The Salle, Monday Midday

[ancientbschamp]

It was pretty typical of any trip back home for Gabrielle to barely get a chance to breathe, let alone adjust to . . . a lot of eventful things, and that was the downside of heading back to Fandom afterward. She'd gotten in late last night and crashed out for a good ten hours before her growling stomach finally woke her up, and then, in the

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[wesleynotponcy]

Know what was probably a terrible idea? Trying to beat up a dummy from a wheelchair. Know who was coming down to the salle to try it anyway? This guy!

"Oh," he said, pausing at the door when he saw Gabrielle. "Hello."

[ancientbschamp]

"Hi, Wesley," replied Gabrielle, who was a lot less henna-tattooed and yellow-wearing than she'd been last time she'd spoken to him, and more leather-clad instead. ("Clad" being relative. Sigh, Gabrielle's outfits.) She hadn't started in on the dummy yet, just picked up the sai and started to spin them experimentally in her hands. (Her fingers were sore from getting accustomed to the grip. She'd have to get used to that.)

"Gods -- what happened to you?"

[wesleynotponcy]

"I was just about to ask the same thing," Wesley said a bit wryly, wheeling in a little further and managing not to run over anything or collide with any walls, for once. "You look -- different."

Yes, Wesley, just ignore that elephant there and focus on the slightly smaller, more leather-clad one. Why not.

[ancientbschamp]

"It's a long story," Gabrielle answered with a low, brief chuckle that sounded more sheepish than amused. "I had to go home for a while, and what I thought would be one simple mission turned out to be a lot more."

Yes, "let's stop a Roman army from enslaving the Amazons" was simple by her standards.

"But never mind that. You've been hurt -- how did this happen?"

Nice try with the elephant-ignoring, Wes.

[wesleynotponcy]

Damn it. Wesley hated that stupid elephant. Hated it so.

"Rather the same thing as what happened to you, actually," he commented, glancing down at his hands. "I was called home to help my former colleagues with a -- well, actually, they hadn't even had a project in mind at the time. But, ah, there were demons, and a gunshot, and it was a bit of a mess."

Great use of detail there, Wes. Really, top-notch.

"What, ah. What sort of missions were yours?"

[ancientbschamp]

"I know how that goes, believe me. For me, it was putting a stop to Pompey's attempts to sell my Amazon tribe into slavery," Gabrielle replied casually, shrugging. "That's how it started, anyway -- we ended up caught in the middle of his war with Julius Caesar again and -- ah. Caesar put a bounty on Xena's head, she decided she needed to end their feud by killing him, Caesar ordered me held hostage against his safety . . ."

She rolled her eyes. Roman politics, really.

". . . would you believe it got even more complicated from there?"

[wesleynotponcy]

Wesley blinked. He'd known, of course, that Gabrielle came from a rather more... historical time frame (even if her speech pattern and certain mannerisms seemed thoroughly antithetical to that), but to hear it all laid out like that... well.

"Not without further explanation, at least," he said wryly after a moment and a few more bouts of blinking.

[[And now I flee for shopping adventures, so here, have some SP with your SP.]]

[ancientbschamp]

Not to mention her completely non-Greek name and her inexplicable ease with modern-day English. Just don't ask, Wesley. It's better if you don't.

"They have a history, Xena and Caesar. Or had," she corrected herself. "I hear Brutus and the Senate put an end to that while we were . . . indisposed." There were just some developments you didn't drop casually into conversation, because really.

"Things went bad when she tried to break me out of prison." Oh, understatements.

She reached out to tap one wheel of the chair with the pommel of her sai. "This -- this isn't permanent, is it?"

[wesleynotponcy]

Wesley thought about mentioning that what she was talking about with Brutus was regarded somewhat differently nowadays, but let it go. Probably best not to, really.

"Oh! No, no," he said hastily. "Just until it heals enough to stand. Shouldn't be more than a few weeks." Really, he should get better at saying that upfront, to keep people from freaking out too much.

"So -- Brutus is an -- ally of yours, then?" What? He was curious.

[ancientbschamp]

The Caesar she knew didn't match up to any historical records either, so there was probably no point in bringing that up. There was no way that could end except in tears.

"Thank the gods," Gabrielle said with clear relief, but her expression turned distasteful at the question. "Brutus? No. He was almost a friend once, but that ended when he started using us as pawns in their game. It doesn't matter, now. That's done with."

[wesleynotponcy]

"True," Wesley conceded, though now he was just really curious about ALL THE THINGS. So... questions ahoy. "What, ah, what was his issue with Xena?"

[[Yeaaaaah, shopping adventures turned more intense than expected. SORRY OMG.]]

[ancientbschamp]

This was karmic payback for Gabrielle asking ALL THE QUESTIONS for so long. And since she was into the whole karmic thing, she could accept that gracefully and answer.

"Who, Caesar?" she guessed. "They were allies once, years ago, and then -- well, if you ask him, she betrayed him. According to Xena, of course, it's the other way around."

Of course.

"Ever since then, she took a . . . personal interest in keeping him from gaining too much of a foothold in Greece, and naturally every time he found out she was involved it just goaded him on more . . ."

Roll with it, Wes. Roll with it. Gabrielle's ancient history is not anyone else's ancient history.

[wesleynotponcy]

"...naturally," Wesley said. It couldn't be called agreement, per se. More just... repeating what she'd just said in the hopes that that might make it make any kind of sense at all. "So a sort of... snowballing effect, then. What, ah, what inspired the betrayal?" Just keep asking the questions, Wes. Keeeep asking them.

[ancientbschamp]

Oh, Wesley. Don't think about it that much. It'll only hurt.

"That I'm not sure about," Gabrielle admitted. "Though knowing how she was back then, they probably tried to double-cross each other."

[wesleynotponcy]

"Bit of a renegade back then?" he guessed, thinking of their last conversation and all the comparisons of Xena to Angel. "Sounds familiar."

[ancientbschamp]

"Mmm," Gabrielle said neutrally. "Does the phrase 'the Destroyer of Nations' give you an idea of what she was like back then?"

She shook her head. "Strange, thinking about that after I saw what she was like when we -- came back."

Subtle, Gab.