eswareinmal | [Orb]

[The orb shows the beach - grass leading to rocks leading to sand leading to the vast expanse of ocean in the distance. It's a picteresque sort of sight, with the bonus of no dragons around to eat people. Turns out you just can't entirely trust the maps here..]

I've, um, I've found the ocean. It's not as bad as it looks, out here...I mean, um, the thorns are moving rather fast, but it turns out that we're hardly cut off.

Well...hardly cut off yet.

I did stop by the infection zone before I came out this way. The reports are certainly true. For plants, they are moving alarmingly fast. I didn't want to stay in the area. If I'd actually dared make camp there, I probably wouldn't be here now. Still. I, um, I made an effort. A couple of basic identification spells, and a bit of scrying, although s-something about them made that even harder than it normally is, for me.

If anyone has any ideas how I might, um, proceed further, or even get a bit off for further examination, I'm certainly all ears. It's not as though I'll have to walk that far to reach the border zone on my way back.

[...really, though, looking out at the beach, at the ocean and thinking of what lies beyond it, it's actually a little hard to remember that they're all in such terrible danger. The land around him brings up a feeling of nostalgia in Giles' chest that he can't ignore.]

...if worst comes to worst, I suppose we could always build a ship.

[Because, when he finds himself forgetting, now he can summon up the mental image of that great, gnarled tangle of malevolent, thorny evil. That's a familiar feeling as well - consult the books. Fight the evil. Save the world.

What happens next? Well...they'll burn that bridge when they come to it.]

((ooc: Hey, sorry for the edits, guys! Turns out I was a bit mistaken as to the positioning of the thorns. But! Things should be able to proceed from here.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Hastily:] Just Ginia, mind. Not Helios. He's just, um, a very good friend. One that happens to, to share most of my interests, and not get that impossibly glazed look in his eyes whenever I start talking.

[It was certainly part of his charm when they first met.]

[Well, well, well.]

I've met Helios. Such a charming man. [Very handsome, oh yes, and now off-limits. She does have standards.] I've not had the pleasure of meeting your lover. What is she like?

[...how to describe Ginia Solana...

Giles ducks his head so Lavinia can't get such a good look at him blushing like a school boy with a toy plane.]

Intelligent and, um, exceptionally clever. Slightly, um, morbid sense of humor. Enjoys the occasional laugh at my expense. [And he enjoys that she does.] Good at keeping her head. Alarmingly inventive, when the mood takes her. Quick as a cat, especially here. We've, um, we've fought together, in the past, and if I may speak for the both of us, w-we make rather a good team.

...overall quite extraordinary.

[Lavinia is quiet. She may tease, she may cajole, she may not always do what would be considered right, but family is important and she's always cared about Giles. About him, her sister, her father, Edna, Edna's husband, she's always cared.

And while she has strings of lovers and never settled down - or intended to settle down - with anyone, she can tell when someone is in love.

Good on you, Giles. Lavinia is happy there's someone to bring him happiness after everything in his life. Even after death.]

Alarmingly inventive? My, so perhaps some of the rumors around town are true.

[Ah, rumormongers. Giles still hates you all so very much, and he glowers just a bit. It's been days - can't they find someone else to pester for a while? From the sounds of it, new heroes have arrived in droves.

Still:]

S-Some of them are, yes. [And really, in a lot of ways, Schwanheim doesn't know the half of it.]

My, I'll have to meet her sometime. She sounds wonderful. [And in meeting, there will be girl talk. And the usual threats.]

If there are children in the near future, do tell me.

[...

...oh, Tara Giles. Tara Solsprenles. Whatever they might have called you, Giles had almost managed to banish how utterly, painfully wondrous you were.

So he sounds a bit subdued, all of a sudden, as he answers:] You'll, um...y-you'll be the first to know.

[For all that he grouses, it is a little nice to have Lavinia here. Family, real blood family...it's something he hasn't had for years. Partly because of outside reasons, partly because he hadn't really wanted it.

But, you never know what you have until it's gone.]

[Lavinia's smile softens slightly. She knows the reality of things; Giles is dead in their world, the woman he is with now is likely from another. Bringing her to their world would be pointless without bringing him back to life, so the best they could hope for was staying here or going elsewhere.]

You know Sophie and I want the best for you, yes?

I, um, I think we differ in our respective beliefs of what the "best" might be...but, um, y-yes. I do.

[He knows that, when all is said and done, they want him to be happy and as safe as it's possible for a Giles to be. And, for a good bit of his life, Giles hasn't wanted that. Or at least, hadn't been prepared to admit that he did.

Theirs' really is a miserable family.]

...Goodness, we are an estranged lot. [Not just between the Fairweather sisters and the rest of the Giles family, but internally as well. Her and Edna, Giles and his father, Giles and Alice... for shame.]

...you and, um, Aunt Sophronia are s-still getting along all right, aren't you?

[Yes, they are an estranged lot. Lavinia and Sophronia are, in a lot of ways, the most well adjusted Giles' still living.]

Oh yes, of course. The occasional bicker, to be expected, but getting along just wonderfully. No need to worry about us, dear.

T-To be expected. Of course.

[He doesn't worry about them, not really, especially not when, in a sense, they're beyond worrying about. But it's still nice to hear.]

But, um, yes. We...are an isolated lot. F-Fact of life, I suppose.

You're your father's son. [It's a compliment, really. She knows Rupert and Edmund rarely saw eye-to-eye - even Lavinia never really saw eye-to-eye with her Edmund - and Giles' upbringing could have been better without the years at the Watcher's Academy. However, Edmund did care and he was a good man up until the end.]

Next I suppose you'll say I'm my sister's brother.

[Both of which are reminders he likes to think he's done well without over the last couple of decades.

Edmund Giles was a basically good man. Giles is old enough and mature enough to accept this. But he was also a man concerned with the Greater Good, and caused a lot of pain all around because of it.]

Goodness, no. You and Alice are as different as... well, Edna and myself. I suppose one could even say Alice took after Edna from what I've heard.

Alice and Edna both did what was right, and wonderfully so, but both were quite rigid about things. You... you did things your own way. You always did.

Not always.

[He hadn't been terribly good at it, but there had been a period of several years where he'd been...well, a Watcher. Following the rules and making reports and tormenting his Slayer with useless, pointless tests.

But noy anymore.]

The army, um, gets on well enough without the Council, in any case.

Life gets on well enough without the Council. To be sure, what happened that day was absolutely dreadful. Too many lives lost... [There is a small pause, a moment of silence for everyone that died in Caleb's attack, especially for those of the Giles family.] But the Council needed a change. They were far too rigid, too steeped in tradition and their narrow mindset. Goodness, from what I saw, things hardly changed from the time I was a watcher in training to, well, your time.

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