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Post by Rupert Giles on Jul 26, 2008 9:24:21 GMT -6
As Giles walked through the large gym, he was impressed, as always, by the sheer population in it. Even at midnight, it was agonizingly full of would be Slayers and Watchers, all going through their routine. Some of the students looked up hopefully at him for comments, but he just walked on, barely recognizing them. He loosened his tie slightly, even in the gym as ever in his immaculate tweed suit. It bothered him slightly, this scene. It wasn't what was supposed to happen, after years of tradition and he wasn't sure if he could handle the large change. For now instead of just watching after Buffy and her fondly called 'Scooby Gang,' he was now in charge of several tens of Possible Watchers, and important job as they would in turn teach the Slayers.
His temples thundered in a most unpleasant manner, and he wished he had taken up the infirmary's offer off the pain relieve pills. He had deemed it rather weak of him to take up the offer when the others were there for far more serious injuries. Luckily there were no overly large reports of deaths occurring while the students were on duty, but every death weighed on him. He hated all the responsibility, but seeing how the others depended on him kept it to heart. The original Scooby gang told him to calm down, but he kept pushing himself even harder. For every minute he slept, he had the burden of knowing he could have used the time to prevent an accident. The information bored down heavily on him.
He took a sip from the bottle he carried, settling the pain in a different compartment in his brain from the one assessing the scene before him. Giles moved along the length of the gym, taking notes on his clipboard the names of Watchers he would have to talk with later. Everyone was performing to a satisfactory manner, but he wanted to separate the averages from the ones whom had an outstanding flair. He knew of some already, but of course not all. That he would have to depend on others to do. Hard to do since he never trusted anyone up to that level other than the original gang, whom are all of course busy on their own jobs.
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Post by Buffy Summers on Jul 26, 2008 9:35:40 GMT -6
Buffy Anne Summers barely had a single minute to relax as the petite blonde made her way to the gym, her pert blonde hair swaying a bit as she walked speedily toward the gym. She pulled the door open and looked at all the slayers working hard. She smiled gently to herself as she walked, her tennis shoes pressing against the mats as she moved down the way. To the original slayer, this was one of the most beautiful accomplishments of her life. To see all of these girls working toward being a slayer, to defend the world, it made her feel like she finally did something in her life.
"Whoa!" Buffy said as she reached and grabbed a young man, his hand to his forehead as a girl was covering her mouth, sweat beading on her chest as she stood there. Buffy smirked and patted the watcher in training on his back and sighed.
"Believe me, kid, it won't be the last time." She said and then moved along, her green eyes moving across the gym before her eyes settled on a very distressed looking old man that she came to think of as a father figure. Giles was like the father she had always hoped for. Her dad was rather absent in her life. Her mother has been gone for years now, yet Buffy still needed that parenting glare every once and a while.
Buffy bit her bottom lip as she moved swiftly toward Giles, his back turned to her as she sifted through the masses before reaching him. "You know, if you keep making that face, it's gonna stay that way." Buffy said as blonde hair fell into her face as she leaned against the wall in front of him, just after she was right behind him. Ever since they defeated the First, Buffy has managed to find her sense of humor again, which had long been squandered. "Now, what are you doing in my gym, old man?" She asked with a faux cockiness as she gave him that bright white smile of hers.
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Post by Rupert Giles on Jul 26, 2008 9:56:19 GMT -6
Giles sighed as a slayer ran to charge at her Watcher, only to have the young man duck and throw her off, landing at his feet. It was such an amateur move, and he frowned at the Watcher thoughtfully, wondering how good he really was. But he knew it wasn't fair to just blame him, he might just not have a good enough base. He noted the young man's name, shaking his head wearily at the young girl. "One more move like that, miss, and it could quite possibly be your last," he chided disapprovingly, also disapproving with the girl's shy, abashed manner. Maybe he was just used at getting talk back to, his own student one that would never let herself be talked down to, but he didn't like those that give up too soon, no matter to whom.
A familiar voice called him from behind, and the tired man turned to find himself looking into the face of Buffy Summers. The original Slayer and his own student, he had eventually considered her as so much more. In his original job under the employment of the Watcher's Council, he had considered his student as almost his child, feelings unacceptable by the council. But their day was over and a new one now began. He gave a half grimace of a smile at the girl's words, listing them as those typical of his student. She had the fighter's attitude he so priced in his new students, although sometimes he admitted it to be extremely annoying. "Wondering where you were," he answered, turning back to his clipboard. He looked up again with a warm, supportive smile at the girl, glad that she had found her sense of humor again. It was dark days when all Buffy found the energy to do was pull faces.
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Post by Buffy Summers on Jul 26, 2008 12:38:37 GMT -6
Buffy looked to Giles as he lifted his gaze to greet her. She knew that he was busy, but it didn't hurt to have a little small talk now and then. Sure, they were leaders of this giant organization, one of the largest in the state, much to no one's knowledge. With the Watchers' Council gone and all the slayers activating all over the world, they couldn't just sit back and watch it all turn into chaos. Buffy and the gang took it upon themselves to give these kids their seasoned knowledge of the darkness that surrounds them. It almost felt like now that everything was over, Buffy could relax, that was of course, until they met up with Angel. Everything wasn't over, Evil still existed. She realized that her job as the original slayer would never end, not until she died. And stayed dead this time.
"Well here I am, you can stop wondering now." She said with a gentle smile. She sometimes missed how things used to be. When she was still in high school, things never used to be so complicated. It was good that they had such a large army now, but she just felt even more detached for the group than ever. Dawn was pursuing the watcher thing, Xander is stuck in his own little world, Willow is doing some project that no one knows about, Angel and Spike constantly bicker with each other. Then, there was Solomon.
"Ugh, I could use some sparring myself, but.." She paused and looked at all the girls training, their watcher partners looking nervous, yet some more confident then ever. "I will when class is dismissed." She said with a small smile.
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Post by Rupert Giles on Jul 26, 2008 21:53:35 GMT -6
As their gaze met he knew that she, like him, were thinking of the particularly difficult scene they were in. Even he had expected that after the school, even would be out numbered, and maybe actually be beaten-not be utterly beaten, of course, but just enough to give them proper sleep. That, he felt, was now going under the classification of being naive to the point of stupidity. It was now their duty to look after a few hundred teenagers; he felt like a founding father of an extremely large orphanage, one where the orphans kept getting themselves killed. But no matter how many they trained, it seemed two new evils arose. Giles is by nature tended on never to look on either the bright or dull side, merely being sensible. But that had gotten shaky after his bouts of depression, and he often felt that his time was coming near. All he worried about was the others, especially Buffy. It was rare that a Slayer outlives her Watcher, and he wondered how she would cope.
He looked up again at her reply, struck by the melancholic tone of her voice. She was rarely ever gentle, and he felt saddened to wonder what else had changed. He felt like she, like the rest of the gang, didn't need him anymore. It was a thought constantly on the edge of his mind, eating away at him in a most vulgar manner. Instead of banding everyone together, the ever changing crisis was pushing everyone away like never before. They used to have a group of people they could trust, now they each only had about a hundred people they couldn't. There was no doubt as to which he preferred.
"Than maybe I could be of assistance," he said with a smile, struggling to stop the flow of sadness flowing through him, launching back on the horse of practicality. He hadn't helped her in her sparring classes for longer than he cared to remember. Giles had kept fit over the years from the almost daily fight he had, but there was no doubt that he was an aging man. They had since decided that she better get her own personal trainer, while he still stayed as her adviser. He nodded distractedly, writing some more notes in before smiling at her as he looked up. "That leaves us with ample time to talk."
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Post by Buffy Summers on Jul 27, 2008 17:21:15 GMT -6
For a while, Buffy has noticed Giles change in demeanor. It's sadder, and she knew that this place was the reason for it all. Their girls were dropping, yet they were coming as soon as they were leaving, it was an endless cycle, that just didn't seem to get any better. Buffy was scared, even though she was very good at hiding it, she still was. She slowly turned to looked back at Giles, knowing that her distance wasn't helping.
Everyone's distance wasn't helping. Anya was back and Buffy knew what it was like to have to dig yourself out of the ground. Maybe not as deep as her, but all the same. She hadn't really spent alot of time with her, but Willow was. Buffy sighed, feeling slightly cut off from the group, but that happens. Then Buffy's attention was turned back to her father figure as he offer to help her with it. She felt her face fall into a look of wonder then a smile spread across her face.
"Well then lets get to it then." She said as she walked to the wall. She pulled her hair into a ponytail, her long blonde locks swaying against her back. She then put on a pair of wrist guards, feeling her fingers slip through the material before she looked at the wall. Her and Giles haven't trained in a long time. And he was right, it would give them time to talk. She unzipped her hoodie and placed it on the bench nearby, exposing her sunkissed skin to the flourscent lighting in the gym before she turned back to Giles, cracking her knuckles.
"Thank you can still take me?"
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Post by Rupert Giles on Jul 28, 2008 1:55:47 GMT -6
"I couldn't agree more," he answered, smiling at his protégé. Briefly, he wondered if he was doing the right thing. He was never a match for Buffy's Slayer induced strength, and add that to his age and raging headache and the bets against him could pile up with unrealistic speed. But on the other side, she learned almost everything she knew from him. He knows all her strong points, her bad ones, what she was likely to do and what he should do to avoid it. in short, that alone was enough to make some people uncertain of the result. Giles loosened his tie slightly, smiling to himself as he did so. The Watcher's Council, right before they disbanded had said he was getting far too American for his taste. He was amused to say he quite agreed.
Giles slipped off the tweed jacket he wore, placing it neatly on the table behind him. He copied Buffy's movements with the guards, albeit his had far more padding. Once Slayers really get their adrenaline pumping, they can be quite dangerous without even realizing it. He still had several blue spots over his body to prove it. He briefly raised his eyebrows as the girl cracked her knuckles, frowning in distaste at the sound. He did so dislike it. "Never underestimate someone you haven't seen for awhile," he chided her. Well, perhaps not him, but others. So much can change in such little time, and if she made that mistake with anyone else...heaven's forbid. He hoped he had thought her that, at least.
Several other Watchers and Slayers stopped their training to look at the two, and the barely evident frown on his forehead deepened. There was nothing such as privacy while sharing a school with hundreds of teenagers. He wanted to tell them to get on with what they were doing, but he knew that wouldn't do. For one, it would do them good to see an experienced pair in action. And besides, they would only feel resentment to be sent away. They were now all on the same side, and were to be treated as such. "Ready, Miss Summers?" he asked her, a smile on his face while he frowned in a mixture of concentration and anticipation. |
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