Mauvaise Chance Office/Lobby, Friday

[needsaparrot]

Xander has glittery signs on the door and coffee and doughnuts on the counter for anybody who comes in, but he almost seems more interested in his laptop -- and the unhelpfully negative e-mails he's reading from his contacts in Watchers' Council 2.0 regarding any recent surges in vampire activity on the east coast of the US -- than consuming mass quantities of heavily-sugared lardbombs. Whoa.

Or it could be that he's just had three already and is giving them a chance to settle before he goes back for seconds.
__
[OOC: Open for business or pleasure. Except not like that. We don't have one of those anymore. We need one of those again. Not that Xander would partake. But just in principle. And it was always posted in the right spot. Also talk of the undead still NFB.]

Comments

[needsaparrot]

"Thanks." Xander snaked a jelly doughnut out of the box. "Try to track these things, I'm thinking. And/or beat the 411 on who the big bad is out of the next one we come across."

He made a face. "I miss the days when we could go put the squeeze on Willy the Snitch."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

Dawn took a bite of bearclaw and considered as she chewed. "Could import him."

[needsaparrot]

"You think whoever runs Portalocity has, like, an interdimensional classified ads? Wanted, one Willy the Snitch, timeline optional unless it's the one where the Master won, no vampires need apply?"

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"Couldn't hurt," she said, licking frosting off her fingers. "I don't like not having Buffy around while this is going on. Or a senior slayer who I'm not in charge of. How do we get out of this and keep Mel safe?"

[needsaparrot]

"Carefully?" Xander suggested, only half joking, since he didn't have any immediate answers either. "Make sure she's always got backup, either one of us or somebody who knows what they're doing with a weapon and where to poke with it."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"I told Sam," she informed Xander, "so I assume Mr. Winchester and Dean know, too, though I don't know about Principal Washburn. But they Hunt, so maybe they'll be helpful. Not that I don't like Dean and Sam and Mr. Winchester, but they use guns, so I'm not sure how that'll work."

She pulled the sleeves of her sweater down over her hands. "I don't want to go through what Giles did, Xander."

[needsaparrot]

"Not gonna happen," he said immediately. Like that made it so. Like that worry wasn't exactly the reason he'd never let himself stay in one place long enough to get close to any Slayer who wasn't Buffy, since Sunnydale went under. Until now.

"I'm all in with keeping Mel safe," he adde, "but she's a Slayer - we gotta actually let her be one, too.

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"I know," Dawn set the remains of the pastry down, having lost her appetite. "Sam said he'd train with me, and I can definitely take patrol. How many teams do we need, do you think?"

[needsaparrot]

"At a time? Wouldn't hurt to have at least two - one patrol for each side of the island," Xander answered thoughtfully. "We could do more, but might make sense to spread out the resources at this point, give people a chance to rest up."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

Dawn nodded in agreement, still not quite comfortable with the idea of being almost kind of in charge of the battle plan. "How're we gonna find the head guy? Or girl? We're gonna need to ask a bunch of questions before there can be researching."

[needsaparrot]

"Fist of Slayer?" he suggested. "Sucks that you can't read vampires' minds, considering how many of those types we've got around here."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"I know, right?" She sulked. "With all the weird stuff I got from the monks, you'd think I'd get something useful and non-world endy. But nooooo, just a set of strange tastebuds and a high dork factor. As for the fists, I guess we should stick with the classics."

[needsaparrot]

"Well, there's always truth-spells, but I dunno if those work on vampires either."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"No spells," she said immediately, thinking of Willow. "Not if we can avoid it."

[needsaparrot]

"Not real high on my list of options, yeah."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"Mel'll be thrilled she gets to punch vampires," Dawn decided. "So why does it bother me?"

[needsaparrot]

Xander leaned an elbow on the counter, wondering the same thing about himself. "It's not like it was with Buffy. Or Faith. I think it's different when you feel responsible for somebody. Even somebody who's stronger and faster and has nifty super kung-fu powers."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

She wasn't humming Kung Fu Fighting right this minute. Really she wasn't. Ignore the counter drumming. She couldn't help it, okay?

"I don't know how Giles managed, I really don't." Maybe she should write hers a letter.

[needsaparrot]

"Me neither. Maybe that's why the grand Watcher wardrobe tradition usually includes wearing their asses as hats, in addition to the tweed underwear? They thought if you don't let yourself care, you don't fall apart if anything happens."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"I guess so. Still a sucky way to do it, but I guess I understand better now." She sighed and looked up at Xander. "Growing up sucks."

[needsaparrot]

"Sometimes," he agreed. "Beats the alternative, though."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"Thank you, Mister Perspective Guy."

[needsaparrot]

"I live to serve," Xander answered, twisting one corner of his mouth up in a dry smile.

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"That may be more than I needed to know about your life with Bridge," she smirked at him.

[needsaparrot]

"That may be more than I needed to know about how dirty your mind is," Xander riposted.