| Opening Log

[shadowqueen]

Everyone's waking up at once, covered in bits of rubble, temporarily without abilities and with a lurking headache. The castle looms around them, irrepressibly gray, huge and silent. The only noises are the people, rustling as they extract themselves from their sarcophagi and look for exits along the arching walkways.

Better take a look around, and see if anyone else knows what's going on.

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[slay]

[ There's a definitive nod. ] Right. So, we can just ... pry open crypts until we find them.

[She glances around and selects one of the sarcophagi, heading decisively over to it and beginning to try and pry the lid off. Except, right, not Slayer strengthened. It takes a lot of effort -- cringing, grunting -- and then she settles on trying to kick it open. And shove it. And then finally she kicks the side in a fit because ... this is not even a little working, and it just hurts her stubbed toe. She yelps. ]

I hate powerless Buffy. [ /grousing. ]

[guiltapalooza]

It's a pain, [she agrees in sympathy, having watched all this and winced.] You don't know how much I want to do a locator spell right now.

For the moment, though, I think... um, maybe we should just use our eyes. [Tentative suggestion? Willow doesn't want Buffy to get actually hurt, stubbed toe aside.]

[slay]

Gee, you couldn't have told me that before I want all She-Rambo? [ It's more pout than grouch. She picks at her nails a little because dirt and rock and old stuff has officially gotten under them in her attempt to pry away the sarcophagus' lid. ] That's the thing though, Will, I don't know how useful eyeballing it's gonna be. I mean, I've done my share of wandering and seen plenty of people, but no Xander or Dawn anywhere. Not even a Slayer-in-training.

[guiltapalooza]

This place has to be bigger than this room. We have no idea what's out there! I'm not giving up just yet, [she says firmly.] We at least might find the Big Bad and get some explanations.

[slay]

Consider me sold on out being the plan. [ She glances around slowly. ] But which way's out? [ Lots of walkways, but they look kinda maze-y. ] I'm leaning towards the pick one and wing it approach, personally.

[guiltapalooza]

Winging it sounds good, [she agrees.] It's a Scooby classic, after all.

How about... this way? [And Willow's just going to pick a random end of the room and gesture toward it.]

[slay]

Scooby methods have been missed muchly. Seriously, I don't know where you've been walkabout-y Will at, but when we get out of this, you need to get your butt back to Scotland. [ She's heading off in the direction Willow gestured now. ] If not for me, then for Dawn lifecoach purposes.

[guiltapalooza]

Shrinking Dawn sounds like a tall order, [she says doubtfully, following along.] Either kind of shrinking.

Also, what are we doing in the land of tartan?

[slay]

Five hundred freshly called Slayers, and last I checked, Scotland was the only place with a castle big enough to hold 'em all. I mean, I guess we could have taken over Windsor, but that just seems tacky. Also probably not a way to win friends.

[guiltapalooza]

Five hundred? [she repeats faintly.] Did I really-- five hundred?

It felt... okay, I can't describe how it felt, but wow.

[slay]

That's just in my army. Several squads spread out -- Andrew's got a few in Italy. I'm pretty sure I've even got clones. [ A shrug. ] Unassociated? We're looking at more like two thousand. [ Eighteen hundred exactly, but who's counting? ] Will, what we did -- What you did. We changed the world.

[guiltapalooza]

[She squeaks.]

I changed the... wow. I already said that, didn't I? I-- wow.

There's really two thousand? I can't imagine how you've adjusted to that. How we've adjusted.

[slay]

It's been tough. You know, some adjusting's harder than the rest. Dawn's pretty much mood-central with the whole ... moving in with all my closest Slayer pals thing. I mean, I don't blame her, I just -- It's tough. But, we're doing good work. We're fighting, all of us. And we've got the bad guys on the ropes. [ She doesn't mention how she's dealing with it. Because the truth is, it's hard. Everyone's feeling that sense of purpose and connection to something bigger except her. She's pretty much the anti-connecty. ]

[guiltapalooza]

We've always had the bad guys on the rope, Buffy, [she says gently, drawing level with her to meet her face-to-face.] Or, well, I guess you have, more than any of us.

I'm sorry that I disappeared. I must've had a good reason, cause, leading two thousand is a whole lot different than leading your ragtag group of friends from high school. [Willow's sure that she's dealing, but that doesn't mean she doesn't want to be there for her. Trying to help Buffy deal has never been the point-- the point is to try to carry some of the weight, even a little.]

[slay]

Well, yeah. I mean, for starters, I never did quite get you guys into the habit of calling me "ma'am." [ It's said with a lighthearted edge. She doesn't want to dig into the badness of it. Keeping some levity keeps her from being too vulnerable. ]

[guiltapalooza]

[If being light about it is what she wants to do, Willow can go along with it, but she has a point to make first.]

Nah, I can't do the ma'am thing. You're just Buffy to me. You sat next to me at lunch your first day at school, all careless of the social consequences. You're too much of a rebel to be a ma'am. [She gives her a smile, hoping what she wants to say is getting across: she sees her as her friend first, and then as the Slayer. She messed up earlier this year, badly, by supporting excommunicating Buffy from the group. She has to make up for that.]

[slay]

[ That gets a genuine smile out of her, even though Buffy tries to mute it. ] See, this? This is why there was missage happening. Missage of you. [ And of things like lunch at school. Looking back from where she is now, things seem way easier. Colossally easier. Even if it's not true -- the problems were just different, in reality, but it's hard to see it that way when she's staring at them from the tower of some castle. Or, as it stands right about now? The ground floor. Or possibly basement. ] You'd think if they were gonna get kidnappy, they'd at least leave us a map.

[guiltapalooza]

[Score one for her for getting that smile.] I'll try to make up for the missage while we're here, sucky as the circumstances are.

[Willow's peering up a set of stairs that lead to a balcony on one end of the room. It's hard to see anything from the angle, but it certainly looks from here as if there aren't more sarcophagi up there, which is a change.] Those darn kidnappers, always so inconsiderate. We should lodge a complaint with their union.

[slay]

I was thinking I'd fill out one of those little comment cards. [ Buffy follows Willow's gaze and then starts heading up the set of stairs. ] Come on. Time to get our explore-y on.

[guiltapalooza]

[Trooping up the stairs... where are pretty long, so this will take a little bit of time.]

I haven't gotten explore-y in a while. It's still weird to even think that Sunnydale isn't there anymore. I've been to that ice cream place with Xander every summer since we met! That's a lot of summers. [Since the sinkhole happened just yesterday for her, Willow's still processing.]

[slay]

Oh! And The Bronze? Seven years of fumigation parties, and nothing to show for it. [ Lamenting sigh. She's pretty much over the missing of Sunnydale. It's the things that she had there that she misses most. Her mom. The gang being together and gang-y. Churros. She's misses home.

Also, sex. But that's a sigh for a moment that is not this one. ]

[guiltapalooza]

Maybe not nothing. You got us, and also, Dawn, who takes the cake as far as nifty souvenirs go.

[slay]

Valid point. I mean, nothing like a couple weirdo monks to solve the problem of "what do you get for the Slayer who has everything."

[guiltapalooza]

You can guarantee no one else got her a little sister, [she jokes, and then they're at the bottom of the stairs. She peers around curiously.]

Huh. Sure does look like a door over there.

[slay]

They're the gift that just keeps on giving. Or ... taking, as it were. I still haven't seen my Veronica Mars DVDs since she "borrowed" them. [ And she's heading for the door. Which is pretty big and ominous but standard fare as castles go. ]