fandomhighdorms | Behind the Dorms, Tuesday Afternoon

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Behind the Dorms, Tuesday Afternoon

"Hey, guys!" Zack was all smiles as he stepped in front of the Reserve gathering, today. "Since we got some more of that talking stuff out of the way last week, this week I'm going to get you all doing something a little more hands-on, taking an idea that the Magic Reserves had a while back, and tweaking it a little to better suit our purposes here!"

Because Zack was totally a rotten stealerface. And it had been a good idea.

"The thing you have to keep in mind when you're on the field is that a good bit of your strength often rests in whoever you're out there with. And, taking that a step further, nobody gets left behind. Not just because they're an asset, but because they're our people." Zack managed, barely, to refrain from getting all shmoopy and saying 'friends,' there. "But it's entirely possible that at some point, you're going to find someone trapped behind enemy lines, and it'll be on your shoulders to get them back."

He gestured to a pile of ribbons sitting on the ground, half of them red, and the other half blue. "Take one of these, and put it on your clothing somewhere, so that it'll be easy to snatch off of you. And then I want to break off into two groups according to the color of your ribbon. Each of your teams gets one of these..." He motioned to a pair of stuffed bears sitting on the ground. "They're prisoners. It's your job to infiltrate the enemy's territory, retrieve your lost ally, and then make it home safely. But if anyone from the other team snags your ribbon while you're on their turf? Sorry, guys, you're dead."

... Yeah. They were totally playing 'capture the flag.'

With teddy bears.

IT IS A MANLY SPORT.

[Open!]

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After spending a few moments glaring at Illryia, Gunn got fed up with himself and marched over to talk to her.

"All right," he said crossing his arms. "I just got one question for you."

Actually he had quite a few but he'd rather just as the one and get it over with.

Illyria looked down her nose at him, but then she did that at everyone. He actually got a bit less of a steep angle than most people. "Yes?"

"This whole thing of you and I hooking up," he said holding his ground with the whole looking-down-her-nose thing. "Was it because of me being irresistible or was it just your charming personality?"

Due to several weeks in the company of Barney Stinson, Illyria did know what 'hooking up' meant. "My personality was not present at the time."

"Yeah, I kind of gathered that," Gunn said rolling his eyes though not getting the meaning of what she said. "That charming bit was called sarcasm."

"I'm aware of your petty attempt at wit," she acknowledged. "As well as the sounds you make when you achieve sexual fulfillment. They're not unlike the dying moan of the creature your people call a woolly mammoth."

"Yeaaah. Okay that wasn't part of the detail I was looking for," Gunn said after looking around to see if anyone had heard that. "What I want to know is how someone like you ended up in bed with a guy like me."

"Someone like me did not." Aware of his lack of comprehension, she hadn't been, until now. "Those memories belong to the woman who inhabited this body before I was present."

Inhabited? Gunn ran his hand over the back of his head as he processed that.

"So... what? Is this a alien pod deal or you about to turn your head around three times and vomit split pea soup?"

"Split...pea soup?" Illyria repeated, then shook her head sharply, casting it off. "The essence of Winifred Burkle was destroyed when mine was placed into her body. It was not large enough to hold all of me, let alone the both of us."

If Gunn's eyebrows got any higher they would probably pop off his head.

"So you and I never hooked up," he said grimly. "Just the girl you destroyed so you could fit into her body. Nice. Bet she really appreciated that."

"No. She was angry and terrified." Sometimes she got the feeble attempts at wit, sometimes she didn't. Sometimes she answered literally even when she did. "But fierce, for all the weakness of your species. She clawed at the walls of her shell until the last."

Illyria was very, very good at sounding dispassionate, no matter what she might actually feel on the matter.

"Wow, you're just a little ray of sunshine, you know that?" Gunn said shaking his head in disbelief. "You said I'm the one caused this thing to happen? Why the hell would I do that?"

"I am as I am. I did not choose this form nor seek actively to destroy its owner, but my rebirth caused her death nonetheless." Had she been conscious to choose a new vessel, though, her choice would have been as pitiless. It just wouldn't have been Fred. "Nor were you its cause; you merely removed an impediment from the path, unknowing of what the price would be."

"Well that's going to make me sleep easier at night," Gunn said dryly. "Who was I removing this 'impediment' for?"

Would she undo her own rebirth if she told him these things, or merely stop it from happening to some other version of Fred?

Did it matter?

"Those who passed for my followers millenia after I died. They were in the employ of the Wolf, Ram and Hart, but acting on their own. Those creatures would much rather I had never been reborn."

And once again a conversation with Illryia had led to Gunn's mind breaking.

"Wolfram and Hart?" he sputtered out. "You're saying Wolfram and Hart was involved in this?"

Suddenly the deal with coming to school here sounded a lot worse than Gunn had originally thought.

"A corruption of the names by which I knew them when I was young and they were insignificant, barely powerful enough to be known as demons, let alone gods." She shook her head slightly. "They take no joy in my existence, but they cannot destroy me, so they willingly pay to keep me here. Out of their way." A simplification, but not untrue.

The words "out of their way" were now ringing in Gunn's ears and not in a good way.

Really not good.

"So you're telling me that a demon law firm sent you here to keep you out of their way?" he restated.

"Wesley sent me here to learn about humanity," she corrected, because yes, that mattered. "But the Wolf, Ram and Hart pay my way."

"The guy you thought shrunk me," Gunn said carefully. "And he's not a part of the whole demon lawyer thing?"

"He is. And is not." Stupid, confusing humans with their layers and layers of allegiances and trickery. "You and he were once their enemies, as was the woman whose body this was. A bargain was offered - the resources of Wolfram and Hart to use as they pleased, within limits - and accepted."

"And you and this Wesley guy," Gunn said looking even more grim. "How do I know you?"

Because it was rather unlikely the girl or anyone named "Wesley" would be a part of his crew.

"You worked together. Wesley, you, Cordelia Chase. Later Winifred Burkle. For the vampire Angel." With, Fred would have said, but Illyria knew the leader when she met him.

"I worked for a vampire?" Gunn asked in disbelief. "Yeah, that's all sorts of crazy."

Behind the Dorms, Tuesday Afternoon

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