Cemetery: Saturday Morning

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

She had been leaping across rooftops, as you do. She was chasing a particular nasty lurk who had been trying to assemble some artifact of Olos Nah and put it on the shrine of Accabwhec causing the demon of Aiel Reklawyks to rise and destroy Haddyn on even of the appearance of the comet of Ekul. Or at least he had until Mel had grabbed one of the artifact pieces and spent most of the week hunting him down. And he wasn’t going to get away this time.

Not until Mel was leaping across a rooftop and flew right into a portal that had opened up right in front of her. She flew through the portal and started cursing like a madwoman. And she kept cursing as she fell about two stories right into the island of fandom.

“Ruttin’ hell. What the rut did I do to-”

…

“Fandom?"

...

"Rocketship!"

She pulled out her twinkie-phone and started texting out. Maybe some old friends might be around.

Comments

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, Dawn had broken her last three phones in tragic apocalypse-related incidents and had her phone on silent because she was annoyed with both Buffy and Xander.

She was, however, taking a leisurely stroll through the cemetery for old times' sake.

No. WAY. "Mel?"

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"Summers?! Holy shit!"

And that would be an astonished slayer running in for a bone crushing hug. Prepare yourself Summers.

"You're here too? I just fell on my face through a portal while I was chasing a lurk."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

There would also be a very loud, happy squeal. Followed by so much hugging. "You're not dead!"

"A lu--" She reached for the backpack she'd abandoned during the hugging. "Did he follow you? Do you need help? What's going on? How are you?"

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"Nah, the portal just got me, not the pointy toothed guy," Mel said with a smirk. "As usual this place is as dead as a doornail. Rutting hell, Summers! What have you been up to? Saving the world? Teaching slayers the right end of a stake to stab with?"

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"Learning how to Watch! And you'd be amazed how many slayers don't know that. I mean, watch a horror movie, people? Or learn physics! But nooooo...."

She grinned. "What about you?"

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"Oh, lurks. Stealing. Stopping the occasional apocalypse with the help of Gates the six armed demon monkey. Have you heard of him? Apparently he was a watcher who got transformed into the demon monkey thing at the so-called battle of Starbucks," Mel said grabbing a seat on a tombstone. "Which would have sounded really cool if I hadn't spent time in this century. Sokka helped out for a while but his rutting sense of responsibilities took him back home to Avatar-land."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"Guys suck," Dawn climbed up on a nearby tombstone. "No Gates. Giles, but no Gates. Wait, Battle of Starbucks?"

She started giggling. "Seriously? Were there mochas involved?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku was checking into her hotel room and on her way to go pester people when her phone beeped. Oh! Just one of the people she was meaning to pester!!!

There was a high-volume tackleglomp headed straight for ...

"MEL!!!!"

(I DID NOT READ THIS WAS AM? I FIXED. I AM DUMB.)

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

Oh she was going to be tackled right back. You know it.

"RIKKU!"

There was a uncharacteristic slayer laugh as she hugged her friend. "If I had known I was coming there would have been chimichangas."

[the_merriest]

"I bet we can get some!" Rikku chirped. "The mainland, or Turtle and Canary. Or we can hotwire a car and go steal some."

It was going to be a miracle if Rikku got through this weekend without ending up in jail. No big. Jails around here were super easy to bust out of.

"What have you been up to?" she asked. "I am so bad at, like, keeping up with people? I keep going to Spira and Gaia and back again and I just, like, boom, it's been six months, or two years, and how does that happen, you know!??"

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"Timey wimey wibbledy stuff," Mel said with a shrug. "Beats the fuck out of me. I'm just a long for the ride for the most part. I've been in Haddyn doing the slayer thing for a while. Lurks. The occasional apocalypse. That kind of thing. I was chasing a lurk when I fell through the portal here. Had no rutting clue there was some event going on at the island."

[the_merriest]

"We haven't had many apocalypses lately," Rikku said with a shrug. "Like, the world's still weird or whatever but it's more minor cranky outbursts here and there. Do you think the lurk came through? I haven't gone out killing things in a while. I mean, other than fiends, and they're kinda old hat at this point."

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"Lurks in Fandom? Only vampires here are probably students," Mel said with a wistful sigh. "Outside of the few we dusted together, I don't think this place has seen any action since we left."

[the_merriest]

"We must have taken the fun with us," Rikku said. "If you ever need help killing lurks, you know you can call, right? I mean, not to impose on your fun, and you totally don't need help, but the more the merrier."

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

Well, this was slightly awkward...

And Sokka certainly hadn't run to the graveyard after his aging cell phone sprung to life with her text. That would have been undignified. Of course. He checked his reflection in his boomerang and smoothed down his beard before stepping forward to lean nonchalantly against a tree.

"Do we have to worry about lurks in the daytime, now?"

[the_merriest]

Dignity was for people who were not friends with people like Rikku.

"PONYTAIL!" she chirped, flinging herself excitedly at him. "Whoa, you grew up!"

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

Sokka wrapped his arms around her and chuckled. "Orangey! How have you been?" He gave her a grin. "I may have gotten older, sure, but there are those who maintain that I never grew up."

[the_merriest]

"I'm good!" Rikku chirped. "We've been, like, going to Spira for a bit and then Gaia and then back here and then Spira and Gaia again and around and around. Maybe I'm just not good at staying in one place! Are you like way older than me now? How did you get older? Did the time just move superfast? Oh! What happened with your war and everything??? Are you here with Mel?"

One question at a time, Rikku. One at a time.

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

Sokka ticked off answers on his fingers. "I'm glad. That sounds interesting. Maybe you're not, and there's nothing wrong with that. Yes, probably. By living. It depends on your perspective. We won. And no, I'm not, but I sure am happy to see her again." He grinned. "How's Reno, these days?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku was going to count on her fingers and make sure that was everything. Yup, it all checked out.

"He's good," she said. "Same as ever. Our entire place right now is just covered in fur and engine grease? It's kind of homey like that. Until we get bored and move on."

She shook her head. "It is so weird seeing you as, like, some kind of grown-up, you know that? But it's even weirder seeing all the little kids run around here. Were we seriously this young at their age? 'Cause they seem young."

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

Sokka shrugged. "At their age, I think we were younger." He shook his head with a chuckle. "But also older, too. ...Enjoy the freedom to get bored and move on, while it lasts. Eventually, you get responsibilities, you settle down somewhere, and you keep all of the engine grease in your workshop across town, because if any gets on your nice suits, you might offend some ambassador or another."

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

Just slightly awkward.

"Well I hear about these lurks that sparkle in-"

She stopped cold.

"Dude. You're rutting old!"

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

"I like to think that I'm young in spirit," Sokka announced with a smirk. "And you... you look exactly the way I remember you."

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"It's only been a couple years for me, slick," Mel said shifting a little as she looked over her old boyfriend. "How long has it been for you? You doing all right back in avatar-land?"

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

"It's been a bit longer than that," Sokka told her with an easy shrug. He knew exactly how long it had been, without having to think and work it out, but telling her would probably come off as creepy and obsessive. "Don't let my face fool you -- all those lines aren't from years, they're from meetings. Turns out, after you save the world, people look up to you, ask you for advice, one thing leads to another, and then you're running a small country. Go figure. And you? Have the lurks learned to fear your name, yet?"