Watching idiots slip and slide

[archangelet]

Anyone who knows why Romanageddon went down last night will probably know why there's a very young angel with her wings out standing in the basement lobby. She's actually staring at the blood stains that Donna hasn't had a chance to steam clean out yet, looking... not exactly pleased or comfortable with this whole situation

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[thrillofthekill]

Tay's lucky she got here when she did, because Vincent was almost on his way out, considering it would be in his own best interests if he laid low for a little while. Granted, that means that he won't be there to throw himself on top of Romana when she wakes up, but he only does this hero thing when it means keeping his boss from going off the deep end and after that it's time to hide for a little while. Captains who break their general's arms (even if it was for great justice) don't tend to earn much in the way of respect.

He steps into the lobby and freezes when he sees Tay. He'll get around to words in a minute. Right now he's just going to stare, because all the words he needs to say are sort of failing him at this point.

[archangelet]

Tay looks up from the carpet and glances around, her gaze almost immediately landing on Vincent.

She stares back at him for a moment, uncertain as to how she should respond, considering.... well, everything. But then she waves, hesitantly, pulling her wings closer in to her body, a variation on wrapping her arms around herself tightly.

This? Is incredibly awkward. Mostly because she feels rather responsible for the whole mess.

[thrillofthekill]

Well, Vincent's not going to let the situation get any more awkward. Tay is one of those girls he can't bear to see hurt. Sure, things went to hell, but it's not her fault and he refuses to let her think that.

So he bridges the gap between them and hugs her as best as he can, because it's very hard to hug an angel with their wings out. Oh yes, as tough as he is, Vincent's secretly just a big teddy bear.

"Damn glad to see you, kid," he says, voice a little husky. He was worried about her. Neqa'el ward and now this? It's almost too much.

[archangelet]

Tay's not really a huggy cuddly person. However... sometimes there are moments when she's just a sixteen-year-old girl who really needs a hug. So her wings go back, as out of the way as possible, and she clings. Very very tightly.

"Yeah," she says. "Good to see you, too."

[thrillofthekill]

"I hope you weren't hoping to talk to Romana. Grace has her on enough sedatives to kill a horse." Honestly, he doesn't really think that was her intention for coming here- he wouldn't want to see Romana either after what she almost did. He may be an archangel and he may think his kind is superior, but there are some laws you just don't break when it comes to pulling rank. Don't touch an Angel of Knowledge's books and never, ever mess with a guardian's ward.

"You okay?" He asks, pulling back a little so that he can look her over. While he's not about to go nuclear on her ward, he can't promise he won't want to have words with him if he sees so much as a scratch on Tay.

[archangelet]

"No," Tay says firmly, shaking her head. She can't say why not, but... it's fear and uncertainty and the fact that she doesn't know what she believes about the world anymore and Romana would know.

She smiles a little, flatly. "I'm fine. Seriously. He's..." she can't say nice. She can't say great. She can't say a lot of things that she thinks he is, sometimes. "He's been perfectly polite."

[thrillofthekill]

Vincent shakes his head at that. "Yeah, I don't want to be around her either right now." Because he broke her arm, but Tay doesn't need to know that. It was bad enough half the freakin' hotel saw it.

And that gets a very flat look, because while Vincent will not be breaking out the pitchforks and torches, he's still a bit twitchy when it comes to demons, so the thought that this demon is anything other than evil and full of badness kinda breaks his brain. "Well. That's... Good. I'm glad he's not throwin' you to the wolves out of spite or anything, anyway."

[archangelet]

"Nah, he's--" she cuts herself off, because telling an archangel that your demon ward is giving you money to get a car, and set up a training room at your request, and came into pretty deep angelic territory so you could come here...

Yeah, she's not going to go there.

"Anyway, are you okay? I heard someone else got shot, Nate's brother's ward?"

[thrillofthekill]

Abrupt subject changes are good. Very good, in fact, because Vince doesn't really want to think about Tay and her Neqa'el ward at this moment. As long as she's not hurt, he's good. For the moment.

"Yeah, Harkness clipped a pinion when he took a shot at Romana, but I've seen worse." He shrugs, rolling his shoulders a bit. "Romana took a cheap shot at the guy, because she knows he's one of his men. He would have killed her for that if I hadn't jumped her."

It was a very bad night. All around.

[archangelet]

There's a hiss as Tay sucks in a sharp breath. Even the thought of it makes her extremely uncomfortable. "Fuck. At least no one's dead."

Beat. And then she mutters something that probably amounts to something like "no thanks to our fearless leader".

[thrillofthekill]

"Not for a lack of trying," Vincent scowls, eyes falling on the blood on the carpet. "To be honest, I'm gettin' a bit sick of cleaning up these messes."

But if he didn't do it, no one else would, and then there would be death. Lots and lots of death. And doom.

[archangelet]

"I don't exactly blame you," she says dryly.

Then she hesitates. "I don't... I don't understand how Elashte and... hell, even Malek can seem like better people than she is. They're demons. She's an angel, a First. It doesn't make any sense."

[thrillofthekill]

Oh hi, way to make this awkward for him, Tay. Not that he'd blame her, because it's gotta be pretty damn confusing for her, but explaining all the intricate details about the affairs of demons and angels and how it's not about decent people- it's about us vs. them- is like trying to explain to a six-year-old where babies from.

"It's just how it is, kid," he finally says, running a hand through his hair nervously. "It's not about whose a better person. We fight them, they fight us. Granted, what Romana did ain't forgivable on any level, but you can't blame her for her nature even if she did take it too far."

Vincent's three hundred years old. He doesn't need his world to be any less black and white than he thought it was.

[archangelet]

"If... angels fight demons and demons fight angels..." She doesn't want to go there, she doesn't want to go there, but she can't help it. "Where does that put me?" she asks, a little terrified of the answer. "I'm an angel, but I'm a guardian, my ward is a demon. I can't fight 'them' because I have to protect one of them. Which means that I'll be fighting against 'us', sometimes."

[thrillofthekill]

There is probably no way that this could get more awkward unless Romana came tearing out of her room with a vengeance, but then it wouldn't so much be awkward as potentially deadly. Or both. Which is not a good mix on any level.

For a long time, he can't actually figure out what to say to that, because what she's saying makes perfect sense and it's a legitimite concern, but gray areas aren't his strong suit.

"I... Don't know."

Which is probably the worst answer he could have come up with that didn't involve the words 'murder' and 'infidel.'

[archangelet]

Either the worst answer or the best answer. Possibly the only answer.

Something in Tay's expression breaks a little, then shuts down. She's pretty good at putting on a tough face. "Yeah. Me either."

She sighs and shoves her hands in her pockets. "I should... probably go."