[029 - voice]

[slaying]

I guess it's back to the Middle Ages for us. [It's been a while since the disappearance of the amusement park, but this is the first time that Buffy has spoken up about it. She's taking the disappearance of hair-dryers and a luxury spa quite badly. Or at least--that's the story. It's easier to mourn the loss of something already gone than to

Comments

[voice]

[chikaidestroyer]

"Mod-cons," Miss Buffy?

[voice]

[slaying]

Modern conveniences. Microwaves, television, phones. Lots of fancy twenty-first century Earth stuff. The kinda stuff that, I'm learning, tends to be not so well known by the folks here.

[A pause, a small chuckle.] And please? Don't worry about the whole miss thing. Just Buffy is fantabulous.

[voice]

[chikaidestroyer]

Just Buffy, then. [Terrible quip, but he gets what she's saying.]

Certainly not. I suppose most of us are from these Middle Ages you've mentioned -- or something similar. Most will be missing those conveniences, either way.

[voice]

[slaying]

[The Slayer approves. After all, terrible quipping is like a second job to her. Or maybe a third.]

What about you? How'd you describe your world? I'm gonna go with the hunch that it's not all neon lights and fast cars.

[voice]

[chikaidestroyer]

Fantastical, by the standards of the fictional books in the library. Multiple races beyond the humans, wars of swords and magic, demons and the undead. Depending on where you are in the world, of course. [This is all stated dryly, as he gets sorta bizarre reactions when he goes into further details. It's like talking ducks, beavers, and lizards aren't normal!]

[voice]

[slaying]

I'm with you for most of it. I mean, magic? Demons and the undead? Sorta a staple of my life back home. But in a way where it's one of those secret staples--if you know what I mean. Fantastical things that your average everyday person doesn't know about and probably doesn't want to, either. Not that I could blame them. There are days when I feel ignorance would have been way more blissful.

[voice]

[chikaidestroyer]

An underground-like quality to your world, then. A world that most aren't privy to because it's for their own good. [pause] But you're quite deep in that 'secret staple' yourself.

[voice]

[slaying]

Deep enough that I'm pretty glad I know how to swim. The one good thing that can be said about this place is that it's refreshingly wonderful to not have to play secret-identity girl all the time. People seem to get way less wigged about the whole demons and vampires thing.

[voice]

[chikaidestroyer]

Interesting how there are few people here who aren't familiar with demons or vampires or monsters. But that's also why there are so many skilled with fighting here.

[voice]

[slaying]

Tell me about it. Sometimes, I wonder if we're just the Who's Who of the strange and vaguely spooky. I mean, this whole murder thing that's apparently going down? That has creepy written all over it.

[voice]

[chikaidestroyer]

Creepy, perhaps. So is the moral outrage that the death sparked.

[voice]

[slaying]

[Buffy's certainly concerned about the validity of some of the claims, but--] Wait, are you saying it's creepy that people are upset?

[voice]

[chikaidestroyer]

Isn't it disconcerting that it takes a public death to outrage people?

[voice]

[slaying]

You mean...in comparison to all the other stuff they should be outraged about?

[Buffy is entering into the realm of hesitation--a more serious conversation that she is clearly unsure about pursuing in such a monitored fashion. She has a care-free Californian girl facade to keep up.]

[voice]

[chikaidestroyer]

Indeed. It's a testament to the type of community we are, as well as what our worlds have ingrained in us. [He gestures vaguely, sensing the hesitation.] Just a thought to consider.

[voice]

[slaying]

Being bothered by death isn't a bad thing. But--I agree that there are some other things people should be getting bothered about, but they're not. Captivity, for one thing. The fact that one of our sorta-maybe-captors can just conjure a carnival out of nothing is another really big one.

[Deep breath.] If I didn't think that I knew better, I'd say this whole murder thing was a great distraction from the big what-the-hell of Halloween. Fact of life, people prefer murder mysteries to textbooks.