Don’t Panic || Buffy & Francesca

groovytune:

   “Nope, no shitting.”

Digits twitched and dug into the ground beneath her; was she talking to herself out loud again? And in a different voice? No no, she already determined she was crazy enough as is—no need to put more emphasis on that fact and start diagnosing herself with all sorts of mental illnesses. But she had already clarified that there wasn’t anyone else in the eerie graveyard, unless her eyes deceived her and she just happened to miss the only person near her. Which wouldn’t be a first, given that her ability to think about or notice the people around her wasn’t exactly one of her award-winning talents.

   “It’s all real- no imagination needed.”

Blue hues shot up at the hand that seemed to come out of nowhere, raising her hand to accept the form of help before she grimaced at the dirt on it. With a quick wipe to one of her favorite pair of jeans, and much to her dissatisfaction, she got whatever residue off and took the help with a smile of her own in return. Once up, she dusted herself off; a good wash could easily solve the mess, so no need to get her panties in a bunch over it. As long as there wasn’t a tear, which she diligently checked for, she was good.

   “I’m sorry about that, I was chasing… My uh, friend.”

In a graveyard? The brunette sure did have a strange friend. She’d heard of parties being thrown at graveyards before, but playing catch? And at this hour? Well, she couldn’t exactly judge. Last she checked, she was in the same situation; except she’d lost track of where she was going and winded up there. But same enough, right? And it’s not like the stranger had to know she got lost. That’d be a pretty dumb way to start a conversation. A blonde not knowing where she was would be quite the joke, but she wasn’t ready to tell it.

   ”Bea, was it? Don’t worry about it darlin’! I’ve had worse happen.”

She’d seen plenty of rudeness throughout the years and a lack of introduction certainly wasn’t at the top of the list. And the more polite the brunette came off, the less she worried about what a mess she probably looked like. Hair tossed about and ass covered in dirt, but the other’s hand was delightfully received with her own and a few shakes. Smile kept in place as she laughed, letting go of the other’s hand as to not shake for too long. She’d been on the receiving end of one taking up too much time and it never set across the right message.

   ”My name’s Francesca, but I’m a much bigger fan of bein’ called Fran.”

Her introduction cut short when she looked around, trying to pin down a sighting of the friend Bea was looking for. Their collision course probably ruined it all, and the guilt started sinking in at the thought.

   ”Listen, I’d hate to be responsible for you losin’ sight of your friend so…”

She canted her head in the direction Bea herself appeared to be looking, hoping that following her eyesight would lead them to the vanished individual.

   ”If you want, I’ll help you look for ‘im.”

As she helped the blonde up, the thought occurred to Buffy that she seemed a little confused.  But she shoved it aside, nobody got lost in a graveyard.  She had to have some sort of reason to be there, which Buffy’d hopefully be able to find out.  She did have a way of getting information out of people without much coaxing, she’d always chocked it up to her face.  People just seemed to trust her for some reason or another, which she never really questioned to hard because it always worked out well for her.  The blonde got up and dusted herself off just fine.  Good, she wasn’t hurt.  Even though she wasn’t actually Buffy right now, she knew she couldn’t afford to go around hurting innocent bystanders.  Nope, slayers weren’t about that.  

And she could tell this girl was one of these so called innocent bystanders, or she looked to be.  Her mannerisms were graceful yet obviously human.  And her accent was…  Well it was certainly different.  Something Southern she could tell.  If anything, the name Fran sold her as being southern.  Maybe she was from out of state, didn’t know about slayers.  But something told Buffy she ought to play it cool, what if she was some sort of government spy out to find slayers that’d gone unregistered?  Or what if Buffy was just paranoid?  She couldn’t tell these days and thought it better to be safe than sorry.  She’d play along, keep the girl close.  Hopefully she’d be able to find out what she was up to.

“Yeah, my friend.  I wasn’t like being weird or anything.”  Right.  She was chasing a friend.  A weird scaly demony type friend.  "Funny thing is, my friends actually a dog.“  She’d buy that right?  "I was chasing my dog.  I know I said friend, but the thing is…”  Oh wow was her foot ever in her mouth.  Buffy felt herself digging her own grave here with the nonsense she was spewing.  "She’s my only friend. I’m the very lonely type.“ Maybe that’d save it.  She was just a lonely girl chasing her only friend/pet dog through the cemetery.  She hoped it was buyable.

"Anyways Fran, I think I’ll be taking up on your offer of helping."  She knew hope of finding the demon again last night was long gone, but she needed to get them out of the cemetery.  Getting seen in a graveyard wasn’t good for any young and impressionable lady’s opinion.  She took quick steps ahead, her usual walking speed of super fast.  It took her a moment to realize that her footfalls were sounding farther and farther away from Fran’s.  She stopped and walked back to her, grabbing the blonde’s arm and pulling her away.  "I’m getting creeped out!” she said in a way that was hopefully damsel in distress like.

Don’t Panic || Buffy & Francesca

groovytune:

   ”The creatures ‘round town sure do love bars, don’t they?”

Her head rested in her hand, her arm keeping it held up by propping itself on Ricochet’s bar countertop. Fingers were digging into her right cheek, but nothing could really scrap her eyes off of the far too obvious group of otherworldly people seated a few tables away from her. They all dressed the same: dark, angsty, no fashion sense whatsoever. Black wasn’t even a hard color to match something with, so what the hell was their excuse? Pale skin? Puh-lease, as if that could take away from the tacky malfunctions they had from head to toe. And don’t even forget to mention the ridiculous anarchy symbols some of them proudly walked around with. Did demons even have rules? And even if they did, they probably weren’t as strict as the kind humans lived by. ‘Don’t eat too many humans in one day’ or ‘don’t forget to bury the bodies’ or anything that’d be considered crazy by normal people.

   ”You sound bitter, Fran.”

A heavy sigh followed the comment, a glower tossed in Rick’s direction before he crossed his arms in front of her and followed her eyesight.

   ”They could be worse, but I hear the ones around Lake View take the cake in that category.”

She shifted what arm had the task of holding her head up, shutting her eyes and tapping on the counter; her signal for him to shut the hell up and get her a drink. He replied with an equally heavy sigh on his part before filling a shot glass up, sliding it her way and tending to the newer patrons. But now that she had the drink, she didn’t want it. Getting drunk at night would only lead to the worst case scenario, and she didn’t want to have a funeral her family couldn’t attend – let alone even find out about. She dismissed the drink and waved Rick off, leaving Ricochet with a face that could’ve been better summed up to her eating something way too sour. The vamps at Ric weren’t causing her any problems, but she didn’t want to be a meal; and with how little humans came around the club these days, she’d have to find a new place to be before they got to her.

But thinking about it wasn’t doing, and the doing was what needed to be done – but her thinking never led up to it. She kept thinking they’d leave: they didn’t. She kept thinking she’d find a better job elsewhere: she didn’t. She kept thinking she was doing herself a favor by sticking by her ‘they’re all monsters’ gun: she wasn’t. Maybe they weren’t all bad? But how would she know. The stick up her ass wasn’t really a “Come be friends with me!” allower, and the only vamps that sprung up at Ric’s were about as old as Linette; not grey-haired, but definitely older than her. She shook off whatever thoughts remained and came to a halt, passing a hand through her hair before she came to the conclusion that her thinking truly wasn’t doing her any favors.

   ”Where the hell am I…”

She lived in Cleveland long enough, or so she thought, and she still hadn’t come across graves before. Maybe this place was Lake View? But again, graves weren’t exactly something she saw every day – and she sure didn’t want to make it a regular sight now.

   ”Maybe I—”

A rough thud into her shoulder sent her pummeling down, a quick curse leaving her lips when her ass collided with dirt and grass. She tried to find the culprit responsible for landing her on the ground, but was greeted with nothing but the same surroundings she saw moments ago.

   ”You gotta be shittin’ me. I can’t be imaginin’ things… I didn’t even drink tonight!”

Vampire population in Cleveland: Supposedly high.  Places scoured for vampy/demony beings: every club in town, all the usual dark alleys, and all but one cemetery.  Number o’ dustings or even spottings: 0.  Buffy was making a last ditch effort to have at least a minimally successful patrol.  So far, no good.  She was supposed to be back in the game, fighting demons like the badass of old she used to be.  Could she even claim such a title anymore?  Or were the vampires just getting more hidey?  It had to be the vampires.  Since her little stay-in-bed-cation she’d been feeling particularly refreshed and agile, no way it was her.

She sat down against a tree, her sigh of disappointment the only noise that rung out in the dead silence of the graveyard.  She peered at the golden brown locks that cascaded down her shoulders.  Being a brunette was all… weird, and having a different face was something she’d never get used to.  She looked a little young or something, but fierce as ever in the eyes.  Which she really liked.  She was herself, only not.  Willow’d conjured up a good one, that’s for sure.  She remained, fortunately, a hot chick with superpowers.  

The almost inaudible crunch of feet on grass broke Buffy from her thoughts.  Someone else was in the graveyard.  In one silent motion Buffy jumped up to her feet and scanned the area around her for whatever else was lurking in the graveyard.  There it was, far off- a beast of the demon-y kind.  She set her sights on it like some sort of laser, she liked to pretend at times like this that she had some sort of special slayer scope with the little red dot and everything.  The demon, a sort of dog shaped thing with vibrantly red and possibly scaly looking fur, was a hundred yards off- but not nearly too far away.  She sprung into motion, weaving in and out of gravestones with precision a surgeon would be jealous of.  She was gaining on it, yes it was definitely of the scaly variety.  Each step brought her closer and closer to the beast. 

And suddenly a wall of blonde.  A blonde haired, humany shaped wall of person- she thudded into her and sent her flying to the ground.  It didn’t hurt her, but she could tell that it’d leave a bruise on the other woman’s shoulder and probably elsewhere.  She ran a few steps ahead, her eyes trying to focus on the demon which she still needed to be chasing after, but it was gone.  

“Great,” she said through clenched teeth and really only to herself.  She turned back to the blonde on the cold hard ground. Maybe her fall had been padded by the grass at least a little.  Either way, she was still lying there, trying to get up with a curse word and an exclamation of confusion.  She walked over to her, holding out a hand to help her up.  "Nope, no shitting.“  The word wasn’t one of the chosen few swears that Buffy liked to use and it felt a little funny and awkward coming out of her mouth.  "It’s all real- no imagination needed.” She shot the blonde a small smile as she helped her up, she didn’t need it too terribly much. “I’m sorry about that, I was chasing…” Well she couldn’t come right out and say that she was chasing a demon.  Nope, Buffy was the only slayer and right now she wasn’t Buffy. Or at least she was pretending she wasn’t, she was undercover like some sort of superspy with an awesome catsuit. 

“My uh, friend.” She forced out a chuckle.  Buffy gave the  blonde a quick once over, she didn’t look hurt.  Buffy could probably just leave her to her devices, but that was rude.  And if she wasn’t polite, what was she?  "Whoa, sorry.  On top of the stellar rudeness that is pummeling you to the ground, I didn’t introduce myself either.“  She held out her hand yet again, hopefully it’d get shaken and she wouldn’t be left hanging.  "I’m Bea."