[Visual] EVERYONE I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE [also location: birdhouse]

[smecker]

For a moment the screen is at a crazy angle, and fingers smeared with blood scrabble over the glass, leaving red messy trails on the broadcast

Comments

[ visual ]

[slaying]

Okay. Buffy Summers is concerned for Smecker's well-being. Something clearly went down -- something bad. But she needed to know for sure, first.

"You're certain it was Dawn? Dawn Summers."

Dawn had been missing for a while, now; Buffy had been upping her patrols, inquiring with those contacts she had managed to develop. Nothing had panned out. Buffy had been beginning to think that perhaps her sister had up and left. Back home. Hasta la vista.

Now? She nearly wished that were the case instead of the horror that Smecker was proposing.

[ voice ]

[dreamsinwhich]

Ugh, seriously? No, it was another Dawn.

[ now that her cover's blown and everything hurts, trolling it is. ]

[ voice ]

[slaying]

...The absence starting to make a bit more sense.

[ it's hard to sound slayer-hardened when you're simply so upset. ]

[ voice ]

[dreamsinwhich]

Kind of hard to remain lo-pro when the whole Slayer tingles are working against you.

[ visual ]

[smecker]

Paul fumbles for the tablet and this time sets it on his chest, the easier to speak at-- even if the visual is just displaying the ceiling. Buffy's voice.

"Yeah," he says, sounds dull and tired even to his own ears. "I know Dawn as well as I know anybody in this... goddamned city... it was your sister. Yea-high, into books, all that."

[ voice | locked to angel & buffy ]

[slaying]

I...[ she trails off. this is nothing like a problem she wants to deal with but -- but it's the kind of thing she has to do on her own. as much as the concept of duking it out with dawn turns her stomach, she's not sure she likes the idea of anyone else throwing the punches any more. ]

You're on the top of the speed-dial list, Angel. Tippy top.

[ voice | locked to angel & buffy ]

[slaying]

Seems like the last me kept this place decently stocked. I should be...[ she can't quite bring herself to say okay. because she won't be. not at all. ] I'll manage.

[ voice | locked to angel & buffy ]

[slaying]

[ she conveniently ignores the evidence they've both seen to the contrary; the easy lie is better to swallow than recalling the case of spike. or even harmony. hmm. ]

Which means calling her out's gonna be more than a little tough. Even demon-Dawn's gotta have that sharp intellect -- [ god, it's hard not to be proud of her even now. ] She won't just go toe-to-toe with me for the kicks and giggles of it.

[ voice | locked to angel & buffy ]

[slaying]

Which means I just have to play it extra-cautiously.