Chapter 4: All Ghosts are From Japan
Mar. 26th, 2018 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamer(don't ask me what these chapter titles are they just kind of happened though it's probably just a reflection of those random absurd moments in bleach I swear are just there to make Ichigo question what is his life. though to be fair, that's probably a good thing to make Xander do because the Scoobies don't question it enough)
~Dreamer~
Main Points:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Bleach (I Hope Tomorrow's a Better Day)
Chapter Summary: Research is odd when you're a ghost.
Word Count: 750
Rating: Gen
~Dreamer~
Main Points:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Bleach (I Hope Tomorrow's a Better Day)
Chapter Summary: Research is odd when you're a ghost.
Word Count: 750
Rating: Gen
He and Spike are assigned to one team when it comes to translation.
“Why’s Giles giving us texts in these languages? Is it your fault? I’m calling it your fault,” Xander complains, rubbing his forehead as he stares at incomprehensible text. He’s feeling kind of tired, but doesn’t want to doze for once because he’s worried as to whether he’ll wake up or not, so he stole one of the chairs. Nobody had really argued, but then, maybe near-death experiences were the key to getting a little sympathy.
He gets another of those unreadable looks before the blond calls out. “Hey, Watcher. We should find out whether the whelp’s actually illiterate or whether ghosts just speak Japanese.”
Oh. Oh yeah. He’d forgotten entirely about that, even though he’d probably been speaking to Spike in Japanese this entire time, but then, there were a lot of things on his mind right now, such as the fact that his body was lying over there on Giles’ couch. But—wait, he could understand English when it was spoken, because he’d understood Giles and Willow—
This whole thing was making his brain hurt.
That, at least, is enough to get G-man to stand abruptly and fidget like he’s not sure what the correct approach here is. “You say Xander is speaking in Japanese?”
And then everyone else turns to look at the table. Buffy looks a little worried. At least he’s invisible, so he doesn’t have to deal with them all staring at him, even if they know which chair he’s sitting in. Well, aside from Giles, who from his ‘senses’ or whatever seems to have a pretty good guess of where he’s slumped back in the chair, trying to get comfortable.
“That might have been crucial information.” It’s Giles’ best stern impression, but of course it wouldn’t have any effect on a vampire. Following expectations, he just shrugs.
Which—hang on, does Spike have a vested interest in keeping him like this, because he’s bored and wants someone he can talk to and mess with? Suddenly Xander can’t breathe. He’s not sure why he even needs to, considering he’s not even in his body and probably doesn’t even need oxygen and goddess what if his friends never get to see him again? What if he never gets to eat and yeah, even go to school and kiss a girl and—
There’s a hand on top of his. There’s a bit of overlap, which is weird and uncomfortable, but he glances up into serious brown eyes. “Your little temper tantrum’s hurtin’ us all, pet,” he croaks, and just as suddenly as it began he’s calm again. Well, fairly calm. As calm as he can really be in this situation.
“Is everyone okay?” he manages, looking around with shock. Spike straightens up like nothing had happened. Willow’s gasping like she’s a fish out of water. Giles pulls himself up, eyeing where he is with some sort of dark speculation, while Buffy’s helping up Riley, who’d actually fallen out of his chair.
“Don’t do that again,” G-man requests, which—yes, definitely, that’d been bad. “The situation is nothing like ideal, but I believe that even you are capable of dealing with the situation with some sort of grace.”
Spike’s face doesn’t show the same belief, but yeah, alright, if only to avoid hurting his friends, he can deal, no matter how hard he has to try.
“As for Japanese, I have several texts, but it is not one of the languages I am highly proficient with, so you would, indeed, be faster if you can read them.” He picks up some pages and brings them over, and to Xander’s shock, it’s like they’re written in English. Or whatever. Hopefully this’ll go away when he’s alive again.
He nods at Spike. “Yeah, all ghosts are Japanese apparently,” he agrees, conveniently forgetting ghosts they’ve met and dealt with in the past.
“He’s useful for once,” the vampire agrees. It’s annoying, but Xander settles down to read instead. Which—wait.
“Hang on, this means I don’t have to wait for them to translate manga or anime. I can just watch or read the original. And—wait, maybe I could use Japanese as my language requirement,” he realizes out loud, and that definitely gets an eyeroll.
“Yeah, considerin’ you won’t be able to read or speak anythin’ else? That’ll work real well,” Spike agrees, and, oh yeah, slight damper on the plan. Still. They can figure out something, right? Right?
“Why’s Giles giving us texts in these languages? Is it your fault? I’m calling it your fault,” Xander complains, rubbing his forehead as he stares at incomprehensible text. He’s feeling kind of tired, but doesn’t want to doze for once because he’s worried as to whether he’ll wake up or not, so he stole one of the chairs. Nobody had really argued, but then, maybe near-death experiences were the key to getting a little sympathy.
He gets another of those unreadable looks before the blond calls out. “Hey, Watcher. We should find out whether the whelp’s actually illiterate or whether ghosts just speak Japanese.”
Oh. Oh yeah. He’d forgotten entirely about that, even though he’d probably been speaking to Spike in Japanese this entire time, but then, there were a lot of things on his mind right now, such as the fact that his body was lying over there on Giles’ couch. But—wait, he could understand English when it was spoken, because he’d understood Giles and Willow—
This whole thing was making his brain hurt.
That, at least, is enough to get G-man to stand abruptly and fidget like he’s not sure what the correct approach here is. “You say Xander is speaking in Japanese?”
And then everyone else turns to look at the table. Buffy looks a little worried. At least he’s invisible, so he doesn’t have to deal with them all staring at him, even if they know which chair he’s sitting in. Well, aside from Giles, who from his ‘senses’ or whatever seems to have a pretty good guess of where he’s slumped back in the chair, trying to get comfortable.
“That might have been crucial information.” It’s Giles’ best stern impression, but of course it wouldn’t have any effect on a vampire. Following expectations, he just shrugs.
Which—hang on, does Spike have a vested interest in keeping him like this, because he’s bored and wants someone he can talk to and mess with? Suddenly Xander can’t breathe. He’s not sure why he even needs to, considering he’s not even in his body and probably doesn’t even need oxygen and goddess what if his friends never get to see him again? What if he never gets to eat and yeah, even go to school and kiss a girl and—
There’s a hand on top of his. There’s a bit of overlap, which is weird and uncomfortable, but he glances up into serious brown eyes. “Your little temper tantrum’s hurtin’ us all, pet,” he croaks, and just as suddenly as it began he’s calm again. Well, fairly calm. As calm as he can really be in this situation.
“Is everyone okay?” he manages, looking around with shock. Spike straightens up like nothing had happened. Willow’s gasping like she’s a fish out of water. Giles pulls himself up, eyeing where he is with some sort of dark speculation, while Buffy’s helping up Riley, who’d actually fallen out of his chair.
“Don’t do that again,” G-man requests, which—yes, definitely, that’d been bad. “The situation is nothing like ideal, but I believe that even you are capable of dealing with the situation with some sort of grace.”
Spike’s face doesn’t show the same belief, but yeah, alright, if only to avoid hurting his friends, he can deal, no matter how hard he has to try.
“As for Japanese, I have several texts, but it is not one of the languages I am highly proficient with, so you would, indeed, be faster if you can read them.” He picks up some pages and brings them over, and to Xander’s shock, it’s like they’re written in English. Or whatever. Hopefully this’ll go away when he’s alive again.
He nods at Spike. “Yeah, all ghosts are Japanese apparently,” he agrees, conveniently forgetting ghosts they’ve met and dealt with in the past.
“He’s useful for once,” the vampire agrees. It’s annoying, but Xander settles down to read instead. Which—wait.
“Hang on, this means I don’t have to wait for them to translate manga or anime. I can just watch or read the original. And—wait, maybe I could use Japanese as my language requirement,” he realizes out loud, and that definitely gets an eyeroll.
“Yeah, considerin’ you won’t be able to read or speak anythin’ else? That’ll work real well,” Spike agrees, and, oh yeah, slight damper on the plan. Still. They can figure out something, right? Right?
