Because if I didn't vocalize this, I'd explode.

[consultmybooks]

[Quiet sounds - wind scattered dead leaves that have been tracked into the hall, a kettle softly bubbling, the ticking of a clock and the humming of the stove. Giles enjoys the silence for a while before he speaks.]

Happy Halloween, everyone. Day late and, um, a dollar short, I know, but...we were all a bit preoccupied yesterday, weren't we?

...after all of that, though, I must say I still preferred this fiasco to last year's.

[A chair is pushed back. Footsteps can be heard as Giles starts to pace. Edna gives a soft squeak as he picks her up from the floor.]

For those of you who weren't here for Halloween last year? Count yourselves fortunate - not only were we stuck in truly ridiculous costumes, but by the end most of us were hallucinating and half mad. The Malnosso chose to alleviate the situation by stuffing us all in a tent where a maniac in a beak mask teleported about tearing out our feathers all night.

...shame the masks wouldn't burn as well as the costumes. Personally, I found setting that stupid outfit on fire to be remarkably therapeutic.

Do you know what Halloween was, back home? Halloween was supposed to be the night where the world didn't end and the various supernatural beings we had to hunt for night after night didn't show their faces to cause trouble. They all found it terribly tacky, you understand. To a real vampire - one that's survived longer than a month, I mean - plastic fangs are terribly gauche. Even after everything changed, human hopefuls were still something to be scorned.

...sad as I am to admit as much, I still agree with them. But I'd take tacky over horrifying any day.

[A pause, broken only by a soft "thump" as Edna wriggles out of his grasp and lands lightly on the floor. She stalks away, dignity quite bruised.]

How did you all celebrate Halloween back home, then? If you did, of course, I'm aware it's a rather...specific sort of holiday. For about half our years in Sunnydale, we spent it attempting to avert some disaster or another. Which I suppose just goes to show, tradition can sometimes go and hang.

[A chair can be heard scraping across the floor as Giles takes his seat again. His pencil makes rhythmic "tap, tap, tap"s against the paper.]

I need a boat moved. Or, um, I need help getting a boat moved. Not a very large one, but...well, too big for the transporters. I know it's probably a fairly staggering oversight, building it here, rather than the out by the beach, but [he sighs in mingled frustration and exhaustion] I suppose I never thought we'd get this far...

...still need to name the damn thing.

[Filtered away from Helios Sprensonne, Grell Sutcliffe, and Harth Fray - Unhackable]
How do you talk sense into someone utterly bound and determined to refuse to see it? Or, more appropriately, how do you remove the martyr from his martyrdom? Are any of you honestly still blaming yourselves for whatever you did while wearing one of those ridiculous masks? And if you managed to talk, how the hell did you manage it?

...I'm afraid to take my eyes off him like this and I'm not sure I have the eyes to spare.
[/Filtered]

[Locked to Grune - 75% unhackable]
[It's a courtesy filter, more than anything else, although a part of him is holding out hope for a pleasant surprise for people if this works out.] I, um, I think I have everything together. You can stop by whenever you want, and we can get to work.
[/Locked]

[Locked to Helios Sprensonne, Buffy Summers, Ginia Solana, and Link - Unhackable]
[A long silence, a long drawn out and thoughtful silence, before]

I'm sorry. F-For, for how I acted. With that mask the, um, the...two colored one. I think I've figured out what, wh-what it did to me, and I remember how I was and...

...I'm sorry.
[It's a talk he's had with Helios already, but...Giles wants his friends to hear his apologies without being shouted at in the process.]
[/Locked]

[With Helios and Ginia both left in rather poor states by the experiment, Giles can't really bring himself to go far from home or clinic. And, indeed, he'll spend a good part of the day hovering in the vicinity of those two buildings. However, an excuse to get away comes in the form of this strange manifestation of stress baking that had gripped him for most of the morning. Sorry, Grune, but he's already gotten a bit of a jump on the cakes. And the pies. Especially the pumpkin pies.

Most of it is left for Helios - it was his idea, after all - but Giles is going to take advantage of their own survival and the general exhaustion of the village to do something that is probably quite silly. Blame it on the exhaustion, because he does look exhausted, although he's abandoned the librarian clothes for something a little more his style and a little more current century.

Which is to say, he's going to set up a table in the plaza, set out a probably quite impressive array of baked goods...together with a portable kettle of hot tea...and settle in with a book. A small handwritten sign is taped to a space of clear table - "Please take some." If certain people do not stop by his table and take some damn sweets? He'll take the leftovers to them later in the evening. House 7 and the clinic, this means you.

...in the meantime, if you do stop by, you might also catch Giles dozing off in his chair. What? It's been an exhausting few days, and even his patch job on his injuries from Mithos didn't do a damn thing, in the end.]

Comments

[ action ]

[herotypical]

[ giles is bound to catch buffy on her way out the door for her shift at good spirits. when she sees the watcher, she pauses in her effort to lock the front door. ]

H-hey. Walk and talk? About what you said over the journals today...

[ buffy is wrestling with her own guilty, after all. ]

Re: [ action ] ...great, notifs are starting to fail again

[consultmybooks]

Walk and talk. [He's dozed on and off throughout the day, and Giles...thinks that he can manage patrol.]

Which bit in particular did you want to discuss? If it was any bit in particular, of course.

[Because, among other things, he's aware that his ramblings about Halloween ranged into the remarkably personal for the both of them.]

[Written | Private | Unhackble]

[shadedsunlight]

It's okay. You don't have to apologize. [Though even with that said, there are things on Ginia's mind, questions she's not sure if she even approach or mention at all.]

How's he doing?

Re: [Written | Private | Unhackble]

[consultmybooks]

Indulge me. Silly me, I feel as though I should apologize when I banish someone to parts unknown.

[...stop that, Giles, hypocrisy is not what you need after that talk with Helios.]

The last few days shook him up. Only to be expected.

[Voice, unhackable (he's getting better at them!)]

[blessedbyfarore]

It's okay. [It's said immediately, without any hint of hesitation - Link has spent the better part of a day thinking about the masks, and he's firmly sequestered everything off into a box called 'experiments don't count'.]

[Tsuzuki's possession, Valentine's Day, Tsuzuki being a jerk and Hisoka being affectionate, Yuber and Nu being his grandparents - Giles' behaviour is one of those things that he will definitely not count.]

It was the mask's fault, right? So that means it's not yours.

Re: [Voice, Good, for Link always needs more survival skills]

[consultmybooks]

Thank you, Link. Th-That's, um, that's...nice to hear from you.

...still. Shame we can't manage another bonfire this time around. A few of these masks, I'd like some catharsis from.

[pugilistinpink.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I still feel bad f'what I did when I had one a' the masks stuck t'my face, but... I talked to the guy a while ago. It wasn't easy, but goin' an' apologizin' like that, that's the way t'start doin' somethin' right again. Pa was always tellin' me t'man up when makin' mistakes.

[consultmybooks]

Your father was right. Apologizing for your mistakes is always the first step.

[In an almost distant voice, almost as an afterthought, and not entirely directed at Mac.] "To forgive is an act of compassion, Buffy. It's not done because it's deserved."

1/2

[all7seas]

[Someone is watching that table from a hidden spot behind a patch of decorative evergreen shrubbery. Pie. "Please" take some? It's like the former Watcher is BEGGING to be marauded!




What if it's a trap? Only one way to find out: wait until someone else walks into it. So the pirate will wait for a while, noting that no one seems to be disappearing through the ground or getting sucked under the table or being dangled by the legs from nearby trees.

Hmmmm. Alright, alright.]

[all7seas]

[Cautiously but with a winning smile, Jack strolls over to the table.]

Hallo, former Rupert! I mean, Watcher. What's all this about taking, now?

[Voice // In relation to the anti-Grell/Helios/Harth filter]

[godbent]

I'm going to need a bit more situational info to help you there.

Re: [Voice - Such a complicated filter T_T]

[consultmybooks]

Fair enough. One additional question, though - during the past week, did you come across a mask with two differently colored sides? One darker, one lighter?

[Voice]

[no-use-running.livejournal.com]

Giles... I don't think any of us can blame each other for what the Malnosso did.

Re: [Voice] /cuddles lost tag

[consultmybooks]

[...yes, this is a touchy subject for them, isn't it?]

By and large? That is true. He doesn't seem to see it that way, I'm afraid.

[lostinmyway]

Hello, Giles! I'll be right there.

[Pause.] Oh! I can help you with the boat!

[consultmybooks]

[...was not expecting that. Even so, Giles tries not to sound too skeptical, simply because...well, it's Grune.]

You can? How?

[WRITTEN]

[polishrule.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh last year sucked??? It sucked so much and this year was just annoying because whatever. Supposed to die and not dying sucks too because OK I get it you want me dead but Im not dying so oh well

For the mask stuff just repeat it a lot like "NOT YOUR FAULT NOT YOUR FAULT NOT YOUR FAULT"

A lot more than that but writing all that is annoying

Re: [WRITTEN]

[consultmybooks]

[...what the hell did Giles just read?

...okay, he can do this. This looks like English. This...seems to be agreeing with him. At least about the mask. So:]

We can switch to voice, if you want.

[action]

[folklorist]

[ Sup Giles Helios is...actually walking outside. Yep he's out of the apartment and everything. He still looks pretty worse for wear but, well, Ginia doesn't outright hate him so there is that. He is going to the clinic to help her with her wing but first...your stand. All those cakes and pies and sweets. ] I-I see you've...you've opened up a stand. Anyone stop by yet?

Re: [action]

[consultmybooks]

I've opened up a stand, yes. Stands have been very kind to me, in the past. I thought I ought to return the favor.

[Giles doesn't look up at Helios from his reading - not directly, at least - but he does point towards an untouched pumpkin pie.]

I've had a few visitors. It's been getting harder and harder to save anything for you. You probably made it just in time.

[ voice | filtered ]

[refinedmaestro.livejournal.com]

Yes last year was horrid and as for your question, I'm afraid there's no answer to that.

Re: [ voice | filtered ]

[consultmybooks]

Yes, I was afraid you'd say that. That does seem to be the general consensus, at the moment.

[Action]

[daisy023]

[That... may be a good way to improve her mood. There's so much about this shift she is embittered about (not just with the Malnosso, but with herself) that she could use a distraction for.

Baked goods, for instance. Standing in a table, along with tea, that the huge girl eyes with curiosity.]

May I, sir?

Re: [Action]

[consultmybooks]

[Giles looks up at Daisy...and a little further up. Not often he meets people taller than he is. Pardon him if there's no recollection on his face, though - he was blind when you last met.]

Of course. That is what they're there for, after all.

helios/grell/harth filter; am I in time for the late party?!

[byakkoyagirl.livejournal.com]

Talking to someone too stubborn to see what is going on? Removing a martyr from martyrdom? Making someone stop blaming themselves for something they can't control?

[A light 'hm' sound] This is sounding very familiar to me and I have no idea why! [She adds a small 'tsk tsk' at the end.]

As a side note, I liked my costume better than the mask. Paper bags hide my pretty face.

[Locked to Paprika - Believe me, this is hardly the latest I've had.]

[consultmybooks]

Oh, does it? Perhaps you can help me, then, being the experienced woman of the world you are.

[Yes, Paprika, you're precisely who he's been hoping to answer for precisely that reason.]

Paper bags? I don't think I saw that one around.