1 ➶ ( voice )

[quippable]

[ Cordelia groans. ] Ugh! You’ve got to be kidding. I thought this was all over! Are we seriously revisiting this again? The claw marks, the boils, the burns. But wings? Are we going to be attacked by some wild demonic bird now

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action; -- never apologise! i love tl;dr. ♥

[quippable]

[ When her palm feels his heartbeat, Cordelia gasps, frowning down at where her hand rests. It feels so strange, feeling that tiny ticker inside his chest actually ticking away.

She's lost for the moment in that tiny little pressure against her hand. Cordelia is at a loss for words, for once. She glances up at him then back at her palm. ]

You're - [ Cordelia smiles. This is what he's wanted, right? To experience a sliver of a moment of humanity? She isn't sure how to feel. Elation is the big thing here. If the corners of her mouth pulling a large smile on her face doesn't say it, Cordelia's constant flickering gaze from his face to where his heart rests - and the slight pressure she puts there because that feeling is so intoxicating - should hopefully do the trick. She's never felt so happy for someone in her life than she does in this very moment. ] - human?

[ She's quite in awe. Angel has always been this untouchable person - creature is possibly the better term, but Cordelia's stopped thinking of him as a something less than human a long time ago - who could thwart anyone and take knives and bullets to the chest and still kick some ass while injured and make her smile all at once. He was this unstoppable machine. Always dependable, always reliable, always dangerous. And to see him human, even brought down to where she is, is something Cordelia never thought she'd witness. ]

How long has this been happening?

[ Complete awe. She doesn't drop her palm from his chest. ]

Better question, how is this even possible?

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[quippable]

[ A month. Cordelia feels a touch annoyed that she wasn't here at the start of this. She likes Angel - dead or alive - but she would've liked to have been here from the start.

But when he mentions that M word that had slipped her mind - the Malnosso - Cordelia can't help but wonder if there's a catch. Nothing as mind blowing as this happens without a consequence - especially for them. ]

How does it feel, though? [ The biggest grin ever. Honestly, she can't stop smiling. It's partly due to the fact that Angel has a ticking ticker inside his chest and he can enjoy the sunlight rather than shun away from it, and the other part - the huge, big ass part - is that he's here, all ten fingers, all ten toes - and ridiculous wings - intact.

And the big bonus is is that she hasn't blinked and he's faded away. Really, really big bonus. ]

Besides it being something the bad guys of this place gave you, it's got to be pretty great, right?

[ Her ego would inflate if she knew about the dragon. It'd definitely deflate if she knew the context of it.

Playfully: ] We could work on your tan!

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[quippable]

[ She's glad to hear it's temporary. The last thing she wants is for Angel to be human against his wishes. But she can't help but get worked up over it. It's something big to her. And she's glad that she has this day to spend in the sun with him. ]

As much as I like feeling your heartbeat, I like you just the way you are. Or were. Or will be.

[ She smiles. Then she points her finger at him. This came as a price for being a lab rat. This is something that worries Cordelia. Besides being given wings that she can't just rip out of her back without facing some sort of death, these scientists sound like people she doesn't really want to meet. At all. ]

But you're going to have to elaborate on this mad scientist thing and why they did this to you in the first place. I want to make sure that we're careful here, Angel. You're no use to the helpless if you're injured or lose one of your feathers. [ She can't believe she just said that. The look on her face compliments it. She frowns at herself. That's one thing she never thought she'd ever say - we need to be careful of our feathers. She wasn't even a big fan of feather boas. ]

[ And the serious fades as she smiles again. ] You could use some colour. [ She touches his face. It is the truth. But he's not that pale. Just pale enough for her to tease him. ]

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[quippable]

The cliffnotes version? You were teaching me how to defend myself and I was showing you how I have excellent muscle memory. You kicked Billy's ass. And we learned that you were less petty than humans. Angelus didn't kill out of hate.

[ She frowns, moving just a step away from him as she tries to fathom why he's asking. This feels serious. More than him being de-vamped for the time being. ]

Why? Is something wrong?

[ Did Billy - But Lilah shot him straight back to hell. There's no way that son of a bitch is ever causing havoc ever again.

Cordelia finds she's second-guessing herself. She wracks her memory. They were in the basement of the hotel. He was teaching her moves and how to defend herself. And then - here. So if Angel is here, does that mean he has the exact same last memories as she does? Didn't they wind up here together? ]

You're - you were with me before I ended up here.

[ Yes. She's positive. There's nowhere else. ] You don't remember that?

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[quippable]

[ Angel was from the future. She wondered how far. The question was on the tip of her tongue but - what happens if she becomes someone in the future she doesn't like? What if she doesn't like what's to come in the future? What if she actually does like what's to come and she somehow ruins it when they find themselves back home? ]

So, I shouldn't expect anyone else who turns up from our happy little family to be from the exact time I'm from? That makes things a bit harder.

[ This place just gets better and better. But if Angel's from the future, then maybe he can give them all a bit of a motivational boost. There has to be something good to come out of this. Maybe Angel can give her some tips on how to avoid certain things that are coming up. Maybe he can even boost her confidence in their mission by saying they kick a lot of ass.

Cordelia looks down at herself. As much as she'd like to consider herself an angel, the dress was really bugging her. ]

As much as I love the dress ... do you happen to have any clothes back at your apartment I could borrow?

[ Fat chance he might have something for a female, but anything would be better than this. Once again, she wonders how freaking long he's been here to score an apartment. That, to her, means serious business. ]

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[quippable]

God, I forgot how questionable his fashion choices were back then. [ Wesley was such a dork back in Sunnydale. He's grown into quite the man. Cordelia misses him - along with Gun, Fred and The Host - and wants them here, but at the same time, she doesn't want them here at all. She'd rather return to them - somehow with Angel tagging along for the ride to return to his set of pals.

She gives him a pointed look. ] Unless you've somehow managed to win yourself a girlfriend - [ She doesn't want to dwell on that one. So, she shrugs, feeling a bit unsure. Maybe there's a boundary here she's crossing. Maybe she should take a few steps back. ] - I didn't think you'd mind. I promise to stay away from your precious leather jacket. I know that it's like your baby and everything. [ She grins, but it falls away just as quickly as it rises. ] If it's a problem, I could probably just ask Buffy if I could borrow some of her stuff. You know she's here, right?

[ And she'll do the same, quickly retrieving her forgotten journal just so they don't waste any more time out here. Angel's right. She's cold.

It'll be closed when she returns to him. She isn't sure if it'll work when closed, but, considering Angel said it's like a telephone, she'd like to think she clicked the end call button by having it shut. ]

It's weird talking through this thing. [ She gives her journal a good tap on the cover. ] Do you think it gets any easier?

action;

[quippable]

[ She is quite proud - so proud she's about to smile and tell him 'way to go champ', but the look on his face stops her from even smiling. Maybe now is not the time to show how happy she is that he's able to adapt here without any of them needing to help him along - although, it does sadden her that he may not need them as much with the technology part of things. ]

You're human too, remember? [ But she'll take it nonetheless, not wanting to get into an argument on who should wear the trench coat and who shouldn't. By the time someone won, they'd both be frozen. Or just her, depending on when the re-vamping would kick in.

If anything, Cordelia expected Angel to go a bit goo-goo eyes over the mere mention of Buffy. She's the love of his life. She remembers how he looked when he heard she'd died - how everything was kind of bleak after that bit of news and how sad he'd been - and when they'd found out she was alive, she was happy for him. She had been expecting - ever since being alerted to Buffy and Angel being here - that they'd rekindled their romantic relationship.

But she doesn't press the issue for now. If anything, she'd rather head back to his apartment so he doesn't catch a cold. ]

Voicemail? [ There's a hint of a smile there. If she can't outright grin at the fact that Angel - the biggest technological dummy she's ever come across - knows how to work a phone - let alone his voicemail! - she can at least muster a small quirk at the mouth. She can't help it. It's been one of her small, hopeless dreams.

And some major judging on whoever created the communication system here. Her eyebrows rise at the thought of these journals functioning as telephones and their answering machines. ] Have these people ever heard of a phone?

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[quippable]

[ Harmony being helpful? And good at it? Cordelia's head might explode. But at least he's caught up with the times ... outside of Luceti. Neither of their technological knowledge is really going to help here. ]

So this place is made up of a rainbow of time periods. [ She shrugs. That is actually pretty cool. Although, she may have a change of heart when she actually meets someone from years before or years ahead of her. ] That doesn't seem so bad, when you think about it.

[ And with time periods comes timelines. Cordelia's going to kick whoever chose to bring her from Angel's past so hard in the ass when she sees them. She doesn't like being behind at all. What use is she if she's holding him back by demanding explanations of everything? ]

Except, you know, me being a year or so behind you. [ At least, she's hoping it's a year or so behind him. He had said that the events of Billy had "been a while" for him. ] I think that sucks.

[ She looks up at him. He doesn't look that different. Even though he's human, the heartbeat and the not-bursting-into-flame is the only thing that makes him different from the man that she knows. It's comforting, somewhat, to know that he doesn't change too much in the future - or from being here. ] You haven't told me how long you've been here, yet. You have an apartment.

[ That is a big deal, Angel. That tells Cordelia that you've been stuck in here for way too long. It leads to bad thoughts and feelings and Cordelia doesn't even want to know how much they're going to fail you in the future in regards to not being able to prevent you from being zapped here. ]