Successor (BTVS)

[X] Go to Pan's table.
-[X] Stunt, Bring Harmony along.
-[X] Stunt, Pan will like us and share more info with us if we're a bit more drunk and maybe making out. WILD.

Buffy sighed. Maybe she was thinking about things too seriously.

She'd gotten more used to that for everything lately, maybe as much because it was what she expected of 'Mayor Summers' than what anyone else did. But she was starting to get the sense that all the god stuff was about themes as much as it was about logic. Not just how they worked, but how they thought.

It was still a party, even if it was a demon party being crashed by other demons that would cheerfully cut their hosts to pieces. She'd try acting like it was. First, she needed to make sure not to fall back into bad habits in the middle of her plan.

"Hey! Two drinks!," she called out.

It wasn't the normal frustrating experience of getting a waitress' attention: the serving nymph swung through the crowd neigh-instantly at her command, and presented a giant plate of large and colorful shot drinks.

She grabbed one in each hand, giving the second to Harmony. "Bottoms up?" Without waiting for an answer, she threw hers back in one gulp. She didn't have much context, but it was strong enough to burn a little going down.

"Sure!" Harmony was still feeling agreeable about this, apparently. She finished hers right away too, and her eyes crossed a little. "Wow, that felt like a shot did before I was a vampire."

"Thanks, we'll take two for the road," Buffy said. She was feeling hers too, but the imagery of it was important. "Maybe we can sip these ones," she said to Harmony more quietly.

Her girlfriend was still off balance, but Buffy noticed the attempt at a suspicious look.

"I know this isn't usually my MO, but we've got a part to play here," Buffy said. If there was ever a time to get straight answers out of any of these squirrely characters, it was now. They just had to lean into the curve. "Let's go hang out," she took her hand and started navigating them to the main table.

The atmosphere there was dreary, in contrast to what it'd probably been like just a minute ago. Pan was sulking, and the satyrs and nymphs and other various demons attending looked unsure what to do or say. Only one person was talking, and she wasn't even technically there. CyberWillow's voice echoed through the slung-up radio in her usual sort-of-monotone, either oblivious to the mood or more likely just ignoring it.

"-which is intriguing, considering that the underpinning aspects of this plane are highly amorphic, according to the literature. I would've previously thought that implementing full quantum electrodynamics would require not only a sufficiently flexible planar structure but also a thorough personal understanding." Her run-on babble lacked the rising excitement Willow's had, but it still had that same quality of three-sentences-in-one.

"This isn't the time to get physical, right?" Buffy asked by way of introduction. "Because personally, I'm feeling frisky." She was almost certain an actual fight wasn't brewing yet, but that wasn't what mattered at the moment. It was about the image.

That raised a few worried eyebrows around the table, and it got a weak little chuckle out of Pan. "If only. No, no, it's still my party, which means Eris is our honored guest," he spat the last two words out.

"It was really bitchy of her to upstage you there," Harmony said baldly. "But why didn't you just announce it a minute earlier? You had to guess she was coming, right?"

The table would've been shocked into horrified silence by the faux pas if they hadn't already been quiet, but Buffy was smiling on the inside. Harmony could be clueless at times, but she was a handy social wrecking ball.

Hilariously enough, even Pan was taken aback by her just throwing that out there, so it was CyberWillow who answered. "While Lethe's primary effect masks her impact specifically, my analysis suggests she has sufficient control to obscure details of planning such as might lead to the unfortunate timing here."

"That's about the size of it," Pan had recovered from his earlier surprise, not seeming actually offended. "I knew they were coming, and I knew what I was going to do, but the obvious just kind of escapes you sometimes when that little scamp does her thing. I wouldn't worry about it too much though, she's the kind of power that's inconvenient by her own nature, not directly dangerous."
KILL
Her power whispered Eris' hostility into her ear, and she felt her coming. Perfect.

A seat had freed itself up earlier as a courtier edged away from them, and Buffy took the opportunity, planting herself into it and then grabbing Harmony down into her lap. Harmony cooed in surprise, but Buffy started talking before she even settled down, "So what happens next is she comes up here to gloat right?"

"It's almost like you have experience in this sort of thing," there was the tiniest grin on Pan's face, and she knew he was seeing through her act. That was fine: he wasn't who she was trying to fool.

"From what I've seen of this whole god business, it's not much different than high school," Buffy said breezily. "You've got your authority figures, your bullies, your class clowns, all the stereotypes. Eris? She's a mean girl."

"Oh really?" Eris said from behind her, just when Buffy had thought she'd arrive. "Don't you think you might be oversimplifying? Rorschach's blot has a habit of fooling the unwary."

"Nah," Buffy drawled. "I know mean girls. There's the constant posturing and the elaborate put-downs, but it's all just a front really. What they really want, what it's all about? So obvious, once you see it." She still didn't even bother looking back at Eris, treating her as totally unthreatening. The table was on the edge of their seats.

"Out with it then," she said irritably. "Let's get to the end of this pathetic charade."
WILD
"Harmony was a mean girl," she said, leading into her planned finish. Then she decided on the spot that it needed to be way farther into the spice zone to work on this crowd.

Instead of just giving her a kiss, Buffy gripped at Harmony's nipple through her shirt, and twisted it like it was a musical instrument. Her girlfriend's squeals made for the funniest noises.

All around, lesser demons were tittering at the open mockery, and Buffy had accomplished her goal. Instead of being demoralized by Eris, the courtiers were laughing at her.
DISCORD
"She sounds so very happy," Eris mused, "and yet what she really wants is for you to do things like that in front of anyone who actually matters to you, not just as part of some childish political charade."

The comment didn't move the crowd in general, but Harmony flinched the littlest bit in her arms, and Buffy stopped teasing her, suddenly uncertain.

"Tata," Eris said, strutting away.

"And that's why nobody invites her to their parties," Pan muttered.

"It's fine," Harmony tried to reassure her. "I know you, umm, your friends don't, well…" and she trailed off, not succeeding. Buffy hoped this wouldn't turn into a thing.

"Just try to ignore it, you'll be better off," Pan suggested, then changed the subject. "Anyway, you must be pretty happy about the main event right? I bet you've got something cooking that'll blow everyone away!"

It sounded almost like he thought she was going to do the magic thing herself?

"It's possible," she hedged, hoping she could subtly figure it out without looking dumb.

"I find myself wishing I could demonstrate the Spiderweb I control over Sunnydale to compete in the event," CyberWillow commented. "Being outside the area of effect makes it impractical to demonstrate however, and of course the casting already being complete would remove the opportunity for showmanship."

"You covered the whole city in webs?" Pan asked. "That's a hell of a prank, but I don't really see the punchline."

"A metaphorical one," she explained. "It lets me passively observe through any electronic visual device within the radius, whether directly connected or not."

"That's a pretty big space for a younger girl like yourself to be looking at," he acknowledged. "But isn't it kinda limited? How many of them could there even be in there?"

"One thousand one hundred and ninety one are operating at the moment," CyberWillow replied.

Pan whistled. "You've got a real go-getter here Buffy."

Buffy nodded, thinking. So Deeper Magic was probably god stuff, with Lachryma, because the spiders from the Box of Gavrok were what powered CyberWillow's camera trick. She knew she still had a ton leftover, even after making Rachel into a slayer, and that all of it sort of hanging around her or whatever it did was visible to the right people.

So had Pan thought she was saving it up for this and done her a favor? She'd wanted to see if any weird mystical stuff happened to Rachel before slayerizing anyone else, but she'd already been thinking of trying again when she got back to Sunnydale. Would it be worth moving up her schedule?

"When we say it's the main event, what does that mean exactly on the scoreboard?" Buffy asked.

Pan had already descended into a quieter shop-talk conversation with CyberWillow, so it was the haughty satyr who answered. "Being an event for Greater Beings, 'tis natural to count it thrice, and moreso, being the greatest of those, 'tis counted thrice again."

"Nine times as much?" Buffy clarified.

"The lady demonstrates her education," he replied.

She let the jibe go by. Nine times credit would mean 27 points for a gold, enough to totally swing the tight competition. It could easily be decisive, so she probably had to do it here. Hopefully Zoe didn't need to 'Bella Morte' down any more ghosts. She might need to cross dimensions on short notice instead.


"You're bringing us wine for breakfast after a party like that?" Anya said incredulously from her position splayed out on a beanbag. "I don't think I've been this hungover since the 12th Century."

CyberWillow shrugged, keeping an impassive expression on the Willowbot. "Eleven percent of social drinkers report that consuming alcohol the following morning eases hangover symptoms."

Buffy wasn't feeling that peppy herself; there was definitely an extra kick in those drinks that you couldn't get in a normal bar. Or even a demon-run one, in her experience.

"Hey, in my book the lady knows what she's talking about," Skip said, grabbing the amphora and taking a swig. He was obnoxiously chipper, doubly so considering he'd probably drunk more than all of them combined last night.

CyberWillow tilted her head in that deniably mischievous way she had and delivered the food platter she had balanced on her other hand to a table in the center of the tent's front room.

"Thanks for getting takeout," Buffy said. They'd been making a habit of visiting the food stands each morning, but today had been an exception. It was lucky none of them had any events for a few hours, or maybe planned, considering who's party it'd been.

"Did you get blood?" Harmony asked, stumbling out of their room and onto the scene. She'd converted to a diurnal schedule for the Olympics, but even if she hadn't she'd drunk enough to knock herself out and had to be carried back. It was cute, but also a little worrying, considering her reaction to Eris last night.

"Bank vole?" CyberWillow asked, holding up a small wriggling mouse-looking thing from her pocket.

Harmony looked suspicious.

"The taste is supposedly much more sophisticated than mouse," CyberWillow commented, then lightly tossed it at her. The novelty of a flying rodent seemed to wake Harmony up more fully, and she caught it and started drinking in an abrupt movement.

Buffy was kind of absorbed in watching the spectacle of Harmony draining it dry, but Anya spoke up and broke the spell.

"So, while we've got the time, we should talk about Deeper Magic." She hadn't actually gotten to her feet, but she'd crawled her way over to the food table and had snatched a meat kebab from it.

"I'll reactivate the Horizon," CyberWillow said. "However, Jonathan-"

"We don't need to wake him up, this isn't like, super-secret," Anya waved the half-eaten kebab around in the air. "Just some strategy."

"I managed to get the general idea at the party," Buffy said. "So we're going to fetch Zoe and make a big show of slayerizing her, right?" She figured it'd be a pretty big deal, after all Rachel was either the first or second new slayer line since ever, depending on how you counted her own weird situation.

"Well, you could, but I don't think that'd be the best thing," Anya said. It was an unusually squirrely statement from her.

"It's not like I know how to do anything else," Buffy said, a little grumpily. "Except I mean, there's this," she called her hammer into her hand, "I guess this is Lachryma too. And I do love it, but I'm still not sure how I did it the first time."

"No, you're right, it's just I was thinking we want something more impressive," Anya continued. "You might have the biggest stash, but the rest of them have more experience. Some of them could even have special tricks waiting specifically for something like this."

Buffy gave her a strange look. "Is there something specific you're implying that I'm too hungover to figure out? Because if so-"

"You should make me a slayer instead," Anya spat out in a rush.

She boggled in response. "Isn't that totally not the way it works? Potentials evolve into Slayers. Aren't you the wrong kind of Pokemon or whatever?"

"It's your power now," Anya levered herself up off the ground and set down her food, suddenly serious. "The stuff with the potentials, it's not some law of the multiverse, it's just how it was working already, like-"

"Legacy code," CyberWillow suggested.

"Yes, that," Anya nodded sharply. "But if you want, you can just reboot the whole computer!"

"Wait, wait," Buffy said. Anya's theatrics were bringing the alcohol headache back. "Where is this coming from? I mean, even if I could figure out the rebooting thing-"

"That's not really the right analogy anymore," CyberWillow complained.

"-Even if," Buffy continued, "I got the impression that you were being Ms. City Council now. The Slay life is a little less office-conformal."

"You think I'm not capable of the Slay-Life? I'm the patron saint of the women scorned! You know how you're the new thing on the block that terrifies everyone now? Back in the day, that was me!" Anya pointed her thumb back at her chest.

"Calm down sister," Skip said, "You were never quite that scary."

Buffy elected to ignore Skip's byplay. "And you want to go back to that now? Look, of course I know you have a history, and I don't have a problem with that, but-"

"No!" Anya shook her head. "I work for you now. That's super clear, and you're a better boss than D'Hoffryn ever was. But there's more to me than being a frail mortal girl. As a slayer? I'd be someone to reckon with, someone your demon constituents on the hellmouth would obey. Someone even all the bigwigs gathered here would respect. This isn't about changing jobs, this is about being fully capable of doing what you need me to do for you."

Buffy hesitated, fidgeting her hammer as she tried to get a handle on Anya's big speech. Had she really been a good boss? Most good bosses don't make out with their workers' honeys. Even for magic reasons. Or maybe this said something nasty about D'Hoffryn. He'd seemed so affable, but then again, Mayor Wilkins always had too.

"But what about me?" Harmony spoke up. She'd finished her vole, and her face and hands were impeccably clean again. That was typical for her, but the insistent look in her eyes wasn't.

"Harm?" Buffy asked. Again, she felt like whatever this was, it should probably be obvious, but she wasn't at her best.

"Anya's not the girl who's been fighting next to you. I am," she said. "Why shouldn't I be a slayer?"

"Oh, man, this is gonna be good." Skip said it in a voice that wasn't quiet enough not to be heard.

"If she's right and you really can do whatever you want with it, you should give it to me!" Harmony said.

"I have to emphasize that I am really extremely not sure it works that way," Buffy said. "And even if it does, you do remember you're a vampire right? Not sure the whole vampire slayer vampire thing would even work."

"That being said, she is a female in the correct age group," CyberWillow speculated. "It'd be a fascinating experiment."

"See!" Harmony cheered. "I'd be fascinating! There's no way you could lose if you turned a vampire into a slayer!"

"Hey!" Anya cut in. "That's got nothing on the theatrics of giving me some mojo back. D'Hoffryn would be sure to give you top score."

"Would he?" Harmony asked. "Or would he just be pissed you jumped ship?"

"I didn't!" Anya argued. "He practically fired me!"

"And now you think you're still his favorite? Are you really really sure?" Harmony rolled her eyes. "I've smelled how nervous you are around him. Have you even talked to him yet, over all these days? It's kind of pathetic, not gonna lie."

"Stop bickering," Buffy snapped. "Sorry. Hangover talking. But Harmony, you know you don't have anything to prove to me, right?"

"Maybe not to you," Harmony said. "But to your friends I'm still kind of a joke."

"She's got you there," Anya said.

"Hey! No!" Buffy pointed a finger at her. "Harmony, you're like, the third best melee fighter we have,"

"Hey, what am I, chopped liver?" Skip said.

She'd actually forgotten about Rachel. "OK, so fourth, if you count the big mercenary. But you've done super a lot, and you're learning how to fight so quickly!"

"And Willow and Xander still see me as their rival's clueless lackey from high school," Harmony said.

"They do not!" Buffy argued. "Xander totally respects you now, with the patrols and stuff. And Willow, umm…" she trailed off. That one was maybe a little harder.

CyberWillow said, "The diaries she fed me do refer to her as a 'clueless lackey' on three different-"

"Not helping!" Buffy said. Why did she have to pick right now of all times to try the dry humor thing.

"And I want to be able to keep up with you!" Harmony said. "Really keep up! Like when Adam eventually comes back, is Anya going to be raring to jump into that fight? I would!"

"I would too!" Anya said. "You can't judge me based on how things are now! Staying back when I don't have any powers is just smart!"

"Fighting isn't about smart," Harmony said defiantly.

"I don't think I can do it!" Buffy shouted, frustrated with the arguing. "I don't know why everyone thinks I can. The Potentials have like, these mystical shell thingies, with hair or spikes or whatever. I figured out how they work, you grab onto those parts and shove the power through. I can't sense anything like that on either of you. I don't even know where I'd start."

"We've still got lots of time," Anya said. "Days. And I bet you'll be able to sense something, if you push hard enough. Having been a vengeance demon should have left traces on my soul; being turned back into a human can't have totally erased everything, or it would've probably left me without my memories. You just need to find those traces, and then you can shove all that tasty power through them!"

"It should be even easier with me!" Harmony said. "Hello, already magic! Plus, you know, our special connection." She moved her eyebrows around suggestively, and Buffy blushed. At least she hadn't actually mentioned the whole blood feeding thing. But would that make it easier? Blood was supposed to be pretty important.

"This would be an optimal gathering for finding assistance in such an endeavor," CyberWillow said. "There are a number of specialists in related magical fields present, and many would be intrigued by the allure of such a project. Especially those no longer in the running."

"Or ones that just want someone else to lose more," Skip added.

Buffy wanted to put the decision off, but she knew it was a bad idea. Either of them would probably need different preparations. Or there was still Zoe, and she'd need to get the scheduling for that setup.

It sucked that whatever she did, someone would be disappointed. She almost had enough for two, but not quite yet, and was worried that either Anya or especially Harmony might take more juice than Rachel had too. Plus using up all her super-duper magic supply with none left for emergencies might be a bad idea too.

If things didn't pan out, she wouldn't have to follow through, but it still made sense to make the call now, and not have the argument fester.

Vote: Who is Buffy going to try to Slayerize for the Deeper Magic event? She'll be prepping for it between the other events still going on.

[] Zoe is the safe choice. She's been training to be a slayer for years, and as an actual potential it won't get metaphysically complicated. And even if she wouldn't be as showy as the other two, at least the magic won't go catastrophically wrong. Probably.

[] Anya makes the most sense. Her reputation and experience will make her much more effective as a Slayer. Plus, D'Hoffryn's likely to approve as a judge, even if Anya's irrationally nervous about it. Hopefully those traces on the soul aren't just metaphorical.

[] Harmony deserves it the most. She's been on the front line and learning to fight, and she's already died for the cause once. It'll be a spectacular show for everyone too, and even Eris would be under huge pressure not to ruin her score. Of course, the whole idea is probably a crime against nature or something, but blood tells, right?

[X] Anya makes the most sense. Her reputation and experience will make her much more effective as a Slayer. Plus, D'Hoffryn's likely to approve as a judge, even if Anya's irrationally nervous about it. Hopefully those traces on the soul aren't just metaphorical.

It was possible that the blood would help. Maybe things with Harmony would go fine.

But there was no way of knowing. And she had a feeling the consequences could be extreme. Her power was sort of tamed, at least for now, but she didn't have any illusions that it was fully domesticated.

But Harmony had never really asked her for anything. She probably didn't really understand the magnitude of the risks, but she'd still be disappointed. Between that and Eris' bitchery last night, she had to make sure to smooth this over.

"Harmony," she started awkwardly, but then got close to her and put a hand around the back of her neck. She liked that. "It's not that I don't trust you or that I don't think you deserve it. But I'm really sure. It'd be too dangerous."

Her girlfriend slumped down and pouted, saying, "I guess you know best."

Buffy gave her a kiss on the nose and she visibly cheered up.

"Should I alert Zoe Berenson?" CyberWillow asked.

"Hey, wait just a second," Anya raised a finger in the air. "It's not like this isn't a group project! I agree that it's probably too dangerous to make a vampire into a slayer on your second try. But I'm human now, with a convenient landing strip already burned onto my soul. You don't have to worry about exploding me into dust or replacing me with my alternate self or any other obvious catastrophes."

"I still don't know what I'm doing!" Buffy repeated. "I barely know what I did the first time!"

"I don't care!" Anya said. "I understand the risks! I want it anyway!"

"Anya-" Buffy started, but was cut off.

"I'm over a thousand years old!" she said. "You don't need to treat me the same as a fledgling vampire."

"Hey!" Harmony objected.

"You should be on my side!" Anya argued. "How else is Buffy ever going to be confident enough to do mystical surgery on you if she doesn't do it on me first?"

"Why shouldn't it go the other way?" Harmony said. "I'm not five! I know the risks too, and I'm totally ready for anything Buffy does to me!"

"You guys need to calm it down! This could mess either of you up permanently!" Buffy said. "Couldn't it?"

"You'd better believe it, bucko," Skip confirmed. "A lot of the most unspeakable monstrosities around are the result of a botched mantlization. You should ask your buddy Pan about the Hecatoncheires sometime."

"I could be a Hecatoncheires," Harmony said confidently.

"Do you even know what a Hecatoncheires is?" Anya asked sarcastically.

"I totally do!" Harmony said. "They probably come from heck, right? And tie… bees?"

"It's almost as if she knows Greek," Skip said slyly.

Buffy rubbed her forehead, but couldn't think of anything to say. It was too early in the morning for this disaster of an argument.

Meanwhile, Anya was frustrated with Harmony's educational deficits. "Fine, new example. You've seen the Rat King. What if you ended up like that?"

That gave Harmony real pause. "Wait, isn't that different?"

"In a strict sense, yes," CyberWillow contributed. "However, it's not impossible that a similar perception-compromising effect could arise here."

"Wait, didn't you want me to go forward with this?" Buffy asked her.

"It would be an extremely interesting result, if a possibly unfortunate one," she answered. "To do true science, we must perform experiments."

"Harmony, I don't know what I'd do if I unspeakablified you into something," Buffy said. "It'd destroy me. And Anya, think about what Xander would say if you came back with three heads."

"This is about Xander now?" Anya said. "Fine then, we can break up. You can even rope him into your harem if you do this for me, no hard feelings."

"I'd have hard feelings!" Harmony said. "Eww!"

"Anya, what the hell?" Buffy just had absolutely no idea. "Where is this coming from?"

Anya sighed, visibly composing herself. "I should preface this by saying I don't like to whine about things I can't change."

That sounded about zero percent accurate, but Buffy was in too deep with this conversation already. She just nodded.

"Harmony, you love being a vampire right? Best thing since sliced bread?" Anya asked.

"Duh," she responded. "But I don't see what that has to do with Xander being in our harem!"

"I loved being a vengeance demon the same way," Anya said. "What I don't love? This." She gestured at herself. "I'm helpless, nobody respects me, and worst of all I'm aging. It's disgusting and I hate it!"

"I'm not sure how you expect me to solve that." Buffy said it with a mix of sarcasm and legitimate curiosity. "Becoming a slayer isn't good for your life expectancy."

"Becoming a one-warrior-bulwark against all the most powerful demons roaming Earth isn't good for your life expectancy," Anya countered. "Getting a huge durability upgrade and slow regeneration is great for your life expectancy! Do you know how long it ordinarily takes an ACL knee injury to heal?"

"Umm, a few days?" She thought she remembered Giles saying something about that once, when she came back with a limp.

"Months! Years! Sometimes it won't heal at all!" Anya ranted with a crazy look in her eye. "Slayers died because they operated without support, and that was probably because as we recently discovered the Watcher's council was terrified of them turning into psycho-killer versions of you. But do you want to know why normal humans die? For practically any reason you can think of! I could be sneezing one day and dead the next week!"

"But, I mean, Slayers still get old right, isn't that different?" Buffy asked, now thoroughly befuddled.

"Uncertain, and also uncertain," CyberWillow commented.

"It'll be close enough," Anya said it with a lot of confidence.

"And you don't want to wait for me to get some more experience first?" Buffy said. "I've almost got enough in me for two."

"Then what about me?" Harmony said indignantly.

"Umm," Buffy hesitated.

"It's important that it's me this time, politically," Anya said. "Having it be public and showy like this, it won't just be good for your score, it'll make waves, let me put more pressure on old contacts."

"I don't want any more people getting ahead in line!" Harmony continued her parallel argument, tugging insistently at Buffy's shirt.

"Fine!" Buffy waved her hands in the air. "But you need to find someone who has half a clue, so I can have a quarter of one before I do this."

"Sure, of course. I already have an idea," Anya nodded.

"And you have to be the one to call Xander and tell him," Buffy added.

"I'll do it right now," Anya agreed.

"And I still get to go after right?" Harmony said. "I don't want to get left behind!"

Buffy covered her eyes with her hands, trying to rub the headache away. It wasn't just from the hangover anymore either. "We'll see."

"That means yes!" Harmony cheered.


Buffy found herself enjoying this event. She turned another corner in the massive hedge maze, and here was Frosty the Snowman.

Well, probably not really, but it was some kind of giant snow elemental made of stacked snowballs, and even if it didn't have dead branches for arms it did have the carrot for a nose. It roared a challenge and charged her, eerily moving forward by rolling the bottom snowball.
KILL
She met its charge head-on, swiping up at it with her hammer to halt its progress. Unfortunately instead of stopping altogether when it was hit, the middle part totally imploded as the rest rolled into her, but it was a pretty hot day to be running around in a maze anyway. The snow was refreshing.

No time to bask in it though; she quickly extracted herself, squeezing between its bulk and the thorny wall to get behind the construct. It'd survived the destruction of its middle section by just having the top drop down to where it'd been, and that top spun around like a tank turret to track her as the bottom reversed direction to charge again.
KILL
The height it'd lost would cost it though. This time Buffy jumped up, kicking off a wall to get even more height. The head spun straight up to face her, but that didn't do it any good as she smashed her hammer down right into its carrot nose. Her strike took her down completely through the head and then sundered the body below, leaving her on top of a pile of suddenly inanimate snow.

She scrambled out and forward, ready to face a new challenge. None of the stuff in here was that dangerous, presumably because most people couldn't fight as well as she could, but there was a cute element of whimsy to them that lightened her spirits. If only the demons she'd grown up with had covered her in snow and flowers instead of slime and more slime.

She turned at the next junction and was momentarily surprised to face the exit! It was over already? Well at least-

Lethe was standing right in front of her, smiling mischievously, and the rest of the contestants were scattered all around the exit clearing. She was last, or close to it.

"That has to be cheating," Buffy muttered. It was obvious now that the point was just to finish the maze quickly, and not kill everything in it, but of course she'd forgotten that when it mattered. Lethe was so annoying.


"I'm not sure how this is supposed to help with Anya," Buffy said.

"But I'm sure of how this will help with you," Echo said back to her in a copy of her voice. It was seriously disconcerting.

"Do you always have to do that?" Buffy asked.

"I don't literally always do it, but it's part of the process, it makes it easier. And this is seriously uncomfortable, so maybe like, make a tiny bit of an effort?" It wasn't just the voice; she had her verbiage down too. Sorta creepy.

She hadn't quite revealed to Pan what she wanted to do, but when she told him she was pushing her limits he'd all but thrown Echo at her to help. She was technically the competition, but Buffy couldn't afford to turn up her nose.

Buffy closed her eyes and felt at Echo with her extra senses. What she felt back was both foreign and familiar: supposedly, this was what her own domain felt like from the outside. And since piled under everything else, Buffy was technically still a potential, it came in way more clear than normal, given she'd already influenced her power towards looking at them.

The beach ball center didn't have distinct spines or anything, and instead was surrounded in layers of moving shadows. They would shift back and forth between all kinds of shapes even as she looked at them, and it was suddenly kind of obvious why she had so much trouble metaphysically grabbing onto things.

"Hey, hold onto this for a second, I have an idea," Buffy said. Without bothering to open her eyes, she took her hammer out of nowhere in specific and handed it to Echo.

Echo made a little noise and teetered when she took it before stabilizing. She made a catty-sounding comment, but Buffy tuned it out, watching closely. The shadows were more ordered now, twisting and turning around it. Kind of. This was definitely how she used it to grab onto Rachel. Without warning, she snatched the hammer back.

"Can you do that same spiral thing again now, without it?" It'd be a lot easier if she didn't have to use it as a crutch. And a lot less embarrassing than her looking like she was playing some kind of demented fishing game in front of everyone.


"C'mon, you can do it, go, no, go that way!" Buffy tried to keep her voice level, but this was surprisingly stressful.

The little demon-dog-racoon thing stopped and turned to her, then got up on its hind legs and pawed at her shin. It was cute, but it wasn't going to win.

<Dratted creature! Cease this dithering or feel my tail blade!>

Luckily, the rest of the so-called Greater Beings weren't doing a much better job getting their tanuki demons to proceed through the race's obstacles. Even the psychic ones. Esplin's crazed ranting was definitely counterproductive; his tanuki was curled up in a ball with its head hidden under little paws.

Meanwhile, Elfangor had lowered himself down to the knees of his front legs and was locking (all four) eyes with his racer. Whatever he was saying wasn't being publicly broadcast, but at least wasn't causing the tanuki to panic in terror.
¿PlagueOfRats?
Her attention was drawn to the side, and she saw the Rat King of all people was finally making progress. You weren't allowed to pick your tanuki up, but his swarmy self was escorting it on both sides now like a royal procession, and the tanuki was contently marching up to the first obstacle in the arena.

Had it been his domain that'd let him do it? In a burst of inspiration, she thought she could try hers, with that thing she'd just managed to learn! She felt deep inside or maybe along herself, and twisted up those subjective shadows to reach out and give her tanuki a gentle tap, just something to get its attention…
KILL
There was an instant of pure terror in its eyes, and then it jumped away from her and dashed back into its starting box to hide.


"Everything's way more chill if you have three outcomes ready to go," Kyle said. "Focusing on just one thing is super-harsh on the energy."

Willow's thricewise 'friend' was currently transformed into the guise of a typical surfer dude, complete with a board that had three little fins sticking out. Was there a surfing event happening at some point? She'd lost track.

Willow had said that he knew a ton about all kinds of magic and he could probably help, but Buffy was skeptical.

"This isn't really a horseshoes or hand grenades thing," Buffy tried to argue. "There might not be just one slayer anymore, but there's still one, well, type of slayer? I'm not sure I could turn Anya into anything else, and even if I could, it'd be a pretty bad idea, wouldn't it?"

"Just open your mind to all possibilities," he advised. "Let the universe carry you over the wave."

Buffy leveled a look at Willow.

"I know it sounds goofy, but he has a lot of experience!" Willow said defensively.

"I'm sure she's in as good a position to judge that as anyone," Skip snarked from the corner.

She blushed in response, and it looked surprisingly natural on the Willowbot. However skeevy Warren's advanced tech had turned out to be, she had to admit it was pretty revolutionary.

"Vanilla doesn't have to be the only flavor, man," Kyle continued. "There's sulfur too. And kittenblood."

"Hey, didn't you say you were vegetarian?" Willow asked.

"The ice cream isn't made from real kittens," Kyle explained. "They do it in a factory or something."

"Oh!" Willow looked chagrined. "Sorry for doubting you."

"It's cool girl, we all-"

"Actually," CyberWillow interrupted from the radios, "My past research indicated that Mad Moxie's Kittenblood Ice Cream is made with a gore slurry which includes parts of donkeys, goats, rabbits, and humans."

"No way!" Kyle exclaimed.

"It came up and was rejected for obvious reasons while investigating possible refreshment options for foreign dignitaries," CyberWillow continued.

"But this must be like, a big secret right?" Willow asked. "How did you find out?"

"It's written on the packaging in one millimeter font," CyberWillow explained.


"Look, we might not like it, but we both want to win right?" Buffy said.

<I suppose that's true,> Esplin said reluctantly. The morph he was in seemed to be made of pieces of crystal, all optical surfaces and sharp angles, but he still managed to make a mulish expression somehow.

"Well, there's no changing things now," she continued. "We signed up to do this together a week ago, and everyone else is already paired up. So let's just be professional about it. Forget all the crazy plans, just for-"

<I'm not planning anything!> He declared

"You totally are," Buffy said. "Don't think I can't tell you can use that morph to make laser attacks or whatever. It won't catch me by surprise, so just don't try."

<Attacking you now would be idiotic. I'd never try such a transparent ploy.> He didn't sound very convincing, but she figured she'd at least headed that madness off at the pass. Then he changed the subject, <Are you sure you're even capable of the routine you gave me?>

"Oh, you'd better believe it. I used to live and breathe this stuff," Buffy cracked a smile.

Sure, it wasn't the best of circumstances, but she wouldn't let it get her down. Not for this event. The little girl inside her was practically squealing with delight.

"AND NOW, WELCOME MAYOR SUMMERS AND VISSER THREE, PERFORMING TO 'ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I CAN DO BETTER!'"

A satyr threw open the little gate, and then they were both skating out onto the icy lake. Doubles Figure Skating was a more traditional event than she'd have expected from Pan, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"And just remember," she whispered, "If we lose? Elfangor and that weird fish girl win."

<Yes, yes, I get your point. Just prepare for your jump.>

Esplin caught her by the hand, flicked her off the ice, and she made six rotations in the air before coming back down. This one, she had in the bag.


"And you won't believe what happened next!" Halfrek declared.

"Did Salricia dump him? Like, how couldn't she?" Anya was perched excitedly on one of the bean bags.

"She pulled the Dagger of Unlast out of her dress and eviscerated him with it in front of everyone!" Halfrek mimed the stabbing.

"Oh my gawd!" Harmony yelled, slumped over her own bean bag.

"But how did she know in advance?" Anya asked.

"That's the thing! She didn't! She'd been planning to gut Gharghar with it instead the whole time, over the South Delthrox thing, but the drama of it all just ran away with her," Halfrek answered.

"South Delthrox thing?" Anya echoed.

"Is South Delthrox like South LA? Is it a ghetto?" Harmony wondered.

"You poor girls, you're so behind the times," Halfrek made a sympathetic face at odds with the demon wrinklies she was currently sporting. "Let me fill you in!"

While Buffy had made some strides in controlling her weird domain powers, she still couldn't pick much of anything up from Anya, which would make slayerizing her difficult at best and impossible at worst. Anya had anticipated this though, and had an idea.

If Buffy was having a hard time detecting traces of vengeance demon, what better remedy for that was there than seeing the real thing? And even if she was leading one of the other teams, apparently Halfrek was a close enough friend of hers that she was willing to come over and be a guinea pig.

Of course, once she was here, the two of them started gossiping up a bizarre pseudo-vengeancey storm, somehow sucked Harmony into their orbit, and ultimately left her mostly to her own devices. Unfortunately, her own devices had so far been quiet and sad, like toys without batteries.

She could definitely tell Halfrek was there in a threat-sense. Her power helpfully gave her an instinct for how strong she'd be, how fast, and what her weaknesses were (she'd noticed a tendency to zero in on one person and ignore the rest of the environment that could be exploited in a fight.) And she could even tell she had a big something extra, something super-dangerous and wacky, which was obviously the wishing powers.

But she couldn't perceive her in that precise way she could the potentials, she didn't have that beach ball style read available. She'd tried convincing herself to just get it in the same frustrated way she'd gotten that sense going in the first place, but either she wasn't angry enough or she had to do something different.

"Still having trouble over there?" Halfrek said condescendingly, breaking her concentration. "Don't mind us, we're having a blast, but maybe you want to try something different?"

"I'm trying all the different I have," Buffy said, letting just a little bit of her irritation show. "Any suggestions?"

The question had been sarcastic, but Halfrek pursed her lips, deep in thought. She tilted her head back and forth, clearly weighing something, before finally saying, "How old are you? I'm getting mixed messages."

It was a non-sequitur if she'd ever heard one, but she didn't see why she shouldn't answer. "Eighteen."

"Hally, I'm not sure this is the best idea," Anya said.

"Oh lighten up, It's just some professional curiosity," Halfrek said. "There's a whiff of negligent authority here."

"Hey!" Buffy said. "I know that it's important for a mayor to be at her post, but everyone was telling me this was the sort of thing Sunnydale needed."

"Of course not your authority, honey," Halfrek giggled. "And maybe there's something with the mother?" She narrowed her eyes. "Child abandonment?"

"You're gonna have to make with the 'splainy." Buffy said.

"I exact justice, for children who've been wronged," Halfrek said. "Whether by parents, guardians, or the entire system that was supposed to help them. And even if you aren't exactly a child anymore, I'm getting the feeling you were certainly wronged as one. Besides, you're still quite young, by any reasonable standard."

"You want me to make a wi-" She stopped herself just in time. "You want me to make a W-word?"

"Oooh!" Harmony got even more excited than she already had been. "I bet you would make a really cool wish Buffy!" She said, totally forgetting to be careful with the word. "There could be a huge party, or a fight, or maybe a fighting party!"

"I don't know what kind of an impression I'm giving off these days, but I'm not really into creating whole alternate evil realities on a whim," Buffy objected. "What even brought this on?"

"Granting wishes uses the oldest, most powerful magic that a Vengeance demon possesses," Halfrek said. "If anything will call your attention to it and make you see, it'll be that. I bet it'd set your special vision up to 20/20."

"With the aforementioned minor side effect of creating an evil alternate reality," Buffy said sarcastically. Sure, she wanted to slayerize Anya and win the event, but this seemed like it was going way too far.

"Not all wishes have to be big and flashy," Halfrek said. "Certain people just had to always go the extra mile for the 'art'-"

"Hey!" Anya said.

"- but some of us appreciate bringing actual justice to the universe, and having the punishment fit the crime." Halfrek finished. "It doesn't have to be too big a deal, if you don't want it to be."

"You should do it Buffy," Harmony encouraged. "You need to, or else you're not going to be able to slayerize Anya and everything might be ruined! And anyone who was mean to you definitely deserves it anyway."

"I don't want to curse my mom!" Buffy shouted.

So she'd been difficult enough to make her want to move out, but that'd been like, a difference of opinion. And before that, she'd reacted to the slaying kind of badly, but it'd be a big shock to anyone. And there was whole mental institution thing, but it was just a mistake. Understandable really. Anyone could do it.

"It wouldn't have to be your mother, if you're not comfortable with that," Halfrek said. "Maybe your father? I'm getting the feeling he wasn't around much at all when you needed him, was he?"

"If I may suggest a compromise," CyberWillow intoned from the radio. "Quentin Travers certainly would count as an authority figure to you, and he absolutely has abused your trust on multiple occasions, once almost resulting in your and your mother's untimely demise."

"Yeah, curse him!" Harmony urged. "Give him boils!"

Buffy grit her teeth with worry, but she couldn't quite bring herself to object as strongly to that idea. "Anya, this is kind of your area?"

"Yes Anya, it's your area," Hally repeated.

"I don't want to take sides here," Anya raised her hands. "Not taking sides! But wishes should be treated with respect. Of course, I'm sure Hally wouldn't screw you on a wish backlash, it'd be stupid with someone as powerful as you and I know my friend better than that. But you shouldn't make a wish if you don't really want vengeance."

"Justice," Halfrek corrected.

"Vengeance," Anya rolled her eyes. "Because even the kind of wish that's shaped specifically to leave the wisher alone? It can still be pretty nasty for the target."

Vote: Does Buffy make a wish? It could help bigtime with Anya, but it seems like a dangerous bridge to cross.

[] Buffy makes a Wish. Being able to see Halfrek grant it will give her a major bonus on the very difficult upcoming roll.
-[] What's the wish? It has to target some authority figure that wronged Buffy in a child-adjacent sort of way.

[] This is a crazy idea, and Buffy shuts it down. She'll do her best to figure things out without that particular special boost.