Reserves Meeting, Danger Shop, Thursday Afternoon (After Classes)

[glacial_queen]

The members of the Reserves had been handwavily notified to meet in the Danger Shop for today's meeting. Regretfully, this did mean no food or drinks for yet another week, but there was a lot of fancy and expensive equipment in the room and none of the leaders really felt comfortable with the possibility of paying for it if someone accidentally spilled.

Or, worse yet, if something Karla baked touched the machinery. Sparks and melting, people. Sparks and melting.

"Kiss kiss," Karla said, as everyone assembled in the hallway. "Today we're undertaking an exercise that will have all of us working together. If you'll follow us inside?" She opened the doors to the Danger Shop and everyone stepped into...

...yet another hallway. This one should be familiar to most of the students; it was the hallway that led to the library; the library doors stood open and welcoming--though it was possible for the sharp-eyed to notice they looked...flimsier...than usual.

"Sometimes, things can go wrong at this school," Dolf continued. "And it isn't so quickly solved with just one way of looking at things. Some things you have to beat up, some things you have to outsmart. Most of us know what we are good at by now, don't we?"

He smiled encouragingly at those gathered. Well. Sort of encouragingly. He was a little nervous, if you knew where to look.

"Not to say that it's necessarily exclusive by person," Wesley added, as a member of the camp that did both. (Though his credibility was hurt somewhat by how beat-up he looked. Oops.) "You're welcome to try any number of strategies."

"The important thing to keep in mind is teamwork," Karla said. "Working together and making sure--"

Whatever else Karla was going to say was rudely interrupted by three of the doors at the far end of the hallway slamming open--hard enough to embed their knobs into the walls. Out of each door walked a giant, man-shaped creature made of what looked like hardened clay. Seeing the clustered students, the creatures turned towards them and slowly ambled forwards, each footstep ending in hairline cracks in the floor.

Good luck, guys.

[OCD up, please read Important notes! Of course, everything there is OOC knowledge that needs to be figured out ICly. So feel free to whale on these guys for awhile, okay?]

Comments

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley was off to the side, watching. He felt a bit bad about the fact that there were only, oh, what... two or three people here for martial reserves, if that? So he would probably try to help out at some point.

Ill-advised as it was.

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[glacial_queen]

He could totally do that!

...After Karla pounced on him, of course.

"What the Hell happened to you?" she asked. "Are you okay? Should you even be here?"

Welcome to being friends with Karla, Wes. In addition to all the cookies you never wanted, you got fussed over.

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair, he should have expected the fussing. This was Karla, after all.

"Oh, I just, er. Went to Los Angeles for a few days," he said, his tone as casual as that of someone talking about a fun vacation. "Really, it's nothing to trouble yourself with."

...yeaaaah, that hadn't worked on Katniss either.

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[glacial_queen]

Karla gave him a look. "I'm a Healer," she reminded him. "If I wanted to, I could inventory all of your injuries and whatever. Also, you look like Hell."

So full of compliments, this girl.

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"So I've heard," Wesley said, a bit dryly. Then he sighed, preparing himself to go into it again. "All right. Ah... have I ever told you about what I used to do before I came here?"

He hoped so. The story was kind of incredibly long.

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[glacial_queen]

"Not in so many words," Karla said. "I know you're one of those Watcher people? Kennedy mentioned that, I think."

She eyed him. "I'd like to know how watching made you look like that, though."

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wonderful.

"Well, the Watchers' Council works as follows," he began, and then proceeded to launch into what was surely a convoluted and difficult-to-follow explanation of a system that, to be honest, was not very well-organized in the first place. He then went into a basic overview of his time in Sunnydale, managing to be both completely ungenerous to both Buffy and Faith in his descriptions of them and fairly critical of his own actions during that time, and finally wrapped it all up with the story of what had happened in Los Angeles.

...yeah, sorry, Karla. He could get a bit wordy sometimes.

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[glacial_queen]

Karla was just going to sit back for a second to process that explanation. That had been a lot of words. A lot. She was starting to understand what it might be like for people sometimes when they asked her about Kaeleer.

"Wait--huh? Could you go back and go over that middle part again?"

...No, she'd gotten it all (thanks in not small part to previous conversations with Kennedy,) but sometimes Karla enjoyed being a brat.

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Oh, right, Sunnydale," he said, beginning to launch into another WALL OF WORDS. "Well, having two Slayers was unprecedented, as I said, and -- "

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[glacial_queen]

"I was teasing!" Karla interrupted, holding up a hand to try and stem the word-tide. "Seriously. Just teasing. I get it."

She looked up at him. "Especially that part with Faith. The one that has you looking..." She looked him up and down. "Like that."

Karla'd taken a class with Faith. She knew what kind of skills (and strength and speed) the other female could bring to bear. "Serious question. Are you okay? Not physically."

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"I... yes?" And there was an actual smile quirking at his mouth there. "I wasn't, er, initially, but now... yes, I think so. Possibly."

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[glacial_queen]

Karla was just going to raise an eyebrow at him. "Is this one of those things I'd do better not to ask about?"

She had heard radio today, after all.

"In that case, how about physically?"

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Not terribly," he replied, smiling. "I, ah, well. Katniss took care of some of the, ah, cuts."

Hey, look, there was that tiny little smile again! Wonder what that could mean?

"Really, there's nothing to bother yourself with."

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi had heard Radio. Kenzi had been peeved that Wes hadn't returned messages before, but now...

Tracking down Reserves had taken a bit of effort, but now she was here. Pointing at him. "What? What? What is this!"

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

WHY WAS HE BEING BOMBARDED WITH K-GIRLS?

"Er." Pause. "Golem invasion?"

Wesley. Really, now.

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Bullshit," left Kenzi's lips so fast it was nearly unintelligible. "You came back injured from L.A. What happened? You didn't return my calls! That's not you! You are Responsible Man!"

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Huh. Charging his phone would've been a good idea. Three days ago.

"Is everything all right?" he asked in concern, demonstrating some truly supreme cluelessness.

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi would have whapped him, but he looked like he might fall over if she did. "We were supposed to do gun stuff on Sunday!" She took a second to try and calm down, and said, "And I'm fine, you look like you got hit by a bus. Why aren't you in bed?"

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Yes, Kenzi. Lament the missed gun lesson. That was the issue here.

"Well," he said, maybe looking a bit shifty. This really was a terrible excuse. "I am one of the leaders."

See? That totally justified being out here instead of resting! Totally!

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"I will torture this out of you if you don't quit being sneaky," Kenzi threatened. "Hip-hop! Or ska! Zombie punk music!"

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley flinched slightly at that t-word and then ducked his head, which might possibly give Kenzi a clue about what the issue was here.

Damnit, Faith.

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Hey, I was kidding," Kenzi said, voice immediately getting quieter. "I wouldn't--" She stared at him, then got closer to look. "Okay, forget what. Tell me who."

Because this was not 'oops, I feel down the stairs' and she was beginning to think there was no bus involved.

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Of course he hadn't really thought she was being serious with the threat, but that word wasn't exactly tied with the happiest memories for him right now. Sorry for the dramatics, Kenzi.

Very, very softly, he admitted, "Faith."

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Crazy killer Slayer chick?" Kenzi blinked, staring. Especially at the deeper cuts on his jaw and the bruises she could see. She swallowed. "She beat the crap out of you? Revenge?"

Re: Talk to the Leaders

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"No, it was... more about making a point to someone else," he said quietly. And he wasn't even sure what to think of that, though it had occured to him that he might have been overblowing his own significance in the matter of Faith's issues.

You know, maybe.