Dayshift 31: Sun Room (Shift 2)

[blurred_divide]

[Scoobies + Bella's epic field day: readystartgo]

Taking his pick between sun and no sun wasn't that hard of a choice, really. Angel ended up in the Sun Room on a couch near the back, facing the entrance to keep an eye on anyone coming in. And by the window. The window and its resulting sunlight was important

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[his_singer]

[ i don't mind bb! :D ♥ ps you didn't see that. PS YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT EITHER. ]

Bella was glad that breakfast had ended, truthfully. The whole talk with Edward was kinda grating on her nerves - so he was hiding his pain from her, huh? Not cute.

Grumbling to herself as she stalked into the Sun Room, Bella nearly froze dead in her steps as she saw the looming group ahead of her. They were … they …

Her mouth fell open.

Oh my GOD.

Before Bella could even realize what she was doing, she was moving towards the Scooby Gang, her face set in a curious expression. Didn’t want to seem too excited … even though she was sure Angel would be able to hear her heart beating miles away. Plus, with Willow there, she had a real excuse to wander up to the characters she had once loved so much.

“Excuse me,” came her whispered voice, a small smile creeping onto her face. Calm and collected. Bella swallowed and tried to gain her bearings. “Willow? It’s me, Bella. I’m sorry if I’m …” her gaze shifted to Angel, and instantly a blush crossed her cheeks. Oh boy, he was even more attractive in real life. Embarrassing. For the time being, she was quite glad Edward wasn’t there. He’d probably just make fun of her. “Intruding on … anything.”

[light_wicca]

Willow had gotten used to some weird, random things that Anya would do instantly upon entering a room. Not that Anya had become predictable, but it was getting harder for Willow to be surprised by anything she did. Standing on a chair in the middle of a crowded cafeteria and yelling? That was almost normal for her.

So the vengeance demon approaching them without saying a single word and practically throwing herself on Angel, needless to say, almost scared Willow a little bit.

"Anya?" she tried hesitantly, sharing Angel's bemused look. "What are you doing?"

It was then that a girl came up to them, looking a little bit...nervous? Willow smiled at the name. "Oh, yeah! Yeah, I'm Willow." She glanced back at the other two, wondering how to explain it. "Oh, um... it's not what it looks like. Guys, this is Bella, I met her on the bulletin board. Bella, this is Angel, and Anya." She indicated each with a slight wave of her hand as she said their names. Wow, it felt weird to be introducing someone she'd only just actually seen.

[wishescankill]

Anya refused to drop her arms from around Angel's neck, even though he was trying to untangle himself from her. She did, however, sit on the arm of his chair so she was in a slightly more comfortable position. "Stop that. Can't you see I'm traumatized?" she chided him for even trying to get rid of her. "Giles was always a good shoulder to cry on, and your shoulders are so much broader and more masculine than his."

She sniffled tearily and to Willow. There was some girl that the witch was introducing, but who cared, really? "We're fictional," the vengeance demon blurted out, verbally stomping on the end of Willow's introductions. "There's some TV program and Buffy's the main character!" She pouted. "Who would want to make a TV show about Buffy anyway? She has very little dramatic potential compared to, say, me."

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Not wanting to distress her further (and subsequently draw more attention from everyone), Angel gave up and let her remain attached to him. Which would've been less awkward if Willow was the only person there, but it seemed they'd gotten company.

Good timing had never blessed him. And he couldn't even tell her she was choking him to see if she'd let go because he'd obviously be lying.

Not that she didn't have reason to be distressed. He'd heard talk of the fictional thing, here and there. It was actually kind of unsettling to think about and hearing Anya confirm it didn't help, but-one thing at a time.

He flashed Bella an apologetic look. "I'm sorry about..." He sighed. Anya really wasn't going to let go, was she?

"Anya, I know you're...upset about-" Actually, was she more upset about being fictional or being a side character? Hard to tell. "-what you've learned, but I..." He trailed off a little helplessly, glancing at Willow again. She knew Anya better. Couldn't she help? Maybe?

Not that he was bad at comforting people-usually-but Anya seemed to require a special kind of comfort that he hadn't learned yet. Nothing he could think of to say seemed quite right.

[his_singer]

“It’s nice to meet you,” came Bella’s calm response, that same smile creeping onto her lips. She was staring to get her heart under control, at least. She didn’t want to come off as too big of a fanatic.

Anya’s sudden outburst had Bella grinning, her arms crossing over her chest as she moved to take a seat closer to willow than any of the others.

“I’ve seen that show,” the moment Bella said it she instantly regretted it - the last time she told someone they were a fictional character (or, rather, the first time) said character had a near mental breakdown. From the looks of things, it appeared that Anya was possible going down the same route … but she couldn’t be too sure. She might as well take things slow and simply, as so to not cause the least amount of drama amongst the Scoobies. She had a feeling she was going to be questioned about the entire thing, so she had to try and rethink about everything she knew. It had been a while since she had seen the episodes, anyway.

“Um,” Bella chewed on her bottom lip as she tried to figure out what to say. Her mind was coming up with blanks, sadly. “But you were a big part of things, Anya?”

[wishescankill]

"Really? How big?" Anya demanded, giving this Bella girl a stern look. "Was it like 'The Buffy and Anya Show,' or was it all about the Slayer and her two codependent little lap dogs, the witch and the butt-monkey?" she asked, not caring that Willow was standing right there.

"Or was it all about Buffy and her boytoys?" she asked, ignoring the fact that not only was Angel right there, but she still had her arms around his neck. "Even though the first one dumped her and ran away to Los Angeles without so much as a goodbye, smashing her poor young heart into a million jagged pieces, and the second one dumped her and ran away to, like, Central Kajakistan also without saying goodbye, and then the third one was weird, and destructive, and then ran off to get a soul but just wound up sitting in a basement whining for like half a year?"

She thought about what she's just said. "Oh," she said reluctantly, "I guess that would make a good TV show..."

"B-but Xander killed himself, right?" the vengeance demon demanded, getting back on track. She pointed a stern finger at Bella. "He threw himself on the blade of his own sword after my horrible, traumatizing death, right?"

[light_wicca]

The first time Anya burst out with the fictional thing, Willow hadn't really paid it much attention. Anya wasn't exactly the most reliable person on earth, and what she was saying made little sense, anyway.

But just as she opened her mouth to try finding out what was really wrong, Bella piped up with her comment.

Willow looked sideways at her. Her brain, usually very fast, was slow in comprehending the words. "What?..."

And then Anya burst out with her long speech right while Willow was trying to figure out exactly what was going on, and all in all, the witch's head was reeling. When the silence began lengthening after Anya finished speaking, she finally said the first thing that came into her mind.

"Xander's not a butt-monkey."

She paused, then glanced at Angel, completely at a loss for anything to say or think. Did he know anything about this?...

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Willow at least still had the capacity for speech. Angel just stared at Bella, forgetting for the first time that he had someone wrapped around his neck. It was a good ten seconds before he shook himself out of it.

He firmly detached himself from Anya's grip and stood up, scratching the back of his head as he met Willow's equally baffled gaze. He'd heard about the phenomenon, but he hadn't actually expected someone to have-especially not standing right here. And certainly not about them. Had Bella actually-?

"This is-I'm not..." He trailed off and turned to frown at Anya, something she'd said finally catching up to him. "I didn't whine. And I was never in a basement."

[his_singer]

The sudden questions caused Bella to frown as she tried to think up answers to all of them. How to explain. “Um …you were practically throughout the entire show? With Giles and … others …”

What had she gotten herself into?

“And it’s not all about Buffy and her … boytoys. There’s a lot of other things going on …” a pause, and she turned to Angel with a sorry smile, “You have your own show too. After you went to L.A, a lot of things started to happen with you, too, so there were two shows, and each was about … well, a lot of things, really… from death, to taking over law firms, to - yes, getting souls back …” yet another pause, and Bella lowered her head, looking up at angel apologetically through her lashes. “And she doesn’t mean you sitting in a basement, Angel. She’s talking about … Spike.”

“But!” she quickly caught herself, turning back to Anya with a frown. “Xander didn’t kill himself when he found out you died. He -“ wait a second. Bella sighed, holding up her hands in a ‘time out’ gesture. “What was the last thing all of you remember? I might be able to help you all if you just … don’t … go crazy with the questions.”

[wishescankill]

Anya pouted when Angel finally disentangled himself from her grip, but took the opportunity to steal his chair.

"Well, I'd just killed..." Anya rolled her eyes dismissively. "Maybe a dozen frat boys. Or so. Not a big deal, right? And Buffy got all moral crusader on me and ran me through with a broadsword."

[light_wicca]

Even after meeting Alec Trevelyan in person and someone who might actually be Superman on the bulletin board, the idea that Willow herself was fictional as well had never even crossed her mind. It made... a twisted kind of sense, when she thought about it. But still... someone... made her up?

What on earth was this place?

Many different thoughts were swirling around her head as Bella tried to help them out. Bella knew Giles's name? Xander killed himself?... This felt extremely weird, and it still didn't quite feel real. Someone was standing in front of her who knew everything about her? About her friends? From a TV show?

Although that would explain why Anya seemed to remember things Willow didn't, if their entire lives were planned out in someone's head.

"I was going to England," she spoke up after Anya. As much as none of this made any sense, they weren't going to get anywhere if everyone loaded each other with questions. Someone needed to take charge, and Bella seemed to be the one willing to do that. "Right after..." She trailed off, lowering her gaze.

She was saved from having to mention the going-evil experience, though, by realizing exactly what Anya had just said. "Wait. Frat boys? You killed...?"

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Wait. She was talking about who again?

He must've just heard incorrectly. That was probably it. This was all completely bewildering as it was, anyway, what with learning that people had access into his private life, and...

And I have my own show? That was ridicu-actually, no, come to think of it, that was actually kind of...Never mind. He was getting off track. He needed to sit down, but Anya had usurped his couch the instant he'd left it.

Angel was about to simply let Willow talk first, not wanting to overwhelm Bella who looked a little uncertain herself, but then Anya spoke and for the first time, what she said made things less confusing. By a bit, at least, since her earlier complaint about Buffy "going homicidal" suddenly made a whole lot more sense now.

"You've been killing people?"

He'd hardly met Anya back in Sunnydale, but she seemed to be one of Buffy's friends from what he'd heard and he'd always thought she'd reformed. Besides, nothing she'd done while here had proven otherwise, not really.

Then again, maybe he'd just been too distracted with finding out within the past twenty-four hours that Buffy had slept with Spike, Willow had nearly destroyed the world while Xander had apparently saved it, and why was he always so behind on the important things? Nobody ever kept him up to date.

[his_singer]

“You didn’t die then,” Bella told Anya simply, a sigh escaping her lips. “You came back to life … and gave up your powers after Xander was done pleading to Buffy to not hurt you. But … there was … a price to give up your powers …” her glance lowered to the ground - perhaps she could change the subject quickly.

Thankfully, Willow spoke up at that moment, and Bella turned her attention towards her instead. “It’s okay, you don’t need to continue. And she didn’t kill the frat boys … well, she did, but that was because she turned back into a vengeance demon and was asked to do that. Everything was okay afterwards, though. The entire thing was taken back, so in the end they were okay.”

This was going to get rough. Sighing, Bella ran a hand through her long hair, trying to think. “So you’re from the last season, okay … that makes things a bit easier to remember … at least it was semi recent …” she was talking to herself at this point, her eyes lowered to the floor as she tried to think. Dammit, she really wished she could have seen the episodes again!

Turning towards Angel, she tilted her head to the side and frowned. “What about you? Or … do you not remember or anything?”

[wishescankill]

"Wait, so I didn't die? But you said Xander didn't kill himself when he found out that I did die. Which is it?" Anya demanded, ignoring the fact that Bella was talking to the other two Scoobies now.

"And Xander didn't commit suicide at all? Not even a little? Was he at least maimed? Or did he lose all his money and spend the rest of his life in a gutter somewhere being a drunken loser!" she said, confident that that had to be the case.

She leaned across the arm of her chair towards Bella. "Did I win the lottery at any point during this 'TV show'?"

[light_wicca]

"Wait. Seasons?" And Anya died? And she was fictional but from a later point in the... TV show... than Willow?

Finding out that millions of people had viewed your entire life since, apparently, meeting Buffy, was a little unsettling. Not to mention that Anya's incessant inquiries after Xander's health weren't helping in the least.

And Bella knew. She'd seen everything Willow had gone through. She knew about Warren.

"Okay, let's say that we are fictional," she cut in right after Anya, her voice staying remarkably steady. "Then... how are we here? Why are we here? With a bunch of other fictional characters?" Did Landel's have the power to do that? Was Landel's a fictional world, created by an author who wanted to see what happened when several other worlds were combined together? Was all of this, right now, a book somewhere in the 'real' world?

Or was Landel's the 'real' world?

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"I, um, remember-I was with Cordelia and...Wesley?" Did Bella know who they were? Well, of course she did, but. "We'd-there was a prophecy."

Although truth be told, Angel wasn't sure if he wanted to know what was in store for him. It probably wasn't anything good.

But Willow raised a good question. Hadn't someone said something about Harry Potter? He was fairly certain Harry Potter was part of a children's book, wasn't he? Who else here was fictional? Or was everyone fictional to at least someone else?

"Maybe it's a complex doppelganger effect. Of some sort." He glanced at Willow. "I mean, we both know that two versions of the same person can exist at once."