it snarls, and it murders, and it is me.

...it's tearing everything apart and it is me.

The experiment.

[She grimaces at everything he's saying.] Giles, you probably had some pent up feelings that were being abused and released by the creature they turned you into. It isn't you. I know it isn't you.

...there was a grand total of one person I met that night who knew what was happening without any help on my part or any supernatural sense of their own. Did you know that?

[Buffy, still fighting, now clearly has the upper hand over the vampire.]

What are you trying to say with that? Be more direct.

[Giles rummages around in his pocket, pulls out a pair of glasses, and passes them over to Paprika.]

Rachel found me out, because I wasn't wearing these. That's why it's looking - it's wondering what it did wrong.

[Giles suddenly looks straight past Paprika at Buffy again. His eyes go wide with horror as the vampire manages to cut Buffy's legs out from under her, sending the Slayer sprawling to the ground.]

No! [And if Paprika doesn't stop him, he'll race over to try and help.]

[She holds the glasses gingerly, with a hum. But she has no time to react to what he said before Buffy falls to the ground. As he lunges out she grabs his arm and pulls him back.]

Giles, it isn't real! Don't go!

[Giles tries desperately to pull away from her.]

Let go of me! It isn't supposed to happen like this. She isn't supposed to lose!

I'm sorry, but I can't. You aren't mentally stable right now Giles and this isn't safe.

[The vampire reaches down and snaps Buffy's neck.

The scenery around them changes, to an empty street in another town, more modern with no snow where it's not quite so dark. Giles forcibly and finally succeeds in yanking his arm away.]

I am not crazy, thank you.

[She lets go of his arm as he pulls away and lowers head at that. Dammit Giles that isn't what she meant.]

...I know that. You think I don't?

[It was painful to hear those words again, but she knew it was worse for him. She was just acting as Atsuko would have and snapped.]

Apparently, you don't. Or you...changed your mind. I have no idea. I can't read minds - that was just Buffy, and just the once.

It's an unfortunate ability.

[He glances over his shoulder. There's another Paprika and another Giles standing at the end of the street. They're not making any sound as they talk, but, judging by the looks on their faces, they appear to be arguing.]

[Her eyes wander to the copy of them before going right back to Giles.]

I wasn't myself at the time. I was someone I didn't want to be. Believe me - I wouldn't lie to you, Giles.

What a coincidence.

Neither was I. Seems that was going around. [Helios and Frederic walk down the sidewalk together. Neither of them look...entirely themselves. Giles starts walking off in the opposite direction, but then he pauses, glances back at Paprika, and gestures for her to follow. He sounds calmer, at least.] Very disconnected, after all, when no one's on the same page. Chaotic. Messy.

They did exist, you know.

[She looks at the two, but shrugs them off to look at Giles again.]

Do you mean Kendra and the others?

Yes. I knew them, in this life. Circumstances had just changed for the experiment.

Kendra was the Slayer who was called after Buffy's first death. She, however, was eventually killed by Drusilla. Larry was a football player with an unusual fondness for tormenting Xander. He died on Graduation Day. Oz was a werewolf who dated Willow for a while before he left Sunnydale. Tara is Willow's girlfriend.

So they took the place of the people you knew in Luceti? [She can only assume as much if he said Kendra is the one she gave the clipboard to.]

Close. They took the places of Buffy and the others. People I knew from Sunnydale.

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lj stop being slow and not letting me post my replies :|

/beats LJ into submission

\o/ /cheers on

/plays FF victory theme

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