open ♔ november/december socialization

[wynn]

WHO || Everyone! [ota]
WHAT || Shenanigans.
WHERE || Anywhere in the castle, surrounding environs, London, Andres Isle, etc!
WHEN || November & December [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam

[ The castle can be a happening place, even on more mundane days. This log is for random interactions over the course of November and December.

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:
Wynn & Section Heads @ Andres/London
Cheryl @ Reception desk
Sam @ Various
Elena @ Andres/London
Drax @ Dragon's Hide Wing
Des @ Pub / Castle
Paige @ Caste Grounds
Grimrot @ the Library
Vi @ Andres
Matt @ Andres/London
Alisha @ bars in London
Cora @ Library/ Castle Grounds
Will @ Castle pond / Hoard wing/ Firing range / Castle grounds
Malina @ Dragon's Fire wing/ kitchen/ bar / castle grounds
Alainn @ Dragon's Fire library / kitchen / Andres
Jordan @ Andres/ London
Sylar @ Kitchen
Logan @ Castle Bars / London
Faith L @ London / kitchen / training room / castle grounds
Dean @ Rose's room / bars / armory / training room/ firing range / kitchen
Rose @ Andres / armory / training room / bedroom
Des & Buffy | Closed
Thea @ Training Room / Castle grounds / kitchen / TV rooms / bars
Sam & Buffy | Closed
Alex @ Firing Range / Airfield / Room / Garage
Failboat @ Breakfast
Alice @ Andres/ London
Sweets @ Dragon's Light Wing
Lydia @ Medical / Training room / etc

Comments

[msattentionspan]

[Faith lets go of the bag and shrugs. They've gone at it before - but Buffy doesn't have the recollection of how those times went down.]

Alright. [She'll move to the mats with Buffy, flexing her fingers as she hears knuckles make snapping noises.]

[slay]

[ She starts slow, pacing out to the center of the mat and rolling her shoulders. She bounces in place to loosen her knees, then goes at Faith. It's obvious she's holding back—nonlethal only (-4 penalty on attack rolls when using a lethal weapon, which Buffy's unarmed strikes are). Even if it hadn't been for Arthur, Andres would have been enough to leave her unable to trust her own strength.

Still, her blows are well-targeted. She makes a series of quick jabs for Faith (atk 30, nonlethal dmg 17). ]

[msattentionspan]

[Her hits connect, but Faith isn't phased by it too much. They're both meant to be at their peak and Buffy's been here training and on missions for a lot longer than her. Training hadn't been a priority in prison and since being here, she's been a bit lazy on that front.

When she goes to swap from her defensive to offensive, her weight shifts and she moves forward with her far more reckless habit of fighting (atk 34, nonlethal dmg 13) opting for faster motions over targeted ones.]

[slay]

[ Staggering back from the blow, Buffy raises one leg to kick out at Faith—and the force of her kick snaps too strong, taking her weight out from under her (crit fail! Buffy is now prone, giving her a -4 to her defense). But as she rolls, she doesn't stop, instead trying to kick upward into Faith's gut from her position on the ground (atk 32, dmg 13). It hits, and she goes for the trip with her other leg only to get her foot caught on the seam of the workout mats (crit fail AGAIN WOW). ]

[msattentionspan]

[Faith takes the hit, but sees the foot catch and when she's back to upright she reaches down to offer a hand up to get her off the ground.]

C'mon, we're sparring not battling for some belt.

[Once they're back - as long as Buffy doesn't try to haul her down - she'll start another series of blows (atk 37, nonlethal dmg 20).]

[slay]

Thanks. [ Faith's punch hits her in the chin, knocking her back, but she comes back at her with equal force in a flurry of blows (atk 31, 38, 23—i think the last one probably doesn't hit? so dmg 16 & 18. + another 16 if i'm wrong and the final attack does hit). ] But I don't need the help.

[msattentionspan]

[The first two hit and she staggers backwards, smirking as she wipes the bit of blood from the corner of her mouth.]

I guess you don't tote the whole we gotta work together thing, huh? [Faith'll reapproach, setting up a few more blows - the first high (atk 40 / dmg 16) and the second low (atk 26 / dmg 18 (if it hits) as she tries to keep things varied.]

[slay]

Work together? [ The first one hits! But it gives Buffy the chance to pull back, bowing her back to pull her abdomen away from the hit. Retaliating, Buffy doesn't stay staggered from the first blow long. She comes back with a flurry of punches (atk 30, 30, 16—dmg 19 & 19 for the first two hits). ] Sure. But I've been shot and stabbed by just as many allies as I've protected. We're dealing with mind control and doppelgangers: you can never be too careful.

[msattentionspan]

[Faith stands up, giving the sparring a moment for a bit of conversation.]

Yeah, I get that. I wasn't talking about everyone - more like the two of us. I mean, I was never big on the team thing, either, but I just thought it'd be something you'd suggest. [She shrugs. She'd heard it enough times in the past, but then again - Faith knows that Buffy isn't the same.]

Not -- not because we used to be a team back home. Just with all of the things I've seen so far.

[slay]

[ Amusement mingles with confusion in her expression. Buffy drops her fists to her sides and shakes her head. ]

Faith, of course I think we need to work together. You, me. Everyone in the Knighthood. [ And she's starting to wonder if there isn't something else going on here to give Faith another impression. ] But we wouldn't be sparring if we were taking it easy on each other. [ She gestures towards the door. ] If I wanted to take it easy on someone, I'd be sparring Spike.

[msattentionspan]

[Faith gets it, but it's mostly her own issues pushing to the surface. The sparring is showing her how unevenly matched they are and maybe she's just looking for something to prove that they are on the same team - that it's not Buffy playing some long con over on her so that she can finally leave her for dead somewhere. It's odd for her to even feel this way, to think that with another few exchanges, she'd be pushed too far to that edge to feel comfortable fighting back. She'd come from kicking Angelus' ass, to putting his son Connor in his place and yet here she is again, fighting up against the one person she'll never match up to.]

Nah, it's fine. Just thinking out loud I guess. [She'll take a moment, then reclaim the fighting stance again.] We can keep going.

[Which, if Buffy agrees, will result in (atk 38 dmg 16 / atk 32 dmg 12)]

[slay]

[ She takes the hits, and they seem to effectively stagger her, because her next few are more wild, less targeted (atk 29 - 17 dmg , atk 20 total - 13 dmg, atk 23 - 19 dmg; for whichever of those hit). ]

[msattentionspan]

[Only the first one hits (thankfully) and that puts Faith with just 26HP left and given that Buffy has three attacks - Faith'll lift her hands up and smirk.]

I think I'm gonna do the smart thing and stop now. [It's growth for Faith to be able to stop when she knows she's gonna get beat.]

[slay]

[ Buffy immediately drops her hands, concern overwhelming her as she does. ]

Are you okay? I didn't— [ After Arthur, she's got a real worry of going too far before she realizes it. At least Faith's smart enough to tap out. ]

[msattentionspan]

Yeah, I'm good. [She waves off the concern.] Trust me, I've been in a coma - this is nothing.

[slay]

Coma. [ Wow. If she sounds surprised, it's because she is. She's seen some nasty stuff, and still gotten back up with a little healing. Then again, maybe they were clericless back home. ] You must've tangled with some seriously nasty demons.

[msattentionspan]

[Of all the things to tell Buffy about, regarding their up and down, rollercoaster of knowing each other -- Faith is pretty sure she can get by not explaining to Buffy just how she ended up in a coma. She'll shrug it off.]

Comes with all sorts of trippy dreams -- and I'm still standing, so that says more about me than the things I went up against.

[slay]

No arguments here.

[ All around, she's been nothing but impressed with Faith since she's met her. That is, after all, what'd made her feel threatened. Faith seems like she has a much better grasp on this whole Slayer business.

Speaking of which ... ]

You know, I met someone. In Chicago? He remembered me from before the Veil, said his mother was one of us.

[msattentionspan]

[Mother? That could bump the average life span of a Slayer up if that was true.]

Yeah? I've never heard of a Slayer with a kid before, but I wasn't always the best student when it came to the Watcher Diaries - [A beat.] - Actual diaries... not some teenage drama with too many love triangles.

[slay]

What you binge watch in the darkness of your 3 AM insomnia is your business. [ Said with a smile as she grabs a towel to clean up blood and sweat. She segues smoothly back onto the subject of Chicago. ] Yeah, I guess his name's Robin Wood. [ And since he knew Buffy, and Faith knows Buffy, she asks, ] You know him?

[msattentionspan]

[Faith shakes her head.]

Doesn't sound familiar, but that might just be a Sunnydale thing. I wasn't really local for a majority of the fun. [The narration is pretty sure that in that one info dump she brought up prison... possibly. But it'll be vague while I go re-read!] I wasn't making requests to come up for a play date, either.

[slay]

[ Hahahah as I also reread and realize they had the Slayer dream conversation already I'M AN EXPERT RPER WHO DOUBLE CHECKS MY FACTS. Whatever /waves it off as a botched wis to recall since it was also loaded in the "you died and got replaced" conversation. ]

Why not? I mean I know I don't get everything that was going on back there, but ... wouldn't that kinda ramp up the chances of Slayer survival? Two of us, fighting together? I mean one's bad news enough for the forces of darkness. Two's like ...

[msattentionspan]

[LOL I tried to plurk the link to you so she'd have a better call-back reference since it was tucked in all the AHH STOP TALKING convo! But plurk is freaking out rn on me. Also - no prison talk has been had. GET READY!]

Yeah... it could've been great, but I didn't really have the handle I should've had. [She moves to take a seat on one of the nearby weight benches, staring to unwrap her hands.]

I was young and impulsive. Just happy to have something that could give me whatever I wanted. Home was shit. School sucked. Then I was this superhero that could kick ass. Plus - demons were real. That made me feel above it all. Better than everyone else.

My Watcher would talk about how great Buffy Summers was at her calling. This high bar got set and I thought you had the same idea about it as me. My Watcher died, old vampire took her out, and I bailed on that and headed to see what the amazing Buffy Summers was up to.

I wanted to have someone to Slay with. Someone that got it - but you, [Faith looks at Buffy and pauses.] you were better than me. I mean, that's a hard thing for me to say - but it was true. [She shakes her head.] I was envious. Hell, I was pissed off, because you seemed to have everything and I had nothing and I was on that whole Slayer power kick where I thought I deserved everything, too.

[She stands up, uncomfortable for a moment and she brushes it off as just needing to throw the used wraps out.]

We got along -- at first. It was the whole two Slayers, no waiting kind of deal and I showed you a different way of doing things. It was reckless, but that was sort of my gig. [Faith glances to her.] I can stop -- I know that I'm not really good at telling you these things and if you don't want to hear it.

[She faces her completely.] I just don't think I can tell my story without talking about your part in it.

[slay]

[ Tempered silence follows her weighty confession. Buffy stares down at her for a moment, shellshocked by the enormity of a possibility she'd never considered. She'd been so wrapped up in her own frantic scramble for actualization that she'd never stopped to think about why Faith might have overloaded her like she did; it's not just the grab for something familiar. Rather, to think about losing someone that important, to look them in the eye and for them to not even see you.

No wonder Faith had been so forthcoming the first time that she'd spooked Buffy. Slowly, the blonde Slayer lowers herself to the bench beside Faith. She doesn't reach out for her, but there's intimate understanding in her eyes, and a comforting gentleness about her that has all the same soothing properties that squeezing her hand in reassurance might. ]

It's okay. I wasn't ready before, but I am now. [ She nods, resolving herself to that decision. ] I want to hear this.

[ Even if it staggers her, to hear that Faith had always (probably not anymore) considered her the Slayer ideal, some paragon of what it means to fight evil—particularly after what she did on Andres. The grab for camaraderie is something she deeply understands, the same reason she'd initially been so open to Faith's arrival before death came crashing in (as it always does—for them, it's always death, one way or another). It's a profound thing, to have someone understand her as wholly as Faith does. ]

[msattentionspan]

[Faith nods, wringing her hands together.]

You can stop me -- just say the word. I'll give you time or whatever.

But - the two of us, we were awesome. [There is a touch of pride there, because for a shining moment they were. They had their powers and they had each other.] You pushed me to be better at what I did and I kinda let you loosen up around the edges a bit more. I didn't have a Watcher at the time, Giles - he was your Watcher - he tried, but I just didn't really... I didn't want to have someone else die because of me. Plus, I kinda thought I was doing alright on my own.

We'd go patrol and then we'd go party. [She shakes her head.] I got us arrested, though. Kinda pushing too hard on that "We can do anything we want" throttle. Tiny bit of theft in a sporting goods store. Cops come. We're in the back of the squad car and I get us to kick the gate in. [Her hands gesture up, to imply the guard between back seat and front seat.] Threw the cops off, they crashed and we ran.

We had a big demon situation and I figured we were the best bet - so what good would we do if we were in jail. [She shakes her one hand out, just trying to work out a bit of nerves. It's not easy to unfold this story and know where it's going to go.]

Balthazar -- giant demon. Old. Disgusting. He needed this talisman and we had it. We were on our way, trying to get back to Giles and everyone. We went down an alley. There were vampires and we were staking them.

Someone came out from the shadows and I acted on instinct. I drove the stake into his chest. [She looks up at Buffy.] He died and that's when choices get made.

You chose to go back, to stick with the good side of things. The law.

I chose to weigh the body down. Sink it in the river and move on with things. I picked the wrong path, Buffy. I took the one that I thought I deserved, the one that was going to give me the things that I felt I was owed.

You tried -- tried to explain things, to make me understand, but all I could hear was how I wasn't being you. I murdered a man - and back then, I didn't care.