[ location: castle summers ] [ accidental visual ] | o i'm going to be wounded

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

Mirrors haven't been high on Dawn's list of priorities since they brought her back from Wolfram and Hart. Her arm is in a cast courtesy of Dr. McCoy, and every single part of her aches. It's pretty obvious whatever stares back from the mirror is going to be a refugee from the latest Lifetime movie, not the face she's used to seeing. There's no point, right?

...But that's not it, either. She's scared, doesn't want to see. So in the five seconds of alone time she's given today (and she feels a little bad about snapping at everyone about wanting three stupid seconds to herself, but this isn't a group activity) Dawn heads to the bathroom and flips on all the lights, takes a deep breath.

And looks.



It's not as bad as it could be, she thinks critically, setting her tablet behind her on the shelf thing Xander built (she's aware that she hated the tablets like three weeks ago, and clutching the stupid thing like security blanket isn't making her look any less unaffected, but if she had it more available when Angelus... anyway. Maybe this wouldn't have happened at all.) and turning back to the mirror. She's kind of pale, but that's not that much worse than normal. The bruise on her cheek is going down, and the black eye fading to a sickly yellow green.

But it's not the face that was the worst, so after a deep breath and some frustrated muttering-- taking clothes off while in a cast kind of sucks forever, thanks for asking-- she surveys the damage that way. The bruises on her abdomen still look gross, and the imprint of Angelus' hand is still on her forearm. (And her shoulders and turning around, wrapping around her waist and lower back from where he picked her up and squeezed, like a really sick parody of a father lifting up his daughter and twirling her around. Angelus is big on irony.) There are scrapes all along her back and shoulders, from trying to get away. If she lifted the leg of her sweatpants, she already knows all she'll see is the same red, painful abrasions that circle her wrists.

Standing at the mirror for a moment, Dawn just tries to breathe. She's alive, she's fine, she's as home as anyone can get while simultaneously being kidnapped by aliens/robots/hamsters. She's okay. Everything's okay, everything's okay, everything's not okay.

"Crap." The word is more of a sob, and anyone watching their tablets will catch it; along with a bruised and scraped bare lower back, and the owner of the back hunched forward, breathing deeply.



[ ooc: rumi here you go. now come with me to hell. we will go to hell, go straight to hell. we will not pass go or collect two hundred dollars.

ON ANOTHER NOTE lj is sucking, so if i owe you a tag and seem to be lagging i would be SO GRATEFUL if you could pm/im/email me because i probably have no idea that tag is even there. B| ]

Comments

[ visual ]

[rubinuslapis.livejournal.com]

The little picture pops up and usually Ruby doesn't care enough about the people and their mini-dramas around here to bother with commentary. She hasn't seen a mangling like that in awhile though and really it brings back some fond memories of her own. She watches it play out and finally pipes in, sneer firmly in place.

"Whoops. Sorry, sometimes it's hard to ignore these things. You know, domestic violence is a serious issue. You should dump him-- or his corpse." Now to see if the little punching bag flails or bites. At least it's a little fun.

[ visual ]

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

Dawn stiffens at the voice coming from her tablet, and from Ruby's view the already tense back goes tighter. "Usually people don't make sarcastic comments when faced with a situation like this." She moves out of view and pulls her shirt back on, grunting a little when it catches on her cast.

"I think it's called human decency."

[ location: castle summers ]

[notsawbones.livejournal.com]

McCoy does not usually make house calls and having the entire Scooby gang hovering around Dawn while he was attempting to treat her did not help matters, and it ultimately ended up driving the doctor to put her arm in a cast before she performed some ritual... thing, that was said to put an end to this Angelus malarkey that caused tension to spike in the castle and the city itself during the long weeks it had lasted. The doctor had not hung around for this spell or whatever it was; he had chose to return to sickbay without the aid of a transporter and rode in the tram before returning with his medical kit and other equipment to help alleviate the pain the young Summers must have been experiencing after that horrifying tenure with Angelus.

What happened and the extent of her injuries pissed him off; but something seemed to have worked in his absence, considering the air was less tense as he returned to the castle with more equipment and headed for Dawn's room. He had not strayed far from their floor in the castle and had even dented a part of the residence with his phaser, but found her room easily enough after the event where she was brought back after her kidnapping.

And so the good doctor raps his knuckles against the door and calls out to the teenager: "Ki— Dawn?" He amends half-way through that. She hates it when he calls her kid and there is no way he is going to distress her even more.

[ location: castle summers ]

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

Thanks to Ruby's stunning show of compassion, Dawn at least has her shirt back on when McCoy knocks. She's still in the bathroom, staring at her reflection in a way she refuses to classify as brooding-- there lies bad associations, thanks so much; even if it was Angelus who did this, it was still Angel's body, Angel's hands, and she doesn't want to think about either of his... personalities or whatever they should be called right now-- but when the knock is followed by a voice, she sighs and stands up.

"Yeah, I'm here." At least he didn't call her kid.

[voice]

[levilup.livejournal.com]

Oh, honey.

[ visual ]

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

So, Dawn will just be striving for normalcy here, as much as she can while being caught broadcasting her injuries to all of Taxon.

"Hey, Levi." And now she'll just be moving out of frame.

[ visual ] at least we'll have eachother in hell?

[undoing.livejournal.com]

The two greatest consequences of his actions contrast greatly against one another. (Yes, his actions, for while Angel may normally stress the differences between himself and Angelus, it's a difficult thing to do right after the fact and he's barely into moving past and dealing with these latest events; without those hundred years learning to live with infinite remorse.) First, there's Dawn, who suffered the worst at his hand in an attempt to hurt not only the girl herself, but her sister, Harris, and everyone who had even the slightest of connections to her. And then there was Drusilla, whose wailing over the tablet had driven him to put a hole through the wall out of anger with himself. Drusilla was everything she was now because of him-- a vampire, a madwoman, a broken person in all the ways someone could be broken, and now, a woman without a home. Angelus had lured her out of the castle and she couldn't go back, Angel knew that. And Dawn... Oh, Dawn. He'd hurt her; bad. So very bad. Because he could.

He wants to say something-- Apologize? Invite her to stake him? He doesn't know. --but the moment he opens his mouth, his stomach churns and he finds himself switching off the tablet so that the only sounds that are heard are the dull thunk of it hitting the floor and the sound (accompanied by an odd-angled visual) of the fleeting footsteps of a vampire who's about to lose his lunch before the thing clicks off all the way.

[ visual ] i'll bring the chips, you bring the dip

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

Dawn is pretty sure she knows who that visual belongs to. For a second she stiffens, pulse pounding abnormally fast in her throat. ("Come on, Dawnie! This is fun, right sweetheart?") Then she speaks up, her voice pitched louder than usual.

"You did it, the least you can do is look." Heartless, but it's the nicest thing she can say at the moment.

[voice]

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

What happened to you?

[ visual ]

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

Dawn's affection for the tablet and need to have it close are suddenly warring with her desire to pitch it out a window.

The voice is another one she doesn't know, so she just says flatly: "Someone hit me. Repeatedly." Normally, her manners are better but Ruby's response has set her on edge.

[ visual ]

[aregulargirl.livejournal.com]

Max happens to catch Dawn's broadcast when she speaks, and the sight on the screen makes her eyes go wide. Her next response is guilt, the same response she had when she heard Buffy had turned herself in on her behalf and when she saw what he'd done to her after they got her out. It's irrational and she knows it, but there's part of her that feels bad that she escaped relatively unharmed (except for her shoulder, which she'd dislocated herself, and the scrapes and bruises she'd received when Angelus had kidnapped her) when Buffy and Dawn had ended up in such bad shape.

It's not as if she knows Dawn terribly well, she's only talked to her a handful of times (which is why she's let people closer to her take care of her up until now, despite the fact that she's still staying in the castle). But she knows that looking at the damage that's been done to your body is something that no one else should be allowed to see unless you want them to. So she clears her throat, softly.

"Your tablet's broadcasting," she says in an apologetic tone. "I don't know if anyone else has told you."

[ visual ]

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

Another person seeing a moment she'd rather not have at all. Great, just wonderful. Dawn's voice is frustrated, snappish. "They did." Sighing, her tone warms a little bit, now. "But not as diplomatically. Thanks, Max. Sorry about the whole eating your head thing, it's just... you know."

[Location: Castle Summers]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

[Having just abandoned the Wolfram and Hart offices for the relative safety - or, at least, relatively familiarity - of the playground, Drusilla decided to make a brief detour to the castle.

It was a dangerous move - one that could earn her a stake in the heart - but, propelled by an affection she didn't entirely understand, Drusilla slid from the shadows to sit the doll - abandoned during the rescue attempt, poor thing - in front of the door. With one last glance at the building that had been a sort of home, and after attempting to straighten the little girl's dress once more, she disapeared into the evening.

The Dawn bird will find the doll sooner or later, even if she's unlikely to know what it really means.]

[ visual ]

[faderbroderson]

"...Dawn. Your tablet is broadcasting." He speaks gently. Godric doesn't want to upset her further and he's no good at comfort, but it's clear that Dawn didn't intend for this to be seen.

[ visual ]

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

"I know. Thanks." Dawn sighs and turns around, sitting on the floor in front of the shelf, wincing as her body protests moving. "Also, thanks for helping rescue me." She likes Godric, trusts him. And he did literally help carry her out of Wolfram and Hart. So she can at least speak directly to him, bruised face and all.

[ location: castle summers ]

[likeajoan.livejournal.com]

"Dawn?"

The knock on the bathroom door is tentative. It's strange, this could almost be five years ago. The door could be a bedroom door, the corridor a smaller one, and Dawn's tears could be over a boy, a crush, an argument with a friend at school - any of the thousands of inconsequential, innocent troubles of a teenage girl. Big sister knocking on the door to fix everything with a hug and the offer of ice cream and a romantic comedy.

That's the feeling Buffy gets, a fleeting instant of deja vu as she knocks. But this is not five years ago. This is now, and Ben & Jerry aren't equipped to deal with this situation. She knows she's in danger of breaking the three stupid seconds pact, but the truth is she can barely stand to have Dawn out of her sight right now. There are a lot of things she can barely stand. The thought of Angelus' hands on her sister, the thought that Dawn was alone with him, the thought that she wasn't there to save her, not when and where it counted. The thought that she could've lost the one person she loves most in the world.

So, she knocks. And waits for an answer.

[ location: castle summers ]

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

"I'm not here." Pause. "I moved to Aruba where it's always bathing suit season."

The words are right, the typical Sunnydale black humor in the face of tragedy. Those Summers women are strong, they can get through anything, nothing to see here. But Dawn doesn't feel strong, she feels brittle and fragile and cracked right down the center.

Buffy can't fix this with ice cream, can't tell her boys are just stupid by nature and that she should try telling them her big sister will kick their butts. This is a different kind of hurt, a bigger kind.

[ location: castle summers ]

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

First, River gives Dawn time and let's her deal with the tablet and the healing and readjustment before intruding. She knows the value of pretending everything is okay, that the monsters are imaginary even in the face of evidence to the contrary, and that Dawn needs it.

Besides that, it gives her time to hatch a plain little rucksack to fill with chocolate from the pile of candy River amassed from the hidden Easter eggs. If there's anything else Dawn Summers needs other than pretending, River has learned it will be lots of chocolate and a lack of prying questions about bruises and injuries.

It's a lesson learned well enough that when River does finally knock on Dawn's door she has to carry the sack with both hands and knock with her foot.

[ location: castle summers ]

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, being best friends with a psychic can be weird and occasionally, it can be seriously awkward and uncomfortable. This is not one of those times.

"It's open." Dawn sighs when no one comes in. "I said it's open!" Again, no response, so with a sigh and some careful maneuvering she gets off the bed and answers the door. (It's easier without the broken arm, at least.)

"What do you-- River." The snappish response to someone making her get up melts into genuine happiness, even if it's more subdued than normal. "Hey, come in."

[ location: castle summers ]

[demonmagnetism.livejournal.com]

It doesn't take much, as a rule, to make Xander feel useless. His inferiority issues are rich and varied of course, but every now and then something comes along to really reinforce that good old Zeppo feeling.

He's been angry. Really, extremely angry, since Dawn's rescue. Angry at Taxon, at the glitches, at Angelus, at Angel, at the bruises on Dawn's face, at Buffy, and god knows he's been angry with himself. They get a tip from Angelus and they just run off to follow it without question - stupid. Stupid. If he'd only been smarter, faster... he could've done something. Could've stopped Angelus from hurting Dawn, been something other than a useless idiot carpenter.

Right about the time Dawn's examining her injuries, he's smashing up a table with his fists. It helps, a little. As a consequence however, his hands aren't in the best state. The bathroom he chooses (unawares) to use to patch them up happens to be the one Dawn's currently in, which is why he doesn't knock - and why he starts to awkwardly, hurriedly apologize, right before he catches sight of her bare skin, red and painful, and the words die somewhere in his throat.

"Oh, Dawn, I'm so sorry."

[ location: castle summers ]

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

"It's not your fault, Xander. I--" she turns to face him and blinks, her expression going from what it was to worried and a little frustrated in a heartbeat. "What did you do to your hands?" Study of herself forgotten, she moves as fast as currently Dawn-ly possible to hover, stopping just short of grabbing his hands and poking at them.

"Only one of us is allowed to be banged up at a time. You have to wait your turn." What she's actually saying is 'please don't be hurt because of me', and Xander should be able to hear the real meaning.

[location - Castle Summers]/ is so epically late

[aworldenchanted]

"Dawnie?" Tara comes a little later. Buffy's family, and Xander's her boyfriend, and they should have priority. That's how it should be. But there was something in Tara's chest that still hasn't really relaxed since Dawn was taken. And despite knowing Angel's soul is back, that the ritual worked... her anger at someone hurting Dawn is hard to shake.

And, of course, she had been terrified. But Dawn doesn't need anything except love and support, right now.

[visual]

[inquitvigiliant.livejournal.com]

"....Dawn?" This is Giles' Worried face. Which may quickly become either his Panicked face or his Angry face, depending on circumstances.

[ visual ]

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

Dawn's back stiffens. "Hi, Giles." She's just hoping the order of the day isn't twenty questions and that Giles knew what happened, already.

[ visual ]

[ltnuhura.livejournal.com]

Uhura doesn't know if it's her business to comment on anything - it's not like she was much help to anyone who was affected by Angelus, save for bonding with Kirk when Buffy got kidnapped. But Dawn is a friend of hers, and she feels bad that she wasn't able to help her.

"Dawn?" she begins, her voice soft.