October 31st, 2006
Aug. 17th, 2008 05:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Ahh, the late October evening air is crisp and sizzling with the bustle and excitement permeating 6th Street. Just an hour or two ago, the streets lay quiet and calm, like before a storm. And what a storm it is. Tonight is the biggest night of the year for Lorne - the only night he can go out with a bang (so to speak), and glam it up without having to worry about mobs and pitch forks and torches and all kinds of peer pressure. He can be lean and green and having a fabulous time. For any other demon with a sense of dignity, Halloween is the be all and ban all of faux pas-es. It's a night where silly wannabes co-mingle. It is just not done.
But Lorne will do it and do it well for every year he can muster. He'll be in his hundreds, old and wrinkly and hunchbacked, and he'll still come here for the big event.
***
And when the darkness has fallen over the city, and the parade lights up the city streets with eerie lights and chilled merriment in equal doses, Lorne dances down the line like it's 1999, all feathered up, glammed up and having a ball.
You never know who you'll bump into, and the best part? You can pop into a coffee shop or a restaurant on the way, get to know someone better anytime you want to. If he should be so lucky tonight, it would be the icing on the cake and the cherry on top.
But Lorne will do it and do it well for every year he can muster. He'll be in his hundreds, old and wrinkly and hunchbacked, and he'll still come here for the big event.
***
And when the darkness has fallen over the city, and the parade lights up the city streets with eerie lights and chilled merriment in equal doses, Lorne dances down the line like it's 1999, all feathered up, glammed up and having a ball.
You never know who you'll bump into, and the best part? You can pop into a coffee shop or a restaurant on the way, get to know someone better anytime you want to. If he should be so lucky tonight, it would be the icing on the cake and the cherry on top.
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Date: 2008-08-21 06:34 pm (UTC)"Lemme tell you something about picking sides. There are no sides. There's no clear cut right and wrong, there's no black and white. It's all one big, whoppin' gray area, and the only thing you can do is follow your heart even if it leads you straight to Hell."
If you have one. "You did, didn't you? You had faith in someone, you thought you were doing the right thing. You believed you were. Didn't you?"
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Date: 2008-08-21 06:43 pm (UTC)"There are sides," she says finally, low. "Doesn't mean either of them's right. I thought ..."
Her arms are folded tight around her stomach again, against the ache and nausea, but she can say this; she can say this to him because he has no idea who she is.
"It doesn't matter what I thought. People got killed and it was my fault."
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Date: 2008-08-21 06:52 pm (UTC)"It matters," he insists that it does, and probably would years from now. It's his way of justifying his own crimes, big and small. He believed he was doing the right thing. He really did.
"Just, maybe not the way you think it does."
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Date: 2008-08-21 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-21 07:10 pm (UTC)"Hey!" You show teeth, he shows his. He may not have much of a bite, but he doesn't take crap from anyone. Even if this eerily surreal thing of theirs doesn't count as crap, they are both getting a bit too close to the core of things to be entirely comfortable.
As if they were ever comfortable to begin with. "It matters. If it didn't, we might as well just end it right here and now and throw ourselves on the rails and wait to die a horrible death. Why prolong the misery of knowing it doesn't make one lick of difference what you think, all that matters are the consequences?"
He shakes his head. "Fuck that. It matters, because it's who you are."
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Date: 2008-08-21 07:22 pm (UTC)Her hands are down at her sides, clenched into white-knuckled fists; she's pushed away from the wall to face him directly.
"Maybe we deserve to, and maybe if I had the guts I'd have done it months ago, and what fucking difference would it make to anybody?"
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Date: 2008-08-21 07:33 pm (UTC)He grits his teeth to keep his voice down - neither of them need an audience, and who knows how long they have until the next train comes by. Not much.
"If you think you deserve to die, you wouldn't have been up there enjoying yourself in the crowd. You're running. Hiding. You don't take risks."
Another long drag on the cigarette. "If you wanted to die, you wouldn't have run away from me. You were running scared of what might happen if I caught up with you."
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Date: 2008-08-21 07:38 pm (UTC)Very low: "So if I'm trying not to die because I don't want to, even if I deserve to, what does that make me?"
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Date: 2008-08-21 07:45 pm (UTC)He turns his head to face the rails, considering taking the easy way out. He gets on, she stays. It's the least he can do, get out of her hair.
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Date: 2008-08-21 09:48 pm (UTC)(At the far end of the platform, where the track enters the tunnel, there's a steadily growing gleam of light against the tiled wall.)
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Date: 2008-08-22 05:42 am (UTC)"Killing yourself would be the easy way out, doll. No more misery, no more suffering, no more feeling sorry for yourself. No more chances for redemption, you just...cut everything off before it hurts too much. Is that what you think you deserve?"
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Date: 2008-08-22 08:29 pm (UTC)The rumble of the oncoming train is getting louder, and her voice underneath it is just barely audible.
"Maybe."
(Soft and clear in her memory: Took off the mask. See the lies in the truth. Now you know who killed you.)
"If it's that or be a killer for somebody."
(Same memory, different voice: Live through this.)
Her feet are aligned precisely on the yellow safety line warning commuters not to get too close to the edge of the platform. She sways, just slightly, with the wind of the train's approach.
"They would have had me kill you."
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Date: 2008-08-22 08:37 pm (UTC)She's too close, and he didn't see it until now. She's too close to the tunnel and if she stumbles he'll be too far away to do anything about it.
"Because I'm a demon. Because they're not."
He takes one step closer, watching her feet and the glaring yellow line.
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Date: 2008-08-22 09:47 pm (UTC)Her head turns back to him as the train comes thundering into the station, a rushing wall of gray metal and white light and roaring noise, and black hair blows about her masked face in the whack of wind that follows it.
"Because I'm a Slayer."
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Date: 2008-08-22 09:55 pm (UTC)He looks her straight in the eyes, though he can't see them. His own may seem too bright in the harsh fluorescent lights.
"You don't want to be."
The train stops, the screeching noise of the breaks echoing down the spiralling tunnels and up the stairs into the night above. He's about to take a risk he isn't sure he's ready for.
"...you wanna continue this fascinating conversation someplace else?"
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Date: 2008-08-22 10:03 pm (UTC)The doors open with their habitual two-note bing-bong.
"Yeah," she says, and turns to step into the subway car.
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Date: 2008-08-23 09:15 pm (UTC)Wells. Which can mean either of two things. The Watchers' Council took a dive into an empty pool, or there was a showdown between them and another, nastier faction.
Word on the street says it's the latter of the two. And the girl?
He sighs, knowing he doesn't have all the details. He does have a hunch, however, that Dorothy ain't Kansas no more, and Toto is nowhere to be seen.
"Why don't you pick our destination, pumpkin. Surprise me." He smiles, all big and brightly. Better she picks a spot she's comfortable with, than suspect him of leading her into a trap.
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Date: 2008-08-24 04:35 pm (UTC)She nods, silently, and turns to study the map on the wall of the subway car.
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Date: 2008-08-25 09:28 am (UTC)He follows.
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Date: 2008-08-25 10:12 pm (UTC)It's not too cold out. Not cold enough to be uncomfortable for some time.
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Date: 2008-08-27 09:16 pm (UTC)Kind of like fate, really, if only he could get over the Powers that Be-yotch. Because Fate with a capital eff is one thing. Knowing all your lucky breaks were (or are) orchestrated by a nefarious entity Hell-bent on...well, Hell just brings a whole new level to sour grapes.
He lights up another cigarette, this time offering the pack to his new 'friend'. "So, here we are. Strangers in a strange land, tryin' our best to keep our masks in place. Neat and tidy even when the make up's flaking like something outta Freddie Mercury's mindscape, bless his sweet little soul..."
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Date: 2008-08-27 10:51 pm (UTC)"'The Show Must Go On,'" she says involuntarily, placing the reference.
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Date: 2008-08-28 04:08 pm (UTC)"So... You mind me asking what it is you're hiding from? If you do, I'll shut it. Promise."
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Date: 2008-08-28 10:29 pm (UTC)"You got three hours?"
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Date: 2008-08-29 06:38 am (UTC)Which is exactly why he turns to look at her, really look, one of his eyebrows arching ever so slightly in wry amusement.
"Honey. Do I look busy?"
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