History Repeats Itself.

[knowmypurpose]

Of all the things in her life that might repeat themselves, being enslaved in some weird new world was not one she expected to ever go through again. More and more, this whole experience felt like Pylea 2: Now With More Furries

Comments

It's totally alright!

[knowmypurpose]

Cordelia was coming back to her cabin after having spent the day out and about in the barracks. She had run into a few people from her group, and it was good to see none of them had been actually enslaves by those crazy giant animals. There was at least that to be glad about, if nothing else.

Even running into Spike hadn't been that bad. Not her idea of a good time, but at least she hadn't had to fear for her life or anything like that, so that was a plus. She was never going to get over him having a soul or being involved with Buffy. Was he just trying to copy Angel's life or what? It was weird.

She paused in her steps as she noticed the door to her cabin open. Well, that wasn't how she had left it at all. She cautiously made her way toward the door, calling out. "Who's there? If you think I'm going to become some victim out of some cheesy horror movie or something, you got another thing comi-"

But then, as she began to enter through the doorway, she realized who it was and stopped mid-sentence. It was Angel. She broke out in a bright smile before throwing her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. "You scared the crap out of me," She murmured, not really that annoyed at all anymore. "But it's good to see you, Champ."

[leon]

Hugging. Admittedly, it wasn't the reaction that he had expected, but he wasn't about to complain. Hugging was good--if not a little awkward. It meant that Cordelia hadn't been harmed before he had the chance to find her. The awkward was more due to the fact that he was only wearing a pair of pants than anything else. Now that he was sure that she was okay, his second order of business would definitely have to be finding some clothes to wear.

"Yeah, sorry about that," he began, reluctantly returning the embrace once he was no longer rigid. This whole having friends thing was something he was still not entirely used to. It was actually kind of nice... Well, it would have been had he not currently been covered in bruises a burns left over from the first two trials that he had undertaken to save Darla's life. Angel had almost forgotten how injured he was until Cordelia's hug reminded him all over again.

"Cordelia..." He spoke up after another moment had passed. He didn't exactly want to tell her to get off of him, so he was hoping that she would pick up on as much on her own.

[knowmypurpose]

It was only until about halfway through the hug that Cordelia fully registered the fact that he had no shirt on. Whoops. Well, if needed to find clothing later, Cordelia would be more than happy to help. She could use something more than the one outfit she had with her anyways. Wearing the same thing for days in a row? It was like her worst nightmare come to life.

At his words, it dawned on her that she was hugging him pretty tightly, and he was rather injured. Whoops. She pulled away with a little bit of a sheepish smile. "Sorry." She had just been excited to see him. After how crazy the past few days have been, it was nice to see a familiar face again. And even nicer to see a familiar face she liked.

"It took you long enough to find me." Her words were more playful and teasing than anything else. Considering the ordeal she had gone through with almost being auctioned off into slavery, again, she had no idea what Angel's had to deal with since being stuck in this place. She couldn't imagine it was anything good.

[leon]

Angel was just as glad to see her--especially since she was still in one piece. She may have been his only link to The Powers That Be, especially here, but more than that Cordelia had become someone that he genuinely cared for. She was his responsibility now. If anything had happened to her, he would never have been able to forgive himself for not being there to protect her.

Still, he appreciated it all the same once she eased off of him. With any luck he'd be all healed up within a day or two. Unless, of course, Faith was in the hugging mood too. Angel probably wouldn't walk away from that scenario with anything less than two more cracked ribs, if he walked away from it at all...

"Buffy and I were trapped in some sort of time loop," he offered as a means of explaining the wait. Cordelia had been his first priority--he had just been unable to actually start looking for her until the whatever brought them here decided to let him.

"For the record, it might be a good idea to steer clear of the locals." If the angry mob with torches had been any indication, anyway.

[knowmypurpose]

"You were with Buffy?" She asked, trying to keep the annoyance in her voice to a minimum. He didn't look particularly broody or upset, so at the very least, his time with the Slayer hadn't done as much damage as it usually seemed to.

And he had found her eventually, so that's what mattered the most. She could see with her own two eyes that he was okay, other that a few burns and bruises, and those would probably heal within another day or two.

At the mention of the locals, she nodded her head. "You should be wary of any large, over sized vermin you might find." She knew it sounded crazy, but the warning still needed to be out there. "This giant ferret and it's friend tried to enslave me. It was like being in Pylea all over again."

It was only after the words left her mouth that she remembered that Angel was from a different timeline...somehow. Which meant he wouldn't know about the whole adventure in Pylea. Whoops.

[leon]

"Yeah." Angel didn't see anything wrong with the whole being around Buffy scenario. As long as they kept things business as usual between them, then there was no need to worry. Besides, after his last run-in with Buffy, their lack-of-relationship couldn't exactly get any worse than they'd left it. There was no place to go but up, hence the lack of brooding on his part.

"She's from a few years in the future," he added, remembering what Cordelia had said about being a year or so ahead of himself, timeline-wise. Trying to keep track of it all was sort of headache-inducing.

"She and Spike--" Were sleeping together? Wait, how did that thought pop in there? "--they were about to fight some final battle together." Which was probably just as hard to swallow for him, but hey. Looks like there would be plenty of reasons to get with the broody, after all.

"Pylea?" Because crazy demon dimensions that he has never heard of before trump any sort of furry talk. Nevermind the fact that people should be wary around any large, over-sized vermin in general. Giant ferrets didn't exactly scream love-fest ... unless of course you were one of those people who dressed up as stuffed animals and attended furry conventions--but that's a different story altogether.

Anyway, it was a welcome distraction to thinking about Buffy ... and Spike.

[knowmypurpose]

What they all needed to do was write out a chart of their different timelines and important events they needed to inform each other about. Like...Connor. At some point, Cordelia figured she had to tell Angel he had a son with Darla, but how was she supposed to bring that one up?

"Yeah, Spike mentioned something about that." She paused for a moment, her expression softening. "How are you dealing with that?" She knew it couldn't be easy for him, Spike being around and having a soul as well. And being..whatever with Buffy.

But she didn't pry much more than that because soon enough he was asking about Pylea. "It's a hell dimension. I was trying to figure out what happened to this girl, Fred, who was in one of my visions, and it ended up with me getting sucked into this hell dimension. They enslaved me and called me cow, which sucked on so many levels, but eventually, they found out about my visions, and realized how truly lucky they were to have someone like me and I was made a princess. I even had my own champion."

[leon]

Angel's mood seemed to sour almost instantly. Spike was the last thing he wanted to think about. Well, second to last anyway. Spike and Buffy together was currently holding strong at the number one spot on his list. He'd get over it eventually. In theory. He wasn't even sure why it bothered him as much as it did--it wasn't like he and Buffy were exactly seeing one another these days. And for good reason.

"Wait, new champion?" Just be glad that Groo isn't around. Between him and Spike, Angel would likely go into a brooding frenzy ... if that is even possible. Sorry, I don't know what I am even writing right now lmao. Needless to say, he is feeling rather second-string as of late.

[knowmypurpose]

"Well, in my defense, this was before you found me. You were in some cave with Fred or something like that, because Pylea had a weird effect on your vamperism. Anyways, the The Groosalugg was one of the natives, and he was a pretty good guy. Except for the whole part where he wanted to have sex with me to take my visions, but he wanted them to do good there, so you can't really fault him for that."

Yeah, Cordelia's probably not making anything better right now. Unfortunately, censoring herself had never been one of her skills. But if it would make Angel feel better, if Groo was here, Cordelia would probably just start making him over to look like Angel. It's what she does.

[leon]

Fred? Oh, right, the girl who Cordelia saw in her vision. Weird name for a girl. The part with the having sex and the visions was really what caught Angel's attention, though. The Groosalugg? He could only imagine. As none of this had actually happened for him, hearing about it and trying to make some sense of it wasn't exactly ... working the way that it was supposed to.

"He sounds great," Angel deadpanned, before breaking away from her to start pacing--which was never exactly a good sign. He rubbed at his eyes momentarily, trying to sort through his thoughts. Buffy, Spike, and this ... 'The Groosalugg' were not the most productive things to dwell on. He needed to focus so that they could find a way to deal with this whole situation.

Stopping suddenly, he turned back to Cordelia with a look of concern.

"What happened to Darla?"

So much for being productive...

[knowmypurpose]

At the mention of Darla, Cordelia tensed up a little. She had been hoping to avoid this topic for a little longer, just because...well how was she supposed to explain everything that happened involving Darla?

"She's dead," She started out quietly. "A few weeks ago, actually. Drusilla turned her back into a vampire, and you stayed with her..and you slept with her, and then lied to me about it," She cut herself off there, trying to get back on track with where she was going with things.

"She came back about nine months later...pregnant. Apparently some mystical mumbo jumbo is how two vampires could make a child but it all still sounds pretty crazy if you ask me. Anyways, she didn't want the kid at all, so she killed herself, leaving the child behind. Like literally. She was dust, and then there was baby."

She stopped there, letting it sink in.

[msattentionspan]

Faith didn't exactly know how Connor was born, but the whole story that she was overhearing as she made her way into that cabin, seemed almost too TMI for her. She nearly turned on the ball of her foot and walked right back out the door. It seemed a good plan. A smart plan, because big revealing truths about things that Angel hadn't lived through yet, seemed smart. No need in telling him that she was busted out of jail, by Wes, to make sure no one got stake-happy and killed Angelus.

However, seeing the look on Angel's face made her exhale, because the guy was in over his head. About five feet too deep. Plus, she was pretty sure that the story that was spinning around about Connor was that Darla had sacrificed herself for the kid - not the whole die because she didn't want him.

Shrugging, she walked right into the middle of the conversation, "Hey, anyone have any idea what we're supposed to do? I mean, other than scare each other half to death about the upcoming future?" She shot a glance to Angel, "Well, not that you're not already dead."

[leon]

Well, that was probably ... the last thing he expected her to say. Angel had prepared himself for the possibility that he was unable to save Darla, but he wasn't even sure how to process half of what he'd just heard. Nevermind the how did Drusilla factor into the equation, but ... pregnant? He had a child? How was that even--

Faith entering the cabin did little to deter his thoughts. He would have appreciated what she was trying to do if it weren't for the fact that he was still trying to wrap his mind around the whole situation. He needed to sit down. Moving away from Cordelia, he took up residence in the nearest chair and proceeded to bury his face in his hands. It just didn't make any sense to him.

After a long moment of trying to absorb the information, Angel looked back to Faith, and then to Cordelia. He wasn't going to be satisfied leaving it there, but now wasn't the time to dwell on anything that hadn't even technically happened for him yet. There would be time enough for all that later. In private. Preferably somewhere dark.

"Faith's right," he admitted, though still not entirely comfortable letting it go. "We should be looking for a way out of here." And some clothes, but he supposed the former was really their priority.

[knowmypurpose]

To say that Cordelia was caught off guard by Faith's words was putting it lightly. Just how long had the rogue slayer been listening in on things anyways? Okay, so maybe she might have had a point about not hashing out things that hadn't happened to people yet, but Angel had asked her what happened. If she had just said Darla was dead, she was sure Angel would have asked for the full story. Cordelia had never been a fan of hiding things like this.

But from the way Angel was behaving, her stomach turned just a little in guilt. Maybe, just maybe she had gone a little too far this time. She made her way over to where Angel was sitting, placing a hand on his shoulder while she stood in silence for a moment.

"Well, when we were stuck in Pylea, Wesley was able to find a way to reopen the portal that had taken us there. Maybe something like that could help us here. But this seems a little different, considering we were all pulled from different times and stuff. And there's people here from all sorts of weird places and stuff, so who knows if that'll work. But it's worth a shot."

At the very least, talking about a plan to get out of this place would hopefully distract Angel from things, if only just a little.

[msattentionspan]

Faith could tell that Angel was a few moment away from taking himself for a brood, which at the moment wasn't going to help anyone.

"Well, here's one to really freak you out, cause I'm from way after all this shit and as far as I know, none of you were all talking about some creepy woods. Which means, either this place is some serious shit - or we all are dreaming. I vote for dreaming, 'cause I'm used to the coma gig."

[leon]

He appreciated the gesture, just as he appreciated Cordelia's honesty. Although she didn't always have the best delivery, the fact that she was unwilling to keep him from the truth no matter how much it may have made him regret asking for it was refreshing. Granted, it could be just as grating at times, but right now he was grateful for it.

"Something tells me it isn't that simple." If they were all sharing some dream that managed to connect them across different times, then there was really nothing that they could do short of waking up--or hoping that someone woke them up. For now, actively searching for a way out of the predicament themselves was their best bet. How they would go about doing that was another story.

"I think Cordelia has the right idea. If something brought us here, then that something should be able to send us back. There must be some sort of portal, or gateway, or magical reason to explain how so many people were pulled to the same place across so many different dimensions and timelines. If we can find out what it was, we can use it to send us back. I think that's our best shot here."