taxonomites | [Location: Castle Summers]/[Accidental Visual]

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[Location: Castle Summers]/[Accidental Visual]

It's safe to say that no one who hasn't made a concerted effort has seen Tara since her rescue from the Master. Tamper and Trick has been closed, and she hasn't been much leaving her room. At first, this was due to physical healing; she'd gotten off lighter than some, but she'd still hurt all over, and hadn't wanted to move for awhile. There'd been a lot of sleep.

Now, the bruises are still present, but fading, and the smaller cuts are almost healed. She could go back to work, but she can't quite seem to find the will to do so. And as for lessons with Piper and DG... that brings up another problem.

Tara looks at herself in the mirror. She's still pale. She could do something to cover up the bruises; she knows how. But she'd rather just stay in. The idea of talking to much of anyone is a little overwhelming. She should check on the others, Rose and Morgana and their fellow captives.

Tara puts her head down on the desk, for just a moment.

There are a lot of things she feels like she should be doing. But she hasn't done any of them. She doesn't feel like she knows how to even move anymore.

Of course, she can't control the fact that her table decided to turn itself on, in the meantime.

[I am also still willing to backtag with her on older, more immediate aftermath threads, so feel free if you prefer more immediate post-rescue.]

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[Woah, he definitely hadn't messed with the map enough, apparently.]

Oh--neat! Uhm, I'll be there in a jiff...

[And he is en route, watching his map carefully as he moves. He still isn't sure how he feels about this, though...]

Tara neatens her room a little, though it isn't that messy to begin with. Still, it's something to do. She really has no idea how to react to this new kink in the situation, but she's trying to just be calm.

This is going to be majorly uncomfortable, he just knows it. Andrew's only thought at the moment is that at least he didn't know Tara very well--or at all, really--before she died, but as soon as he thinks that, he feels guilty. She was Willow's girlfriend, after all, someone his friends loved. And he can't help but feel partially responsible for her death, even if he wasn't at all. Somehow, maybe if he'd been a better person, maybe even a little, like the person he is now, some of that could have rubbed off on Warren.

But, hey, Tara's alive now, right? Why worry so much?

Andrew's to her door now and it takes him a moment before he taps his knuckles gently on the door, as though it were made of sugar and would break if he knocked too hard.

"Come in." She's sitting on her bed, legs folded Indian-style. She's still a little bruised and pale, but otherwise looks... steady. "...hello."

Here goes. Andrew opens the door tentatively and offers the girl inside a nervous smile as he shuts it behind him. He lifts his hand a little as an awkward sort of wave. "H--hi. I'm Andrew... Uh, but you probably guessed that."

"Um. Hi. I'm Tara." Which he clearly knows. "So... you just g-got here?"

Holding his ground firmly by the door, he nods. "Uh-huh! Uh, a few days ago... or so. Uh, how long have you been here?"

"About... about three and a half months. I came from early 2002." Because even post-trauma, Tara is still helpful. She knows it's a few months until she's going to die, back home.

Andrew's eyes drift to the ceiling as he does the math in his head. It was May that year when Warren did the gun thing. And then did the dying thing... That was a year ago for Andrew. Technically, he realizes after a moment, Tara is nearing the end of her time. Of course, in Taxon, she'll keep going, but he knows that if the three and a half months she spent here had been in Sunnydale, she'd probably be nearing death. That's... well, it's sad...

"Oh. Wow. Uhm, I'm from... May '03." It feels weird having to say that out loud, as though that isn't the date now.

Even though he knows he probably shouldn't dance around the elephant in the room, he really, really wants to. "Uh... so do you like it here?" He obviously is very unaware of what happened right before he got here.

She looks down at her hands. "That's...kind of a tricky question." Considering she was just tortured here, and that she's about to die back home.

But Tara is trying to make him be a little more at ease, so she adds, "I've made some good friends here. But I miss people from home." Giles and Xander, now that they've gone back. Willow and Anya, who haven't been here. And losing Ethan is still a fresh enough hurt, even though she didn't know him back home, even if he didn't exist back home as she knew him.

"Yeah... I--I haven't really met anyone. New, I mean. Uh, unless I count you. But it is nice having Buffy here! And... and Dawnie and... uh... Spike..." Who else is here? Really he's only interacted with those few so far. He just shrugs and attempts a small smile. "I don't really know anyone, I guess."

Its taken Andrew a little bit of time to notice Tara's visible bruises, but he nods at her now and, always the most tactful ever, asks "What happened there?"

She actually flinches, at that, but says quietly, "There's a person called the Master. He's locked up, but still alive. He... abducted several of us."

His eyes widen a little, not having expected that reply. "Oh. Woah. Uhm, is everyone alright?"

"...everyone's alive." Which they both know is not quite the same. "It's only been about a week."

"That--well, that's good news..." he replies, but he does visibly slump a little. "B--Buffy said it was safe here..." Those weren't her exact words, but that was what Andrew had inferred from what she'd said. He had expected to be safe, but if people like Tara were getting hurt... well, then he didn't know what to expect.

"Safer than Sunnydale, mostly." Though even Tara has to admit, this is not setting the bar terribly high. "There's been a couple times it's been dangerous, but not regularly."

The deepest part of the Congo is safer than Sunnydale. But Andrew nods at her small reassurance. "Oh, okay. Well, that's good news."

With that basically settled, he stares down at his feet. He came here for a reason, right? "Do... you want to... talk about--about Warren? Or, uhm... I don't know..." That was probably the most awkward start to that conversation he could possibly muster.

"Not - not really. Not yet," she amends. Tara is really still in quite a bit of post-trauma shock, so she's a bit more raw than usual. But she manages, "What do you do now? At the point you came from. When you're friends with Buffy."

Right, of course she doesn't want to; what was he thinking? "Well, uh, I don't summon demons or rob banks anymore, just so you know. I just... kinda help Buffy and the others. I bake--baked, past tense, since... Well, there was this huge battle and I helped out. Kinda." In his opinion, even chronic liar that he is, Andrew doesn't think he helped a whole lot. Stabbed a couple bringers, but Anya did die, after all.

"Anyhow, I guess I just do whatever I can to help out. Or... whatever Buffy will let me do."

"That's... that's good. She can always use more help," she says, a bit faintly. This is surreal, in so many ways, and she wants to apologize for what a bad time this is, but can't quite feel like she should.

"I, um. I have a friend here, who bakes. Maybe you'll meet her later."

The surrealness is there for Andrew, too. It's weird, talking to someone who's supposed to be dead. Not like he hasn't done it before, but this time he's sure it's the real thing. Leastwise, he really, really hopes it's the real thing. He'd be very bummed out to learn that the First came to Taxon, too.

What's really worse than that is that Tara is so nice. She should hate him, shouldn't she? Part of him wishes she did. She knows what Warren does to her, so why shouldn't she hate Andrew? Someone as nice as her did not deserve to die--or... doesn't deserve to die? In any case, knowing her like this just makes him wish more that Warren hadn't killed her.

"Oh--really? Well, I'm not that good at baking, I just kinda did it to pass the time. It got kinda boring 'cause Buffy didn't let me leave the house for a while, you know? Thought I'd get all evil again or something. And everyone else would be busy--Willow with the magic and research and stuff and potentials with the training and everyone else with work--well, I just kinda drew and baked and stuff, which was all fun, it was something to do." He stops himself a little too late to realize he is, in fact, rambling.

She actually manages a small, bleary smile. "So what made you decide to join up with Buffy? After everything else."

She can see that maybe he got in over his head, with Warren, but there would be lots of options other than becoming friends with the very people you hurt. And she isn't going to ask, but she wonders how he avoided Willow killing him, at her worst - Buffy said she'd killed Warren, but Tara knows Willow, and knows her potential for destruction.

He shrugs a little, the circumstances of his life just a few months ago still very clear. "Well--well, it's a long story. But it wasn't really my decision, I guess. I was their hostage for awhile, then... well, being good just seemed right. I was never all that evil anyway," he explains, attempting a good-humored smile at the end. He knows that was at least somewhat of a lie--both the matter of his redemption and the part about not being evil. He did kill Jonathan, after all, and by the time they robbed that amusement park? He was all for killing Buffy, too. But Tara doesn't know those minor details, so he's not going to risk this potential forgiveness just yet.

Tara looks down at her hands. "It's funny. Spike kind of started out that way too, you know. Buffy's hostages are forming a pattern." Not that two constitute a pattern, per se, but it's something for her to latch onto in the conversation. And Spike turned out well - he got his soul back, at least, and that's something.

"Well, hey! Maybe that's an idea! Buffy just needs to hold bad guys hostage and--and then that'll just knock the bad out of them!" Too bad Anya isn't around to slap people around; Andrew's sure that was a big help in his reformation.

[Location: Castle Summers]/[Accidental Visual]

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