Question of Identity
Jul. 26th, 2021 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerMain Points:
Buffy/Babylon 5 AU (same as The Ushari): Agents of Chaos AU
Chapter Summary: Willow reports her results.
Word Count: 670
Rating: Teen
It’s a relief to see Willow all right, though it takes Tsandar a moment to spot her. She’s figured out that maybe floating out in the open isn’t the best idea, and planted herself on a roof. She waves energetically, but if he’s not wrong, she looks a little troubled.
“I found the files,” Willow elaborates, floating down to them. “It’s…”
She gives up trying to explain and shows them a conjured hologram of what she’d found. It’s vaguely, troublingly familiar and alien all at once. The three of them, choosing costumes, bantering, but—he’s human. Or, rather, the him that was there looks human, not Ushari. Parts are close to his own memories—he’s clearly fond of the other two, and joking around a bit. But other bits…
He clearly has an unrequited crush on Buffy, and had obviously been a jerk about it from the way she’s ‘teasing’ him. A little cruel, maybe, but if she’s trying to dissuade him like this, he’d made it necessary, somehow. Not, of course, that it made him a villain; humans, especially, weren’t particularly good at dealing with rejection, let alone juvenile ones. And she was still friends with him, and he with her, so he wasn’t just sticking around in the hopes of a relationship, and he wasn’t terrible enough to drive her away.
And it’s…he’s not, opposed, not really, to being an alien. Some Ushari would say it would count as no notable difference, being tailless with or without fur, and his best friends are human, and he was raised among the Technomages since he was a mewling kit. But, tail or not, he likes being Ushari, likes being able to contribute something different to his friends, and suddenly finding himself a completely different species would be disorienting. He discreetly rubs the fur at the back of his neck, clawed paws finding the normal implants in their usual place. He’d expected that, honestly, given that he was accessing his usual powers, but it was worth checking. He’d hate that more than anything.
“…This is the ‘missing memories’ you were able to find?” Buffy looks skeptical, admittedly within reason. Even for a Technomage, it’s well outside of anything any of them has heard of—but then, they’re all just apprentices, after all. But then, either way, someone had managed to implant foreign memories—and they’d done it for him, too, because it felt familiar—or someone had managed to change them from that memory they’d seen.
“Almost everything we’ve seen tonight is impossible. At some point, we really gotta stop using that word.” It doesn’t especially matter which of the two ‘impossible’ possibilities is the truth. Either way, they have to undo what has been done. A tall order, given what they’ve seen, but he believes in his friends. “Besides, I believe in Will.” Out of all of them, she’s taken to the powers of a Technomage the fastest. Part of it might have been that she was literally born to it, with two semi-famous Technomage researchers for parents.
“That’s true. Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply you didn’t know what you were doing.” Buffy smiles apologetically, and Willow nods with a smile. She’s not offended, which is good.
Tsandar’s ear twitches as he hears another scream, more angry than afraid, followed by a familiar voice. Perhaps his human version might not be fond of Angel, and he might even have a point about the undead being untrustworthy, but for now any familiar face is good news. “Time to move on to step two of the plan, Buffy.”
“Angel’s here?” That grin, there. She’s adorable and happy and he can’t imagine a world where that’s a bad thing.
“Yeah, playing the hero even when it’s not in the job description. The guy never changes.” Seriously, he’s decently sure that no matter the Psi Corp PR, actually being a hero is not actually something they encourage. Ever.
“If he didn’t care, I wouldn’t either,” Buffy points out, and, well, that’s fair enough.
Buffy/Babylon 5 AU (same as The Ushari): Agents of Chaos AU
Chapter Summary: Willow reports her results.
Word Count: 670
Rating: Teen
It’s a relief to see Willow all right, though it takes Tsandar a moment to spot her. She’s figured out that maybe floating out in the open isn’t the best idea, and planted herself on a roof. She waves energetically, but if he’s not wrong, she looks a little troubled.
“I found the files,” Willow elaborates, floating down to them. “It’s…”
She gives up trying to explain and shows them a conjured hologram of what she’d found. It’s vaguely, troublingly familiar and alien all at once. The three of them, choosing costumes, bantering, but—he’s human. Or, rather, the him that was there looks human, not Ushari. Parts are close to his own memories—he’s clearly fond of the other two, and joking around a bit. But other bits…
He clearly has an unrequited crush on Buffy, and had obviously been a jerk about it from the way she’s ‘teasing’ him. A little cruel, maybe, but if she’s trying to dissuade him like this, he’d made it necessary, somehow. Not, of course, that it made him a villain; humans, especially, weren’t particularly good at dealing with rejection, let alone juvenile ones. And she was still friends with him, and he with her, so he wasn’t just sticking around in the hopes of a relationship, and he wasn’t terrible enough to drive her away.
And it’s…he’s not, opposed, not really, to being an alien. Some Ushari would say it would count as no notable difference, being tailless with or without fur, and his best friends are human, and he was raised among the Technomages since he was a mewling kit. But, tail or not, he likes being Ushari, likes being able to contribute something different to his friends, and suddenly finding himself a completely different species would be disorienting. He discreetly rubs the fur at the back of his neck, clawed paws finding the normal implants in their usual place. He’d expected that, honestly, given that he was accessing his usual powers, but it was worth checking. He’d hate that more than anything.
“…This is the ‘missing memories’ you were able to find?” Buffy looks skeptical, admittedly within reason. Even for a Technomage, it’s well outside of anything any of them has heard of—but then, they’re all just apprentices, after all. But then, either way, someone had managed to implant foreign memories—and they’d done it for him, too, because it felt familiar—or someone had managed to change them from that memory they’d seen.
“Almost everything we’ve seen tonight is impossible. At some point, we really gotta stop using that word.” It doesn’t especially matter which of the two ‘impossible’ possibilities is the truth. Either way, they have to undo what has been done. A tall order, given what they’ve seen, but he believes in his friends. “Besides, I believe in Will.” Out of all of them, she’s taken to the powers of a Technomage the fastest. Part of it might have been that she was literally born to it, with two semi-famous Technomage researchers for parents.
“That’s true. Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply you didn’t know what you were doing.” Buffy smiles apologetically, and Willow nods with a smile. She’s not offended, which is good.
Tsandar’s ear twitches as he hears another scream, more angry than afraid, followed by a familiar voice. Perhaps his human version might not be fond of Angel, and he might even have a point about the undead being untrustworthy, but for now any familiar face is good news. “Time to move on to step two of the plan, Buffy.”
“Angel’s here?” That grin, there. She’s adorable and happy and he can’t imagine a world where that’s a bad thing.
“Yeah, playing the hero even when it’s not in the job description. The guy never changes.” Seriously, he’s decently sure that no matter the Psi Corp PR, actually being a hero is not actually something they encourage. Ever.
“If he didn’t care, I wouldn’t either,” Buffy points out, and, well, that’s fair enough.
