Fic: Actions Speak Louder
Oct. 20th, 2013 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonyphoenixTitle: Actions Speak Louder
Fandom: BtVS
Rating: Teen
Concrit: Please, in comments
Summary: Assigning a new Watcher to Faith and Buffy didn't go as smoothly as the Council had hoped.
Disclaimer: They aren't mine, not yet, but they will be ... once I've taken over the world. Bwah-ha-ha!
Note: I sort of like a dialogue filled story in response to a prompt of silence.
Note: bone-dry1013's Origins story has Buffy left alone for months because the Council didn't realize her Watcher was dead. While I don't believe it's explicit in the story, I'm under the impression that the Council didn't realize Faith's Watcher was dead. I thought it'd be an interesting idea to play with.
By ancient tradition the Council Head personally appointed the Watcher who was to train the next Slayer, but Quentin Travers hadn't bothered to come himself. He'd sent Bigsby in his place, but that didn't actually matter. It wasn't about to change his response.
Bigsby's smile, while both avuncular and charming, didn't quite reach his eyes. “The circumstances are unusual to be sure, a second Slayer, but if Mr. Giles' evaluation goes … well, if you feel Mr. Giles has not lived up to his duties, then you'll be training both Slayers. Quite the coup. You'd be the first.”
“I'd be on a Hellmouth. I'd have no backup.” He didn't allow any inflection to creep into his voice.“
"You'd have two Slayers as well as Mr. Giles' expertise to call upon."
"Would I be counting on his expertise before or after I tell him that I'm there to question his abilities?”
Bigsby's smile thinned out a bit but he didn't reply.
“After her first Watcher died, Miss Summers was left alone, unguided and abandoned, for over four months.”
Bigsby straightened his tie before speaking. “Operational procedures require that the current Watcher's authority remain unquestioned. The Council keeps its distance. That's our tradition.”
“And what happened to the body of Miss Lehane's first Watcher?”
Bigsby's smile was one of relief, as if he'd suddenly realized what this line of questioning was about. “While Watchers do, occasionally, erm, retire in the field, the guidelines laid out in your Watcher's Handbook should be, will be, more than adequate to keep you safe."
“I'm certain someone at or above your level has reviewed my background. Were you personally aware that my uncle was assigned to a Slayer in '72? Did you know he was dead for three months before the Council even noticed? Or that his body was never recovered?”
“I do not appreciate your tone, young man. I assure you that you will be perfectly safe if you follow Council procedures while in the field. Over the past fifty years we have only lost … ”
Jeremy Taylor, the latest in a long line of those assigned to train a Slayer, stood and waited for Bigsby to stop speaking. Then, turning his back on the man, Jeremy walked out the door. Perhaps he actions would speak more clearly than his words had.
Fandom: BtVS
Rating: Teen
Concrit: Please, in comments
Summary: Assigning a new Watcher to Faith and Buffy didn't go as smoothly as the Council had hoped.
Disclaimer: They aren't mine, not yet, but they will be ... once I've taken over the world. Bwah-ha-ha!
Note: I sort of like a dialogue filled story in response to a prompt of silence.
Note: bone-dry1013's Origins story has Buffy left alone for months because the Council didn't realize her Watcher was dead. While I don't believe it's explicit in the story, I'm under the impression that the Council didn't realize Faith's Watcher was dead. I thought it'd be an interesting idea to play with.
By ancient tradition the Council Head personally appointed the Watcher who was to train the next Slayer, but Quentin Travers hadn't bothered to come himself. He'd sent Bigsby in his place, but that didn't actually matter. It wasn't about to change his response.
Bigsby's smile, while both avuncular and charming, didn't quite reach his eyes. “The circumstances are unusual to be sure, a second Slayer, but if Mr. Giles' evaluation goes … well, if you feel Mr. Giles has not lived up to his duties, then you'll be training both Slayers. Quite the coup. You'd be the first.”
“I'd be on a Hellmouth. I'd have no backup.” He didn't allow any inflection to creep into his voice.“
"You'd have two Slayers as well as Mr. Giles' expertise to call upon."
"Would I be counting on his expertise before or after I tell him that I'm there to question his abilities?”
Bigsby's smile thinned out a bit but he didn't reply.
“After her first Watcher died, Miss Summers was left alone, unguided and abandoned, for over four months.”
Bigsby straightened his tie before speaking. “Operational procedures require that the current Watcher's authority remain unquestioned. The Council keeps its distance. That's our tradition.”
“And what happened to the body of Miss Lehane's first Watcher?”
Bigsby's smile was one of relief, as if he'd suddenly realized what this line of questioning was about. “While Watchers do, occasionally, erm, retire in the field, the guidelines laid out in your Watcher's Handbook should be, will be, more than adequate to keep you safe."
“I'm certain someone at or above your level has reviewed my background. Were you personally aware that my uncle was assigned to a Slayer in '72? Did you know he was dead for three months before the Council even noticed? Or that his body was never recovered?”
“I do not appreciate your tone, young man. I assure you that you will be perfectly safe if you follow Council procedures while in the field. Over the past fifty years we have only lost … ”
Jeremy Taylor, the latest in a long line of those assigned to train a Slayer, stood and waited for Bigsby to stop speaking. Then, turning his back on the man, Jeremy walked out the door. Perhaps he actions would speak more clearly than his words had.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-10-20 10:30 pm (UTC)Gabrielle
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Date: 2013-10-20 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-20 11:35 pm (UTC)Very clever set up, feels very genuine. Awesomeness!
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Date: 2013-10-21 12:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-25 02:09 am (UTC)Oh gosh how did I miss this?
It seems logical to me that Buffy isn't the very first Slayer in thousands of years who does things differently (whatever canon tells us), and so it's just as logical that there have been Watchers in thousands of years who haven't towed the party line. I'm surprised this isn't explored more. Very good!
no subject
Date: 2014-08-25 03:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-25 12:42 pm (UTC)After staring at the door for a few minutes, Zeke closed his eyes again, turning his thoughts back to Mary Wilson. The loss of the teacup really was quite devastating; it had been in her family for five generations. The Council could find others to document their apocalypses.
Perfect , elegant - the voices are wonderful here, and there's so much going on in a very short space of time.
I'd ask for more but the evil Giles fic is the important thing at the moment and I shouldn't like to interfere with that. )
ETA: I've been catching up with your fics on Ao3 (oh my am I dreadfully behind) and just finished the Lesson. WHOA. As in, that's a total compliment I don't have words for it.
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Date: 2014-08-25 01:20 pm (UTC)I'm so pleased you like The Lesson. I thought I'd done a rather good job with that one but it didn't get many comments.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-25 01:32 pm (UTC)IDK maybe because it's not funny/silly/tragic/shippy/sexy? Because it centers around an OC? I think it's such a subtle story - I can think on that last line ten minutes after I read it and new things blossom. I like lots of there there but that doesn't always make for easy commenting? (I know, I'm guilty of same.)
no subject
Date: 2014-08-25 02:05 pm (UTC)I'd been thinking about that OC storyline quite some time before writing it. When I got the prompt of book somehow that story and Giles lesson came together into the one story.