Angel smiled as he accepted a styrofoam cup from the young woman behind the counter and sniffed happily at the scent of roasted Columbian coffee inside.

"Hey, big guy!" The red head that rushed from the door and jumped on Angel caused him to dangerously slosh his coffee, but he maanged to hang onto it and turned to smile at the new arrival.

"Hey... Willow." Angel forced an awkward smile and waved them towards a table.

"Oh, yeah. Seats." Willow turned and flashed an awkward nervous smile. "Seats are good."

Scully left the Magic Box with more solid ideas than she'd had this whole case long. It was clear to her that Dawn Summers and the young man in the shop had been made nervous by her questions. Connecting their suspicious behavior to the disappearances though, was a much more complex puzzle. While she couldn't explain what had happened earlier in the day or even her own lab results, Dawn's presence in the magic shop had established where the girl got her wild ideas from. At any rate, she had the book she'd purchased tucked under her arm when she arrived at the spot she was expecting to meet her partner. To her eye, that was certainly evidence enough.

She was beginning to assemble a theory that revolved around the preservation of urban myth, not ruling out occult activity of some sort, to her experience on the X-files, that seemed quite often the case in experimenting teens. She didn't imagine whatever it was revolved completely around Ms. Summers but if she wasn't involved in some capacity Dana would find it shocking, considering she'd been so keen to fill her partner's head up with the nonsense she was sure she'd find in abundance within the book tucked under her arm.

She shifted on her feet and slid a hand up to brush the hair away from her neck, waiting on Mulder.

Things in this place were moving entirely too quickly for Spike's peace of mind. A slayer's not four months gone and already the position is filled by some short little skirt. He still well remembered how delighted he'd been when he'd discovered the slayer cycle; how he'd considered it a never ending list of worthy opponents for his never ending life. Had so much changed that a once gift could now be equally bemoaned? He boiled on it for days.

Angel's presence in town certainly didn't help. Sure he hadn't run into captain forehead just yet- but there was something about the elder vampire's swooping in to the percieved rescue that made him wonder if he hadn't been replaced just as completely as his favorite slayer had.

Sure the girl seemed alright- at least she wasn't completely daft or swayed so far as Angel's way of thinking- but the thought of the loyal doe-eyed scoobs lining up behind this new chippy burned him. Like every one of the lot had forgot the shoes this girl was filling. Spike didn't forget. Hardly. He didn't have than luxury. Buffy still buzzed in his ears, got stuck in his throat, her scent was still in places he'd almost forgot. If he thought shaking a real life Buffy was hard, he'd never imagined the task of shaking her ghost.

It was with this in mind that he was headed toward the Summers' house, intent on assailing the first scooby or whomever he came upon with his well cultivated reproach. How dare they, right? What could they be thinking? He smoked hurriedly as he walked along the darkened streets, working himself into a huff.

(open to anyone so inclined)

Samantha woke up late the next morning, her eyes opening to find herself nestled against Angel's chest, wrapped in his arms. For a moment she was still, watching him with softer eyes than were accustomed of her, indulging. Then she frowned softly and moved to squirm out of his grip.
Angel roused as she moved, tightening his arms around her waist for a moment and nuzzling the side of her face. "Mmmm. Is it morning?"

( breakfast )

When they pulled up in front of the mall she already had leaned out the window and waved at a group of teens as they moved into the building. She turned and sat in the seat, glancing across at him.
Angel sighed and put the car in park, looking back at Sam with a troubled expression on his face. "Okay. So... We're here."
She looked him over, trying to read what he wasn't saying. But as usual, Angel's cues were frustrating to pick out. "Here we are."
"Ummm," Angel looked at the steering wheel, then at the kids clustered outside the mall. Then at Sam. As much as he wanted to sit outside and wait... "damn, magic..."
She raised her eyebrows. She was unfamiliar with this reaction to the mall. "I'll try and make it quick?"
"That would be...appreciated," He told her with a half-hearted smile.

Angel got out of the car slowly, hesitantly, keeping to the line of trees that provided shade in front of the buildings. He shifted his feet and flicked his eyes over to her with an uncertain expression.
She glanced over at him, giving a half smile. "It's just a mall..."
"It's... people," Angel said, moving into Samantha's shadow.
She looked over her shoulder at him. "I've heard that this planet is covered with them."
Angel sighed. "Mores the pity. Lead on."

( Victoria's Secret )

( Read more... )

The Magic shop was Quiet...too quiet. Xander quickly squashed the thought. Long, hard experience taught him that the minute you think something like that, life gets one hundred times worse. Of course Anya would be off on a girls night out with Hallie and the Vengeance crew, and of course he got stuck taking her shift at the store.

He yoinked a book off the shelf and wandered to behind the counter. Maybe a book would pass the time...yeah right. This one at least looked like it was in English, he flipped to a random page:

Vampire pumpkins and watermelons are a folk legend from the Balkans, in southeastern Europe, described by ethnologist Tatomir Vukanović. The story is associated with the Roma people of the region, from whom much of traditional vampire folklore, among other unusual legends, originated

He scanned further down the page, ok, this was kinda amusing.

The belief in vampire fruit is similar to the belief that any inanimate object left outside during the night of a full moon will become a vampire. According to tradition, watermelons or any kind of pumpkin kept more than ten days or after Christmas will become a vampire, rolling around on the ground and growling to pester the living. People have little fear of the vampire pumpkins and melons because of the creatures' lack of teeth.

Xander actually laughed out loud at that. What was this book anyway? Weird ass Vamp legends are us? He was still snickering at the thought of killer Watermelon when he heard the door open.

"Ca-an I help you?" he managed to get out between snickers.

[[tag first to Scully I think? Then open season]]

The click of the holster button coming undone echoed through the warehouse. If Dawn had been telling the truth, and he had little doubt she was, then his service pistol was going to do him about as much good as a squirt gun should a friend of his attacker from earlier come along but it was part of his training.

Besides, it made him feel better plus it might come in handy if his partner found out he'd come back to the scene of the crime without her. That was definitely against training but it was very much him. Just as it was very much Scully to run a battery of tests in an attempt to disprove what her eyes had witnessed. Yet they worked together. They meshed, she kept him on the straight and narrow and he showed her the world lurking on the sides.

Gun in hand he peered around a stack of familiar crates. Nothing. He was sure it was right here that Dawn had saved him from a perforated jugular but the small pile of dust her act of Heroisim had left behind was no where to be seen.

Maybe it had been over by those crates?

She'd finished early that night and spent a little time at the Bronze socializing and dancing and convincing a few college guys it was a good idea to buy her a drink or two. Of course once she'd done that it meant she had to bail before that situation got to intense. She excused herself to the bathroom and breezed her way out a back door and into the night, properly buzzed and very pleased with the evening. She glimpsed him out of the corner of her eye, even when she wasn't working she was mindful of her surroundings. Hoping that it wouldn't lead to another confrontation, she kept walking.
Angel was leaning up against the brick wall outside the club. He stepped into her path as she emerged. "We need to talk."
She stopped short, her brow wrinkling. "...okay, but I'm actually having a really good night, so..."
"Look," Angel said, stopping in front of her. "You're still leaving town, right?"
She paused. Of course she didn't really know, events had changed her mind around. "...Eventually." That was true enough, right?
"Well, here," Angel pulled a small envelope out of his coat and displayed some crisp twenty dollar bills inside of it. "here is 500 dollars. I need your help with a job. A...dealer, in town. I need to show up and look around, and I need someone to come with me, someone he doesn't know, someone...that I can pass off as a...friend, make it look like a social thing. Someone who can take down a pair of vampire bodyguards if they need to."
Samantha's eyes went wide at the flash of green in Angel's hand. Five hundred was a lot to her at the moment, and he'd actually asked, which was new and different. She looked at him for a moment and nodded with a little shrug. "Alright."
"Alright?" Angel's eyebrows shot up, clearly surprised. "Really?"
She nodded. "Yeah, really. I'm not doing anything else, and it'd be fun to eat a couple times this week."


( Willy's place )


( Love Potion Number 9 )

She was dead.

The slayer was dead and gone and Spike couldn’t help but blame himself. Didn’t seem right for her to be gone she needed to be here to well do what she did; save the world. If only he could’ve stayed up there. If only he could’ve stopped the portal from opening. If only….

Those were the only thoughts that had been runnin’ though Spike’s mind since it happened. Was so bad he needed to skip town. Didn’t want to be round Sunnydale anymore, was too much like her. Sunnydale was too much of a reminder to Spike on how he failed her. He should’ve been the one to save her but he wasn’t. He was too late.

Didn’t make it too far out of town. Started to think bout her too much and what she would have wanted. Wanted him to watch after Dawn before and well he made a promise to the lady. But now he was breakin’ that promise. At first he held true to it but after Willow’s spell didn’t work bringin’ her back he just couldn’t take it anymore.

The platinum haired vampire faced the long hard choice of turnin’ round and returnin’ instead of runnin’ away. Course that was the easy thing to do but since when did Spike ever do anything the easy way. Didn’t take him long to make up his mind once more, this time he was headed back to Sunnydale.

Once he made it back he kept to himself for awhile, still not ready to face the hard truth of reality. Keepin’ to the shadows he watched over some of them, her friends. He only did it for her, only cared for the little niblet. Though he started to hear stuff bout Angel bein’ back and somethin’ bout a new slayer. Didn’t believe it much, not till he’d see it for himself.

Movin' out of his crypt the black clad vampire made his rounds of the graveyard. Somethin' he started recently. Came back to this town for a reason; to help to take Buffy's place till all was good here. And now he was goin' to start doing just that.

[ Open to anyone who wants to play ]

She was about a quarter-past impatient and wearing several unnecessary layers in the California heat was not helping the situation. The first crime scene had seemed nice and fruitful after they'd arrived at this one. Is this even a crime scene? There was no tell-tale yellow tape surrounding the area, no officials combing the scene, not even chalk marks from a crime long past. Mulder sure knew how to take the crime out of crime scene.

What she did see, looked to be an abandoned factory or warehouse; (oddly enough, Sunnydale seemed to be teeming with those) it was one level, and looking much worse for wear. It stood behind what seemed to be her partner's focal point, a monstrous steel tower that Scully would have guessed to be an oil rig, if she didn't know better. The tower was poorly constructed and less than reinforced, as if it had been built with hurried speed. The whole tower was leaning ever so slightly to the right and when she squinted up into the glaring sun, she could see a long thin platform near the top, so the entire structure could have been an ill-conceived diving board.

"Mulder, you don't think it's a little odd to be meeting your witness at the scene as opposed to...in the comfort of their home?"

Yet another day had passed. One more day of nothing. Watching. Watching what? Nothing. Sam goes to the mall. Gets coffee. Talks to men much, much too old for her. Trivial little arguments. Or so she thinks. Perhaps slipping a bugging device into the girls house would be a good idea. Fill in the conversations she could only hear half of. Without rendering her unconscious there was no way to get a wire on her.

The man in the cemetery was still proving illusive. Selene had yet to find one single hit on him. No record at all what-so-ever. Must be an inside man. Not being told about another agent on the case had put her in a terribly foul mood.

Instead of her usual cup of coffee at the same coffee shop she opted to stay in bed. To sleep in and try to forget that someone had gone over her head and put another tail on Sam. That didn’t last long. Her irritation over the situation did nothing but make her restless, so for an hour she tossed and turned before shoving off the blankets with a growl and getting up.

Slipping out of her pajamas and into something suitable to run in Selene headed out the door. Her hands worked to quickly tie her long black hair up in a pony tail. As her feet pounded against the concrete, taking her away from the hotel and towards the center of town, her hair bounced back and forth behind her. Passing by the strangers on the street they may have heard her muttering obscenities about being upstaged by a man. Should she not have been replaced by a thin blonde woman? Was that not the California way? Younger, prettier...more blonde? When she found out who he was and who was behind his assignment heads would role, literally. Or so she hoped.