✿5 [Action]

[redstringed]

*It's night-time, and outside of Building 6 there is a young-looking gothic lolita vampire and a bed of roses.

Rachel, in an attempt to not get dirty while planting a garden, has been attempting to do the entire thing with spatial manipulation - you might see the dirt itself shift around the roses if you looked long enough. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be going well for her, and the rose "garden" is lopsided and mismatched, and the roses don't look healthy. They're wilting a bit.

And because of this, Rachel is looking all the more irritated and frustrated.

Clearly this is the best time to bother her.*

Comments

[redstringed]

I do enjoy a good game now and then, you understand.

As I said, it is the influence of matter and space on its base material level.

[consultmybooks]

Sounds quite powerful.

[redstringed]

Oh, it is. *She gives a little twirl of her parasol, and - for just a moment - the edges seem to be... spiked? But then they return to normal a heartbeat later.* Naturally, spatial manipulation and spatial transfer are two sides of a single coin.

[consultmybooks]

[Did Giles really just see that? He's...not so sure. Probably, though]

Go on.

[redstringed]

No, I don't believe I will. *A smile.* I did say I enjoyed a game, did I not?

You are not unintelligent, for a human. I'm sure you could extrapolate the meaning from my words.

[consultmybooks]

Oh, I certainly can.

But you're the first person with this power that I've ever encountered. So I thought you'd be a good place to start.

[redstringed]

First, and almost certainly only. It starts and ends with me.

[consultmybooks]

Fascinating.

[...] Just how old are you, Rachel?

[redstringed]

Have you never learned not to ask that question of a lady? My, how rude. *Though she doesn't seem genuinely upset by it.*

By our standards, I am still quite physically young. *This is, of course, not counting the 100-year time loop that she experienced for 750+ repetitions.*

[consultmybooks]

You laughed at Dracula for being six hundred.

What are your "standards"?

[redstringed]

As I said, my father was well over a thousand years old when he died. Six hundred would hardly qualify as middle-aged.

[consultmybooks]

Well over a thousand?

Yes, I would call that old.

[redstringed]

You should, for it is.

I have not yet seen two hundred years pass. I will tell you that much.

[consultmybooks]

Really?

Most of the vampires I've met who are that young aren't half the conversationalists you are.

[redstringed]

I may be young for my kind, Mr. Watcher, but I would certainly hope that I would be more refined than one of those mongrels, no matter my age.

[consultmybooks]

You might be about the same age as Spike.

[redstringed]

Physically, yes. I might.

[consultmybooks]

Yes, I've already gathered that mentally you're by far and away older.

[redstringed]

From all you've told me, he sounds like he has the mentality of a particularly dim-witted child.

[consultmybooks]

Right up until the point where there's some disgusting havoc to be caused?

That phrase is an insult to dim-witted children.

[redstringed]

*She gives a short little laugh.* Ha! That, I will grant you.

I imagine you cannot possibly fathom what the Slayer sees in him, can you?

[consultmybooks]

[Giles frowns at this, and actually has to take a seat and think about his reply before he writes it out]

There are, unfortunately, a few deeply unfortunate similarities between Spike and her previous romantic interest. Namely, they're both vampires with souls. However, Spike and Angel are about as disparate from one another as it's possible to be.

And that might be the answer to your question.

[redstringed]

Hmm. At least you have a far more thoughtful approach to the matter than your young friend.

A fool, then, who busies herself with something she'll regret to drive away memories?

[consultmybooks]

That's the opinion I have of the situation, yes.

But who knows what's happened since? They both have years on me, and they certainly won't tell me everything.

[redstringed]

Ah, yes, the wrinkles and tears in time. They can be quite frustrating, I imagine.

Romance is such a silly little concept. It makes gibbering idiots of even the most intelligent of mortals.