All this is also exacerbated by her doing most of it to help her boss turn into a giant snake and eat at the bare minimum the town. Faith getting her shit together and seeking redemption seems so much more plausible if she is just a murdering kidnapper, rather than a murdering kidnapper that you have to worry will join up with someone threatening to cause the apocalypse. It makes ignoring her and hoping for the best so much more risky.
Successor (BTVS)
- Thread starter DeAnno
- Start date
- Mature
S4.0E2: Coming Out I
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
[X] "You've gone ten times too far. We're through, Maggie. You can call me to clean up your mess when she stakes you in the back. Until then, keep your toy soldiers the hell out of my way." Buffy shoved past Faith and left the office. She'd grab Willow and then hold a meeting to circle the wagons.
It was all she could do to get out of there; for a second she'd been so angry she thought she might kill someone.
"Just giving orders and walking off." It'd obviously been too much to think Faith would take the jumbo-sized hint. "You really do think you own this town, don't you?"
Buffy couldn't help stopping to face her. "Well, I'm only the mayor, but I think that carries more legitimacy than some secret agents in a basement."
"The mayor," Faith shook her head, "You didn't wait a fucking day, did you? You just took him out and then took his place. Is that what you wanted all along? To be able to boss everyone around, instead of just your cute little fan club? Did you have to ice anyone else to make it happen?"
"It wasn't like that at all! It was about responsibility, which I admit, is a completely foreign concept to you!"
Maggie emerged from the office, looking more than a little rattled. "Girls! Mayor Summers. I understand this is a shock, but there's no need for hysterics. Despite her belligerent attitude, which I assure you she will hear about from me, Faith is completely under control."
"I thought I had her under control too," Buffy said. "Then she killed someone and tried to frame me for it."
"Way I remember it, you didn't give me much of a choice," Faith said.
"What, because I didn't hide the body for you?" Buffy said, approaching her. "Because I didn't want to lie to my friends? You had all the choice in the world, Faith. You could've trusted us. We would've helped you. Instead you took the easy road and betrayed us. Just like you will again, the second they give you a chance."
"Because you're just perfect little Buffy going 'woe is me'," Faith said. "What I did, you made me do to save myself. When you stabbed me in the gut, that was to save the dead guy you were fucking. But wait, guess you managed that anyway somehow. Had to try that 'easy road' first though, am I right?"
"Shut up, Faith."
"The way I'm guessing it, you must've fed him yourself. Did it make you all tingly and wet, when he bit into your neck? Like something out of one of those ratty paperbacks, right up to the part where he leaves you after he got what he-"
KILL
The wall next to Faith's head exploded into concrete shrapnel as Buffy's hammer missed it by inches, leaving a gaping hole into an empty and now somewhat destroyed lab. All three of them were silent for a moment with varying degrees of shock, but Buffy recovered first, turning again and leaving. She wasn't sure that she didn't regret aiming to miss.
Faith didn't follow her this time, but she had to get in a parting shot, "Way to waste everyone's tax money, B. Did it make you feel better than me?"
Buffy made herself ignore her, also resolutely not paying attention to the growing commotion behind her as various soldiers and scientists were drawn to the source of the noise. A couple of them gave her troubled looks as they passed her by, but none of them dared to speak up. Were they afraid of her? Maybe they should be.
Willow was still poking at a workstation and lecturing the scientist there when she arrived back in the large central space. "We're leaving."
Willow hadn't noticed her until she'd said it. "Buffy! You're done? What happened? And why are there little bits of rubble in your hair?"
"Turns out they aren't stopping the demon behavior research with moderately insane goals like controlling Fyarls and Vampires. Faith's here, all dressed up like a perfect little soldier."
"No way! This is where she ended up? And she isn't in chains? Do they not know the whole story of the murder and attempted world-ending?"
Buffy put on her best sarcastic impression of Maggie's deliberate voice, "She's 'far too valuable a resource to be wasted.'"
"Did you fight her? Did she get away?" Willow was looking around now, and her pet scientist was edging away as she was distracted.
"No, I," maybe property damage hadn't been the most responsible decision. "I made a statement. But the Feds are protecting her, we can't really do anything without declaring war."
"Well, I'm up for it if you are," Willow said in a low voice.
Buffy was so tempted. "No. We can't. I just told them off. Let's get out of here."
Willow grimaced. "Fine. But we need to warn Xander, who knows what kinds of mischief those soldier goons he's meeting with are getting into." Willow got out her radio and started talking as she made for the elevator they'd first gotten here in. Buffy remembered that Xander was still probably still showing Finn around Crawford street; she should've already warned him herself. It'd been impossible to think about anything but Faith's taunting voice, but she needed to get her act together again, fast.
The elevator door didn't open for them as they reached it, and Buffy realized they didn't have a keycard or anything. For a second she thought they might have to use one of the exit tunnels instead, but Willow just put her hand up against it and viciously said "Open!" There was a spark from the panel, but the doors slid open immediately, and Willow stepped in. It had barely even interrupted her conversation with Xander. The doors closed behind Buffy as she entered and the elevator started racing upward.
Was she doing the right thing? She'd been so angry in the moment, but the chilly reality of a turf war in Sunnydale was already setting in. She knew that she couldn't work with Faith, but working against the Initiative was going to suck.
"Buffy, do we have a plan?" Willow asked. Xander was probably listening in too, still on her line.
She made a snap decision. "Meeting at Giles' place. Original recipe Scoobies only." All of them had dealt with Faith before. Hopefully they'd come up with a way to rein her in again.
"A well-funded government project shows up in Sunnydale with cool weapons, motivated troops, and a can-do attitude. Does anyone else feel like they should have known it was too good to be true?" Xander took a bite of his donut glumly.
"But, hey, if they had to have a dark secret, at least it wasn't something worse," Oz said.
"It's Faith," Willow said darkly, scrunched up against Oz with a pout on her face. "What could be worse?"
"Point," Oz said. "At least it isn't two Faiths?"
"Nope, then one of them would have to be the good twin," Xander said. "Comic book rules."
"I guess it couldn't be worse then," Oz said.
Giles returned from the kitchen, carrying two cups of tea. "Surely they aren't just letting her run wild? Professor Walsh might not have the best judgement herself, but the government as a whole tends to take a dim view of juvenile delinquents, especially those with such a dire and recent record." Giles handed the other cup to Oz, who disentangled an arm from Willow to grab it.
"I didn't stay for the whole 411, but Maggie was all with the 'bad decisions' and 'second chances,'" Buffy said. "Faith seemed to interpret that as a second chance to make the bad decision of pissing me off."
"Yeah, or maybe she'd like a second chance to sock me in the jaw," Willow griped. "Did she just like, spring her on you by surprise after the long boring day of demon judging?"
"She knew I'd be mad and was trying to pull some kind of move," Buffy said. "She tried to say that letting a bunch of demons who never so much as jaywalked out of jail was somehow the same as signing up Miss Convicted Murderess for urban policing duty."
"Xander, you were touring some of the Initiative's agents today, weren't you?" Giles said. "Were they aware of the situation?"
"Yes and no," Xander said. "I gave that Finn guy the third degree when Willow broke the news, and he admitted Faith pulled him and his boys out of the fire on election night."
"When they fought the Mok'tagar the second time and barely survived?" Buffy asked.
"I thought the camera work she showed us of that fight was a little suspicious," Willow said. "But I just assumed she didn't want her soldiers to look bad. I'll pull up the records myself later."
"'The Director' told them not to mention her until after today," Xander made air quotes around Maggie's title, "but she didn't say why. He thought she was part of some kind of secret super soldier project."
"Super bitchy, maybe," Willow said.
"Regardless, that could explain Professor Walsh's confidence in her intentions," Giles said. "Faith could've easily escaped in the midst of that, if what we saw was any indicator."
"And where would she have gone then?" Xander said. "She'd be hunted by us, the cops, and the three-letter-agencies too. She'd stick with her sugar momma Maggie whether she was really with her program or not."
"Until she gets a chance for another spectacular betrayal," Buffy said. She didn't believe for a second that Faith really wanted a life of saluting and taking orders.
"Is there anything we can actually do about that?" Oz said. "Because on all the TV shows, when the Feds go up against the locals, it doesn't go great for the locals."
"I can hack in, try to get some dirt on them," Willow said. "It might take a little effort though. They aren't computer geniuses, but they aren't as clueless as Wolfram and Hart were either. I could jump their airgap and mess around with their servers easy enough when I was on the base, but they're far enough underground that doing it remotely will, well, take some doing."
"I doubt they'll take that lying down," Giles said. "In fact, they know enough about your capabilities that they may well take preventative measures."
"There isn't that much they can do in the long run, aside from going totally analog," Willow said.
"I think he means something more direct," Oz said gently.
"Oh. Oh no! You're totally right, I'm such a spaz. Faith's even kidnapped me once already. But classes! I can't just avoid campus!"
"Maggie has to know it'd be total war if she did something like that," Buffy tried to convince herself.
"And without Willow, our options to attack a fortified underground base are rather limited," Giles said. "Your government is capable of kidnapping and far worse. I have no doubt they will use any methods they expect to get away with if they do not feel they are in control."
"They're not beyond anything they can get away with," Xander confirmed. "Soldier memories are a big ugly confirmation there."
"We can't live in fear," Buffy said. "This is our town. We'll just have to play defense. I could take some of Willow's classes maybe. They couldn't get through me."
"Buffy, umm, don't take this the wrong way, but I'm taking a full courseload. And you're a lot busier with the whole mayor thing than me," Willow said.
Buffy wasn't so sure that was actually true, given all of Willow's spell research and magic department leadership and hacking projects, but then again Willow was kind of a machine. And also had a machine that was sort of her. "I could maybe take some of your classes?"
"You might sort of like archaeology," Willow said. "But didn't you have some of your own plans already? I don't want to cramp your college style."
"I could assign you a security detail," Xander said. "Daytime is slow anyway, and it won't be much different from how I had guys driving you around when you got your leg messed up this summer."
"No offense to your guys Xander, but how many?" Buffy asked. "They're good enough for their troops maybe, but I'm not sure they're really up to dealing with a psycho Slayer."
"Point," he admitted.
"Oh, maybe Warren could help?" Willow said.
"What?" Buffy asked. That had come out of nowhere.
"Oh, right, you weren't there at the election afterparty," Willow said. "Warren showed up at Crawford street."
"He did?" Buffy asked. She really had to deal with that misunderstanding soon.
"Yeah, he was asking after you, but then he totally understood when I told him you fell asleep on your desk," Willow continued. "But he had some cool gadgets he was showing off, they were kind of a hit."
"They were cool. But none of them were really up to dealing with a Slayer either," Xander said. "And I know he hasn't gotten any of it to the mass production stage yet."
"But maybe they could hold her off long enough for me to get away," Willow said. "Especially combined with a little magic."
"He seemed pretty possessive," Oz said. "I think he lowkey wants to become a superhero."
"But if we 'explain' the situation, together, I'm sure he'd help," Willow said, with some super-troubling emphasis. "Buffy could totally convince him."
Buffy was really going to have to tell her friends about the whole Harmony thing soon.
Vote: What security measures are you going to set up for Willow on campus? The security detail is easy, but begging some of Warren's escape trinkets off him could be a little socially dubious. Additionally, Buffy needs to decide what class she's taking as a part-timer this semester at UC Sunnydale, if any.
[][Class] Buffy takes Archaeology with Willow.
[][Class] Buffy takes a different class (stunt what it is.)
[][Class] Buffy's too busy, she doesn't take any classes.
[][Warren] Buffy and Willow will meet with Warren to explain the situation and get her some escape tricks.
[][Warren] Buffy invents an excuse for why they shouldn't meet with Warren (a stunt may help.)
S4.0E2: Coming Out
It was all she could do to get out of there; for a second she'd been so angry she thought she might kill someone.
"Just giving orders and walking off." It'd obviously been too much to think Faith would take the jumbo-sized hint. "You really do think you own this town, don't you?"
Buffy couldn't help stopping to face her. "Well, I'm only the mayor, but I think that carries more legitimacy than some secret agents in a basement."
"The mayor," Faith shook her head, "You didn't wait a fucking day, did you? You just took him out and then took his place. Is that what you wanted all along? To be able to boss everyone around, instead of just your cute little fan club? Did you have to ice anyone else to make it happen?"
"It wasn't like that at all! It was about responsibility, which I admit, is a completely foreign concept to you!"
Maggie emerged from the office, looking more than a little rattled. "Girls! Mayor Summers. I understand this is a shock, but there's no need for hysterics. Despite her belligerent attitude, which I assure you she will hear about from me, Faith is completely under control."
"I thought I had her under control too," Buffy said. "Then she killed someone and tried to frame me for it."
"Way I remember it, you didn't give me much of a choice," Faith said.
"What, because I didn't hide the body for you?" Buffy said, approaching her. "Because I didn't want to lie to my friends? You had all the choice in the world, Faith. You could've trusted us. We would've helped you. Instead you took the easy road and betrayed us. Just like you will again, the second they give you a chance."
"Because you're just perfect little Buffy going 'woe is me'," Faith said. "What I did, you made me do to save myself. When you stabbed me in the gut, that was to save the dead guy you were fucking. But wait, guess you managed that anyway somehow. Had to try that 'easy road' first though, am I right?"
"Shut up, Faith."
"The way I'm guessing it, you must've fed him yourself. Did it make you all tingly and wet, when he bit into your neck? Like something out of one of those ratty paperbacks, right up to the part where he leaves you after he got what he-"
KILL
The wall next to Faith's head exploded into concrete shrapnel as Buffy's hammer missed it by inches, leaving a gaping hole into an empty and now somewhat destroyed lab. All three of them were silent for a moment with varying degrees of shock, but Buffy recovered first, turning again and leaving. She wasn't sure that she didn't regret aiming to miss.
Faith didn't follow her this time, but she had to get in a parting shot, "Way to waste everyone's tax money, B. Did it make you feel better than me?"
Buffy made herself ignore her, also resolutely not paying attention to the growing commotion behind her as various soldiers and scientists were drawn to the source of the noise. A couple of them gave her troubled looks as they passed her by, but none of them dared to speak up. Were they afraid of her? Maybe they should be.
Willow was still poking at a workstation and lecturing the scientist there when she arrived back in the large central space. "We're leaving."
Willow hadn't noticed her until she'd said it. "Buffy! You're done? What happened? And why are there little bits of rubble in your hair?"
"Turns out they aren't stopping the demon behavior research with moderately insane goals like controlling Fyarls and Vampires. Faith's here, all dressed up like a perfect little soldier."
"No way! This is where she ended up? And she isn't in chains? Do they not know the whole story of the murder and attempted world-ending?"
Buffy put on her best sarcastic impression of Maggie's deliberate voice, "She's 'far too valuable a resource to be wasted.'"
"Did you fight her? Did she get away?" Willow was looking around now, and her pet scientist was edging away as she was distracted.
"No, I," maybe property damage hadn't been the most responsible decision. "I made a statement. But the Feds are protecting her, we can't really do anything without declaring war."
"Well, I'm up for it if you are," Willow said in a low voice.
Buffy was so tempted. "No. We can't. I just told them off. Let's get out of here."
Willow grimaced. "Fine. But we need to warn Xander, who knows what kinds of mischief those soldier goons he's meeting with are getting into." Willow got out her radio and started talking as she made for the elevator they'd first gotten here in. Buffy remembered that Xander was still probably still showing Finn around Crawford street; she should've already warned him herself. It'd been impossible to think about anything but Faith's taunting voice, but she needed to get her act together again, fast.
The elevator door didn't open for them as they reached it, and Buffy realized they didn't have a keycard or anything. For a second she thought they might have to use one of the exit tunnels instead, but Willow just put her hand up against it and viciously said "Open!" There was a spark from the panel, but the doors slid open immediately, and Willow stepped in. It had barely even interrupted her conversation with Xander. The doors closed behind Buffy as she entered and the elevator started racing upward.
Was she doing the right thing? She'd been so angry in the moment, but the chilly reality of a turf war in Sunnydale was already setting in. She knew that she couldn't work with Faith, but working against the Initiative was going to suck.
"Buffy, do we have a plan?" Willow asked. Xander was probably listening in too, still on her line.
She made a snap decision. "Meeting at Giles' place. Original recipe Scoobies only." All of them had dealt with Faith before. Hopefully they'd come up with a way to rein her in again.
------------------------------------------------------------------
"A well-funded government project shows up in Sunnydale with cool weapons, motivated troops, and a can-do attitude. Does anyone else feel like they should have known it was too good to be true?" Xander took a bite of his donut glumly.
"But, hey, if they had to have a dark secret, at least it wasn't something worse," Oz said.
"It's Faith," Willow said darkly, scrunched up against Oz with a pout on her face. "What could be worse?"
"Point," Oz said. "At least it isn't two Faiths?"
"Nope, then one of them would have to be the good twin," Xander said. "Comic book rules."
"I guess it couldn't be worse then," Oz said.
Giles returned from the kitchen, carrying two cups of tea. "Surely they aren't just letting her run wild? Professor Walsh might not have the best judgement herself, but the government as a whole tends to take a dim view of juvenile delinquents, especially those with such a dire and recent record." Giles handed the other cup to Oz, who disentangled an arm from Willow to grab it.
"I didn't stay for the whole 411, but Maggie was all with the 'bad decisions' and 'second chances,'" Buffy said. "Faith seemed to interpret that as a second chance to make the bad decision of pissing me off."
"Yeah, or maybe she'd like a second chance to sock me in the jaw," Willow griped. "Did she just like, spring her on you by surprise after the long boring day of demon judging?"
"She knew I'd be mad and was trying to pull some kind of move," Buffy said. "She tried to say that letting a bunch of demons who never so much as jaywalked out of jail was somehow the same as signing up Miss Convicted Murderess for urban policing duty."
"Xander, you were touring some of the Initiative's agents today, weren't you?" Giles said. "Were they aware of the situation?"
"Yes and no," Xander said. "I gave that Finn guy the third degree when Willow broke the news, and he admitted Faith pulled him and his boys out of the fire on election night."
"When they fought the Mok'tagar the second time and barely survived?" Buffy asked.
"I thought the camera work she showed us of that fight was a little suspicious," Willow said. "But I just assumed she didn't want her soldiers to look bad. I'll pull up the records myself later."
"'The Director' told them not to mention her until after today," Xander made air quotes around Maggie's title, "but she didn't say why. He thought she was part of some kind of secret super soldier project."
"Super bitchy, maybe," Willow said.
"Regardless, that could explain Professor Walsh's confidence in her intentions," Giles said. "Faith could've easily escaped in the midst of that, if what we saw was any indicator."
"And where would she have gone then?" Xander said. "She'd be hunted by us, the cops, and the three-letter-agencies too. She'd stick with her sugar momma Maggie whether she was really with her program or not."
"Until she gets a chance for another spectacular betrayal," Buffy said. She didn't believe for a second that Faith really wanted a life of saluting and taking orders.
"Is there anything we can actually do about that?" Oz said. "Because on all the TV shows, when the Feds go up against the locals, it doesn't go great for the locals."
"I can hack in, try to get some dirt on them," Willow said. "It might take a little effort though. They aren't computer geniuses, but they aren't as clueless as Wolfram and Hart were either. I could jump their airgap and mess around with their servers easy enough when I was on the base, but they're far enough underground that doing it remotely will, well, take some doing."
"I doubt they'll take that lying down," Giles said. "In fact, they know enough about your capabilities that they may well take preventative measures."
"There isn't that much they can do in the long run, aside from going totally analog," Willow said.
"I think he means something more direct," Oz said gently.
"Oh. Oh no! You're totally right, I'm such a spaz. Faith's even kidnapped me once already. But classes! I can't just avoid campus!"
"Maggie has to know it'd be total war if she did something like that," Buffy tried to convince herself.
"And without Willow, our options to attack a fortified underground base are rather limited," Giles said. "Your government is capable of kidnapping and far worse. I have no doubt they will use any methods they expect to get away with if they do not feel they are in control."
"They're not beyond anything they can get away with," Xander confirmed. "Soldier memories are a big ugly confirmation there."
"We can't live in fear," Buffy said. "This is our town. We'll just have to play defense. I could take some of Willow's classes maybe. They couldn't get through me."
"Buffy, umm, don't take this the wrong way, but I'm taking a full courseload. And you're a lot busier with the whole mayor thing than me," Willow said.
Buffy wasn't so sure that was actually true, given all of Willow's spell research and magic department leadership and hacking projects, but then again Willow was kind of a machine. And also had a machine that was sort of her. "I could maybe take some of your classes?"
"You might sort of like archaeology," Willow said. "But didn't you have some of your own plans already? I don't want to cramp your college style."
"I could assign you a security detail," Xander said. "Daytime is slow anyway, and it won't be much different from how I had guys driving you around when you got your leg messed up this summer."
"No offense to your guys Xander, but how many?" Buffy asked. "They're good enough for their troops maybe, but I'm not sure they're really up to dealing with a psycho Slayer."
"Point," he admitted.
"Oh, maybe Warren could help?" Willow said.
"What?" Buffy asked. That had come out of nowhere.
"Oh, right, you weren't there at the election afterparty," Willow said. "Warren showed up at Crawford street."
"He did?" Buffy asked. She really had to deal with that misunderstanding soon.
"Yeah, he was asking after you, but then he totally understood when I told him you fell asleep on your desk," Willow continued. "But he had some cool gadgets he was showing off, they were kind of a hit."
"They were cool. But none of them were really up to dealing with a Slayer either," Xander said. "And I know he hasn't gotten any of it to the mass production stage yet."
"But maybe they could hold her off long enough for me to get away," Willow said. "Especially combined with a little magic."
"He seemed pretty possessive," Oz said. "I think he lowkey wants to become a superhero."
"But if we 'explain' the situation, together, I'm sure he'd help," Willow said, with some super-troubling emphasis. "Buffy could totally convince him."
Buffy was really going to have to tell her friends about the whole Harmony thing soon.
Vote: What security measures are you going to set up for Willow on campus? The security detail is easy, but begging some of Warren's escape trinkets off him could be a little socially dubious. Additionally, Buffy needs to decide what class she's taking as a part-timer this semester at UC Sunnydale, if any.
[][Class] Buffy takes Archaeology with Willow.
[][Class] Buffy takes a different class (stunt what it is.)
[][Class] Buffy's too busy, she doesn't take any classes.
[][Warren] Buffy and Willow will meet with Warren to explain the situation and get her some escape tricks.
[][Warren] Buffy invents an excuse for why they shouldn't meet with Warren (a stunt may help.)
Bleh. I was really hoping we could've gotten out of that one without making unnecessary enemies with the Initiative. Working with them could've curbed Maggie's bad decisions... like taking Faith on as a collaborator before she's gotten her late series character development in. Trying to jail Faith from under them might not have been a great plan either, but that still mostly just antagonized Faith and not the whole government program. Also, prison was good for Faith, miraculously.
Oh well. Maybe things won't turn out terribly? At least this gives us more opportunities to work on Faith more directly than shipping her off to prison and hoping for the best. Albeit in an antagonistic fashion, but still. Also, hopefully Faith has some brain cells to rub together and realizes the cyborg plan is a poor decision. Maybe she'll keep Maggie from going nuts.
Oh well. Maybe things won't turn out terribly? At least this gives us more opportunities to work on Faith more directly than shipping her off to prison and hoping for the best. Albeit in an antagonistic fashion, but still. Also, hopefully Faith has some brain cells to rub together and realizes the cyborg plan is a poor decision. Maybe she'll keep Maggie from going nuts.
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Hmmmm with regards to classes, do we have to enrol as a student to protect Willow? Or can we just hang around in the back of her class and do paperwork? Just exploring options.
Also, @DeAnno, did you intend to include an option to assign a security detail from SDCW or is that an automatic measure?
Also, @DeAnno, did you intend to include an option to assign a security detail from SDCW or is that an automatic measure?
Maggie was so very unprepared for this level of superstrength being tossed around. She got used to vampires, and Faith, and now she has Buffy teleporting hammers into her hand and smashing massive holes in solid concrete walls. I bet if she could rewind this chapter and start the whole thing over she would be a lot more careful and conciliatory to keep Buffy on side. I think she will also probably be pretty surprised at how quickly scoobies circling the wagons can turn into scoobies shooting outside and killing a bunch of threats, but that is more on us to keep an eye out for and for her to try to mitigate.
I don't think Faith is ever going to be able to forgive Buffy once she finds out that the godhood and position as mayor were supposed to be hers. Being the only slayer and having friends and a watcher was also supposed to be Faith's. This is just piling more things Buffy stole from her right onto her issues.
I don't think Faith is ever going to be able to forgive Buffy once she finds out that the godhood and position as mayor were supposed to be hers. Being the only slayer and having friends and a watcher was also supposed to be Faith's. This is just piling more things Buffy stole from her right onto her issues.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
There are quite a few options. Actual mass-murdering demons slip through the cracks in big cities, a single superpowered human wouldn't find it much more troublesome. Going to another city would rule out the Scoobies as pursuit, another country would rule out cops and some of those three-letter-agencies.
And then she could always get help from a qualified lawyer and get a lenient sentence. And a good paycheck, even.
Absent some kind of extra incentive, Faith is only as tied to the Initiative as she wants to be.
Not as limited as it may sound. There is CyberWillow too, and they can't kidnap her as easily.
Besides that, being a local dimensional power means we have the luxury of, shall we say, extradimensional contacts that could render a vast array of services for a fee. Might be a bit pricey, but if the Initiative make a bigger problem of themselves than the nuisance of making demonic pacts...
I think any open action against Willow would be a tremendously bad idea on Maggie's part, but it might be the kind of idea that only appears tremendously bad in hindsight.
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Some kind of management or legal class may be useful?
The episode is titled Coming Out, so Willow will understand why we are shooting down and awkward when we meet Warren within a day or two. I do think we should go despite the awkwardness, because machinery and such seem like they would go very well with Willow. Also encouraging him into some sort of Watch aligned superheroism is much better than letting him plunge into supervillainy.
I'm not particularly interested in going to classes, Buffy replaced her highschool time with a full time job in mayoring. Doing two full time jobs between being mayor and slaying on topic of spending hours every week on a class just seems like an overreach.
I'm not particularly interested in going to classes, Buffy replaced her highschool time with a full time job in mayoring. Doing two full time jobs between being mayor and slaying on topic of spending hours every week on a class just seems like an overreach.
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DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
That is indeed automatic.
[x] [Class] Buffy takes a different class (Public Administration and city planning)
[x][Warren] Buffy and Willow will meet with Warren to explain the situation and get her some escape tricks.
Ok buffy is now ruler of a small city and well while these is a narrative quest Buffy going to units important for many reasons. Her image as a girl who fights crime. That she is a role model to women everywhere. That she actually does need to know how to mayor and Public Administration or city planning would be good for her. Her mom would be happy that she is going to university. It gives her a excuse to be on campus.
@DeAnno is there a reason we can not tell the council and let them "deal" with it?
[x][Warren] Buffy and Willow will meet with Warren to explain the situation and get her some escape tricks.
Ok buffy is now ruler of a small city and well while these is a narrative quest Buffy going to units important for many reasons. Her image as a girl who fights crime. That she is a role model to women everywhere. That she actually does need to know how to mayor and Public Administration or city planning would be good for her. Her mom would be happy that she is going to university. It gives her a excuse to be on campus.
@DeAnno is there a reason we can not tell the council and let them "deal" with it?
- Pronouns
- She/Her
So what I'm getting from this is that Warren is on his way to being an Iron Man expy. I could live with this.
[X][Class] Buffy takes Archaeology with Willow.
[X][Warren] Buffy and Willow will meet with Warren to explain the situation and get her some escape tricks.
I smell a sidequest hook on Archaeology, and I am here for it. Who knows, maybe that would help us IC get onto the scent of the Gem of Amara. No wasting it on Angel this time.
@DeAnno - this doesn't necessarily fit well as a stunt onto either of the votes, so I wanted to ask about it: could Buffy ask Giles if he thinks the injection used in the Cruciamentum could be weaponized as an Anti-Faith ace in the hole, and if so could he try and replicate it? Not to mass produce or hand out to everyone, obviously, but as like a holdout for the core Scoobies.
[X][Class] Buffy takes Archaeology with Willow.
[X][Warren] Buffy and Willow will meet with Warren to explain the situation and get her some escape tricks.
I smell a sidequest hook on Archaeology, and I am here for it. Who knows, maybe that would help us IC get onto the scent of the Gem of Amara. No wasting it on Angel this time.
@DeAnno - this doesn't necessarily fit well as a stunt onto either of the votes, so I wanted to ask about it: could Buffy ask Giles if he thinks the injection used in the Cruciamentum could be weaponized as an Anti-Faith ace in the hole, and if so could he try and replicate it? Not to mass produce or hand out to everyone, obviously, but as like a holdout for the core Scoobies.
- Location
- Internet
[X][Class] Buffy's too busy, she doesn't take any classes.
[X][Warren] Buffy and Willow will meet with Warren to explain the situation and get her some escape tricks.
[X][Warren] Buffy and Willow will meet with Warren to explain the situation and get her some escape tricks.
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
The council could've been gotten involved with the earlier vote, but wasn't, so I'd prefer not to relitigate that immediately. They'll come back on rotation soon enough.
Giles couldn't do it himself for a variety of reasons involving technical and chemical expertise, but he could provide enough information that Warren might be able to. If you actually want to try that it'll require a majority stunt subvote on the contact Warren vote, because it's obviously kind of a sensitive thing to give someone to weaponize.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Thing of it is, the Council would do one of three things -- tell us "Ohoho, independence isn't all it's cracked up to be, is it? Bloody Americans. Cheerio! [sips tea]" ... attempt to abduct Faith and put her through the best 'reprogramming' they can muster (which would really just be kicking the Faith can down the road a bit, since she and/or they will eventually be looking for a reckoning with us, only now they have a Slayer on their side) ... or they'd just try to kill her and roll the dice that the next Slayer in line will be more pliable (which puts us back in the position of 'Council has a grudge and a pet Slayer to nurse it with'). Not to mention that any direct action against Faith at this point is probably going to be taken as an action against a government asset, and treated as such -- and I imagine the Council, arrogant shits that they are, are far less inclined to declare war against a government agency than they are against us.
...eeeek. Is it at all possible Willow could handle that? It's asking yet another thing too much of her, sure, but I remember her being good with science and chemistry before she found magic (and when she was trying to 'stay clean' in canon). If not, though, I can understand why
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
Willow doesn't really work wet, and she isn't the best at making actual tinkertoy type stuff either. She could try, but it'd kind of be a team effort even with Warren, having Willow try to do it all on her own would be pretty tricky. Like, she could just levitate a syringe, but she might miss the injection, or she might get the drug wrong somehow beforehand; Giles' notes on the formula aren't like, great, and they're going to require some interpretation and maybe even substitutions.
Also, remember the drug was originally fairly slow-acting. Warren would have to do something to give it an extra accelerating kick if it's going to help Willow in a confrontation.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
Alrighty, that all makes sense. So, what does the collective think of the option of weaponizing the Cruciamentum?
It would definitely make an unexpected secret weapon against Faith (assuming she wasn't made aware of it at the time; she wasn't estranged from the group yet) but I worry about trusting Warren with such a weapon before he's proven where he stands, and I worry about proliferation of so potent an anti-Slavery weapon -- can't unring that bell. On the other hand, we don't know that it would work on Buffy at all given her recent power development, and we do know she's smart & cunning enough to work around it if she is temporarily debilitated ... plus, if anything happened to Faith, this would be a useful Batman-style contingency plan against future Slayers if they posed a problem.
It would definitely make an unexpected secret weapon against Faith (assuming she wasn't made aware of it at the time; she wasn't estranged from the group yet) but I worry about trusting Warren with such a weapon before he's proven where he stands, and I worry about proliferation of so potent an anti-Slavery weapon -- can't unring that bell. On the other hand, we don't know that it would work on Buffy at all given her recent power development, and we do know she's smart & cunning enough to work around it if she is temporarily debilitated ... plus, if anything happened to Faith, this would be a useful Batman-style contingency plan against future Slayers if they posed a problem.
- Location
- United States
I think Buffy should take Maggie's Psych Class.
Willow Power or CyberWillow Power?
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
One thing to remember is that CyberWillow and Willow often work together, so it gets a little confusing, but they don't have identical powers at all.
Willow was a conventional witch first who specialized into Cybermancy, which principally manifests in two ways. First of all, Willow has a lot of control over computer technology; she can access it when she shouldn't be able to, make it do things it shouldn't let her, connect it together, break it apart, etc etc. She doesn't strictly need a medium to work over, but connections like the internet or being right next to the machines physically makes things easier. She can work through intermediaries for the second thing; we've seen that with the portable server she had in the van during S3.5E13, and she's using more of those in SDCW vans now. This aspect of Willow's powers is trope-like 'magical hacking' taken to an extreme of it actually being magic.
Willow can still do more conventional magic, but to really punch hard she needs to basically disassemble conventional spells and rebuild them with a computerized flavor. We've seen this in the past with both the Information Horizon spell against remote viewing and the Best Path Guidance spell. Having her laptop present is mostly necessary for doing complicated things this way, though it also lets her cheat on other components that might be normally required. Ordinarily knowing enough about how spells work on a base level to do this sort of extreme surgery would be difficult for a new practitioner to find out, but Wilkins' Library has had a lot of helpful material in that regard.
CyberWillow's main thing isn't either of the above; instead she excels in information processing. She can remember and search through huge stores of information, learn new material extremely quickly, pay attention to large amounts of stuff at once, multitask on several fronts at the same time, and complete mundane bookkeeping tasks in seconds that would take a normal person hours. She does not so much control computers as operate them. Oftentimes Willow's magic will let her access vast amounts of information at once, and CyberWillow will be able to take that information and sort it quickly and comprehensively.
Normally, spell creation/reformatting of the sort that Willow does requires a lot of trial and error, and CyberWillow is able to assist her with this in a big way, though the main reason for that is Willow's paradigm is already digital; she couldn't do as much for Jonathan, for instance. Despite this, CyberWillow doesn't do much actual capital M magic besides the innate kind that allows her to think and exist in the first place, and is incapable of a lot of vulgarly magical hacking Willow can do (though she can of course hack in a more conventional way.) For CyberWillow to access someone's bank account, she needs to guess the password, or compromise security in some other essentially mundane fashion. Willow can cast spells through the internet at the bank server until it just does what she says.
- Location
- Before the Ninth Gate
Oh, I just noticed the title. This is going to be fun!
As for class, I think an economics class would be excellent. Not only is the subject immediately relevant, but also good economics classes teach about unintended consequences and how simple solutions can backfire.
[X][Class] Buffy takes a different class (stunt what it is.)
-[X] Economics
If more people vote for this I will go for it.
- Location
- Vancouver
Ooh, this episode is looking to be very good. Also, gotta say that I really like moment of silence when Buffy smashed out with her hammer. Maggie being shocked makes sense, but I get the sense that Faith was too- not by just how mad Buffy was, but also by how fast it must have been. Faith is pretty cocky, thinking she's on about Buffys level, but this might be the first hint that that's no longer true.
I can't wait to see how Buffy deals with this, and how she'll tell them all the truth about her and Harmony. That's going to be a... tough conversation. Willow in particular is probably going to be hurt by it. She's (one of) Buffy's best friends, and Buffy kept it a secret from her, on top of her own, likely still subconscious, feelings on the matter. That's why I think we should take archaeology with Willow. Gives us reasons to be close to her and hopefully fix any issues there, as well as helping guard her sometimes at the school, to help ward off the Initiative if they think to try something. Plus, Archaeology will probably just be useful for us in general. As for Warrren... ugh. Don't want to drive him into villainy or anything close to that path but getting some things to defend Willow might be nice. Will us visiting him now cause any problems before we make the relationship known? Hard to say (Willow is trying to wingwoman for us already, so that might compound the problem). I'll vote for going to see him now, unless any makes a good case for not going.
[X][Class] Buffy takes Archaeology with Willow.
[X][Warren] Buffy and Willow will meet with Warren to explain the situation and get her some escape tricks.
I think... it's too much risk for too little reward at this point in time. We still don't know if Faith has or could get the Draconian Katra or not, at which point our 'anti-Faith' weapon could easily be turned against Buffy. It could also be used against Buffy later on by anyone who knew about (even discounting mind control, which is a very real concern, both Willow and Warren would know about it and in canon, they both went bad at points. The possibility is there). Plus, there's no guarantee that anyone fighting her would be able to succeed at injecting Faith if she was after them. And that still would only protect the core scoobies against Faith, none of the other Initiative soldiers.
I can't wait to see how Buffy deals with this, and how she'll tell them all the truth about her and Harmony. That's going to be a... tough conversation. Willow in particular is probably going to be hurt by it. She's (one of) Buffy's best friends, and Buffy kept it a secret from her, on top of her own, likely still subconscious, feelings on the matter. That's why I think we should take archaeology with Willow. Gives us reasons to be close to her and hopefully fix any issues there, as well as helping guard her sometimes at the school, to help ward off the Initiative if they think to try something. Plus, Archaeology will probably just be useful for us in general. As for Warrren... ugh. Don't want to drive him into villainy or anything close to that path but getting some things to defend Willow might be nice. Will us visiting him now cause any problems before we make the relationship known? Hard to say (Willow is trying to wingwoman for us already, so that might compound the problem). I'll vote for going to see him now, unless any makes a good case for not going.
[X][Class] Buffy takes Archaeology with Willow.
[X][Warren] Buffy and Willow will meet with Warren to explain the situation and get her some escape tricks.
I think... it's too much risk for too little reward at this point in time. We still don't know if Faith has or could get the Draconian Katra or not, at which point our 'anti-Faith' weapon could easily be turned against Buffy. It could also be used against Buffy later on by anyone who knew about (even discounting mind control, which is a very real concern, both Willow and Warren would know about it and in canon, they both went bad at points. The possibility is there). Plus, there's no guarantee that anyone fighting her would be able to succeed at injecting Faith if she was after them. And that still would only protect the core scoobies against Faith, none of the other Initiative soldiers.
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Olivebirdy
mook.
[X][Class] Buffy takes a different class (stunt what it is.)
-[X] Economics
-[X] Economics