eachdraidh | First Stanza - [Video] (both courts)

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First Stanza - [Video] (both courts)

[The locket opens up to showing him in a bar. It's a well run place that seems fairly busy. Spike can be heard over the conversations in the background, but only just. Behind him is a pig-faced bartender who is probably less than pleased by a locket conversation in his bar, but hasn't gone to the trouble of turning it off. Spike hasn't been causing much trouble in Daonna since he arrived weeks ago to start living medieval style. He patrolled with the Slayer and though beasties weren't always common, there was no shortage of crime. It was work that didn't always pay well, but they'd collected one bounty that was keeping them fed and a roof over their head at the Sweet Sow.

And when he was peckish... well, the town was full of people that would never be missed, so long as they were never found. Spike was glad to be back on human blood again.]

This boon business is a big load of bollocks and I can't be the only one who thinks it. Collecting feathers for the king and queen? Here we are, shards rammed into our chests, and this is the best use they have for us? Bugger that and bugger them as well. Bootlicking might suit others, but it's never been the life for me, no matter what Crackerjack prizes they're offering.

So what I want to know is where we can get our goods without kissing their royal asses? There's got to be some witch or demon or the like handing out discount boons for a fee. Anything will do: it's got to be better than the cheap shite they threw at me last time. [A pouch of tobacco! For dealing with shadow beasties! Is it any wonder he didn't bother bending down to pick any feathers up?]

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And this place does? With the names of these places, we might well be in bloody Ireland.

[He was only passingly familiar with Gaelic from his days as a bookish poet and scholar, but he recognized the tone of the names, if not the meanings.]

Fine. Whatever. Just don't expect to blow our bounty money on your vanity project.

[ so touchy! so very obviously opposed to the idea, despite the good sense it made. ]

Some of that bounty money is mine. [And he wasn't spending as much as she was on luxuries like food! That is, he was eating food, but only because it tasted good.]

Yours, sure. But not so you can throw it at the first charlatan who promises you an all-access pass to the daylight only to actually just give you skin cancer.

[ it's hard to tell whether the concern is genuine or feigned at this point. ]

We don't really do the cancer thing, what with already being dead and all.

Magical cancer, then. It'll give you magical cancer. For magical beings.

[ she huffs and rounds her way through daonna's front gate and-- ] I'm almost back.

You know where to find me.

[Like he could go anywhere else...]

I know the where. Sure. But what about the how I'll find you?

[ will she find you drunk, spike? because she's so not prepared for that again. the first day spike had been penned up in daonna during the sunlight hours had not ended prettily. ]

With your own two legs, I'd think.

[He knew she didn't mean that. But what did she expect, leaving him in a tavern with nothing to do BUT drink? It's not like there were soap operas to keep him busy. He'd been better since then, but he still disliked being cooped up in this one place while she ran around all day.]

Har. Very cute. [ only not at all.

she props the locket a little higher in her palm now that she's navigating the city streets. its frame catches a corner of chin and then -- pulled back -- her whole face is seen. ] What's Babe serving up for lunch today, huh?

[ read: order me some food i'm famished after a whole morning of dead ends. ]

Anything but bacon. I convinced him to do some chickens in sauce, but I don't have a lot of faith he'll get it right.

[They hadn't gotten hot wings right in Caer Scima either. He had little more faith that the huge pig man's cooking staff could do better.]

My kingdom for a low fat yogurt.

[ yes. because that's exactly what she wants. ]

You can put that on your boon list.

I don't have a boon list.

[ check out miss self-sufficient over here! she totally as a boon list. a secret boon list. ]

Sure you do. They're offering free wishes at bargain prices. Don't tell me you weren't tempted.

Oh, there's gotta be a price alright. And I'm doubting there's anything bargain about it. [ ... ] They don't have anything to give me that I'd wanna ask for. Done. We're not all existential window shoppers like you, Spike.

[ here bleated the hypocritical lamb. ]

Is it a pony? I bet it's a pony. You'd ask for one, but you won't because I'm here.

[He chirped his disappointment at her: tsk tsk tsk!]

[ because who needs a pony when there's a perfectly serviceable vamp around? buffy draws a deep and disappointed breath. she is herself so unhappy with the winding twists of her thoughts -- the darkness hiding between the jokes. ]

I don't have to ask for a pony. I'm pretty sure they were handing horses out like Halloween candy back at Caer Scuttlebut.

Only we're not going back there anytime soon, are we? We missed our chance there playing at champions.

[He does not make the accusation directly, but there is a subtle accusation at her playing the champion. He tagged along.]

-- Nothing about what they offered was champion-like

[ she walks faster down the narrow daonna street -- modern boots leaving light impressions in the city mud. buffy had taken what she could from the station. bartered for it with strength and clean-up help. and even out here in the wilds she wears jeans and her leather jacket zipped almost up to her chin.

frankly, she's a little disappointed that the get-up didn't turn heads. apparently modern clothing wasn't super popular outside the station. but it wasn't a rare eight either. ]

That was drudgework. Mercenary's work. [ ... ] I don't swing that way.

You signed up for it all the same.

[And it had ended badly. Oh so so badly. They'd escaped! But that was about the only good thing that had come out of that mess.]

Yeah. Well. Turns out I don't always make the best decisions--

[ case in point: spike. a bad decision she keeps on making again and again, and she's nearing him -- or, at least, the inn's front porch. ]

[He could hear the noise of the tavern doubled through her locket. So he snaps it closed and turns around in his seat to face her. Short she might be, but she's not hard to spot in the thick of it. He raises a solitary hand to invite her over.

Once she was near:] Home sweet home.

Don't.

[ even as a crass joke, she didn't like the word attributed to this weird world. home. she doesn't have one of those any longer -- a fact she'd failed to share with the vampire. buffy grabs onto the bar's edge and pulled herself up onto a stool. it isn't the seat immediately next to him -- it's one whole seat away. but close enough to see and close enough to talk and close enough to prop her elbow up on the counter and twist her neck to look at him. ]

This place is neither homey nor sweet.

What, you don't find Hoss here endearing?

[He gives a petulant smile at the barkeep. He gets an unimpressed snort in turn. Spike turns back to Buffy, pleased with himself.]

So, did you score us a job?

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