#bvsummer

BV Summer Event | @iwannadogirlystuff​

                Jace wasn't in a particularly aggressive mood, until he was jumped in an alley not far from the festival in the center of town. Almost midnight and they haven't stopped with the fireworks, the patriotic country music. It's not a life he understands, and he doesn't really care, if he's being honest. All he cares about is whatever the hell it is that's beating the living tar out of him, right now.

"What do you want?" one ability that's served him well? Managing to sound calm when he's anything but. Sure as hell doesn't look it, though. Bruised jaw, hair flopping down over his eyes. He's only barely dodging every other punch, and the kicks are coming out of nowhere. It's too dark to see, and he'd say he's got a rune for that but whatever the hell it is that's attacking him knocked his stele out of his hand early in the fight.

          It's summertime! The army that protects Lebanon, and the world, has been working overtime and with good reason. Something is breathing a spark of life back into the underworld and Hellmouths all over the planet are springing back to life.

Plenty to worry about, but all work and no play makes for exhausted, depressed hunters. We need our heroes peppy! And, what better chance to reinvigorate your muse than a little good, old-fashioned American summer fun? Especially with a good excuse! You see, crowds and beer, bonfires and good food? These things attract the supernatural. Vampires, werewolves, demons. Someone has to keep watch so our locals don't find themselves on the business end of a pair of fangs.

So, your mission is to use the want to keep the mundanes safe as an excuse to go out and have a good time. Some things you can do while totally helping the helpless include:

The 4th of July Event | Town Square | 6am - midnight: With vendors selling everything from cheap jewelry and weapons, to sno cones and cotton candy. This is always kicked off by the 4th of July parade. Not a parade in the strictest sense, more like the 4-H club on a horse-drawn wagon, followed by all manner of tractors, the latest corrupt dummy to run for Mayor and, of course, the Shriners.

The Buckshot Ranch 4th BBQ | Lovewell Reservoir | 10am - midnight: About 45 minutes from Lebanon via KS-14 S and US-36 W, Lovewell Reservoirs beautiful campground will host the 34th annual Buckshot Ranch 4th of July BBQ. Feel free to bring some tater salad, there's never enough. Free food, live band & an outdoor dance floor as well as swimming. A bonfire and fireworks after sundown. $5 per person, all you can eat. Beer ain't free.

Follies Travelling Carnival | BJ's Parking Lot | 24/7: The Follies Carnival is in Lebanon for Independence Day! Featuring rides, games, a tunnel of love and anything fried that you can shove on a stick. Win your sweetheart a stuffed animal! $25 per person, $35 for couples. Kids under 11 are free. No firearms, please.

BV Summer Event | @samattheend

      "I'm not saying I don't want 'em here," even on a cake mission, patrolling some stupid hicktown BBQ where a hillbilly with a hotdog cramp is likely to be the biggest emergency of the night, there's shop talk. Always shop talk, but at least this is an interesting subject, "It's just we got other problems, don't need to babysit."

Why is it that when some fresh hell rears it's ugly head in the world, it's Lebanon the white hats flock to for help? Like they've been any help at all.

So, Buffy knows what you’re thinking. Throw her and Angel together and all you’ll be witnessing is a little holiday play instead of a little holiday slay, right? Wrong. They’re here, they’re together (in a strict side-by-side sense), and to all the haters who after all these years still think they’re just helpless slaves to passion (she’s looking at you, Xander), well...

Cut to a shot of her and Angel having a steamy makeout session underneath a street headlight.

You’d be absolutely right.

Between smooches, “You know, as much as I...” She locks them into a passionate kiss for a few seconds more, “I mean, this really isn’t hunting in the classical —-“ and again, “We should probably —-“ and again... “Okay, time-out!”

Ahem. Woo. It’s been a long time since Buffy’s allowed herself to get worked up like that. She clears her throat as they resume walking, awkwardly gazing around the same street they’ve been parked at for almost ten minutes now. Woo, again, “See anything?”

BV Summer Event | @iwannadogirlystuff

              "So, this is what sober hicks do for fun?" Faith's not quiet, and not blending in. Leather pants and a denim jacket in 90-degree weather, taking her sweet time in passing yet another tented vendor selling the same old crap everyone's selling. Her fingertips gently skim the ugly pendants on cheap necklaces that hang from it's display racks, but there's nothing that interests her, "Hard pass."

They start through the crowded street. More people than Faith ever sees in Lebanon and she's got to assume this is another tri-county event. Almost disorienting. She’s not used to being awake so early, either, so that’s not helping.

BV Summer Event | @bloodintolerant

         Simon's in Lebanon because he has to be, or that's what he tells himself. Because there's Clave business and that's more important than steering clear of the corrupting power of a the oldest active Hellmouth in the world. It's stronger than the Hellmouth in Brooklyn, and with fewer baddies to feed off that power, it's like a white hot beacon to the undead. As much as he tries to keep his head on straight, to stay calm and gentle and live as human a life as he can, Simon's still a vampire.

Like the lure of all that supernatural energy isn't bad enough, when he rolled into Lebanon that morning with Jace and the Lightwoods, the town was in the middle of an all-out shindig. Catnip for a vampire. Crowds, sweaty bodies with hearts that pound so strong, the beat gets stuck in your head. In your teeth.

                   He's not going to hurt anyone. He's not like that, never was, but he’s made the mistake of getting too close to the Follies carnival. With it's whirring lights, it's calliope music. Cotton candy and popcorn on the damn wind and, frankly, he's weak. No, he won't hurt anyone, but no one would judge him harshly for wanting to be in the thick of it all. Pretending to be a real vampire, even if it's just for the night.

    So, he's a little distracted. A little bit in his own head, drunk on the atmosphere and going through the motions of a hunt he has no plans to go through with when something in his peripherals catches his eye. Just a kid by himself, watching the fun and mayhem from the business end of the ticket booth, and then he's gone. If Simon were smart, he'd leave it alone but he can't, because there's something in the back of his mind that's nagging him to abandon that faux hunt and make sure that child's alright.

BV summer event: @samattheend

Humans are weird. That’s the one thought that seems to keep making a comeback to the forefront of Jedi’s mind. She can’t explain it why. Well, no, she can really. The fact that this is something that humans do on a yearly basis, for some reason? It’s weird. Especially this date. Why this date? Why not any other date?

Of course, Xander’s explained why and what the 4th of July is all about. But it’s still something that she’s confused about. Perhaps she’s just not smart enough to understand any of this? Things were different in the pack. This kind of thing didn’t get celebrated in the slightest.

Especially the fact that humans seem to dance around each other and not say what they mean. She can see it happening now. They are doing their mating dance. Probably brought on by the alcohol they seem to be fond of consuming. She can hear the conversations erupting around her, the awkward attempts at making their intentions known to one another. The territorial behavior between men vying for the same girl’s attention. And the reverse too, women getting jealous of their men paying attention to other women. The strangest thing is that they’re not allowed to fight it out among each other for some reason. In the pack? A dispute like this would’ve been settled by claws and teeth already.

Humans are weird. Period.

She shakes her head to herself, watching all this strange human drama unfold from her tree branch perch. She’s leaning back against the trunk, one foot resting up on the branch while the other is dangling down. She’s attracting stares. She can tell the humans are wondering why she’s sitting up on the tree branch rather than mingling. Or perhaps they’re just staring because she dropped her shoes onto the ground below after perching up there.

She’s just watching. Observing. Trying to see what humans are like beyond their weird mating dances. It’s not like she’s got anything else to do with Xander wandering off to do his own thing for a while.

All the while, she’s trying not to feel completely out of place. Trying not to feel like people don’t want her around.

It had been a while since Willow had been to any sort of carnival. But so far she was having a good time. She grinned at worker that handed her the mass of funnel cake piled onto a doubled up paper plate, slipping a five into the tip jar before walking away to survey the rest of the offerings.