[Voice/Action]

[flickerflash]

[This is a very comfy forest, really.  The sunlight's warm, and Katie curls up near a fallen branch and near faceplants into a patch of new spring flowers and waits for Snow White to maybe come dancing through her dreams, or Bambi, or maybe a couple rebel fighters on an awesome speeder bike chase that she can help with.  Ewoks, even.  Look, it's her dream, okay.   She'll will one of these things into existence if she can manage it.

It takes her a long while to realise she's not actually sleeping, and that's ... a little concerning.  Because to her knowledge she doesn't make a habit of going to sleep anywhere other than her very cozy bed, and she doesn't remember why she'd be out here. 

Sleepwalking.  All the way out here?  Kidnapped.  Her parents aren't rich.  By aliens.  That's a little better, but still kind of worrying.  There's a distinct level of nervous settling over her now because she's entirely alone in the middle of a place she doesn't recognise, and she's just not adventurous enough to want to be out here without any obvious way of getting home.

It's not her fault, is it?   She can't get into trouble if it's not her fault.  (Is today a school day?)

It's when she staggers upright, still yawning, that her foot catches on the edge of something and she thumps back down to earth with a startled sound, turning to glare at whatever she'd touched (why are her feet bare?), and stares at the journal lying in the grass with her name stencilled on the front.  And Katie reaches for it, because if it has her name maybe it has an explanation, and... the sight of it touches off muzzy memories of its own.  Familiar, somehow.

So she opens it.

Oh.  She knows what this is.]

[Voice]

...hello?

Comments

[herotypical]

I could tell you about the, uhm, Gentlemen. They roll into a town and steal everyone's voice -- so no one can scream.

[ this is a terrible story to tell a child. ]

[flickerflash]

[I think the word you're looking for there is awesome.]

Really...?

Do they not like loud noise, or were they going to kill everyone?

[herotypical]

...Carve out everyone's hearts, actually. O-or, just seven of everyone's hearts.

[flickerflash]

[...o-okay, not so awesome. Eep.]

Why just seven?

[herotypical]

It's one of those...numbers, y'know. That crop up a lot in the eerie and unnatural. Like three.

[flickerflash]

And thirteen! [She nods sagely.] So what happened?

[herotypical]

Well -- one day? Everyone in Sunnydale woke up with a severe case of...having no voice.

[flickerflash]

I hope nobody had a play on that day.

[herotypical]

Or a class presentation. Like I did.

[flickerflash]

[Blink. Wait--]

You were there? [She's torn between horror and sheer skepticism. Maybe Buffy's having her on.]

[herotypical]

...Who do you think had to stop them, huh?

[flickerflash]

[...wow.]

So how did you stop them?

[herotypical]

First, we had to figure out what was happening. Like I said -- heart-stealers. They managed to get six. And we were really wondering what the heck we were gonna do...I mean, how to scream a baddie to death when you can't talk? How do you even find them?

The floated, Katie. Their feet off the ground. Silent. Yeuugh. Gross. And they only came out at night.

[ ...someone stop her dear lord. ]

[flickerflash]

[NEVER. This is horrifying and Katie thinks it's fantastic. Or at least she will until she tries to sleep later on.] Couldn't you just chop their heads off? How come you had to scream at them?

[herotypical]

Actually? Screaming made their heads explode so it's sorta, like, same-diff, y'know?

[flickerflash]

So how did you get your voice back?

[herotypical]

I wasn't alone, for one. And the Gentlemen kept all our voices in a little wooden box. I knew it when I saw it because I'd already seen it in...[ oh, she's a young girl. what would it harm her to share this one fact with her? ] A dream. Slayers can do that sometimes, you see.

So it was just a case of smashing open the box and letting our voices go.

[flickerflash]

It sounds just like a fairy tale. [Well, a really scary one.] So you screamed and all their heads exploded?

[herotypical]

Yep. And that was the end of them -- they couldn't go and torment any other towns.

[flickerflash]

That's good! That's really, really good!

...they wouldn't ever come here, would they?

[herotypical]

I believe the odds of them and all their henchmen showing up at once are pretty slim, yeah.

[flickerflash]

And even if they did, you know how to beat them anyway.

[But you know, just in case. She might sleep with a nightlight tonight.]

[herotypical]

That's right. They wouldn't stand a chance.

[flickerflash]

You must be pretty strong. Do you meet many monsters?

[herotypical]

All kinds. More so back at home, really. The Slayer has more than just vampires to deal with.