[Voicemail]

[consultmybooks]

This post here is for personal conversations which should happen but one or both of us doesn't want to put up a new post/log and thus we will just thread it out here. It is also good for follow ups to other threads or to play out reactions to other threads that might not occur immediately at the time of the journal post. This can be used to thread with consultmybooks  anytime and anywhere. This can either be in person (with action), or via the journal's call feature (voice and/or written).

When replying to this post please mark in the subject line when and how it is taking place, in the style of the following examples:

[Action, March 11th]
[Voice, September 8th]
[Written, June 10th]

Comments

[herotypical]

...I'm still working on that part. Including the part where I stop her without getting too obvious about it.

[consultmybooks]

...drawing a blank, I'm afraid.

If she's taken this beyond just targeting Jack, the odds are good that she won't be persuaded. And there are very few ways to subtly attack someone.

Deception?

[herotypical]

[ a short, near-bark of laughter. ] I'm guessing you witnessed the, ah, 'attempt' at deception -- already.

[ she's hurting over it. you don't need to see her in focus to be able to tell that. ]

[consultmybooks]

I was...wondering about that, yes.

He seemed to be trying to get someone's attention. Did Grell comment, then?

[Being unable to make out the video, though, he has absolutely no idea that wasn't Jilly.]

[herotypical]

Grell already knew Jilly's name, but not what she looks like. Jack set up a decoy -- it was a not-so-accidental video feed. To make it look like there's a second Jilly. A Jilly that doesn't exist.

It was pretty convincing looking...[ though other factors inspire doubt in this plan's deceptiveness. ]

[consultmybooks]

So. Giving Grell Jilly's name, but not Jilly's appearance, is that it? Letting her think she's on the right track?

[Good. Jilly is not appropriate bait, as far as Giles is concerned.

They'd spoken a little before the experiment, and after, and there's still a bit of familial protectiveness there.]

...who was he using, then?

[herotypical]

My best guess? He broke into Shiki's shop and stole a dress-maker's dummy. Found a wig, built himself a red-head. If I didn't know him so well, I probably would've been convinced. The lighting was low. [ romantic.

her distaste for the plan -- while defending it -- is palpable. ]

[consultmybooks]

[Palpable. Evident. Giles is privately amazed at the cues he can pick up even without working eyes. Even and especially from Buffy.]

Better than the alternative. [Better than him using a real villager.]

...a red head?

[herotypical]

I guess he wasn't feeling up to going with blonde.

[ protecting her. foolishly protecting her when she's their best chance. ]

[consultmybooks]

Considering who you're trying to deceive, I'm amazed he could perform at all.

[herotypical]

When the chips are down...[ she trails off; she had already made this point to giles just a few days earlier. jack sparrow's odd way of looking after those he cared about. rarely did those ways bring real benefit -- after all, buffy had been quite badly hurt by them in the past. but his intentions? not always so villainous. ]

[consultmybooks]

If they aren't down yet, they sound as though they're falling.

...Jilly's staying with you until this is over, then?

[herotypical]

Mmhm.

[ and then, suddenly: ] And longer, I guess. If she wants to stay. [ buffy sounds surprise at this sort of self-revelation. ]

[consultmybooks]

You do have the room. [His voice is mild - it's a revelation he understands, since coming back here.]

[herotypical]

We have too much of it. I mean, I've never lived with just one other person before.

[ because she can't remember it being just her and joyce. ]

[consultmybooks]

No, I suppose you haven't.

[Deep down, he knows there was a time before Dawn. But that doesn't mean anything - they can't remember it, so how could things have ever been otherwise?]

Moving in and out is a remarkably tricky business, here. Or so it's always seemed to me.

[herotypical]

I didn't have much but when I moved into seven, it felt like I was moving for weeks.

[consultmybooks]

You seem to have managed moving back in this last time easily enough.

[herotypical]

...Right, see? Those times? I'm not counting those times.

[ she meant when she moved across the bridge that was now the 'marauding bridge'. it was first the bridge where she had met kirk -- out behind forty-seven. ] Those times are the kinds of times that I am planning to remove from memory.

[consultmybooks]

Unless you make a lucky find of Lethe's Bramble, Buffy, I'm afraid that's not likely to happen.

[herotypical]

[ that deserves a shiver. ]

That's why I aced Repression 101.

[consultmybooks]

A required course in any Sunnydale education.

...most of your classmates surpassed you, in that regard. Most everyone did.

[herotypical]

The whole world pretty much managed it. Almost.

[consultmybooks]

Almost. [There's a double meaning there - "almost" in the sense that certain people managed to figure out what was really going on, or "almost" in the sense that the facade almost held up.]

Better that way.

[herotypical]

[ they continue in silence the rest of the way -- until buffy leads them into the shop. ]

I should warn you, Giles. I'm -- I'm probably gonna be playing a bit of a part. Only the part I'll be playing is me. The me that's not watching things fall apart around her. So...business as usual. Like home.