Re: FIC: Slayer Academy (1/1) - Faith/Dakota - PG

["Drake" <drake@xxxxxxx>]

From: <djgirl1978@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Nice story. Well written as always.

But I must say that it surprises me a lot. Faith and Buffy both into thr
discipline gig? They might grow into that, over time, but I find it hard to
see them starting out like that. A reason Buffy survived so long is that she
didn't go for the whole authority/discipline thing and instead did
everything her way...
Discipline only becomes important when you're dealing with groups fighting
together. Or with coordinated use of weapons/magic.
But I don't think they've progressed out of the infancy stage yet... they
still believe into sending girls with only a handful of people to help them
out against Vamps and demons. That's pretty much a sign that they don't
accept the situation yet, and still don't go for discipline, IMHO. If they
did, they'd take the next logic step, and start training Slayer Support
teams. Former soldiers, cops, perhaps priests, witches, and so on, supported
by a headquarter with extensive security measures, and a huge collection of
artifacts and research material.
Now I'm not saying they have to go that way... but insisting so much on
discipline, without doing it, seems strange.

I'd also say that the introduction is incomplete. I would add a brief
explanation of what IS above the fourth floor, plus some emergency
procedures, including secret weapon storage sites, and the location of alert
buttons. Word of the Academy will get out sooner or later, and some
Vamps/demons will attack. The fate of the council should make that much
clear.
Also, it seems you're missing at least one leader of the Academy, and one
whole group... a magic teacher, and a class of future witches, mages,
sorcerers, wizards, seers, psychics, and whatever else exists in your world.
You might even want to add a class of demons that join them. There are many
that like the world just as it is, and some would be willing to help keep it
like this, or at least help with duties around the Academy and share some of
their knowledge/wisdom with the Slayers to be. It'd also be great for them
to get used to demons before they're introduced to local informer
networks... helps them to act more naturally in that situations, and
prevents extremism like, all non-humans are bad fixations that could very
well develop during training.

Now to the ciriculum. Why French? Latin they need, but other old languages,
like Greece, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Sumerian, ... should proof much more
useful to them. Also it seems wasteful having them all learn the same
things... they're part of the Academy now. They look into different areas,
and specialize, increasing the range of knowledge the group as a whole
posseses. Nobody can know everything, at least not unless they're literally
living forever, and spend all their time learning. The training should
reflect this, and guide them down the areas they need.
And I don't know to what degree regular school stuff has to be tought.
World History? Why learn that stuff, knowing it does leave out some of the
most important events, like everything about demons, vamps, etc?
And English? Well, I don't know what you did in those classes, but I didn't
learn anything useful there.
I agree with maths and science, but I'd really question Faith's
qualification to teach those. Or the usefulness of having her waste her time
with those classes. If she wants to teach, PE and hand-to-hand seem more
here speciality.
Perhaps add classes like:
Politics: current state relations, and ways to exploit them to cover ones
tracks, ways to avoid drawing attention while traveling around the world,
ways to move in a system, tracking ones enemy without attracting attention,
...
Intelligence: Gathering information, shadowing enemies/suspects, counter
survailance, ...
Driving: what the name says, learning how to handle everything that moves.
Cars, bikes, small airplanes, helicopters, trucks, tanks (there are several
school open to the public accross the world), ... Including extreme
training, like driving through the city at 100 mph/ 160 kph without
accident, ... of course for emergencies only.
Weapons: Overview over all weapons beginning with stakes, going to the
latest military designs, including explosives and such. Improvising, using,
quality control, handling, save disposal, etc.
Computers: secure communication over the net, online research, tracking and
avoiding being tracked on the net, hacking, programing, hardware, ...
Meditation: Includes Tai Chi (sp?), meditation techniques, concentration
techniques, emotional control, and such.
Magic training: for those skilled and interested, teaching control, control,
control, the basics, control, discipline, controle, discipline, and if
there's time some actual spells and even more control and discipline.

Giving them a well rounded education would be preferable, but there might
not be time to do that. you've to teach them the necessities first, then you
can start filling the gaps. You might change the ciriculum later, once you
have a trained staff and simply train people as replacements down the road,
but the Academy doesn't have this luxerity yet. They've to make do with the
little they have, that necessiates getting Partners/Potentials/others to a
useful level ASAP. Especially what Faith can teach them... Buffy can die any
day, so she has to pass her skill on, while she still has the time for that.

Oh well, this mail is a lot longer that I thought it'd be... sorry to waste
all your time.
Drake