eachdraidh | (third stake) video ✧ unseelie only

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(third stake) video ✧ unseelie only

[ bless her, she comes from a time before the selfie was adequately popularized. and yet buffy summers seems to have an instinctive knack for propped her locket up on her palm and holding it just so -- capturing her own ennui-stamped face in one corner and (over her shoulder) introducing the world to pretty little winter-blanketed river scene. one might assume she's in the vicinity of land carved out for his baronliness archer's spire and forts. hah. spire and forts. hello, innuendo.

anyway. she exhales with a puff of her cheeks and stares down the locket. you'd almost think there was no war at all by how little attention she pays it. purposefully, buffy seems to be ignoring the court drama as best she can. running away -- sour, perhaps, for a number of reasons. ] Some of you might've met-chatted-made-buddies with a girl named Dawn. She's gone. Sorry about that. [ and presumably that's why buffy looks like she's been mainlining angst straight into her veins.

otherwise: ] I need hammers. And...probably nails. Power drills will also be appreciated but I hear that might be a bit of a pipe-dream. We could also probably use pipes. I think.

See. This is why you gotta hate a war economy.

Oh! Those really really really big iron bar things. You know, the ones with the thin middles and the wide edges. The ones that co-star in all the wacky old school cool photoshoots hanging over city skylines...

[ but at least she's still bothering to help build unseelie fortifications. she's not ready to sally forth and kill, yet.

buffy's rambling. she tries to stop. except-- ] Wait! A few more things. Which one of you mooks is Professor Spaniard? The rest of you...I dunno -- be careful out there.
[ she went there. ]

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A Starbucks, ideally. But -- nah, there's supposed to be some kind of river fotress right [ she swings the locket around ] here.

[He takes a moment to look into the locket to get a better sense of what Buffy's doing.]

Think you'd have better luck with a Starbucks instead. [He's not an architect by any means but the same principles apply. He can at least see how he can help. Fortresses are supposedly good, right? Sure.] How big is it and how are you reenforcing it?

All good questions. [ can you tell she has no sweet clue? ] Hey. Let's play a game. Hypothetically -- you know, if you were building a river fort -- how would you reinforce it?

[The only way it'd be more obvious was if she stamped "clueless" across her forehead.] You've got the right idea by looking for cross braces--you know, the "big iron bars with thin middles and wide edges." [He's grinning like he's trying not to laugh. He's not even sure if that's what she's really talking about but it fits the bill and he knows it's a method for construction.] It's a river fort, right? You could probably create the walls, add some extra beams or cross braces in the middle and re-cover the walls with type 2 concrete which is supposed to be better for areas around water. But they probably don't have concrete mix here...there has to be rocks and minerals though, right? I mean it's still the earth, maybe just find limestone and clay and stuff, grind it up and then heat it...

[Yup. He's already writing out notes to see how plausible this is. Please hold.]

...or use slabs of rock. The point is the best way to keep the walls standing is making sure there's something in the middle to keep it upright so if the walls get knocked out the whole thing doesn't crumble. You want braces around the walls and the roof that'll absorb a lot of shock if the building gets hit and the braces shouldn't be straight lines. Diagonals are good.

Does that make any sense?

Not really. But I'm guessing that's more my fault than yours. [ ... ] Are you in the biz?

I've never put together a building before, but I know about construction and design. So I guess you could say that? I usually deal with machinery more than buildings.

Hey. That's at least half a qualification more than me. Unless we're counting those lame toothpick houses for eggs we had to make in ninth grade science. And even then?

[ she sucks a breath in through her teeth. ] I'm not sure I did too well then, either.

I think I missed that part of ninth grade. [But the point still stands and he gets what Buffy's saying. Give him a moment, he's starting to draw out something else. People seem to understand visuals more than words, and he knows he responds better when he can see what he's thinking on paper.]

You've seen bridges, right? Same thing. They have crosses holding them up and bars that are supporting the interior framework to keep it standing instead of building straight up and hoping the foundation holds it steady. That's how your fort's going to keep standing. [When he holds the notepad up to the locket's camera, she'll see a rough drawing of what looks like the Golden Gate Bridge.]

If you don't know what you're doing, why are you the one building it? [It's not meant to be a mean question but he's genuinely curious what Buffy's answer is. Most people shy away from challenges that are this big. If she's tackling it head-on without a clue? Okay. More power to her. He can at least try to make it a little easier if it's going to benefit their side in the long run.]

Edited 2015-02-09 22:31 (UTC)

Because -- [ wait. she shouldn't default to sarcasm. not this time.

her voice softens: ] Because it needs to get done. So I might as well do it.

[ story of her life. ]

With everything going on out there? We're going to need it after it's over. [He'd love to ignore everything happening with the courts right now, but it's nearly impossible. (Well that and he's wedging his way in as much as he can. He was brought here, so he may as well help as he can.)]

I might not be able to be there to help, but if you need ideas or blueprints you can always ask me and I'll see what I can do.

Blueprints? Y-yeah. Blueprints. I could use a pile of those.

[...sigh. Yup. This is definitely why the imps dragged him here.]

Okay. Tell me what the fortress really needs and maybe I can figure something out for you. Like I said architecture's not really my expertise but it's just physics and design. [Considering the other things he's built? How hard can be a building really be?]

What it needs? Oh! Uhm. Well. It's guarding one of those -- spires. There's one fort on one side and another fort on the other and I guess we're supposed to use them to...

Look. The Baron is never too descriptive with these details. I just figure he wants a little extra cover for the spire. There's a river, right? Anyone could come a-barging up that thing. That's where the forts come in. Little and nearer the bank and presumably stocky enough to withstands a few initial assaults.

Blockades. [Well. That definitely gives him an exact frame of reference.] Give me a couple of hours, I think I have an idea.

[A pause.]

And if you figure out something before then, that's okay, too.

I'll -- uhm -- keep in touch. [ wait she's peering at the locket now just in case. ] How old are you?

[Eheh. That question. For his short time in this world, surprisingly Buffy's the first person to ask. It doesn't necessarily bother him, but he stops and peers right back at her before shrugging a little.]

14. [Go ahead. Say it.] Why?

-- Aren't you a little young to be...

[ then again, what's a fresh slayer except a girl too young to do so much? she was only fifteen when she was first called to the prophecy. and willow, a year later... ]

Is this one of those Boy Genius situations?

[Generally speaking people are still a mystery to him and he's not sure how Buffy's going to react when he answers that question. History's shown that other than his brother's friends? Most people around his age or even older were jerks who didn't get it. Here, at least, some people either hadn't thought anything of his age or hadn't thought to ask at all, but it's still a gamble each time.]

I graduated from high school last year. [Surprise?] I just started at one of the best technical institutes in the country a few weeks ago.

Huh. Okay. Wow.

[ step the first: disbelief. ]

I bet you had, like, zero social life.

[ step two: bargaining. ]

Edited 2015-02-14 00:18 (UTC)

But...good for you. Seriously. That's really -- uhm -- cool.

[ step three: acceptance. a younger buffy would never have made it so far. it helps to now suddenly be the sole legal guardian of a teenager -- one she wants to see succeed; grow; do amazing things. all at once, it becomes easier to appreciate the amazingness of others. ]

[...well she's not wrong, really, and the look on Hiro's face echoes that sentiment fairly well. Kinda hard to attend parties when you're at least five years younger than most of your class. He was much happier with his inventions and building things with Tadashi anyway.

But that quickly changes into a flat look.]

Thanks? [Girls are weird. But Buffy still needs his help so he can't exactly just write her off.] My schedule was a little too busy back home for the whole socializing thing. Anyway that's not what this is about. Blueprints. I can get those over to you when they're finished.

[...oh. There's just one more thing.]

How do I find you? [He could have just asked what her name is, but this is close enough.]

The lockets, I guess. Or -- I'm at Baron Archer's spire. Just ask for Buffy.

Buffy. [...you know, considering his friends have names like "Wasabi" and "Honey Lemon" Buffy isn't too far on the weird scale.] Got it. I'll drop these off when they're finished.

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(third stake) video ✧ unseelie only

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