open ♔ june/july castle socialization

[wynn]

WHO || Everyone! [ota]
WHAT || Shenanigans.
WHERE || Anywhere in the castle, surrounding environs, London, etc!
WHEN || Any time after June 7th  
HOW || Actionspam

[ The castle can be a happening place, even on more mundane days. This log is for random interactions over the course of these few months. Because not everyone is into parties, ok.   

You are encouraged to start your own threads and tag around, and feel free to threadjack into any on-going threads that aren't specified as 'closed' in the subject lines since people can enter into rooms even in the middle of what's going on. WE ARE BIG ON THREAD-JACKING HERE. You can also specify 'single thread', meaning you want only one response for all participants, rather than multi-thread, where a number of different scenes/threads can be done as replies to the top prompt.]

On this log:

Rafael, Buffy, Des & Wynn | Closed
Frankie & Lis'sa | Closed
Taradiddle @ the desk
Lydia @ the desk
Abigail @ the desk 
Adam @ the desk
Bambi @ the desk
Rebekah @ the desk
Dawn @ the desk
Adi @ the desk 
Stiles @ the desk
Felicity @ the desk
Will @ the desk
Han @ the garage
Ric @ the bars.  all of them.  also dragon's hoard lab.
Team NYC | Closed
Lila @ the kitchen/castle grounds
Kate B. @ castle grounds / training room
Aedan @ training / woods / common areas
Frankie @ front desk / garage / various
Maxwell @  rec room / training room / castle bar / forest
Will @ firing range / pond / castle grounds
Sven @ the woods
Adam @ library / firing range / London
Jaime @ castle tavern / training room / stables
Hook @ castle grounds / bar
Jack & Christos @ the training room
Damon @ the castle bar / castle grounds / woods / London / library
Sean @ castle ground / jumping out a window
Des @ the woods
Kate @ training / shooting range / castle grounds
Vi @ her room / bathrooms / pantry / dragon's light wing / firing range
Francesca @ training room / bar
Francesca & Val'drin | Closed
Kenzi @ training room
Lila & Bambi | Closed
Spike @ training room
Lissa @ foyer / Dragon's light wing / garden
Andrew @ his birthday!
Buffy @ Rafael's room / firing range / training room / dining hall
Francesca, Will, & Max | Closed
Faith @ Kitchen / London bars
Abigail & Will | Closed
Des | Dragon's Light wing
Jackson | Train station / training room / garage
Klaus | Bar / garden

Comments

[bigbad]

[Spike's been looking for Buffy ever since Des gave him that casual summery of their Italian adventure. When he comes across her in the bloody firing range of all places, he's suddenly less surprised he had trouble finding her. And very surprised she's there at all.]

Since when have you used guns?

[slay]

Since I realized I can't very well Stretch Armstrong my fists into people's faces from long range.

[ Slightly defensive. The real answer is, of course, since she lost her strength and was fucking terrified. Since humans can take that away from her and humans are what they're fighting most. ]

[bigbad]

How much long range do you even do?

[slay]

Every time we leave this castle, we get shot at. I'd like to be able to shoot back.

[ She pulls back the slide on the gun to clear the chamber, dropping the empty magazine with some slight frustration. It's not second nature to her yet like it is for Rafael and Des. ]

When we were in Italy ...

[bigbad]

Des mentioned that. [He frowns at her for a moment, then glances down at the target.] Be nice if we could go five bloody minutes without someone getting kidnapped. Makes RSVPing to events hell. [Not that he's been attending that many of the castle's frequent parties, lately, or had been one for RSVPing instead of just popping in when he did.]

[slay]

Of course he did.

[ Because Des is a compulsive narcissist. It's not that Buffy doesn't want to tell them, but she can see that Vi's hurting and that there are more important things than what Iscariot's doing. She doesn't want to stress them out with what came of the trip to Italy when it's all periphery, from her perspective, to the issue at hand: Sarandis. ]

Look, I wasn't — You know I wasn't trying to hide it.

[bigbad]

[He looks over at her, expression conflicted. He wasn't going to say it, but he had wondered. This team keeps a lot of secrets. It's hard not to suspect motives.]

I had wondered why I heard it from him. Didn't you think I'd want to know?

[slay]

Vi just lost her husband. Thousands of Shadowkind in New York walked themselves into the Hudson on the bad guys' orders. It didn't really feel like the right time to be worrying about Iscariot. Not while we've got Andres to look forward to. One Big Bad is big and bad enough.

[bigbad]

That doesn't help much when the other Big Bad can't be counted on to politely wait his turn. If Iscariot's after you... [Spike's snark is mostly just keeping his mouth running while he looks her over, trying to see if there's any outward sign of being damaged by crazy priests. It's not surprising that there isn't. She's strong. And she heals fast. Physically, at least.] Are you ok?

[slay]

I don't —

[ She struggles with it. Pressing her lips together, she looks away from him, searching out the right words. Deciding if she even wants to get into it. Truthfully, she wanted nothing more than to put it behind her. ]

When he grabbed us, Anderson did something to me. He — He injected me with something, and it made me powerless. I couldn't do anything. They didn't want me, they — they wanted Des, and Rafael, and I couldn't do anything to help them. I was just ... a bonus. I just happened to be there.

[bigbad]

[He looks back down at the gun, a light going off in his head as he considers her words and the gun in her hand (wis 15).]

That's why you're learning to shoot. You're worried it might happen again.

[slay]

I felt ... beyond useless.

[ She shakes her head, clearly struggling to even admit that much. She rolls her eyes to try and make it seem like it isn't a big deal, but really she's trying to keep the emotions from creeping up on her. ]

I don't ever want to feel like that again. I don't want to have to count on Des and Rafael to save me.

[bigbad]

[He gets that. Spike's never lost his powers. He's not sure if he could since they're part of the vampire package and he doubts you can become human again after all that.

But he understands feeling defenseless well enough. He understands wanting that to never happen again.

He inclines his head, watching her.]

It's a part of you. Having it taken away must have been...

{Devastating. He glances away. Obviously. He can see how hard it is for her to talk about. He clears his throat and glances over at the target.]

So, you any good with it? Cause some people on our team have a bad habit of accidentally shooting each other instead of the bad guys. [A beat, he frowns, tilting his head up.] Actually, not sure it's so accidental with Archer...

[slay]

[ woW SPIKE THANKS FOR RUBBING IT IN.

Buffy looks like she’s thinly restraining a look of physical pain at him drilling that point home. T h a n k s. To the point that there’s a fleeting look of relief like someone just pulled the knife out of her palm when he moves onto something else.

The gun.

Right. ]

Uh, kinda. I mean it’s not my first choice, but …

[ She holds it up, scoping it out. ]

Got the job done.

[bigbad]

[SORRY HE WAS EMPATHIZING ALOUD LOOK HE STOPPED PRETTY QUICKLY.]

Guns do tend to do that. [He looks down at the target.] Wanna show off?

[slay]

Nah. I'm still getting the hang of it.

[ her shoulders shrug, but she does hit the button to bring the target forward so he can see what her performance was like from earlier. ]

It's more a necessity thing than a ... fun thing. With Andres coming up, I don't think any of us wanna get caught unarmed.

[bigbad]

Maybe. Though most of the time, you hit harder than most bullets, even without a weapon.

[But he's wondering if she doesn't have the right idea. His fists have always served him well enough, but... should he bring a gun too? Could they take away his vampire strength? Is that even possible?]

[slay]

Yeah, well, I don't wanna get caught with my super strength down again. There's no telling where Iscariot got those tricks.

[ She doesn't want to find out the hard way thx. ]

[bigbad]

[Spike nods, then holds out his hand, shrugging his shoulders back.]

Can I give it a try?

[He's never had the need for guns, but... well, he's a guy sometimes. He wants to shoot stuff.]

[slay]

Go for it.

[ She hands it over with a shrug. ]

It's a practice gun, so just turn it back in when you're done.

[ Because she's bailing. ]