onepassingnight | (no subject)

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[New York City is all around him, a mixture of loud noise and constant movement. He's standing in the middle of the sidewalk, holding a piece of paper and scanning the crowd.

And there she is.]

Kate! [He starts running after her, pushing people aside as he goes.] Kate, wait!

[He runs faster and faster, following her through the streets, darting into alleys and making sharp turns but he can never quite reach her, no matter how fast he goes.

His lungs are burning, his legs ache but he keeps moving, taking another quick turn and nearly crashing into a brick wall.

A wall. A wall with no other exits in immediate view and too high to climb.]

...Kate?

[He looks around, expression momentarily helpless.]

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[He looks around, staring at the sudden change of scenery in momentary shock. Then he collects himself and laughs.

A dream. It was just a dream.

Wow. This is definitely a little morbid but I guess it's better than my dream. [He walks around, peering behind gravestones and prodding the general area.] So do you come to graveyards often or...<[He laughs]<<

Yeah, not really a good way to answer that when the answer's yes, is it? [she says wryly, a little self-conscious as she trails after him. There's artful fog drifting across the ground between the headstones, the air pleasantly warm as it's California.]

I guess if it's a dream, I might as well tell you... there's a lot of vampires in my town, and I try to help get rid of them. Cemeteries are kind of a hot spot for them. [She does more than that these days, and more than 'try', too, but Willow doesn't want to get into that.]

Vampires? [He turns to look at her, a mixture of confusion and amusement on his face.] You're not kidding, are you?

Sadly not. [Willow's had this conversation a couple times before, so she takes his disbelief with aplomb.] It's not a fun thing to prove, either, so you can write it off as a dream or think I'm crazy if you want. It doesn't matter much here.

I'm probably going to do that, yeah. <[He laughs a little.] Though you do get points for rational thought. [He starts poking around the graveyard, peering around and studying the names on the tombstones.]

So I take it they aren't very friendly. [He says it with a slight smile.}

I try for the rational, [she answers wryly.] But no, not friendly at all. They're more on the luring you into isolated places and killing you type.

[It occurs to her that the one exception to that is actually around, and she adds,] There is one exception, which is Angel. If you meet him hanging around, he's okay. A little on the broody side, but not murderous.

[He nods] I'll keep that in mind if I ever...run into one. [This conversation is drifting into the realm of ridiculous but he thinks he's okay with that.]

So, I hate to be the one to point this out but isn't this a decent hunting ground for them? It's isolated and strikes me as a pretty good place to go looking for victims if I were a vampire.

Oh, well, yes, but it's my dream. I'll leave the vampires out, I promise. [She smiles at him to take the edge off the conversation, propping herself against a nearby headstone. She's been here so often the creepiness of it has worn off.]

You're taking this pretty well.

I had my suspicions, now they're just confirmed. [He smiles at her.] Bisides, it could be worse. We're not in someone's nightmare, right?

[After a pause, he decides to ask her something else.]< Will you teach me to do what you just did? TO change dreams like that? I know we've barely just met but it seems like a pretty handy skill set.

I... have some experience that makes it a little easier for me than most, but we can give it a shot. At least the basics.

Probably good for getting yourself out of a nightmare if you ever end up in one some day. Anyway, this might seem like a funny question, but have you ever meditated before?

[He smiles gratefully] I can't say that I have. It's not really thing. I'm starting to get the feeling that it's not going to stay that way though.

[She grins, a touch apologetically.] Yeah, controlling dreams has a lot to do with controlling the subconscious, and there's no real shortcuts for that. It takes concentration and tediousness.

[He laughs a little Well I can do concentration and tediousness, I've just never focused it on meditation. I'm sure it'll be an...interesting experience.

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