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Faith, Dawn, and Eva discover the aftermath of Buffy and Angel's reunion in the dojo. Faith is amused, the two younger girls are full of ew. Then the couple themselves comes down to face the rest of the Slayers. Faith takes the opportunity to return the Scythe to its rightful owner.
8/10/2016, 8:30 PM
Hyperion Hotel San Francisco
The Hyperion Hotel[]
The lights are on, illuminating the area.
The California-Spanish building known as the Hyperion Hotel was built in the 20s. Through the cast iron gates from the sidewalk is a small front courtyard with a rectangular fountain and a mythological figure holding a bowl from which water flows. Greenery frames the walls and a large set of glass double doors open into a high ceilinged lobby. Dark red carpet descends the four steps to the lobby floor and climb the two sets of stairways that lead to the second floor. The green marble floors are accented with wavy red inserts, as are the walls have a complimentary red border running their length. A set of doors identical to those of the entrance lead to a small enclosed garden.
Cream-colored pillars line two sides of the room, holding up the second-floor balconies that look out onto the lobby and creating arches. Underneath one of them is a large plate glass window that looks into the hotel office - now used as the office and nerve center of Angel Investigations. Nearby, there's a wraparound counter with dark wood paneling and a top the same color as the floor. Behind it are filing cabinets and a pair of desks pushed together. A navy blue circular couch harkening back to a 50s design sits near the back of the lobby. A large wooden, glass-doored cabinet pushed up against the wall holds a large assortment of weapons.
Outside, it's foggy and warm.
The Dojo looks much the worse for wear. The table equipment used to be kept on is split in two, right down the middle. And then there's the clothing. Haphazardly thrown in random directions. Half of them are universally dark clothing of the type Angel typically wears. The other half seems to belong to a girl on the petite side of life.
Faith Lehane is heading downstairs. "So, I was thinking today we'd work on short range stake work..." She tails off as she sees... "Oh dear."
As Eva follows Faith downstairs to prepare for training with Dawn, she is dressed in a tank top and a pair of sweatpants. She's still sporting her Hawaii tan, it hasn't faded just yet, and she's in a cheerful mood tonight. "Oh, I really need to learn how to properly stake. Yes. Definitely." However, no sooner does she enter the dojo than she looks around in wonder. "Jeez, what happened here? It looks like someone ransacked the place." Wandering over, she notices a shirt that looks suspiciously like Angel's. "What is this doing here? And look at the table," she says as she walks over to the table. "Looks like someone was really mad or something."
Following the others down the stairs, carrying her journal for some reason, Dawn says to Eva, "Yeah, staking is essential. That and chopping off heads. Unless they have some other weak spot, but for vampires it's staking and most other things you chop off the head. I hope..." She finally trails off as she looks around as well. "Okay, this is..." Then, she recognizes one of the pieces of clothes, and gags, "Oh, ew." Yep, she's figured it out.
"Oh dear. Buffy's back." Faith is managing not to laugh, especially when Dawn reacts with a typically teenaged ew..
Eva looks over to Dawn in surprise. "Ew? What is ew?" She doesn't get it, of course, not the way Dawn does. As she starts to look at the other pieces of clothing strewn around, she notices that some is distinctly not a guy's. "Um." The gears seem to be turning. Then she hears Faith mention Buffy's name and her hands fly to cover her mouth. As she drops them again she says "They didn't. They couldn't. Here? But. But we practice here. I mean... the table... and the clothes.. but... but..." Oh yes, Eva is taking this so well.
"Ew, ew, ew," Dawn continues, "Imagine that we walked in... ew!" Finally, after a moment, she calms down a bit, and she answers Eva, "Yeah, they could. It's, like, the whole reason Angel worked so hard to get cured."
"Not the whole reason, but a big part of it." Faith's shaking her head. "But they might have picked up after themselves." And the table...
Eva is blushing furiously at this point. "Ohmigawd, I can't imagine it. I can't picture it. I just can't, he's Angel. I mean sure he's warm and friendly and lovable but... but..." She shakes her head firmly. "Not gonna think about it, nope." She wasn't around at all for that whole ordeal with getting cured, but she did know about it. "I mean I know that he can... but still! We practice here! Like... it's a hotel! Hello, phrase 'get a room' mean anything?"
"Forget Angel, she's my sister," Dawn replies, when Eva says she can't picture it. "EW," she ends up saying again, and then nods quickly in agreement with Eva at her last comment.
"Angel is my best friend." And somebody she is absolutely not at all physically attracted to, but that's Faith for you. "But...he can clean *this* up himself." Amusement.
Eva looks around once more. The room is littered with clothing, apparently that of Angel and Buffy. The table has been broken and the three Slayers are all in various states of composure, Faith managing to keep it together the best while being thoroughly amused whereas Eva is alarmed and Dawn seems to be cringing at the thought of her sister /that way/. "Okay, I get that she's your sister. That would creep me out a lot if it were me." She pauses, then adds "Thank God for being an only child." She looks at Faith and says "He better clean this up. And the table!" She walks over to the table and just stares at it. "How did this happen? How does that even happen? What the heck, they broke a table. I don't even want to /know/!" she exclaims as she holds her hand out, palm outstretched, as if pushing the table and the thought out of her mind.
"Oh yeah, I'm definitely not helping clean this up," Dawn says in agreement, rather emphatically. It's then that she seems to realize that she's still holding her journal, but without a table to set it on, she turns and ends up just putting it on the floor in the corner.
And then, the Reunited Couple finally heads downstairs. Apparently they did get a room...eventually, because it's Angel's door that opens, and when he comes out, he's not at all alone! "We probably should clean that up...hope nobody found it while we were..." Occupied? Busy? F***ing each other's brains out!? But, of course, fate is not that kind to the pair, and he can hear voices. Well, prepare for endless teasing then. Angel is dressed currently in one of those white tanktops and black shorts. Apparently he didn't see fit to get dressed all the way, just enough to be decent. And yes, tanktops are one of the few white things Angel actually owns. Perhaps fitting in his current mood he didn't see fit to go all black as usual.
And the worst possible voices, too. Faith, Eva, DAWN. "Slayer. Vampire. Believe me, I've..." Faith tails off, as if remembering Dawn is present. "Never mind."
"Catching up." Trust Buffy to come up with the right term. She pushes her hair behind her ear, before she's moving down the steps with him. She's in black, his black dress shirt that's long enough to keep her modest, with a pair of workout shorts pulled as tight as possible. Feet are still bare, as she follows him back to the dojo. "I hope my cellphone is down there. I don't remember where I put it. And that it's whole."
As Angel and Buffy appear, Eva just looks in their direction. It's her first time ever meeting Buffy, having only seen her in dreams up to now. "Wow," she mutters. "What a way to meet," she whispers to the other two nearby. "Do you know we've never met? And here I am and all this and... oh my God, just oh my God." She catches what the two coming downstairs just said only barely, and as her eyes sweep the room she bites back a retort about where the cellphone might be - hidden beneath the remnants of the table or among the scattered clothing, for starters? Taking a deep breath, she looks Buffy square in the face, gives a little wave and says "Hi! It's so nice to finally meet you." Pretend like nothing's happening, Eva. You are so great at playing pretend.
Dawn, on the other hand, gets right to the point, as she looks up to the arriving couple, "You couldn't even wait until you got into a room? Right here where we practice? Ew!" Then, she adds, in a completely grudging voice, "But I guess it's about time you guys were happy."
Angel looks away a little, thoroughly embarassed and grateful vampires don't blush in that moment, or he might be doing his best fire engine impression. "We, uh, were kind of waiting for years. So my self control took a vacation." It's difficult to tell whether Angel's actually contrite or not. What happened here was a thing of beauty and he wouldn't trade it for all the world, but he really didn't intend to gross anyone else out with it. As if realizing Buffy and Eva hadn't met before, "Buffy, this is Eva, she's a junior Slayer training under Faith and I. Eva, this is Buffy, Head Slayer and owner of that Scythe Faith let you hold while she had it."
Buffy Summers offers a hand to Eva. "Nice to put a real face to the name." You never know what happens to the way a person looks in a dream. Then her gaze turns on Dawn, and while the eyebrows go up, there's no mistaking that it's a glare. That big sister, you-are-being-a-pest sort of thing.
Faith Lehane shakes her head. Then she nods. "Eva's my trainee. Oh, and the thing which belongs to you is in my room. I could...get it." Then she glances at Angel. "Apparently even curing you doesn't completely..." A wink.
Eva is still playing pretend, because... what else is she going to do? As she takes Buffy's hand, she smiles a little. "Yes, it is so nice. I've heard so many nice and good things about you. Angel makes you sound larger than life. I mean, I guess in a way you are. At least in my dreams some of the stuff you did was pretty awesome. I mean, I guess that's stuff you actually did too or I wouldn't be dreaming about it. So yeah, you're awesome." She's babbling a bit. Partly because she's still stuck in OMG mode and partly because she is awed to finally be meeting The Slayer of her generation.
Dawn answers the glare with a completely unfazed expression, more like a 'just try it' expression. Yep, this exchange of looks happens between them regularly. She looks, for a moment, like she might argue when Eva calls Buffy awesome. But, for once, she seems to decide not to annoy her sister further just yet.
Buffy Summers manages a sweet enough smile for Eva, a glance at Faith. She suddenly feels like she's being compared to a rockstar. "That's one of the first things Angel ever said to me. He said he thought I'd be taller." There's a glance up at the vampire, just a hint of a glow for a moment.
Oh, that memory. That was so long ago. The normally all broody vampire seems to be more then a little glowy in response, which is kinda weird on him, really. One never sees this particular vampire in such a good mood, really! Then again, him being in moods this good is what the Curse was designed to prevent. "Funny thing about heroes. They're only larger then life when they have to be. But the rest of the time? They're just people. People with curves and edges and vulnerabilities just like the rest of the world."
Faith Lehane laughs. "No offense, but you're one of the shorter Slayers." Faith grins at the petite blonde. "You prove we don't need size."
Eva lets Buffy's hand go and takes a few steps back. "Yeah, well, like I said it's really nice to finally meet you." At Faith and Buffy's comments about size, she pipes up and says "I'm sure there's some expression about things that come in smaller packages being... well... something good. Or surprising. Or whatever." Yep, totally babbling. But it was nice to see Angel so happy. She cared for the vampire, and seeing him in good spirits cheered her up. "So, uh, yeah. I'm training. I'm not that good at it yet, but I'm getting better!" She pauses before explaining "I kinda took an extended vacation to Hawaii and didn't practice. But I'm making up for it now, totally."
"Yeah, well, she took a big vacation once too, and things had gone kind of crazy. You're doing pretty cool now," Dawn says to Eva. "Anyway, it was kind of peaceful while you were gone, so it's cool. You made it back before the Beast showed up and started making people crazy and attacking schools and nurses."
"Well..." Faith glances at Buffy. "I should give you your scythe back. Shall we?" She'd like to chat with the blonde Slayer some. Without Angel, who's a huge distraction. The two women will head back upstairs towards Faith's room. So much for training.
Angel, meanwhile, does a bit of the cleanup. After all, with the older Slayers gone, it's just the kids left, and the kids have been confronted with the evidence that he's a man who loves a woman quite long enough. So he collects all the clothes...his and hers...and finds the missing cellphone while he's at it. It was in her pocket where she'd left it...
Eva watches as the two senior Slayers head upstairs to talk shop and for Faith to return the Scythe to Buffy. She levels an intense look on Angel. "Angel," she says in a flat tone. "Really? I mean, I wasn't going to say it in front of her but /really/?" She points at the table. Several times. "I thought someone had tried to rob the place. Vandalism or something. I was sure you'd be pissed as Hell when you saw it. Then I find out, no, wait, you're the culprit!"
Again, Dawn cringes, and says, "I'm going to call mom and tell her Buffy's home." So she can avoid thinking about it again, for a few moments. "I'll be right back."
Angel has a hard time being properly ashamed of this. In fact...he just isn't. "Eva, I hope someday you find someone you're so passionate about that you forget where you are, who might be around, and give in to everything you want." Meanwhile, he's got the clothes gathered up...and even starts neatly folding them. On the ground, because he pretty much has no choice. The table died a noble death. "Just be careful who you pick for that. When you give your heart away that completely, you won't ever get it back. Even if you try to move on...you still won't get it back."
Eva stares at Angel, not sure what to make of his statement. She finally says in a rather soft voice "Look, I'm sorry. I really am happy for you. I am. You deserve it, if anyone does." She pauses, then starts chewing on her lower lip. "But with everything I've been dealing with lately, that was a jerk thing to say to me, Angel." Her voice betrays the fact that she actually seems stung by his words. "I think what you just said is the kind of thing you don't realize until it's too late. And I don't think that's what my situation is right now, but what if it were?" She turns away partially after saying that.
"I want you to be happy, Eva. He might be the one. He might not. But if he is, you'll feel it in your heart, like a fire in your blood. Is that what you feel?" Angel pauses, "I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, here. I am concerned that the current man in your life is emotions off, prefers being that way, and is now willing to track down a Beast that's obscenely powerful in Beacon Hills because he has deduced you might succeed and make him feel again."
Eva is still looking away when she answers. "I don't know. Maybe not. Maybe it's not like that." When she hears everything else Angel says, she stares at him. "Wait. He's trying to track down the Beast? What the heck does that have to do with me?" She looks very confused. After a moment, she adds "I know you just want what's best for me, Angel. I know. But it's just very confusing right now. I'm not sure what to think of him, he's so... even before this he was kind of hard to predict. Now it's even worse." Back to the Beast. "Seriously though, what does all this Beast business Dawn was talking about have to do with me?"
"He's tracking down the Beast because it's in Beacon Hills, you're here, and if he's a 2 hour drive away, you'd have to put yourself to considerable effort to go there and find him. He's avoiding you. Hunting the Beast down is an excuse for him. That's all. As for what the Beast actually wants, I'm pretty sure the answer is something inside Dawn at this point, though we're not exactly sure what." To catch Eva up a little.
Eva blinks at all the information overload. "Wait a second. He's tracking down this thing just to get away from me? What an asshole." She seems infuriated about it, before she calms down a moment and says "What do you mean something from Dawn? Dawn's a Slayer like the rest of us, why would it want something from her? That's totally messed up. This is all messed up. I mean, I know that we're supposed to be hunting vampires and demons and whatnot, but it seems like everything is going out of whack or something." She seems vexed by the whole situation. Though most of that is probably irritation at Mikhail, truthfully.
Angel clarifies, "The Beast is actually after something called a Key. According to Lorne, it was given to a Slayer to protect. We currently think the monks were a bunch of jerks and made Dawn's heart into the Key, or something like that, because then if she doesn't protect it, she's dead. The Key itself is some kind of ball of energy that can do a lot of harm if misused."
Eva just stares at Angel. "Seriously? That is some totally intense stuff right there. This thing is basically after Dawn's heart? Oh my God." Her hand comes up to cover her mouth briefly before she adds "We have to protect her. We need to keep her safe. We can't let that happen, we cannot let this thing whatever it is get her. What can I do? How can I help?" Her voice has gotten an edge to it now, an intensity behind it that makes it seem like she is bound and determined to do what, if anything, she can.
Angel pauses again, "I didn't tell Mikhail what I've just told you. He's not quite trustworthy enough at the moment to be worth that kind of information. So don't pass it on to him." As for what Eva can do, "We'll work harder on the training. Once you're ready to patrol, we can get you out in the field. Dawn will be a little better off if she's not 'on duty' all the time. But...and I need to stress this...do NOT attempt to take the Beast on yourself. Whatever it is, we know it can punch through concrete walls. I can't ask you to face that yet."
Eva nods in understanding. "I won't tell him, I promise. I kind of agree that he isn't very trustworthy at the moment. If he ever was..." she adds with a mutter. Eva nods and salutes Angel. "I will work double duty to get up to snuff so I can help patrol. And no, I would not think of taking on something that powerful by myself. I wouldn't want to take on anything by myself right now. I just have one tiny question." She thinks a moment before asking "How exactly am I supposed to know what this thing looks like so I can not mess with it?"
Angel relays the description, "According to reports we have so far, it looks like a woman with terrible perfume called 'nookie' and very cheap red nail polish." Angel doesn't have a better description then that, as he hasn't faced it yet.
Eva sort of just stares at Angel. "Seriously? A walking fashion disaster is the Beast everyone is afraid of? Wow." She just shakes her head. "I don't know what the heck to make of that. I mean, that's a horrible cover. Like seriously. If you're going to hide out among humans, at least be classy about it. But then again, at least it will make it easier to spot her or something. Right?"
Angel halfsmiles, "Good thing beings from hell dimensions don't necessarily understand human fashion, right?" There had to be some humor in the situation.
Eva lets out a laugh. "I guess you have a point there." She frowns then as she admits "I'm nowhere near ready to patrol, you know. But I'll try to get better. It just seems like it's going to be hard to get practice in if all this stuff is going on. Maybe I should take some initiative and practice alone. Oh, except I have no clue what I'm doing," she admits with chagrin.
Angel halfsmiles, "We'll get you up to speed. So, when do you want to start? After I replace the table, at least." he gestures around at what was a mess, and is now less of one, except the table, which will have be carted out later.
Eva just closes her eyes and shakes her head. "First, I am going to go home and look at lots of pictures of kittens and puppies to try and forget what I saw here tonight. Then... then and only then can we discuss my training." Sticking her tongue out at him, she heads to the entrance. Pausing at the staircase up, she looks back and says "It's about time you were happy."