TM-Response: Overheard in Sunnydale
Write about an overheard remark or secret that you were not supposed to have heard.
Locked to those who know about slayers and the supernatural
OK, first of all, anybody who was in Sunnydale in spring of '99? Relax. Yes, I did have a close-encounter with the scratchy kind with a telepath demon, and that did cause me to pick up some temporary mind-reading abilities. So -- Willow, Cordy, Harmony, Wesley, Xander -- whoever else is out there -- Tucker? Were you in jail by then? I forget which thing happened first. Faith was definitely evil at that point, so we weren't exactly on mind-reading terms Chances are, if I talked to you, I probably picked up something that you'd just as soon I hadn't. (Angel, you don't count. But then -- you know that). But, like I said, don't worry. I've spent the past seven (!!!!) years trying to block a lot of that information out. I'm sure not going to start talking about it here.
Besides, it's not any of you guys' fault that I happened to get afflicted with a mind-reading spell. Don't ask me why I couldn't just get rabies like a normal person. Not that I'm saying I want rabies, okay? If there's some smart aleck fate-controlling demon out there, I want to be perfectly clear: I didn't ask for rabies.
Anyway, I'm not going to talk about any of that. Maybe I found out some stuff I wouldn't have otherwise, but for the most part (those parts that didn't involve my mother and Giles and sexual performance) I just sort of called a do-over.
On the other hand, those folks who choose to have their "The Master will rise and Buffy will die" conversations, right there in front of God and everybody? Everybody being Buffy? Well, those folks pretty much deserve to be talked about.
So, yes, it was just another day in the life of a Sunnydale slayer. I was angsting a little bit about not having a date to the prom, about turning down the one boy who wanted to take me to the prom, and not knowing what was going on with the person that I wanted to take me. Still, just your run-of-the- mill teenage angst. Easy to say now, but even then I'm sure I would have gotten over it. I might have even done like my mom said and put on that virgin-white dress (yeah yeah, I said it was a long time ago) and gone to the dance by myself. I might even have had a non-crappy time (although as it was a Sunnydale school event, I remain skeptical).
Instead, I walked into the library and saw Angel talking to Giles. Well, back then, seeing Angel did weird things to my heart rate. Sometimes it still does. I will never never admit that to anyone. So instead of just saying, "Hey guys," I was trying to control my pulse, and I ended up hearing what they were talking about. Giles read a prophecy; there were prophecies and there were prophecies, he said, but this one was the real deal. I was going to fight the Master and I was going to die.
Now, OK, maybe it wasn't strictly a "secret." I want to give Giles and Angel the benefit of the doubt about this. I want to think that they were going to find a good way to tell me, and give me a chance to make up my own mind. I don't see how else they could have done it. I can even understand, sort of, why Giles told Angel who he didn't even like before he told me. But when you're sixteen and in about ten seconds you go from worrying about the prom to "you're going to die tomorrow, it is written" -- the rational debate reflex isn't exactly the one that kicks in.
The rest of the story is kind of an anticlimax. I quit -- for about a night. Then I suited up and I did my job. I don't remember dying. I remember waking up and looking at Xander, and then I remember getting in gear and kicking the Master's ass -- ok, maybe that was kind of a climax. I guess a slayer never really forgets her first averted apocalypse (or was that the second? was the Harvest thing the first? I hope somebody keeps track of these things better than I do). Still, compared to some other stuff I've been through, since then, it seems kind of minor. Even the dying part. On the other hand, if I hadn't died then, there wouldn't have been Kendra, and if Kendra hadn't come when she did, there wouldn't have been Faith. There wouldn't have ever been two slayers at once, for that matter, and if there hadn't been two, we probably never would have had the idea of there being more.
Huh. Wild. I'll leave it to somebody deeper than me to figure out what it all means.
Locked to those who know about slayers and the supernatural
OK, first of all, anybody who was in Sunnydale in spring of '99? Relax. Yes, I did have a close-encounter with the scratchy kind with a telepath demon, and that did cause me to pick up some temporary mind-reading abilities. So -- Willow, Cordy, Harmony, Wesley, Xander -- whoever else is out there -- Tucker? Were you in jail by then? I forget which thing happened first. Faith was definitely evil at that point, so we weren't exactly on mind-reading terms Chances are, if I talked to you, I probably picked up something that you'd just as soon I hadn't. (Angel, you don't count. But then -- you know that). But, like I said, don't worry. I've spent the past seven (!!!!) years trying to block a lot of that information out. I'm sure not going to start talking about it here.
Besides, it's not any of you guys' fault that I happened to get afflicted with a mind-reading spell. Don't ask me why I couldn't just get rabies like a normal person. Not that I'm saying I want rabies, okay? If there's some smart aleck fate-controlling demon out there, I want to be perfectly clear: I didn't ask for rabies.
Anyway, I'm not going to talk about any of that. Maybe I found out some stuff I wouldn't have otherwise, but for the most part (those parts that didn't involve my mother and Giles and sexual performance) I just sort of called a do-over.
On the other hand, those folks who choose to have their "The Master will rise and Buffy will die" conversations, right there in front of God and everybody? Everybody being Buffy? Well, those folks pretty much deserve to be talked about.
So, yes, it was just another day in the life of a Sunnydale slayer. I was angsting a little bit about not having a date to the prom, about turning down the one boy who wanted to take me to the prom, and not knowing what was going on with the person that I wanted to take me. Still, just your run-of-the- mill teenage angst. Easy to say now, but even then I'm sure I would have gotten over it. I might have even done like my mom said and put on that virgin-white dress (yeah yeah, I said it was a long time ago) and gone to the dance by myself. I might even have had a non-crappy time (although as it was a Sunnydale school event, I remain skeptical).
Instead, I walked into the library and saw Angel talking to Giles. Well, back then, seeing Angel did weird things to my heart rate. Sometimes it still does. I will never never admit that to anyone. So instead of just saying, "Hey guys," I was trying to control my pulse, and I ended up hearing what they were talking about. Giles read a prophecy; there were prophecies and there were prophecies, he said, but this one was the real deal. I was going to fight the Master and I was going to die.
Now, OK, maybe it wasn't strictly a "secret." I want to give Giles and Angel the benefit of the doubt about this. I want to think that they were going to find a good way to tell me, and give me a chance to make up my own mind. I don't see how else they could have done it. I can even understand, sort of, why Giles told Angel who he didn't even like before he told me. But when you're sixteen and in about ten seconds you go from worrying about the prom to "you're going to die tomorrow, it is written" -- the rational debate reflex isn't exactly the one that kicks in.
The rest of the story is kind of an anticlimax. I quit -- for about a night. Then I suited up and I did my job. I don't remember dying. I remember waking up and looking at Xander, and then I remember getting in gear and kicking the Master's ass -- ok, maybe that was kind of a climax. I guess a slayer never really forgets her first averted apocalypse (or was that the second? was the Harvest thing the first? I hope somebody keeps track of these things better than I do). Still, compared to some other stuff I've been through, since then, it seems kind of minor. Even the dying part. On the other hand, if I hadn't died then, there wouldn't have been Kendra, and if Kendra hadn't come when she did, there wouldn't have been Faith. There wouldn't have ever been two slayers at once, for that matter, and if there hadn't been two, we probably never would have had the idea of there being more.
Huh. Wild. I'll leave it to somebody deeper than me to figure out what it all means.