Office Hours, Friday (9/27)

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy didn't plan on making Friday her normal office hours day -- Tuesday, as always, felt like the better choice for that -- but given that it was Parents' Weekend, she figured she might as well make an appearance. You know. Just in case.

She took a little time to arrange a few small decorations on her desk: nothing major, just various little knickknacks from the places she'd been over the years, a cheesy mug or two that would end up holding pens, a framed picture of herself and Willow taken with the group of Slayers based out of São Paulo shortly before they'd moved back to New York.

That was it for now, though she had some plans on what else to do with the space. In the meantime, there were a few more things she needed to order, so she set up her laptop and took care of that before really settling in. Because there was that whole thing where she was also the CEO of her own company, and she had a couple of new contract proposals to review before the end of next week -- and that sort of thing was pain in the ass enough before you factored in having to look them over for mystical loopholes as well as the more mundane ones. If nobody dropped by, this was going to be a great opportunity for her to get some work done.

Eh. She'd always liked being able to keep herself busy, anyway.

[OOC: My cat woke me up and I just figured "eh, fuck it, might as well stay that way." Door and post are open!]

Comments

[scoffs_at_tchalla]

There was a tall, bald woman in an intricately beaded red uniform glaring at her from the doorway. "You teach Shuri."

It wasn't a question. Okoye came prepared.

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy's eyebrows went up, but in an impressed kind of way.

"I do," she said with a brief nod, closing her laptop and pushing it aside. "She's a fun student to have in class. You did your research, huh?"

No, seriously. Respect.

[scoffs_at_tchalla]

Okoye inclined her head. "It is part of my many duties to keep tabs on what the princess is up to, and part of a well-rounded education is learning to protect yourself." She nodded. "Thus, your class."

[brat_inslayage]

“Gotta admit, I was kind of wondering,” Kennedy said with a slight smile. “I’ve trained a lot of people in my time —” she said as if she’d been at this for decades — “but none of them have been royalty as far as I can remember.”

As far as she knew anyway. It wasn’t like she made a point of knowing everything ever about her students.

She leaned forward in her chair slightly and folded her hands on the desk.

“In that case, is there anything particular you’d like me to try and cover this semester?”

[scoffs_at_tchalla]

"I was about to ask you what you're plans were," Okoye admitted. "Shuri has been trained by the Dora Milaje--the all-women Special Forces of Wakanda--but I think it is important that she learn moves that we did not teach her."

[brat_inslayage]

“Totally,” Kennedy agreed without hesitation. “So far I’ve been focusing on getting them to improvise and use their surroundings to their advantage, but unpredictability is definitely of the useful in a lot of situations. Can’t counter what you don’t know, at least not well, right?”

[scoffs_at_tchalla]

"Quite true," Okoye said, sounding approving. "Not so long ago I needed to throw a spear through the car windshield as I hung from a window during a car chase in the middle of a crowded city. That did not come up often in our training programs."

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy whistled softly, then laughed. “I’ve had to do something like that a couple of times too, and I can say it was never in my training. But now I have to ask about these Special Forces yours.”

Because it wasn’t a stretch to guess that she’d approve on sheer principle.

[scoffs_at_tchalla]

"I was tracking down a man who had stolen something precious from us," Okoye said with a very, very tiny smile. There was no harm in showing pride in a job well done. "He did not escape."

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy gave her a curt nod of appreciation, sort of a warrior solidarity kind of thing. “That a routine kind of job for you?”

[scoffs_at_tchalla]

"Not normally, no, but it has been a rather...busy...few months," Okoye said.

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy made a wordless but sympathetic noise. "I get that. Long stretches of nothing, and then all of a sudden everything is happening at once, and then it's time to stop this month's apocalypse, or maybe that part's just my world. The monthly apocalypses, I mean."

[scoffs_at_tchalla]

"We don't have apocalypses," Okoye said (because it was too soon yet for Thanos), "but it has been a period of tremendous change for our kingdom. It was probably for the best that Shuri was here as we adjusted."

[brat_inslayage]

Yeah, maybe having a bunch of little apocalypses was better than, you know, that one big one. Maybe.

“It’s rough while you’re still working out all the details, huh?” she asked, thinking of all the arguments and missteps and adjustments that had to be made in figuring out how to wrangle a whole bunch of Slayers without the Council and its BS. “Hopefully things are starting to even out for you now?”

[scoffs_at_tchalla]

Okoye nodded. "Yes. The king has been very focused and had productive meetings in New York this week. We came down to check on the princess at the Queen Mother's insistence, though Shuri has been doing just fine."

Okoye had many, many eyes on her to be sure.

[brat_inslayage]

"I've been pretty impressed with her in class so far," Kennedy said. "I can pretty much see she had good examples to learn from, too."

She was totally not developing a mostly platonic bit of a crush here, shut up. Could you blame her if she was, though?

[scoffs_at_tchalla]

Okoye gave her a very tiny smile. "I am Okoye," she said, "the general of the Dora Milaje."

[brat_inslayage]

Kennedy's answering smile was just as small, but genuine.

"Kennedy, in charge of the East Coast branch of the Slayer Organization." She paused and gave a sheepish roll of her eyes. "Boring name, I know, but we sort of gave up trying to reach consensus on a better one years ago. Also, not super super formal. Good to meet you, General. How's Fandom been so far? Or, should I say, how's the wacky reality of it stacking up to the advance intel?"

[scoffs_at_tchalla]

"It more or less matches up to the intel," Okoye said, "but I would not be very pleased if it did not, and those charged with keeping an eye on Shuri well know that. I have yet to see a gremlin or a squirrel."

She sounded a little disappointed.

[brat_inslayage]

Which startled a very brief chuckle out of Kennedy.

"They probably know better than to mess with you," she suggested. "They definitely keep things, uh, interesting around here, though. Like every time the Dean of Students gets bitten, and then he's cranky about it forever afterward . . ."

Kennedy, no.

[scoffs_at_tchalla]

"The Dean of Students cannot adequately protect himself from biting rodents?"

Okoye looked very judgey.

[brat_inslayage]

"I don't know, they just really, really like him," Kennedy said, looking far too amused and far less penitent than she really ought to. "He's kind of scary good at a lot of other things, so I guess there had to be something."

[scoffs_at_tchalla]

"An attraction to rodents," Okoye said.

Well that just sounds wrong.

[brat_inslayage]

It did, and Kennedy's grimace said as much.

"Might kinda be the other way around, I'm thinking . . ."

[scoffs_at_tchalla]

"That makes slightly more sense," Okoye admitted, "but only slightly. I find this entire island deeply confusing."

[brat_inslayage]

"Yeah," Kennedy said with a little sigh and a fond smile. "That's Fandom for you. Always weird, always confusing. It's kinda comforting, really. In a weird way."

[scoffs_at_tchalla]

Okoye nodded. "Shuri has been painting the place in broad strokes to her mother. Nothing about how she turned into a stuffed animal for a week."

She paused. "I may have insisted on drug testing for her watcher after that report," she added.

[brat_inslayage]

“Understandable,” Kennedy said, smothering a laugh; she’d caught up on the old radio broadcasts and had some idea of what that had been all about. “The transformation thing is never easy to explain to someone, it seems like. No matter what your world is like.”

[usual_suspects]

A man - well, presumably - in full-body armour and mask, well over six feet and approaching seven, loomed in the doorway.

"You are Kennedy?" The voice matched the armour.

[brat_inslayage]

“That’s me,” replied Kennedy calmly, taking in the armor and the mask and the height with only the slightest shift in her expression. Hmm. Couldn’t quite place that style.

“So,” she went on breezily, “which of my students are you here to get the scoop on?”

[usual_suspects]

It was strange, to meet someone who didn't immediately cower or try to attack him, or even ingratiate themselves. Darth Marr took a moment to decide if that was refreshing or infuriating, then decided he didn't care.

"Lana Beniko. You have been teaching her defence, yes?"

[brat_inslayage]

Eh, Kennedy had dealt with a few oversized demons over the past most-of-a-decade. Seven foot tall humanoid figures were, as a result, not quite as off-putting as they might be otherwise. Anyway, she hadn't lost her entire ability to be irritating, so hey. That would be a totally valid reaction.

"Gotta say I'm glad to see people taking an active interest in how the kids' classes are going," she said. "That's a yes, by the way. Kennedy, Fandom High class of 2011. Nice to meet you."

[usual_suspects]

"I am Darth Marr, Councillor of the Empire. Responsible for, among many other things, Lana Beniko's presence here. She knows the ways of the Force. She graduated from the Academy on Korriban. What is it you believe you can teach her that they did not?"

[brat_inslayage]

Yeah, Kennedy's eyebrow was twitching upward ever so slightly at what struck her as a pretty damn pompous speech, and that was coming from someone who'd grown up in New York upper class society.

She managed to keep that reaction to a minimum, though, so her expression was fairly neutral and matter-of-fact when she replied, "If I'm doing my job right? How to get creative. Think outside the box, if you will. Not to get too complacent relying on special powers or abilities, for the kids in the class who have those."

Then she flashed a grin and added, "Though, if you really just want to boil it down to the basics? I just want them to get used to actively thinking about how to not get killed."

With some people, she'd learned over the years of tracking down Slayers and trying to explain things to them and their families, you had to really sell the self-preservation angle.

[usual_suspects]

See, she'd had him until that last part. A sound that might have been a snort came from his mask.

"Beniko is already actively thinking about that at all times, or she would not still be alive. I can see the value in thinking creatively, however. What experience do you have for teaching that?"

[brat_inslayage]

It'd been a while since someone had questioned Kennedy's credentials, as the sudden flareup of annoyance she had to tamp down might indicate.

She got that on lockdown pretty quickly though -- thanks, experience negotiating high-level business contracts -- and nodded, as if she were conceding the point, at least partially.

"Yeah, to be honest, a pretty big part of the class is geared more toward the kids who don't have any experience, aren't really the type who've grown up learning to fight, all that," she said evenly. "But if we're talking about mine, I've spent eight years hunting down vampires and other demon-type baddies in all kinds of weird settings, and training people in how to do it for almost as long."

[usual_suspects]

Darth Marr parsed that. "So, you're a hunter and a warrior. I'm given to understand this place is dangerous."

[brat_inslayage]

"Can be," Kennedy allowed, shrugging mildly. "Sometimes in a wacky fun kind of way, other times, not so much with the whimsical. Students like Lana are better prepared for that kind of thing, I think. Others -- the ones who come from worlds where vampires don't exist and nobody has telekinetic powers and all of this stuff is just somebody's imagination gone out of control -- maybe not so much. They're my main concern, when it comes to this class. High school's rough enough without being constantly worried that you won't be able to stop something from eating your head. The more experienced kids -- honestly, I'm kinda hoping I can learn something new from them, too."

[usual_suspects]

"A sensible attitude," Darth Marr admitted. "There are probably better uses of Beniko's time, but it doesn't seem a completely unwarranted use, either." He nodded to her. "Thank you for your time, Kennedy."

[brat_inslayage]

"Sure thing," Kennedy replied with an answering nod. "Looking forward to what else she has to bring to class the rest of the semester, too."

[usual_suspects]

"We shall see." Darth Marr nodded and left.