[location:somewhere in Taxon][accidental visual] The aftermath

[redeemedripper.livejournal.com]

John didn't know what had happened. His head was pounding, leg ached, and he had a distinct impression that he'd been in a brawl or three. He woke on the street in some nondescript part of Taxon. How had he gotten out here? How many nights had passed? Glancing down at himself, he saw it. Blood. His hands and clothes were spattered with it. Memories rushed back. The faces of those people, shoving one off a building, a few more cut badly, twisted bones.

"No." He whispered, his eyes closing for a moment, then louder. "No!" His fist slammed into the stone wall behind him.

Helen had warned him about these glitches, but was that what this was? Perhaps it was his nature breaking the surface. Perhaps Nikola's impromptu and accidental treatment had not taken as well as they had all hoped. Maybe he was a beast too wild to be caged. He pushed himself off the ground. He'd solve this. No one would be harmed for his own sick urges.

He teleported to the top of the building he was next to and prepared to jump, arms at his sides as he thought of all the lives he'd taken. He thought of his family, or what he wished could have been his family. Helen, their daughter. It could have been so beautiful.

[[ooc - John's unglitched! Someone heeeelp him]]

1. [Holo]

[chosenlast.livejournal.com]

Well, Xander was one person again, and that was a plus. A very big plus. One of the biggest that he could think of. So really? He shouldn't have been upset, at all.

Still, something was nagging at him, a niggling feeling in the back of his neck like whenever he made the mistake of listening to Spike talk. There was a problem, and he couldn't figure out what, for the life of him, it was.

Then he did the smart thing and opened his eyes. He instantly regretted it. "Hey, whoever is running this little shindig, could you let them know that I totally come in peace? Like, all the peace. This may seem like it goes without saying, what with my peace-like demeanor and all, but it's kind of important…"

Funny, jokes like that fell a little short without an audience. "Hey Wills? I'm pretty sure the un-splitter didn't do the un-splitting thing! A little help would be…" And there he was, trailing off again. Xander sighed, taking a long look around the room. The room reminded him of the Initiative, a thought that was enough to make Xander's stomach clench up and twist itself into a pretzel. There wasn't a single reason on earth he should be in an Initiative base: for one, they'd been pretty good about making sure the Initiative's HQ went kablooey and, more importantly, he was way too normal. Way too freaking normal.

Of course, there were probably more than a few reasons why the Initiative would be pissed enough to lock him in a creepy little room, normal-human-status be darned.

"Okay, Riley? And I've decided to call you all Riley, because even though I happen to like the guy and all, I can't help but let the paranoid-television watching side of me jump to the conclusion that Riley's been like this snake in the grass double agent." Xander paused. "Again. Not that we'd fall for that again, because we wouldn't." He shook his head. "Anyway, Riley-guys? Not funny, not fair, and not…" He tried to think of an 'f' word that wasn't 'fabulous, and so settled on, "cool. Where are the others?"

Sometimes Xander wasn't the fastest on the uptake. And that was probably why he hadn't yet noticed the bracelet on his arm. He made a face, and held his wrist upward, because he had to assume there was a camera somewhere, where a strange man (or lady, he was equal opportunity) was scribbling notes onto a notepad. "Jewelry? So not manly. Couldn't my tracker have been something awesome? Like a collar. That's manly, and cool."

He let his hand drag over his face when he realized what he'd just said. "And totally not some kinky sex thing. Not at all."

For the first time in a long while, he was upset that he didn't hear Anya chiming in about the glorious nature of kinky sex.

(002) Location: The Sanctuary For All: Dear Lord, this place is too big.

[10secsofsilence.livejournal.com]

It was just a fact.

Sam was doing his best to adjust. He was extremely thankful for Helen's generosity, don't get him wrong. But he also had the sneaking suspicion that if he made the wrong turn he'd never find his way out. Not that he knew what 'wrong turn' was in this case, he had no idea, and that just made things all the more unsettling.

He'd get used to it though. Or he'd be lost forever. One of the two. No mater how it went, call him crazy, but he was doubtful Mojo would be able to sniff his way out for them both if it came to that.

The dog was far too busy running around and sniffing everything else, investigating the place in what was clearly a very fascinating event for a dog. Sam made sure to keep him close by at all times, at least until he was sure where it was okay to let Mojo run around as he pleased. Also, he had to make sure he marked his proverbial territory in as few places as possible.

That, however, wasn't as easy as you'd think.

"Mojo! Bad!"

Mojo recoiled from the admonishment, and lowered his leg away from the wall, running back over to Sam. Sam was about to reach over and pick him up, when suddenly the dog sniffed. And sniffed again. Then a third time. He then turned, and ran off away from him down the hall in the other direction.

"No no no no no come on! You're going to get us kicked out of here!"

Sam thought Helen might be a little nicer than that, but at the same time, he didn't see her being ecstatic about this either. Chasing after the dog and whistling sharply every couple of seconds to get his attention did nothing. Whatever Mojo was picking up on, he really liked it.

When Sam followed him straight into someone else's room, the last "Mojo! Here! Now! Bad!" tumbling out of his mouth, he saw why.

And internally -- thank God it was internal -- he might've thanked his dog some.

It was also great that he stopped himself from blurting out that he had a girlfriend. He kept that one internal too. As a reminder.

"... Hi."

OOC: This one's locked to The Cheerleader.

004: [Location: Winchester Home] Some quality angst time.

[the-flyingman.livejournal.com]

He was dwelling too much on this. And as aware Nathan was of that fact, he still wasn't sure how to handle it. Between Peter and Claire fighting, something he was unable to resolve and doubted he'd get any better at, to what might be waiting for him on the other side of this thing, and everything else in between... He was clueless. Again.

And while that wasn't anything new, it didn't mean he had to be happy about it. Clueless was helpless, and Nathan despised that. He couldn't even manage to make his own family stick together. Although, whether he liked it or not, part of that was just a side effect of being in the family itself. He knew that just as well as any of them did.

Walking down the stairs, Nathan reached a hand up absently to rub his eyes, stopping at the bottom step to listen. Mary was most likely home, and as much as he didn't want to dump all of this on her, he did want her opinion.

After all, they were supposed to be friends. And maybe it'd help her to know she wasn't the only one getting left behind while the people she cared about moved on ahead of her in time. He wasn't quite to her level, but if this kept on, Nathan knew he'd get there eventually.

He followed the sounds of movement through the house, debating exactly how to approach this. She'd understand, he was pretty sure of that. But Nathan didn't want her to think this was going to be a regular thing either. Of course, if Mary didn't mind that, then he wouldn't either. He did like talking to her.

But if she did, he could take this being it too. Who wanted to listen to someone complain all the time, even if they were willing to listen to you complain right back? It got old, especially if it was the same old problems, the same angst, just with your own death tacked on and your brother deciding to be best friends with a serial killer and why would she really want to deal with th--

He'd just be honest.

Honest was good.

Stopping in the doorway to the room Mary was in, Nathan hesitated. He cleared his throat to get her attention. And he felt like an idiot.

"You busy?"

Oh, that was painful.

xii [ location: speares ] / [ (accidental) visual ]

[tiberiuskirk.livejournal.com]

"He was the one who was going to go as far as he could get, not me!" A twelve-year-old glitched James Kirk grumbled, tablet in hand as he kicked at a rock just outside the conjoined pieces of the Enterprise. "This isn't any place; this is nowhere!"

Kicking another rock for good measure, the young Kirk set off in a direction that wasn't back into the section of starship he'd stepped out of moments before the tablet decided it was going to record his escape from the ship. Only, it wasn't so much an escape (as there had been no one forcing him to stay within those too-white walls) as it was succumbing to restlessness. Clearly, the crew of that ship was off somewhere and they weren't coming back anytime soon, so what was the use in sitting around waiting for them? He was going to get in just as much trouble later whenever Frank found him if he was on that ship or not. There was no help in looking for answers somewhere that wasn't there.

Whatever he thought was going on here before clearly wasn't and he had no clue what-so-ever what was. It was both infuriating and frightening at the same time; and though he did his best to show the former for appearance's sake, he felt much more of the latter. That wouldn't inhibit his quest for answers, however. This planet couldn't be populated by just two confused kids on a chunk of starship, right?

( ooc: not exactly the start of his kid!glitch, but a continuation of it and on a post of his own, so pester away! )