and if I just stay awhile here staring at the sea

[gottaknockhard]

Who: Spike Spiegel (gottaknockhard) and Anne Boleyn (ensorceler)
What: A quiet moment
When: The evening before the attack
Where: The cliffs at Terre Haute
Rating: PG-13

To say that Spike was out of his element would have been a joke to anyone who heard it. Every new destination they reached seemed to pull him further away from any rational expectations he had about the world beyond the castle, and anything he was remotely comfortable with engaging. Thankfully, since they reached the land of talking giraffes, it at least seemed to scatter the camp and make it less obvious when he broke away for the sake of his sanity. That he spent that time trailing the woman who convinced him to go was only expected.

It was the job he'd agreed to, anyway.

All this time he hadn't been tempted to explore a world he never cared to understand, and she barely needed to give an order. (How long had it been since he'd actually taken one?) It had started out as an act that he could play for the chance that something might spark his interests, but even that was a stretch to get him to spend weeks out in the wilderness. Even now, he didn't really know why he was so willing to follow her. Maybe it made him feel not as lost as he had; or he just needed a change in scenery more than he knew.

Anne was at the cliffs again, and he watched her as he finished one of his last cigarettes. He walked up behind her then, but kept his eyes to the horizon, not willing to break her thoughts. If nothing else, they found a nice view.

Comments

[ensorceler]

The salty air is something Anne seeks out whenever she can escape her duties to the camp, or her lounging in the Once-ler's cottage. It's warm enough that if not for the hard ground, she would consider just sleeping out here. Then again, she would no doubt awaken any time a whale jumped nearby.

And why should she have to sleep in a dream, anyway? Could she not be able to stay 'awake' as long as she wished? No, perhaps she could not bear to be alone with her thoughts for that much longer. Even now she doesn't feel like herself, as nostalgic as the sea is. She thinks she is such a different person here, with such a different role, that she might as well have another name and face.

If not for Elizabeth. For her...can Anne continue to be strong in this alien world? Can she lead as well as she boasts? Truly, Anne has felt a mixture of excitement and terror since arriving upon this makeshift village, and it is enough to make her sick enough to refuse meals, distant enough to avoid all when she can. That can never last long, though, and when she senses someone near, Anne offers a cursory glance over her shoulder, then back ahead to what the moon illuminates so vividly. Too vivid to be real.

"Do you ever wish to awaken, Spike?"