Spike's Crypt
Spike's crypt. Is a very, very fine crypt... So fine that all who behold it wonder why they were paying rent like suckers.
He would move into the lower level of the crypt right away, not wait till season six. I mean, there are soldiers prowling the cemetaries. How can he have a TV and chair sitting in plain site in a crypt? When the initiative found it, they would stake out the crypt, not smash the TV and move on. His home would have to be hidden.
The crypt itself would just be a nice entry way. It is covered with climbing roses and flowering vines and has a few windows with ivy and roses pouring in, nice marble sculpture and iron work. Candelabras in niches and sconces on walls. A few benches where he sometimes reads in the daytime.
No one knows about the lower level in the crypt. They think he just hangs out with the sarcophogi. I think it's dark in the back so he can pop up out of the hole without being seen and then seem to ooze creepily out of the darkness. Excellent.
He probably needs to keep some things up stairs to fool the scoobies, but they'd be things that look like a homeless person stayed there to anyone else, and would just contribute to the scoobies preferred opinion that he is creepy.
Location Location - It is strategically located in the oldest cemetary near the center of town. Relatively near the schools which would also be near the center, making the crypt between Dawn's school and home. She cuts thru on her way home most days.
The best vampire lair ever
The outside is nicely landscaped with a fountain nearby(running water and electricity!) and ivy covered benches. It's almost completely shaded by live oak trees or whatever is the equivalent deep-shade tree there. So he can step outside almost any time of the day. It's at the top of a hill and if you go on the roof, you have a great view, but the entrance area is in a little depression so you can't be easily seen from a distance. It is probably the finest crypt for a vampire ever built. Built for some long gone founding family. Possibly the most expensive plot in Sunnydale.
And he'd fix the lower level up pretty nice. Not right away-- over time. He has ups and downs of depression and anger over the chip. He often thinks he won't stick around. Get the chip out, kill everyone and leave. So there's no point. Plus he sucks at being alone. But he likes a nice bed, shower and TV, so he'd get those things right off. He'd get lots of furniture and rugs from the mansion. 'Cuz it was a mansion. So many rugs that some are hung from walls like tapestries. And some are used as upholstery fabric. They had real finest quality linen sheets at the mansion too. Lots of them. He'd tap into water, electricity and cable. He's good at doing this stuff because those are the first things he did everytime he got a new lair.
Down duvet and feather bed from somewhere, because he is Bri'ish and had these things growing up. He'd probably have a very fine quality English antique full-size bed. Because he wouldn't need anything bigger. He isn't tall. And that would be the size he is accustomed to. And we don't have much use for that size here in the U.S. so they're sitting in antique stores everywhere. Four poster with canopy and curtains because that's just a good thing for a vampire to have. My Spike makes over broken furniture ala the trash to treasure guy from HGTV's Decorating Cents, which he watches sometimes.
And he'd steal a pretty good TV. OR maybe one of the first things he does after discovering he can kill demons is rescue the owner of the local electronics store, or pawnshop, who gives him and/or makes good deals on scratch and dent stuff. Because he is going to need a Tivo.
Lower level tunnels leads him to the cemetary groundskeeper's house in one direction, an underwater hot spring grotto (stolen from a Madrog story cuz I like it and I want it to be a really nice crypt) in another. Other large open caverns abound that are suitable for training and workouts (useful since Giles doesn't bother finding such things for Buffy for another year). Plus the house has a large basement, also useful for training. No one lives in the house because they know better than to live in the cemetary and it's in disrepair, but the electricity is on and it has laundry, kitchen with large fridge should he need extra storage. Bathrooms for when Spike has human guests. Someday, he might obtain that house.
The lower level is not part of the crypt and does not contain coffins or skeletons. It's not directly under the whole crypt, just the opening. And it's many feet below. Cuz the crypt sits on a hill. I think it's a cavern and it is off of access tunnels created by the mayor, not the sewer. Maybe it has stalagtites and crystals eroded out of the walls a long time ago by the underground spring. All sparkly in the candlelight. But somehow, it has an almost level floor. Maybe some previous occupant leveled it.
He'd eventually create a kitchen area with dining table and couple of chairs. A desk. A sofa/daybed like thing made out of really nice, elaborately carved fine wood antique single beds and parts. Kitchen cabinetry made out of equally nice sideboard/buffets or dressers that are missing some drawers so you do the thing where you remove the drawers and put in shelves. One of those old metal kitchen cabinets from the 50's that has a sink in it. That kind of thing. He'd have an assortment of fine furniture made of now hardly available woods that all have stuff wrong with them but reassembled and put together make the place pretty nice. Some vintage gas stove, because there is natural gas in the cemetary for the perpetual flames right? Maybe some compact yet funky shaped ones from before they standardized. Or tiny apartment thingy with Stove, sink and mini-fridge in one. And there is, of course, running water and electricity because of the fountains. (Although maybe there are some fountains that predate electricity. I assume those work via water pressure?) Anyway, all utilities also available from the house, including a phone and cable. If he cared to, when he cares to, he can easily run a long cord. Or use a cordless that he has to remember to take back to the house to charge whenever he goes out.
Maybe one of those decorative gas heater things from early to mid-century designed to sit in a fake fireplace. (I have one and my house was built in 1949, so they are probably relatively common in Sunnydale too. Because they wouldn't have central heat in any but the newest homes in Southern California.) Because he likes to be warm, and he happens across one of those that looks like a coal fire which he would have had in his home in London.
HOT Water!
Speaking of heat, writers are always giving him cold running water only. But FYI, there are many ways to rig up instant hot water heaters where the water is heated as it runs through the heat source. My grandparents heated their icy well water to scalding hot in the Wisconsin winter by routing it through their wood-burning furnace. Like the $5 a night hotel in Oaxaca, Mexico that had this little furnace thing in the corner of the bathroom and bags of sawdust that you burned in it. But I didn't try it because I had no idea how long sawdust burned and didn't want to run out with soap in my hair. And it was chilly. Also, in other parts of Central America I have heard of some way they rig up electricity to the shower and if you touch the pipes or drain while showering you'll get a little shock. But it apparently heats the water fine. I've never seen it done though. But I've seen some pretty simple gas instant water heaters in Spain. And electric heaters just for the shower with cords that I guess you were supposed to pull to start them in England, except no one told me. I believe they have those in Central America as well. And instant water heaters are available in the U.S. at Home Depot now as well. They are expensive, but if he's going to steal it, that doesn't matter.
He'd remember the time before everyone had electricity and people in the country had windmills. It wasn't that long ago. The '50s. (And he spent the '50s in the U.S. America was booming while the rest of the world recovered. Plus, Rock n Roll!! Definately the place to be.) He'd know how to rig up something to generate power from the running water in the hot spring. Also some of the first circulating fans were powered by running water. You hooked a hose up to it and the water ran through turning the fan. He'd collect such things and use them in his crypt. Doing these things interest him a bit and keep him busy. He makes a hobby out of living well off the grid. He works it out until most days the only utility he steals is the cable/internet.
He'd put iron gates in the tunnels protecting his area - crypt, grotto, and house. And a bar on the inside of the door to the crypt. Maybe find a piece of circular iron staircase to get to the lower level. Except then he couldn't just jump down which would be faster and easier for him, just harder for guests.
How the Crypt advances his relationship with Humans
He's more likely to have visitors because it's comfortable. Its a chick magnet because its sexy. Its strategically located. Its a safe place to hide out. A place to run or crawl to when attacked in a cemetary. Closer to Dawn's school than home or the magic box. Cooler in the summer because not everyone has AC in California.
Note: All those rugs means vacuuming eventually. I can see him doing a lot of cleaning chores, but not vacuuming. Like I can see him doing his laundry i.e. the jeans and T-shirts, but not ironing. He's going to have to send his shirts out or find someone to do it for him. So anyway maybe he lets it go until one day when a human guest, probably Joyce, starts sneezing. So like a mother dealing with her son's first apartment she brings a vacuum and does it for him once, then I think he'll look for a Roomba because maybe he can be a sucker for those as-seen-on-TV gadgets.
He would move into the lower level of the crypt right away, not wait till season six. I mean, there are soldiers prowling the cemetaries. How can he have a TV and chair sitting in plain site in a crypt? When the initiative found it, they would stake out the crypt, not smash the TV and move on. His home would have to be hidden.
The crypt itself would just be a nice entry way. It is covered with climbing roses and flowering vines and has a few windows with ivy and roses pouring in, nice marble sculpture and iron work. Candelabras in niches and sconces on walls. A few benches where he sometimes reads in the daytime.
No one knows about the lower level in the crypt. They think he just hangs out with the sarcophogi. I think it's dark in the back so he can pop up out of the hole without being seen and then seem to ooze creepily out of the darkness. Excellent.
He probably needs to keep some things up stairs to fool the scoobies, but they'd be things that look like a homeless person stayed there to anyone else, and would just contribute to the scoobies preferred opinion that he is creepy.
Location Location - It is strategically located in the oldest cemetary near the center of town. Relatively near the schools which would also be near the center, making the crypt between Dawn's school and home. She cuts thru on her way home most days.
The best vampire lair ever
The outside is nicely landscaped with a fountain nearby(running water and electricity!) and ivy covered benches. It's almost completely shaded by live oak trees or whatever is the equivalent deep-shade tree there. So he can step outside almost any time of the day. It's at the top of a hill and if you go on the roof, you have a great view, but the entrance area is in a little depression so you can't be easily seen from a distance. It is probably the finest crypt for a vampire ever built. Built for some long gone founding family. Possibly the most expensive plot in Sunnydale.
And he'd fix the lower level up pretty nice. Not right away-- over time. He has ups and downs of depression and anger over the chip. He often thinks he won't stick around. Get the chip out, kill everyone and leave. So there's no point. Plus he sucks at being alone. But he likes a nice bed, shower and TV, so he'd get those things right off. He'd get lots of furniture and rugs from the mansion. 'Cuz it was a mansion. So many rugs that some are hung from walls like tapestries. And some are used as upholstery fabric. They had real finest quality linen sheets at the mansion too. Lots of them. He'd tap into water, electricity and cable. He's good at doing this stuff because those are the first things he did everytime he got a new lair.
Down duvet and feather bed from somewhere, because he is Bri'ish and had these things growing up. He'd probably have a very fine quality English antique full-size bed. Because he wouldn't need anything bigger. He isn't tall. And that would be the size he is accustomed to. And we don't have much use for that size here in the U.S. so they're sitting in antique stores everywhere. Four poster with canopy and curtains because that's just a good thing for a vampire to have. My Spike makes over broken furniture ala the trash to treasure guy from HGTV's Decorating Cents, which he watches sometimes.
And he'd steal a pretty good TV. OR maybe one of the first things he does after discovering he can kill demons is rescue the owner of the local electronics store, or pawnshop, who gives him and/or makes good deals on scratch and dent stuff. Because he is going to need a Tivo.
Lower level tunnels leads him to the cemetary groundskeeper's house in one direction, an underwater hot spring grotto (stolen from a Madrog story cuz I like it and I want it to be a really nice crypt) in another. Other large open caverns abound that are suitable for training and workouts (useful since Giles doesn't bother finding such things for Buffy for another year). Plus the house has a large basement, also useful for training. No one lives in the house because they know better than to live in the cemetary and it's in disrepair, but the electricity is on and it has laundry, kitchen with large fridge should he need extra storage. Bathrooms for when Spike has human guests. Someday, he might obtain that house.
The lower level is not part of the crypt and does not contain coffins or skeletons. It's not directly under the whole crypt, just the opening. And it's many feet below. Cuz the crypt sits on a hill. I think it's a cavern and it is off of access tunnels created by the mayor, not the sewer. Maybe it has stalagtites and crystals eroded out of the walls a long time ago by the underground spring. All sparkly in the candlelight. But somehow, it has an almost level floor. Maybe some previous occupant leveled it.
He'd eventually create a kitchen area with dining table and couple of chairs. A desk. A sofa/daybed like thing made out of really nice, elaborately carved fine wood antique single beds and parts. Kitchen cabinetry made out of equally nice sideboard/buffets or dressers that are missing some drawers so you do the thing where you remove the drawers and put in shelves. One of those old metal kitchen cabinets from the 50's that has a sink in it. That kind of thing. He'd have an assortment of fine furniture made of now hardly available woods that all have stuff wrong with them but reassembled and put together make the place pretty nice. Some vintage gas stove, because there is natural gas in the cemetary for the perpetual flames right? Maybe some compact yet funky shaped ones from before they standardized. Or tiny apartment thingy with Stove, sink and mini-fridge in one. And there is, of course, running water and electricity because of the fountains. (Although maybe there are some fountains that predate electricity. I assume those work via water pressure?) Anyway, all utilities also available from the house, including a phone and cable. If he cared to, when he cares to, he can easily run a long cord. Or use a cordless that he has to remember to take back to the house to charge whenever he goes out.
Maybe one of those decorative gas heater things from early to mid-century designed to sit in a fake fireplace. (I have one and my house was built in 1949, so they are probably relatively common in Sunnydale too. Because they wouldn't have central heat in any but the newest homes in Southern California.) Because he likes to be warm, and he happens across one of those that looks like a coal fire which he would have had in his home in London.
HOT Water!
Speaking of heat, writers are always giving him cold running water only. But FYI, there are many ways to rig up instant hot water heaters where the water is heated as it runs through the heat source. My grandparents heated their icy well water to scalding hot in the Wisconsin winter by routing it through their wood-burning furnace. Like the $5 a night hotel in Oaxaca, Mexico that had this little furnace thing in the corner of the bathroom and bags of sawdust that you burned in it. But I didn't try it because I had no idea how long sawdust burned and didn't want to run out with soap in my hair. And it was chilly. Also, in other parts of Central America I have heard of some way they rig up electricity to the shower and if you touch the pipes or drain while showering you'll get a little shock. But it apparently heats the water fine. I've never seen it done though. But I've seen some pretty simple gas instant water heaters in Spain. And electric heaters just for the shower with cords that I guess you were supposed to pull to start them in England, except no one told me. I believe they have those in Central America as well. And instant water heaters are available in the U.S. at Home Depot now as well. They are expensive, but if he's going to steal it, that doesn't matter.
He'd remember the time before everyone had electricity and people in the country had windmills. It wasn't that long ago. The '50s. (And he spent the '50s in the U.S. America was booming while the rest of the world recovered. Plus, Rock n Roll!! Definately the place to be.) He'd know how to rig up something to generate power from the running water in the hot spring. Also some of the first circulating fans were powered by running water. You hooked a hose up to it and the water ran through turning the fan. He'd collect such things and use them in his crypt. Doing these things interest him a bit and keep him busy. He makes a hobby out of living well off the grid. He works it out until most days the only utility he steals is the cable/internet.
He'd put iron gates in the tunnels protecting his area - crypt, grotto, and house. And a bar on the inside of the door to the crypt. Maybe find a piece of circular iron staircase to get to the lower level. Except then he couldn't just jump down which would be faster and easier for him, just harder for guests.
How the Crypt advances his relationship with Humans
He's more likely to have visitors because it's comfortable. Its a chick magnet because its sexy. Its strategically located. Its a safe place to hide out. A place to run or crawl to when attacked in a cemetary. Closer to Dawn's school than home or the magic box. Cooler in the summer because not everyone has AC in California.
Note: All those rugs means vacuuming eventually. I can see him doing a lot of cleaning chores, but not vacuuming. Like I can see him doing his laundry i.e. the jeans and T-shirts, but not ironing. He's going to have to send his shirts out or find someone to do it for him. So anyway maybe he lets it go until one day when a human guest, probably Joyce, starts sneezing. So like a mother dealing with her son's first apartment she brings a vacuum and does it for him once, then I think he'll look for a Roomba because maybe he can be a sucker for those as-seen-on-TV gadgets.