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Spike reports in about Harmony...kind of.
3/9/2017 9:00 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 cool.
It's one of those boring paperwork sort of days for Angel. Faith and Buffy have the younger Slayers off somewhere, Cordy's in discussions about her TV show, and in general, nobody else is around. So, the big guy's got some time to himself, and slogs through paperwork he never wanted but is necessary for running a business.
Spike has, probably to Angel's relief, not been around the Hyperion for a while. He hasn't even been around San Francisco, he's been north in Beacon Hills and Sonoma, and maybe parts even farther north, to search for the missing, surprisingly mysterious Harmony. It's a relief, really. It's given him time away and time to himself, not to mention getting him a good word or two from Cordy straight to the accommodations manager of the Hyperion Hotel.
Namely Angel.
The doors fling open, pushed by Spike of course, who swaggers in from the evening street. "That's right, I'm back!"
Angel hears that voice. And all those memories...goddammit. Cordy kept arguing for him, and after all the peace and quiet he'd had when he was gone all that time. Peace, quiet, uninterrupted time with all the Slayers running around. Which often wasn't as quiet as advertised, but he liked it. This, though, meant the endless annoyance would return once more.
"Spike. What'd you find?" Something, he hopes, if he's coming back here.
"A little this, a little that. Not gonna lay all my cards on the table yet. But I've got a good idea of where I can find this...Harmony bird." Letting the doors swing back shut behind him, Spike strolls over towards the front desk and hops up on it, swinging his legs over and sitting casually on the office side. He swings his feet, leaning back on his hands.
It says something he hasn't knocked the cards all over the floor or anything.
"So what's new? Nothing much, I'm guessing."
"Oh, there's always things going on." Angel is vague, but but he's got the trouble with the wolves up north on his mind, among other issues like training the junior Slayers, his two best friends, and there's ALWAYS something new to discover about Buffy.
Well, since this is why Cordy's letting him stay..."Alright. Where can we find her?" Cordy wanted to see her, even if she is undead. He'll have to monitor that like a hawk. 99.9 percent of his kind were irredeemably evil after all.
Spike grins, which turns predictably smirky as he does. "You think I'm gonna tell you? No thank you, goody-two-shoes like you'd just ruin my chances." He pushes off the desk, hopping down to his feet and folding his arms, leaning against the wall next to the office doorway. "You'd like nothing more than to sweep in, do it yourself, and have an excuse to boot me out."
Sure, Spike knows he's there thanks to Angel's tolerance, but that's a thin line. Even if Angel was the one responsible for making the city much more volatile than it was before.
Tempting thought. Buffy even suggested that very idea not so long ago. It had been rolling around in the back of his head. "...Fine. Remember that wards won't let her in if she's feeling hostile or murderous. So if she wants to eat Cordy, she'll never make it in the front door."
Angel does tend to make things more volatile, but that's just the price of fighting the good fight, making the world safer, all that good stuff. Not exactly anything keeping him up during the day.
"I may *play* the fool," Spike answers, "but I'm not *just* a pretty face. Course I know that." He glances around the place, and not just with his eyes. They really are alone, and that makes Spike a little more comfortable. Not having to perform exactly, for anyone but Angel. And they have a different sort of history. "So, anything else, mon capitan, or shall I start the unavoidable wave of text messages to our Cordelia?"
"Knock yourself out." Literally, with any luck. Probably won't with just text messages though. "Anything you plan on doing with yourself besides annoying me?" Because that's what tends to happen most frequently around here. "You can't just be here to hide. There's more to you than that." Angel tries to get more work done, such as it is...
Spike rolls his eyes briefly, pushing off the wall and letting his hands swing down to his sides and back, patting the wall he'd just pushed from. "You should be so lucky." Then he produces a phone -- yes, a smart phone and everything! -- and starts tapping out the messages to Cordelia. They're not really incredibly useful, but it's at least some update on the Harmony situation. "Nice of you to admit it," he answers. "More to you than just being a paper-pusher, but I figure you know what you're doing."
"You have plans, you just don't usually have the patience to follow through. Get bored a little too easily." Angel seems to be speaking from endless experience on this one! And many lessons learned the hard way. "Downside to running a business. Lots of things that I'd rather not be doing. But they've gotta be done." After all, it's the money from this investigation stuff that keeps people gainfully employed and happy and earning money and so on.
It's true. Spike has to admit that. He rolls his shoulders casually, to acknowledge that Angel has a good point. Another series of taps on the smart phone, and then the message is sent. He tucks his phone away again and -- just as stated -- becomes quickly bored, gravitating over to Angel and looking over his shoulder at the papers he's busied himself with.
"I'm just saying, Will, that a spell to perhaps increase my chances for a raise or a really hot coffee date could be seen by some, some who are rather close to you I might add, as actually beneficial and for the greater good!" Xander is walking backwards out of the kitchen of the hotel, pleading his case to the Angel Investigations resident witch.
For her part, Willow simply rolls her eyes as she walks into the room. "For the last time, Xander, no! And if you ask again, I'll turn your nose into a weasel!"
Faith Lehane comes out of her room, sees Spike, and sighs. "Spike." He's...well, Spike. Not welcome here, but not precisely UNwelcome either. Faith isn't going to ask him to leave, but she's not...well. It's Spike. And then Xander. She...twitches her lips, never quite comfortable with him. For obvious reasons.
Faith and Willow are welcome sights, and get a halfsmile from the all broody one. Xander decidedly less so. He's none too sure if the boy ever found peace with the decision his best friend decided to make regarding the claddagh ring on her left ring finger. Well, if he had hostile intent, he wouldn't be able to enter, so at least he's not planning a staking.
"No, Xander, those things aren't for the greater good. Willow's grown beyond that kind of thing." Hopefully he would too. One of these centuries.
"Oh good, I was hoping we wouldn't be left alone for long." The dry sarcasm ironically drips from Spike's words as he's alerted to Xander's presence...and then Faith's. Willow's there, and he's pretty sure she at least doesn't have enough of a problem with him to act on it. But he's pretty sure that if he's annoyed her enough for her to actually do something, then he's really made a herculean effort. And he's just as sure he hasn't done that.
Faith, at least, gets a begrudging modicum of respect. Even if she's gone a little soft. But given the wards on the hotel, they're all a little soft at the moment.
Spike snatches up a piece of paper from the desk, looking it over and immediately getting a glazy look in his eyes. With a sneer, he tosses it back down, as if he'd touched something coated in holy water. How the hell does Angel manage to muscle through this drudgery?! He must lead with his forehead; that's the only possibility.
Xander stops in his tracks at Willow's threat, going cross-eyed as he stares down at his nose while he tries to figure out exactly what having a weasel for a nose would look like. "Is it a bad sign that I am tempted to keep pushing on the matter to find out what that's like?" He looks over to the pair of vampires and nods his chin in their direction. While he is not making any plans on staking the head of Angel Investigations, he makes no secret about the fact that he would shed no tears if Angel were to become a pile of dust.
Willow smiles to Angel when she sees him as she walks in, saying nothing in response to his belief that she has grown above such things. If he knew what spell she was working on at the moment, he'd likely be the first to tell her it was a huge mistake. She offers a waggle of fingers to Faith and then turns to Spike, canting her head to the side. "Bringing us work? Work that pays?"
Only a little. Faith's still Faith. "Spike brought work?" Now, that makes him a rather more welcome visitor, in Faith's mind. He's still a vampire, and still one that she doesn't trust...but he often oscillates his way to somewhere close to on their side. There's evil and evil, perhaps.
Angel gets through it because he's not really doing it for himself. It's all for the people he helps, every day. And the people who are employed under his watch, the business itself, making sure money keeps flowing so everyone around him can enjoy their lives, and other such deeds of self sacrifice like that. "More like he's working for Cordy trying to find Harmony. Who may or may not be undead now. He's still looking into that. I'm pretty sure she got bit at Graduation..." So if she's kicking, she's undead.
"Oh, there's money in it. Not that you lot are exactly needing for it, much." Spike flashes a wide, thin smile, but just for an instant before he shoves his hands into the shallow pockets of his pants. Which, like most of his clothes, have seen better days. Probably some time ago. "Always an angle." Must restrain from thinking nasty thoughts about Xander. Must restrain. Cannot let those wards kick in.
Xander snorts at the thought of Harmony as a vampire. "Have you tried looking at the beach? I'm pretty sure she might have tried working on her tan and is part of it now."
Willow's brows raise in concern. Harmony. As a vampire. She takes a deep breath, letting it out with a muttered "Ho boy." With a purse of her lips, she considers. "Sadly, San Francisco is too big and too filled with all manner of demons for my usual spell to help find her."
Faith Lehane winces. "We'll find out." A glance between the two. "But I have to go deal with..." She sighs. "Trainees." A roll of her eyes and then she's heading out of the hotel, not passing too close to Spike on the way.
Spike frowns visibly, shooting a glare in Xander's direction. "Have you tried just once thinking before you open that gaping black hole of animal noises--no. No, I'm..." A glance is afforded to Faith's passing by, and he gives her the wide berth he knows she wants. Once she's stepped out, he simply opens the office door and steps out into the lobby, walking for the front himself. "I'm with her. Except no trainees." Unless he has to train Harmony. And if he does, no one had better complain!
Even though he's sure someone inevitably will.
Angel halfsmiles about the trainees. Eva and Harper always had some interesting things going on between the pair of them. And then Spike's wandering off. Well, that's less annoyance for him. "Cordy wanted to find Harmony so much..." Well, he could've done without that. Nonetheless it has to do what's to be done. "I'm not sure it's a great idea to find her, but Cordy wants that..."
Willow watches as first Faith and then Spike leave. "So Harmony is a vampire now? That awful!"
"Yeah!" pipes in Xander, not the least bit phased by Captain Peroxide's outburst. "Can you imagine the hell she must be going through? I mean, think of it, Will! No reflection? That has to be killing her!"
Willow doesn't give Xander the satisfaction of an answer other then to smirk and roll her eyes to the ceiling. "Well, I'm going back to my lab in the kitchen. I'm working on a huge spell that is going to save us all a *tonne* of work."