taxonomites | 004 [Location: Tamper and Trick]

There hasn't been a whole lot to do in Taxon for Andrew lately, though he is recently rather paranoid about Buffy's prophecy of explosions and evil scientists. It seems that Tamper and Trick is fairly safe of these things, however, and Andrew has to be here to work anyway.

Besides being here for the safety, Tara is supposed to train Andrew a little further in working at the store, which is rather exciting for him. He's never had a job before and though he's been doing very minor things here when he can, he hasn't been able to do much, considering he doesn't know how to handle most of the items in the store.

Despite this very important fact, while he waits for someone to show up, Tara or otherwise, Andrew picks up a bottle of deep red something that he can't quite identify. He was never very good with the magical items. His specialty was demons and knowledge surrounding them. This magical item crap was all Jonathan, who was too stubborn to explain any of it, thought that probably also had to do with the fact that Andrew never learned how to ask nicely.

It crosses his mind all the things that the red something could do to a person. It could be like the drink in Alice in Wonderland that makes Alice grow ten times her size. Or was it that she shrunk? He wonders what would happen if a termite chewed through the cork in the bottle and fell into the something. Would it shrink to a tenth it's size? And then another tenth of that size because it's stuck in the something? And then continue shrinking forever without ever stopping?

Scared silly by his own aimless thinking, Andrew gingerly sets the bottle back on the shelf and worries at his hands as he watches the door hopeful for someone to arrive.

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"Well... she wouldn't," she says, more gently. "At that point, you all hadn't even really started...um. Anyway. I'm sure you can get to know each other here in Taxon, again."

His shoulders fall slightly as the glee drains out of him. "Yeah, I guess. It's just that Anya shows up here and we used to be friends... uh, kinda, and now she doesn't remember me. And then Willow doesn't either, and... it's just sad, I guess." Not that he's depressed over it. Andrew has faced bigger, much sadder things than this. Really, he's just disappointed.

She hesitates, then says, "When I first came... really, up until Anya and Willow just now, everyone came from later than me. I felt a bit... left behind." In more ways than one, once she'd discovered part of why.

"I just had a friend come back to Taxon, after he'd left. He doesn't remember me at all either. It's hard."

Well, that's probably sadder than Andrew's situation. Sure, Andrew knows what it's like to feel out of the loop or "left behind" as Tara put it. Maybe they've got more in common than he'd initially thought.

He gives her a sympathetic look. "That kinda sucks. I'm sorry. I don't know what I'd do if a really good friend had forgotten me." Of course, he doesn't add that he doesn't know what a really good friend is like.

"Hey. It's not the worst thing Taxon's thrown at us." Sad, but true. "We're making friends again, I think. It'll be okay."

Andrew nods, he understands. That's sad, too, the fact that Tara's been through worse in Taxon. Though, considering what Andrew knows about Tara's life back home, it could be worse. At least she's alive.

"Uhm, but no one really came in as customers or anything. And I didn't break anything. So the store's still all good." He really feels like he had to clarify. And he might have to deliver this information every time he sees Tara.

She smiles a bit. "Okay. Well, that's step one. I was thinking I might teach you a little about what some of the potions do, if you want? Enough that you could explain to customers."

Andrew's eyes light up, maybe a little more than they should. "Yeah! That--that's so--I mean... I'd really like that!"

"Okay." She smiles, a little, and goes to fetch a few bottles down.

"Most of what I have is for healing and defense, that sort of thing. When things go wrong here, they tend to go really wrong, you know?"

There's some sort of raining and pouring saying Andrew's trying to think of, but it doesn't come, so he just nods. "Uh-huh. Buffy said something about mad scientists, I think." He got that all wrong, but he's Andrew; he can't be expected to remember all that.

"I wouldn't be surprised, though I haven't heard about that one myself." She sets up the bottle. "A week or two after I got here, someone blew up half the city."

Good job, Tara. Andrew always needs new things to scare him. His eyes widen. "Wh-what? Seriously? I didn't think Buffy was serious about things exploding! Which half? Were people hurt? Were people killed? Is it going to happen again? Was it the half with the castle? Oh, god, I don't want to get blown up. Because what if you don't blow up all the way? What if only a part of you blows up and then you die slowly, grieving over the part of you that blew up? Oh, my god! That would be awful!"

"It's... it's okay. It wasn't the hamsters, it was a prisoner here, and he's gone now."

Well... mostly. She tries to sound reassuring.

"And no one was killed, though people were hurt. The buildings fixed themselves, but the people healed slower. Everyone did, though - heal, I mean."

"Oh..." Andrew deflates a little, satisfied that no one died, but still somewhat worried about his own death, should something explode again.

He picks up one of the bottles and holds it at eye-level, looking with concern at the liquid inside. "Did you help? Healing them, I mean."

"Not very much. Healing... proper healing magic is really difficult, and really draining. And I was a bit banged up myself, so they didn't want me doing a lot." There had been a couple doctors in Taxon at that point, too, she remembered. The nice young Victorian man who'd looked at her and Stefan among others.

He shakes the bottle a little, thinking absently about what the stuff could be. Jonathan was always using things like weird blood of essence of something in his spells. It never made much sense to Andrew.

"Wait, you mean there's no, like, healing elixir or potion or anything? Like in video games?" That's a little disappointing.

"No. We have things to ease pain," she touches one of the potions, "but nothing that just fixes you overnight."

Tara considers, a moment, then adds, "I did a spell that worked sort of like a magical bandage, once, and I slept for days after. And I've made damage go away for a little while before, but not permanently." And that had burned her out completely for weeks.

"It's hard, and it's something only for emergencies. The universe doesn't like you just undoing that sort of damage. Willow could, probably, but there's no potion."

Andrew's almost surprised at this revelation and feels somewhat betrayed by Jonathan for the fact he never explained that before, not that Andrew asked. Maybe he should have.

His eyes refocus on the bottle in his hand and he turns it a little, watching the liquid with sort of bored eyes.

"That... I guess that explains some things." Like how Willow didn't revive Tara when she was shot and instead went on a murderous rampage. If only the universe were a little more flexible about this stuff, things probably wouldn't have ended like they did. Oh, well.

Finally, Andrew shakes the bottle. "So, what's this do?"

"That's for energy." So more like a video game, then. "It temporarily undoes the effects of fatigue, so you're mentally and physically fresh as long as the effects last. It leaves you with a little bit of a groggy, hungover feeling afterward, though, so you have to be careful with the timing."

004 [Location: Tamper and Trick]

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