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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"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.

She smiles weakly. "Maybe so."

It would be a nice idea.

A thought passes through Andrew's mind, fleetingly, and he wishes he'd stop thinking about Warren and "what if" situations, but facing Tara like this, he can't really get away from them. Part of him wants to voice the idea that maybe it would have worked with Warren, but the greater part of him is sure Tara's tired of hearing her murderer's name.

"What--what all do you know about things after... well, after--you know... uh, my time. And Buffy's."

"I know what Buffy told me, which is a fair amount. And some that I picked up from some other people." She doesn't know if Ethan.... their Ethan Rayne, not hers... ever turns up again, but she's learned he's not usually a name to bring up with people from Sunnydale. "Why do you ask?"

"Just--just curious!" he replies quickly. that really didn't tell him a whole lot about what he can and can't say... Does she know about Willow and Kennedy? Well, best to play safe until he knows what she knows. "I just... was curious, pretty much. You know, uh, whether you'd been brought up to speed or anything, 'cause I know Buffy had to catch me up on all the stuff she knows 'cause I guess she has a couple more years on her than I do? Yeah..."

"I know Sunnydale gets swallowed. I know that Willow makes all the other potential Slayers into full-fledged Slayers." Softer, she adds, "I know Anya dies."

That hits Andrew a little and his expression falls. "Yeah... Anya..." To him, her death wasn't that long ago. Then again, he's never been very good at grieving--every time he's lost a friend, he's just let it glide over him, so he's not thought much about Anya's death. "We--we lost a few of the mini-Slayers, too, but, well, you didn't know them.

"I--I guess after that whole deal, Buffy said in her time, I'm a Watcher, so I guess it gets better." He attempts a smile there. Maybe that bit of information will be another thing to add to his "I'm a Good Guy" list with Tara.

"I guess they'd need a lot of them. With all those Slayers and no Council left." To be frank, it all seems a bit surreal to Tara. She knows it effects Buffy and Dawn, and that it's important that way, but right now she can still close her eyes and see the Extras the Master had torture her, and it's hard to get invested in a conversation about a future she know she won't live to see.

"Yeah... probably..." Andrew may not be the most perceptive person in the world--actually, he's probably one of the least perceptive people around, but from what she's told him and her detached manner, he can tell this isn't exactly what Tara would like to talk about. To be honest, Andrew can feel how much like small-talk this is. They're not exactly discussing the weather, but they are being rather passive about certain topics. But Tara obviously has her reasons; she's had a rough time here and Andrew probably isn't making it better.

He shifts a little, feeling awkward and uncomfortable. "Should--do you want me to leave?"

"Maybe - maybe just for now?" She looks a little upset, but quickly adds, "It isn't to do with you, not really, I'm just... I'm not very good company right now, and I d-don't want you to feel bad over me. This. If you do."

He nods quickly, twisting the doorknob behind him and opening the door. "No, no, of course! I understand! I mean, you--you've probably been through a lot, you probably don't need me to deal with right now."

"I'll... we'll talk more later, okay?" There's a bit of guilt and a bit of relief, now that he's said he'll go.

Andrew's already started out of the room when Tara speaks and he turns, almost tripping on his own foot as he does so. "No--yeah! Yeah, of course. Another time." And feeling as though a goodbye should never be this long and awkward, he turns back around, stepping into the hall and shutting the door.

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[Location: Castle Summers]/[Accidental Visual]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]

[location | Tara's room]