MCA Apartment Zero (not Pi), Sunday Evening

[needsaparrot]

Waiting around to hear from certain people who dropped major bombshells on him then ran off to spend the weekend someplace that might possibly have corpses? Why no. Alternating that with worry about other people, just for a change of pace? Of course not.

After all, Xander'd had a busy week. He'd rented two apartments (three if you counted the one for the chalk), met or re-met a bunch of very pretty interesting arms people, and been called cute on the radio. Plenty to think about that wasn't corpse-related.

So not thinking about that. At all. Nope.

[OOC: for a couple of returning wayfarers.]

Comments

[Before Parker]

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

And here's a certain person, knocking on the door with one hand, a box tucked under the other arm.

Re: [Before Parker]

[needsaparrot]

Wow, you wouldn't think a guy of Xander's advanced years could get to the door that fast. "Hey," he said when he'd opened it, almost casually except not remotely.

Re: [Before Parker]

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Hey," Bridge says back, only slightly muffled because he's gone in for a hug. Which is slightly awkward 'cause box, but there you have it.

Re: [Before Parker]

[needsaparrot]

Xander? Not turning it down. The hug, though he wasn't turning down the box, either. "No corpses?" he asked hopefully.

Re: [Before Parker]

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Wish that was true," Bridge says.

Re: [Before Parker]

[needsaparrot]

Xander closed his eye for a second, wondering how many more times he'd be doing this, with a Slayer to worry about, with friends in multiple dimensions.... Would he lose count, eventually?

Then he pulled Bridge in and shut the door behind them. "Want to tell me about it?"

Re: [Before Parker]

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"They were dead long before we got there," Bridge says. "Don't know *how* long, but long enough that there weren't even traces of human energy left at all."

Re: [Before Parker]

[needsaparrot]

"Do you know what happened to them?"

Re: [Before Parker]

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"They put something in the air," Bridge says. "It was supposed to weed out aggression? But everyone- or almost everyone- just kind of... stopped. The people it didn't work on? It had the opposite effect, to them all there *was* was aggression and violence."

Re: [Before Parker]

[needsaparrot]

"That's really..." Xander frowned. "I don't know whether to say creepy or sad."

Re: [Before Parker]

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Both," Bridge says. "The people it didn't work on? The ones they call Reavers now? They kill and eat other people. Not always in that order." He shudders.

Re: [Before Parker]

[needsaparrot]

Xander reminded himself that Bridge was right. here. It helped. Slightly. "And eww say all of us."

Re: [Before Parker]

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"It wasn't fun," Bridge says. "But, we did what we needed to do- what *River* needed to do."

Re: [Before Parker]

[needsaparrot]

"Which was?" Save the day, Xander assumed, but what kind of day was there left to save if everybody'd been dead for years?

Re: [Before Parker]

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Figure out what happened, that it wasn't her fault. Rebroadcast the message we found with the truth about the Pax- the drug that caused all that," Bridge explains.

Re: [Before Parker]

[needsaparrot]

"Why would she think--" Xander thought about River as he remembered her, the things she had in common with Bridge. "She was having visions about it?"

Re: [Before Parker]

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Nightmares," Bridge nods. "She showed me a little of what she saw, when I offered to go with her."

Re: [Before Parker]

[needsaparrot]

Xander breathed a heavy breath that wasn't quite a sigh. Somewhere between delayed relief and acknowledging not for the first time that this kind of thing was always going to be happening. He'd always have somebody to worry about.

"Buffy has dreams like that sometimes. About people dying. Sometimes she can save 'em." Sometimes, like River's, he didn't add, it was too late.

Re: [Before Parker]

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"But not all the time," Bridge says quietly, because it's something *he* has experience with too.

Re: [Before Parker]

[needsaparrot]

"I hate that you have to see things like that," Xander said, and he meant 'all of you' and he meant 'you-you' and he meant dreams and vision, and he meant... everything bad that people he loved ended up seeing.

Re: [Before Parker]

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Wasn't all bad, though," Bridge smiles, remembering the box he'd brought with him, and its contents. "Like I promised," he says, holding it out to Xander.

Re: [Before Parker]

[needsaparrot]

Xander took the box carefully, though he was pretty sure it didn't contain anything dangerous. And he wasn't about to make the corpse joke, now. "Souvenir?"

Re: [Before Parker]

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Kaylee helped me pick it out," Bridge informs Xander. "Open it, open it, open it!" There might be bouncing.

Re: [Before Parker]

[needsaparrot]

"Okay, okay, okay, Mordecai Three Three Three." Xander opened the box. Within it lay a model spacecraft, or at least he assumed it was, since he'd never seen anything in this shape before. "Whoa."

Re: [Before Parker]

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Like it?" Bridge asks hopefully. "Kaylee told me that one was the best of all the ones they had there for sale."