FIC: The Late Shift

[jomarch]

Great Chapters as usual.... though poor Xander (on second thought, he did get Willow in leather!)



And yes, Clown for IT was the one that put me off clowns forever.



Edited to add - Wiccachica, I do have a strange fascination for the bouncy sheep. I think if I stare at it long enough, I may get some rest.

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You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; It will not let you fall

Edited by: jomarch at: 4/8/02 2:07:18 pm

[Sassette]

I think that if I stare at the sheep long enough, the secrets of the universe will be revealed to me and I will transcend to another plane of existence.



-Sass

[wiccachica]

I'm starting to feel growingly guilty about ditching the bouncing sheep!



*hangs head...but offers a peppy cow to compensate*

" I mock you with my Monkey Pants!" - OZ


" You're NOT the source of me" - Buffy


" Tremble!" - Gacknar

[jomarch]

I do love all things bovine

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You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; It will not let you fall

[Sassette]

No, no ... the peppy cow is good ...



If I had transcended to another plane of existence, I'd never get a chance to finish all the fic on this board.



-Sass

[jdcioffi]

dude ...



I'm creeped out. Damn.





If you included Pennywise in that scene, dude ... he'd have been the group sweetheart!



JD

...but if I did call, she wouldn't hang up on me.

[Grimaldi]

great chapter really loved it. it's cool that you brought back Faith, Cordy, Praying Mantis Lady, and Inca Mummy Girl.



I also love your peppy cow avatar, it soothingly hypnotic

"Perhaps we should just leave nature alone to its simple, one-assed schematics."



"Will she keep on the ground, trying to save me. Slowly forgive my lie, lying to save me. Could she love me again, or will she hate me." Alice in Chains, 'Rain When I Die'

[Pixie gishmock]

That last update was freaky! I'm not sure that I really want to know what goes on in Xander's head when it comes to women. And I love the bouncy cow!

Life is full of changes...The better you are at letting go of things, the freer your hands will be to catch something new. ~from Off The Map by Joan Ackerman
"It's good to be a chicken casserole," Tara murmured before passing out. ~from "Answering Darkness" by Sassette

[LeatherQueen]

*L* Love the cow! And love the update.



And yes, WC, you too deserve legions of women to scritch your head, just like the troll.

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"Honey, I'm the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind." - Glory

Edited by: LeatherQueen at: 4/8/02 7:42:44 pm

[mollyig]

I did enjoy that. I think there's a lot of truth about Willow's suggestion about not wanting to commit, and he's realised that enough for it to be a real fear.

I could paint you in the dark, 'cause I've studied you with hunger as a work of art - Collecting you (Indigo Girls)

[wiccachica]

E-GADS! I just got the Morning Edition in....



Just under the wire...



I just couldn't get the troll to stop with the piddly first chapter...



Chapter 135: Safe as Houses…



" Oh Goddess…I’m sorry…." Tara says; covering her face with her hands and sounding wholly defeated.



I turn away from the House of Human Oddities to pull her to me.



" Oh, Honey…okay…so it’s NOT Buffy…but we’re back at the Carnival…you did a GREAT job…" She leans against me for a moment…gathering the strength she knows we both need…



…The strength to look around this awful place again…



They have to be here SOMEWHERE…



Without walking…we both hold on to each other fiercely and turn in a circle to get our bearings.



The Fair looks like a desolated battleground. No people…no ghouls…



…Even ghouls would have made the place at least seem…HOMEY…



Papers flitter across the ground…and around booths and rides in multicolored flocks…driven by the wind…



A wind that is steadily picking up…snatching up Tara’s hair like golden banners, and pushing mine all about my face.



Some of the less sturdy booths lean together…not quite ready to give of their stakes.



I feel Tara’s arms cinch around me …tighter…even though we seem to be standing in the lee of the House of Human Oddities…saved primarily from the casualty of the wind…



" Inside…" Tara says to me…pulling at my waist with her arms…towards the solid looking building.



" Tara…if things are coming to life in this place…I really don’t think the House of Human Oddities is the place we want to be…"



A Booth that has given up the fight…tumbles down the thoroughfare to our right… she looks at me…



" Inside…" We both say together…duck our heads…and run inside…





Chapter 136: You Remind Me of the Babe….



In the gloom of the inside hall…Tara and I rake our fingers through our unruly hair with one hand…while still hugging each other close with the other…



If anything is going to happen…best we are already TOGETHER for any emergency Shimmeryhoos that have to occur.



We peer around into what appears to be a long and darkly dormant hallway…



Nothing leaps out at us…nothing makes a sound…just stillness….



Eerie stillness that allows us to listen to the every faint sound of the wind outside…and our own hearts beating the Baba-loo in our chests…



Cautiously…we creep forward…over the hall threshold….triggering the thunderous sound of millions of watts of electricity to be sent through the anacondonian lines draped above our heads…



The lights come up at once… Tara and I clutch at each other in almost comical pawing motions….



And then we pause altogether…



" Oh….My…….." Tara struggles for other words….I….on the other hand…and probably for the first time ever…have nothing immediately to say….



This is like my worst nightmare….no…this is all of THEIR worst nightmares…..



My friends…the people I have come to think of as FAMILY over the years….



All of them….are in HERE…



All of them in small cubicles with glass walls facing the hallway….so we could see them….

Spike…Anya…Xander…and….



Tara…you DID find Buffy after all….



But Buffy doesn’t actually seem to be actually IN at the moment…She is standing in the center of her cell…facing us…staring down at something we can’t see…she is shuddering uncontrollably. At one point, she reaches out to lightly touch the air where the object of her infection must reside. Tears slide down her wan cheeks…



She looks thinner…paler…and more frightened than I’ve ever seen her…



She looks like something is draining her.



" We have to get them OUT…this place is killing them…" I say…my voice wavering too much to sound brave…



I detach myself from Tara to pummel the glass of Buffy’s cell…Though the sound resembles that of a kettledrum in a thunderstorm… Buffy doesn’t even look up….she doesn’t so much as acknowledge the sound…



" What’s wrong with them…?" I say…my incessant pounding becoming more of the ‘cessant’ kind as I start to run low on adrenaline…



" Do you REALLY want to know…?" A distinctly unfamiliary familiar voice comes from the far end of the hall…



I turn to look for the source of the voice…my palms still on the glass…



In what seemed like one streamlined second…I catch a glimpse of the woman in the flowing black dress… Her smile…the shape of her eyes….the way she has her honey-coloured hair pulled back behind one ear…everything….So much like Tara…



And yet…I’d know MY Tara anywhere…



THIS chick is NO TARA…



And even upon this realization…MY Tara… pulls me bodily back and behind her…shielding me from this other woman…



Okay…with the lights…and the best friends in glass…and this new UN-Tara…and the …the ALL of this…total sensory overload…total…sensory…butt-kicking….



" You stay away from her…" Tara says in a voice quavering with rage.



I hear the woman down the hall tsk. It’s a sound like dry sandpaper over wood…



" Oh, Tarina…you would talk to your Auntie so meanly?"



Auntie? Okay…time out…. WHO is Auntie?



" Let my friends go." Tara demands…still quaking with rage…and holding me behind her…



" We had a deal…The deal was…you read the Scrit…"



" And release HELL on EARTH…!" Tara interrupts violently. Auntie sighs.



"…and I let your little friends go…"



" Let them go anyway…" Tara sounds as though she’s warning the woman now…and the woman pauses in a brief moment of silence…



" You were always a strong-willed little thing…" She says…almost sounding disappointed.



Yep… That would be my Tara…



" I remember." Tara says. " I remember me being a little MORE than that…don’t you?"



Again…the pregnant pause…



" You HAVE to read the Scrit…Tarina…" The voice sounds less assured…and slightly more desperate…but still vaguely in charge…



" It’s Tara, by the way….and I’ll tell you what… how about I DON’T read the Scrit…and you let my friends go before things get a little Jerry Springer in here ….how does THAT sound…?"



Yep…that’s my Tara…



" Stubborn!" I can hear the woman stamp her foot in frustration…a patent Dawnie Maneuver if you ask me….



" You bet your ass I am…" Tara says…and I almost have to stifle a snicker despite the grave predicament we are in…



Now…THAT is my Tara…



TBC…

" I mock you with my Monkey Pants!" - OZ


" You're NOT the source of me" - Buffy


" Tremble!" - Gacknar

[Sassette]

Awesome *G*



Go, Tara, Go!!!



This whole story is SO disturbing ... but in a really good way. Me like. Me like a lot.



-Sass

[Pixie gishmock]

Go kick-ass Tara!!!! *Pixie immediately ducks under her desk to avoid the inevitable firefight between Tara and her Aunt*

Life is full of changes...The better you are at letting go of things, the freer your hands will be to catch something new. ~from Off The Map by Joan Ackerman
"It's good to be a chicken casserole," Tara murmured before passing out. ~from "Answering Darkness" by Sassette

[wiccachica]

So you're looking for a clash of the Titans?



A little revelation?



A little Ass-kicking Tara?



Hmmm......



(goes over to the troll's cottage to see what I can negotiate)



But I might need another PB and Honey sandwich (or Sammich...as Sass so adorably puts it...) and possibly an espresso or two... for a fight like that....



(how about this avatar for the occassion?)



(couldn't find a clown...)

" I mock you with my Monkey Pants!" - OZ


" You're NOT the source of me" - Buffy


" Tremble!" - Gacknar

[Sassette]

Well, darn it, they SHOULD be called "sammiches". And I will always call things what they SHOULD be called.



And get yourself an espresso and a sammich. *drums her fingers on the desk* Is it time for the ass-kicking yet?



-Sass

[LeatherQueen]

*L* God, I love this story.



And yes, Kick-Ass Tara is always a good thing. You need PB & Honey sandwiches and espresso for that? Well, we'll just have to FedEx them to you. In the meantime, will a scritch behind the ears work? It always seemed to help the troll.

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"Honey, I'm the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind." - Glory

[bulldog tidnab]

i will also offer a scritch to wiccachica in the hopes that it aids the process...



*scritch*



did it work? i dont know, i havent scritched in a while, might be a bit rusty....



BT

>>i'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back...<<

[LeatherQueen]

Don't worry, BT, scritching is like riding a bike. You never really forget how to do it. And once you start doing it, and keep doing it, you'll just get better and better.



Of course, once you get good at it, you can start experimenting with different types of scritching. Maybe if we use different scritching methods, we'll get WC to update faster. Whaddya think?



*scritch, scritch* waiting to see the results...

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"Honey, I'm the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind." - Glory

[wiccachica]

The only thing you are doing is distracting me with all the scritches....



whoooo hooo!



I follow many troll customs...and scritching is one of them... I've never scritched before... (being only 27 and not 2007...the legal age for troll scritching in California)



All of the scritching has made me giddy...and unable to write (not that some of you out there don't already think I can't write...you know who you are...haha)



Medic!



(Thud!)

" I mock you with my Monkey Pants!" - OZ


" You're NOT the source of me" - Buffy


" Tremble!" - Gacknar

[LeatherQueen]

Hm. Since the scritching is actually detrimental to updates, does this mean if we withhold scritches and promise unbelievable scritches if you update, that it would make you update faster?



But since you've already thudded, I suppose the threat of no more scritches is a moot point, huh?



And don't worry too much about being an underage scritchee. 27 is a good age to start practice scritching. As I am 27 myself, I speak from experience. Well... actually, I don't speak from experience. I've never scritched before... but people have said it's a good time to get that practice in... what with practice making perfect and all.

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"Honey, I'm the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind." - Glory

[Drakkenfyre]

Oh God, my head, my head, first Spuds, then Squirrels, then bunnies, now a perky cow...I don't think I can't take it..wait, perky cows, I like them...Love the update but think I need to take more yummy pain medication and then read...Oh cool, it all makes sense now... Please continue, I tremble with excitement...

"We few, we happy few."
"We band of buggered."

[wiccachica]

I was certain I would have nothing written until tomorrow...and them...I felt these scritches...right here...behind my ear...



Okay...it's not an ass-kicking...but it is a set-up for tomorrow morning's freakiness.



May I say that a scritch is definately an motivation to write...heh...



Thank you for the Scritchy encouragement!



so here is and Afternoon Edition...short..but important...



Chapter 137: The Babe with the Power…



"Shatter." Tara says evenly. She doesn’t take her eyes off her Aunt.



The glass walls of each stall explode outward simultaneously into the twenty-foot hall between the two blonde women…



The sound of the House’s spell being broken is not unlike a burgeoning Armageddon…I should know…I’ve heard enough of them burgeon...



I peek around Tara’s right…just enough to see the other woman look down at the floor.



The ground glitters with sticky Plexiglas particles…



" Look what a mess you’ve made…" Auntie chides. Tara reaches a hand back behind her…settling it on my arm.



Aww…she wants to make sure her Honey is still he…HEY!



Tara firmly shoves me back behind her out of sight again…



Of course now that I’m all safe again…It means I can’t see squat!



So I peek again…this time from the left…



" What’s going on…?" Buffy says in a groggy voice…She staggers out into the hallway…shoes crunching glass…



" Gah!" Xander bolts out of his entrapment feeling his neck and arms as though for contusions that aren’t there…He looks around…then down the hall at the older of the two witches…" Gah!" He shouts again…moving swiftly away from her and toward us…



Spike hurries from his cell…trying to look nonplussed…but failing horribly…He brushes at his black clothing with trembling pale hands.



Anya goosesteps out of her own confine and casts a cursory glare back into her cell…



" I REALLY HATE bunnies…" She says definitively. " Especially the Leetle ones…"



" I want you all to get out of here….Willow…take them…get Danger and Dawn…and get out of the Carnival…" She says…



Over my DEAD…



" Over my dead body!" I say. " I’m not leaving you here alone!"



" Will…" Tara says…still keeping her gaze locked on her Aunt.



There seems to be a palatable energy building in this hallway…



" Sweetie I can’t just…"



The hairs on the back of my neck rise as I touch the woman I love…not out of fear… but something else…



Something akin to touching a live wire….coursing with power…



"…leave you here…" I finish numbly…



" Tare…is that your Aunt…cuz honestly…I’m not too keen on ANY of your family I’ve met so far…" Buffy says… Xander seconds that with a nod…still absently rubbing at bite-marks that don’t exist…



" Frankly, Buffy…neither am I…" Tara says…



" Tara…you know I’m not going to let you go up against her alone…." I say.



" Willow is it? …" Auntie asks.



" Yeah…so?" I say bravely… from behind my girlfriend.



" You heard Tarina….she wants you to GO…"



Ahh…not again…with the…



<>



All five of us…sans one beautiful blonde witch…are standing on the thoroughfare again…



The wind has died down…but there is another faintly distracting sound in the distance… I can’t make it out…so I throw a fit instead.



" Dammit!" I shout to the air at large. " Dammit…dammit…dammit! That bitch booted us out!"



" Uh…Red…" Spike says…he’s still brushing at his clothing…almost subconsciously…as though checking for burn spots….



" We have to find that HOUSE and get Tara OUT!" I shout starting off in the general direction I THINK the House of Human Oddities is in…



Spike pulls me short…if he hadn’t…Buffy would have anyway…



" Do you hear that???" She hisses.



" …what I’ve been trying to tell you…" Spike finishes.



We all stop and listen…head tilted like five little RCA puppies…



What is that sound…?



Thunder?



The End of the World?



I happen to cast a glance over to the Carousel…still completely dormant since it’s last big move.



Oh for the love of Pete…do we EVER get a break from the ultimate weirdness???



I point to the carousel….my heart sinking into my stomach.



What could be worse than the end of the world?



" Stampede." I say " Stampede of arm-chewing horses…."



TBC…

" I mock you with my Monkey Pants!" - OZ


" You're NOT the source of me" - Buffy


" Tremble!" - Gacknar

Edited by: wiccachica  at: 4/9/02 3:09:18 pm

[Drakkenfyre]

Well shit monkeys, excuse my vernacular..why the hell not? A stampede of arm chewing horses... Of course, it all fits, I can see clearly now..NO, not the Johnny Nash song in my head...*thud*

"We few, we happy few."
"We band of buggered."

[LeatherQueen]

Well, hey, we're all with the scritchy encouragement here. * scritching extra hard*



And yay for an update. Good one, too. Heh... arm-chewing horses.



But oh god, can I just mention that all day, ever since I read the name of the earlier update, I've had that bloody song from Labrynth in my head? All day long, all I've heard is...



You remind of the babe.

What babe?

The babe with the power.

What power?

The power of voodoo.

Who do?

You do.

What?

Remind me of the babe.



*L* Fortunately for me, I like that movie, silly as it is.

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"Honey, I'm the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind." - Glory

[wiccachica]

Oh...LeatherQueen Dear...



That movie and the Dark Crystal are both sci fi geeks weening films....



(okay...I'm throwing Legend in there too but it was kinda scary what with Tim Curry and all....)



Oh...and speaking of scary Tim Curry...





" Yessss Georgie....they float......"



(ooohhh I am so bad!) Hee!



edited to say: LeatherQueen...BT... Thank you for the scritches...now...I'm sorry kids...you were warned...we are now officially scritched....



Our Scritching song can be: " Dance Magic Dance" By David Bowie...



I've registered us at Trolicrombe and Filtch as well as Trollingdales....



(wink)



chica

" I mock you with my Monkey Pants!" - OZ


" You're NOT the source of me" - Buffy


" Tremble!" - Gacknar

Edited by: wiccachica  at: 4/9/02 4:10:51 pm

[LeatherQueen]

Ooh god... The Dark Crystal. *sigh* Haven't seen that movie in ages.



runs off to add it to her Netflix list



And Legend... forever since I've seen that one. *L* God, I love Tim Curry.



And uh-oh... I'm now scritched? Oh well.. the things we do in the name of fic updates. But yay for the excellent choice of a Scritching song. I do so hope we get some good Scritching gifts.



So... as a newly Scritched girl... what exactly are my duties?

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"Honey, I'm the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind." - Glory

Edited by: LeatherQueen at: 4/9/02 4:24:23 pm

[wiccachica]

LeatherQueen Wrote:

Quote:

---

So... as a newly Scritched girl... what exactly are my duties?

---

Hold on a second while I..... write a few of them down....

" I mock you with my Monkey Pants!" - OZ


" You're NOT the source of me" - Buffy


" Tremble!" - Gacknar

Edited by: wiccachica  at: 4/9/02 4:33:28 pm

[LeatherQueen]

Wow... there's so many you have to write them all down? heh... should be a fun read.

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"Honey, I'm the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind." - Glory

[Canadian Kitty]

After a truely horrific weekend I return home and am greeted by Natalie French, Faith, a rogue carousel, and a frolicking cow. Wiccachica, I really don't think I can thank you and the troll enough.



Now if you'll excuse me I noticed that very little scritching is actually being directed at the troll and, as a troncubine it is my duty to make sure the troll is satisfied, so off I go. As soon as I can tear my eyes away from the cow.

"You wanna go out sometime, for coffee, food, kisses and gay love?" Willow- Normal Again.

[TinyJewishSanta]

You are a talented storyteller. I haven't finished everything you have already written yet, but this is amazing - I am definitely coming back. It has an Apuleius's Golden Ass/Metamorphoses quality to it: story within a story within a story.

"Willow - that's a tree. You're a tree. Tell me, do they have any nachos here, little tree?" Band Candy