Fic: First Alternate (Wesley)
Title First Alternate
Author Brutti ma Buoni
Rating PG13
Character Wesley
Word Count 300
Prompt For fantas_magoria, episode The Wish - and an idea about who Wishverse!Buffy’s Watcher might have been. And what he might have done. Or not done.
I knew it! No river ever caught fire from natural causes. I don’t care what the environmentalists allege. (To think I was sorry about being posted to Cleveland!).
Yes. I can see it now - an article in the Journal of the Watchers Council, seminar papers, perhaps a full conference on the flame demons of the Cuyahoga. Once this Watcher spell is over, that tenured post at the Academy would be within my grasp. There hasn’t been a Wyndam-Pryce professor since the forties. Father would be-
Oh, be quiet, bloody telephone. It’s never anything important. Slayer needing weaponry, or a wrong number. Or, this time, some fool of a superannuated Watcher wanting Miss Summers to get in touch about a crisis in California. It’s as though they think I’ve nothing better to do than take messages.
*
... flame demons retrenched and developed an increased defensive strategy-
Bloody, bloody phone. Who could it possibly be this time-
“Quentin! No, I don’t have the television on. What’s happ-? Oh god! Miss Summers?... Rupert Giles?... Townspeople?....”
Pause
“How many?”
I have finally managed to switch on the television. The newscast is running pretty much uncensored live footages from Sunnydale CA, Factory Tragedy, and there is Buffy Summers, in the arms of a fireman for some reason, her head back and unmoving. You can see she’s dead, if you know how vital she was in life. Broken neck, I think. The plait of hair dangles impossibly low; no intact spine would support it so. Those awful trousers are filthy with dirt and ash.
So a new Slayer has been called.
I suppose that means I have my freedom; back to England at last. I’ll finish up this article and see about the Academy job.
*
I don’t know why I should feel quite so upset. (Ashamed, even.) I did my duty. Isn’t this what every Watcher experiences?
*
Author Brutti ma Buoni
Rating PG13
Character Wesley
Word Count 300
Prompt For fantas_magoria, episode The Wish - and an idea about who Wishverse!Buffy’s Watcher might have been. And what he might have done. Or not done.
I knew it! No river ever caught fire from natural causes. I don’t care what the environmentalists allege. (To think I was sorry about being posted to Cleveland!).
Yes. I can see it now - an article in the Journal of the Watchers Council, seminar papers, perhaps a full conference on the flame demons of the Cuyahoga. Once this Watcher spell is over, that tenured post at the Academy would be within my grasp. There hasn’t been a Wyndam-Pryce professor since the forties. Father would be-
Oh, be quiet, bloody telephone. It’s never anything important. Slayer needing weaponry, or a wrong number. Or, this time, some fool of a superannuated Watcher wanting Miss Summers to get in touch about a crisis in California. It’s as though they think I’ve nothing better to do than take messages.
*
... flame demons retrenched and developed an increased defensive strategy-
Bloody, bloody phone. Who could it possibly be this time-
“Quentin! No, I don’t have the television on. What’s happ-? Oh god! Miss Summers?... Rupert Giles?... Townspeople?....”
Pause
“How many?”
I have finally managed to switch on the television. The newscast is running pretty much uncensored live footages from Sunnydale CA, Factory Tragedy, and there is Buffy Summers, in the arms of a fireman for some reason, her head back and unmoving. You can see she’s dead, if you know how vital she was in life. Broken neck, I think. The plait of hair dangles impossibly low; no intact spine would support it so. Those awful trousers are filthy with dirt and ash.
So a new Slayer has been called.
I suppose that means I have my freedom; back to England at last. I’ll finish up this article and see about the Academy job.
*
I don’t know why I should feel quite so upset. (Ashamed, even.) I did my duty. Isn’t this what every Watcher experiences?
*