[Holo]

[lapsedsaint]

John activates the tablet and starts playing with the functions. He finally decides to try out the holo feature.

"I'm looking for Buffy, my gracious hostess from my missing time. I've got a few questions that I'm hoping she might be able to answer."

Comments

[holo]

[likeajoan.livejournal.com]

Unless they've extensively redefined the term gracious, Buffy is pretty sure tying someone to a chair after kicking their ass doesn't qualify. Therefore, looking slightly awkward, she'll be answering John's message with an air of uncertainty.

"Hey, that would be me. Present and ready for quizzing-- multiple choice preferred."

Yay levity?

[lapsedsaint]

He smiles at her image. "So, I talked to a gentleman named Cian who said I should be asking you about this vampire thing. But I have a question before that."

Lighting a cigarette, he shrugs. "Was I a vampire?"

[likeajoan.livejournal.com]

She nods in acknowledgement of the Cian thing without making any comment, as she wouldn't want to say too much. John's question, however, has her somewhat bemused-- which is fairly evident in her expression.

"Unless you regularly forget who you are and moonlight as Nosferateww, I would've thought that was a pretty obvious yes."

[lapsedsaint]

He stares at her image as if she's just said the dumbest thing he's ever heard. "Well, since I don't remember it, I think it's perfectly reasonable to want to verify that fact before continuing. And since it was your basement I came to in, you seem the person to ask."

[likeajoan.livejournal.com]

Sorry John, the concept of the fact even being in question is faintly ridiculous to Buffy. It comes from nearly ten years of Hellmouth residency.

"You saw Charlotte's neck, right? What would you say those injuries were consistent with? Overenthusiastic nuzzling?"

[lapsedsaint]

Poor Buffy. She has come up against a man who is conditioned to live in denial. Any mention of the temperature thing will get you the same blank stare.

"I saw her neck. I just think that if I'd done something like that, I would remember it. But, enough people have told me now that I suppose that makes you all right.

What I need to know now is what else did I do?"

[likeajoan.livejournal.com]

She sighs, deciding she's perhaps being a little bitchier than is strictly recommendable. Not everyone is from her world, nor was any of what happened John's fault.

"This place, it does things to people. Alters memories, toys with them-- hence your lost time, I'm guessing." She pauses, collecting her thoughts for a second.

"I don't think it was you though. Physically, it looked like you, but mentally? You were a completely different person. You were calling yourself 'Asher', if that rings any... shrill alarm bells?"

[lapsedsaint]

He shakes his head. "Asher? No. Nothing." He closes his eyes for a few moments, searching just to be sure. There is the vaguest tickling of something, then it's gone. "Nothing."

After a drag from his cigarette, he looks at her again. "So what did my body do, while I was absent?"

[likeajoan.livejournal.com]

At this juncture she shakes her head too, almost apologetically.

"I don't know the specifics. I heard Charlotte's announcement about y-- Asher on the tablets, and I... went to deal with it straight away. Other than the little Charlotte told me, I don't know how long he was free for, or who else he might have hurt before I got there-- I haven't heard anything. But it's possible there were others."

[lapsedsaint]

That gets her a snort. "If anything I did to Charlie is any indication, I doubt anyone else will be talking to me."

[likeajoan.livejournal.com]

"It wasn't you." She states firmly, before conceding reluctantly, after a pause. "You could be right though." Another pause. "But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try."

[lapsedsaint]

"As far as anyone else is concerned, it was me until proven otherwise. I know that." He sighs again. "I'll figure it out. Thanks for the information."

[likeajoan.livejournal.com]

"No problem." She replies, feeling rather crappy about the situation as a whole. "For what it's worth, if you want me to back you up, I'd happily testify that you were very much not in the building when the attacks happened."

[lapsedsaint]

"It might be necessary. Thank you." He gives her a weak smile, then kills the connection.

[likeajoan.livejournal.com]

She returns the smile in an equally lacklustre sort of way, before the holo-John disappears, and she sighs to herself, ironically.

"Well that went well."