Successor (BTVS)
- Thread starter DeAnno
- Start date
- Mature
Have you seen the dance it is amazing! Just imagine how many votes Buffy will get.
- Location
- Canada
[X] Battle plan: The best Defense is a Good Offense
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
So right now we have three competing plans. 3 votes for Dancing with Xander and Anya, 3 votes for fighting, and 2 votes for attempting to construct a closed timelike curve. I think these three are all divergent enough that I'm not comfortable lumping any together, so we will have Sudden Death now between the Best Defense is a Good Offense plan and the Dirty Dancing plan.
Be warned, gentle readers, that if you ever actually vote to defy the arrow of time the consequences may be great and terrible.
Be warned, gentle readers, that if you ever actually vote to defy the arrow of time the consequences may be great and terrible.
- Location
- Germany
[X] Plan Dirty Dancing
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
Looks like the choice is to push back the boundaries of propriety on SV yet again.
Yeah I would have been happy if your vote won, but the time travel one seems like it would escalate things really fast just to win a dance battle. Back when we had the option of picking what to do in buffy's house as harmony I was thinking about putting forward a 'go look through buffy's sisters room' vote. I stopped myself mainly out of worry it might win and that deanno would actually make Dawn and all her problems appear. Time travel has a very similar vibe to me.
- Location
- Vancouver
Wow, yeah thank you for not doing that. Buffy has been doing well with her slayer boost and hammer, but she is nowhere near ready to take on Glory.
Temes1066
To Defy Gravity you must Let It Go
- Location
- Coleraine
I'm kinda curious, what is Tara Maclay up to: Is she still heading to UC Sunnydale or might she be going elsewhere, like UCLA?
Edit: Why did Tara go to UC Sunnydale, in the first place? I mean surely, she knew that Sunnydale was on a Hellmouth, right?
Edit: Why did Tara go to UC Sunnydale, in the first place? I mean surely, she knew that Sunnydale was on a Hellmouth, right?
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She sort of has to still be heading to UC Sunnydale. She would have committed to classes there at the end of season 3, and I don't think we have done anything so noticeable that she would turn around and run away.
My big Tara question is what will she do when she finds out the local government has a magic department. I'm not sure successor Willow has the free time or inclination to show up at a wicca group to meet her, so the impetus to get into the group might have to come from her. I do get something or a kick out of the idea of Jonathon being her entry point into the series though.
Temes1066
To Defy Gravity you must Let It Go
- Location
- Coleraine
I know, it is likely that Tara would be attending UC Sunnydale.
However, I just have this charming image of Tara in LA, while looking to make ends meet decides to become a secretary for a certain P.I. group.
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But then how will Tara/cyberwillow end up happening?!?!
S3.5E11: Lights in the Sky VI
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
[X] Plan Dirty Dancing
-[X] Buffy, Xander and Anya will be the dancers
-[X] Music is something by dingoes ate my baby
Buffy had been sorely tempted to just attack, even with the implicit threat of the musicians. The SDCW had had training for asymmetric warfare after all, and Xander had been confident in his troops for this close encounter. But as much as boss towel satyr was a jerk, he was kind of right.
She'd been off balance, being caught out on the beach with Harmony, and maybe she could've tried something more diplomatic than a sneak attack. They clearly weren't in the right either, buzzing around the town, freaking people out, and probably perving whenever they got the chance, but a total massacre with no survivors was maybe a little extreme in retaliation. She worried about this 'rave' they were suggesting as their stakes, but again, it didn't sound like the sort of thing where anyone would die. She didn't have any illusions that things would be totally on the level, but deescalating the situation was reasonable here.
She shifted her grip on the hammer, letting it rest back on the ground. "Fine. We can dance over this then. How does this trial of yours even work?"
"As the challengers, we will perform first," their leader said. "Perhaps you can learn from example, and not completely embarrass yourselves."
Buffy rolled her eyes at his condescension, but she was fine with that, really. It would give her more time to think and a less vague idea of what to do without having to be pandered at by the alien faeries any more. The big one who had set up the totem joined their snooty leader, and a smaller, vaguely young-looking one had emerged from the ship to be their third. The two musicians started an archaic, jaunty tune on their pipes and lyre, and the dance began.
It was not at all like Buffy was expecting; instead of some kind of pornographic display or a wild tap dance with hooves (not that there was any surface to tap on, but she still had half-expected it), it was almost like a ballet. And it wasn't even some kind of love story; as best as she could tell, it was about the horrors of war.
The three satyrs first mimed a military march, but the music soon took a darker turn, and the rhythmic battles they acted out seemed more hopeless than glorious. The three of them pantomimed fighting and elegantly let themselves fall again and again, and each engagement was shorter and more decisive than the last. Whenever one 'died', their last moments struggling on the ground always seemed to elegantly transition back to a new life, seemingly playing a new character. Eventually, some kind of illusion even started to manifest (she was pretty sure it was from the music somehow), and instead of being stabbed to death the satyrs were dodging, and failing to dodge, colorful explosions. Things escalated from there until the finale, when an illusionary projectile that looked suspiciously like the shell she'd shot out of the AT4 exploded in their midst, and they all flung themselves wildly to the ground. They lay there at the end, their sudden stillness seeming out of place, as the music faded out to an eerie stop.
The totem started pulsing with light and sound afterwards, and Buffy counted seven pulses before it stopped. When it was done, the satyrs got right up, none the worse for their seeming demises, and their leader sighed in a put-upon way. "It appears that you have a sporting chance. Pan is always so discriminating when one attempts serious drama, but if you cannot create as you will, then what can you truly do?"
Buffy wasn't sure what to say to that, so she just nodded, and headed to the minivan. She thought that maybe they could win and end this sideshow for good, but there would be a cost. A terrible cost, but one that had to be paid. Not in money or blood, but something plenty real none the less.
Cynthia was still calm and ready to drive in the front, and she saw Xander and Anya watching in the row behind, still looking a little bedraggled. The windows had all been rolled open and Buffy heard the AC running full steam anyway. Doing her best to ignore the implications, Buffy asked, "Are you two decent in there?"
"Yes…" Xander said hesitatingly, as he took the moment to pull a shirt on. "But if there's going to be dancing instead of an enormous battle, that means I can just relax and enjoy the show, right?"
"Wrong," Buffy said. "You are the show. Anya, I assume that dancing is among the thousand plus things you've picked up over the last thousand plus years?"
"I mean, that's definitely true, but are you sure you know what you're getting into Buffy?" Anya had apparently gotten farther than Xander in recovering her dignity and she slipped out of the van, her light outfit complete with sensible sandals. "A dance battle isn't to be entered into lightly, and with a totem like that providing a direct line to a god emotions might get pretty heated."
Buffy frowned. Mind control, really? "The satyrs seemed fine. I think? I don't really know how they usually are, besides annoying."
"You might just find yourself really getting into it," Anya explained. "And I assume you didn't come over to talk to the two people who were just having kinky sex because your plan is PG13. By the way, did you know that-"
"Let's just leave it at kinky sex, Ahn." Xander was decent enough to come out now too, though he didn't manage to look quite as together as Anya did. Well, that was probably for the best.
"Spoil my fun," Anya complained mischievously.
"Look, I'm not proposing we strip or anything. But if we could maybe do something a little, well, risque. That's a good word for what we need. It seemed to be the kind of thing Pan was looking for? And I have a feeling this rave idea they have would be way worse on that front anyway." If they had emotion-pushy stuff going on, Buffy definitely didn't trust Harmony to keep a lid on things in a rave (and maybe not herself either), much less everything else that could go wrong.
"You may be all slayer-skills Buff, and Anya has enough experience to turn me into a puddle, but I'm not exactly the limberest of the limber," Xander said. "Maybe you could get Cordelia? Or Harmony? She's all vampy now, and coordination was never her dysfunction anyway."
"But if it's just us girls there wouldn't be any sexual tension," Buffy lied, trying to get the subject away from throwing Harmony into the very public and possibly mind affecting sexy dance with her. A glance at Anya showed her eyebrows had gone up at the idea, but luckily, she was keeping mum.
"Xander, are you saying you don't want to do a sexy dance with me and the slayer?" Anya asked critically, distracting him from the idea. "Are you saying I bought that toy stake for nothing?"
Xander managed to still be able to speak, somehow, "I, um, sure. We can dance. A nice dance will be fine, and they'll be no more talk of the-"
"Sexcapades?" Anya suggested.
"Yes, those." Xander said.
Buffy wasn't sure what she thought about that, for her part. It hadn't been too long ago that she'd been all blissed out on drugs and cuddling into Xander's shoulder, but he was very totally with Anya and there was the thing with Harmony now. The good, exciting, very secret thing. Before she could make more forward progress on the plan though, Willow walked up behind them, cradling her laptop in one arm. Oz was right behind her, though he was worriedly keeping his eyes on the satyrs.
"So it's going to be you three? That'll probably work," she said.
"Not that we don't think you could dance up a storm, Will," Xander said.
"No storms tonight for me," she said, definitely sounding relieved. "But I can help your storm, well, with music, I mean."
"CyberWillow has all the Dingoes music," Oz said helpfully.
"Willow felt that was important to include for my formative stage," her voice carried from the computer speakers. "Some sources say that music is the window to the soul, but I think it may be more similar to an Ethernet connection."
"I think your laptop might be a little small to rock out the clearing, Willow." Buffy said.
"Jonathan can fill in the gap. I talked it over with him, and I should be able to hook an amplifier spell into one of his illusions." Willow waved to him across the clearing, where he was setting up some kind of circle. "You guys need to pick out a song though."
Willow handed the laptop over and Buffy scrolled through the list with the others looking over her shoulder. She had to walk a fine line between suggestive and reasonable if she wanted to win and still keep her dignity intact, but Oz's band would be good for that. "Hey, Oz, is this the song with the na-na-na?"
"We have a few songs with a na-na-na," Oz said.
Buffy turned it on to listen to the start. "OK, yeah, this is it. Anya do you think we can work this?"
"Well, it'll do the job," she said. "You're a hundred percent sure you want to get into this?"
"It'll be fine," Buffy wasn't sure if she was telling them or herself.
However frustrating the satyrs were, they did at least give them plenty of time to get ready. Buffy, Anya, and Xander listened to the song a few times and did some hasty planning, while Willow and Jonathan did some sound testing. The leader satyr just stood around looking arrogant while they worked, but some of the other ones were having chats with some of Buffy's people. She noticed Clem was particularly engaged in telling some kind of story, but didn't have time to focus on listening in. Cortez and his crew were still filming, so she figured they were probably going to use these satyrs for something, but she'd have to make sure nothing too scandalous actually got into the movie.
After about twenty minutes, Buffy felt they were ready, and Willow gave her a thumbs up as she handed her the laptop and it was placed carefully in Jonathan's chalk circle. Buffy hadn't been aware that you could plug Ethernet cables into magic circles, but then again she wasn't going to be taking computer science this fall.
Finally, she took her team back to the middle of the clearing. "Alright, we're ready to do this. Any rules about how we start or anything?" After she finished talking, the totem pulsed once, as if in signal.
"As you can see, anytime is fine," the leader said, backing away to give them more space. "In all honesty, I'm passing surprised you managed to put anything together at all." What a charmer.
Not to be deterred, Buffy signalled to Willow, and the music started, echoing across the clearing, sounding everpresent and sourceless.
Anya and Xander took center stage to start, dancing together as if they were in the Bronze, while Buffy stalked in from the side, dancing low to the ground as if she was unseen. Soon enough she'd gotten right up next to them, and she struck, spinning Anya away and took Xander for herself. Harmony was maybe going to be a little jealous, but the whole thing was just dancing. She'd make it up to her later; it wasn't like she'd had a chance to explain in the middle of this giant collection of people, some of them probably with superhearing (she didn't trust that Clem's ears were for show, that was for sure.)
WANT
It'd been almost two years since she'd danced with Xander like this last, and the circumstances of that hadn't exactly been great. But they'd gotten past it. They'd grown. And even if the Buffy from two years ago might've been more… attracted to this Xander, she'd changed too. Definitely in ways she didn't expect. She was dating Harmony (the beach totally still counted as a date), and even if it was secret, that probably meant she was totally into girls and this wasn't going to be awkward for her at all. It was just… comfortable. That was a good word for it. Comfortable, snuggly Xander.
Her comfy-wild dancing time was rudely interrupted by Anya bodychecking her out of the way, and even though Buffy was able to turn it into a cartwheel, she was a little annoyed. I mean, sure, that was in the plan, but wasn't it supposed to be a few verses later? Maybe a little more warning? Whatever, she could swing with it.
Buffy strategically had left her hammer lying around, and she grabbed it up now, doing some vaguely pole-dancy moves with it as she circled around, dance-stalking the couple again. She managed to get the timing right for improvising a couple drum beats on the ground too, and they worked even better with Jonathan's literal surround sound than they had when she'd been testing the trick out before. The totem even seemed to pulse in rhythm with her blows, as if in approval.
WANT
But that wasn't really important. What was important was that it was her turn to dance with Xander next. Buffy waited it out for as long as she could, knowing she had to build anticipation, but eventually she couldn't help but to strike. This time she elegantly just inserted herself where Anya was supposed to be, peeling Xander into herself instead and leaving Anya to pole dance with her hammer instead.
Her hammer which may have been moving a little too fast. But Anya was an athletic girl and still managed to get it planted into the dirt as if nothing had gone wrong. That was good. Anya was her friend. A fun friend. But just, she really needed to dance with Xander right now. Anya could maybe have her leftovers when she was done.
The song was building up to a crescendo, all the na-na-nas coming out and getting ready for the end. Buffy knew she was supposed to let Anya take over and… well, she would. Even though it would kind of suck. But she could do other sucking things with Harmony tonight. Because, really, dancing with Xander was getting her excited but it was also letting her new slayery instincts point out in really helpful detail all the hundreds of different places she could break him if she pulled or prodded him the wrong way.
WANT
So Buffy was taken completely by surprise when it was Xander that swung out of the way of Anya's last grab, leaving his girlfriend swiping at air and tripping into the dust. She could've maybe dodged herself when Xander kissed her, but really, could she be blamed? It's not like there wouldn't be any Xander left afterwards. There would definitely be plenty of Buffy left. It wasn't a nice chilly Harmony kiss, but she would be satisfied with it for now.
Then the music ended, and Buffy realized she was kissing Xander. She jerked away, horrified with herself, and the clearing was dead silent except for the pulsing of Pan's totem. All of her people were clearly afraid to say anything, and even the satyrs seemed a little gobstruck. Well, the big one seemed gobstruck by Willow and Jonathan's sound setup instead of what had happened, but still.
"Congratulations." The leader satyr said, sounding even more put upon than he had before. "As usual, Pan's tastes have a certain influence, but I cannot gainsay his judgement. I believe our spinning chariot is repaired enough to fly, so we will leave your humble village be, unless called upon again."
So, they'd won? Buffy didn't feel like a winner. Anya had gotten back up, and looked about to say something.
Xander spoke first, abruptly but uncertainly, "Ahn-"
"I'm not as angry as I would've been if you were actually cheating. Because a lot of that was mind control," Anya said, as if she was arguing with herself instead of talking about her feelings. "But really Xander? It definitely came from somewhere."
"I, um-" Buffy started. She wanted to mollify Anya, but her eyes were looking over to the side, at Harmony in the distance. She was glaring daggers at Xander. That wasn't great. "This is definitely not just his fault."
Xander was about to continue his sentence, but Anya interrupted again before he could. "Don't say anything right now. I'll see you at home." Then she turned to face Buffy, "And next time I warn you about something, pay more attention!" With that, she walked off, heading right for Clem. He looked like a deer in the headlights of an annoyed bus driver.
There was a distracting flash and buzz from the UFO, which lifted into the sky again, all the satyrs inside and the totem packed away. It was a little wobbly, but it managed to float off over the woods and out of sight. Xander hadn't been as distracted as she was by their exit, and was looking at her with a confused expression.
"That can't happen again," they both said in stereo.
"Good to know we're on the same page," Xander said.
"Yup, except in the sense of not sharing something so small," Buffy agreed.
"Exactly," Xander continued. "I'm going to just go bang my head against a tree for a while now."
Buffy grimaced, but wasn't sure what to say to that as Xander walked away too. She looked around for Harmony, and after some searching that she tried to make not look frantic saw her in the passenger seat of Cynthia's van, apparently talking her ear off, but still looking human. Well, at least she was accounted for. Probably. Buffy was a little bit terrified of a destructive response, especially if she didn't realize about the mind control, but Harmony seemed to be processing things at least.
So. UFO gone, movie still filming, no demons or former demons going on killing sprees. Hopefully. Buffy stood alone in the center of the clearing.
Vote: Who does Buffy go to talk to?
[] She needs to talk to Harmony, even if drawing more attention to Harmony's response to all this is going to be suspicious with everyone around.
[] She has to make sure things are right with Anya. She totally deserves a dressing down from her, and doesn't want Anya to pull punches or anything just because she's her boss or something.
[] Xander's one of her best friends and he's totally backed her up all summer. Buffy couldn't let him beat himself up all alone in the woods over something like this.
[] Maybe it would be best if Buffy didn't talk to anybody right now, and just went home for the night. It would all seem better in the morning.
[] Write In: Buffy goes to talk to someone else (Who?) Each will be counted individually, not as a group.
-[X] Buffy, Xander and Anya will be the dancers
-[X] Music is something by dingoes ate my baby
Buffy had been sorely tempted to just attack, even with the implicit threat of the musicians. The SDCW had had training for asymmetric warfare after all, and Xander had been confident in his troops for this close encounter. But as much as boss towel satyr was a jerk, he was kind of right.
She'd been off balance, being caught out on the beach with Harmony, and maybe she could've tried something more diplomatic than a sneak attack. They clearly weren't in the right either, buzzing around the town, freaking people out, and probably perving whenever they got the chance, but a total massacre with no survivors was maybe a little extreme in retaliation. She worried about this 'rave' they were suggesting as their stakes, but again, it didn't sound like the sort of thing where anyone would die. She didn't have any illusions that things would be totally on the level, but deescalating the situation was reasonable here.
She shifted her grip on the hammer, letting it rest back on the ground. "Fine. We can dance over this then. How does this trial of yours even work?"
"As the challengers, we will perform first," their leader said. "Perhaps you can learn from example, and not completely embarrass yourselves."
Buffy rolled her eyes at his condescension, but she was fine with that, really. It would give her more time to think and a less vague idea of what to do without having to be pandered at by the alien faeries any more. The big one who had set up the totem joined their snooty leader, and a smaller, vaguely young-looking one had emerged from the ship to be their third. The two musicians started an archaic, jaunty tune on their pipes and lyre, and the dance began.
It was not at all like Buffy was expecting; instead of some kind of pornographic display or a wild tap dance with hooves (not that there was any surface to tap on, but she still had half-expected it), it was almost like a ballet. And it wasn't even some kind of love story; as best as she could tell, it was about the horrors of war.
The three satyrs first mimed a military march, but the music soon took a darker turn, and the rhythmic battles they acted out seemed more hopeless than glorious. The three of them pantomimed fighting and elegantly let themselves fall again and again, and each engagement was shorter and more decisive than the last. Whenever one 'died', their last moments struggling on the ground always seemed to elegantly transition back to a new life, seemingly playing a new character. Eventually, some kind of illusion even started to manifest (she was pretty sure it was from the music somehow), and instead of being stabbed to death the satyrs were dodging, and failing to dodge, colorful explosions. Things escalated from there until the finale, when an illusionary projectile that looked suspiciously like the shell she'd shot out of the AT4 exploded in their midst, and they all flung themselves wildly to the ground. They lay there at the end, their sudden stillness seeming out of place, as the music faded out to an eerie stop.
The totem started pulsing with light and sound afterwards, and Buffy counted seven pulses before it stopped. When it was done, the satyrs got right up, none the worse for their seeming demises, and their leader sighed in a put-upon way. "It appears that you have a sporting chance. Pan is always so discriminating when one attempts serious drama, but if you cannot create as you will, then what can you truly do?"
Buffy wasn't sure what to say to that, so she just nodded, and headed to the minivan. She thought that maybe they could win and end this sideshow for good, but there would be a cost. A terrible cost, but one that had to be paid. Not in money or blood, but something plenty real none the less.
Cynthia was still calm and ready to drive in the front, and she saw Xander and Anya watching in the row behind, still looking a little bedraggled. The windows had all been rolled open and Buffy heard the AC running full steam anyway. Doing her best to ignore the implications, Buffy asked, "Are you two decent in there?"
"Yes…" Xander said hesitatingly, as he took the moment to pull a shirt on. "But if there's going to be dancing instead of an enormous battle, that means I can just relax and enjoy the show, right?"
"Wrong," Buffy said. "You are the show. Anya, I assume that dancing is among the thousand plus things you've picked up over the last thousand plus years?"
"I mean, that's definitely true, but are you sure you know what you're getting into Buffy?" Anya had apparently gotten farther than Xander in recovering her dignity and she slipped out of the van, her light outfit complete with sensible sandals. "A dance battle isn't to be entered into lightly, and with a totem like that providing a direct line to a god emotions might get pretty heated."
Buffy frowned. Mind control, really? "The satyrs seemed fine. I think? I don't really know how they usually are, besides annoying."
"You might just find yourself really getting into it," Anya explained. "And I assume you didn't come over to talk to the two people who were just having kinky sex because your plan is PG13. By the way, did you know that-"
"Let's just leave it at kinky sex, Ahn." Xander was decent enough to come out now too, though he didn't manage to look quite as together as Anya did. Well, that was probably for the best.
"Spoil my fun," Anya complained mischievously.
"Look, I'm not proposing we strip or anything. But if we could maybe do something a little, well, risque. That's a good word for what we need. It seemed to be the kind of thing Pan was looking for? And I have a feeling this rave idea they have would be way worse on that front anyway." If they had emotion-pushy stuff going on, Buffy definitely didn't trust Harmony to keep a lid on things in a rave (and maybe not herself either), much less everything else that could go wrong.
"You may be all slayer-skills Buff, and Anya has enough experience to turn me into a puddle, but I'm not exactly the limberest of the limber," Xander said. "Maybe you could get Cordelia? Or Harmony? She's all vampy now, and coordination was never her dysfunction anyway."
"But if it's just us girls there wouldn't be any sexual tension," Buffy lied, trying to get the subject away from throwing Harmony into the very public and possibly mind affecting sexy dance with her. A glance at Anya showed her eyebrows had gone up at the idea, but luckily, she was keeping mum.
"Xander, are you saying you don't want to do a sexy dance with me and the slayer?" Anya asked critically, distracting him from the idea. "Are you saying I bought that toy stake for nothing?"
Xander managed to still be able to speak, somehow, "I, um, sure. We can dance. A nice dance will be fine, and they'll be no more talk of the-"
"Sexcapades?" Anya suggested.
"Yes, those." Xander said.
Buffy wasn't sure what she thought about that, for her part. It hadn't been too long ago that she'd been all blissed out on drugs and cuddling into Xander's shoulder, but he was very totally with Anya and there was the thing with Harmony now. The good, exciting, very secret thing. Before she could make more forward progress on the plan though, Willow walked up behind them, cradling her laptop in one arm. Oz was right behind her, though he was worriedly keeping his eyes on the satyrs.
"So it's going to be you three? That'll probably work," she said.
"Not that we don't think you could dance up a storm, Will," Xander said.
"No storms tonight for me," she said, definitely sounding relieved. "But I can help your storm, well, with music, I mean."
"CyberWillow has all the Dingoes music," Oz said helpfully.
"Willow felt that was important to include for my formative stage," her voice carried from the computer speakers. "Some sources say that music is the window to the soul, but I think it may be more similar to an Ethernet connection."
"I think your laptop might be a little small to rock out the clearing, Willow." Buffy said.
"Jonathan can fill in the gap. I talked it over with him, and I should be able to hook an amplifier spell into one of his illusions." Willow waved to him across the clearing, where he was setting up some kind of circle. "You guys need to pick out a song though."
Willow handed the laptop over and Buffy scrolled through the list with the others looking over her shoulder. She had to walk a fine line between suggestive and reasonable if she wanted to win and still keep her dignity intact, but Oz's band would be good for that. "Hey, Oz, is this the song with the na-na-na?"
"We have a few songs with a na-na-na," Oz said.
Buffy turned it on to listen to the start. "OK, yeah, this is it. Anya do you think we can work this?"
"Well, it'll do the job," she said. "You're a hundred percent sure you want to get into this?"
"It'll be fine," Buffy wasn't sure if she was telling them or herself.
However frustrating the satyrs were, they did at least give them plenty of time to get ready. Buffy, Anya, and Xander listened to the song a few times and did some hasty planning, while Willow and Jonathan did some sound testing. The leader satyr just stood around looking arrogant while they worked, but some of the other ones were having chats with some of Buffy's people. She noticed Clem was particularly engaged in telling some kind of story, but didn't have time to focus on listening in. Cortez and his crew were still filming, so she figured they were probably going to use these satyrs for something, but she'd have to make sure nothing too scandalous actually got into the movie.
After about twenty minutes, Buffy felt they were ready, and Willow gave her a thumbs up as she handed her the laptop and it was placed carefully in Jonathan's chalk circle. Buffy hadn't been aware that you could plug Ethernet cables into magic circles, but then again she wasn't going to be taking computer science this fall.
Finally, she took her team back to the middle of the clearing. "Alright, we're ready to do this. Any rules about how we start or anything?" After she finished talking, the totem pulsed once, as if in signal.
"As you can see, anytime is fine," the leader said, backing away to give them more space. "In all honesty, I'm passing surprised you managed to put anything together at all." What a charmer.
Not to be deterred, Buffy signalled to Willow, and the music started, echoing across the clearing, sounding everpresent and sourceless.
Anya and Xander took center stage to start, dancing together as if they were in the Bronze, while Buffy stalked in from the side, dancing low to the ground as if she was unseen. Soon enough she'd gotten right up next to them, and she struck, spinning Anya away and took Xander for herself. Harmony was maybe going to be a little jealous, but the whole thing was just dancing. She'd make it up to her later; it wasn't like she'd had a chance to explain in the middle of this giant collection of people, some of them probably with superhearing (she didn't trust that Clem's ears were for show, that was for sure.)
WANT
It'd been almost two years since she'd danced with Xander like this last, and the circumstances of that hadn't exactly been great. But they'd gotten past it. They'd grown. And even if the Buffy from two years ago might've been more… attracted to this Xander, she'd changed too. Definitely in ways she didn't expect. She was dating Harmony (the beach totally still counted as a date), and even if it was secret, that probably meant she was totally into girls and this wasn't going to be awkward for her at all. It was just… comfortable. That was a good word for it. Comfortable, snuggly Xander.
Her comfy-wild dancing time was rudely interrupted by Anya bodychecking her out of the way, and even though Buffy was able to turn it into a cartwheel, she was a little annoyed. I mean, sure, that was in the plan, but wasn't it supposed to be a few verses later? Maybe a little more warning? Whatever, she could swing with it.
Buffy strategically had left her hammer lying around, and she grabbed it up now, doing some vaguely pole-dancy moves with it as she circled around, dance-stalking the couple again. She managed to get the timing right for improvising a couple drum beats on the ground too, and they worked even better with Jonathan's literal surround sound than they had when she'd been testing the trick out before. The totem even seemed to pulse in rhythm with her blows, as if in approval.
WANT
But that wasn't really important. What was important was that it was her turn to dance with Xander next. Buffy waited it out for as long as she could, knowing she had to build anticipation, but eventually she couldn't help but to strike. This time she elegantly just inserted herself where Anya was supposed to be, peeling Xander into herself instead and leaving Anya to pole dance with her hammer instead.
Her hammer which may have been moving a little too fast. But Anya was an athletic girl and still managed to get it planted into the dirt as if nothing had gone wrong. That was good. Anya was her friend. A fun friend. But just, she really needed to dance with Xander right now. Anya could maybe have her leftovers when she was done.
The song was building up to a crescendo, all the na-na-nas coming out and getting ready for the end. Buffy knew she was supposed to let Anya take over and… well, she would. Even though it would kind of suck. But she could do other sucking things with Harmony tonight. Because, really, dancing with Xander was getting her excited but it was also letting her new slayery instincts point out in really helpful detail all the hundreds of different places she could break him if she pulled or prodded him the wrong way.
WANT
So Buffy was taken completely by surprise when it was Xander that swung out of the way of Anya's last grab, leaving his girlfriend swiping at air and tripping into the dust. She could've maybe dodged herself when Xander kissed her, but really, could she be blamed? It's not like there wouldn't be any Xander left afterwards. There would definitely be plenty of Buffy left. It wasn't a nice chilly Harmony kiss, but she would be satisfied with it for now.
Then the music ended, and Buffy realized she was kissing Xander. She jerked away, horrified with herself, and the clearing was dead silent except for the pulsing of Pan's totem. All of her people were clearly afraid to say anything, and even the satyrs seemed a little gobstruck. Well, the big one seemed gobstruck by Willow and Jonathan's sound setup instead of what had happened, but still.
"Congratulations." The leader satyr said, sounding even more put upon than he had before. "As usual, Pan's tastes have a certain influence, but I cannot gainsay his judgement. I believe our spinning chariot is repaired enough to fly, so we will leave your humble village be, unless called upon again."
So, they'd won? Buffy didn't feel like a winner. Anya had gotten back up, and looked about to say something.
Xander spoke first, abruptly but uncertainly, "Ahn-"
"I'm not as angry as I would've been if you were actually cheating. Because a lot of that was mind control," Anya said, as if she was arguing with herself instead of talking about her feelings. "But really Xander? It definitely came from somewhere."
"I, um-" Buffy started. She wanted to mollify Anya, but her eyes were looking over to the side, at Harmony in the distance. She was glaring daggers at Xander. That wasn't great. "This is definitely not just his fault."
Xander was about to continue his sentence, but Anya interrupted again before he could. "Don't say anything right now. I'll see you at home." Then she turned to face Buffy, "And next time I warn you about something, pay more attention!" With that, she walked off, heading right for Clem. He looked like a deer in the headlights of an annoyed bus driver.
There was a distracting flash and buzz from the UFO, which lifted into the sky again, all the satyrs inside and the totem packed away. It was a little wobbly, but it managed to float off over the woods and out of sight. Xander hadn't been as distracted as she was by their exit, and was looking at her with a confused expression.
"That can't happen again," they both said in stereo.
"Good to know we're on the same page," Xander said.
"Yup, except in the sense of not sharing something so small," Buffy agreed.
"Exactly," Xander continued. "I'm going to just go bang my head against a tree for a while now."
Buffy grimaced, but wasn't sure what to say to that as Xander walked away too. She looked around for Harmony, and after some searching that she tried to make not look frantic saw her in the passenger seat of Cynthia's van, apparently talking her ear off, but still looking human. Well, at least she was accounted for. Probably. Buffy was a little bit terrified of a destructive response, especially if she didn't realize about the mind control, but Harmony seemed to be processing things at least.
So. UFO gone, movie still filming, no demons or former demons going on killing sprees. Hopefully. Buffy stood alone in the center of the clearing.
Vote: Who does Buffy go to talk to?
[] She needs to talk to Harmony, even if drawing more attention to Harmony's response to all this is going to be suspicious with everyone around.
[] She has to make sure things are right with Anya. She totally deserves a dressing down from her, and doesn't want Anya to pull punches or anything just because she's her boss or something.
[] Xander's one of her best friends and he's totally backed her up all summer. Buffy couldn't let him beat himself up all alone in the woods over something like this.
[] Maybe it would be best if Buffy didn't talk to anybody right now, and just went home for the night. It would all seem better in the morning.
[] Write In: Buffy goes to talk to someone else (Who?) Each will be counted individually, not as a group.
I really am glad that Anya is so much more tied into the group than she was in canon. This is an utter disaster there this early into things. Here on the other hand Anya is clearly remembering that her boyfriend and her best friend are idiot teenagers that don't have centuries of dealing with magic and gods and invisitext mind control. With any luck Xander can deal with the consequences of his little dodge and leave Buffy to deal with Anya asserting herself as the adviser that Buffy better listen to.
[X] She needs to talk to Harmony, even if drawing more attention to Harmony's response to all this is going to be suspicious with everyone around.
I am glad that Harmony is still in human face after that, but talking to her about this is still the top priority.
[x] Xander's one of her best friends and he's totally backed her up all summer. Buffy couldn't let him beat himself up all alone in the woods over something like this.
[x] She has to make sure things are right with Anya. She totally deserves a dressing down from her, and doesn't want Anya to pull punches or anything just because she's her boss or something.
[x] She has to make sure things are right with Anya. She totally deserves a dressing down from her, and doesn't want Anya to pull punches or anything just because she's her boss or something.
