#and Andrew too that goes without sayin

[sepulchralblues]

You Were My Gravity

Ahh it’s Neil’s birthday and in honour of that I have a not-so-little ficlet that I wrote and I’m really excited to share it.

Something to note: Andrew’s past is entirely different from canon in this AU, and it shows in his relationships and interactions here.

Title - Gravity by Against the Current

Airports, in Andrew Minyard’s esteemed opinion, were hell in its finest form on earth. And airplanes? Metal death traps that took man where he wasn’t meant to go? They were much, much worse.

Really, if humans were meant to fly, they'd have been born with wings and pneumatic bones. But they certainly weren’t, were they?

The universe was conspiring against Andrew, because clearly it believed flying was a just and righteous activity for humans to undertake.

Why was the universe against him, you ask?

Well, because he had a twin.

Or rather, he had a twin who was getting married in Chicago. Couldn’t have been New York, where Andrew lived, or in Boston, which he could comfortably drive down to and back from on the same day.

No, it had to be in the city where the majority of his fiancée’s family lived.

No sacrifices to be made for poor Andrew Minyard, best man, that would prevent him from getting on an airplane.

And to think Andrew had planned such a brilliant wedding gift. First-class, really. Aaron would never top it if Andrew ever actually got married.

Perhaps the only saving grace of this entire godforsaken trip would be the gorgeous redhead in the queue in front of him.

Some people, Andrew knew, were just born pretty, and this man was one of them.

With a face chiselled like that of a Greek god’s, and long, lean legs that Andrew wanted wrapped around his waist, the man was probably the closest approximation to a walking wet dream.

Andrew was not drooling, thank you very much.

He watched as the man lifted his suitcase onto the conveyor belt for check-in luggages, and studiously noted the flex of his bicep.

Another counter opened up and forced Andrew to tear his gaze away from Greek God Man.

When he was done, he looked around the noisy airport floor for the man, but he was nowhere to be found.

Andrew held back an unhappy sigh. At least his perfect memory would serve to remind him of the beauty that had graced this airport.

Andrew dragged his suitcase onto the escalator, drumming his hands on his legs.

He spotted an interesting magazine in the shelf on the first floor, and immediately diverted his path towards it.

Security check could wait one minute for Andrew to grab a copy of Condé Nast Traveller.

He had almost reached the rack when someone crashed into him.

Andrew went sprawling. He landed on his ass in the most unflattering way. A hot flush worked its way into his ears, turning them bright red.

The flush spread to his cheeks when he saw that the person he had bumped into was none other than Greek God Man.

Oh, for the love of all things unholy. Why did this have to happen to him?

“Shit, I’m so sorry,” cursed the man, and Jesus fucking Christ Andrew must have done something grievously wrong in a past life, because that was a British accent right there.

It was truly a wonder he didn’t pop a boner in the middle of the airport.

“Here, let me help you up,” said the man. He pushed himself up to his feet and stretched a hand out to Andrew, who was still sitting on the floor like it was a feather-downed bed and not a cold marble tile.

Andrew swallowed, willed some cool into himself, and grasped the man’s hand.

He was not paying attention to the muscles of the other man’s forearm. He was not.

Andrew blinked hard and turned to straighten his suitcase. He noticed one corner of the top zipper was a little open and he pulled it shut.

“Sorry,” said the man again. “I was looking at my phone and walking, and I do really hate it when people do that, can’t believe I didn’t see you there. You’re not hurt, are you?”

Andrew cleared his throat. “No. I’m fine.”

The man grinned at that, as if what Andrew said was an inside joke. His smile was a little crooked. Andrew found it mildly adorable.

Honestly, fuck this guy for making Andrew think the word ‘adorable’.

“Oh, hey,” the man said, glancing at the ticket Andrew held in his hand. He pulled his own ticket out of his back pocket.

It had the same gate number and destination.

“Same flight,” said Greek God Man.

He had committed truly heinous crimes. Mass murder. Mutilation. Torture.

“Chicago is a horrible place. No one in their right mind should ever visit it,” Andrew said.

Greek God Man snorted. “What has Chicago ever done to you?”

“House too many people of the same family.”

Greek God Man raised an eyebrow, so Andrew elaborated.

“The wedding I have been coerced into attending is populated by residents of Chicago. Apparently, that was good enough reason for it to be held in Chicago.”

Now he looked amused. Andrew smothered the thrill in his stomach that came from putting a smile on those incredibly kissable lips.

“Wow. Let’s burn Chicago to the ground, shall we?”

“Oh, gladly,” muttered Andrew.

“Well. I won’t bother you any longer,” Greek God Man said, backing away slowly. “Guess I’ll see you on the flight…”

“Andrew,” he introduced.

“Andrew.” The man smiled. “I’m Neil. It was nice to meet you.”

With that Neil backed away, leaving Andrew stunned and shell-shocked by his suitcase.

Was that conversation just social niceties or was Andrew right to read into it, that Neil may have been flirting with him?

Reading into it. Definitely. With a face like that, why would he flirt with Andrew?

Security check was its usual hustle and bustle. Boots off. Gadgets out. Scanner beeping. Ticket stamped. Bag collected. Boots on.

And unbelievably, incredibly, walking right into Neil again.

This time it was at the coffee shop. Andrew had just collected his very creamy, very sugary drink and stepped out of the queue with one hand on his luggage. As he removed the paper lid to blow on his drink, his suitcase bumped into someone’s leg, and nearly caused him to spill burning hot coffee on his fingers.

“Fuck,” he swore, carefully turning to grab his suitcase.

“Hello again,” Neil said, a smirk curling at the corner of his lips. “It seems we were meant to bump into each other one way or another.”

Andrew hated the heat that infused his cheeks when he said, “Neil,” in a calm, non-strangled-sounding tone.

“Andrew.” Neil glanced at Andrew’s coffee and wrinkled his nose as if the drink had offended him. “What is that?”

Andrew looked at the paper cup in his hands and then back at Neil. Slowly, he said, “My coffee?”

“That’s not coffee,” Neil snorted. “That’s a monstrosity.”

No one insulted Andrew’s drink. Not even Neil of the Greek God-like face.

“You can talk to me again when you make better life choices. Drinks like these are the right way to have coffee.” With that Andrew turned away and started walking towards the gate.

Neil called out from behind him, “Our gate is in the opposite direction!”

Spitefully, Andrew kept moving in the same direction. Neil could shut it.

Right before he turned the corner, Andrew swore he heard a chuckle come from near the coffee shop.

—

The plane was unusually empty. Apart from Andrew and wretched, gorgeous Neil who had all the wrong tastes in drinks, there were maybe six other passengers.

In hindsight, he probably should have found this odder than he did. At the time, he was thrilled there were going to be less people who would see him fighting off his anxiety.

It really wasn’t Andrew’s day at all because his seat was pretty fucking close to Neil’s, which meant the redheaded menace that had followed him around the airport struck up a conversation as soon as Andrew sat down.

“So,” Neil said, leaning against the armrest and towards the aisle separating the two of them as the plane started moving onto the runway. “Whose wedding were you coerced into attending?”

Andrew regretted every decision that had led up to this point. “My twin brother’s.”

Neil cocked his head. “Twins, huh.”

Andrew raised an eyebrow in question.

“I’ve never met someone who has a twin,” he explained.

Whatever Andrew was going to say in response to that was swallowed by the sound of the plane’s engines as they fired up and the plane started moving faster and faster.

The pen Andrew had taken out of his backpack was clutched in his hand. His knuckles squeezed around it so tightly they turned white. His fingertips dug deep into his skin. There would be half-moon marks left for a few hours.

There was a crushing pressure on his chest as the plane tilted upwards. Repeating in Andrew’s head was a litany of prayers and curses jumbled into one another to form a chant he couldn’t recite again for the life of him. Even with his perfect memory.

Everything felt painful until his ears popped. His stomach had been left behind on the ground, and his intestines had knotted themselves together thoroughly.

“Hey,” Neil said, cutting through the fog in Andrew’s head. He didn’t wilt under the force of the glare Andrew sent him. "If it makes you feel better, fewer than twenty planes crash every year and it's not always due to the weather. Sometimes pilots are just unreliable. I'm sure it's a quick death either way."

“What,” Andrew ground out.

Neil pointed at the pen in his hands that he was almost denting. “You’re afraid of heights.”

“Fuck you.”

“You’re still afraid of heights.”

Andrew wanted to say fuck you again, but he chose to stay silent.

It wasn’t long before the air hostess walked out handing out drinks. Andrew got himself a nice whiskey and took a long sip.

Beside him, Neil turned her offer down to ask for a glass of water instead.

Although he wasn’t apparently afraid of heights, Neil grew more jittery as the flight proceeded. His foot would not stop tapping and he kept zipping and unzipping his jacket.

When Andrew got up to use the washroom, Neil tensed up so suddenly, Andrew nearly asked him what was wrong. But he relaxed almost immediately, so Andrew kept quiet.

Those two minutes out of his seat shouldn’t have changed Andrew’s life the way they did.

The scene on the plane when he stepped out of the washroom was infinitely different and exactly the same, all at once.

All passengers apart from Neil were slumped in their seats. Neil himself was leaning against the armrest of the aisle seat between his and Andrew’s seats. He was holding two little bottles of vodka.

Andrew carefully stepped up to him, senses prickling and on high alert.

Neil handed him a bottle before he spoke. “There’s a little issue with the pilots.” He raised a palm before Andrew stopped breathing altogether. “It’s alright. It’s not a huge problem. I can land this plane just fine. You won’t even notice the difference.”

Andrew blinked at him. He uncapped the bottle and swallowed the drink in a few mouthfuls without pulling off.

He pointed the empty bottle at Neil. “Did you just say you were going to fly this plane?”

Neil nodded.

Andrew glanced down at his feet. “The one we’re in.”

Now Neil frowned. It was a small thing, creasing the skin between his eyebrows. Andrew wanted to press his lips to that frown.

“Yeah, this plane.”

Maybe it was the shock, maybe it was the alcohol kicking in. Andrew thought out loud. “So if you’re here talking to me, and the pilots are having ‘issues’, who’s flying this thing?”

Neil scratched the back of his head. “At the moment, autopilot. But that’s not gonna last for long, so what I need you to do is calmly get back in your seat and buckle up nice and secure, got it?”

Andrew felt hysteria bubble up inside him. This guy was joking, right? Andrew had hit his head on the toilet. He was passed out on that disgusting seat right now. He wasn’t having this conversation with Neil.

This plane wasn’t fucking flying itself with no pilots to man it.

“—rew? Andrew?” Neil snapped his fingers in front of his face. Andrew blinked at him.

“Did you hear what I said? You need to get in your seat and fasten that seat belt now.” Neil’s voice had taken on a hard edge.

No way. If dream-Neil was going to fly a plane, Andrew was going to see it happen. He couldn’t be affected by a fear of heights in his dreams, right?

“No. I want to come to the cockpit too,” he said.

Neil sighed as if Andrew was being difficult, but he kept glancing towards the front of the plane.

Andrew looked too.

The door swung open to reveal two men leaning out of their seats. There was red on one of their foreheads.

Were they dead?

It had to be a dream. A really weird dream.

Neil ran his hands through his hair. He let out a frustrated noise and said, “Fine. But you will get your ass into a seat and fasten the goddamn seat belt, got it?”

Deliriously, Andrew nodded.

The cockpit was a mess. Neil shoved one of the pilots out of his seat and sat down, reaching for the headset with one hand and the controls with the other.

“Andrew,” he said. “What did I say? Sit. The fuck. Down.”

Fine then, if he was going to get annoying. Andrew sat on a seat towards the back of the cockpit and fastened the seatbelt. This one was different from the usual passenger seat belts. It hooked from the top and pushed Andrew’s torso firmly back into the seat.

Neil was saying something into the headset, but Andrew couldn’t make out any of the words.

“Andrew?” Neil called out. “This is going to be a rough landing!”

“What?” Andrew said. “We’re not there yet.” He glanced out of the window and swallowed back a wave of nausea. “We’re in the middle of some farmland!”

“We weren’t going to land in an airport. Airports are too dangerous right now.”

“What? What does that mean?”

Neil tossed the headset aside and grabbed the steering wheel sort of thing with both hands. “It means hold on!”

���Rough landing’ didn’t cover it. Andrew was bruised in places he didn’t think could bruise, and his ass felt glued to the seat.

It still felt like a dream, but somewhere in Andrew’s head he was starting to recognise that he hadn’t been knocked out on a toilet seat.

He was actually here, in the middle of some random farm, with Neil, who it turned out was some sort of secret agent or something who could land a fucking plane.

Neil dragged them to a halt a few hundred metres from the plane crash and sat him down on a large rock.

“Listen very carefully to me,” he said, kneeling down in front of Andrew. “They’re going to come for you.”

The alcohol was really kicking in now because it seemed like Andrew was hearing things.

Come for him? Really, Neil?

Andrew squinted at the other man, but he didn’t say anything.

Neil pushed away from him and reached into his bag, which he had somehow recovered along with Andrew’s. He pulled out a white bandage.

Tugging up the edge of his shirt, he pressed his fingers to the bloody patch on his skin. He hissed and uncapped another bottle of alcohol.

Idly, Andrew wondered when he’d pilfered them from the air hostess after refusing to drink at all.

He poured some of the alcohol over the wound and bit his lip to mask the pain.

Andrew asked, “Were you shot or something?”

“Grazed by the bullet, actually,” Neil answered.

He peeled off the protective covering of the bandage and pressed it to the wound, sealing it from edge to edge. He took another sip of alcohol and tossed the bottle aside.

He pulled out yet another one from his bag, and this time handed it to Andrew.

“Drink that,” he said, cracking open the seal.

Wordlessly, Andrew complied. He didn’t know if it was an after-effect of whatever that experience on the plane was, or if his head really was pounding so much he reasoned a drink could make it better.

“Hey,” Neil tilted his chin up. Andrew swatted his hand aside, so Neil said, “Look at me.”

Andrew looked at him.

“They’re going to come for you. You weren’t supposed to be on that plane. I don’t know why you were. Fuck,” he swore. Neil ran a hand through his hair. “They must have seen the switch on the cameras. Fuck, that was a beginner’s mistake. Shit.”

“What switch?” Andrew asked. His vision was slowly becoming blurry. “Who’s coming?”

“Never mind that.” Neil tapped his fingers on the rock Andrew was sitting on. “Think of them as the bad guys.”

“And you’re the good guy?” Andrew asked wryly.

Neil smiled. “Well of course.”

That smile was wiped away instantly by a more serious expression. Andrew alone mourned its loss.

“They’re going to want to take you away. They’ll use words like ‘safe’ and ‘secure’ and ‘package’. Andrew.” Neil snapped his fingers in front of Andrew’s face.

So rude, really.

“Andrew. Don’t answer their questions. Definitely don’t get into a car with them. And don’t, under any circumstances, say you know my name. Got it?”

Andrew’s vision was nearly black by now. “Did you drug me?” He asked, words slurring.

Neil almost looked apologetic. “I did.”

“I hate you.”

He shrugged. “That’s perfectly acceptable. Did you hear anything I just said?”

Annoyed, and tired of being treated like a little kid, Andrew said, “They use the words ‘safe’, ‘secure’ and ‘package’. Don’t talk to them, get in a car with them or say your name. I’m not an idiot, Neil.”

Neil chuckled. “No, you’re not, Andrew. No, you’re not.”

He rose to his feet and backed away from Andrew. “It was a pleasure meeting you. I’m sorry about the mess.”

Andrew wanted to say something. The words were right there, on his tongue, but the darkness crept in, and his vision turned black.

The last thing he remembered was the feeling of strong arms lifting him up and carrying him away.

He was too far gone for the panic to set in.

[91percentpynch]

my favourite ships and who would be the trophy wife

look this is incredibly stupid but it‘s been in my head for w e e k s now so i thought „just write it down“ and basically these are my favourite ships and i keep asking myself „you know who deserves to be a trophy wife?“ and these are my answers:

andrew and neil: andrew deserves to be a trophy wife, let him plan his murders in peace

ariel and amir: ARIEL DESERVES TO BE A TROPHY WIFE SO BADLY LIKE PLEASE THE STRESS HE PUT HIMSELF THROUGH, also in my head amir becomes this really successful doctor and that should pay their bills

jermy and jean: jean moreau deserves to be the trophy wife more than anyone else i‘ve met in the 20 years i‘m walking on this earth, let him create art and write books while jeremy goes pro and gives his money to the mafia or idek but give my son a break

tanner and sebestian: i swear to god sebestian needs a fucking break, let him be the trophy wife, let him write books and be gay in peace

monty and percy: monty was BORN to be a trophy wife, don‘t even try to argue with me on this one

nick and charlie: i feel like charlie would feel so bad as a trophy wife, but he deserves it so much???

wylan and jesper: wylan brings home the money, jesper is the trophy wife, this is basically canon guys

simon and baz: simon snow is the trophy wife to his incredibly charming whatever baz is doing but i feel like he‘s a part time model husband

ronan and adam: look all i‘m sayin is: adam - incredibly successful lawyer or whatever it is you study at havard and then they‘re invited to this dinner party and he brings along ronan in this black suit and ronan‘s just smiling like in a slightly terrifying way with his fucking raven on his shoulders and everyone goes like :o who this? and adam just looks at ronan super unimpressed and is like: my husband. i told you guys i was married. so long story short: ronan is the trophy wife

zoya and alina: i feel like none of them is a real trophy wife but they would have really different jobs and would be each others trophy wife without ever acknowleding it??????

mal and nikolai: bitch nikolai was born to be the most beautiful trophy wife in existence?????? nikolai would 10/10 be the trophy wife in this relaitonship

kevin and aaron: look kevin would never admit it but he would be so PROUD to be able to show off aaron as his trophy wife because he‘s like „look at this incredibly beautiful and strong killer gnome, he‘s mine, AND HE‘S A D O C T O R“ and i think he would also be happy to be shown off as the trophy wife so like with alina and zoya they are each other‘s trophy wife

okay i think that was it. please don‘t take this too seriously, i just had to take get it out of my head so i can give you guys a few headcanons again!! please feel free to request ships + eventually scenarios you‘d like to see headcanons from. check out my book editing blog @acemoreau and feel free to request editng ideas as well!!

[yetanotherbuffyblog]

CASTER FIGHT! CASTER FIGHT!

And I finished Season Six! WHOOOO!

Giles fights Willow, and actually manages to contain her despite both acknowledging that he’s nowhere near as powerful as her. This doesn’t last too long though; Anya breaks her out when Willow mind controls her to do it, and in her rematch with Giles she kicks him six ways to Sunday. Buffy escapes to go save the remains of the Trio when Willow sends a giant flaming ball to go kill them; and she does, after which Jonathan and Andrew completely disappear from the Plot.

And then Buffy and Dawn fall into a hole where they talk and then fight monsters for the rest of the episode. 

But Willow absorbs the magic from Giles, and somehow this absorbs… pain from the world, or something? And then Willow decides there’s too much pain in the world, so she’s going to destroy it. So she pulls up a Satanic temple (what???) from the ground and starts shooting magic laser at it. Then Xander arrives, because he ran here when he realized that Willow wanted to destroy the world, and despite Willow being all omnicidal, he talks her down without fighting by reminding her that even though Tara died, there are people who love her and care about her no matter what.

The episode closes out with someone singing the prayer of St. Francis?

Oh and after completing all these trials, Spike gets his soul back! What!

Notes!

-I said last time that I didn’t think that Giles was really that powerful, from what we’ve seen? That’s confirmed here, where he mentions that he’s been in contact with a coven in England, and they were the ones who gave him some magic to use, and it’s implied they teleported him over when he heard what was going on. The witches apparently sensed Willow going axe crazy?

-Why… why is there a Satanic temple that’s just… there, and why is that the thing that Willow uses to almost destroy the world? Can she do that? Does she really have the juice to destroy the world? Would no one else stop her? One would think that all the demons that love causing havoc in the world, they’d take issue with it.

-According to TV Tropes, the original plan was for Buffy and Dawn to fight a DRAGON, but they had to cut that for budget issues. How the fudge a dragon would appear I have no idea.

-I feel as if every time guns come up, there’s this tendency to be like, “Nah, man, those aren’t cool/are useless!” But really? Would a headshot from a sniper have killed Willow? I feel like if things get desperate, that’s a thing they could have tried. Goes against the theme of the episode/arc, but just sayin.’

-I was very weirded out by the use of the prayer of St. Francis at the end. Like, I get that compassion is a part of the story and all, but that specific prayer has a specific Christian context and using it as a feel-good way to end the episode feels a bit like cheapening it. Maybe I’m just very emotionally attached to it, because I have a little plaque with the prayer that used to sit on my bedside.

-When Buffy tells Giles about everything going wrong, he bursts out laughing. I thought it was meant to mean that he didn’t believe her, especially about sleeping with Spike, but she joins him, and it goes on for a while. Apparently that was something Anthony Head improvised that they kept in.

-Spike… has a soul. That’ll be an interesting development.

-Willow, at the very least, should have a very complex character arc in the next season. If not, then I will be severely disappointed.

-Is Giles going to stay? [shrugs] I dunno.

-I don’t have an issue with Willow turning evil, or even being the Big Bad, I guess, but I do feel like, in a way, it didn’t feel earned? At least, how it was done. Because going from trying to get revenge to trying to destroy the world is a HUGE leap, and she’s evil for three episodes. I would have liked Evil!Willow to have gone on longer.

-I did like how Xander talked her down. That was a good scene. Good stuff.

-TV Tropes insists that Xander saving the world is symbolic because he’s a carpenter, and the world is saved by a carpenter, so… Jesus? And look, MAYBE that was intentional, but I’m going to ignore that possibility because I hate the idea of someone saying Xander = Jesus.

-Dawn finds out that Spike tried to rape Buffy and is… not thrilled that she wasn’t told. Which I get, but at the same time, look, things were happening very quickly and they didn’t exactly have time to sit down and have this conversation.

-And Buffy feels good about the world again! That’s great. I suppose the threat of it being destroyed will do that to you.

-I will probably take a while to get to the next season. I am almost finished with season two of The Expanse and the first season of Locke & Key, and now that Samurai Jack is streaming for free I’ve been catching up on that as fast as I can (about two episodes a day; I just finished the first season). So it might be a while after Lent that I make updates on Season Seven!

[whatdoyouthinkmyjobis]

Hunters on the Hellmouth

masterlist

first chapter

previous chapter

AN: Inspired by events in BTVS 7.15 “Get It Done.” This chapter references events that happened in GND 14, mainly, The First tricked a Potential into being his vessel and she later exploded. Here’s a cheat sheet for keeping track of the Potentials. Oh, and sex below.

Chapter 34: F Is For

Buffy had wracked her brain for hours before resigning herself to the hopelessness of her situation. Her head was still pounding when Willow handed her a large caramel latte. “I may have blanked on pretty much everything, but I’m sure I could persuade Professor Yardy that coffee is part of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need.”

Willow nodded. “I’d put it in the safety level. Could you imagine people driving without coffee?”

“This entire semester was a failure. Again. I don’t think I’m college-girl, Will.” Buffy enjoyed her classes, if not the homework and papers. But a deeper worry than grades churned inside of her. A college degree was a key to certain futures, and lately, Buffy felt her desires for her future and the reality of the Slayer crashing against each other.

“Don’t be discouraged!” Willow said. “School has ups and downs.”

“Like that time you got an A minus?”

“Dark days, but no. Take this semester off. Deal with the literal Devil incarnate, and try again next semester.”

The next semester started in nine months, an incomprehensible time frame when Buffy could barely wrap her head around the events of the week.

“Besides,” Willow added, “you spent your big study day dealing with Astrid and Jada.”

After notifying Astrid’s Watcher that she’d been killed by The First, helping Sam’s (ex-)girlfriend and her addled aunt escape to somewhere safer had been practically relaxing.

“That's the problem though. When have I ever had a semester without a Potential-killer or a Professor Frankenstein or a super vamp? A smooth semester is practically Bigfoot.”

As they walked on, Buffy put thoughts of school aside and focused on what she could handle -- grocery shopping for the packed house, the upcoming birthday she hoped to ignore, her newly human ex now crashing in her basement.

“Why so glum, chum?” Willow asked.

“I keep thinking about Principal Wood,” said Buffy. She’d tried to avoid him in the week since he beat Spike. “I can’t imagine spending my life on a Mel Gibson movie-esque vengeance quest, only to discover the bad guy is in another castle.”

Willow scrunched her face and asked, “Is Mel Gibson playing Mario in this analogy?”

“Kinda picture him more as a Luigi,” Buffy sighed. “At least Wood left Spike alive.”

Willow threw disapproving side-eye over her coffee. Spike living in the basement was awkward for everyone. The main argument against him had been his attack on her months prior, but Buffy was certain that monster had been exorcised.

Then there was the lack of space and food. As it was, bedtime changed the living room into a sea of army cots and blankets. And it was a struggle to make sure dinner was something more substantial than cereal.

“How many did Giles say he was bringing back today?” Buffy asked.

“You know how there are numbers the human mind can’t comprehend, like the age of the Earth, the number of atoms in your body, or how many people are living in our house?” Willow sounded tired.

“Xander said he could take a few. We just have to decide on who to move.”

“What about Gabi?”

“Gabi’s growing on me; she’s just...Gabi. Besides, we can’t move her or Cloé will go back to crying all the time. I’ll probably move Naomi,” Buffy added.

“Aw, but she’s sweet!”

“She’s also avoided the porch since Annabelle. She’ll be more comfortable at Xander’s.” Buffy glanced at her friend and asked, “How about Dani? Stay or go? I may be crazy busy, but I’m not blind.”

“She’s not subtle either.”

“Are you crushing, or is this a one-way street?”

Willow sat down on a bench at the edge of campus where they watched pigeons fight over a half eaten bagel.

“I know it was Lucifer, not Tara, but it was still her face. Her voice. I’ve been dreaming about her ever since. The way the sunlight would hit her eyes and make them glow, like she was some sort of sea goddess. I keep smelling her sweater, and I’m worried the scent is going to fade. And if my memories of Tara slip away --”

Holding her friend’s hand, Buffy grasped for words. “Sweetie, you’ll always have those memories. Tara was -- is -- a huge part of your life. But I don’t think she’d want to be mourned forever.”

“I don’t want to mourn forever, but how do you know when the mourning is over? It’s not like we have some calendar of crying with coordinating clothes like in ye olden times.”

Buffy’s worst breakup had been Angel, her high school sweetheart who guided her into Slayerdom. And she’d had to kill him. She still thought about the kiss before she ran a sword through him. She thought about it, but she didn’t cry. “I think mourning is over when you feel it’s over. Do you feel like moving on?”

“The idea kinda makes me woozy, and it’s not the good wooz. Even if I did feel the good wooz, I don’t know if it would be with Dani. She’s okay, and she’s here, but what I had with Tara was more intense than ‘okay’ and ‘here.’ I mean, she was my first…” Willow took a deep breath, then a smile bloomed across her lips. “The thing is, I loved Tara, but I also loved Oz. All of this death aside, I have a lot to sort through before I even know which way to move.”

“As long as all juicy details are provided, I’m there for you.”

Giles sat on the basement stairs with a well-earned mug of tea warming his hands. In the last few weeks, they’d added over a dozen more girls to the house, including the crowd of six he’d arrived with that afternoon. They were currently making themselves comfortable on the training mat while Dawn and Andrew set up their presentation.

The pair was becoming fluid in welcoming new girls and acclimating them to the house. Repetition would do that. Just as Giles was becoming comfortable with altering parents’ memories and ignoring the tears of children whose lives he’d saved by ruining them.

“Hi, I’m Dawn Summers. My sister is the Slayer. You’ll meet her later.”

“And I am Andrew Wells,” he said in an affected accent, “hero-in-training and resident chef at the Summers house.”

“You have a chef?” asked Ju, whose face was mostly obscured by thick, black bangs.

“He likes to be useful,” Dawn sighed, annoyed with already being off-track.

“Anywhoodle, we’re gonna make this quick so you can get on with your jet lag and culture shock,” said Andrew. “There are a few simple rules. One, don’t leave the house at night. The city is infested with vampires and The First will send them after you.”

Bianka, a pale Polish girl with strawberry blonde hair, raised her hand. “Are vee not safe here? Girl upstairs say you kill First.”

“You’re safe inside the house,” Andrew clarified hastily. “All those marks on the doors and windows keep out demons and vampires. As far as The First goes, we cooked some Storm Troopers, but the Dark Father is still very much alive.”

“Vot?”

Dawn jabbed her elbow in Andrew’s ribs before he could add to the confusion. “We’re working on it, which is why you’re here. Safe inside. Speaking of The First, remember that it doesn’t have a body, so it can’t physically hurt you. So that’s a good side. But in horror movie twist, it can appear in the form of any dead person. So if you see someone who you know is dead, tell someone.”

“The list of people who’ve died includes Buffy, Dean, Sam, and Spike,” Andrew added, pointing to three photographs and a stick figure drawing of a blonde in a black trench coat. The girls started to whisper. “Short story: they died and got better. None of them want to talk about it, so don’t ask for more details.”

Ginika, a girl with tiny knots of hair dotting her head asked, “These people are regular to the ‘ouse? How do we know if they’re real or not?”

“If you throw a pencil at them and it goes through them, they’re The First,” Dawn said with atonal brightness. “If they tell you bad stuff like, ‘You’re a loser’ and ‘Why don’t you give up?’, they’re The First.”

“Throw things and be positive,” Andrew repeated with a big smile and rainbow hand gesture.

“The rest of your safety stuff will be covered in training--”

“Hold up!” said a dreadlocked girl in overalls. “I came here for protection. Mr. Giles said I was in danger, and I already knew something was watching me. What the hell you talkin’ ‘bout training?”

Giles had told all of the girls about their calling as Potentials as well as the danger that awaited him, but at his current break-neck speed, he couldn’t promise they’d all comprehended his information dump.

He cleared his throat. “Rona, you are in danger because you are a Potential. You may become the next Slayer, so you need to be trained accordingly.”

“But I don’t wanna be no Slayer. I got plans, an’ they don’t involve vampires.”

“I’m not arguing that the system is fair. I’m simply saying we want you to be prepared,” Giles replied.

Shaking her head, Rona stood up and hoisted her duffle over her shoulder. “Nah, you promised me an’ Gran I’d be safe here. Now you’s sayin’ it’s too dangerous to be out after dark, but you want me to bust up that danger? With what? You want me to poke it with a damn stick? Man, I’d be better off back in Flint.”

Giles scratched his chin as he considered the frightened girl before him. “If you want to catch a bus back to Michigan, you may, but you should have all of the facts first. For example, nearly all of my fellow Watchers are dead -- blown up or cut to bits. As I’ve traveled the world picking up Potentials, I’ve been too late for over a dozen of them. A couple were still warm as they lay in pools of their own blood. The last Potential who decided to leave the safety of the house was returned by The First with her throat missing. Just yesterday, The First intercepted another Potential at the bus station. She died. Now, would you like me to get you a bus schedule?”

Rona sat down.

Dawn tried to salvage her presentation. “Um, Buffy will be back by dinner to talk training with you. She may even take a few of you out on patrol tonight.”

Andrew lit up. “Now let’s talk about my favorite thing: The Wheel of Chores. Me, Dawn, and Willow put it together, so be nice to us.”

Buffy’s afternoon walk with her best friend had relaxed her, but the knots in her muscles returned the moment she and Willow entered the backyard. Where she’d expected to see her three squad leaders -- Grace, Dani and Gabi -- drilling the girls in combat basics, she instead found three Potentials smoking and laughing with Spike. She was only half surprised. New arrivals always seemed to throw off the schedule. Plus, she’d heard the girls whispering about the mystery man downstairs; she hadn’t had the time or energy to explain him to them yet.

She certainly didn’t have the energy or patience now. Buffy marched over to Kate, a sarcastic eye-roller from Ireland, and yanked the cigarette from the girl’s mouth. “Ever heard of cancer?”

“No, but I did hear a story about how we’re all fooked, so why’s it matter?” she asked, smoke curling around her glossed lips. Kate had been high on their success after rescuing Sam from The First, but Astrid’s death had sent her back to her neutral state of doom and gloom.

“You’re not fucked,” said Spike, apologetically.

Buffy grew hot with anger. “He’s right. You’re not fucked. I am. Have you noticed how there aren’t any full-grown, know-what-they’re-doing-with-life, briefcase-carrying Potentials here? Because you phase out. I stay alive, and you get too old to qualify for the Slayer Happy Meal. And I’m a bitch to kill, aren’t I, Spike?”

“Like a cockroach,” he muttered to the ground.

“You die,” said Eva, a pixieish blonde who’d arrived from France a week before.

Tucking her green hair behind her ears, Lys asked Eva, “Étiez-vous en train de lui dire de mourir ou de demander quand elle est morte?”

“Le petit homme n'a pas dit qu'elle est morte?”

“Andrew told us you died once,” Lys explained.

“Twice.” Buffy squeezed her fist and released, regretting her anger. She didn’t need to add her tension to theirs. Calmly, she said, “I don’t want to catch you smoking again, got it? Not a great habit for people who have to run a ton. Now get your butts inside.”

Buffy watched the girls slink back to the kitchen and huffed, causing her bangs to flop into her eyes. “What are you doing out here, Spike?”

He raised his hand to his lips, then dropped it. He hadn’t been smoking with the girls. “Enjoyin’ the sun.”

“Really?”

“Inside’s a sardine can. Given the ‘eightened fear since that girl exploded at the ‘igh school, I thought I’d chat up the mini-yous out ‘ere.”

“They’re not me,” she said coldly. “And they’re also minors.”

Spike stepped back, hurt in his eyes. He peered at her, into her, in his familiar, intimate way. “Test didn't go well then?”

How did he know? How did he always know? Buffy bit the inside of her cheek, ashamed anew at the way she'd lashed out. “I'm just going to pretend F stands for footloose and fancy-free.”

“Or fighter.”

The anger rushed out of her. He was right. She had passed greater tests than Developmental Psychology or a packed camp of teenagers.

“Or flirt. As in don't. The girls don't need you distracting them.” The venom in her voice was gone. Some of the girls, who were otherwise good fighters, were hopelessly boy-crazy. Having the Winchesters as trainers had drawbacks.

“Don't worry. I think we both know Angel’s the vamp into shagging teenagers.” Spike smirked.

“You were all with the sweet a moment ago. Where did William go.”

Spike laughed, low and rich. “William is gone, love. Good riddance. My demon, too. Still sorting out who’s left.”

Spike had been met with trial after trial since getting his soul back. He had been unfortunate enough to be the first creature Lucifer encountered when he rode the angel wave to Sunnydale. He’d become a cosmic punching bag, but she knew another, grander side of Spike.

“You want to help? I need leaders, fighters, people who can train teenage girls to kill vampires. You in?”

“Damn right, I’m in.”

“Be ready at eight,” she said before heading inside.

In the kitchen, Dawn was arguing with Willow about Ella, a techno-pagan from Australia who’d arrived a week prior. Since a few of the Potentials showed magical prowess, Willow was giving them additional tutoring. Ella was gifted beyond all of them.

“I don’t care if she doesn’t want to cook. It’s her turn,” Dawn insisted.

“If she says she can’t, then give her something else to do!” Willow replied, loud enough to draw the attention of several other girls.

Buffy’s stepped in between them spoke quietly so the other girls couldn’t hear. “Infighting is not on my list of needs, like, ever.” She looked over Willow’s shoulder, where Ella stood, arms crossed. “If you don’t know how to cook, Andrew can teach you. We can get another person to help, too. It’s just really important that everyone pitch in, you know?”

The girl sighed. “I know how to cook, but I can’t help with a big meal. Can’t clean up after it. Probably can’t eat it.”

This rang a bell. Buffy had noticed her sneaking away when the other girls were eating, but had yet to ask her about it. “Why? You have to eat to stay strong.”

“I eat! I eat my own food. Your food is too dangerous. I’ve killed two vampires in training no problem, but peanuts or dairy? That’s the end of me. If that means I clean the loo twice as often, fine. ”

Dawn turned away, embarrassed.

Buffy nodded. “Thanks for the compromise, Ella. Dawn, will you rearrange Andrew’s chore chart for Ella’s allergies?”

Buffy pointed at a pale strawberry blonde. “You, newbie, help Andrew.” She left before she could get angry again. Hopefully Dawn and Willow could make up without her.

In the living room, a group of girls were teaching each other their favorite dance moves. Buffy noticed Grace sorting out a squabble between Lili (always Lili) and Verusha over whose shirt was whose. Leticia, Cloé, and Gabi, giggling so hard tears streamed from their faces, bounced on the pillows and blankets piled on the couch. In the corner, Dani whispered with a pretty new girl. The girl (woman? She looked older.) had an explosion of dark curls and a small toy in her hand.

The dining room held a stack of folded cots that reached Buffy’s shoulders. Despite the cramped conditions, three girls were squished in at the dining table attempting to do homework.

Heading upstairs to find Giles, Buffy practically tripped over Mio, Jabulela and Naomi folding laundry on the steps.

“Bathroom’s busy,” Naomi said cheerily. The bathroom was alway busy.

Buffy nodded, catching a glimpse of the two girls from Mumbai, initially chilly towards each other, doing each other’s hair in the bathroom.

Giles was on the phone, pacing in her room, the one place off-limits to the Potentials.

“Miércoles, si. Gracias, Padre.”

“Padre?” she asked when he hung up. “Have you been keeping secrets?”

“No,” he said, swapping the phone for a file, “it seems I need to fly to Spain tonight. Three girls managed to make it to an abbey outside of Barcelona. There were five of them originally…”

“Oh.” Much as Buffy hated being trapped in a house overrun with strangers, she didn’t envy Giles for his nightmare.

“Anyway, I should be back in time for your birthday on Sunday.”

“Shh!” She grabbed the file from Giles’ hand. “We’re keeping that one super secret. No way it won’t add to the weird.

“Tell me about the new girls.” She flipped through the notes. Ginika from London. Ju from Toronto. Bianka from Wroclaw -- the strawberry blonde she’d told to help with dinner. The dossier said her English wasn’t the best. Good luck, Andrew. “Training?”

“Ginika has several year’s worth. Julia, Holly and Rona were completely in the dark, while Ju and Bianka have over a year between them. Julia, at least, runs a dojo with her husband--”

“Her what?!”

Giles gave her his grave news face.

Buffy flipped open Julia’s file, and was greeted by the face of the woman who’d been whispering with Dani. The Potential was twenty-two, married and -- Buffy’s heart skipped a beat -- Julia had an infant. A little girl.

Julia had the life Buffy could never have.

Snapping the folder shut, Buffy swallowed hard. “Spike’s joining my pod tonight.”

“Do you think that’s wise?”

“What else are we going to do with him? I’ll take Bianka, Ginika, Kate, Kimberly, Shakti, Wook, and Udoka. We’ll put our Spanish-speaking girls with Sam. Except Gabi. I need her and Dani to get the latest newbies up on their weapons training.”

“Didn’t Fernanda go out the day before I left for France?” Giles asked

“And she nearly got herself killed. Gotta get back in the saddle or on the bike or whatever non-motorized travel you chose.” Buffy was suspicious that Fernanda had a little crush on Sam, but with the language barrier, he was the best suited to train her. “I know I should know this, but I’m totally fried. Who speaks French?”

“Natively: Jabulela, Lys, Eva. Violet and Shakti speak it as a second language. Ju speaks some, but I doubt you want her out so soon.”

“None of them are Molly-levels of boy crazy, are they?”

“That would be difficult,” Giles sighed. “How is she doing, by the way?”

“At least a week in the hospital. Maybe two.” Buffy hoped Molly’s Potential state would speed her recovery from her burns.

She ran through the names in her head again. “Okay, leave Ju for weapons training. Put the French-speakers with Dean; Vi can translate. Give him Shakti, too. Voila! Three functioning squads.” Functioning felt like a stretch.

Buffy tossed the files on the desk and headed for the door. “You can give the others the destiny speech again, right?”

“Buffy!” Giles called out before she left. “How was your day? Did your examination go well?”

She watched his mouth move but had to hear the words a few times before understanding she needed to respond. She’d already shut the door on school. “Uh, I guess. I have to get downstairs, meet the new girls and all.”

Buffy had only wanted one thing for her birthday, private time with Dean. Instead, they’d spent the weekend moving ten girls into the Winchesters’ apartment and another half dozen to Xander’s. At least it was easier to get time in the bathroom.

As promised, Giles had returned Sunday night with three emotionally -- if not physically -- scarred Potentials. He had forgotten it was her birthday.

Monday morning started with tears. The last time someone had cried so much in Buffy’s makeshift office, it was because their parents were divorcing. Starting a new school barely ranked by comparison, but Magda’s big tears probably had less to do with math class than survivor’s guilt.

Buffy handed her another Kleenex. She’d thought putting Magda in school this quickly would help her, give her something to think about other than the slaughter on the train. Now she wasn’t so sure. “Listen to me, you did the best you knew how to do. It’s not your fault no one from the Watcher’s Council found you. It’s not your fault you were picked for this. Most importantly, it’s not your fault that those other girls died.”

Magda, who had just arrived the night before, was untrained. The only reason she’d survived the Bringer attack was because the girls she was with, Betje and Sophia, had eight years of training between them. Betje and Sophia’s Watchers and two Potentials had died in the attack.

“The-they were def-f-fending me. I do not know f-fighting.”

“But you know surviving. That’s all you need to do today: survive. You have all the same classes as Dawn, Cloé and Sophia, so you won’t be alone, okay?”

The girl nodded and wiped a black streak of mascara under her eyes. “Sophia is nice. She share with me candy bar.”

“If you need anything, I’m here all day. Now, go wash your face, take a deep breath, and go pretend Algebra makes sense.”

Once Magda was off to class, Buffy pulled out a worn journal Giles had brought back from his travels. It was his first journal as her Watcher, and he’d been hesitant to let her see it.

“There’s very little about you I haven’t changed my mind on,” he had explained, “in some cases a few times. Please, do not think this is the entirety of my view of you, Buffy.” She’d taken the journal with a smile, vowing to cry into her pillow and hold every word against him.

She’d asked to see it because she wanted to know how spun always-together Giles had been when he’d started as her Watcher. There were obvious differences. She was already the Slayer by that time, and her first Watcher, Merrick, had been murdered. Most importantly, there had only been one of her. Even so, she felt the journal would give her a peek into Giles’ mindset and methods that memory couldn’t provide.

The first few pages were Giles’ gleeful anticipation of her arrival. He had assumed the Council had been in touch since Merrick’s death, and that she knew he had been assigned as her new Watcher. The day she started school in Sunnydale, his journal read, “I had been lead to believe the Slayer is a paragon of discipline and duty. She is at peace with her destiny and gives herself over to the cause no matter the cost. This is not the case.

“I have spent the entire day surrounded by teenage girls. The Slayer is a teenage girl, a mystifying sort of creature who varies from age to age, continent to continent, culture to culture, and apparently hour to hour. No amount of destiny and duty will change this overnight.

“Though a gifted fighter, Buffy seems wholly uninterested in training. She would much rather run off with her friends in childish pursuits of what they refer to as ‘hang time.’ This adherence to friends and the social structures of the natural world is highly unusual.”

“That’s me, Unusual Girl,” she muttered.

She was deep in the journal when a voice interrupted her. “Miss Summers, may I see you in my office for a moment?”

Buffy looked up to see Principal Wood leaning against the edge of her cubicle, jacket unbuttoned, as casual as a person who had recently beaten an ex-vampire to a pulp could be.

Journal still in hand, she followed him into his office.  

“Coffee?” He gestured to the chair across from his desk.

Having been up most of the night with Magda and company, she desperately wanted another cup. “No, thank you.” Though Wood’s story was no longer a mystery, she still found his piercing, dark stare unnerving.

“Two more new girls today,” he noted.

“Three. We have three, but one has already graduated.”

“Ah.” He leaned back in his chair and stared at her as if he was regarding a complicated piece of art. “How many started at Sunnydale last week? Six? Eight?”

“Fuzzy vagueness sounds right.”

“We certainly have the space,” he said. Several dozen families had moved out of town over winter break. “Buffy, do you know why I hired you?”

“You believe I can make a difference? I’m too tired to cliche.”

“I hired you because you’re the Slayer, and Sunnydale High’s death rate is the stuff of legend. In these few months, you’ve saved several students both from the typical evil creatures and from the everyday pressures they face. You’re good at this, at guiding kids.”

All this time, she’d been flying by the seat of her pants, doling out advice with no knowledge of its impact. “You think so?”

“You’re a good leader, which is why I’m firing you.”

“Excuse me?”

“You have a houseful of Potential slayers who need guidance. You can’t give them what they need if you’re here all day.”

“But most of them are here during the day. And you know what teenagers love? Eating. How can eating happen if work isn’t happening?”

“You’re resourceful. Besides, with the sudden downturn in legit enrollment, I can’t justify keeping you on.”

“But I need --”

“You need to be the Slayer.” He opened one of his drawers and handed her a purple sack and three small books. “Speaking of, my mother’s Watcher gave her these when she became the Slayer. I guess technically, they belong to you.”

She opened the bag and pulled out a small metal figure shaped like a man either dancing or writhing in pain. “Modern art? Great,” she muttered.

“I’ll get you a box,” he said, opening the door for her to leave.

Buffy, box at her feet, was sitting on a planter near the parking lot when Dean pulled up. He rolled down the passenger window and called out, “Hey sexy, need a lift?”

Her face flicked between amused and upset as she climbed in with her box and slumped against his shoulder.

“Is that a fired box?”

“Yep.”

“Want me to kick Wood’s ass?”

“Yes, but don’t,” she sighed. “Can I hang out with you today? I don’t want to go home.”

“Do you want a frou-frou coffee before or after you tell me what’s up?”

“Before.”

She barely looked at him as she sipped her latte, her frown sinking into her skin, her bones. He didn’t press. For once, they had hours alone, so he held her hand and waited. By the time they pulled up to his work, she’d filled him in on the details.

“Now do you want me to kick his ass?”

“No,” she said, this time with a half smile. “He’s not wrong. Slayer comes first, but it’s not like being the Slayer means I’m ready to run Buffy’s Halfway House for Protected Teenagers. The electricity and water cost money. They need food and blankets and soap. And dear God, they need deodorant! Did you know that’s not a thing in some countries? Not to mention, some of them have nothing. Last night’s arrivals? Literally the clothes on their backs. And Lili is from, like, the armpit of Estonia and keeps stealing from the other girls because everything she has fits in a backpack. Jabulela washes the same Catholic school uniform every night and wears it again in the morning.”

Dean had grown up poor, poorer than he’d understood as a child, but some of the Potentials were lucky if they had enough dirt to rub together. Not for the first time, he felt being the Slayer was less of a superhero calling and more of a crapshoot punishment.

But anger would have to wait. “Didn’t Giles say some of the Potentials’ parents offered to help?”

“Yeah, and they’ve been sending money, but it doesn’t come close to covering everything.”

“Can you ask for more?”

Buffy sighed. “‘Hey! It’s that stranger who has your daughter. I’m going to need more money for pizza rolls.’ No way that doesn’t sound like a terrible ransom note.”

Dean shrugged. “Pot pie instead of pizza rolls? It’s a comfort food.” A plan to hustle pool in LA all weekend half formed in his mind. “Anyway, I got it covered.”

“Legally?”

“Legally.”

“Safely?”

“Beggars and choosers, babe.” If Sunnydale’s citizens shifted from trickling exodus to pack-and-grab panic, looting would become too easy of an option to ignore.

He lead her upstairs to a recently vacated apartment he’d spent all morning painting. His boss believed all the people leaving town were merely a winter trend, and by spring people would be looking for places to live. Dean disagreed, but he was paid to paint.

“Maybe we could key his car?” Buffy pondered, tossing her purse and coat in the middle of the room.

“What?”

“Wood. The more I think about it, the angrier I get. I don’t need him to look out for me. If work and slaying was too much, I would have said something.”

“No you wouldn’t,” he laughed. “You’d just keep wobblin’ with that globe on your back.”

“Not like I can put it down,” she grumbled. “Besides, if he wanted to help, he could have -- crazy idea -- volunteered to help. But nope. He jumped straight to a backhanded firing.”

“Flaming bag of dog shit,” Dean said as he poured the paint.

“Is that your new nickname for Wood, or your suggestion for swift retribution?”   

“Both.”

Loading his roller, he started the second coat of paint. “Can I help?” Buffy asked.

He smirked at her khakis and black turtleneck. “Not really dressed for it, Girly.”

She cocked her head to the side -- her signature I don’t like what I’m hearing move.“Got another roller?” A moment later she was painting beside him, stripped down to only her black panties.

He managed to resist for half an hour before they collapsed into a pile of paint-flecked limbs, their sweat-slick bodies cooling in the afterglow.

Spreading her fingers over his chest, she purred, “Being unemployed isn’t so bad.”

“Told ya work was overrated.”

Before the priest stood a young brunette -- fourteen, on the cusp of womanhood -- with a crushed windpipe and a handprint-shaped bruise on her throat. A handprint that fit the priest perfectly.

Caleb picked up the leftover wine from communion and guzzled it. Some Catholics believed the wine turned into the blood of Christ. He liked the idea of the blood of a deity running down his throat.

He smiled, slick and satisfied. “She was the first little whore I killed. You got a point in showin’ me this?”

“You have a long history of doing God’s work, Caleb,” said the specter.

Caleb pinched out the candles in his sanctuary, enjoying the sizzle and hiss of his flesh. “Keepin’ the world clean of uppity women is God’s highest calling. And who are you, ghosty?”

“I’m one of God’s angels. He has a job for you. There is a houseful of uppity women who need to be put in their place.”

The killing visions had been flooding his dreams. Girls screaming. Crying. Blood soaking through their dresses. He’d wake up from them hard and aching. Surely, this was a sign. “I am a willing servant if you will but show me the way.”

I have a slight plot hole regarding The First and "Amends." I was going to fix it in this chapter with a phone call between Angel and Buffy after she's read Giles' journals, but I feel very crunched for time. Being a new mom (and being sick all the time, thanks winter), I don't have as much time to write. I'd rather get you this chapter with a minor plot hole than hold on to it for another six months.

next chapter

[dorothydelgadillo]

Take A New Look At CSS Shapes

Take A New Look At CSS Shapes

Rachel Andrew

2018-09-04T13:30:57+02:002018-09-04T11:38:45+00:00

CSS Shapes Level 1 has been available in Chrome and Safari for a number of years, however, this week it ships in a production version of Firefox with the release of Firefox 62 — along with a very nice addition to the Firefox DevTools to help us work with Shapes. In this article, I’ll take a look at some of the things you can do with CSS Shapes. Perhaps it’s time to consider adding some curves to your designs?

What Are CSS Shapes?

The CSS Shapes specification Level 1 defines three new properties:

shape-outside

shape-image-threshold

shape-margin

The purpose of this specification is to allow content to flow around a non-rectangular shape, something which is quite unusual on our boxy web. There are a few different ways to create shapes, which we will have a look at in this tutorial. We will also have a look at the Shape Path Editor, available in Firefox, as it can help you to easily understand the shapes on your page and work with them.

In the current specification, shapes can only be applied to a float, so any shapes example needs to start with a floated element. In the example below, I have a PNG image with a transparent background in which I have floated the image left. The text that follows the image now flows around the right and bottom of my image.

What I would like to happen is for my content to follow the shape of the opaque part of the image, rather than follow the line of the physical image file. To do this, I use the shape-outside property, with the value being the URL of my image. I’m using the actual image file to create a path for the content to flow around.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: image by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

Note that your image needs to be CORS compatible, so hosted on the same server as the rest of your content or sending the correct headers if hosted on a CDN. Browser DevTools will usually tell you if your image is being blocked due to CORS.

This method of creating shapes uses the alpha channel of the image to create the shape, as we have a shape with a fully transparent area, then all we need do is pass the URL of the image to shape-outside and the shape path follows the line of the fully opaque area.

Nope, we can't do any magic tricks, but we have articles, books and webinars featuring techniques we all can use to improve our work. Smashing Members get a seasoned selection of magic front-end tricks — e.g. live designing sessions and perf audits, too. Just sayin'! ;-)

Explore Smashing Wizardry →

Creating A Margin

To push the line of the text away from the image we can use the shape-margin property. This creates a margin between the line of the shape and the content running alongside it.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: shape-margin by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

Using Generated Content For Our Shape

In the case above, we have the image displayed on the page and then the text curved around it. However, you could also use an image as the path for the shape in order to create a curved text effect without also including the image on the page. You still need something to float, however, and so for this, we can use Generated Content.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: generated content by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

In this example, we have inserted some generated content, floated it left, given it a width and a height and then used shape-outside with our image just as before. We then get a curved line against the whitespace, but no visible image.

Using A Gradient For Our Shape

A CSS gradient is just like an image, which means we can use a gradient to create a shape, which can make for some interesting effects. In this next example, I have created a gradient which goes from blue to transparent; your gradient will need to have a transparent or semi-transparent area in order to use shapes. Once again, I have used generated content to add the gradient and am then using the gradient in the value for shape-outside.

Once the gradient becomes fully transparent, then the shape comes into play, and the content runs along the edge of the gradient.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: gradients by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

Using shape-image-threshold To Position Text Over A Semi-Opaque Image

So far we have looked at using a completely transparent part of an image or of a gradient in order to create our shape, however, the third property defined in the CSS Shapes specification means that we can use images or gradients with semi-opaque areas by setting a threshold. A value for shape-image-threshold of 1 means fully opaque while 0 means fully transparent.

A gradient like our example above is a great way to see this in action as we can change the shape-image-threshold value and move the line along which the text falls to more opaque areas or more transparent areas. This property works in exactly the same way with an image that has an alpha channel yet is not fully transparent.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: shape-image-threshold by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

This method of creating shapes from images and gradients is — I think — the most straightforward way of creating a shape. You can create a shape as complex as you need it to be, in the comfort of a graphics application and then use that to define the shape on your page. That said, there is another way to create our shapes, and that’s by using Basic Shapes.

CSS Shapes With Basic Shapes

The Basic Shapes are a set of predefined shapes which cover a lot of different types of shapes you might want to create. To use a basic shape, you use the basic shape type as a value for shape-outside. This type uses functional notation, so we have the name of the shape followed by brackets (inside which are some values for our shape).

The options that you have are the following:

inset()

circle()

ellipse()

polygon()

We will take a look at the circle() type first as we can use this to understand some useful things which apply to all shapes which use the basic shape type. We will also have a look at the new tools in Firefox for inspecting these shapes.

In the example below, I am creating the most simple of shapes: a circle using shape-outside: circle(50%). I’m using generated content again, and I have given the box a background color, and also added a margin, border, and padding to help highlight some of the concepts of using CSS Shapes. You can see in the example that the circle is created centered on the box; this is because I have given the circle a value of 50%. That value is the <shape-radius> which can be a length or a percentage. I’ve used a percentage so that the radius is half of the size of my box.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: shape-outside: circle() by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

This is a really good to time have a look at the shape that has been created using the Firefox Shape Path Editor. You can inspect the shape by clicking on the generated content and then clicking the little shape icon next to the property shape-outside; your shape will now highlight.

The Shape Path Editor highlights the circle shape (Large preview)

You can see how the circle extends to the edge of the margin on our box. This is because the initial reference box used by our shape is margin-box. You already know something of reference boxes if you have ever added box-sizing: border-box to your CSS. When you do this, you are asking CSS to use the border-box and not the default content-box as the size of elements. In Shapes, we can also change which reference box is used. After any basic shape, add border-box to use the border to define the shape or content-box to use the edge of the content (inside the padding). For example:

.content::before { content: ""; width: 150px; height: 150px; margin: 20px; padding: 20px; border: 10px solid #FC466B; background: linear-gradient(90deg, #FC466B 0%, #3F5EFB 100%); float: left; circle(50%) content-box; }

You will see the circle appear to become much smaller. It is now using the width of the content — in this case the width of the box at 150px — rather than the margin box which includes the padding, border, and margin.

The content-box is the edge of the content of the square we created with our generated content (Large preview)

Inspecting your element in Firefox DevTools will also show you the reference boxes so you can choose which might give you the best result with your particular shape.

Reference boxes highlighted in Firefox (Large preview)

The Position Value

A second value can be passed to circle() which is a position; if you do not pass this value, it defaults to center. However, you can use this value to pull your circle around. In the next example, I have positioned the circle by using shape-outside(50% at 30%); this changes where the center of the circle is positioned.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: circle() with position by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

clip-path

Something useful to know is that the same <basic-shape> values can be used as a value for clip-path. This means that after creating a shape, you can clip away the image or background color that extends outside of the shape. In the example below, I am going to do this with our example gradient background, so that we end up with a circle that has text curved around from our square box.

See the Pen Smashing SHapes: circle() with clip-path by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

All of the above concepts can be applied to our other basic shapes. Now let’s have a quick look at how they work.

inset()

The inset() value defines a rectangle. This might not seem very useful as a float is a rectangle, however, this value means that you can inset the content wrapping your shape. It takes four values for top, right, bottom, and left plus a final value which defines a border radius.

In the example below, I am using the values to inset the content on the right and bottom of the floated image, plus adding a border radius around which my content will wrap using shape-outside: inset(0 30px 100px 0 round 40px). You can see how the content is now over the background color of the box:

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: inset() by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

ellipse()

An ellipse is a squashed circle and as such needs two radii for x and y (in that order). You can then push the ellipse around just as with circle using the position value. In the example below, I am creating an ellipse and then using clip-path with the same values to remove the content outside of my shape.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: ellipse() by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

In the above example, I also used shape-margin to demonstrate how we can use this property as with our image generated shapes to push the content away.

polygon()

Creating polygon shapes gives us the most flexibility, as our shapes can be created with three or more points. The value passed to the polygon needs to be three or more pairs of values which represent coordinates.

It is here where the Firefox tools become really useful as we can use them to help create our polygon. In the below example, I have created a polygon with four points. In the Firefox DevTools, you can double-click on any line to create a new point, and double-click again to remove it. Once you have created a polygon that you are happy with, you can then copy the value out of DevTools for your CSS.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: polygon() by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

Fallbacks

As CSS Shapes are applied to a float, in many cases the fallback is that instead of seeing the content wrap around a shape, the content will wrap around a floated element (in the way that content has always wrapped around floats). Browsers ignore properties they do not understand, so if they don’t understand Shapes, it doesn’t matter that the shape-outside property is there.

Where you should take care would be in any situation where not having shapes could mean that content overlaid an area which made it difficult to read. Perhaps you are using Shapes to push content away from a busy area of a background image, for example. In that case, you should first make sure that your content is usable for the non-Shapes people, then use Feature Queries to check for support of shape-outside and overwrite that CSS and apply the shape. For example, you could use a margin to push the content away for non-Shapes visitors and remove the margin inside your feature query.

.content { margin-left: 120px; } @supports (shape-outside: circle()) { .content { margin-left: 0; /* add the rest of your shapes CSS here */ } }

With Firefox releasing their support we now only have one main browser without support for Shapes — Edge. If you want to see Shapes support across the board you could go and vote for the feature here, and see if we can encourage the implementation of the feature in Edge.

Find Out More About CSS Shapes

In this article, I’ve tried to give a quick overview of some of the interesting things that are possible with CSS Shapes. For a more in-depth look at each feature, check out the Guides to CSS Shapes over at MDN. You can also read a guide to the Shape Path Editor in Firefox.

(il)

[nancydsmithus]

Take A New Look At CSS Shapes

Take A New Look At CSS Shapes

Rachel Andrew

2018-09-04T13:30:57+02:002018-09-04T11:38:45+00:00

CSS Shapes Level 1 has been available in Chrome and Safari for a number of years, however, this week it ships in a production version of Firefox with the release of Firefox 62 — along with a very nice addition to the Firefox DevTools to help us work with Shapes. In this article, I’ll take a look at some of the things you can do with CSS Shapes. Perhaps it’s time to consider adding some curves to your designs?

What Are CSS Shapes?

The CSS Shapes specification Level 1 defines three new properties:

shape-outside

shape-image-threshold

shape-margin

The purpose of this specification is to allow content to flow around a non-rectangular shape, something which is quite unusual on our boxy web. There are a few different ways to create shapes, which we will have a look at in this tutorial. We will also have a look at the Shape Path Editor, available in Firefox, as it can help you to easily understand the shapes on your page and work with them.

In the current specification, shapes can only be applied to a float, so any shapes example needs to start with a floated element. In the example below, I have a PNG image with a transparent background in which I have floated the image left. The text that follows the image now flows around the right and bottom of my image.

What I would like to happen is for my content to follow the shape of the opaque part of the image, rather than follow the line of the physical image file. To do this, I use the shape-outside property, with the value being the URL of my image. I’m using the actual image file to create a path for the content to flow around.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: image by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

Note that your image needs to be CORS compatible, so hosted on the same server as the rest of your content or sending the correct headers if hosted on a CDN. Browser DevTools will usually tell you if your image is being blocked due to CORS.

This method of creating shapes uses the alpha channel of the image to create the shape, as we have a shape with a fully transparent area, then all we need do is pass the URL of the image to shape-outside and the shape path follows the line of the fully opaque area.

Nope, we can't do any magic tricks, but we have articles, books and webinars featuring techniques we all can use to improve our work. Smashing Members get a seasoned selection of magic front-end tricks — e.g. live designing sessions and perf audits, too. Just sayin'! ;-)

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Creating A Margin

To push the line of the text away from the image we can use the shape-margin property. This creates a margin between the line of the shape and the content running alongside it.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: shape-margin by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

Using Generated Content For Our Shape

In the case above, we have the image displayed on the page and then the text curved around it. However, you could also use an image as the path for the shape in order to create a curved text effect without also including the image on the page. You still need something to float, however, and so for this, we can use Generated Content.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: generated content by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

In this example, we have inserted some generated content, floated it left, given it a width and a height and then used shape-outside with our image just as before. We then get a curved line against the whitespace, but no visible image.

Using A Gradient For Our Shape

A CSS gradient is just like an image, which means we can use a gradient to create a shape, which can make for some interesting effects. In this next example, I have created a gradient which goes from blue to transparent; your gradient will need to have a transparent or semi-transparent area in order to use shapes. Once again, I have used generated content to add the gradient and am then using the gradient in the value for shape-outside.

Once the gradient becomes fully transparent, then the shape comes into play, and the content runs along the edge of the gradient.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: gradients by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

Using shape-image-threshold To Position Text Over A Semi-Opaque Image

So far we have looked at using a completely transparent part of an image or of a gradient in order to create our shape, however, the third property defined in the CSS Shapes specification means that we can use images or gradients with semi-opaque areas by setting a threshold. A value for shape-image-threshold of 1 means fully opaque while 0 means fully transparent.

A gradient like our example above is a great way to see this in action as we can change the shape-image-threshold value and move the line along which the text falls to more opaque areas or more transparent areas. This property works in exactly the same way with an image that has an alpha channel yet is not fully transparent.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: shape-image-threshold by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

This method of creating shapes from images and gradients is — I think — the most straightforward way of creating a shape. You can create a shape as complex as you need it to be, in the comfort of a graphics application and then use that to define the shape on your page. That said, there is another way to create our shapes, and that’s by using Basic Shapes.

CSS Shapes With Basic Shapes

The Basic Shapes are a set of predefined shapes which cover a lot of different types of shapes you might want to create. To use a basic shape, you use the basic shape type as a value for shape-outside. This type uses functional notation, so we have the name of the shape followed by brackets (inside which are some values for our shape).

The options that you have are the following:

inset()

circle()

ellipse()

polygon()

We will take a look at the circle() type first as we can use this to understand some useful things which apply to all shapes which use the basic shape type. We will also have a look at the new tools in Firefox for inspecting these shapes.

In the example below, I am creating the most simple of shapes: a circle using shape-outside: circle(50%). I’m using generated content again, and I have given the box a background color, and also added a margin, border, and padding to help highlight some of the concepts of using CSS Shapes. You can see in the example that the circle is created centered on the box; this is because I have given the circle a value of 50%. That value is the <shape-radius> which can be a length or a percentage. I’ve used a percentage so that the radius is half of the size of my box.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: shape-outside: circle() by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

This is a really good to time have a look at the shape that has been created using the Firefox Shape Path Editor. You can inspect the shape by clicking on the generated content and then clicking the little shape icon next to the property shape-outside; your shape will now highlight.

The Shape Path Editor highlights the circle shape (Large preview)

You can see how the circle extends to the edge of the margin on our box. This is because the initial reference box used by our shape is margin-box. You already know something of reference boxes if you have ever added box-sizing: border-box to your CSS. When you do this, you are asking CSS to use the border-box and not the default content-box as the size of elements. In Shapes, we can also change which reference box is used. After any basic shape, add border-box to use the border to define the shape or content-box to use the edge of the content (inside the padding). For example:

.content::before { content: ""; width: 150px; height: 150px; margin: 20px; padding: 20px; border: 10px solid #FC466B; background: linear-gradient(90deg, #FC466B 0%, #3F5EFB 100%); float: left; circle(50%) content-box; }

You will see the circle appear to become much smaller. It is now using the width of the content — in this case the width of the box at 150px — rather than the margin box which includes the padding, border, and margin.

The content-box is the edge of the content of the square we created with our generated content (Large preview)

Inspecting your element in Firefox DevTools will also show you the reference boxes so you can choose which might give you the best result with your particular shape.

Reference boxes highlighted in Firefox (Large preview)

The Position Value

A second value can be passed to circle() which is a position; if you do not pass this value, it defaults to center. However, you can use this value to pull your circle around. In the next example, I have positioned the circle by using shape-outside(50% at 30%); this changes where the center of the circle is positioned.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: circle() with position by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

clip-path

Something useful to know is that the same <basic-shape> values can be used as a value for clip-path. This means that after creating a shape, you can clip away the image or background color that extends outside of the shape. In the example below, I am going to do this with our example gradient background, so that we end up with a circle that has text curved around from our square box.

See the Pen Smashing SHapes: circle() with clip-path by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

All of the above concepts can be applied to our other basic shapes. Now let’s have a quick look at how they work.

inset()

The inset() value defines a rectangle. This might not seem very useful as a float is a rectangle, however, this value means that you can inset the content wrapping your shape. It takes four values for top, right, bottom, and left plus a final value which defines a border radius.

In the example below, I am using the values to inset the content on the right and bottom of the floated image, plus adding a border radius around which my content will wrap using shape-outside: inset(0 30px 100px 0 round 40px). You can see how the content is now over the background color of the box:

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: inset() by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

ellipse()

An ellipse is a squashed circle and as such needs two radii for x and y (in that order). You can then push the ellipse around just as with circle using the position value. In the example below, I am creating an ellipse and then using clip-path with the same values to remove the content outside of my shape.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: ellipse() by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

In the above example, I also used shape-margin to demonstrate how we can use this property as with our image generated shapes to push the content away.

polygon()

Creating polygon shapes gives us the most flexibility, as our shapes can be created with three or more points. The value passed to the polygon needs to be three or more pairs of values which represent coordinates.

It is here where the Firefox tools become really useful as we can use them to help create our polygon. In the below example, I have created a polygon with four points. In the Firefox DevTools, you can double-click on any line to create a new point, and double-click again to remove it. Once you have created a polygon that you are happy with, you can then copy the value out of DevTools for your CSS.

See the Pen Smashing Shapes: polygon() by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.

Fallbacks

As CSS Shapes are applied to a float, in many cases the fallback is that instead of seeing the content wrap around a shape, the content will wrap around a floated element (in the way that content has always wrapped around floats). Browsers ignore properties they do not understand, so if they don’t understand Shapes, it doesn’t matter that the shape-outside property is there.

Where you should take care would be in any situation where not having shapes could mean that content overlaid an area which made it difficult to read. Perhaps you are using Shapes to push content away from a busy area of a background image, for example. In that case, you should first make sure that your content is usable for the non-Shapes people, then use Feature Queries to check for support of shape-outside and overwrite that CSS and apply the shape. For example, you could use a margin to push the content away for non-Shapes visitors and remove the margin inside your feature query.

.content { margin-left: 120px; } @supports (shape-outside: circle()) { .content { margin-left: 0; /* add the rest of your shapes CSS here */ } }

With Firefox releasing their support we now only have one main browser without support for Shapes — Edge. If you want to see Shapes support across the board you could go and vote for the feature here, and see if we can encourage the implementation of the feature in Edge.

Find Out More About CSS Shapes

In this article, I’ve tried to give a quick overview of some of the interesting things that are possible with CSS Shapes. For a more in-depth look at each feature, check out the Guides to CSS Shapes over at MDN. You can also read a guide to the Shape Path Editor in Firefox.

(il)

[badcosmos]

Want more

You Were My Gravity

Ahh it’s Neil’s birthday and in honour of that I have a not-so-little ficlet that I wrote and I’m really excited to share it.

Something to note: Andrew’s past is entirely different from canon in this AU, and it shows in his relationships and interactions here.

Title - Gravity by Against the Current

Airports, in Andrew Minyard’s esteemed opinion, were hell in its finest form on earth. And airplanes? Metal death traps that took man where he wasn’t meant to go? They were much, much worse.

Really, if humans were meant to fly, they’d have been born with wings and pneumatic bones. But they certainly weren’t, were they?

The universe was conspiring against Andrew, because clearly it believed flying was a just and righteous activity for humans to undertake.

Why was the universe against him, you ask?

Well, because he had a twin.

Or rather, he had a twin who was getting married in Chicago. Couldn’t have been New York, where Andrew lived, or in Boston, which he could comfortably drive down to and back from on the same day.

No, it had to be in the city where the majority of his fiancée’s family lived.

No sacrifices to be made for poor Andrew Minyard, best man, that would prevent him from getting on an airplane.

And to think Andrew had planned such a brilliant wedding gift. First-class, really. Aaron would never top it if Andrew ever actually got married.

Perhaps the only saving grace of this entire godforsaken trip would be the gorgeous redhead in the queue in front of him.

Keep reading