BtVS: Just Another Day - 6.10 Hero Worship, Part 1
Previous episode here.
It's Friday evening, and the Slayer fragments have just received confirmation from their good friends the faeries that it's all right for them to stop by the faerie mound at any time; in fact, the faerie with whom Teresa speaks actually sounded quite excited by the prospect of the Slayer fragments showing up. This makes a few of the Slayer fragments more than a little nervous, but it's too late to turn back now, so they all pack up a few essential weapons and other possessions and head out to the park where the entrance to the faerie mound is situated. The door opens without need for an offering, since the Slayer fragments are already expected, and they walk inside. At first the interior of the faerie mound seems no different from the way it's been on our heroes' other visits...but as they begin working their way through the mound's many winding tunnels, they hear the noise of a large crowd somewhere not far away, which is something they've never heard from within the normally silent faerie mound. The Slayer fragments work their way toward the source of the noise, and when it reaches its peak, they're shocked by what they see.
The Slayer fragments have entered a large central atrium in the faerie mound, and it's packed from wall to wall with unfamiliar faeries - far more than they've ever seen in one place within this faerie mound before. Most of these faeries are unfamiliar to the Slayer fragments, but talking animatedly amongst each other, and reacting with ecstatic excitement when they recognize the Slayer fragments. Now that our heroes look around, they notice that many of the faeries are wearing Slayer-fragment-related clothing (such as T-shirts that say "ROSSI LIVES!") and perusing tables laden with Slayer-fragment-related memorabilia. And, perhaps most horrifying of all, the Slayer fragments' current actions are being broadcast on an enormous screen that takes up all of one wall. A huge banner hangs across the entire room and states in large letters: "WELCOME TO SLAYERCON 2006."
The Slayer fragments barely have a chance to respond to this madness before they get mobbed by throngs of adoring faeries, all wanting to congratulate them, hug them, ask them questions, or just be near their heroes. Being the people with the most history among the group, Ally, Jack, and Joey get the biggest reception, with faeries asking for autographs and hugs, dissecting the minutiae of recent decisions and romantic entanglements, and showering them with gifts. Joey gets asked for help with some magically-based "computer programming" that a few of his faerie fanboys are partaking in, while Ally is quite embarrassed to receive a portfolio of drawings from a few of her fans which contains a number of well-done but extremely explicit drawings of herself and Simon. The reception for Simon, Teresa, and Tran, on the other hand, is sometimes downright frosty as some of the faeries seem to view them as subpar replacements for their beloved Rossi brothers. Simon, who doesn't really know what's going on until Ally explains it to him[1], and generally just tries to be polite and avoid conflict about anything. Teresa makes use of her "people person" nature to overcome the faerie's initial suspicion of her and soon has made a few friends who are all too glad to give her some complimentary faerie-style clothing. Tran, on the other hand, gets the iciest reception of all, except from a few very young-seeming faeries who are asking for martial arts lessons, and ends up mostly frustrated by the entire experience (as does Joey).[2]
Eventually, Ally manages to extricate herself from her adoring fans and find a small and harried group of faeries who seem to be in charge. They introduce themselves as the convention organizers, and apologize for how "surreal" the Slayer fragments' unexpected arrival must be for everyone. Ally asks to be taken to speak to the Duchess, as they're actually at the convention on business, and the organizers are only too glad to help once they realize that this is likely to lead to dramatic occurrences happening during the convention itself. The organizers also ask Ally and the others if they would be willing to make an appearance the following night, and to give a brief speech to the faeries there assembled; Ally, Jack, Joey, and Teresa all accept the offer. Ally also volunteers to be present around the convention while it's going on, hoping to gain future clout with the faeries in order to call in more favors in the future.
A somewhat starstruck faerie escorts the Slayer fragments to the Duchess's chambers. The Duchess is quite frazzled by the sudden influx of thousands of visiting faeries, all of whom have been watching the Slayer fragments' adventures via a scrying pool, but manages to collect herself long enough to listen to our heroes' proposal. Teresa explains that she wants the Duchess to both spread a rumor throughout the magical community that the Slayer fragments have hidden the Eye of Alerion inside the faerie mound, and to allow Persephone to enter the faerie mound when she arrives to track it down. Then the Slayer fragments will corner Persephone and use their superior numbers and advantageous position to get her to tell them what she's up to, once and for all. The Duchess points out that this plan has the potential to become very dangerous, both for the Slayer fragments and for the faeries, but Teresa ensures her that all the necessary precautions will be taken and the Duchess acknowledges that she does owe the Slayer fragments a favor. Thus, their proposal is accepted and the Duchess arranges for the Slayer fragments to get temporary accommodations inside the faerie mound while they wait for Persephone to show up.
The Slayer fragments are then escorted to an extremely swanky set of rooms which our heroes waste no time in settling into. Joey gets engrossed in programming more spells into his phone, only to become frustrated when he realizes that the faerie mound has no electricity and thus no way for him to recharge his laptop after he runs the battery down casting direct damage spells. Ally decides it's probably a good idea to show Simon the art portfolio so he can have some sort of idea of what he's getting into; Simon is even more horrified when he realizes that the faeries have been watching everything that he's done with Ally in the recent past, but eventually is convinced by Ally that things like this will just come with the territory for as long as he works with the Slayer fragments.[3] Ally then ventures forth into the convention hall for autograph-signing and mingling. Tran splits into a bunch of duplicates and jumps on the bed in his room, but eventually wanders out into the convention to demonstrate kung fu techniques for his adoring (?) public.
Meanwhile, Teresa has holed up in one of the bedrooms with the vampire canines of one of Persephone's children (acquired by Tran for her), and is settling in for a long and involved ritual. In addition to her original plan of turning Persephone's fangs into cartilage and thus rendering them useless, Teresa wants to pair this spell with a secondary effect that will cause Persephone to find the news of the Eye's whereabouts particularly interesting, and encourage her to come to the faerie mound alone rather than with a small army of vampires. It's a big spell, one that will take all night, and even then Teresa is afraid that it might be too much magic for her.[4] Still, she's determined to try, and continues her chanting even as the others are eating dinner, playing games, and otherwise enjoying themselves amidst an audience of their almost psychotically adoring fans.
Late that night, long after everyone else has fallen into a peaceful slumber, Teresa continues to work her magic. Just as the sunrise is approaching, she reaches the end of the spell and releases the energies that she has so carefully gathered - but something is wrong. As soon as she lets her power go, she can't control the outcome anymore and gets thrown back against the locked door of her room. Awakened by the noise, the others knock down Teresa's door and ask her what happened. Wearily, Teresa explains about the spell, but says that regretfully the spell seems to have gone awry and that it will not have the desired effect. Nobody can guess at what that effect might be, so all they can do is go about their business and hope that whatever happened doesn't inconvenience things too much.
While enjoying a delicious buffet breakfast that is only occasionally interrupted by autograph requests and other fannish intrusions, Tran does katas on the ceiling ("I'm like a chandelier that wiggles") while the rest of the Slayer fragments decide to spend the day partaking of some of the various panel discussions that are going on. Ally, Joey, and Teresa all attend a panel entitled "Where Do We Go From Here?" that discusses possible paths that the Slayer fragments might take in the future. Once the Slayer fragments get over the slight discomfort of having their every move scrutinized by a room full of nerdy observers, most of them actually enjoy themselves and offer their opinions on various points of contention amongst the faeries. (They even manage to do so in a fairly diplomatic manner, as evidenced when one of the faeries asked whether Simon holds them back and Ally responds, "Simon is very close to our hearts.")
Over lunchtime, Ally continues mingling while Teresa sneaks into her room and extricates the art portfolio that Ally has been so carefully hiding to show it to the others, only to be a little bit horrified by the explicit nature of the art. Upon returning to the buffet area, Tran soon gives away Teresa's actions with a throwaway comment that "Ally is quite attractive naked." Ally gets a little bit upset knowing that Teresa was digging around in her room, but ultimately has to admit that the whole situation is pretty hilarious and not worth getting too angry over (even if it is now becoming very difficult to get Tran to quit talking about her naked body). That afternoon, Joey and Tran put in an appearance at a "fighting styles" panel while Simon and Ally sneak into a relationship panel independently from Teresa (who does make her presence known to the others), with similar results as the ones that occurred in the morning meetings.
The dinner hour is mainly occupied with last-minute preparations for the speeches the Slayer fragments have agreed to give. The after-dinner ceremony itself goes off without a hitch, with the Slayer fragments all giving well-received speeches and presiding over the distribution of costume contest prizes (ironically, the winners of the costume contest are a group of faeries dressed up as the Slayer fragments dressed up as the characters from Wizard War - that is, the costumes the Slayer fragments wore to win the NecronomiCon costume contest and win back the Orb of Har-Rahman the previous fall). Despite this surreal reminder of battles past, nothing happens to disrupt this final event, and everyone disperses to enjoy a final night of partying, dancing, and drinking before all of the faeries there assembled return to their respective faerie mounds. The Slayer fragments, for their part, are ready to join them.
But before too much partying can commence, a faerie comes to the Slayer fragments with a message: Persephone has been detected approaching the faerie mound, with a large number of other vampires in tow. The Duchess wants the Slayer fragments to report to her quarters to prepare to deal with Persephone. Once they arrive, the Duchess invites Persephone (but not the other vampires) into the faerie mound, and provides the Slayer fragments with some water from the scrying pool so that they can track her movements through the faerie mound. The Slayer fragments trail Persephone through the faerie mound as the Duchess tries to keep her away from populated areas by changing the shape of the passageways.
Eventually, the Slayer fragments surround Persephone in a small chamber in an isolated area of the faerie mound, and the questioning begins. After establishing that if Persephone tries to run, the Slayer fragments won't hesitate to stake her, they start trying to get her to explain, once and for all, why she came to Teffelsburg and what she's hoping to accomplish. Persephone says she'll explain everything if the Slayer fragments will just hand over the Eye of Alerion, but of course, they don't agree to that. The discussion goes around in circles for a long time, until everyone hears some strange sounds coming from all around them. Persephone seems to become agitated by this, and says rather uncharacteristically, "Look, just hand over the Eye, and then we can all get out of here." Suddenly, Ally realizes why the whole conversation has seemed so circular - the person they're talking to doesn't know anything because the person they're talking to is not actually Persephone. When Ally states this out loud, "Persephone" turns into Leonardo, who seems quite confused, betrayed even, by what's going on.
That's when the noise around the Slayer fragments becomes impossible to ignore. But when they turn to leave the area, they realize that they're suddenly pinned into the room by an enormous horde of faeries. Only these faeries are no longer the harmless, friendly geeks with whom the Slayer fragments have spent the past 24 hours; instead, they've been turned into vampires, and are closing in around the Slayer fragments, thirsting for their blood. The Slayer fragments have been tricked by Persphone, and now must face down an unknown number of enemies if they even want to escape from the faerie mound that was supposed to be the resolution of their problems...
TO BE CONTINUED...
1 - Simon: So, the fairies can watch us anywhere at anytime?
Teresa: Like those extra long showers, Simon.
2 - dayzdark: Must resist urge to set faeries on fire.
eustacio: Must resist urge to Whirling Sword.
Iain: You guys, stay away from my faeries. My faeries are giving me clothes.
3 - Simon: When you said they watch us all the time, I thought you meant "all the time with tasteful fades to black."
Iain, OOC: That's why they always have to mop the scrying room.
4 - Before any modifiers, this was a Level 11 spell, which I think is the biggest thing that anyone in the game has ever tried to cast.
It's Friday evening, and the Slayer fragments have just received confirmation from their good friends the faeries that it's all right for them to stop by the faerie mound at any time; in fact, the faerie with whom Teresa speaks actually sounded quite excited by the prospect of the Slayer fragments showing up. This makes a few of the Slayer fragments more than a little nervous, but it's too late to turn back now, so they all pack up a few essential weapons and other possessions and head out to the park where the entrance to the faerie mound is situated. The door opens without need for an offering, since the Slayer fragments are already expected, and they walk inside. At first the interior of the faerie mound seems no different from the way it's been on our heroes' other visits...but as they begin working their way through the mound's many winding tunnels, they hear the noise of a large crowd somewhere not far away, which is something they've never heard from within the normally silent faerie mound. The Slayer fragments work their way toward the source of the noise, and when it reaches its peak, they're shocked by what they see.
The Slayer fragments have entered a large central atrium in the faerie mound, and it's packed from wall to wall with unfamiliar faeries - far more than they've ever seen in one place within this faerie mound before. Most of these faeries are unfamiliar to the Slayer fragments, but talking animatedly amongst each other, and reacting with ecstatic excitement when they recognize the Slayer fragments. Now that our heroes look around, they notice that many of the faeries are wearing Slayer-fragment-related clothing (such as T-shirts that say "ROSSI LIVES!") and perusing tables laden with Slayer-fragment-related memorabilia. And, perhaps most horrifying of all, the Slayer fragments' current actions are being broadcast on an enormous screen that takes up all of one wall. A huge banner hangs across the entire room and states in large letters: "WELCOME TO SLAYERCON 2006."
The Slayer fragments barely have a chance to respond to this madness before they get mobbed by throngs of adoring faeries, all wanting to congratulate them, hug them, ask them questions, or just be near their heroes. Being the people with the most history among the group, Ally, Jack, and Joey get the biggest reception, with faeries asking for autographs and hugs, dissecting the minutiae of recent decisions and romantic entanglements, and showering them with gifts. Joey gets asked for help with some magically-based "computer programming" that a few of his faerie fanboys are partaking in, while Ally is quite embarrassed to receive a portfolio of drawings from a few of her fans which contains a number of well-done but extremely explicit drawings of herself and Simon. The reception for Simon, Teresa, and Tran, on the other hand, is sometimes downright frosty as some of the faeries seem to view them as subpar replacements for their beloved Rossi brothers. Simon, who doesn't really know what's going on until Ally explains it to him[1], and generally just tries to be polite and avoid conflict about anything. Teresa makes use of her "people person" nature to overcome the faerie's initial suspicion of her and soon has made a few friends who are all too glad to give her some complimentary faerie-style clothing. Tran, on the other hand, gets the iciest reception of all, except from a few very young-seeming faeries who are asking for martial arts lessons, and ends up mostly frustrated by the entire experience (as does Joey).[2]
Eventually, Ally manages to extricate herself from her adoring fans and find a small and harried group of faeries who seem to be in charge. They introduce themselves as the convention organizers, and apologize for how "surreal" the Slayer fragments' unexpected arrival must be for everyone. Ally asks to be taken to speak to the Duchess, as they're actually at the convention on business, and the organizers are only too glad to help once they realize that this is likely to lead to dramatic occurrences happening during the convention itself. The organizers also ask Ally and the others if they would be willing to make an appearance the following night, and to give a brief speech to the faeries there assembled; Ally, Jack, Joey, and Teresa all accept the offer. Ally also volunteers to be present around the convention while it's going on, hoping to gain future clout with the faeries in order to call in more favors in the future.
A somewhat starstruck faerie escorts the Slayer fragments to the Duchess's chambers. The Duchess is quite frazzled by the sudden influx of thousands of visiting faeries, all of whom have been watching the Slayer fragments' adventures via a scrying pool, but manages to collect herself long enough to listen to our heroes' proposal. Teresa explains that she wants the Duchess to both spread a rumor throughout the magical community that the Slayer fragments have hidden the Eye of Alerion inside the faerie mound, and to allow Persephone to enter the faerie mound when she arrives to track it down. Then the Slayer fragments will corner Persephone and use their superior numbers and advantageous position to get her to tell them what she's up to, once and for all. The Duchess points out that this plan has the potential to become very dangerous, both for the Slayer fragments and for the faeries, but Teresa ensures her that all the necessary precautions will be taken and the Duchess acknowledges that she does owe the Slayer fragments a favor. Thus, their proposal is accepted and the Duchess arranges for the Slayer fragments to get temporary accommodations inside the faerie mound while they wait for Persephone to show up.
The Slayer fragments are then escorted to an extremely swanky set of rooms which our heroes waste no time in settling into. Joey gets engrossed in programming more spells into his phone, only to become frustrated when he realizes that the faerie mound has no electricity and thus no way for him to recharge his laptop after he runs the battery down casting direct damage spells. Ally decides it's probably a good idea to show Simon the art portfolio so he can have some sort of idea of what he's getting into; Simon is even more horrified when he realizes that the faeries have been watching everything that he's done with Ally in the recent past, but eventually is convinced by Ally that things like this will just come with the territory for as long as he works with the Slayer fragments.[3] Ally then ventures forth into the convention hall for autograph-signing and mingling. Tran splits into a bunch of duplicates and jumps on the bed in his room, but eventually wanders out into the convention to demonstrate kung fu techniques for his adoring (?) public.
Meanwhile, Teresa has holed up in one of the bedrooms with the vampire canines of one of Persephone's children (acquired by Tran for her), and is settling in for a long and involved ritual. In addition to her original plan of turning Persephone's fangs into cartilage and thus rendering them useless, Teresa wants to pair this spell with a secondary effect that will cause Persephone to find the news of the Eye's whereabouts particularly interesting, and encourage her to come to the faerie mound alone rather than with a small army of vampires. It's a big spell, one that will take all night, and even then Teresa is afraid that it might be too much magic for her.[4] Still, she's determined to try, and continues her chanting even as the others are eating dinner, playing games, and otherwise enjoying themselves amidst an audience of their almost psychotically adoring fans.
Late that night, long after everyone else has fallen into a peaceful slumber, Teresa continues to work her magic. Just as the sunrise is approaching, she reaches the end of the spell and releases the energies that she has so carefully gathered - but something is wrong. As soon as she lets her power go, she can't control the outcome anymore and gets thrown back against the locked door of her room. Awakened by the noise, the others knock down Teresa's door and ask her what happened. Wearily, Teresa explains about the spell, but says that regretfully the spell seems to have gone awry and that it will not have the desired effect. Nobody can guess at what that effect might be, so all they can do is go about their business and hope that whatever happened doesn't inconvenience things too much.
While enjoying a delicious buffet breakfast that is only occasionally interrupted by autograph requests and other fannish intrusions, Tran does katas on the ceiling ("I'm like a chandelier that wiggles") while the rest of the Slayer fragments decide to spend the day partaking of some of the various panel discussions that are going on. Ally, Joey, and Teresa all attend a panel entitled "Where Do We Go From Here?" that discusses possible paths that the Slayer fragments might take in the future. Once the Slayer fragments get over the slight discomfort of having their every move scrutinized by a room full of nerdy observers, most of them actually enjoy themselves and offer their opinions on various points of contention amongst the faeries. (They even manage to do so in a fairly diplomatic manner, as evidenced when one of the faeries asked whether Simon holds them back and Ally responds, "Simon is very close to our hearts.")
Over lunchtime, Ally continues mingling while Teresa sneaks into her room and extricates the art portfolio that Ally has been so carefully hiding to show it to the others, only to be a little bit horrified by the explicit nature of the art. Upon returning to the buffet area, Tran soon gives away Teresa's actions with a throwaway comment that "Ally is quite attractive naked." Ally gets a little bit upset knowing that Teresa was digging around in her room, but ultimately has to admit that the whole situation is pretty hilarious and not worth getting too angry over (even if it is now becoming very difficult to get Tran to quit talking about her naked body). That afternoon, Joey and Tran put in an appearance at a "fighting styles" panel while Simon and Ally sneak into a relationship panel independently from Teresa (who does make her presence known to the others), with similar results as the ones that occurred in the morning meetings.
The dinner hour is mainly occupied with last-minute preparations for the speeches the Slayer fragments have agreed to give. The after-dinner ceremony itself goes off without a hitch, with the Slayer fragments all giving well-received speeches and presiding over the distribution of costume contest prizes (ironically, the winners of the costume contest are a group of faeries dressed up as the Slayer fragments dressed up as the characters from Wizard War - that is, the costumes the Slayer fragments wore to win the NecronomiCon costume contest and win back the Orb of Har-Rahman the previous fall). Despite this surreal reminder of battles past, nothing happens to disrupt this final event, and everyone disperses to enjoy a final night of partying, dancing, and drinking before all of the faeries there assembled return to their respective faerie mounds. The Slayer fragments, for their part, are ready to join them.
But before too much partying can commence, a faerie comes to the Slayer fragments with a message: Persephone has been detected approaching the faerie mound, with a large number of other vampires in tow. The Duchess wants the Slayer fragments to report to her quarters to prepare to deal with Persephone. Once they arrive, the Duchess invites Persephone (but not the other vampires) into the faerie mound, and provides the Slayer fragments with some water from the scrying pool so that they can track her movements through the faerie mound. The Slayer fragments trail Persephone through the faerie mound as the Duchess tries to keep her away from populated areas by changing the shape of the passageways.
Eventually, the Slayer fragments surround Persephone in a small chamber in an isolated area of the faerie mound, and the questioning begins. After establishing that if Persephone tries to run, the Slayer fragments won't hesitate to stake her, they start trying to get her to explain, once and for all, why she came to Teffelsburg and what she's hoping to accomplish. Persephone says she'll explain everything if the Slayer fragments will just hand over the Eye of Alerion, but of course, they don't agree to that. The discussion goes around in circles for a long time, until everyone hears some strange sounds coming from all around them. Persephone seems to become agitated by this, and says rather uncharacteristically, "Look, just hand over the Eye, and then we can all get out of here." Suddenly, Ally realizes why the whole conversation has seemed so circular - the person they're talking to doesn't know anything because the person they're talking to is not actually Persephone. When Ally states this out loud, "Persephone" turns into Leonardo, who seems quite confused, betrayed even, by what's going on.
That's when the noise around the Slayer fragments becomes impossible to ignore. But when they turn to leave the area, they realize that they're suddenly pinned into the room by an enormous horde of faeries. Only these faeries are no longer the harmless, friendly geeks with whom the Slayer fragments have spent the past 24 hours; instead, they've been turned into vampires, and are closing in around the Slayer fragments, thirsting for their blood. The Slayer fragments have been tricked by Persphone, and now must face down an unknown number of enemies if they even want to escape from the faerie mound that was supposed to be the resolution of their problems...
TO BE CONTINUED...
1 - Simon: So, the fairies can watch us anywhere at anytime?
Teresa: Like those extra long showers, Simon.
2 - dayzdark: Must resist urge to set faeries on fire.
eustacio: Must resist urge to Whirling Sword.
Iain: You guys, stay away from my faeries. My faeries are giving me clothes.
3 - Simon: When you said they watch us all the time, I thought you meant "all the time with tasteful fades to black."
Iain, OOC: That's why they always have to mop the scrying room.
4 - Before any modifiers, this was a Level 11 spell, which I think is the biggest thing that anyone in the game has ever tried to cast.