Behind every good Slayer...
Behind every good Slayer...
Surprisingly enough, my winning personality doesn't get me a lot of friends. My night job, as well as the fact that I was hanging out in Merry Olde England for a year or so doesn't exactly help that either.
I'm not whining about that. I just want to be clear that the fact that I have anybody I actually call a 'friend' is pretty major. Not that I can really call all of these people friends, but they all know what I am and haven't run yet.
In the end, part of me wonders if things would be better off if I lost the posse. Most Slayers work alone for a reason. Knowing one of us can get downright dangerous, and having that instant of self-doubt if one of them is in danger, or the lack of focus that comes with feeling responsible for someone else mgiht just get me killed. Then again, most Slayers die before they hit 16 too. And I have to admit it's kinda....nice having people to talk to.
As exotic as that sounds, her real name is Kim. I call her that sometimes when I really want to tick her off....
Opal is trying to save the world. Doesn't really matter to her if it's from vampires or litterbugs. And to be honest I wouldn't want to get in her way no matter WHO I was. Opal's a pretty powerful psychic.
Granted all she can do when she WANTS to use her power is move a paperclip around the room, but I've seen her get pissed before, and it's pretty scary.
On the outside, Opal is a hippie at heart. A really hot Oriental bombshell who hides behind frumpy clothes and big glasses. And her temper. Girl is as bad tempered as I am when she wants to be. As I found out when we started looking at the same guy.
I'm glad we got over that, because she's the one person I think I can really TALK to about some things. The only real taboo subject is Anzo (aka: The Guy). Which sucks, because he saved my life during our little spat, and now he's talking relationship, and I could use her perspective right about now.
I considered myself kinda Goth before I met Laz. He takes it to unhealthy levels, with entirely too many piercings for a guy, and a combover mohawk.
Nice kid. That about describes Laz. He comes from a witch family, and apparently is foretold to be some hugely powerful warlock. I suppose I can see it. He can do a LOT with his magic even now. As weird as his family sounds, he's actually probably more normal than most of us. Hobbies and lifestyle aside, his mom cooks and cleans and probably even gets on him for getting up from the table without asking to be excused. All the normal Mom stuff that should be happening. His dad's a cop, and works a lot. Which is good, as he isn't aware of ANY of the magic stuff. It's like watching an episode of Bewitched when we go over there.
Laz is the most easygoing guy I know. He's only gotten uptight about one thing since I've met him, and I think it was technically protecting my honor when he did. But when he did, he summoned a vengance demon. Which I'd think would be kinda sweet if it wasn't a FRICKIN' VENGANCE DEMON. Now THAT is not a healthy way to express your anger.
Oscar is the fat black nerdy kid. He's also Joe Normal in our little Scooby group. To make up for this he's pretty much constantly mouthing off. I suppose it'd be more annoying if he wasn't so funny doing it.
Aside from being guaranteed to laugh at EVERY SINGLE Star Wars joke EVER MADE, Oscar's thing is the computer. I swear he only comes up for air twice a day. Our resident uber-nerd has hacked his way into the police database as well as a few more "specialized" databases, and can be pretty invaluable when we need to look something up that isn't in a musty old book.
Remember when I said I couldn't call everybody here a friend? Here's a shining example to illustrate my point.
Cameron isn't really one of the gang. A fact I'm sure he doesn't lose sleep over. He plays football. He hangs with the cool kids. His parents are rich even compared to most of the Pleasant Hills crowd, and they buy his way out of any trouble he gets into, and with as much as he parties that is a LOT of trouble.
Basically life is just a popularity game for him. Something to do in between parties and girls. Ah to be that blissfully ignorant....
So our little blonde rich preppie boy goes walking home from a party drunk one night and comes upon something he shouldn't have. An old priest was laying in the sidewalk bleeding from having his throat ripped out. The priest grabs hold of his jacket and holds him in place juuuust long enough for him to get drilled in the back of the head with this white light. He wakes up (rich boy...not the priest) about an hour later and all of a sudden he finds out he's smarter. Not just smart....SMART.
Bastion says he's got something called the Light of Alexandria in his head. It's some religious gift from the Powers that Be to the world. Apparently it comes into being every so often when humanity is due for a few major breakthoughs. It's like a big library of scientific and medical knowledge all crammed into his head somewhere, and irony of ironies he can't use it unless he's helping humanity out by doing it. Now THAT is funny.
He originally looked us up (knowing Opal is into weird stuff isn't exactly difficult) and for some reason seems to keep getting involved in the same stuff. He an Opal have been fighting tooth and nail since he showed up (a sure sign they are into each other if you ask me).
Huh. Maybe that's why he keeps showing up.
Bastion is....complicated.
Okay on my first night here I'm out hunting (Arthur isn't the 'go ahead and unpack and we'll hit it hard tomorrow' type) and I come upon this group of vamps attacking this big guy in a black trenchcoat. I jump in and start doing my thing and realize he's not RUNNING yet. That's when he pulls out an axe (MY signature weapon dammit!) and dusts one as he's yelling at ME to run!
After the fight he starts yelling at me again. I explain I'm a Slayer and he STILL tells me to get out of 'his town'. So as you see things started wonderfully....
Bastion's the loner type. Tall dark and handsome, but lives alone in an old abandoned warehouse. Most of the time he's a complete jerk. My problem is the REST of the time...he's...really nice actually.
I got kidnapped by the vampire cult? He came in to get me. I got beat to hell and THEN fall two stories out of a dimensional portal? He caught me. I get almost killed by some vamp priestess? He gets almost killed getting in between her and me. If all of this crap wasn't part of some big setup it'd almost be enough to shake a girl's confidence in herself....
Every time I get into something I can't quite handle, he comes riding in on his damned white horse (okay it's a black Harley but still) and saves me like I'm some damsel to his knight complex. Normally that'd annoy me all to hell, but I think we almost GET each other. We're both out there every night, and neither one of us is ever going to have a prayer at being normal, and to some extent that fact kind of ticks us both off.
I don't get to play damsel that often. With him, I don't always hate it.
Bastion has some friends in town that have been looking him up lately. First was the Order of St. James, some nutso church group he used to belong to that was tasked with making sure the Light of Alexandria was properly used (whatever that means). While they were here checking on that, They looked Bastion up and gave him the Come Back Into The Fold speech. Not interested.
Then the OTHER weird group he was once a part of showed up (this one being more of a government organization), and while they were here they dropped me some SERIOUS dirt on him. Apparently he was...is...an angel.
Okay I know how it sounds! But this might make some sort of sad, horrible sense. I've never known much about him (though apparently already more than anyone ELSE does) and I have absolutely NO IDEA what his being an angel MEANS, but he said he made a bad decision a long time ago, and now he's stuck down here with all us mortals.
*sigh*
So we've been fighting tooth and nail ourselves since we met each other (see above theory), but if he IS an angel....
Well it's not like some guy who's been around for eternity is going to be too interested in a 16 year old girl. And he's had at least two older, hotter women who he's paid absolutely no attention to. I don't think I have a huge chance here. He's too busy either acting like a moron or he's...closed up. Besides, I got another tall dark and handsome guy who DOES seem to be interested in me. But Bastion and I still keep fighting, and he's still there to catch me when I need to be caught.
I like that.
The father figure I never wanted. Yeah...Arthur is my watcher.
I can't get down on him too much. As my legal parents are unaware I'm actually back IN THE COUNTRY right now, Arthur has had to insert himself as my legal guarian (and the guy who pays for stuff). He runs a coffee shop called the Daily Grind (original I know), which we live above, and has the 'Batcave' underneath it with all of his books and my training stuff.
I don't know what he did to get stuck with the Pleasant Hills beat and I CERTAINLY don't know what he did to get stuck with ME, but things could be worse on my end. He seems to actually care a little about what happens to me (more than I can say about most of 'em back in boot camp), and he tries to get all parental at times, which is sorta cute. I figure he either had a kid at one time or really wants one, because he's not horrible at it (tell him I said that and I will break things inside your body).
I'm not exactly sure how the whole Stuffy English Guy/Rebellious Slayer With Purple Hair mechanic is going to work out, but I think we're both figuring things out as they come along.