Exploring the Mansion

[russian_slayer]

Who: Catherine and Open to Anyone
Where: Slayer Manor
What: Exploring her new surroundings
When: The day after Xander picks her up from the airport
Status: Incomplete

Comments

[_willow_magic]

Okay, well, introductions made then. Now what? Willow really had so much work to do, left over from her vacation. Like, no one could pick up the slack or what? Ugh. She guessed it was the same with every job, but this really wasn't your every day job. She was lucky to even get paid for this job. Heh. And hey, she got to work with her girlfriend. Bonus!

Still, while they were on vacation the work had stacked up and up and...with basically only Giles and Wes doing all the paper worky things. Yeah, it would. So she was gonna have to leave these two to it and make a polite quick departure.

"Pleased to meet you too!" She nodded brightly at Catherine. Knowing that Abby knew far better then anyone what this girl was going through *and* knew way better how to communicate - weird as that sounded - she smiled at both. "I'd really like to stay, but going on vacation means coming back to mountains of work apparently. Soooo... I'm gonna have to rush to it. You two have fun! And once again, welcome Catherine, I'm sure you'll fit in no time at all."

Giving them both another smile, a trade mark Willow-y wave before striding further down the hall, down the stairs and resolutely making her way to the office. Paperwork awaited. Not that she was looking forward to that. Ugh. Vacation was fading already.

[russian_slayer]

Lucky for Abby, Catherine could actually read a lot better in English than she could speak English. She smiled back at Abby after reading the sheet of paper. She was very glad to have a way to communicate with someone as opposed to trying to figure out what in the heck they were saying. "Spaceeba...er...thank you," she said back to Abby. "Sorry, I am still learning English."

She wasn't sure if the girl was just mute or actually deaf at this point, so she was trying to look right at her while talking to let her read her lips, if she needed to do so.

Now, speaking of speaking too fast, Willow spoke just a little too fast for her to catch all of what she said. She made out the words 'vacation' and 'mountains,' which caused her to believe that Willow may have taken or being about to take a vacation to the mountains. Maybe that was why she was rushing off? To meet an airplane?

Catherine gave Willow a slight wave and looked back at Abby. "What all did she say?" she asked slowly.

[silent_abby]

Abigail watched Willow wave and walk away, off to do the paperwork that Abby never hoped to have to do. It still intrigued her how by them fighting demons, it still included paperwork. She understood the many books that Wesley and Mr. Giles had to go through....

She looked over at Catherine, suddenly feeling self-conscious. Why did Willow leave the newbie with her? She wasn't probably the best first impression to have on the Slayers... Abby smiled shyly.

She has a lot of paper to work with, she wrote on her notepad. We don't have to worry about things like that. We train a lot. Have you been trained?

[russian_slayer]

"Paper work?" Why would people who kill demons and vampires for a living have to do paper work? It really made no sense to her. Of course, lots of stuff she had been told lately made no real sense to her. So, maybe it did make sense. It made absolutely no sense so badly that it made sense. These people were confusing, and they were making her feel confused.

"No...I have not been trained," Catherine admitted to Abby. "I have only recently found out about being a Slayer." She was glad that Xander had explained a little bit of it to her as well. Of course, maybe it was that he was a little closer to her in age and interests that he had been able to put it to her in a way that she could follow.

"What sort of training do we have to do here?" she asked Abby. "How does everything here work?"

[silent_abby]

She hadn't been trained? Abby hoped she wouldn't have to be the one to train her since she, herself, wasn't very good at it. Mr. Wyndam-Pryce had been working with her training a little more now that she was assigned to him. And it helped to be focused on one thing then the other, which was signing.

She thought about it a moment then looked over in the direction of the training room. I can show you where we train, she wrote with a smile. She could show her some of the moves, too, but she felt a little too shy to show her that.

Gesturing for Catherine to follow, Abigail began walking towards the stairs that led down to the basement where the training room was. She flipped on the lights along the way until the ended up in the large open space that had gym mats, various weights and weight machines, and a few punching bags hanging from above. Abby thought Xander did a good job with the room.

Xander helped create this room for us, she wrote. This is where our Watchers help train and exercise us.

[russian_slayer]

Catherine followed her to the training facility, which, she had to admit, was very nice. She didn't exactly know a whole lot about working out and such before, though. Sure, she had played sports a bit when she was younger, but never very seriously. One of her friends had been very into tennis, though, so she had played with her some, but that was really it.

Catherine actually did not know who would be training her, either. She wasn't sure if she would get a Watcher to herself or have to share with someone or what. It hadn't been made very clear to her, or she just hadn't really understood what anyone was talking about when they tried to explain it to her.

"Xander did a very nice job," Catherine said with a slight smile as she looked around a little more. "And I will be able to use this eqipment soon?" She couldn't imagine actually being able to lift all of those weights, even if she had had a little bit of fun playing around and tossing her luggage about like it was full of simply air.

[silent_abby]

Abigail nodded at her question about using the equipment. Abby gestured for her to follow her and then walked over to the closet where the mock weapons were stored. Mostly wooden swords and bo staffs. She opened it up and gestured to them with a smile.

The real weapons were down the hall in a locked cabinet. Those were the heavy duty weapons. Of course, each girl had real weapons in their room just in case, but only "just in case."

Training weapons, Abby wrote as she gestured at them again. Want to try them out? I'm not very good, but I'm getting better. Abby smiled again, sheepishly.

[russian_slayer]

Catherine followed along as Abby showed her the weapons. Much of it looked like giant sticks to her, but who was she to say anything about any of this? She wasn't too sure about any of this stuff. She was the most recent inductee into all of this, after all. Maybe they were supposed to run around with wooden sticks. She was fairly certain that you staked vampires to kill them, anyway.

Catherine had yet to find the 'just in case' weapons in her room. Wouldn't that be an interesting unpacking day for her? She hadn't unpacked too much, yet. Just pulling out what she needed for right now. Which really, wasn't much. Despite her mountains of clothes, she could easily do without too much. She was just feeling lazy about the unpacking right now. There was a whole house and new life to explore! Unpacking would happen later.

Catherine smiled at the offer from Abby. "I am sure you are better than me," she said to Abby. "Let we try them out then. I am sure these giant sticks are fun to play with."

[silent_abby]

Abigail nodded. She didn't mind the 'giant sticks.' She actually wasn't so bad at the bo sticks. She set her notebook down and grabbed a couple of them, handing one to Catherine. She walked out on the mat and swung it around a few times in both hands.

She smiled at Catherine and hoped the Russian Slayer would take it easy on her. It would be pretty embarrassing to be really clumsy about something Abigail had been training for since she joined this group.

Abby held hers at ready position. READY? she mouthed. When Catherine gave the okay, Abby pressed forward with a semi-hard swing.

[russian_slayer]

Catherine took the stick from her and twirled it a few times, trying to get a feel for it. While she may have strength and agility now, she still had no training as of yet. So, she would probably be swinging this thing like an American baseball bat more often than not. She wasn't sure if that was right or wrong, but she supposed that she would be finding out soon enough, right?

Catherine gave Abby a slight nod and a smile when she asked if she was ready. She swing caught her slightly off guard, but she managed to get the giant stick thing up and block it, so she didn't get whacked in the head or anything at the moment. A part of her was massively relieved, but she also knew that, if she didn't swing back soon enough, Abby would be able to bonk her on the head or something soon enough.

Going on the offensive, she took a quick step back and gave a swing of her own, coming on a little harder than Abby had done, but Catherine wasn't as familiar with her own strength as Abby would be with hers.

[silent_abby]

Abby was happy when Catherine managed to block her swing. Part of her wanted to go for it like she did in training, but she knew she most likely had more training than Catherine ever did. Otherwise, she probably wouldn't have been sent here. It made sense.

The bo staff on Catherine's end came swinging fast and hard back at Abigail. With a slight widening of eyes, the Silent Slayer pulled her bo stick up, the loud CLANK! of the two sticks making contact filling the room.

Instincts kicking in, Abby stepped forward, swinging one end of the bo staff to catch behind Catherine's legs while pushing forward with the other end of the stick into Catherine's chest in hopes to trip her up a little.

[russian_slayer]

A part of Catherine was relieved that Abby had managed to counter her swing. Sure, it meant that she would need training in order to not 'telegraph' her fighting moves so much, but it also meant that she wouldn't have accidentally hurt Abby by hitting her in the head or something as well. She didn't want to hurt the girl. Abby wasn't the enemy. Vampires were. They were the ones that she was supposed to hurt and kill, not a fellow Slayer.

Abby's next move caught Catherine completely by surprise, knocking her to the ground and basically pinning her there with the stick after she hit the floor. Catherine had dropped her stick in the falling down process, and held up her hands open wide in the obvious 'I give' pose so that Abby would realize that she was flying the white flag.

"I think I need work more," Catherine said out loud as she lay on the floor.

[silent_abby]

Abigail gasped when the move actually worked and it knocked down the new Slayer. Her cheeks blushed a nice pink as she dropped her bo stick to offer her hand out to her.

Sorry, she mouthed with a sheepish smile. She had been practicing a lot, trying to come on par with the other Slayers. She just never really tried it out on anyone. It wasn't fair, though. Catherine was new and so hadn't had as many chances to practice.

Once she helped Catherine to her feet, Abby quickly grabbed her notebook.

I'm so sorry, she wrote again. I can help you with the training. You and me can spar after your Watcher teaches you more moves. You'll be great!

[russian_slayer]

Catherine let Abby pull her back to her feet. Other than a little embarrassed to be knocked down so quickly, she wasn't feeling too much real pain. She mainly just felt like a giant goof, really. Then again, other than strength, she had absolutely no training, so she was doing good to have not actually hurt herself with that giant stick, huh?

"It is OK," Catherine said to Abby. "As soon as I get to work more with my Watcher, I am sure that I will be better. I would love to spar with you more, though." She winced. "Well, maybe once I learn a little bit more about what I am supposed to do we can spar more."

At least she had a sense of humor about it.