The weight of the just-corporeal weapon was fully apparent, with the bulky heft of the revolver on the brink of dragging down Xander's fingers curled around the inlaid pieces of ivory attached to both sides of the pistol stock. Under his touch, these cream-colored embellishments felt as equally tangible as the rest of the entire object which had now impossibly appeared from out of thin air.
"Yeowp!" Xander blurted out at once.
The seated teenager instinctively flinched away from what he was holding in his hand. Except...while the rest of his upper torso jerked backwards against the library chair, this young man's right hand still firmly clutching the gun stayed immobile. That resulted in Xander's arm abruptly being fully straightened out, with him continuing to unwaveringly point the revolver ahead at the bookshelves beyond.
Frozen motionless in the chair, Xander gawked at what he was gripping without the slightest quiver in his fingers. A very awed voice then spoke in his mind, *Well, fuck me sideways. Kid, right now, I can feel my gun and everything else! It's the first time I've been able to touch anything since you took over! Lemme see now...*
With growing incredulity, Xander watched the revolver then be moved from side to side and also up and down, with the barrel muzzle shifting to aim at various different books on the library shelves. All this was done by the easy flexing of his wrist, followed by Xander's entire right arm next swinging around in its full range of motion to cover the width of the room. This culminated in the revolver returning to its original position of steadily pointing straight ahead over the library table.
Right after, the boy's thumb lifted itself up, just before pressing down to expertly cock back the weapon's hammer. A matching display of proficient dexterity restored the hammer to its safe position. This was finished by Xander's thumb returning to join the rest of his fingers gripping the pistol stock.
At no time during any of these recent actions had the son of Tony and Jessica Harris actually ordered his body to carry out whatever it'd just inexplicably done. Rather, those very same muscles, joints, and bones were operating quite nicely under another's skillful control.
In an admittedly reasonable quaver, Xander stammered, "Wh- what the hell's going on?"
This produced a pretty acerbic mental snort. *Like I said before, how the fuck should I know? Far's I can tell, when ya put our yer hand a second ago, I just thought of my gun in it - and there it was! Now it feels the same way it did when I was in my own skin, or even when I was in yer body last night...*
Rooster trailed off in mid-sentence at the sudden realization shared with Xander, who himself groaned out loud, "Your gun was part of the Halloween magic then, too! How else could it never run out of bullets or make all those impossible shots? So, the leftover bit of the Chaos spell which kept you around in my head also magically brought along your gun - and when you've got it out, you're back in charge of my body!"
*Shit, kid, ya probably hit the nail right on the head,* Rooster remarked thoughtfully. His next words caused Xander to turn a bit pale, *'Course, there's an easy way to find out if that's really true.*
The teenage male in his library chair now stood up from it, to next enthusiastically start striding around the room. During all this activity in the Sunnydale High library, a young man also vigorously tried out his newfound quickness and ability as best as he could in the area's limited clear spaces. Short sprints combined with sideways jumps were performed, along with dropping into a crouch and darting behind various items of furniture. Throughout everything, at no point did a high school student let go of the revolver he was carrying. Instead, this gun was continuously aimed at numerous imaginary enemies, to then be swung over at the next make-believe foe.
Eventually, Xander was back to standing in front of the library table, breathing a little hard due to all his recent exertions.
"Are you done?" then came from his mouth in a rather sour tone, unquestionably because of the truly unnerving experience of again having his body thoroughly manipulated by someone else for the last couple of minutes.
*Yeah- Hey, wait. How come ya can talk, but I can't? Hold on...naw, didn't work that time either.*
Taken aback by this question, Xander unconsciously tried to look down at his mouth. He couldn't do this, or even move any other part of his face now being controlled by Rooster. Staring straight ahead, Xander inwardly frowned, before admitting, "Beats me, fella. It might just be a weird part of the whole mojo stuff. I mean, remember when your gun showed up, and I flinched? That's the only time lately I managed to move on my own. In case you missed it, I tried to butt in on your latest round of Xander-puppet fun, with me having as much luck as you did in moving my lips to chat."
*Huh. That's damn strange. Mebbe ya got away with moving 'cause I wasn't expecting it? I didn't feel ya trying the other times, too. Look, I'm...thinking about turning it off. See if ya can do it now.*
Xander stood like a statue for several seconds, only to soon grumble, "Still no joy, mister. I'm warning you, if this is some sort of trick to take over-"
*Hey!* Rooster indignantly protested. He went on in the same annoyed tone, *It ain't anything I'm doing, so quit yer bellyaching!*
With that grumpy rejoinder, Xander felt his head being tilted down and his gaze narrow at the weapon being expertly handled in his grip. This was quickly followed by a somewhat surprised aside, *Naw, it can't be that easy!*
Just when he was about to open his mouth to demand Rooster explain what this inner person had just mentioned, Xander felt his body move again. He watched how after taking one step forward, next came a careful placing of the lawman's pistol onto its side upon the library table.
An instant later, after letting go of the gun, Xander yelped an astonished, "Urk!" with this startled grunt being accompanied by an all-over shudder when he all of a sudden regained control of his body. Frantically patting his chest while doing a few nervous steps back and forth along the edge of the table, Xander was too preoccupied with reassuring himself nobody but him was now firmly in charge, until he got distracted by a bemused request.
*Hey, kid, take a gander at my gun.*
Xander suspiciously eyed that indicated spot on the library table, only to have his jaw drop at the empty space where an all-too-solid revolver should have been there. He said doubtfully, "I wasn't paying attention. What'd it do, disappear right away when I stopped touching it?"
*Yep. Okay, stick out yer hand just like last time, so's we can see if I can put it in there again.*
Promptly shoving both hands in his pants pockets instead, Xander snorted, "Oh, yeah, you got to be kidding me!"
*Why the fuck-? Jesus, youngster, ya figure I'm gonna go running around in yer body full time, don't ya?*
A very sullen nod was given by Xander in response to that exasperated question from Rooster Cogburn. In turn, the marshal stayed quiet for a few moments, until he sternly announced, *All right, it's time to clear the air between us. We gotta settle this for once and all. Now, I haveta say, I'd really much rather be in my own flesh and blood body what I been using my whole life, or even in yours, than floating somewheres in yer head. It ain't all that wonderful, ya hear?*
"My heart truly bleeds for you," Xander muttered sarcastically under his breath.
Rooster growled back, *Watch yer mouth, kid. Now, it looks like I ain't leavin' anytime soon, so we're both gonna just haveta live with it. Here's the deal. Long as I'm in yer head, I'll behave politely like a guest in somebody's home. That means no snooping around, wrecking the place, waking up the other folks in the house after a good time on the town while serenadin' 'em all the way to bed. That kinda stuff, all right?*
Despite himself, Xander felt his lips twitch upwards a fraction. He nevertheless warily asked, "And what do you get in return?"
*First, ya seriously knock off the sass, kid. If I'm gonna be civil, ya damn well better act the same way to me.*
The young man standing in the library thought this over for a few moments. The guy inside his head definitely had a point, and it'd really make things easier for them both if Xander just for once dialed back a bit his usual snarky attitude towards any sort of authority figure. This soon produced, "Okay, fair enough. But if we're going to start out that way, let's do it right. My name's Xander, not kid or youngster or anything else like that. I'll respect you if you respect me."
A mental chuckle came, followed by, *Yer learnin', Xander. Me, my paw handed onto me his own father's name of Reuben, but I never cared for it. Call me Rooster, like everybody did since I proved to the other boys my first day of school there that I was for damn sure the cock of the walk.*
"Yeah, I bet," grinned Xander in turn. He quickly became more serious with, "All right, Rooster, you said 'first' a second ago. What else do we need to talk about?"
There was a short pause until Rooster carefully said, *The whole problem between us of who controls this body. Now, the way I see it, mosta the time yer gonna be in charge, naturally. I got no problem with that. But ya haveta admit, I done pretty well takin' care of yer friends tonight when I was at the reins. From what ya said before, how crazy this town is with all the magic and weird critters in this place, even more'n what went on in the last coupla hours, I could definitely be useful when ya need a hand.*
Xander frowned thoughtfully into the distance. Rooster's argument was again undeniable. Still, that didn't mean all the issues of having his body occasionally under the influence of a certain foul-mouthed, belligerent old guy with no experience whatsoever of the 20th century were promptly going to disappear. For one, there was what looked like an insurmountable difficulty which had already presented itself earlier tonight.
"No booze," flatly stated Xander.
*What?*
The young man in the library repeated himself in a quite steely tone, "You don't ever drink when it's you in the driver's seat again, understand?"
Inside his host's mind, Rooster was taken aback to a considerable degree. He disbelievingly began, "Why not-? Please tell me you didn't sign the pledge!"
Now it was Xander's turn to utter a confused, "Huh?"
*Do they call it something different here now? It means some meddling preacher or women's temperance group talked ya into abstaining from demon rum in order to save yer soul, like a little drop of whiskey on a cold night is really gonna piss off the Almighty at ya-*
"My mom and dad are drunks!" snarled Xander.
At the sudden startled silence in his head, the high school student went on bitterly, "I grew up with empty bottles all over the place at home, never bringing my friends over because I didn't want them to see, and the occasional punch or slap from Tony! Mom just drifts along in a walking stupor, except when she sobers up a little and then tries to act all maternal, until she dives back into her glass of gin! When you poured the entire contents of Mrs. Summers' liquor cabinet into me last night, it was the first time in my whole life I ever even tasted the stuff that wrecked my family!"
