"Now, or after we've run through more of the new improved Slayerness as-is?"

"Not yet," he decides. "I do want to see what you've come up with on your own."

"Mostly just - well, for one thing, did you know that my self-preservation instinct was cut down to size for some reason? I didn't start wanting to throw myself in front of a train or at a demon nest, probably because I already wanted to be immortal and the change wasn't big enough to get me to regular, let alone sucidal, but it was there, which was... well. Interesting design choice. I left it mostly the way it was in the short term because I really don't need to be as concerned about injuries as I used to be - except brain damage, that's still a big deal - but I did not want that long term deathwish."

"Interesting design choice indeed," he says.

"I suppose they don't want their Slayers deciding that, no, fighting nasty bitey nightlife is scary and they'd rather take up knitting," says Bella. "This is, after all, a system that was deemed preferable to any option involving volunteers."

Sherlock snorts.

"I mean seriously. I'm not complaining - no crusty people have located me, I have not been maimed or killed, I pretty much just got gift-wrapped superpowers and a visit from a possibly divine being of some sort to tell me what was going on and this strictly beats the alternative especially as I was living in Sunnydale anyway - but I do not know what those people were thinking. Is magic just that constrained, that they didn't have a better option? Or did they like throwing teenage girls to the metaphorical wolves for some reason that appears in the DSM? Or did it seem like a really good idea at the time -" she plants a solid kick right in his chest where her previous instincts would have had her aiming a punch for his ear - "to hang the entire globe's hopes for a defender against what have to be millions of not billions of nasty bitey threats on one less than willing individual who they have additionally saddled with a deathwish?"

"Is that Mr. Giles's first name? Have you decided that I might want to introduce myself after all?" she asks, dropping into a ready stance to counter him when he comes at her again.

"I found out he has some knowledge of the occult and left him an anonymous note about the body-stealing witch, just to see what would happen. If he deals with the situation in a reasonable way, it may be worth an overture of friendship. I suggest you leave me out of it at first, however."

"Nicely handled," says Bella. "That is a good test for a potential Watcher. I can leave you out and explain how I know anything about what I'm doing solely by lies of omission and reference to the Internet and my self-hacking, that's probably a good idea."

He takes a slight bow, and then attacks again.

After about fifteen minutes, Bella says, "I think you've seen at least one instance of all the changes I've made in action. Although obviously if you had six legs or poison stingers or something they'd be manifesting differently, I don't think we should spend any time attempting to outfit you with same for a more thorough picture."

Bella indulges in a backflip to disengage, and then fusses briefly with the wisps escaping from her practical ponytailed hair and fetches her notebook from her messenger bag. She started a fresh one for this project on the expectation that she'd be handing it over. "Behold," she says grandly.

"Seriously?" laughs Bella. "I tried to tidy it up a little, since I figured I'd be showing it to you, but I generally expect the contents of my notebooks to be at least half opaque, and this one is mostly made-up words to boot."

"I also have an extensive capacity for analysis."

"Fair enough, I am likewise impressed. So. What obvious low-hanging Slayer-instinct-revision fruit did I fail to pick?" she asks, stretching this way and that in idle reaches and lunges to loosen up the tension accumulated in the fight.

"Hmm," he says, flipping through the notes. "The word that comes to mind is straightforward. Aggressive. Direct. Good for efficiently defeating anyone who is less skilled than you, or has fewer advantages; less good for an extended fight against an opponent of equal or greater ability. As you may have noticed."

"Okay." Bella flips over and balances on her hands for variety. "So I want some subtler subroutines, but that doesn't tell me what they ought to be."

"No, it doesn't," he agrees. "Do you think it would be helpful if I demonstrated what I mean?"

"Maybe." She flips onto her feet again. "Am I still defending like before or am I just letting you show me something?"

"For the purposes of this demonstration, you are a vampire who is trying very hard to kill me and I am a Slayer who is disinclined to let you."

"Trying very hard like you or trying very hard like a vampire who has already given herself away and cannot try the no-I'm-just-a-club-girl-who-wants-to-kiss-your-neck gambit?"