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

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

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?]

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"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.

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."

"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?"

"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.

Edited 2011-10-20 21:21 (UTC)

"NOT. Cool," Kenzi said through gritted teeth. "Bitch. Fucking psycho-- what the hell point does all this make? 'I'm off the freaking deep end'?"

"Something to that effect, yes," he murmured, glancing down. "It was a sort of... cry for help, I suppose?"

Wes, a word of advice from the less psycho half of the Super Slaying Duo: A cry for help is saying "help" in a loud voice.

"And you're what? 'Collateral damage'? 'Cause you turned her in to-- who the hell did you turn her in to, last time, anyway?" Kenzi had never really understood that part. "That's not a cry for help! That's not proportionate response! Jesus." Kenzi fumed a moment, then reached out very tentatively to pat Wes's arm. "What did the doctor say?"

He was just going to go ahead and answer the first part rather than the end of it, since there wasn't exactly an answer to that last bit. "I originally turned her in to the Council," he answered. "There's a, ah, group of operatives who traditionally intervene in cases like these."

And they were really fun to be around, too! Don't let anybody tell you different, Kenz!

"Wait. Wait." Kenzi called time-out. "You said it was *your* fault last time. But you gave her to the people you both worked for. How was that a mistake? And where the hell were they this time? Where has psycho-wench been?"

SO MANY QUESTIONS, KENZI.

"Well, after, ah, after everything that happened last year, she was in a coma," he explained. "In Sunnydale, which is where... that's where everything happened. Apparently, she woke up recently and decided to take her frustrations out on Angel, who is -- well, we've been working together on cases. Which is when she ran into me and another colleague of mine, and..."

Well. Guess what happened then.

"But the operatives eventually did intervene," he added, with a trace of bitterness. "Though not precisely the way we'd hoped."

Fucking Weatherby.

"So she wakes up, goes after Angel, goes after you and someone else, and-- Is anyone dead?" Legit question, given what he'd told her about Faith before. "And what did the Council dicks do?"

Look. They fired him over crap that wasn't his fault. She could judge them sight unseen. Judge them hard.

"They asked for my help," he said, which still sounded weird even to him. "They knew I had access to her, since Angel had access to her -- by this point she'd already made the decision to reform --" And his tone made it clear just how much faith, no pun intended, he had in that decision -- "and they wanted me to tranquilize her so that they could bring her to England. I told them that I would, but in actuality I helped Angel facilitate his own plans to rehabilitate her, and I somehow ended up, er, tranquilizing one of the operatives." Yeaaaah. "At which point Faith decided to, er, check herself into prison. Which is where she is, ah, now."

LOVE THE PLOT TWISTS, KENZI. LOVE THEM.

"She couldn't have decided to reform before she went after you with -- what, glass? Those look like knife or glass cuts to me." Bitch bitch motherfucking bitch.

"They were playing you," Kenzi said flatly. "And they probably would've tied you off as a loose end once they had her. Jackasses." She let out a slow breath. Then smiled. Brightly. "So! What jail is she in?"

NO REASON. AT ALL.

Wesley gave her a Look.

"Kenzi."

"What? I just want to be sure to follow her trial! There is going to be one, right? Or are they just locking her up forever and ever?" Kenzi tried to obfuscate.

~~You know, canon wasn't clear.~~

"I'll keep you informed," he told her dryly. "No need to trouble yourself."

"But I am troubled." And it wasn't even lying. Kenzi's face grew stonier. "So how much damage did she do? Hey! Raven does magical healing! Go talk to her!"

"Oh, no, that's quite all right," he said, shaking his head. "I'm feeling a bit better already, so there's no need. But thank you." Pause. "Really."

Having so many people concerned about him was... odd. But it didn't feel uncomfortable.

"You are a frustrating person," Kenzi complained. "Can't fix you, can't avenge you...." She shook a finger at him. "Don't be fighting golems!"

Scold you! Yes! She could do that.

"All right, all right," he granted, holding up his hands to show that he had no plans to fight them.

...Anymore.

"Will you be sticking around? I could find you a volume to conduct some research in."

WESLEY. KENZI WAS BEING VERY NICE TO YOU. THERE WAS NO NEED TO TORTURE HER WITH BOOKS.

Kenzi's head reared back like she'd smelled a decaying corpse. And not one she'd Febreezed at work. "Noooooooooo," she said, echoing Professor Skywalker, did she but know it. "I will be going off to order zombies around. That's the way it's supposed to be. You!" She pointed at him. "Will rest. There will be food later. Possibly pillows. And details on where Faith Lehane the Slayer is, just for safety's sake, and all that."

Wesley laughed. Oh, Kenzi. He was almost regretting comparing her to Cordelia now!

"All right," he said, amused. "Well. Thank you, Kenzi. Really. For your concern."

It probably showed that it meant a lot to him, yeah.

"You're welcome," Kenzi said, sounding grumpy. "Don't do this again."

Oh, Kenzi. ~~Joss Whedon~~ Wes couldn't make that promise.

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

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