Emote Control
Plenty of genius, not enough sense.
[X] LA native Charles Gunn is here with his crew, and his tricked out truck has some kind of cannon set up in the back of it.
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- Thread starter DeAnno
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[X] LA native Charles Gunn is here with his crew, and his tricked out truck has some kind of cannon set up in the back of it.
I was going to go for Kate, just to make Buffy's life more interesting, but the idea of Gunn being the nucleus for the LA crew is cool.
I was going to go for Kate, just to make Buffy's life more interesting, but the idea of Gunn being the nucleus for the LA crew is cool.
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[X] LA native Charles Gunn is here with his crew, and his tricked out truck has some kind of cannon set up in the back of it.
Well, only one option came with a technical.
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OMG!! I totally forgot about that!
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- Tarn-Vedra
[X] LA native Charles Gunn is here with his crew, and his tricked out truck has some kind of cannon set up in the back of it.
S3.5E13: Might Makes Right IV
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
[X] LA native Charles Gunn is here with his crew, and his tricked out truck has some kind of cannon set up in the back of it.
The motley force of demons turned to face the oncoming vehicle, and even as they did Buffy sprang back into action, feeling revitalized and ready to keep fighting. The sound of Harmony's impractical heels hitting the pavement and Andrew's magic pipes playing once again behind her let her know she'd have backup flanking what amounted to a small warband. Even the illusion Buffys abandoned their robotic movements and turned to charge alongside her.
Ahead of her, as the truck drove into the alley it twisted itself to the side, careening into the leading demons and forming a makeshift barrier blocking the alley. Armed teenagers fought from behind and inside it with machetes and crossbows, while the guy aiming the cannon in the cargo bed sent a stake flying out of it and right through one of the green demons.
One of his compatriots called out, "Heed the foul cow sorcery! But we will triumph by the force of our noble arms and brazen dignity!" Something told her these guys weren't local.
The street kids weren't doing that well after the initial clash with the demons, clearly not used to their superior strength, but Buffy hit the back of their line before things got out of control, wiping away the life of another melty-face with a single swing of her hammer and sending his corpse crashing into another two demons to the side. Several demons to her side dodged her illusion clones frantically in the confusion, and when another green guy tried to get behind her to flank she caught Harmony ripping out his throat in the corner of her eye.
In front of her, she saw one of the kids defending the flatbed had a head wound bleeding angrily and was going down, but before he fell a dark skinned one in a wrap grabbed him and passed him to relative safety behind the truck. A demon tried to slash at him with some kind of bone weapon when he was busy, but Andrew's flying monkey dived down and fouled up his aim, giving the new fighter time to stab back with his sword.
"The hell is this nonsense up in my hood?" he exclaimed, seeming more surprised by the monkey helping him than the demons attacking. He kept fighting in spite of it though, and the well-defended stake cannon behind him landed another deadly shot in an unlucky demon.
Buffy felt a little bad for getting whoever these guys were involved in her war, but she'd have to make it up to them later. In between blows, she explained, "Sometimes you just want to come to the city to window shop, but the salespeople are so aggressive these days."
"Is that, or umm, are those Buffy Summers? Summerses?" She heard from across the sea of demons. Before she could address that particular claim, she noticed Harmony had bit off more than she could chew, and she backed off from the line for a second to give her some relief.
A scaly demon had grappled Harmony, and while she tried to slip free of it one of the green ones was stabbing at her with a spear. He got her right in the bandages from her earlier fight, and she cried out as the pain interrupted her escape attempt. The demon laughed at her pain, "Such is the fate of a fangy cow that bites the feeding hand!"
KILL
Growling in anger, Buffy grabbed the spear by the shaft and pulled it back out of Harmony, knocking the demon who'd held it from his feet as she did. "This is the fate of jerks who call my friends fat." She followed her instincts, reversing the weapon and putting the head of it not through his skull but his left hip instead, snapping straight through the bone. He dropped stone dead instantly, lying back on the pavement like a puppet with its strings cut.
Turning back to help Harmony with the big scaly, Buffy noticed trouble coming from the truck; the cannon had a shot lined up on the struggling pair. Dropping both weapons to get her hands free, she leapt forward, ripping the two of them apart as the cannon fired and using the scaly demon as a shield to catch the giant stake.
"Hey! Quit it, I'm on your side!" Harmony shouted back at the truck in complaint, one hand still holding together the reopened wound on her stomach.
The impaled scaly demon Buffy was still holding gurgled and died as she threw it to the ground, and she gave the cannoneer a stony glare as she stood over the corpse. He refocused elsewhere. Then she noticed that she hadn't let go of Harmony yet.
"Harmony, watch out for yourself OK?" Buffy asked, still reluctant to leave her alone with a wound like that. One of the skull demons chose that moment to attack, but Buffy used her free hand to punch it in the face and then she grabbed it by the neck and threw it back into the battle.
Harmony didn't want to delay her anymore though, and grabbed up Buffy's hammer from the ground herself, putting it back in her hands. "I'll be fine, go! Giles could use a bodyguard anyway." With that, she turned and limped back towards where he and Jonathan were still firing crossbows by the basement door.
Buffy semi-regretfully turned back to the battle line. Harmony wasn't the only one who wasn't fighting anymore; a couple more of the teenagers seemed to have fallen back, her illusion clones had mostly all popped, and the pile of demon corpses was huge now. Andrew's last little flying monkey was still in good shape though, diving in and out as nobody else in the fight had the spare attention to kill it.
The sword-wielding guy from before had gotten himself into a little trouble with another pair of the green demons wielding axes, but Buffy knew how to deal with them efficiently now. She stabbed with the hammer reversed, impaling one right in the butt. As he dropped dead her ally beheaded the other one, but the demon somehow kept screaming even as his head landed alone in the truckbed.
"Flee! The small straw-haired monster cow will be the end of us all!" It set off a chain reaction of panic.
"Her followers are legion!"
"This land's sorceries are too lethal!"
"We might never see another culling season!"
The remainder of the demons broke at that point, fleeing through the broken windows that had started the ambush just minutes earlier. Crossbows joined the stake cannon from all directions and punished them for it, but Buffy didn't overextend her own pursuit into the building. Too many of her people were exhausted or hurt, and the other group that had joined the fight on her side wasn't in good shape either.
Buffy grabbed the radio on her belt, covered in gore and blood but still hopefully working. "Cynthia, can you get the minivan to the alley? Their ambush retreated and we have wounded here."
"I'm already on my way," she replied. Willow had probably been keeping her appraised.
The guy with the sword stared at the radio she held as if it was alien technology. "You really must be Mayor Summers, huh? Got your whole suburban police force down here with ya to kill creepy crawlies?"
"Not exactly," At his raised eyebrow, she elaborated, feeling weirdly embarrassed. "I mean, I am Buffy, but I left the police back at home. My office manager's pretty good with first aid."
"So you left the police at home and brought a vampire and your secretary instead? Does the girl on the other side of the radio have fangs too?" He seemed more than a little hostile. That was understandable. She noticed the rest of his group was staying back or tending the wounded, letting him handle the conversation. He was probably their leader.
"No, just Harmony. She's a special case," She had a feeling the main reason he wasn't attacking her yet was because he thought he would lose.
"Harmony," he snorted. "Your pet vampire's name is Harmony? You gonna try to tell me she's vegetarian or something?"
Buffy breathed in and out, struggling to keep her cool. "Yes, she is a vegetarian. Zero people eaten." She couldn't let the name thing go though. "And I'll have you know that me and all my people only have the best names! What's yours anyway?"
"Gunn," he answered, a little reluctantly.
Her eyes flicked to the sword in his hands, and she made a little gesture. "Well, I'd say that you might be living in a glass house then."
He shook his head. "Look, this ain't the issue. I don't know what kind of wack stuff you do in Sunnydale, but around here, we know vampires don't shop at the local grocery. You can tell by the fangs."
"She doesn't eat humans," Buffy repeated. "Not even once. Vampires can do just fine on animal blood, most of them just don't have any reason to."
Gunn rolled his eyes. "Bullshit. Why don't they raid the butcher shops then? A lot easier than getting game off the street."
"It tastes awful to them. Which you'd know, if you knew as much about vampires as I do!" Buffy pointed at him.
Gunn was dismissive. "Vampires been on these streets since I was born, little miss mayor. Been fighting them over five years. Can you say the same?"
"Five years is pretty impressive," she admitted. "I've only done three. But you're playing in the little leagues."
"Excuse me?" Gunn had rounded back to being offended, but Buffy was in no mood for his attitude.
"How many city-destroying threats have you faced? World-destroying ones? Half of what's here is just spillover from the hellmouth in Sunnydale, and the other half is probably bought and paid for by the evil lawyers I'm fighting."
"Evil Lawyers?"
"You don't even know? In your own city?" Buffy pssshed. "Wolfram and Hart. They sent all these assassins, and I'm here killing them so they don't come them into my town next to cause trouble! For all I know they want to open the hellmouth and suck the world into some demon dimension, or maybe twist time into a knot and make every day a Monday!"
He shook his head, looking more disconcerted. "Look, it sounds like you're into some real heavy shit, and you may be some hotshot teen idol with a nice office, but that doesn't give you license to come into my hood and let your vampire roam around free."
"The whole politics thing? The movies? That's new. I've been the Vampire Slayer for three years." Gunn started on hearing that. She guessed that he knew what one was. That would help. "I've got uncooperative powers, stuffy english watchers, and a fancy title I can use instead of a name. Trust me when I say that I know what I'm talking about."
Gunn was still trying to frame a response when Cynthia arrived, distracting them both from the conversation. She gave Buffy a questioning look past the crowd, and Buffy released her to help out the downed kids with a gesture a nod. Turning back to Gunn, she said, "I need to see to my people. You probably want to see to yours. Are we going to have more trouble here or can we all play doctor in peace?" That brought a little smirk to Gunn's face, but she turned around and marched off before he could say anything. Maybe it hadn't been the best choice of words, but it'd been a long night and she really needed a towel.
After everyone's wounds were dressed, the atmosphere was a little less tense, thanks in no small part to the mysteriously fresh donuts Cynthia had extracted from the depths of the minivan. Both groups were clustered around and sitting in their respective vehicles (they'd made some space between themselves and the alley first), but a lot of the doors were open and there was some conversation going on. Buffy herself was chewing on a chocolate with her legs hanging out the side door and Harmony more or less hiding behind her. Giles had stolen the last jelly, but he was hurt so that was OK.
Gunn's sister, Alonna, was curious about magic. "So how does that even work?" she said, pointing at Andrew, who was working with his pipes in the backseat. He still had that last flying monkey patrolling around to make sure none of the assassins tried to circle back. "Can anyone play on that flute and just get a demon monkey to come?"
"It's a lot more complicated, actually," Jonathan explained. "That's just a magic focus. Andrew's been summoning for years now, there are a lot of mental components to it too."
"So what, do you all go to magic school in Sunnydale instead of normal school? Like Harry Potter or something?" She asked interestedly.
"If only," Buffy said. "Nope, school is just the same there, except with lots of random demons and other hijinx because it was right on top of the hellmouth."
"Was?" Gunn asked.
"We had to kind of explode it, so now it's moved. It's probably for the best," Buffy said.
"But still, can anyone just read about it and a book or whatever, and then: flying monkey?" Allonna persisted.
"I would caution against playing with dark forces too casually," Giles said. "Magic can be a useful tool in a skilled hand, but an inexperienced practitioner could put herself or others in grave danger."
"You really have to be a serious genius too," Harmony piped in from behind Buffy. Some of the street kids flinched. She wasn't in game face anymore, but they were still pretty disconcerted by her. "I tried to look at one of the books once and my brain pretty much turned inside out. But not literally. I think. Maybe that wouldn't be a big deal for me anymore? Oh, and can someone pass me another donut?"
"Never heard of a vampire eating normal food before," Gunn said.
"It doesn't taste as good, but plus: I can't gain weight from it anymore! Right Giles? You said that I wouldn't get fat."
"It's very unlikely," He clarified with a sigh. Buffy could tell that his spiritual pain was worse than the physical, which was a good sign, right?
"There, see, permission to donut!" She said.
Allonna was a little down though, "Oh. So you need special books, and special booksmarts too. Figures."
"You can come to Sunnydale to look at some if you want. It's the least we can do for your help," Willow's voice crackled over the radios. "But it is really hard work."
She looked at her brother, and his face was impassive, but he tilted his head a little in acknowledgement. "We could maybe work that out sometime. But don't we got some more urgent stuff to deal with?"
There was a bit of a pause, but then Andrew put down his pipes and spoke up. "You can have all the loot if you need it," he said, misunderstanding the question. Then he looked apologetically at Buffy. "That's OK right? I don't think they had anything magic."
"Not exactly what I meant," said Gunn.
"Those green devils did have some pretty nice gear, though," one of his friends piped up.
"Don't worry about cleanup," Buffy explained. "There are people in power who don't want stuff like this to cause a scene. They'll be by." If Wolfram and Hart didn't do it themselves, she knew Congressman Gold's people would.
"You really move in the serious circles huh? Is that how you got to be mayor?" Gunn asked.
"Nah," she said. "The last one turned into a giant snake and we killed him. Then everyone just started coming to me. I must project an air of authority or something."
"Probably more legit than whatever Simmons did here," Gunn said. "Our taxes ain't paying for slaying, that's for sure."
Buffy had the feeling that Gunn and his people didn't have many allies. She didn't want to leave them floundering, but there was only so much she'd be able to do herself. Sunnydale was its own responsibility. She knew some people in LA, but she didn't want to seem overbearing either; she got the sense Gunn was a proud sort.
Angel might not be a good idea right now. She wasn't even sure he was still in the city, and Gunn's gang was rightfully pretty jumpy about friendly vampires. She could maybe call him about Angel later, once they were like, talking again.
Vote: What contact does she give to Gunn now?
[] Nate Smith wasn't what she thought of as rough and tumble, but he did know some magic and his family connections might be useful for a group like this. He seemed like he might be eager for some more adventure too, and Gunn could definitely provide that.
[] Buffy wasn't sure what district in LA Congressman Gold represented, but Gunn was close enough to being one of his constituents that this felt a little like his responsibility. Maybe the official support would be useful for the rag tag group.
[] Percy West would be going to college at USC in just a few weeks, and he wasn't the only City Watch member who'd be going to college in LA. Both groups working together could do a lot more than either group working alone.
The motley force of demons turned to face the oncoming vehicle, and even as they did Buffy sprang back into action, feeling revitalized and ready to keep fighting. The sound of Harmony's impractical heels hitting the pavement and Andrew's magic pipes playing once again behind her let her know she'd have backup flanking what amounted to a small warband. Even the illusion Buffys abandoned their robotic movements and turned to charge alongside her.
Ahead of her, as the truck drove into the alley it twisted itself to the side, careening into the leading demons and forming a makeshift barrier blocking the alley. Armed teenagers fought from behind and inside it with machetes and crossbows, while the guy aiming the cannon in the cargo bed sent a stake flying out of it and right through one of the green demons.
One of his compatriots called out, "Heed the foul cow sorcery! But we will triumph by the force of our noble arms and brazen dignity!" Something told her these guys weren't local.
The street kids weren't doing that well after the initial clash with the demons, clearly not used to their superior strength, but Buffy hit the back of their line before things got out of control, wiping away the life of another melty-face with a single swing of her hammer and sending his corpse crashing into another two demons to the side. Several demons to her side dodged her illusion clones frantically in the confusion, and when another green guy tried to get behind her to flank she caught Harmony ripping out his throat in the corner of her eye.
In front of her, she saw one of the kids defending the flatbed had a head wound bleeding angrily and was going down, but before he fell a dark skinned one in a wrap grabbed him and passed him to relative safety behind the truck. A demon tried to slash at him with some kind of bone weapon when he was busy, but Andrew's flying monkey dived down and fouled up his aim, giving the new fighter time to stab back with his sword.
"The hell is this nonsense up in my hood?" he exclaimed, seeming more surprised by the monkey helping him than the demons attacking. He kept fighting in spite of it though, and the well-defended stake cannon behind him landed another deadly shot in an unlucky demon.
Buffy felt a little bad for getting whoever these guys were involved in her war, but she'd have to make it up to them later. In between blows, she explained, "Sometimes you just want to come to the city to window shop, but the salespeople are so aggressive these days."
"Is that, or umm, are those Buffy Summers? Summerses?" She heard from across the sea of demons. Before she could address that particular claim, she noticed Harmony had bit off more than she could chew, and she backed off from the line for a second to give her some relief.
A scaly demon had grappled Harmony, and while she tried to slip free of it one of the green ones was stabbing at her with a spear. He got her right in the bandages from her earlier fight, and she cried out as the pain interrupted her escape attempt. The demon laughed at her pain, "Such is the fate of a fangy cow that bites the feeding hand!"
KILL
Growling in anger, Buffy grabbed the spear by the shaft and pulled it back out of Harmony, knocking the demon who'd held it from his feet as she did. "This is the fate of jerks who call my friends fat." She followed her instincts, reversing the weapon and putting the head of it not through his skull but his left hip instead, snapping straight through the bone. He dropped stone dead instantly, lying back on the pavement like a puppet with its strings cut.
Turning back to help Harmony with the big scaly, Buffy noticed trouble coming from the truck; the cannon had a shot lined up on the struggling pair. Dropping both weapons to get her hands free, she leapt forward, ripping the two of them apart as the cannon fired and using the scaly demon as a shield to catch the giant stake.
"Hey! Quit it, I'm on your side!" Harmony shouted back at the truck in complaint, one hand still holding together the reopened wound on her stomach.
The impaled scaly demon Buffy was still holding gurgled and died as she threw it to the ground, and she gave the cannoneer a stony glare as she stood over the corpse. He refocused elsewhere. Then she noticed that she hadn't let go of Harmony yet.
"Harmony, watch out for yourself OK?" Buffy asked, still reluctant to leave her alone with a wound like that. One of the skull demons chose that moment to attack, but Buffy used her free hand to punch it in the face and then she grabbed it by the neck and threw it back into the battle.
Harmony didn't want to delay her anymore though, and grabbed up Buffy's hammer from the ground herself, putting it back in her hands. "I'll be fine, go! Giles could use a bodyguard anyway." With that, she turned and limped back towards where he and Jonathan were still firing crossbows by the basement door.
Buffy semi-regretfully turned back to the battle line. Harmony wasn't the only one who wasn't fighting anymore; a couple more of the teenagers seemed to have fallen back, her illusion clones had mostly all popped, and the pile of demon corpses was huge now. Andrew's last little flying monkey was still in good shape though, diving in and out as nobody else in the fight had the spare attention to kill it.
The sword-wielding guy from before had gotten himself into a little trouble with another pair of the green demons wielding axes, but Buffy knew how to deal with them efficiently now. She stabbed with the hammer reversed, impaling one right in the butt. As he dropped dead her ally beheaded the other one, but the demon somehow kept screaming even as his head landed alone in the truckbed.
"Flee! The small straw-haired monster cow will be the end of us all!" It set off a chain reaction of panic.
"Her followers are legion!"
"This land's sorceries are too lethal!"
"We might never see another culling season!"
The remainder of the demons broke at that point, fleeing through the broken windows that had started the ambush just minutes earlier. Crossbows joined the stake cannon from all directions and punished them for it, but Buffy didn't overextend her own pursuit into the building. Too many of her people were exhausted or hurt, and the other group that had joined the fight on her side wasn't in good shape either.
Buffy grabbed the radio on her belt, covered in gore and blood but still hopefully working. "Cynthia, can you get the minivan to the alley? Their ambush retreated and we have wounded here."
"I'm already on my way," she replied. Willow had probably been keeping her appraised.
The guy with the sword stared at the radio she held as if it was alien technology. "You really must be Mayor Summers, huh? Got your whole suburban police force down here with ya to kill creepy crawlies?"
"Not exactly," At his raised eyebrow, she elaborated, feeling weirdly embarrassed. "I mean, I am Buffy, but I left the police back at home. My office manager's pretty good with first aid."
"So you left the police at home and brought a vampire and your secretary instead? Does the girl on the other side of the radio have fangs too?" He seemed more than a little hostile. That was understandable. She noticed the rest of his group was staying back or tending the wounded, letting him handle the conversation. He was probably their leader.
"No, just Harmony. She's a special case," She had a feeling the main reason he wasn't attacking her yet was because he thought he would lose.
"Harmony," he snorted. "Your pet vampire's name is Harmony? You gonna try to tell me she's vegetarian or something?"
Buffy breathed in and out, struggling to keep her cool. "Yes, she is a vegetarian. Zero people eaten." She couldn't let the name thing go though. "And I'll have you know that me and all my people only have the best names! What's yours anyway?"
"Gunn," he answered, a little reluctantly.
Her eyes flicked to the sword in his hands, and she made a little gesture. "Well, I'd say that you might be living in a glass house then."
He shook his head. "Look, this ain't the issue. I don't know what kind of wack stuff you do in Sunnydale, but around here, we know vampires don't shop at the local grocery. You can tell by the fangs."
"She doesn't eat humans," Buffy repeated. "Not even once. Vampires can do just fine on animal blood, most of them just don't have any reason to."
Gunn rolled his eyes. "Bullshit. Why don't they raid the butcher shops then? A lot easier than getting game off the street."
"It tastes awful to them. Which you'd know, if you knew as much about vampires as I do!" Buffy pointed at him.
Gunn was dismissive. "Vampires been on these streets since I was born, little miss mayor. Been fighting them over five years. Can you say the same?"
"Five years is pretty impressive," she admitted. "I've only done three. But you're playing in the little leagues."
"Excuse me?" Gunn had rounded back to being offended, but Buffy was in no mood for his attitude.
"How many city-destroying threats have you faced? World-destroying ones? Half of what's here is just spillover from the hellmouth in Sunnydale, and the other half is probably bought and paid for by the evil lawyers I'm fighting."
"Evil Lawyers?"
"You don't even know? In your own city?" Buffy pssshed. "Wolfram and Hart. They sent all these assassins, and I'm here killing them so they don't come them into my town next to cause trouble! For all I know they want to open the hellmouth and suck the world into some demon dimension, or maybe twist time into a knot and make every day a Monday!"
He shook his head, looking more disconcerted. "Look, it sounds like you're into some real heavy shit, and you may be some hotshot teen idol with a nice office, but that doesn't give you license to come into my hood and let your vampire roam around free."
"The whole politics thing? The movies? That's new. I've been the Vampire Slayer for three years." Gunn started on hearing that. She guessed that he knew what one was. That would help. "I've got uncooperative powers, stuffy english watchers, and a fancy title I can use instead of a name. Trust me when I say that I know what I'm talking about."
Gunn was still trying to frame a response when Cynthia arrived, distracting them both from the conversation. She gave Buffy a questioning look past the crowd, and Buffy released her to help out the downed kids with a gesture a nod. Turning back to Gunn, she said, "I need to see to my people. You probably want to see to yours. Are we going to have more trouble here or can we all play doctor in peace?" That brought a little smirk to Gunn's face, but she turned around and marched off before he could say anything. Maybe it hadn't been the best choice of words, but it'd been a long night and she really needed a towel.
------------------------------------------------------------------
After everyone's wounds were dressed, the atmosphere was a little less tense, thanks in no small part to the mysteriously fresh donuts Cynthia had extracted from the depths of the minivan. Both groups were clustered around and sitting in their respective vehicles (they'd made some space between themselves and the alley first), but a lot of the doors were open and there was some conversation going on. Buffy herself was chewing on a chocolate with her legs hanging out the side door and Harmony more or less hiding behind her. Giles had stolen the last jelly, but he was hurt so that was OK.
Gunn's sister, Alonna, was curious about magic. "So how does that even work?" she said, pointing at Andrew, who was working with his pipes in the backseat. He still had that last flying monkey patrolling around to make sure none of the assassins tried to circle back. "Can anyone play on that flute and just get a demon monkey to come?"
"It's a lot more complicated, actually," Jonathan explained. "That's just a magic focus. Andrew's been summoning for years now, there are a lot of mental components to it too."
"So what, do you all go to magic school in Sunnydale instead of normal school? Like Harry Potter or something?" She asked interestedly.
"If only," Buffy said. "Nope, school is just the same there, except with lots of random demons and other hijinx because it was right on top of the hellmouth."
"Was?" Gunn asked.
"We had to kind of explode it, so now it's moved. It's probably for the best," Buffy said.
"But still, can anyone just read about it and a book or whatever, and then: flying monkey?" Allonna persisted.
"I would caution against playing with dark forces too casually," Giles said. "Magic can be a useful tool in a skilled hand, but an inexperienced practitioner could put herself or others in grave danger."
"You really have to be a serious genius too," Harmony piped in from behind Buffy. Some of the street kids flinched. She wasn't in game face anymore, but they were still pretty disconcerted by her. "I tried to look at one of the books once and my brain pretty much turned inside out. But not literally. I think. Maybe that wouldn't be a big deal for me anymore? Oh, and can someone pass me another donut?"
"Never heard of a vampire eating normal food before," Gunn said.
"It doesn't taste as good, but plus: I can't gain weight from it anymore! Right Giles? You said that I wouldn't get fat."
"It's very unlikely," He clarified with a sigh. Buffy could tell that his spiritual pain was worse than the physical, which was a good sign, right?
"There, see, permission to donut!" She said.
Allonna was a little down though, "Oh. So you need special books, and special booksmarts too. Figures."
"You can come to Sunnydale to look at some if you want. It's the least we can do for your help," Willow's voice crackled over the radios. "But it is really hard work."
She looked at her brother, and his face was impassive, but he tilted his head a little in acknowledgement. "We could maybe work that out sometime. But don't we got some more urgent stuff to deal with?"
There was a bit of a pause, but then Andrew put down his pipes and spoke up. "You can have all the loot if you need it," he said, misunderstanding the question. Then he looked apologetically at Buffy. "That's OK right? I don't think they had anything magic."
"Not exactly what I meant," said Gunn.
"Those green devils did have some pretty nice gear, though," one of his friends piped up.
"Don't worry about cleanup," Buffy explained. "There are people in power who don't want stuff like this to cause a scene. They'll be by." If Wolfram and Hart didn't do it themselves, she knew Congressman Gold's people would.
"You really move in the serious circles huh? Is that how you got to be mayor?" Gunn asked.
"Nah," she said. "The last one turned into a giant snake and we killed him. Then everyone just started coming to me. I must project an air of authority or something."
"Probably more legit than whatever Simmons did here," Gunn said. "Our taxes ain't paying for slaying, that's for sure."
Buffy had the feeling that Gunn and his people didn't have many allies. She didn't want to leave them floundering, but there was only so much she'd be able to do herself. Sunnydale was its own responsibility. She knew some people in LA, but she didn't want to seem overbearing either; she got the sense Gunn was a proud sort.
Angel might not be a good idea right now. She wasn't even sure he was still in the city, and Gunn's gang was rightfully pretty jumpy about friendly vampires. She could maybe call him about Angel later, once they were like, talking again.
Vote: What contact does she give to Gunn now?
[] Nate Smith wasn't what she thought of as rough and tumble, but he did know some magic and his family connections might be useful for a group like this. He seemed like he might be eager for some more adventure too, and Gunn could definitely provide that.
[] Buffy wasn't sure what district in LA Congressman Gold represented, but Gunn was close enough to being one of his constituents that this felt a little like his responsibility. Maybe the official support would be useful for the rag tag group.
[] Percy West would be going to college at USC in just a few weeks, and he wasn't the only City Watch member who'd be going to college in LA. Both groups working together could do a lot more than either group working alone.
Competent employees are such a treasure.
[X] Percy West would be going to college at USC in just a few weeks, and he wasn't the only City Watch member who'd be going to college in LA. Both groups working together could do a lot more than either group working alone.
[x] Buffy wasn't sure what district in LA Congressman Gold represented, but Gunn was close enough to being one of his constituents that this felt a little like his responsibility. Maybe the official support would be useful for the rag tag group.
Every city politician needs a underworld connection.
Every city politician needs a underworld connection.
I am quite sure that Gold will find a use for Gunn and his friends, and that Nate's father would be very willing to help his son go on adventures. The main problem there is that while they both provide useful resources the goal would be to make Gunn and co more useful to them, rather than just help Gunn in general.
Percy meanwhile is less immediately useful in a physical sense, but he provides connections to Buffy and thus the ability to call for help and information. The most important thing he probably brings to the table though is the absolute certainty that violence and explosions can solve your problems. He has seen giant snake monsters get blown up and their organization scatter or bend the knee to the girl that killed them and he has seen that if you use extreme and obvious violence in public against the supernatural nobody really questions it too hard. Does anyone think that a casino full of demons trying to collect Gunn's soul doesn't get burned down in the timeline where Percy and Gunn are working together? Gunn deserves to have a voice on his side that says 'yes, burning down that building full of demons is fine, nobody will look too hard at us over it because nobody wants to get stuck in the demon mess'
[X] Percy West would be going to college at USC in just a few weeks, and he wasn't the only City Watch member who'd be going to college in LA. Both groups working together could do a lot more than either group working alone.
Also, there was another KILL invisitext, this time when the pylean was stabbing Harmony. Immediately after it popped up Buffy subconsciously knew exactly where the Pylean's heart was and immediately started killing them far more efficiently. Sometimes I wonder what Buffy looks like with the other word choices, but I doubt any of them are as amazingly effective in combat.
Percy meanwhile is less immediately useful in a physical sense, but he provides connections to Buffy and thus the ability to call for help and information. The most important thing he probably brings to the table though is the absolute certainty that violence and explosions can solve your problems. He has seen giant snake monsters get blown up and their organization scatter or bend the knee to the girl that killed them and he has seen that if you use extreme and obvious violence in public against the supernatural nobody really questions it too hard. Does anyone think that a casino full of demons trying to collect Gunn's soul doesn't get burned down in the timeline where Percy and Gunn are working together? Gunn deserves to have a voice on his side that says 'yes, burning down that building full of demons is fine, nobody will look too hard at us over it because nobody wants to get stuck in the demon mess'
[X] Percy West would be going to college at USC in just a few weeks, and he wasn't the only City Watch member who'd be going to college in LA. Both groups working together could do a lot more than either group working alone.
Also, there was another KILL invisitext, this time when the pylean was stabbing Harmony. Immediately after it popped up Buffy subconsciously knew exactly where the Pylean's heart was and immediately started killing them far more efficiently. Sometimes I wonder what Buffy looks like with the other word choices, but I doubt any of them are as amazingly effective in combat.
- Location
- usa
[x] Percy West would be going to college at USC in just a few weeks, and he wasn't the only City Watch member who'd be going to college in LA. Both groups working together could do a lot more than either group working alone.
- Location
- my house
Can we do Nate and Percy?
Nate provides:magical support, connections to one of the great sorceror clans, an opportunity for him to level up and gain experience
Percy provides: expertise for the normal to benefit from, a continued safe haven for people to go leave Sunnydale and continue the lifestyle, basically integrates their gang into ours, is the first step into us expanding our territory into LA proper
Nate provides:magical support, connections to one of the great sorceror clans, an opportunity for him to level up and gain experience
Percy provides: expertise for the normal to benefit from, a continued safe haven for people to go leave Sunnydale and continue the lifestyle, basically integrates their gang into ours, is the first step into us expanding our territory into LA proper
- Location
- United States
[X] Percy West would be going to college at USC in just a few weeks, and he wasn't the only City Watch member who'd be going to college in LA. Both groups working together could do a lot more than either group working alone.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
I'd rather LA took care of its problems without our input, so... Give them official backing, and hope they manage from there.
[x] Buffy wasn't sure what district in LA Congressman Gold represented, but Gunn was close enough to being one of his constituents that this felt a little like his responsibility. Maybe the official support would be useful for the rag tag group.
[x] Buffy wasn't sure what district in LA Congressman Gold represented, but Gunn was close enough to being one of his constituents that this felt a little like his responsibility. Maybe the official support would be useful for the rag tag group.
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- Location
- Vancouver
Great chapter. It was nice to see Buffy fretting over Harmony in the middle of the fight and her skills at killing the demons. I'm starting to see how the First Slayer managed to kill/drive away all the Old Ones if we're only channeling a fraction of that Slayer-ness.
Gunn's talk with Buffy was tons of fun. While he doesn't have enough knowledge about the real threats, he was better informed of who we were than I thought he'd be (that or I'm underestimating how famous we've become).
[x] Percy West would be going to college at USC in just a few weeks, and he wasn't the only City Watch member who'd be going to college in LA. Both groups working together could do a lot more than either group working alone.
I feel like this option leaves them the closest to their roots while giving them the bit of knowledge they need to be more effective.
Gunn's talk with Buffy was tons of fun. While he doesn't have enough knowledge about the real threats, he was better informed of who we were than I thought he'd be (that or I'm underestimating how famous we've become).
[x] Percy West would be going to college at USC in just a few weeks, and he wasn't the only City Watch member who'd be going to college in LA. Both groups working together could do a lot more than either group working alone.
I feel like this option leaves them the closest to their roots while giving them the bit of knowledge they need to be more effective.
GhostKing 666
Bringing Nightmares to life evey minute
I really want to see the look on Buffy's face when she finds out the "Evil Lawyers" actually work for demons older and more powerful then anything she's currently faced(with the exception of the First Evil that one Christmas in 98), with the backing of an entire multidimensional empire behind them and that they don't want to open the Hellmouth. That would probably blow her mind.
And then there's her reaction to what their goal actually is, the slow creeping embrace of corruption and immorality in society. Of taking over the world not by destroying everything humanity has built but by twisting and co-opting it and making it so that humanity serves them willingly.
Which makes sense if you remember that WRH are at least over a hundred million years old. They are more then old enough to see things in a "Deep Time" perspective and recognize that humanity's greatest strength isn't our champions or magic but our ability to innovate and build. Demon societies are stagnant, remaining the same for tens of millennia. In that time humanity went from hunting mammoths with stone spears to splitting the atom and walking on the moon and god only knows what we will have achieved in another ten millennia.
Modern Earth is currently the most advanced and heavily industrialized world in the known Buffy multiverse and Wolf, Ram and Heart are just the type of ambitious bastards who would just love to co-opt all that, that industry, that technology, that innovative and forward thinking species. To take of all that and make it a crown jewel in their empire(and the fact that they were originally from Earth during the Primordium Age probably means there's a bit of nostalgia and vindication too).
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How sure are we that this is actually true? Sour runs an interdimensional game show with magical watches and interdimensional vacations as prizes. I don't see much reason to believe that nobody else can innovate.
- Location
- Vancouver
Oh yeah, I also wanted to mention that the donut thing was great, especially the complex emotional mathematics of Giles stealing the last Jelly donut being ok because he was injured. That was perfect.
It was interesting to see that Gunn seemed more impressed by our political clout, tech, and connections than our physical might, even if the physical stuff was what kept him at bay. It makes a lot of sense too, thinking about it. He's dealt with monsters for a long time, even if it's unlikely that he's ever fought anything on Buffy's league before or that's so strong while looking so human, so he can get that. But the other stuff was a bit more than he was used to dealing with.
Hmm, it might be that humans are just have better stuff and are innovating faster than most other beings. The other dimensions and creatures there are usually fairly primitive. Even if earth isn't the 'top prize' in the multiverse, it'd still be a nice add to the Wolf, Ram, and Hart.
It was interesting to see that Gunn seemed more impressed by our political clout, tech, and connections than our physical might, even if the physical stuff was what kept him at bay. It makes a lot of sense too, thinking about it. He's dealt with monsters for a long time, even if it's unlikely that he's ever fought anything on Buffy's league before or that's so strong while looking so human, so he can get that. But the other stuff was a bit more than he was used to dealing with.
Hmm, it might be that humans are just have better stuff and are innovating faster than most other beings. The other dimensions and creatures there are usually fairly primitive. Even if earth isn't the 'top prize' in the multiverse, it'd still be a nice add to the Wolf, Ram, and Hart.