Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part III

[bigdamnprincipal]

Amazingly enough, this part of the lawn looked pretty clear. For the moment, at least.

[Welcome to the third post, for more general chatting. This part of the picnic is going on at the same time as the previous two posts. Feel free to continue the conversations you've already started in those posts, and make new threads there if your browser isn't crashing yet, but otherwise, if you want to make a new thread come on in here.]

Comments

Re: More General Chatting

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"Anathema Device." Anathema offered a hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Re: More General Chatting

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Willow Rosenberg," Willow said, taking Anathema's hand and shaking it. "Nice to meet you too. So when and where are you from?"

Might as well get these things covered right off the bat, Willow figured.

Re: More General Chatting

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"Liverpool. It's in England, north of London." Anathema explained helpfully. "And I'm from now?"

Re: More General Chatting

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"2007?" Willow asked. Because you had to check that sort of thing.

Re: More General Chatting

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"Of course." Anathema confirmed. "September 1st. Are there students not from 2007 here?"

Re: More General Chatting

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Yep." Willow nodded. "Some are from a handful of years before like myself. Others are decades before, some are centuries before, others are way in the future. And that's not even getting into the issue of varying species."

Re: More General Chatting

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

Anathema considered this for a minute. "How do they get here?"

Re: More General Chatting

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Magic?" Willow said. "I mean not officially. Not everyone. But Fandom's sort of everywhere and nowhere. It makes for a good student exchange program except for how as far as I know we don't send any of our students elsewhere."

Re: More General Chatting

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"So its sort of like an intersection or concentration of a lot of key-lines?" Anathema produced as a theory. "Only with places instead of energy?"

Re: More General Chatting

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Yes!" Willow said. Her face lit up with a smile. "You speak Giles in ways beyond your accent. Are you a Watcher?"

Re: More General Chatting

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"Giles is British?" Anathema guessed. "I like watching people?"

Re: More General Chatting

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Giles is British," Willow confirmed. "Not the same part of Britian as you, but large with the tea and its needs for properness. As for the watching - does the phrase 'vampire slayer' mean anything to you? Like as a form of Oh my Gosh you know about that too?!? style recognition and not a game of determining the meaning of the words via their makeup and context, though that is fun too and could be done later if you liked."

Re: More General Chatting

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"I'm going to go for the game of determining the meaning of words." Anathema said. "Even if I knew what a vampire slayer - and I'm assuming it's someone who slays vampires - I still find it a fun game. For instance, my name means banished one and you're a tree. By vampires, do you mean people with a genetic allergy to the sun? Because it's not correct to kill people just because their DNA gave them an unusual allergy."

Re: More General Chatting

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Absolutely not," Willow said. "Unless some of them are evil, which everyone has the capacity to be. Especially vampires of the type that I'm thinking of which is to say folks who've undergone a traumatic sharp tooth plus dual blood sucking experience, which is why they are now soulless demonic evil things who have to be killed on sight except for Angel who has a soul and who is much nicer if broodier than Seely who looks like Angel but isn't."

Re: More General Chatting

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

Anathema worked through all of that. "While you could argue that some people have a genetic pre-disposition towards evil, yeah, everyone does have the capacity to be both. So you're talking about real vampires, except Angel - or was that an angel? - and people who look alike?" She paused. "I think we need diagrams."

Re: More General Chatting

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"I've got a spreadsheet!" Willow told her.

Re: More General Chatting

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"Does it explain all the different types of vampires and which ones can be slayed?" Anathema asked. "I keep meaning to make a spreadsheet for The Book, especially when I found out that Dad wasn't going to let me bring it with me."

Re: More General Chatting

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Depends on the sheet," Willow said. "There's the Sunnydale section and the Fandom section, which does have some overlap which is why I've been translating some of it into a wiki. Which book? Have you tried scanning it? I've found that can be useful for speed but one does have to take care not to release demons over the internet. Or, I guess, for that matter anywhere else but the internet seems to be where they like going if you've scanned them into a computer with a good net connection, though I've also been working on a firewall to stop that."

Re: More General Chatting

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"Can I see the sheets and the wiki?" Anathema asked. "And it's the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter. Nice in this case means scrupulously exact. She's an ancestor of mine. You can release a demon over the internet by scanning a book?" She paused and back-peddled. "We're working with the assumption that demons are real."

Re: More General Chatting

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Oh they are," Willow said. "Though some of them are nice in the sense of being good friends with no comment on their exactness, and others are evil in the senes of being like vampires who aren't Angel what with the soullessness. Though that doesn't come up as often here as it did back home, since so far Fandom does not seem to be on top of a Hellmouth like Sunnydale."

Re: More General Chatting

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

Anathema processed all of this. "Where is Sunnydale? You keep mentioning it and now I'm not sure if I really want to visit or stay far away. So what defines a demon then?"

Re: More General Chatting

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"California," Willow said. "Do you know Los Angeles? It's a few hours north of there. Very nice if you don't mind the Apocalypses. And demons come in all sorts of types, so I suppose we could start out by saying they are a kingdom unto themselves and breaking it down from there. Giles has all sorts of useful books on the subject. He's got a shop in town and some of the books are out front and others are in the back section that you can't get to unless he's not looking."

Re: More General Chatting

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"What's the name of the shop? And there are ways of making sure a person isn't looking." She said confidently. "Of course it would be near Los Angeles. Is there a chart linking all the various types of demons? The Book says there will be a Demon in the end, it would be nice - not in the accurate sense - to know what he looks like."

Re: More General Chatting

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"The Magic Shop," Willow said. "Giles is many things, but imaginative is none of them. And did it give any hints as to type? Maybe a color, or a size? Are we maybe looking at something in the realm of a large snake?"

Re: More General Chatting

[practicaldevice.livejournal.com]

"What kind of magic?" Anathema perked up. Even more. "It just said that an Angel and a Demon would be there. Agnes was very accurate. And I suppose it could be a large snake."