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Summer 10 - newcomer mingle
[ It's late morning when the ferry comes around, landing on the jetty and letting off a small but valued group of new arrivals. Olivia is out there, greeting and handing out information packets.
Later in the afternoon, there's a small welcome party set up at the community center. The tables are laden with cinnamon buns, elderflower lemonade, fresh strawberries and an assortment of small cookies and other treats. There's also thirium lovingly set up to the side of the buffet, for the android population. Ingvar shows up a little later with his accordion, setting the mood with some traditional folk songs like he's wont to do. ]
Later in the afternoon, there's a small welcome party set up at the community center. The tables are laden with cinnamon buns, elderflower lemonade, fresh strawberries and an assortment of small cookies and other treats. There's also thirium lovingly set up to the side of the buffet, for the android population. Ingvar shows up a little later with his accordion, setting the mood with some traditional folk songs like he's wont to do. ]
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He's hurt! Deeply and lethally so, as is evident by the way he theatrically clutches at his chest with feigned shock.
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It feels good, this, sitting and drinking and laughing together. It's not something he's really done since... you know.
He takes another swig of whiskey and looks at Spike with a lopsided little smile. "I think I'd rather hoped you'd both settle down somewhere, especially because I won't - give me somewhere to come back to, you know? A home, of sorts. But I guess it's not in your nature any more than it is in mine."
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He raises a brow and although this is to a large degree just friendly ribbing, there's an undercurrent of truth to it. In or out, buddy. Spike may understand the itch to move on and have his own life, but if Jack expects to come back and share theirs he needs to actually put in the work for it. This ain't your momma's basement, it won't always stay open for you.
"Still need to talk to Ianto. Maybe he feels differently."
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"Yeah, maybe I should," he admits, with a slightly self-conscious smile. "I just get swept along in things, lose track of how long it's been when I don't have my guy with a stopwatch along to remind me!"
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"Maybe you should bring him along sometime. Have an lit'le adventure the two of you."
It's a casual suggestion, but he does have something... well. There's something to it. Something he should get into at some point but maybe not tonight, maybe not ever if he can play it right.
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"Hey, I would love to. I've always wanted to take him out into the stars, show him other worlds; he just seems to want to stay on Earth with you!"
He cocks his head, thinking about it, how it might work. "And what would you be doing while I was off showing him the universe?"
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That line of conversation comes to a limping halt however as Jack gets to the heart of the matter, as he so often does. There's a pause, because of course it is, and a gulp of whiskey as if to brush off that there was a pause at all.
"I'm sure I can find something to occupy myself."
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And perhaps, even though he's imagined it quite a bit, he's also tended to imagine that Ianto would rather be on Earth with Spike. Perhaps there have been assumptions happening and doing their thing.
Which, really, was where his question about what Spike would do with himself if left on his own came from, because he really has found it hard to imagine the two of them wanting to be apart. But that response sounds simultaneously like it's coming from somewhere deep and that Spike is trying very hard to make it sound casual.
So he quirks an eyebrow, and asks - directly, so that he'll hopefully have no chance of misinterpreting the answer: "Do you want to talk about it? Or shall we pretend I never asked?" With an ironic twitch of his lips.
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"Not much to talk about." He shrugs, very much trying to play it up as casual when it's everything but. "Besides... I think you already know what I'm implying."
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And the longer Spike tries to play it casual, the surer Jack is what he's talking about here. He nods slowly, doing his best to think things through and not rush to conclusions or basically do anything stupid. But he still can't help asking, because it's the big thought that's ringing round inside his head: "You're talking about going back to Sunnydale? To die?"
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"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." He makes a face - dying isn't really part of the plan, if he can avoid it. "The future has already changed. I wasn't supposed to get the soul the way I did. I wasn't supposed to leave. Everything's different."
And he's banking on that making the difference, of it allowing him to get ahead of the game.
"Wouldn't you go, Jack? If you thought you had a chance of keeping the world from ending, at least for a bit longer?"
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He nods slowly, working it all out and allowing that yes, enough changes might just have been made to let him get away with it.
He grins. "Well, yes, immortal or not, of course I would." After all, he still died to give his blood to the Blessing, even thinking he wouldn't come back from it. It's what they do.
"But if you're planning on emphasizing the differences anyway, why don't we both come back and help you anyway? It is kind of the thing we do, after all!"
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Maybe they could help in the periphery, like the Slayerettes, but he's not sure it'd make that big of a difference in the long run. This is his battle to fight, his redemption to find. It's about more than the Hellmouth itself.
"Besides..." he starts, hesitant now. "...if it goes pear shaped? Someone needs to take care of him. No one better than you, for that."
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He leans an elbow on the table, serious now. "But if and when you do go back there, even if you don't want us with you... You need to tell him where you're going. It's not fair to him to just sneak away without giving him a chance to say goodbye."
The compliment about him being able to take care of Ianto has not gone unnoticed, but there are more important issues at stake here (pun not intended).
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"I know, I know... and I'm going to. Eventually." He fakes a sigh, grips the whiskey bottle tighter. "Enough of that. This is a party, isn't it?"
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"Yeah, I guess so!" He picks up his bottle and reaches across to clink it against Spike's before taking a big swig from it, gasping as it burns.
"So," he drawls, searching for a lighter topic of conversation. "Met anyone interesting here?"
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"A couple." he muses, glancing over at Jack with a mischievous look. "But I feel like you'd have more to say about that than me. Met anyone yet?"
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His eyebrows go up at that look. "What, because you've been too busy staying home shagging Ianto to get out and meet people?" he asks amused, and shrugs. "I've met quite a few folks here. The only one I've really got to know well so far, though, is my housemate, Hanako. She's ever so young and she's pretty badly damaged - in more ways than one - so I've kind of taken her under my wing, you know? She's a really sweet girl."
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He takes a swig of whiskey to swallow down that casual observation. They're all here for similar reasons - time, escape, freedom. Most people are damaged in some way and he has to wonder if it's good or bad that Jack's taken on this girl. Sounds like a good way to not take on himself.
"And if you recall, I was never one for all this socialising."
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He chuckles. "Good of you to come along tonight, then! And very good of you to bring the whisky. This isn't bad stuff!" Emphasising that opinion by taking another long swig from his bottle. He's beginning to feel a very pleasant little buzz.
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And alcohol seems to be the best social lubricant no matter what decade you're in. He gives Jack a nod and tips the bottle back for another swig.
((ooc: wrap up here?))
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