brat_inslayage | Sunnydale, California, December 2002 (Tuesday Fandom Time)

After a few days, things in the more-crowded Summers household were starting to settle into a routine of sorts. Which was to say that Buffy still went to work, Dawn and Willow still went to classes because the Hellmouth had no policy about cancelling finals in case of apocalypse, the question of where Spike was remained unanswered, and Kennedy and Molly tried to figure out what to do with themselves while staying out of the way.

Well. Molly tried to stay out of the way, at least. Kennedy was a different story.

The whole thing was weirdly domestic and calm, even, despite the knowledge that things were all... doomy, and not likely to blow over. Kennedy was used to bad situations ending up resolved in maybe a week tops, which was so not going to happen this time since they had yet to figure out what they were even dealing with.

Okay, they knew it was the First Evil, but... with the Council gone and their resources limited that was less than nothing to go by.

Kennedy still hadn't been able to make contact with Fandom, either, and not for lack of trying. It was the sort of thing that got a girl really frustrated really fast.

After breakfast, Molly headed into the dining room to hit their small stack of books again, in hopes of turning up something useful on the three billionth and second try. Kennedy, meanwhile, excused herself to head down to the basement and work out some of her lingering guilt issues over Annabelle on the heavy punching bag.

Dawn	Dawn was dealing with the Annabelle thing in her own way. Avoiding everyone else for a while, and trying to think of what else she could have said, or done. Hard to do when the Potentials were still here though. Particularly this one. She watched Kennedy from the stairs for a while, and then said, "You're dropping your shoulder." Hey, she'd learned a few things from watching Giles with Buffy.
Kennedy	Oh, god, look. Kennedy didn't need fighting advice from the Slayer's little sister, even if said little sister was taller than she was. (As was everyone in the house, except possibly Andrew, but...) She rolled her eyes and just hit the bag again, not turning around as she asked snappishly, "Whatever. What, are you a Watcher too or something?"
Dawn	"Maybe." Dawn came down the stairs, arms crossed, circling Kennedy to make her nervous. "I've been around Buffy and Slaying longer than Giles has, anyway." She stopped on the other side of the bag. "You keep talking about training. Not slaying."
Kennedy	That just got another eyeroll from Kennedy-- please, like she was going to be intimidated by Dawn? (Okay, not intimidated, but the circling made her a little suspicious.) "Not my fault--" She lashed out with a forearm strike at the bag. "The stupid system is a one-at-a-time deal, okay? And it's not like your sister's really big on the letting us actually do anything, which is totally dumb."
Dawn	"Buffy isn't dumb," Dawn automatically said, although really, yes, her sister could be completely dumb. But no one else got to say so. "You think you could take a vampire one-on-one?" How dumb are you, Kennedy? Yes, this was a quiz. Dawn had this part of Watching down.
Kennedy	"Done it before," Kennedy retorted. Wow, had she not needed this frustration on top of everything. "Couple of vamps, a few demons, monsters across the spectrum of bizarre, and what's it to you? Last I checked, you weren't in charge of--" She turned away from the bag to throw in some supremely sarcastic airquotes. "'Checking my qualifications,' or anything." Good, Kennedy. Get into a petty argument with a high schooler.
Dawn	Ha. Good. She'd gotten under Miss Judgment's skin. She smirked at Kennedy. "It's my house. I don't even know you. But you're throwing around attitude like you're doing us a favor, being here. So far you haven't done anything but tell us how you'd do stuff. If you're applying for the position of Slayer it's over my sister's dead body." No more smirk. "Pardon me if I want to know you're more qualified than Faith."
Kennedy	"Maybe I am doing you a favor, being here," Kennedy shot back. "Strength in numbers and all, and by the way, Faith thinks I'm pretty good at this stuff." For all the good that would do them when the First wasn't even corporeal, but she wasn't about to back down. Yeah, mentioning Faith was totally going to get her status points. "Oh, and excuse me for trying to bring some ideas to the table, because god forbid I try and help. Do you think I want Buffy dead or something? God! I'm not the Slayer, but I'm not dead weight either."
Dawn	Dawn gave her a bzuh? look for that Faith comment, and a wary, "How do you know Super-Skank?" Kennedy lost her temper way too easy, but hey. Dawn had wanted to know where she stood on all this. The mention of death had her looking away, though. "Annabelle wasn't dead weight." Just... way too scared.
Kennedy	"She was my teacher for a while at my weird-ass high school," Kennedy answered, though the sudden turn the conversation had just taken made her less inclined to pursue that train of thought to its twisty and confusing end. "Also older. And... not so much with the evil, which I get she's sort of supposed to be." Never mind the punching bag now. "Didn't say she was," Kennedy muttered on the subject of Annabelle, in a sullen tone that hinted at the lingering guilt. "Not dead weight; just not ready for this." Not that she'd gotten much of a chance to be, and yes, Kennedy knew she hadn't helped there.
Dawn	"Is this like the world without shrimp, or the vampire world, or some universe where Buffy's not the Slayer?" Dawn asked, still curious. Despite the downer that thinking about Annabelle was. "Not everyone has been doing this stuff since they were nine, you know. Sometimes, you have to... ease people into it." Her expression darkened, and she leaned against the other side of the bag. "Or try to."
Kennedy	"Not the world without--" Kennedy sighed. "Don't make me have to explain it. It's a whole thing." Although excuse her while she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Kinda hard to ease people into it when surprise, the original bad is trying to kill them."
Dawn	"You can't expect people to react to that sensibly," Dawn snapped, although she was angrier with herself than with Kennedy. "Especially the ones who didn't even know they were Potentials, or what it meant, or haven't had people trying to kill them since forever." She punched the bag herself, then covered a wince. "The whole gung-ho, G.I. Jane thing you do isn't going to get them more into it." Buffy wasn't helping either, really, but there had to be some approach that would work.
Kennedy	"Annabelle wasn't one of those," Kennedy shot right back, because clearly now was the most impeccable time ever to feel obligated to defend the girl. "She knew what it meant. What the job might be, like I did. I thought she'd be prepped for this." I was wrong, obviously, was the sentence that she bit back. There were a handful of people she'd be willing to say that to, and out of anyone in this house only one person came remotely close to maybe being on that list.
Dawn	"Not all the Watchers are like Giles." Dawn sat down on the mat, glaring up at Kennedy. "And she wasn't. Ready." She set her jaw. "Not her fault. But you can see why I'm checking if you can walk the walk."
Kennedy	Not having to look up at the kid any more was a small kind of relief; Kennedy took a few steps back to lean against the side of the table. "They're not--" And there was another thing. She'd had an awesome Watcher in Constance, but there had been Wesley, too. Kennedy ran a hand through her hair and sighed again. No, she still didn't particularly like Dawn all that much, but if she had to share a not-that-big house with her... "Fine, check. Since you don't believe me. I'm just saying, hard to check when I don't get to see the real action."
Dawn	Dawn was kind of annoyed that Kennedy was being reasonable. She wanted to fight with someone; but picking a fight with Buffy would qualify her for the Worst Sister Ever Award (again) when she had so much stuff on her plate. Anya was too frustrating, Xander too busy, Willow still shaky, Giles just got back.... She reached out to steady the bag with one hand. "If it weren't the Biggest Bad Ever, we'd be taking you out to see stuff. The demon bar. The forty-three graveyards. The space over the Hellmouth that I call high school." But her mind was already ticking over what Kennedy said, and trying to stop any of the others from ending up like Annabelle. If she poked Buffy like this, and said something like that-- not that she wanted to help Kennedy, exactly. But the others. Sure.
Kennedy	"Tourism, Hellmouth-style," Kennedy said dryly. "Who knew it was such a booming industry?" She'd have picked a fight happily long before now, if not for a lifetime of conditioning in Playing Nice With The Right People As Long As Necessary. "I don't really care about that. I just want to get into this fight." A beat, then: "Bet my high school was cooler." Like the sort of mature moment was going to last.
Dawn	Dawn snorted, getting back up to poke the bag at Kennedy. "You wish. Flying monkeys?" Beat that, New York.
Kennedy	Kennedy tried to block the bag with her arms, but she was a half second late and had to dodge out of the way instead. "Swarms of giant killer vegetables." Ha. Chalk one up for Team Fandom.
Dawn	Okay, that was... unexpected. "Everyone forced to sing and dance their thoughts? With spontaneous combustion?"
Kennedy	"...you have me on the spontaneous combustion part." Dammit. "But there was this one time all the weapons turned into candy canes."
Dawn	Dawn blinked. "Seriously?" she said, incredulous. "Why can't we get curses like that?... Dracula's castle appearing. Out of nowhere."
Kennedy	"Gross, reektastic swamp taking over the school grounds while a giant maze tried to eat the entire town," Kennedy countered, then added in an almost-whine, "See, I told Xander it was weird." But Hellmouth-free, so arguably not going to win here.
Dawn	"Where is this place, anyway?" Dawn asked, then said firmly, "Everyone turned into their costumes one Halloween. Crazy town, with added monsters. Who you couldn't kill 'cause they were really little kids." Including her, in her dragon costume. That had been so much fun. Sigh.
Kennedy	Kennedy tried for a second to remember if anything like that had happened in Fandom. Probably, so... couldn't win on that point. "Maryland. Or... off the coast, anyway. Except it used to be off Virginia before I got there, and there was a whole thing with... I don't remember the details. Just that the whole island took a world tour for summer and ended up the next state over when it got back."
Dawn	That sounded way more fun than Sunnydale, if not as dangerous. "Hellmouth," Dawn said, like that settled it, which as far as she was concerned it did. "Accept no substitutes." She twirled the bag toward Kennedy again. "But you can stay. For now."
Kennedy	"Oh, good. I was so wondering," Kennedy drawled, though without too much animosity. Also while bracing herself to catch the bag this time. Ha. Take that, Dawn. "'cause the first time I heard 'Hellmouth,' I thought it was all rainbows and puppies. Don't you have school to get to?"
Dawn	Goody. Someone else was now feeling as testy as Dawn. Her work here was done. "Yup. Me with the learning. You with the punching." She smiled over at Kennedy and clomped up the steps, stopping half-way to add, "You should add in some kicks, too. Short people have to compensate and all that." Ha!