a new world hangs outside the window
beautiful and strange
it must be I've fallen awake
I must be

Clearly, Gia was no good at social cues. She watched as Alistair's nervous facade deflated into something much more annoyed. This kind of mockery would annoy literally anyone but still, the skinny dark hunter was surprised to see the young man's glum reaction. She felt a ting of guilt wash over her. She hardly wanted to make him feel bad, even if her pointed words suggested otherwise. She was just... a little rough around the edges and this was her harebrained attempt at being friendly. Buffy didn't know how to play nice. So when the young hunter quipped back at her with a more appropriate phrasing to describe his hunter status, she tried her best to wipe the silly smirk from her lips and nodded in agreement.

"Sorry." She grumbled. The fact that she muttered an apology at all was genuine enough, but not easily inferred by those who didn't know her... which in retrospect was nearly everyone. "Seriously. I'm sorry." She tried again.

When the connection to the 90s television show was revealed, Buffy rolled her brown eyes with exaggeration, her hand still held out stiffly in greeting. It was a tired remark, one she'd grown used to over the years. Gia hadn't settled on the nickname herself, of course. It was a moniker that Leslie gave her years ago and it stuck. Her mother even began calling her by it, toward the end of her life. That bond to her mother and sister is what made it important to her. And so, she grimaced at those who chose to make fun of it along the way, knowing in her heart it meant more to her than strangers would ever come to realize. "Something like that." She spat back in response.

Gia nodded again when the man introduced himself so formally by first and last name. She nodded again as they briefly shook hands, before her arm came to fall with a thud against her side. "Well, good luck to you Alistair Rosenthal." She said, raising a stiff palm to her forehead to offer a goofy salute. "Could I buy you a beer or something? To be nice?"

GIA BUFFY JONES