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]

“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."

[his_singer]

Shit, she had to reply to Anya first. “Um, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant when you were stabbed …” she couldn’t straight out tell Anya that she died in the last episode. She didn’t really WANT to tell someone that they had died, no matter who it was. “He was scared at first, but then you pulled the sword out, if I remember correctly …”

Things were going too fast. Bella had to take in a deep breath before she could answer Anya’s second question, trying to get it all out at once. “No, Xander never committed suicide. You can’t really kill yourself a little anyway. And … uh, I don’t … think you won the lottery? So I’m just going to go with no on that question.”

Finally Willow spoke, causing the teenager to let out a relieved sigh. “That’s the thing …” she whispered, her eyes falling to the ground as she spoke, “No one knows … even I might be fictional, but the person I thought might knew didn’t say … anything, so …” it was a weird thought, really, to think that hundreds, if not thousands of people knew everything about your life, right down to the day you had been born. Bella chewed on her lip as she thought - hopefully, if anything, she was a side character from … whatever she was from. “No one knows why we’re here … at least, from what I can tell. We just … are. And no one really even knows where this IS, it seems. There are some rumors that it’s at least in the US, but … no one really knows.”

Finally turning her attention to Angel, Bella nodded her head. Prophecy … hm. There had been too many in that show! She could hardly remember. She just hoped that it wasn’t the child one … how would he react to the knowledge that he had a son, only to then give him up so he could have a better life? Maybe she could leave out that bit of information as well. “Complex doppelgänger? Are you saying that we’re the fake ones? … or maybe something was put in our place?” That was an odd thought. Frowning, Bella shook her head and sighed. “That wouldn’t make sense, though. Someone from my home … she can see things in the future too, and she would have seen this happening beforehand …”

She couldn't imagine how Alice was taking things.

[wishescankill]

"So," Anya said loudly, trying to get Bella's attention back on her. "Back to the TV show now. Ya know, the millions of people avidly following every aspect of my life. They didn't show... I mean," the vengeance demon laughed awkwardly, trying to cover up her embarrassment.

"There was a... tiny lapse in judgement in The Magic Box... with. Um. Spike." She mumbled his name quickly, hardly wanting to admit what had happened. "And enough real people were watching that on their TV screens without 'audience' people watching it too. They... they didn't show that, right?"

[light_wicca]

Willow shivered slightly at Angel's suggestion. The idea that she wasn't only fictional, but not the real Willow?... It was possible, but... extremely scary, and not really something she wanted to think about.

"If the entire show is pre-planned, then... we probably are. I mean, the real versions of ourselves are... finishing it out, I guess? And we're copies pulled into this place." She frowned. "Then everyone here's fictional. That..." in any other situation, that would have been the most amazing thing to ever happen to Willow. She smiled awkwardly. "That kind of makes escaping from here sort of pointless, doesn't it? Or do we have to escape to continue the fiction?"

Gah, this was making her head hurt.

[blurred_divide]

Angel frowned in thought, distracted for a brief moment by Anya's comment before turning his attention to the topic at hand. "I don't exactly mean that we're fake, just that...we're all real. Depending on the reality, we're represented differently. Fiction in one world and real in another. We might've all existed together from the start, we just--never knew. Until now."

Which didn't entirely make sense, either, but really, he didn't think anything about this could make complete sense right now. And if Willow was as confused as he was, they probably weren't going to find the correct answer any time soon.

He looked at Bella. "It resembles America, but I don't think this is the real world. Not the one we come from, at least."

[his_singer]

“Oh, yeah. They showed that,” Bella responded to Anya simply, turning to give the demon an eyebrow quirk. “And the fact that it was videotaped too or something like that. Yep. Saw it all.

Anyway. Turning her attention back to Willow and Angel, Bella frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, trying to think. “I feel real … I mean … I don’t think I’m fake or anything …” a sigh, and she let out a sad laugh, her eyes falling shut. “This is all just so confusing and annoying … dammit.”

Opening her eyes, Bella blinked in surprise at willow’s whole not wanting to escape thing. “You mean you don’t want to go home? You’d want to stay here? With all the monsters and the not … family things? I mean … I know at least that I have to leave. What if there’s no one back home and we were actually just kidnapped? We’re all real ourselves … like Angel said. I mean …” a pause, and Bella tried to think ... but came up with nothing. Sighing in defeat, she leaned back against the couch and shut her eyes, allowing her head to fall back. “I have absolutely no idea. This sucks.”

Opening her eyes and turning her head towards Angel once again, Bella nodded her head, a frown crossing her lips. “Yeah, it looks like it … but then again, you never really know. It doesn’t look like where I’m from … and I’m from the US too. Washington state, to be exact.”

[wishescankill]

For the first time in her life - her very very long life - Anya was speechless.

"Bu-- ho-- wh--" the vengeance demon stammered. "They showed that?! I don't go looking in their windows when they're having rebound sex because the... their sniveling... pathetic..." Okay, not entirely speechless.

She scoffed. "That's..."

"Perverts!" She shouted finally. "They're all perverts! Aren't they supposed to lock up sex fiends like that, not let them have their own TV shows?!"

[light_wicca]

Willow blinked in surprise. "I never said I didn't want to escape. This place has to be stopped. It's being run by somebody, right?" She gazed off into the distance, thinking. Why was this place here - wherever 'here' was - and what was it doing? If it was the 'real' world, then was it dragging characters from their fictional worlds and somehow making them corporeal? If that were true, then why? What did that accomplish?

It looked like there was still a lot to figure out. Everything they discovered only led them to more questions, and somehow seemed to complicate things more than anything else.

It was still hard to believe everything that happened in Willow's life was made up. Fiction, created for other peoples' entertainment. With a slight shudder, she rose out of her reverie just as Anya was saying something about sex.

...Okay. Willow really didn't want to know.

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"Anya, calm down," Angel said, laying a hand on her shoulder as he eyed the nurses. After what happened yesterday morning, they were probably jumpier than usual and the last thing he needed was one of them getting sedated.

Although if Anya was shown to...did that mean-Buffy and he-?

...Oh God. They couldn't possibly have-no, okay. He really didn't want to even consider that scenario. At all. He shook it off after a moment.

"I'm not sure what's happening, either," he admitted finally. "But we're not going to get anywhere trying to sort everything out right now." He glanced at Bella. "Are you by yourself here?"

[his_singer]

Run by someone? “Uh, I don’t know. I’d expect so … I mean, someone comes on each night on the radio saying things, so it must be him … right?” She was just as in the dark as Willow and the other two were - perhaps she should read the bulletin more often.

“And don’t worry, Anya. They didn’t really show anything too bad. Just … kissing and … kinda violence. A lot.” It had been an interesting scene, at least? She didn’t know really what to tell Anya; she knew it had been a bad choice, so what more was there to say about it? “Just don’t worry about it. I mean, it was years ago from my time, so I’m sure it’s pretty much forgotten. We all make mistakes.”

Oh, how she knew that one.

At least Angel appeared to be calm. “Oh, no. I was for a day, but my …” she had to pause in her sentence when she remembered the word fiancé - she couldn’t say that in front of Anya. That would only make things worse. “… boyfriend showed up the next day. Don’t worry, I’m totally fine. Plus, I have a pipe, so I can totally take care of myself if called for it.”

Not that Edward would ever allow her to be on her own, anyway.

[wishescankill]

"Oh right," Anya whined. This day was turning out even worse than yesterday. "You've got a boyfriend who loves and adores you and follows you into terrible places like this to protect you! Well Angel's all pathetic and alone and Willow's girlfriend just got shot, but shouldn't my - ha! - boyfriend be coming after me! He said he still loved me! Even after... even after he tore out my still-beating metaphor heart and squashed it in his metaphor hands, he... he said he still loved me. I mean, w-who does that?"

Just like with Luxord yesterday, the thought of Xander was making tears well up in her eyes.

A thought struck her, even worse than the idea of the Spike debacle being on TV. "They... they showed my wedding on TV, didn't they? Millions of people were... oh dear god, they..."

She just wanted to die. All this... this bullshit piling up on top of everything else wrong in her life. It had been bad enough back in Sunnydale, knowing that all her so-called friends hated her for turning back into a demon and forsaking the True Path Of Sunshine And Rainbows, but...

"Okay," she said, trying to gather herself together. She was determined not to let anyone else see her cry. "Okay, obviously we're dealing with people from different dimensions, right? In this tastefully hygienic girl's dimension--" she gestured at Bella, "we're a TV show, but in our dimension, we're real. Right? That's the only thing that makes sense, right?" It had to make sense, because something had to make sense or Anya thought she might explode.

[light_wicca]

"Anya, please," Willow said softly. The part about Tara had hit her like a punch to the stomach. Maybe the Willow Anya remembered had gotten better, but this Willow still had very fresh memories of that moment. Of that day. She'd been on her way to go get better when she appeared here. "I don't think... Xander knows where we are or how to get here. This isn't something you can just look up in Giles's books."

It was beginnning to hit Willow just what her life being fiction for Bella meant. What that meant people in Bella's world saw. "Does the show... is it only major events, or is it everyday life?" As weird and wrong as it felt, Willow could kind of imagine their life in Sunnydale as a TV show. Just a little bit. It didn't help very much.

"I think we're real," she said as firmly as she could manage in response to Anya. "But I think the fictional thing is... real too. It fits together somehow."

[blurred_divide]

"Oh." Angel nodded at Bella's response. "That's good."

Anya actually looked honestly heartbroken, but he wasn't sure what to say to her and so in the end, he said nothing. Matters of love...not really his area of expertise. He'd more than proven that to himself.

"Something like that," he said, sensing Anya might have a breakdown (well, more of a breakdown) if he disputed her conclusion. He felt real enough, anyhow, and he didn't think he could believe otherwise even if he'd wanted to. Which he honestly didn't. After all he'd lived through-and everyone he knew, as well-it was too much to consider that everything was actually false. Fabricated. And...used as entertainment.