we are invariably pleased to welcome tourism

[cross_and_bow]

Sherlock is usually very puncutal. He's only one minute late, but that's still not quite as punctual as usual. Bella peers out the window, not yet allowing herself outright concern.

Comments

[pythbox]

"A supernatural aptitude for physical combat."

[cross_and_bow]

"The entire demon world is terrified of someone who is good at punching things," says Bella flatly, deadpan skeptical. "That is ridiculous. Vampires are good at punching things, eighty percent of demons are good at punching things, is she even appreciably better than them or does she just have an unusual affordance to get training on how to punch things?"

[pythbox]

"An untrained Slayer with a stake in her hand can kill most vampires as easily as you would wipe your nose."

[cross_and_bow]

"So if her existence and approximate location are public knowledge from all those demons who flee from her approach chattering into the grapevine, wouldn't she just scatter the bitey critters, not drive them into outright hiding? She can't teleport, she can't do one thing in Munich and another in Sao Paulo at the same time. Why can they coordinate well enough to spread the word but not well enough to do whatever they want with sardinelike safety in numbers?"

[pythbox]

"I don't know," he says. "Perhaps you'd like to find a local demon and ask."

[cross_and_bow]

"Am I irritating you?"

[pythbox]

He takes off his glasses and cleans them. "Being questioned about the Slayer as though I am personally responsible for every aspect of the situation from the actions of unknown people or gods thousands of years ago to the behaviour of demons across the planet does start to wear, yes."

[cross_and_bow]

"Sorry," she sighs. "How'd you wind up throwing in with the Watchers, anyway?"

[pythbox]

"They were the opposite of my first crowd in every possible way."

[cross_and_bow]

"That's a why, not a how."

[pythbox]

"The how isn't very interesting. Family connections," he says. "I knew they were there, so that's where I went."

[cross_and_bow]

"Fair enough." She lets silence save pen-scratching reign for a few minutes to let some of his annoyance drop, then says:

"How're you going about looking for the Slayer? I mean, I guess a high school's a good vantage point, but I can account for an awful lot of your time."

[pythbox]

"To be perfectly honest with you," he says, "I'm hoping she shows up and makes herself obvious somehow, because I am out of other options. I'm a Watcher, not a spy. I'm good at, at cataloguing books and deciphering illuminated manuscripts. I'm not good at questioning teenage girls to see if they've developed superpowers recently."

[cross_and_bow]

"What'll you do if she starts killing demons in public and then shouting her full name and address?"

[pythbox]

"I imagine I'll start by answering a series of annoying questions," he says dryly.

[cross_and_bow]

Bella blinks at him owlishly. "Yeah, but I mean - being the Slayer, openly, seems like a crap deal. Are you going to tell your boss about her? Will she ever have a minute's peace again? Is she liable to spend half her life on a series of airplanes from hotspot to demonic hotspot and the other half in mortal combat? 'Cause if that's the deal and I find her before you do I might help her skip town."

[pythbox]

"I would have to tell my boss, yes," he says. "And then I would become her Watcher. It's very likely we would stay in Sunnydale, since it's one of the biggest demonic hotspots around. Slayers aren't sent across significant distances on missions very often, and the last two times it happened, it was to thwart an impending apocalypse in this very town."

[cross_and_bow]

"What's your boss like? And was he... bossing... when they hunted that one Slayer down till she met her undoubtedly grisly end?"

[pythbox]

"I don't actually have a single boss," he says. "There's a reason it's called the Council. That Slayer was hundreds of years ago, so no, none of the current members were alive to see it happen."

[cross_and_bow]

"Hmm."

Notetaking-notetaking-notetaking.

(He so knows. He knows but he doesn't know that he knows, so he hasn't told anyone, including her. But he so knows.)

[pythbox]

He watches her notetaking a moment longer, then retreats behind the counter.

[cross_and_bow]

Notetaking-notetaking. "How does being good at punching things tend to help with apocalypses? I admit to being confused about how one might punch an apocalypse."

[pythbox]

"One punches whoever is trying to cause the apocalypse," Giles says dryly. "There are other subtleties, too, I'm sure."

[cross_and_bow]

"Mm."

(Notetakinnnng.)

[pythbox]

He leaves her to it again.