![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedibuttercupT; B:tVS/Grimm. 1100 words. For ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
twistedshorts; follow-up to Quis Custodiet.
"Okay, I'll bite. A grim what?" Buffy said, frowning at the young, determined-looking guy with the badge who'd knocked on the door.
Title: Aut Consilio Aut Ense
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not.
Rating: T/PG-13
Spoilers: Post-canon for Buffy; nebulous early seasons for Grimm
Notes: Mining more old August fic for inspiration! This one's a follow up to 2012's Quis Custodiet. Title supposedly translates as, "Either by meeting or the sword".
"Okay, I'll bite. A grim what?" Buffy said, frowning at the young, determined-looking guy with the badge who'd knocked on the door. 1100 words.
"Okay, I'll bite. A grim what?" Buffy said, frowning at the young, determined-looking guy with the badge who'd knocked on the door.
The cop did have the whole blue-eyed, dark-haired, apparent secret identity thing going on, like an efficiency-sized Clark Kent. But she wasn't baffled enough by the pretty to spill the beans at the repeated demand to know what she and Kennedy had been doing chasing a 'Klaustreich'. They had run into a half-demon with a catlike face the day before; they hadn't recognized the species, so since the girl he'd been perving on wasn't hurt they'd gone for deter rather than destroy until they could look it up. Maybe that term was a clue? Detective Burkhardt obviously wasn't a Slayer though, and seemed confused about what they were doing, which made her wary.
His eyebrows lifted, and he looked as taken aback as she felt. "Just-- a grim. You know. One of a line of guardians sworn to keep the balance between humanity and mythological creatures? I thought all wesen knew the term."
The word 'wesen' Buffy was actually familiar with; she'd heard it from some of the German-speaking younger Slayers, who said it meant 'being' or 'creature'. It had become popular slang in the European Council for low-threat demons, like half-bloods and newly raised vamps. Weird that he'd know it, though. And she still didn't get the grim thing either, unless...
"You mean Grimm with two m's? Like the fairytales? But I thought you said your name was Burkhardt." Buffy widened her eyes. Yeah, she could still do blonde and clueless with the best of them, even nearly a decade after the collapse of the Sunnydale Hellmouth.
Strangely, though, it didn't seem to work on him. The detective's expression went oddly flat-- and did his eyes look weirdly dark? "Very funny. Can we dispense with the games? I just want to know what you're doing here, and whether you're planning to stick around."
Suddenly, he did vibe very much like a Slayer, or a demon, or maybe something in-between. The part of her gut that usually cramped in the presence of evil and had been ambivalent at the appearance of Kendra, usually relegated to background noise now, twanged like an out-of-tune piano. It made her feel vaguely nauseous-- and even warier than before.
Had Buffy trespassed on the hunting ground of some other species that policed the supernatural world? She'd never run into anything like that in Los Angeles or Sunnydale, but Willow had told her there were cities where supernatural incident reporting was weirdly low; they showed up on the runic maps she cast as oddly intense little pools of magical energy, but the mundane news could not be more free of any mention thereof, not at all demony, no sir. And those locations corresponded surprisingly well with the gaps in the old Council's records representing areas where a Slayer somehow never needed to go.
Not until now, at least. Former Potentials, now Slayers, that came from such areas often reported feeling watched in their hometowns, but very seldom had any actual demon encounters to report until they left and joined one of the Council teams. Come to think of it-- a lot of the German-speaking ones had come from areas like that? Portland had been especially bright on the maps lately, though, so she and Kennedy had chosen it as the first location to investigate based on Willow's research.
At first, everything had been just as quiet as the younger Slayers had reported; but then they'd started noticing a sort of background low-level tingle spread through the city. It was ambient enough that they couldn't be sure whether it was from the people, or something under the land itself. They'd been wondering if they might be dealing with some new kind of from beneath you, it devours situation; if so, the DEFCON level of the whole area was about to go way up.
But then they'd run into a mundane-seeming girl being menaced by a mundane-seeming guy, responded to the situation like equally mundane-seeming women-- and the minute the dude laid eyes on them, his face changed, like a hissing, spitting cat. The shift had raised the tingle-level to a full itch before he'd run away. And now there was this guy.
She let her own expression smooth out, Slayer General coming to the fore. "They call me the Slayer; and I'm actually here to make sure we don't need to stick around."
"This city is already claimed," Burkhardt replied, firmly. His eyes looked even darker now; she could almost see the reflection of the ancient Slayer she'd met in her visions in them, which seemed weirdly apropos. "The last thing we need is someone indiscriminately preying on our population."
"Excuse you?" she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Discrimination-free here; that's kind of a rude thing to assume."
He scoffed. "Not according to the records I've seen."
"Wait. You have records of us?" Even if he hadn't recognized her, it sounded like he did recognize the old Council's operational methods, and that suggested a much more fruitful line of inquiry than all this posturing. "Well, I guess with a title like Grimm it makes sense that you'd have old musty book guys. Maybe you should put them in touch with our old musty book guys before anyone makes any more faux pas? Because this? Not with the helping." She waved at the air between them.
Burkhardt watched the gesture guardedly. "And in the meantime, you'll leave the city?"
Of course he'd ask that; but Buffy wasn't inclined to grant the wish. For one thing, they'd only just got there. For another....
"I've heard about the local food scene," she replied, giving him a skeptical look. "You really want me to leave hungry and displeased? If it makes you feel any better, I will swear not to Slay anyone while I'm in Portland, unless they attack us first."
"I guess that'll have to do," he said, long-sufferingly; then he produced a card with his name and contact information. "Don't make me regret accepting that promise."
She saluted him wryly with the card, then slammed the hotel door in his face and went looking for her phone to call Willow.
This might not be the level of trouble they'd been braced for-- but it did look like something very interesting was going on. Something definitely worthy of a deeper look. And for a territorial defender, Burkhardt wasn't at all difficult to look at.
No, Buffy didn't think she'd be leaving the city again anytime soon.
(x-posted on twistedshorts and on AO3)
twistedshorts; follow-up to Quis Custodiet."Okay, I'll bite. A grim what?" Buffy said, frowning at the young, determined-looking guy with the badge who'd knocked on the door.
Title: Aut Consilio Aut Ense
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not.
Rating: T/PG-13
Spoilers: Post-canon for Buffy; nebulous early seasons for Grimm
Notes: Mining more old August fic for inspiration! This one's a follow up to 2012's Quis Custodiet. Title supposedly translates as, "Either by meeting or the sword".
"Okay, I'll bite. A grim what?" Buffy said, frowning at the young, determined-looking guy with the badge who'd knocked on the door. 1100 words.
"Okay, I'll bite. A grim what?" Buffy said, frowning at the young, determined-looking guy with the badge who'd knocked on the door.
The cop did have the whole blue-eyed, dark-haired, apparent secret identity thing going on, like an efficiency-sized Clark Kent. But she wasn't baffled enough by the pretty to spill the beans at the repeated demand to know what she and Kennedy had been doing chasing a 'Klaustreich'. They had run into a half-demon with a catlike face the day before; they hadn't recognized the species, so since the girl he'd been perving on wasn't hurt they'd gone for deter rather than destroy until they could look it up. Maybe that term was a clue? Detective Burkhardt obviously wasn't a Slayer though, and seemed confused about what they were doing, which made her wary.
His eyebrows lifted, and he looked as taken aback as she felt. "Just-- a grim. You know. One of a line of guardians sworn to keep the balance between humanity and mythological creatures? I thought all wesen knew the term."
The word 'wesen' Buffy was actually familiar with; she'd heard it from some of the German-speaking younger Slayers, who said it meant 'being' or 'creature'. It had become popular slang in the European Council for low-threat demons, like half-bloods and newly raised vamps. Weird that he'd know it, though. And she still didn't get the grim thing either, unless...
"You mean Grimm with two m's? Like the fairytales? But I thought you said your name was Burkhardt." Buffy widened her eyes. Yeah, she could still do blonde and clueless with the best of them, even nearly a decade after the collapse of the Sunnydale Hellmouth.
Strangely, though, it didn't seem to work on him. The detective's expression went oddly flat-- and did his eyes look weirdly dark? "Very funny. Can we dispense with the games? I just want to know what you're doing here, and whether you're planning to stick around."
Suddenly, he did vibe very much like a Slayer, or a demon, or maybe something in-between. The part of her gut that usually cramped in the presence of evil and had been ambivalent at the appearance of Kendra, usually relegated to background noise now, twanged like an out-of-tune piano. It made her feel vaguely nauseous-- and even warier than before.
Had Buffy trespassed on the hunting ground of some other species that policed the supernatural world? She'd never run into anything like that in Los Angeles or Sunnydale, but Willow had told her there were cities where supernatural incident reporting was weirdly low; they showed up on the runic maps she cast as oddly intense little pools of magical energy, but the mundane news could not be more free of any mention thereof, not at all demony, no sir. And those locations corresponded surprisingly well with the gaps in the old Council's records representing areas where a Slayer somehow never needed to go.
Not until now, at least. Former Potentials, now Slayers, that came from such areas often reported feeling watched in their hometowns, but very seldom had any actual demon encounters to report until they left and joined one of the Council teams. Come to think of it-- a lot of the German-speaking ones had come from areas like that? Portland had been especially bright on the maps lately, though, so she and Kennedy had chosen it as the first location to investigate based on Willow's research.
At first, everything had been just as quiet as the younger Slayers had reported; but then they'd started noticing a sort of background low-level tingle spread through the city. It was ambient enough that they couldn't be sure whether it was from the people, or something under the land itself. They'd been wondering if they might be dealing with some new kind of from beneath you, it devours situation; if so, the DEFCON level of the whole area was about to go way up.
But then they'd run into a mundane-seeming girl being menaced by a mundane-seeming guy, responded to the situation like equally mundane-seeming women-- and the minute the dude laid eyes on them, his face changed, like a hissing, spitting cat. The shift had raised the tingle-level to a full itch before he'd run away. And now there was this guy.
She let her own expression smooth out, Slayer General coming to the fore. "They call me the Slayer; and I'm actually here to make sure we don't need to stick around."
"This city is already claimed," Burkhardt replied, firmly. His eyes looked even darker now; she could almost see the reflection of the ancient Slayer she'd met in her visions in them, which seemed weirdly apropos. "The last thing we need is someone indiscriminately preying on our population."
"Excuse you?" she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Discrimination-free here; that's kind of a rude thing to assume."
He scoffed. "Not according to the records I've seen."
"Wait. You have records of us?" Even if he hadn't recognized her, it sounded like he did recognize the old Council's operational methods, and that suggested a much more fruitful line of inquiry than all this posturing. "Well, I guess with a title like Grimm it makes sense that you'd have old musty book guys. Maybe you should put them in touch with our old musty book guys before anyone makes any more faux pas? Because this? Not with the helping." She waved at the air between them.
Burkhardt watched the gesture guardedly. "And in the meantime, you'll leave the city?"
Of course he'd ask that; but Buffy wasn't inclined to grant the wish. For one thing, they'd only just got there. For another....
"I've heard about the local food scene," she replied, giving him a skeptical look. "You really want me to leave hungry and displeased? If it makes you feel any better, I will swear not to Slay anyone while I'm in Portland, unless they attack us first."
"I guess that'll have to do," he said, long-sufferingly; then he produced a card with his name and contact information. "Don't make me regret accepting that promise."
She saluted him wryly with the card, then slammed the hotel door in his face and went looking for her phone to call Willow.
This might not be the level of trouble they'd been braced for-- but it did look like something very interesting was going on. Something definitely worthy of a deeper look. And for a territorial defender, Burkhardt wasn't at all difficult to look at.
No, Buffy didn't think she'd be leaving the city again anytime soon.
(x-posted on twistedshorts and on AO3)
