| Characters: Toshiko Sato, Buffy Summers
Link to IJ: thread #75440.4639408 |
 Toshiko has been buried in research in the library for days on end, and hadn't really planned to attend the party. Too many possibilities, too many unpredictabilities.
But eventually the sounds of music and conversation drew her. She wasn't dressed quite as fancy as some, she realized as she stepped in and headed toward the bar. But at least her dress was presentable. Sort of. "White wine please," she ordered, smiling hesitantly at the person next to her. |
 Buffy smiled back. "Hi, I'm Buffy," she said comfortably, with a quick glance down at the woman's dress.
Not the sort of person she'd exactly go up to to chat with at a party, but after Willow she was used to the geek look. And she didn't know anyone here and she didn't want to go the whole evening without talking to anyone. |
| "Hello Buffy," Tosh said, pausing and automatically thanking the 'bot for her wine. "I'm Toshiko." |
| "Nice to meet you, Toshiko," Buffy said promptly. She grinned engagingly. "It's a good party, isn't it? Loads of people here." Her look turned wistful. "Just wish I knew some of them." |
| "How long have you been here?" Toshiko asked, frowning slightly. As she scanned the crowd, she saw multiple Jacks and tried hard not to notice the multiples of the man who had been their prime minister. |
| "Not very long. A few days." Buffy shrugged, making a bit of a face. "I don't know many people yet."
She glanced curiously at Tosh, who obviously recognised some people out there. "I guess you've been here longer than me." |
| "Off and on. It's hard to tell with this place," she said with a slight smile. "Time works differently here." |
| "You've been away and come back again? I didn't know you could do that."
Buffy srunched her nose up. "How can time work differently? I don't get that. Mind you, I don't get much about this place. It's weird." |
| "Well, I didn't exactly plan it," she said. "It's ... think of it this way. A 'year' on the planet Venus isn't the same length as that on Earth. There are 243 Earth days per Venus day. So if you were able to live on Venus, your time would 'move' differently."
It was the simplest way she could think of to explain it, even if it didn't necessarily apply to what was happening here. |
| "Huh. That'd be a really long day!" She giggled a bit. "I sort of see what you mean. I think. Willow would get it better than me. I'm just... not good at complicated things. Show me a vampire, give me a stake - " she mimed holding a stake - "and I'm your girl. But try and make me understand complicated things... not so much." |
| "Vampires?" |
| "Yeah, really." Buffy was getting used to people not knowing about vampires. "I'm the Slayer. I kill vampires. It's my job. Well, more of a hobby, really. I don't get paid." |
| "That's one we haven't run into," Tosh muttered before giving Buffy a smile. "Where did you say you were from again?" |
| "I don't think I did. We haven't done the 'where and when are you from?' bit yet."
She grinned. "1998 - Sunnydale, California. It's on top of a Hellmouth; it sort of attracts vampires and demons and things. Where are you from?" |
| "I guess we haven't properly," she agreed. "Cardiff, Wales, 2008. On top of a rift in time and space. We get flotsam and jetsam from all over." |
| "Huh, how about that. There's a Hellmouth in Cardiff too." She scrunched up her face again. "What's flotsam and jetsam? I haven't heard of those kinds of demons." |
| "No, I don't think they're the same thing," she corrected. Toshiko stared at her for a moment and then swallowed about half her drink. "They aren't demons. It's an expression. Originally, it was used to describe debris in the ocean." |
| "Oh." Buffy made a face. "I ought to have known that, huh? So what is it that you get, then?"
She was a little confused. |
| "Mostly alien artefacts," Tosh explained. "Sometimes people who get caught in the rift in their world or time; we help them as much as we can. We ... have a pterodactyl?" |
| "That's a dinosaur, right? And aliens? Like whatsisname - Theta - I bumped into him on my first day here. He's from Galli - Galli-something." |
| "Well, actually..." Tosh stopped and moved on. She probably shouldn't get into a conversation about dinosaurs versus pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, or any of that. "Yes. Aliens. I haven't met anyone named Theta and I'm not sure what planet he's from but we're definitely not alone in the galaxy." |
| "He's just a kid. I hope he doesn't get flung into Cardiff through your rifty-thing. What kind of aliens do you get? Do you get Martians and things?" |
| "Mostly Weevils," she admitted. "We don't know their actual race -- they're a bit hard to communicate with -- but I'm fairly sure they don't come from Mars." |
| "Weevils? Aren't they sort of beetles? Mom says they get in the flour and eat it if you don't put the lid back on properly." |
| "No, these aren't like those weevils," she said, smiling. "These are humanoid creatures. They're adapted to survive in dark, damp conditions and are extremely strong and fast. They're extremely dangerous." |
| "Sounds pretty much like your average vamp," Buffy grinned. "I guess these things aren't really that different." She tilted her head. "Bet you don't have to spend hours reading musty old books, though, every time the latest big bad pops his ugly head up. Bet you have computers and things, don't you?"
She felt Tosh looked like the sort of person who ought to be sat at a computer. |
| "Oh yes, we have a top-notch system," she said with a fond smile. "But sometimes it's still necessary to find our answers in books." |
| "Well, you are ten years in the future from where I am," Buffy mused. "Maybe even Giles'll have a computer in ten years!" |
| "Who is Giles?" |
| "Giles is... Well, he's old, and British, and he's my Watcher. He's sort of in charge, 'cept I don't actually do what he says. He likes old dusty books."
This was said in a tone that implied that liking dusty old books was akin to liking spiders. |
| "What does a Watcher do?" Tosh asked, choosing to ignore Buffy's tone. After all there was nothing wrong with being British and liking books! |
| "He's sort of like a mentor. He looks stuff up and advises me and trains me and, as I said, he's supposed to tell me what to do, but we usually work things out between us. And the others help out too. Willow reads books and does computery stuff too - she's a real whizz - and she does magic too now." |
| "And your sole purpose is to kill vampires?" |
| "Well, not just vampires. Other demons too. There's always something new in town trying to kill people, or open the Hellmouth, or suck the Earth into hell, or whatever. We keep pretty busy." |
| Incomplete - last update 22Mar 1107, by toshiko
Last three posts |