trainingwings | Buffy is gonna kill her.

Player Name: Val
Are you new: Yes!
Character Name: Dawn Summers
Character Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

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[The icon shows Dawn surrounded by wilderness.]

Diary of an Expedition: The Barrier. Part 3.

Three days into our journey, we still have not reached the barrier. The climate is pleasant; we have been blessed to be spared by rain. Today's lunch consists of preserves and fish from a nearby stream. They appear to be trout, but as I never went fishing, I really cannot say.

Last night, we were surprised by a bear at the camp. We chased it away by banging pots. It might have been looking for food. Sorry, bear, but you'll have to catch your own. You're programmed to do it, it can't be that hard. Lazy bastard.

While fishing (and let me tell you, that was not an easy task for a suburban girl like me), I observed a pair of squirrels facing off. It was kind of cute in a gruesome way. They really went down and dirty with it. Luckily both came out of it alive, so no squirrels were harmed in this process. Today.

I would also like to inform you that corn meal, water, and wild blackberries roasted over a campfire do not a tasty impromptu treat make. Especially since whatever herb we picked to put in the mixture, it was decidedly not peppermint. One can only hope it is not poisonous.

This is the end of today's report. If nothing more exciting happens today, you shall get another update tomorrow. If no report comes forth, I can be presumed to have been eaten by bears or poisoned myself.

Have a nice day,

~ D.S.

[HI EVERYONE HERE IS DAWN also the "we" is totally a lie, she's out there alone. She just thought it would sound cooler. ~~And perhaps make Buffy-strangling less likely.~~]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Rolls eyes.]

Right. And you were any of those things since when?

[The corners of her mouth go up, though. Not quite a smile, but hopefully just enough to take the bite out of the words.]

[ a light laugh. ] Hey, now. Four years? That also means I'm a whopping twenty-seven years old. [ and she'd hoped that had come with some serious growing up. perhaps not in the book-learning but...responsibility? yes. she likes to think she's learned to be responsible in more than just the crisis. more than in the eleventh hour. ]

Here has a way of changing people, Dawn. I hope -- [ she tilts the skewered marshmallows back, inspecting their edges. they're just beginning to turn golden. ] I hope I'm not too too different. Not where it counts.

... wow. You got old. That is so weird!

[Sorry Dawn is sixteen and she's gonna act like it sometimes.]

Well, it's gotta have some benefits.

Old?! [ mock horror steals across her face. ] Oh, you are so getting the most burnt of the marshmallows. I'm decreeing it right here and now. Rude children get the most charred 'smores.

[ two can play the age game. ]

[It works.]

Teenagers!

Mmhm. Whatever. At least you're in half-decent company -- [ she means, of course, that the average age in the village was rather on the young side. lots of teenagers and barely-adults. in fact: ] We should talk to Raine at the school about getting you all enrolled, come September.

[ mmhm. she went there. ]

What? We're in a magical alternate dimension with wings and I have to go to school? That is so beyond not fair.

...Magic is a subject taught there, y'know. Just close your eyes and pretend it's Hogwarts.

[ well. filial magic, based on the elements and tied to the mercurial spirits found around the enclosure. but magic all the same! or, at least, magic is what everyone around here calls it. ]

[Dawn is somewhat mollified.]

... I think I can live with that.

And, wow. You know what Hogwarts is.

[ now might not be the time to explain that she used to have regularish chats with draco malfoy. ~~because of course of all the wizards she could possibly ever end up conversing with it was gonna be the stupid platinum blonde one~~. ]

Besides, the headmistress is a friend of mine. If she thought my very own littlest sister was here and I wasn't doing my due diligence with regards to signing you up? [ buffy left the consequences unspoken, well aware that raine was too kind a soul to really swing the hammer of justice. but putting a healthy fear of a future teacher into dawn's heart? not a bad idea. ]

[GROAN.]

Crap, she's that kind of teacher? Not helping the "pro" side of the chart here.

There are no pros and cons. There is no chart. There is just the simple fact that you're going. What -- you think inter-dimensional kidnapping and the lack of a legit economy gets you out of learning stuff? Think again.

[ said the college drop-out. ]

Can't I just learn stuff I like and reserve the stuff I don't like for when I actually get back home? Think of the efficiency!

...Depends. [ a sly smile as she tips the marshmallows one final time and begins to assemble a pair of gooey 'smores. ] Wanna learn how to sail a boat?

[ because that's what she's been learning, these past few years. who knew there was so much to keep in mind? but now that she's half-decent at it, the thought of sharing her knowledge -- a rare speck of it not concerned with violence, destruction, and bloodshed -- with her little sister seems to warm her heart. ]

Jack's boat? Sure! Except I'm kinda disturbed right now because it seems he was trying to sell that to me as a Buffy-and-Jack-marriage perk. Which I so don't know where I stand on.

[Welp back to that topic. While talking, Dawn hands Buffy the crackers. Look she's being helpful.]

Jack's boat is a boat I can't even begin to sail on my own. But there's a smaller practice boat, too. I could show you the ropes. [ a murmured thank you as she takes the crackers. and soon she's handing one snack -- unburnt, surprisingly -- over to dawn. and keeping the burnt one for herself. ]

And don't believe half of what he tells you. He's...he likes to get ahead of himself, sometimes.

Thanks.

[Dawn gingerly takes the 'smore ~~is that the singular~~ and nods at Buffy.]

Yeah, I got that impression. He's so spacey, how come you like him? I mean, you do like weirdoes, but they haven't been to spacey up to now.

[Beat.]

Except Spike that one time.

...He's a good man. [ she wrinkles her nose at a smudge of marshmallow that drips down her palm. oh well. that's the price of deliciousness. ] He plays up the pirate persona as much as he can, but he's...shockingly generous. And he's been there for all the rough times this place can throw at a gal.

[ ... ] And he's a dead ringer for Johnny Depp.

But you're not shallow or anything.

[She smiles, though.]

I still don't get it, but I'm glad he's been good to you.

Honestly? He has no reason to be. I wouldn't give him the time of day for a very long time. I once broke his jaw. Called him names. It was all very grade-school.

Oh god.

[Here is the eyeroll again. But she keeps a "Spike 2.0" comment to herself.]

And you call me immature.

That's because you are. Immature.

[ said very much in the tone of someone who hopes her little sister is allowed to be immature forever. sunnydale has already asked too much of dawn summers; buffy wishes the girl could cling to childhood just a little longer. ]

[Unfortunately, Buffy's and Dawn's wishes are not congruent on this.]

Am so not!

Well. I'm getting less so every day! And I'm already a lot mature.

[ she licked the last few crumbs and smudges of chocolate off her fingers. ]

Take your time. Why not enjoy the teen years, huh? Make the most of them. Just...while also going to school and not dating anyone I don't like.

Buffy is gonna kill her.

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[ action ] /sporfled at the Johnny Depp thing

[ action ] simple pleasures.

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