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]

"No," he says, continuing to clean his glasses. "Not quite. I'm here because the Slayer is missing."

[cross_and_bow]

"What, she ran away from wherever Slayers live?"

[pythbox]

"When one Slayer dies, the next is called," he says. "She can be anyone of the right gender and age. Sometimes it takes a few weeks or months to track her down and explain her destiny. But it's always been possible to find her. This time... as far as anyone scrying for the Council can tell, there is no Slayer."

[cross_and_bow]

"There's a Council? They... fundraise so she can slay stuff full-time, run interference between her and law enforcement, man a hotline so someone's always available to look up obscure demons for her? That sounds neat," says Juliet.

(Someone who does not know what she does about the Slayer and the Council would make these guesses and would think it sounded nice. She's looking forward to seeing if Giles contradicts her.)

[pythbox]

"...More or less," he says. "But right now that's a little beside the point. The rumour that the line of Slayers has ended is already going around. If she doesn't show herself soon—to the demons, more importantly than to us—I'm afraid they'll just keep getting bolder."

[cross_and_bow]

"I'm not clear on how one person has any significant deterrent effect on the worldwide demon population, however good she is at throwing fireballs," says Bella. "I mean, if she's here where you're looking for her, then how does that matter to a family of demons in Beijing?"

[pythbox]

"She has symbolic value," he says. "The mere knowledge that there is a Slayer somewhere, even if she's not an immediate threat, has a quelling effect on demonic activity. There are records of previous times when the line of succession was cast into doubt, and none of them make good bedtime reading."

[cross_and_bow]

"Fair enough. So you said more or less - what else do you Councily types do?"

[pythbox]

"Watchers," he supplies. "It's the Watchers' Council. Before you ask, no, I don't know why. And our job is to train and prepare the Slayer for hers. We do the research; we study the demons; we help her develop her technique; we keep her informed of everything she needs to know. Assuming, of course, that we can find her in the first place."

[cross_and_bow]

"What happens if you get a Slayer who's a pacifist or a sociopath or throws in with the demons or just doesn't want anything to do with you because she's a ballerina and needs to devote all her energy to her Art?"

[pythbox]

"I have never seen records of a Slayer joining the other side," he says carefully. "As for the rest... one of those previous times I mentioned involved a Slayer running away from the Watcher who found her. She kept ahead of us for several years. No one knows what happened to her exactly, but we know when the next Slayer was called."

[cross_and_bow]

"She had to run," says Bella. "The Watcher didn't just let her go because she was involuntarily involved and didn't want anything to do with him. Is that right?"

[pythbox]

He frowns at her over his glasses.

"I don't know what you mean."

[cross_and_bow]

"Some Watcher found some Slayer and she ran away. She kept ahead of you - the Council - that's what you said, isn't it? It sounds like you guys chased that poor girl until she died."

[pythbox]

"Given that their other option was to let one badly handled conversation deprive the world of its strongest defense against evil," he says sharply, "I'm not sure they made the wrong choice."

[cross_and_bow]

"You said it was more important that the missing Slayer reveal herself to the demons than to the Council," says Bella. "She was known to exist, wasn't she? With a whole council full of people with access to all kinds of information and magic I'm stunned they tried to ask anything more of her than that she spend the rest of her life with a target painted on her jugular vein. I'm stunned they used all those resources to hunt down one terrified, fleeing girl instead of trying to learn more about neutral demons or subsidize the development of sunshiney lightbulbs with motion-detectors for use over patios or just coming up with large-scale spells that, sure, maybe they'd eat a few people, but they'd be informed volunteers and they could save way more. I bet something toothy murdered that Slayer when she was twenty-something and then all your colleagues were very relieved because she was in the way and then she wasn't anymore. I can't imagine why anyone would bolt at the first sign of attention from the Stalkers Council, can you?"

[pythbox]

"Two different powerful demons claimed to have found and killed her, but as far as later research could tell, they were both lying. For those few years, there effectively was no Slayer. All the resources that weren't put into finding her were put into dealing, inadequately, with the chaos caused by her absence."

[cross_and_bow]

"Have you considered lying? Tell the Council 'found Slayer, but she's shy and wishes to remain otherwise anonymous', let them publicize the misinformation, produce occasional reports. You don't need to be the Slayer to cut the vampire population. I got hold of a key to the morgue and I've been surreptitiously pounding slivers of wood into every cadaver that passes through police hands practically since I moved here."

[pythbox]

He blinks at her, lost for words.

[cross_and_bow]

"What?"

[pythbox]

"I don't know how you think this works," he says. "Pre-staking the corpses is, is brilliant, but I can't imagine any way that lying to the Council would help. It's not the Council that needs to know there's a Slayer on the job, it's the demons."

[cross_and_bow]

"How do the demons usually find out, if the Council isn't issuing a press release or anything? Lie to whoever tells the demons. I mean, she's super-powerful, more efficient as a source of demon control apparently than anything else the Council could be doing with its time, I'm assuming bitey things don't usually tangle with her and live to tell the tale until one manages to actually kill her? Fights to someone's death all, yes?"

[pythbox]

"You have a strangely idealized view of all this for someone who lives in Sunnydale," he says. "Demons frequently run away from her, and she can't possibly hunt down and kill every single one. Leaving aside the times when she loses a fight but escapes with her life."

[cross_and_bow]

"I've only lived here a couple months," says Bella. (But except for Sherlock, who is special, she's never confirmed a vampire's vampirehood without dusting it. Although she supposes some demons did run from Sherlock. If Sherlock were a girl like Shell Bell's version, would rumors be circulating even now about a Slayer in town?) "...Am I just completely off base on the fireballs thing?"

[pythbox]

"...Yes?" he says. "What fireballs?"