fandomhigh | Office Hours (02/17/2006)

Xander laughed. "No, no tangos with teachers. The only person I've danced an anything with at this school would be Cally." He frowned slightly. "And possibly Bridge, if you count 'standing near each other but also near to the punchbowl while music plays in the background' as dancing, which for the record I don't."

"Good. Because I'd hate to have you breaking those particular school rules." She wrinkled her nose. "Ick. The whole teacher/student thing? Not cool, you know?" Jenny laughed. "I don't think standing near someone by the punchbowl counts as dancing with them. Unless you were both facing each other and moving along with the music, which it doesn't sound like you were doing."

Xander shook his head. "Nope. Vague bouncing, possibly, but it's Bridge; I think he'd bounce during a tax audit."

"You're not wrong," said Jenny. "So. Should we get started here? I've got one of the standard spells modified up a bit. Haven't had time to transfer it onto the computer yet, though." She frowned, slightly disappointed by that. "But then again, you're more used to traditional hocus-pocus anyway, aren't you?"

"Hey, if it does the job," Xander said, sitting up in his chair, "I'll do whichever hokey-pokey you want me to. Even if that would technically be dancing with a teacher."

"Actually, I don't need too much on your end," said Jenny, standing up and going over to her wooden box. "Just a few minutes without any sarcasm." She grinned at him. "That is possible for you, right? With an effort of willpower?"

Xander opened his mouth to say 'I think I can manage it,' but realized that was kinda sarcastic. As was, 'Okay, but do you really want to be responsible for the end of life on Earth as we know it?' and, actually, the expression he felt one of his eyebrows starting to make when he tried just keeping his mouth closed and nodding.

His fingers started with the tapping again; he stilled them with an effort, and thus distracted, managed to say, "Sure, I can do that," without any hidden snarkosis.

Wow. The one thing that could get Xander Harris to lay off the sarcasm was a magical threat. She was gonna have to remember that one for the future.

Jenny set the lid to her wooden box off to the side and pulled out a small bag of sand. She left the flash drive for the file she was converting the spell to in the box. "I already prepped the room." She nodded to the four corners of it, which had four quartz crystals set up in each corner. "You might want to close your eyes or you'll get sand in them."

Xander dutifully closed his eyes, and stretched his fingers out where they rested on his knees, just to cut off the instinct to do the opposite. He also took a deep breath, since he assumed sand in the lungs wouldn't be a party atmosphere either.

Possibly that was a little sarcastic, but at least it was just in his head.

Thankfully, Jenny wasn't telepathic. And she didn't have a built-in nonverbal snark detector. She took a deep breath and reached deep inside before she began to recite the spell.

"Thespia, we walk in shadow. We walk in blindness. You are the protector of the night. hespia, goddess," murmured Jenny quietly. "Ruler of all darkness, we implore you. Open a window to the world of the underbeing."

She poured a handful of sand out of the bag and blew it towards Xander before she finished the invocation, focusing on spells and charms, and willing any that had been cast to become visible in some way.

"With your knowledge may we go in safety. With your grace may we speak of your benevolence."

She paused, then said, "Open your eyes now, Xander."

He opened his eyes and looked at her hopefully.

"There are no spells on you," said Jenny. She held up her hand, which glinted softly where the sand had covered it. "Since I know for a fact I've got spells cast on me? We know the spell worked too."

OOC: Sorry for the long replies! I'm working around the kidlet and trying to get my computer room cleaned up.

"None?" Xander repeated, frowning. "Like nothing none, zilch, nada?"

__
{No worries!}

"Not a thing," said Jenny, brushing the sand off her fingers and onto the floor. She frowned. "That's good, though, right?"

If Xander's answer was slow in coming, it didn't lack in ~~forced~~ enthusiasm. "No, right, that's... great."

Ok, maybe it was a little lacky.

"Okay, Xander, what's wrong?" asked Jenny.

"Nothing. No, it's good. A little weird; I guess I was expecting there had to be something going on all the time, around here, but no, of course it's good. Why wouldn't it be?"

"Because you're sounding a bit like I just told you there's a death sentence hanging over your head," said Jenny. "Just a bit. Why would you want the spell to be hanging on? Is there a school choir you're looking to join that I don't know about?"

Xander grinned quickly. "Ok, you caught me. No choir, but it would've been nice to keep the ability to carry a tune in a bucket."

Jenny shook her head. "Xander, seriously," she said. "If there's something wrong, maybe you should talk about it."

"Seriously, there's nothing--" Xander cut himself off because dude, so the wrong audience for the defensive, almost-pissy tone that was coming out of his mouth. "There's nothing wrong," he said, starting again and less stridently. "Just something a little weird that I'm trying to make sense out of, and a magicky explanation would've made it a lot simpler. No big deal."

"Okay, then," said Jenny matter-of-factly. She'd been a teacher long enough to recognize the signs of teenage angst. And really? Only so much you could do without being pushy. "If you're sure you don't want to talk about it. Or that there's nothing wrong."

Re: After 6th period

soldtoarmenians - 2006-02-20 03:38 (UTC) - Expand

Re: After 6th period

romanywitch - 2006-02-20 03:45 (UTC) - Expand

Re: After 6th period

soldtoarmenians - 2006-02-20 04:24 (UTC) - Expand

Re: After 6th period

romanywitch - 2006-02-21 01:24 (UTC) - Expand

Re: After 6th period

soldtoarmenians - 2006-02-21 05:40 (UTC) - Expand

OOC: If I'm making totally the wrong call here on an emotional reaction, let me know and I'll edit. Otherwise, I'll just screen this comment in a few.

OOC: No, he's definitely disappointed and covering badly; she's reading him right. He's not going to tell Jenny why, though - the most she'll get if she pushes is that it's just something personal and wouldn't affect anybody else, no big deal, yadda yadda.

{OOC and OT - There's sub-discussion in the I-Club thread about whether it was Jenny who souled Darla - it's a little buried and I guessed you might not see it, but since Jenny's there, I figured she might want to respond and block that particular line of thought.}