This story is amazing. I love it because it keeps me at the edge of my seat and it makes me laugh.
Please update soon. Thank you for sharing your wonderful mind.
UPDATE! PLEASE!
by spottiedottie » Mon Feb 25, 2002 1:38 pm
This story is amazing. I love it because it keeps me at the edge of my seat and it makes me laugh.
Please update soon. Thank you for sharing your wonderful mind.
UPDATE! PLEASE!
by Charlie » Mon Feb 25, 2002 1:54 pm
This fic gets better and better... and wierder and funnier and more heart breaking. One of the best fics I think I've ever read, Niki, and I've read 'em all! But post soon, OK, honey?!! I'll even become your humble minion, and I don't do that for just anyone...
...oh, OK, I do. I'm a ho, what can I say?
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“You’re my wife now…” Papa Lazarou
-The League of Gentlemen
by wiccachica » Mon Feb 25, 2002 2:34 pm
Chapter Seventy One: That Old Black Magic That You Weave Too Well…..
First of all…you have to realise just how hard the first few days after I had left, were for me.
Later on it had been like I had taken a part of myself…and arm..or more like my heart…and rended it from my body…. And locked it away where I couldn’t get to it.
…But the first few days….it was like I couldn’t breathe….or function without her. It was everything I could do to keep from walking by places I knew Willow would be…and straining to hear her voice….or hoping that I’d run into her…which seemed crazy to me at the time because I had been the one who had left…..
I stayed with a friend for that first week…she understood…and let me ride out my pain the best way I knew how…. by sublimating….by avoiding…and by keeping myself so busy with classes and exercise that I had no time to grieve.
Yes. I said exercise. I hadn’t run a day in my life that wasn’t mandated by Junior High Physical Standardized testing….and yet those first few days…I found myself running more than I ever had…pushing myself harder…and farther each night… vampires and demons be damned….I was here to… to what….forget?….no that was impossible….
To try to wear myself out until I was too tired to think….too tired to harbor even the slightest urge to ‘happen by’ the Summer’s house….and perchance catch a glimpse of her…
So it happened on the third night…just as I finish a grueling sprint around the UC campus.…. My mind is telling me I have miles to go yet before I could give in tonight…my body is telling me quite the opposite…
One more flouncey running-like step, Tara…and I’ll hit this pavement…I swear I will…
I bend forward…trying to catch my breath….then start a slow and deliberate walk back to my friend’s dorm room…
" Hey…hey…Tara ….Maclay…" I hear the voice just off to my right and I nearly fall over myself in fear…
Okay…maybe NOT so big on the Vampires and demons damning thing…
When I managed NOT to fall into the soggy post-sprinkler grass, I catch a very familiar gaze. She is casually perched on a bench, her legs crossed and her arms spread out over the back. Though her resting position appears to be very lax, her expression is full of grim purpose.
" Oh…h-hey…O-Olivia…." I say…trying to strike an equally casual pose…but moving forward at the same time. Not wanting to stop…having a bad feeling about the stopping…..
What is she doing around Sunnydale still?
Her eyes follow me as I inch forward..in the general direction of the dorms.
" I need to talk to you." She says pointedly. I’m still inching.
" Can this be a t-talk and w-walk kinda thing?" I hope out loud. She uncrosses her legs and leans forward…but doesn’t get up.
" No." She says…and I stop inching.
" But it’s dark…and this place isn’t…the safest…place…to talk…."
" There are sometimes things much more dangerous out here…in the dark….." She says…not-quite-cryptically enough…
" Y-you?" I ask dismayed. She meets my gaze with hers…a thin smile touches her lips…..
" Actually I was referring to you." She says. Instead of running (which in hindsight I really should have…right then and there) I let out a laugh.
" Me?" I giggle despite myself.
Now there was an image…ME on the Scoobie list of dangerous fiendies that go bumpy in the night. Oh…sure….
" Are you…kind of…maybe…no offense but…ON DRUGS????"
Or maybe that’s not it at all…maybe I’ve finally gone over the deep end…maybe I’m the one in need of serious help…..
Olivia sighs. She blinks at me, stoic, like a granite statue….only with a little less emotion….
" Go ahead and go through the stages of denial, Tara…TWICE if need be… I really have ALL NIGHT….and an infinite amount of patience….." She says.
…And I can tell that she means it..because she leans back again, and re-crosses her legs and falls back into a patient pose. I see there’s no wining with her…she’s going to sit there forever if need be…. And plus…I’m not sure I want her following me back to the dorm.
" I’ll sit…if you can promise me that you aren’t part of the Spooky Undead Club…" I offer. She likes the sound of that, and smiles patiently.
" Oh no…I assure you…I’m not the least bit undead, Tara…in fact….I’ve been very, much dead for a long time now….."
Now…I don’t think the Scoobies had quite versed me at that time on the difference between the Dead-Dead, and the Undead-Dead….
" So I s-sit…and you bite me….??" I guess…
" No…you sit…and we talk…and I warn you of impending doom…and then I leave…. Sans the bite marks."
" Leave back to the netherworld?" I ask, fishing.
" You are batting Oh-for-three…" She says. " Back to Denver….I have a gig tomorrow night and I have to catch the red-eye out."
" Oh." I say, and I sit down on the bench beside her. " So the doom part….?"
" Ooh…I SO LOVE a cut-to-the-chase girl…..I’m a contracted harbinger of The Sekhem Em Pet. I keep telling him that this is the electronic age…to send you a damn e-mail or something…but He-That-Is-Eternally-Technologically-Stunted still likes to do things by the book…you know…get me to come out here and do the whole…’ ooh…oggie bogie…prepare for the coming of the one that is Anubis…he who walks the earth as the bringer of souls….etc…etc… It’s all really very political…." She examines her nails as she says this.
" Why are you telling me this?" I ask. Shouldn’t she be telling this end-of-the-world stuff to Buffy…or Giles…anyone but me…
" Because it’s you he’s coming to see. I tried to tell you this that night at the Bronze, but you rushed off to get laid." She says point-blank.
" What does he want with ME?" I squeak. She shrugs.
" It’s his business to tell you what you need to know…It’s mine to tell you he’s coming…."
" W-well…do you have a time…or…or a date even?" I ask. Olivia raises her brows.
" You know…I don’t know…He said soon…but soon in Underworld Standard Time could be anywhere between last week, and ten years from now…. They may be all powerful…but try keeping track of time…when all you have is all the time in the world…and you eventually chuck your watches…"
Olivia gets up off the bench now. She lights a cigarette.
" Okay…got catch a plane…tell old Jackal-Head that the next time he comes to town…he sends Amanda to do his heralding…." She turns as though she’s forgotten something.
" Oh…and I almost forgot….you can’t…see your red-haired girl…anymore…EVER…. is actually what he said…and in Egyptian god-like translation…EVER is like twice as long as UNTIL THE END OF TIME AS WE KNOW IT…." She says…walking down the path again…
" Wait!!! What???? Can’t see???? OR WHAT????" I panic loudly.
Okay…so we may not be TOGETHER together right now…but I don’t like the idea that some Egyptian god has decreed it so.
" Or the usual…spiel..Unrend the balance of light and dark .…blah blah…just take my work for it…no booty calling The Girlfriend….. at least until you know what’s what…"
TBC….
by ForeverPiper » Mon Feb 25, 2002 3:06 pm
by wiccachica » Mon Feb 25, 2002 3:13 pm
No need to worry... but just so you know...we haven't gotten to the part why Willow would be AFRAID of Tara...and there IS a reason...I assure you....
And Yes...as we can see it doesn't seem to entirely stop Tara from seeing her Willow...did it...???? Hmm..... questions....angst...and mystery....
Why would I ever do that??? (batting eyes innocently)
by Jae » Mon Feb 25, 2002 8:52 pm
by LeatherQueen » Mon Feb 25, 2002 9:06 pm
quote:
Originally posted by Jae:
(Should I worry that I don't seem to find this fic incredibly wierd? It somehow all makes a great deal of sense to me, even back with tbe body switching and whatnot... )
Not to worry, Jae. I also do not find this fic wierd. Hilarious? Yes. But it makes sense in a strange, Sunnydale way. And I cannot WAIT for more. So please... hurry up tomorrow. More of this, and hey.. tomorrow's Tuesday, so yay new Buffy!
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"Honey, I'm the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind." -Glory
by Owl » Mon Feb 25, 2002 9:49 pm
is it morning yet?
[This message has been edited by Owl (edited February 25, 2002).]
by wiccachica » Tue Feb 26, 2002 7:56 am
Okay...for the confused Kitties...I totally understand...I am like the Dr. Kavorkian of sensibility....so if you have a question... feel free to email me: lafemmenikit@hotmail.com
For those of you who get it....well...all I can say is.....uhm....do you read comic books??? Douglas Adams? Dean Koontz? Old VC Andrews? Jean Auel? Something must tie you to my weird brain..... but I'm happy.... it's nice to know that there are others out there.... and if we run into eachother on a street somewhere...I'll start to babble (with my nine-track mind) and you will understand the words coming out of my mouth....
Leatherqueen.... New Buffy! New Buffy! (doing Snoopy Dance) Is it bad to base the days of the Week on Buffy Eppies??? ( I call it Buffy Tue-sday...)Hmm...food for thought.....
Jae... I'll wrk really hard to resolve the cliffhangery stuff for you before you go...but I'm off to Texas next week myself...so the updates to the fic will not come on a few days....think of it as paying homage to you, Jae... (wink)
Owl...Dear....you're upping the anty on the Harem deal...huh...?. A computer with only internet...I like that...but does it play Sims? I must have my Sims..... And I'll need stuffed animals to bounce story ideas off of...and Earl Gray in the Morning and Irish Breakfast Tea with milk for... well.... breakfast.... ( I don't eat solids..only tea....oh...and the grapes and chocolate.....)
Just kidding...you know that...right? I don't eat grapes.
It's early here and I'm delirious...
*putting on serious scholar face*
okay...and to answer your question on the Mount of Venus: http://www.handscape.com/Palmistry/LineLife.html
I learned this stuff while researching a book last year...
[This message has been edited by wiccachica (edited February 26, 2002).]
by bun-yip1 » Tue Feb 26, 2002 10:09 am
surfacing to ask a quick question.....
Where do I know that from???? Have you written anything else here?
your story is weird goodness BTW... I'm hooked...
Thanks For writing it!
Sheila
by katydid » Tue Feb 26, 2002 10:17 am
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"She practically has 'genuine molded plastic' stamped on her ass.
by wiccachica » Tue Feb 26, 2002 10:25 am
The Afternoon Edition will be on it's way...I'm prodding the Troll to start writing it as we speak...
Bun-yip...I like the name...is that as in Dot and the Bun-yip? (cartoon I used to watch as a kid)
And yes...I've written other stuff...but on a different fic site... if you can guess which I'll give you a bright, shiny, new nickel....
And now for a slightly shorter, but important Morning Edition:
Chapter Seventy-Two: A Mean While…..
I shouldn’t be listening.
I should have just kept the door closed and my back pressed against it…. My hands over my ears..My eyes squeezed shut….
I should have just climbed out the window, and dropped to the ground outside…into an oblivion of vampires, and demons, and….
Into an oblivion without Tara.
Okay…I know it sounds terrible…but you really don’t understand….you don’t know why I would act this way….
Not yet.
Right now, I’m crouched at the top of the stairs, just out of the line of sight of Tara and the Scoobies as she tells them…THE TRUTH…a longer and more detailed version of what she told me up here.
Longer…. because I ran.
She told me what I didn’t want to hear…and everything I’ve ever wanted to….. in a matter of minutes…
A Gloriously horrific paradox…..and I ran from it…
I ran from her…and I broke her heart….
and as much as it destroys me from the very depths of my soul… I did the right thing.
Okay…yes…Crazy Willow talking…. Crazy, Scared Willow…who doesn’t even have the guts to leave the house when she ‘runs away’ ….
Hate Tara…HATE her… she LIED…to you…Hate-hate-hate….
Funny thing about hate is you can’t really adhere it to people you love… In fact…it usually ends up solidifying how much you actually DON’T hate them…and how much your life would truly suck if they weren’t in it…and how much you LOVE them…and how VERY much you might be betraying your own heart for even THINKING about hating them….and then the guilt sets in. . . and you love them more than you ever thought you could…
I’ll sit right here….at the top of the stairs….and I’ll quietly listen to her tell it again…and maybe this time…it will be different…maybe this time when she molds the words together that rebuilt and destroyed my faith in our existence together…that this time the words will come out changing the hands of fate this time……
" Did he…. I mean… ever show up?" Anya asks. " Because I must tell you that I’m a little awed by the fact that Anubis prompted a visitation with you….that didn’t result in your immediate withdrawl from the kingdom of the living…."
"Yes. And I-I really wish he wouldn’t have…." Tara says. Her voice cracks, and my chest aches to go to her..to put my arms around her..and promise her that this is something we can get through together….
But the irony of it is…we can’t...
TBC…..
by Tiggrscorpio » Tue Feb 26, 2002 11:05 am
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She's my everything!
by wiccachica » Tue Feb 26, 2002 11:18 am
(zappity boink!)
The Afternoon Edition :
Chapter Seventy-Three: Breaking the Rules
Sometimes.
Sometimes we try to forget the things we need to.
We think that if we chant hard enough…..and ignore all of the signs.
If we busy ourselves with mundane things, and brainwash ourselves into believing we have….
Then we will forget.
We will forget how when she smiles the bridge of her nose crinkles…. And when she goes into babble-mode you can see it in her eyes that she knows she’s there and you just want to pull her close…
And how you miss it when she mutters the strangest words in her sleep..not only because you miss the sound of her voice..but because you’d come to understand what she was saying…
And the way the light in any room seems to seek her out so that it can play through her copper hair.
You will forget none of these things…by the way….so don’t get your hopes up.
I hadn’t. And a month had gone by at a snail’s pace…..
I had even tried to go out on a date…once...and it was an prize lesson in disaster…I want to blame myself…or even Willow…(and she wasn’t even there) but mostly…I have to thank Dawnie…who saw it as her duty to serve as my personal Willow Weather Channel where she would reprise, over frothy smooth drinks, how well Willow was doing lately…and how funny and smart, and….ALONE Willow was….
She always stressed the alone….
And I would play dumb..and give her my non-committal ‘oh reallys’ and move onto to other…less Willow topics… in order to save my sanity…
A month…and still no sign of Anubis… It was beginning to worry me…..
No….correction….it was beginning to piss me off…
I hadn’t seen Willow in what seemed like an ETERNITY. At first…it had been my choice ….but now..instead of forgetting…and feeling better…and ‘moving on’ to someone else…I found myself more than ever…wanting to see the only woman I had ever loved with every ionic fragment on my being…
I wanted to see her. And somewhere deep within me..I was afraid… of the warning…of the feelings I still have for her…and the fear that maybe I’m the only one of us who HADN’T moved on….
But on the night after Dawn gingerly mentioned that Willow had come across a poetry book of mine…and had started crying…right in front of the whole Scoobie Gang… I decided ‘ to hell with Olivia and her forewarnings’….
I was going to see Willow the next day…just to say hello…just to let her know I cared how she was….
Just that.
Too easy? Well yes…of course it was…
TBC...
In the Late Afternoon Edition...
by Jessie » Tue Feb 26, 2002 11:30 am
On with the show!
------------------
"And how long have you known your girlfriend's Tinkerbell?"
by canadian kitty » Tue Feb 26, 2002 11:39 am
by wiccachica » Tue Feb 26, 2002 1:37 pm
so with that in mind...here is the Late Edition:
Chapter Seventy-Four: The Guiding Light…
Tara…
I turn over beneath my blanket and fasten the edges down with the palms of my hands… something… anything… to keep that damn orange light out….
Tara… A soft voice…not distinctly male…nor obviously female…. But pressing….
" No…." I moan at the voice….loud enough to wake myself up fully… I blink from beneath my shrine of covers…
Light? Voice? Huh???
Tara… The voice says.
This is my room….ALL mine….no one else can possibly be in here…turning on lights and calling my name…
I’m just groggy enough to not have panic set in…not yet….
I pull back the edge on the blanket to find myself looking not at some insane burglar bent on stealing the non-existent possessions I had…or some crazed light-switch fiend….
But a light. A large column of orangey red light. Like a thousand candles burning simultaneously. Every corner of my room is illuminated with it…
And yes…
Tara…
It calls to me again….
Follow… The light says…more like a command than a request…and I pull the covers back and slide my legs over the edge of the bed…
Follow… It says again…and I almost make a snippy comment about the holding of one’s horses.
Is this thing going to let me put on some clothes?
And I am answered as I veer towards my closet, and the light moves to block me…
Follow… It says more insistently. I look down at my plaid boxers and tank top sans bra and back to the light…
All right…FOLLOW…but I get arrested for indecent exposure out there…and YOU’re doing the explaining.. officer…I swear…it was the five foot tube of light…..
The light hovers in front of me for a moment.
Dress… It says finally. I walk to my closet for some clothes.
Is it just me, or does the light sound oddly exasperated….?
***
Outside it is brisk, but not cold.
I quickly follow the light through campus….feeling a bit self-conscious. I mean why should I? Doesn’t everyone have his or her own personal column of light?
It’s leading me away from the campus…away…to slightly more familiar territory….
I’m not going to say that I get a warm fuzzy from hanging out in the cemetery….but it IS familiar ground.
Come… The light says, and weaves through the headstones deftly…
Maybe this is some kind of trick….maybe…it was really stupid to go trouncing off after strange lights willy-nilly….
And my thoughts are immediately answered with the snarl of a particularly cranky vampire emerging from the shadows…
He must have been bothered by the light as well… He comes toward me….
Then to my surprise…the light moves back…and around me.. BEHIND me…to hover….
Oh brother…WHAT is THIS!! ?? I get the only CHICKEN light in the batch???
But strangely…the vampire…cranky as he might be…..stops dead in his tracks. And then he does the last thing I would ever imagine….
No…he doesn’t run…. (which I thought would be the weirdest thing…)
He SMILES.
He smiles, and then falls all over himself to get to me and shake my hand.
" Hey…howya doing? You need anything… I can get you something…my crypt’s just down the row here…. Water? Blood? OJ?…Rat??"
" Uhm…no thanks.." I say warily…
" Oh…that’s cool…nothing…but you DECIDE you want something…you just let me know…"
He’s still pumping my arm up and down and grinning at me like…
Like…
I was Elvis or something.
TBC……
by Mooo » Tue Feb 26, 2002 1:55 pm
by Shooting_Star » Tue Feb 26, 2002 2:06 pm
keep up the great work, can't wait to read the next chapter
by LeatherQueen » Tue Feb 26, 2002 7:36 pm
quote:
Originally posted by wiccachica:
do you read comic books??? Douglas Adams? Jean Auel?
ummm... yes, yes, and yes. Does that make me a freak? Perhaps. But I'm glad it allows me to understand this fic.
quote:
Originally posted by wiccachica:
Leatherqueen... New Buffy! New Buffy! (doing Snoopy Dance) Is it bad to base the days of the Week on Buffy Eppies??? (I call it Buffy Tue-sday...)Hmm...food for thought...
No, it is entirely OK to base the days of the week on Buffy eps. COMPLETELY normal. I think we probably ALL do it.
quote:
Originally posted by wiccachica:
but I'm off to Texas next week myself..
Texas?? Did I hear that right? You won't be able to do updates because you'll be in good ole Texas? Heh... Wellllll... I happen to live in Texas. We Texans could always hijack you for a couple hours so that the troll can appease our need for more wiccachica fic.
Well, now to comment on the current updates. Yay! More please? Cuz you're leaving us hanging... I think you're taking a note from Lisa's fics what with the hanging from cliffs and all.
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"Honey, I'm the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind." -Glory
[This message has been edited by LeatherQueen (edited February 26, 2002).]
quote:quote:quote:by ForeverPiper » Tue Feb 26, 2002 7:46 pm
------------------------------
What a bitch!
-Willow in As You Were
by Kalita » Tue Feb 26, 2002 9:18 pm
quote:
Originally posted by wiccachica:
I look down at my plaid boxers and tank top sans bra and back to the light…
Okay, as much as I'm frustrated byt the not-getting-fully-to-the-point and other cliffhangeritis issues, the mental image from this one line basically makes up for it.
Thanks.
quote:by supermus » Wed Feb 27, 2002 6:15 am
by nika » Wed Feb 27, 2002 7:49 am
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"The word 'GULP!'comes to mind." Tara
by wiccachica » Wed Feb 27, 2002 10:34 am
And yes...I'll be in Texas at the end of next week on business... sadly...and my laptop's of the Wonk lately so no internet....sigh...
I wish I'd gotten that modem for my palmtop...life would be so much easier...
Now..this is slightly longer than usual...because there's a bit of set up to the answers you seek...but I promise this one is NO stalling tactic...
Okay...the tank top/boxer shorts deal earlier may have been an itty bitty stalling tactic...hee...
Distracting? Si?
Morning Edition:
Chapter Seventy-Five: Walk Like an Egy…No…That One is Waaay Too Easy…
The bushes rustle off to my left.
And then…as quickly as this goofily-grinning groupie vamp had come up on me…he’s gone…. scampering away…. and my chicken light moves off to my right….and waits….
And then the fiendish thing leaps out of the brush…
……stake…. poised in the air…. ready to lodge it in my chest…
" Tara?" Buffy exclaims, VERY astonished to see me here. She lowers her stake.
" Buffy…er…hi…" I say. Not yet realizing just how close I’d come to being kabobbed.
" What are you doing out here?" She prods…putting the stake in her jacket.
The light casts an ominous orangey-red glow to everything around us.
Okay…so now I’m thinking only to a Scooby would my story NOT sound like the ravings of a complete and utter lunatic.
" I was following the light…it woke me up…. And it called me out here t-to the graveyard." I say.
THERE.
Said and done.
She stares at me for a long moment…weighing what I’ve said…then…
" Tare…sweetie….WHAT Light?" She asks.
I start to swing my hand toward the brightly glowing illume, but pause about halfway around…probably looking like a indecisive Vanna White.
OOOOHHH….KAAAAY…..she can’t SEE the light…..Yep…that pretty much cinches it……I’m nuts….
I pull my hand back in quickly. Rapidly trying to think of a cover story…
mean…come on Tara…you’re a college gal….THINK!
" Sleepwalking…?" I say…sounding a little more hopeful than I should that she’ll believe such a lame excuse…I mean…sleepwalking? Fully dressed?
Oh Goddess…she’ll never by it….
" In the cemetery?….That’s…kind of…bad there, Tara…." She says, and begins to lecture me on an epic, Slayer-like scale on the dangers of walking (even in one’s sleep) around a spooky cemetery at night.
Strangely I’m far more distracted by the light…which has begun to pulsate with impatience now.
Okay Tara….let’s see….either something is about to happen…or the non-existent light is bored….you are soooo crazy…. You are….
Wait… The light says…and Buffy stops talking.
In fact..it looks like someone pushed that huge pause button in the sky and EVERYTHING engulfed in the glow of the light has become stilled.
Buffy stands with a finger in the air in mid lecture and her eyes in half blink…looking like the wise old owl…in a taxidermy class….
Not a blade of grass rustles…not a tree leaf shudders.
Just me….
….Me and the mannish form emerging from the center of the light. He is leaning…like a giant coming through a normal-sized door. And when he steps out onto the grass, and stands up at his full height…I can see why.
He has to be eight feet tall if he is an inch…
We stare at each other for what seems like an eternity. Luckily he is far enough away to keep my neck from kinking up.
We stare at one another…and here’s the thing…. I can tell you honestly that I don’t recall much in the way of distinguishing features.
He was tall.
He was man-like….. in a strangely non-scary, animal sort of way.
" Tara…" He says.
And he knew my name.
The light continues on behind him as he walks towards me.
Up close I can’t seem to distinguish anything about him. It’s almost like if I stop looking at him…I would forget altogether and have to look again to remind myself that he’s standing there.
I didn’t think I had to go out on a limb to assume that this was the Great and Powerful Anubis…the Bringer of Souls….and …all the other stuff….. What do you call a God of the Underworld?
" Sir…?" I venture the word out there. He moves closer, dwarfing me in his shadow.
" I will speak…and the vessel will receive." He says. It sounded like a command at first….and lately…I wasn’t big on the command thing… I was feeling surly…petulant…but by no means stupid enough to tell this giant to stuff it.
" The vessel will receive with the soul that is pure…It will receive from the nose the origin….."
" Okay…" I say.
Uhm…eww, as Dawnie would say about now…this guy better not pull ANYTHING out of his nose for me to receive….
" It will listen…because the soul of the vessel desires that which is itself…."
Pure soul…desiring vessels…got it….
" Okay." I say….I mean what do I say …no?
" And Sekhem, who loves the soul…. will educate the vessel." He says…reaching out and pausing his hand to hover just above my breastbone….over my heart….
I sure hope the word EDUCATE hasn’t lost anything in translation of the last couple thousand years…..
" And the vessel will know …and the vessel will understand…of the constructs of the soul’s demise….And the vessel will know of its place among the world of the Dead…."
And then he presses the hand against me…and I feel the first threads of panic when I try to inhale, but cannot…and I try to look away from his face….but cannot… And I reach up to take his shoulder as I feel the earth fall away from beneath me…and…..
Chapter Seventy-Six: Screeeeeech!
Anya reaches out in the middle of my story and takes a fierce grip on my wrist.
" Are you telling me that you SPOKE to Anubis??" She seems both skeptical and afraid at the same time. " Because he’s not big on the speaking…just on the old…’ Hi…I’m Anubis…you’ve got a pretty soul…here lets rip that right out of you….’ Kinda guy…."
" I’m sooo confused right now…" Xander moans…..
" He FROZE me??? Cuz I don’t remember being all Buffycicle that night…" Buffy insists.
" Soo…very confused…." Xander says…wanting to make sure we knew that he was still very confused….
" Anya…you want to translate for us?" Dawn says. Anya lets my arm go.
" Cliff notes version…please…" Xander says.
" Oh…that means the short and simple version for lazy people…right..?" She asks.
" Something like that." Buffy says…looking a little offended.
" Okay….we all know who Osiris is…right? The big guy who sits at the gates of the underworld and judges the souls of the Dead…with the capital D. So before Osiris was around, the big guy at the gates was Anubis…or Sekhem Em Pet as he likes to be called… So Osiris who was a pretty awesome warrior and an all around popular guy with the Gods before his death, and after he dies, Anubis brings him on down to the Underworld where Osiris gets to take over…kind of mutually… and Anubis stays on as the right-hand man kind of thing…you know…gathering up the souls of the Dead…bringing them to Osiris to be judged…"
" So he’s like a big guy in the Who’s Who of the Underworld…."
" Right…big guy…son of Rah kinda big…. so for him to drop in for a howdya do is like…uhm…really a big deal… a HUGE deal…."
" So all that vessel stuff..?" Dawn asks.
" Vessel is the body that houses the soul…so in civilized god-like circles he was saying ‘ I’m going to tell you a little story to your body…. And your soul ain’t gonna like it’…" Anya says.
" And the nose picking thing?" Xander asks finally.
" Leave it to you to get caught up on that, Xander…that’s just a manner of speaking…in the Books of the Dead the spells often included the vessel speaking from the nose…or a soul leaving from it…it’s a very strong point of power on the body… In this context it only adds weight to the importance of the words he was about to speak to the….(waggles her fingers at me) the vessel here."
They all turn back to me, expectantly.
" Well…what did he say…? End of the world? Oogie boogies?" Spike asks.
" No." I say…and I’m finding it hard to swallow again. I look at my hands. This is the hard part. How do I explain this without it sounding….
" He told you why you and Willow couldn’t see each other…right?" Dawn says,
Now everyone turns to Dawn. She looks more afraid than even I must.
THAT is the worst thing she can imagine right now…bless her little heart.
" He did that….yes….but…." I say.
But only in the most surprising…. painful…and horrible way possible, Sweetie.
TBC……..
by Shooting_Star » Wed Feb 27, 2002 10:44 am
i love your characterisation of Anya
" Oh…that means the short and simple version for lazy people…right..?" She asks.
lol, that was so funny and i love Taras whole 'sleepwalking excuse
by Jessie » Wed Feb 27, 2002 10:49 am
"Will Tara divulge all the details of her meeting with Anubis? Will Willow ever talk to Tara again? Will Xander ever listen to an entire story and not get stuck on body functions? All this and more ... in the next installment."
Love it! Keep going. JD
------------------
"And how long have you known your girlfriend's Tinkerbell?"
by Pixie » Wed Feb 27, 2002 10:59 am
by wiccachica » Wed Feb 27, 2002 1:48 pm
See you tomorrow....
Afternoon Edition:
Chapter Seventy-Seven: Purpose
TO KNOW ITS TRUE PURPOSE, THE SOUL MUST RECOGNIZE ITSELF FROM ITS BEGINNINGS…THE ORIGIN FROM WHENCE IT BEGAN..AND THE CYCLE OF ITS EXISTENCE. IT MUST CARRY THE BURDEN OF MY ETERNAL ALLIEGENCE UPON IT, AND SACRIFICE EVERYTHING ITS VESSEL HOLDS MOST DEAR IN EACH LIFE….
THE VESSEL WILL NOT UNDERSTAND…UNTIL IT IS SHOWN….. UNTIL THE SOUL REMEMBERS…..
And then I was shown EVERYTHING that I am….that I have been…and that I will ever be…. In once blinding millisecond of time.
One overwhelming lightning strike of the synapses….
And I could not shut my eyes to it…I could not scream against it….I could not make myself NOT WANT to see…and understand….and later on….remember…..
Chapter Seventy-Eight: The Origin
He came to our dwelling on the second week of a loveless marriage.
He came in the wake of a terrible illness that had swept through our village like fire against a dry field.
An illness that had both myself and my new husband shaking, and bed-ridden…and unable to move despite the pain ...
Anubis came into our dwelling on the back of this plight…and I knew him immediately.
The Bringer of souls…the guide to the Underworld….
And I knew all at once…. that I was to die.
" TA-HERU-ET…." He called to me…and my husband slept on…shaking, and sick..but alive…
And Anubis stretched out his hand…and I took that hand…and I was lifted from my bed…and my place beside my husband…and taken into the night ….which also called my name from all sides as though rejoicing my presence….and welcoming me home.
And it was on this journey to the world beneath that Anubis did express himself fully, and spoke to me of the purity of my soul…the perfect balance that had been struck between light and dark within me…. And of his devotion to such a soul from the very day of my birth….
How strange for a god to love a woman… even if just her soul…
….and how does a god love?
But these matters would not come….for I had to be judged accordingly by He Who is Osiris The Keeper of the Gate…. And it was his gaze that Anubis feared to lose me…
***
" He was afraid that she’d be judged and sent through the gates…. where he wouldn’t be able to see her for all eternity." Anya said grimly.
" Yes. " I say.
" That is so….sad…" Buffy says.
" So why didn’t he just decide to hide her out until the heat was off?" Xander offers up.
" Actually…THAT is exactly what he did." I say… " And he still is…"
" I’m getting this, Blondie….YOU’RE a watered down version of this Heru chick…and he’s been hiding you out from the Big O for thousands of years…that’s it…. Am I right….?" He asks..puffing up proudly.
" Not exactly." I say. And he’s confused all over again. I examine my hands in my laps again.
you think you’re confused NOW, Spike???…Try this one on….
" I’m kind of..... Osiris." I say. Not looking up from my hands.
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