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Nov. 1st, 2009 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunnydalealumThere's no question of guilt. In either case. Only of sentence.
By unspoken consensus, they discuss the three conspirators first. A brief sidebar raises the question of additional conspirators -- no one's in much doubt that at least two of the three New York-based Slayers were actively assisting in the search for Beth Lehrer, if not in the final assault -- but that's tabled for the moment, as none of them seem to have been absent from their posts that night and none of the accused have said anything to implicate them.
The possibility of a punitively dangerous assignment is raised, and quickly dropped. The most dangerous assignments are inevitably the most important ones, Giles says, and those must be assigned to Slayers we can trust absolutely. A few more options are tossed around, and the one that finally settles into place is what Xander refers to as the doghouse assignment. Drudge work at the Wells farm, under close supervision, for the foreseeable future.
Which leaves the question of what to do with Beth herself.
They've been over and over this, over the past weeks; the testimony they've heard doesn't change anything. Almost nobody likes the idea of permanent imprisonment; even fewer support the use of a geas or tabula rasa spell. And nobody is willing to come down in favor of death, even those who feel that the final alternative is too risky, or insufficiently harsh, or likely to be seen as insufficiently harsh. That last point is argued around several times, and it's Robin Wood who finally puts an end to that argument. How this will be seen will depend on how we phrase it, he says, and I think we can confidently leave that for later. The question is what would be justice.
It's giving her what she wants, Xander says. She didn't want to be a Slayer to begin with. How is making that come true any kind of a punishment?
If it's what she deserves, Wood says, we shouldn't be concerned with whether or not it's what she wants.
Oh, are we worried about people getting what they deserve now? asks Faith. Cause from where I'm sitting, that'd suck for pretty much everybody at this table. She screwed up. We've all screwed up. Some of us a lot worse.
There's a short silence.
Andrew's said his piece already. Repeating it won't do any good at this point, but maybe --
Look, the de-Slayering spell Andrew found is our best bet, insists Willow, and Andrew slowly relaxes back into his chair. She won't be a threat to us anymore, and vice versa. It gets her out of the whole deal. And maybe that's what she wants, but it's what we want too. I don't see a downside.
Willow's right, says Buffy. If the spell we have is going to work. Which, do we have final confirmation on that?
Heads turn to Ms. Harkness, who sighs. Yes.
Okay. Buffy's voice is quiet and level. Then unless anyone's got new arguments ...
No one seems to.
I'm calling the vote.
By unspoken consensus, they discuss the three conspirators first. A brief sidebar raises the question of additional conspirators -- no one's in much doubt that at least two of the three New York-based Slayers were actively assisting in the search for Beth Lehrer, if not in the final assault -- but that's tabled for the moment, as none of them seem to have been absent from their posts that night and none of the accused have said anything to implicate them.
The possibility of a punitively dangerous assignment is raised, and quickly dropped. The most dangerous assignments are inevitably the most important ones, Giles says, and those must be assigned to Slayers we can trust absolutely. A few more options are tossed around, and the one that finally settles into place is what Xander refers to as the doghouse assignment. Drudge work at the Wells farm, under close supervision, for the foreseeable future.
Which leaves the question of what to do with Beth herself.
They've been over and over this, over the past weeks; the testimony they've heard doesn't change anything. Almost nobody likes the idea of permanent imprisonment; even fewer support the use of a geas or tabula rasa spell. And nobody is willing to come down in favor of death, even those who feel that the final alternative is too risky, or insufficiently harsh, or likely to be seen as insufficiently harsh. That last point is argued around several times, and it's Robin Wood who finally puts an end to that argument. How this will be seen will depend on how we phrase it, he says, and I think we can confidently leave that for later. The question is what would be justice.
It's giving her what she wants, Xander says. She didn't want to be a Slayer to begin with. How is making that come true any kind of a punishment?
If it's what she deserves, Wood says, we shouldn't be concerned with whether or not it's what she wants.
Oh, are we worried about people getting what they deserve now? asks Faith. Cause from where I'm sitting, that'd suck for pretty much everybody at this table. She screwed up. We've all screwed up. Some of us a lot worse.
There's a short silence.
Andrew's said his piece already. Repeating it won't do any good at this point, but maybe --
Look, the de-Slayering spell Andrew found is our best bet, insists Willow, and Andrew slowly relaxes back into his chair. She won't be a threat to us anymore, and vice versa. It gets her out of the whole deal. And maybe that's what she wants, but it's what we want too. I don't see a downside.
Willow's right, says Buffy. If the spell we have is going to work. Which, do we have final confirmation on that?
Heads turn to Ms. Harkness, who sighs. Yes.
Okay. Buffy's voice is quiet and level. Then unless anyone's got new arguments ...
No one seems to.
I'm calling the vote.
