[ Voice ]

[intuitivewiccan.livejournal.com]

[She finds the voice option comforting somehow; the anonymity allows her to feel less vulnerable and helpless, given the question she's posing to the people at large]

C-Can anyone recommend a good way to stop nightmares? Or at least...manage them, somehow?

[She knows magical ways to quell the disturbing dreamscapes she's been having of late, but she prefers to try something more natural. For now, at least]

Comments

[voice]

[intuitivewiccan.livejournal.com]

A few. More, lately, because of this place. I think. They started, m-more frequently, after Willow...

[She doesn't need to, or want to, say it]

There have been more.

[voice]

[erudite-watcher.livejournal.com]

It's understandable after all that... after what you...

[He grows silent for a long minute, thinking. Maybe the disembodiment of the voice overt the tablet isn't all bad. There are some things it's easier to talk about when not looking another person in the eye.]

I had terrible nightmares after Randell died. [[He doesn't stop to explain who Randell was, assuming that Willow has told her at some point of that terrible episode in their high school history. She told Oz, after all.] I didn't think anything could haunt me so much, but I was wrong. When Buffy... that summer after she... I fell asleep on the couch most nights.

[voice]

[intuitivewiccan.livejournal.com]

[Tara's voice dips low with empathy. She knows, perhaps better than most, all of the things Giles has worried about over the years]

I know. I-I remember. [She does, too. She remembers it all too vividly, that horrible time after Buffy had died. And she also knew that Giles suffered in a completely different way, with Buffy being his Slayer, his responsibility.]

How did you...I guess you just...didn't sleep much?

[erudite-watcher.livejournal.com]

As little as humanly possible. [And generally only due to complete exhaustion or the aid of large quantities of alcohol, something no one else needed to know.]

What are the... sometimes if you speak of the nightmares it helps.

[intuitivewiccan.livejournal.com]

I keep...reliving it. A-And then there's...everything else. We're all here, and I keep thinking about Dawnie, and then I dream about Glory. Still. I still do.

[erudite-watcher.livejournal.com]

It must be very strange for you, living with those memories of what happened to Willow and seeing her here at the same time. Very confusing.

I'll admit that I'm feeling Damn's absence too. There where time's I wished... she was such an energetic child...[But she wasn't really, was she? It's only in his memories that she was in the library asking a million questions, getting into trouble, asking if she could decorate his hair. The real Dawn didn't appear until two years ago but he feels as if he's know her as long as Buffy, longer then he knew... knows... Tara.] But I miss her, now.

small>I never dream of Glory, but I dream of Ben.

[intuitivewiccan.livejournal.com]

Ben?

[Tara tilts her head in confusion, though Giles can't see this]

Why Ben?

[erudite-watcher.livejournal.com]

[Damn it all, why did he say that? He hadn't meant to, tried not to think about it, but the mention of Glory... Damn and blast. The last thing he'll do is burden Tara with his personal demons.]

He was a decent bloke, Ben, caught up in something that wasn't his fault.

[intuitivewiccan.livejournal.com]

[Aw, does Giles really think he's getting away with this? Even though Tara doesn't specifically know the truth at the moment, she does know and sense that he's not being forthright]

You're right. But...there's something else? What-what happened to him, exactly?

[erudite-watcher.livejournal.com]

[But fortunately for Giles they are not in the same room, and she can't see him. And he has the power to keep secrets, all kinds of secrets. And to twist the truth a bit to an easier to digest lie.]

I believe Glory's minions collected him after we - after the rest of us took Bu... After.