eswareinmal | Where are you going? Where are you going?

Entry tags:

Where are you going? Where are you going?

Characters: Rupert Giles and Helios Sprensonne
Open? Nope
Where: The marketplace
When: 18th of Rebirth's Decline, after Giles' encounter with Ginia in the Drunk Duck Inn
What: If Giles and Helios have their way, Ginia is going to be losing a necklace very soon. The two intend to see to it that she has an even better one to replace it.
Warnings: Nothing I can think of! Just two bros being miserable and messed up.

He doesn't mention the fight, when he returns to the house. Giles knows that he probably doesn't have to - rumor travels impossibly fast in Schwanheim and, besides, even if she was obviously on some level going easy on him, Giles looks like he's been in a fight.

And the watch is gone. She actually took the pocketwatch. Some tiny part of him had been convinced that she wouldn't actually steal it, and so a clinging feeling of shock mingles with the general dread and misery that is losing his most precious possession.

The last time he'd lost that watch, he'd died shortly after.

But, Giles doesn't mention it, when he gets home. He doesn't say anything about the fight, and the way Ginia had left him half collapsed on the floor, and how he'd failed to get through to her and that Helios and his magic were their only hope now.

No, instead, Giles stands at the door of the little room that serves as Helios' little shop to the outside world, looking in at his best friend. He's silent for a few seconds, before finally offering in a soft voice:

"Um...do you want to go to the market? I-I'll, um...I'll buy you some tea."

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Helios looks at Giles, then the area that was once covered. "O-Oh! Yes, quite. It's not really cleaning up, just making things go a-away." Just like they both wish a certain necklace to. A pang of regret as he listens to his words. He realizes that Giles is...off and he realizes why it might be. Him and Ginia had a fight, didn't they? They fought with one and his smile falls away into a deep frown. This damnable necklace, it was going on long enough. Helios will get it off of her, he swears it.

"N-No. I haven't." He probably should, given that he feels a bit dizzy as he walks towards the door.

"Well, um...w-we can pick something up, at the market. On the way."

Giles knows that Helios still doesn't like to be touched. But, in that moment, he's unable to stop himself - it's nothing much, just a touch to the shoulder, just because he is so grateful beyond words that Helios is still here, and hasn't succumbed to his own cursed object like Ginia has. If they'd both become such unrecognizable people...Giles realizes, there and then, that he really would be helpless. Helios is the only reason he has any chance of getting Ginia back, he sees that now, and that realization is both terrifying and reassuring. After all, at least Helios is still here.

But he doesn't say anything more until they're both outside, with the door safely locked behind them. And then, as their steps turn towards the marketplace, Giles adds:

"I'm, um...I-I'm sorry I, I can't be much help, in this."

Because only today did he realize just how little help he is.

Helios curbs the flinch to something of a shadow of it. Then he gives Giles a thin shaky smile, "o-of course, that sounds like a lovely idea." Because he knows that Giles needs this right now. The way he's acting, the way he's speaking...Helios doesn't like it one bit. He definitely needs to be by the other man's side right now and if that meant going to the market place then so be it. They could both use some fresh air and to clear their heads...

"Giles..." he looks so very sad when the other man speaks those words. "It's not your fault, y-you did your best. Don't worry w-we'll get her back." Helios doesn't believe it, can't and will not ever believe it. It might be out of his skill set but that doesn't mean he isn't helping. Sometimes you need other people to help you and here is a case where that is very much true.

"...I know we will."

It's just proved harder than he ever would have expected it to be, and he's just recently had it kicked into his head that absolutely nothing he can do will help. Not even brute force, even if he could find it in himself to actually, seriously try and fight Ginia, because she's just that much faster and has a million and one chances to escape and disappear.

Needless to say, the former Watcher is discouraged. For more reasons than one, but all of them relating back to one simple fact:

"She, um...sh-she has the watch."

Helios' eyes widen at those uttered words. And he finally realizes that Ginia is, truly, and in fact lost to them. She knew how much it meant to him, how much Giles loved that watch. What it meant and the unspoken truth about its coming to be in his possession. It was the one and only thing the other man had ever shown an attachment towards. It symbolized their family, as much as it could, and almost unspeakable bond between them. He turns then and before he can realize what he's doing, he'll wrap his arms around the other man. It's a shaky and awkward action still but the reason behind it is well enough understood.

"I'm so sorry Giles." His voice is barely above a whisper. "W-We'll get it back. Th-the watch and G-Ginia. I-I know we will." Ginia didn't mean it, but it was becoming increasingly hard to believe that.

Edited 2012-09-03 20:34 (UTC)

That pocket watch symbolized that, somewhere in all the many worlds that blended together in places like this, there were people that genuinely cared about him, that wanted him with them and were willing to give him a place. To someone like Giles, who'd spent so long with nowhere he'd truly consider home, such a truth meant everything. The closest thing to family he'd had since Buffy and the others, and in a lot of ways even closer.

And she'd taken it. Yes, he'd offered it up as bait, but he hadn't actually thought she'd take it, because Ginia knew that. Ginia knew damn near everything about him and that's why this was all so impossible.

A deep, dark voice hissed to Giles that maybe, just maybe, this was why you didn't let people find out damn near everything about you. Why you kept them at arm's length. So that, when it came down to a fight, you weren't at such a hopeless disadvantage. In a world of vampires, it was practically a survival trait.

But not here. It shouldn't have had to be, here.

Giles takes a deep breath, trying to steady himself.

"We will," he says, drawing some faith from the words. "After a rest. After all, um, th-there are only so many places she can be."

Ginia didn't mean it, he knows, but that's because this isn't really Ginia anymore. It's barely a person, it's just a bundle of selfish needs and impulses wrapped up in her skin.

"Are you sure about using the, um, the mirage ring?"

Helios moves away and nods. "I'm sure. It'll...catch her interest. A-And I'll be sure t-to make sure that she can see it." The mirage ring wasn't anything as important as the watch at least. It was a reminder of home, yes, but there was another ring of his that was far more important to him.

"The tracking s-spell will lead us right to her." He stops as he winces. Painting Ginia out to be some kind of animal that needs to be tracked. It sounded terrible in his ears as he talks about her like that.

"I-I mean it'll b-be good to know where she is. The city isn't t-too big at least."

"Oh, it will catch her interest. I have no doubt about that." Giles' voice is dour - it's made of precious metals, and it sparkles. That's all it will take, at this point.

But, the tracking spell. He'd forgotten about that, but it's a weight off his mind. Yes, Ginia might be able to use shadows to escape, but if they know where she is without having to comb the entire city, maybe they can actually get the drop on her. He'd nearly managed it, before, and that was just with his scrying mirror.

"If, if we can keep her in the binding sigil long enough, though, then, then w-we shouldn't need it."

A beat, and then Giles asks in a concerned tone of voice:

"Will the sigil still work, um, even after we have the necklace off?"

"N-No we shouldn't need it, if everything works as it should. S-so there's probably nothing to, um, w-worry about." Helios gives a small reassuring smile as they continue to walk.

"It'll work as long as my c-concentration isn't broken or the actual sigil in disrupted. S-So yes."

Now Giles just has to hope that Ginia, in her subhuman state, won't be able to come up with anything to disrupt Helios' concentration.

But, it's still a mildly cheering thought, as they find themselves at the outskirts of the general bustle and hustle that is the Schwanheim marketplace, and Giles lets his mind focus again on the immediate task ahead of them.

"Now...to, um, to find a jeweler. And the tea booth. Not necessarily in that order."

Helios hopes so as well. It didn't take much, in terms of aggressive acts, for Helios to lose his concentration. But that was thought for another time, right now? Right now he and Giles were on a different sort of mission.

"Which ever we run into first, hm? I don't mind looking for the necklace first if you don't." He sounds a bit more...cheerful as he speaks to Giles.

"I-I think there's a tea shop that Tatra showed me somewhere nearby..." he's not certain on the jeweler though.

"Well, um, I would certainly trust Tatra's recommendation, where tea is concerned. Why don't we stop there, first? At least give us some energy to, um, to go hunting up the necklace."

Besides. Any tea place worth its salt sells sweets to go with it, and neither of them have eaten much today. They need to keep their wits about them.

Being tall enough to see over the heads of most of the crowd, Giles sets about looking for it.

((ooc: So...I'm thinking we should have some townspeople come up and try to finangle them into a marriage, a la Loki's plan. Thoughts?))

"It's a lovely little shop. I went with her after th-the magic show. But, um, that sounds like a rather g-good idea." Helios is more than a tad bit hungry. Helios looks around at the crowd of people walking by. Lots of them chatting and laughing to themselves as they look over at the two of them. Helios frowns and looks down at the floor when a few women laugh behind their hands. Has he mentioned how he tries to not stay out too long? There's been more than one occasion where some woman has asked him about his love life, and he really isn't the best at that sort of thing...

"D-Do you, ah, s-see it?" He sounds a bit more...worried now.

((ooc: Oh my gosh yes. So terrible.))

"I...think so."

There's a likely looking building, just up ahead and on the next corner. Giles has passed it by once or twice, just as he goes about his business, but somehow he's never had cause to stop in. Still. The building has an air about it that says "tea shop".

He moves away from Helios, just a bit, just to try and get a better look at the front of the building. And, as he does so, a woman moves in to take his place. A woman holding a piece of parchment and a pen.

"Hi! You're the wizard, right? Who lives with the Sage and the Rogue? Would you sign this, please?"

And just as Giles moves off to go investigate further, Helios path is cut off abruptly by a woman whom he has never met. "Ah. I-I am." He looks at her a bit confused, if not with a little trepidation. He tries to be polite and look her in the eye but he isn't sure what this parchment thing is all about.

"Wh-what, um, what is it exactly?" He doesn't want to sign something that might lead to...well...something he'll regret.

"Oh, it's just about that notice, on the board. Am I really the first one to ask you?" Her smile only broadens, as she offers the paper to Helios again. "Quickly, sign it! Before anyone else comes along!"

It's around about this point that Giles turns back and sees that Helios has been well and truly accosted. "What on Earth?" he asked, perplexed, and moving back to stand next to Helios. "What on Earth are you? Some sort of...fairy tale Girl Scout?"

He'd seen plenty of the little brats around the place in Sunnydale, and is fairly certain the comparison is apt.

Of course, Giles hasn't read the board, either.

"N-Notice..." well it certainly can't be anything good or very well true, then. Though he can only imagine what it says. Helios flinches then and moves away a little, holding up his hands in a sort of defensive position.

"I-I'm sorry. I-I really don't think I should." Not without at least knowing what she's going on about. His tense posture slackens a little when Giles comes back, he gives the other man an apologetic look. Sorry bro, he was really trying to keep up with you, honest.

"No, he shouldn't."

Giles gives Helios a nod - it's okay, bro, he knows you were. He also knows how...alarmingly pushy the people of Schwanheim can get, when the mood takes them. As for what particular mood has taken them, well...that might bear some investigating.

Unfortunately, the woman only seems to be emboldened by Giles' presence, and the fact that Helios is clearly clueless. "It's for the king!" she chirps. "Come on! There's probably a score of people there already with signatures of their own."

"I'm afraid that isn't actually appropriate motivation, actually."

Giles would never actually willingly go to the king with any business of his. In the time it took him to pay attention, you could already have solved the problems.

"You're heroes, aren't you?"

"Wh-why would the king need our-our signatures?" Helios shifts uncomfortably in his position, noting the other people pausing nearby and then smiling. Good lord he really hopes whatever the king has posted isn't true.

"W-We are, I-I suppose. But, ah, what does having a s-signature from one of us have to d-do with anything?"

"Neither of you need to worry about a thing!"

"Besides..." And here another woman comes out of the crowd, trying to take hold of Giles' arm. He pulls away as though he's just been burned - in a lot of ways, Giles is as sensitive as Helios is to certain things. "...everyone's heard it. What happened between you and the rogue. You've broken up, haven't you? I'll never hurt you like that..."

Giles opens his mouth to snap at her...and then, comprehension dawns. He closes it again, eyes widening with horror.

And then, muttering an apology, he takes Helios' hand as well, and makes to lead him away. "We, w-we really have to go..."

Helios also blanches at the words coming from the woman's mouth. Oh...oh dear. He looks a bit apologetically back at Giles when the other man takes his hand. The warmth of the other always giving him a bit of a jolt as the warm and cold clash with each other. When they're finally out of hearing range Helios lets out a very relieved sigh.

"I-I can't believe them. Th-they're just...they're only concerned about those silly rumors! That was-was completely uncalled for..." Helios looks back over his shoulder as he shakes his head. Apparent disbelieve strewn across his features. "Giles a-are you alright?"

Giles is not okay. Pretty much every line of his body says that he is not okay.

"...do you suppose we are?" he finally ventures, unable to keep a tremor out of his voice. "Broken up, I mean." Then, aware of how very adolescent those two words sound together, he hastily adds: "I mean, um, at the least, we're...certainly not together."

It's probably a sign of just how hard the last couple of days have been that Giles even has to ask a question like that. But it's an issue that's been on his mind. Ginia really isn't Ginia, right now. If they can't get that necklace off, she never will be again.

"No." His voice is firm and quite literally stern when he says that. His eyes narrow and his jaw is set in a very hard line.

"This? This is by no means the be all end all for you and her Giles. W-We've been through so much worse. This is just...it's just like something the Malnosso would concoct." His stance gets a little more tired, a little more worn as he looks back at Giles.

"Everything will...be fine once we-we help her out of this. Th-these people don't know a-anything about you or the b-bond between you and Ginia. Otherwise they'd know that-that a small rut like this is n-nothing." There are bumps and there are hills in the road, but he knows with all his heart that Giles and Ginia can get through this.

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