all_inclusive | OPEN | did you fall from a shooting star ; one without a permanent scar

It's been awhile since Dawn has been in the hotel. She's been home, living her life, growing up. She's had two birthdays since she was last here. She's fought a few big bad's and helped save the world at least two more times. That's the thing with apocalypses in her world, they always come in the plural rather than the singular. One ends and another begins. And you can never quite see them coming until you're smack dab in the middle of one. Sometimes evil is stealthy like that.

Thwarting the destruction of the world is what got her lost in an alternate dimension in the first place. Then, as she used her key power to punch her way between worlds, she unlocked the door to the hotel and can't seem to step back out of it.

Of course, her first order of business is to check for Buffy. Some things never change. Her attachment to her sister is one of those things. No matter how old she is, no matter how many years of college she completes, she'll always be Buffy's little sister. She's accepted that. She's grown to love that. Which is why she's sad to find that Buffy isn't here anymore. She remembers her time here from before. Buffy had been here then. Now Dawn's alone.

After a quick shower and change of clothes in the room that she used to share with her sister, she makes her way downstairs to the cafe to grab some food (she's starving, okay?) and then to the library where she used to work beforehand because books make almost all things better. Maybe she can get her job back. She does get her job back. Then she checks out a book.

She makes her way out into the gardens and sits in the grass. She opens her book and gets lost in another world.

Occasionally, one might find her concentrating very, very hard, trying to get her key power to work, trying to see a thinning of the veils between dimensions and punch her way through it. There are no portals here, not that she can see, not like what she could see in the other hell-ish dimensions. She's as stuck as anyone.

Yeah, reading is good.

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"Is Cinna a person? Your person?" It might seem like a silly question, but Dawn wants to be sure about things.

She's never really thought about how difficult it would be to have a conversation without words. Dawn is a gabbing gabber who gabs a lot. She relies on her ability to string words, sometimes too many words, together. A lot of times it soothes her nerves to just spew words out into the void.

A conversation without speaking breaks everything down to the most simple of terms. It slows everything down, including Dawn's gabbing. It's strange for her to slow that part of her down.

That's nice, that way of putting it. Grey nods, smiling just a bit. Yes. Cinna is his person and he is Cinna's.

He presses his hand over his heart; he loves Cinna - Cinna, in fact, taught him what it was to love. Cinna taught him most everything that wasn't on the train. Sometimes, Grey would - and still does - get discouraged - there is still so much to learn and he's not sure his mind can hold it all. But Cinna - his person - makes it easier, better. Good.

He doesn't ask if Dawn has a person. He doesn't want to make her feel more lonely than she might already. Perhaps she'll find a person here? He doesn't know.

The act of pressing his hand over his heart is touching. It speaks volumes and in a language that Dawn can understand. She smiles again and nods. Grey loves Cinna. That's what she gets out of that and it's probably the only thing she needs to get.

"That's sweet. I don't think I've met her... or him. I mean, I've only been back here for a hot minute but I don't remember anyone named Cinna from the last time I was here either." Dawn says.

She doesn't remember Grey either. And she's such a busybody that she gets in most everybody's business before all is said and done. She would have known and remembered Grey and Cinna.

"How long have you two been together?" She asks.

If she needs clothes, Grey knows that Dawn should go to Cinna. But how does he convey that without words? He tugs lightly at what he's wearing, watching Dawn's face. Does she understand? He even mimes stitching on what he's wearing. Cinna makes clothing. If that helps her to know who he is.

Now, to the question at hand: he has to think about that. He's not great with dates, because on the train it didn't matter. But he raises one finger. One year? Perhaps a bit more. Here and in Teleios, but he doesn't even try to explain that.

It takes her a minute. Dawn isn't great at guessing games when it comes to people. This is just proving to her how much she relies on words. She wonders if Grey knows sign language. She knows the alphabet of sign language if not any more than that.

What she finally gets from it is that either Grey or Cinna, maybe both, are fashionistas. Cinna might be seamstress. Dawn isn't super fashionable but it's good to know that Grey's girlfriend might can set her up if she needs it.

"I promise to keep an eye out for Cinna." She tells him. "One year is a super long time. At least I think so. So that's cool."

Dawn tilts her head, pausing and finally letting her curiosity get the best of her before continuing. "Do you know sign language?"

OPEN | did you fall from a shooting star ; one without a permanent scar

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