A Fast Food Restaurant's Drive-Through Station | Los Angeles, CA | Tuesday Evening Fandom Time
The trouble with the rest of the day following Wesley's dream the night before was that they had a case to work on, and it was predictably difficult to find a reason to leave the hotel when he was expected to be working research for... whoever it was that had hired them. Wesley honestly couldn't remember the woman's name. Her trouble was that her son had been turned into a vampire, though. He was fairly certain of that.
Over the course of the day, he delegated what he could to Gunn to avoid botching up the job with his own exhaustion and buy himself some more time to research. Fred naturally decided she wanted to go along with her boyfriend, which didn't surprise Wesley after the way the last few days had gone, but he didn't love it either. Staking vampires was not a two-person job these days.
With Cordelia away on some sort of yoga retreat with her high school friends and Lorne still bitter that he'd been left on babysitting duty the night everyone had gone to the ballet, that left Wesley and Angel in the hotel. After a great deal of deliberation, Wesley decided not to tell Angel about his translation right away. He'd mistranslated before and caused panic, almost to the point of it becoming an awful joke around the office. Better to find out information from a reliable source first to be certain of what was going on. Toward evening, after a few phone calls to an area wizard who was said to have reputable intel on the local prophetic deities, he managed to make an excuse -- something about a headache -- and set off to find a statue that was said to be able to give him the answers he needed.
"Thirty four degrees, twelve minutes north," Wesley said to himself, all of his attention on the electronic compass in his hands that he'd been using all the way since leaving the Hyperion. "One eighteen, twenty one, West."
The compass beeped, and Wesley switched it off. "This must be it."
Then he looked up, processing where he was -- a fast-food restaurant's drive-through speaker, which was shaped like a large, smiling hamburger with one french fry arm in the air in the form of a wave.
"You're supposed to be a statue," Wesley told it. The hamburger said nothing. "I guess you are. Sort of."
He sighed, unpocketing the packet of powder his contact had told him would do the trick for animating the Loa. "If this doesn't work, I'm going to kill that wizard," he warned, and sprinkled the dust over the hamburger's... er... top bun.
With both hands in front of him and a rather repulsed look on his face, Wesley recited, "Mange sec Loa, alegba, accept this offering - and open the gates of truth."
A bright yellow light flashed and the hamburger came to life, growing to twice Wesley's height and with its previously happy eyes flashing an angry red. "How dare you call on the Loa?" it demanded in a booming voice.
"I --" Wesley began. Oh, this was ridiculous. "I -- I come in supplication, O Great One, begging for answers to questions only your power can reveal."
The hamburger -- no, the Loa -- seemed unimpressed, and gesticulated to indicate this with its large french fry hands. "You have answers, human," it said. "You search now only for the question."
That sounded bizarrely familiar...
"Is it true?" Wesley asked, familiar with the convention of not keeping powerful deities waiting for longer than necessary before getting to the point. "Will Angel really kill his son as it says in the prophecies?"
"That the vampire will devour his child is certain," the Loa intoned. "The dark question you harbor is only 'When?'"
"No," Wesley said. He knew that that was certain. "The dark question I harbor is 'How do I stop it?'"
The Loa waved its hands in dismissal of that idea. "It cannot be stopped," it said.
"It has to be stopped!" Wesley shouted back, though he was appropriately deterred by the Loa's growl in response. "There must be a way--"
At that, bright lightning shot out of the Loa's gleaming scarlet eyes, forcing Wesley backwards and shoving him to the ground. It was also rather painful besides. "Your insolence is displeasing," said the Loa.
"You try chatting with a cranky hamburger," Wesley muttered in response as he started to get back to his feet. On very little sleep, he might add.
Fortunately the Loa didn't seem to either hear or care. "You risk your life, human, calling on the Loa," it said. "Perhaps what you really
seek is death. The pain in your heart begs for it."
That gave Wesley the push he needed to stand up more quickly, a newfound certainty in his posture. "Then do it and be done," he said. "Nothing else will stop me."
"Simple mortal," the Loa scoffed, "your pain is just beginning. Betrayal and agony lie in wait, and time is running out, yet still you ignore the question."
The question, then. "All right," Wesley said. "When? When will this happen?"
"The first portent will shake the earth," said the Loa, stomping its bright red foot. "The second will burn the air. The last will turn the sky to blood."
Wesley had heard similar portents before in Sunnydale, but no matter how frequent they might be, he continued to be amazed that anyone could ever do anything with that information. "An earthquake?" he asked in disbelief. "That's the first portent? We live in California!"
"Earthquake, fire, blood," the Loa repeated. "Be heedful of the signs, human, and trouble the Loa no more."
And with that, the red went out of the Loa's eyes and it shrunk back down to its previous size, leaving a blinking Wesley in a drive-through parking lot with rather a lot more concern than he'd entered it with.
[[nfb, nfi, ooc good, and i swear to god this really happened. angel 3x15 again, "loyalty," and there's one more for the night and that's it.]]
Over the course of the day, he delegated what he could to Gunn to avoid botching up the job with his own exhaustion and buy himself some more time to research. Fred naturally decided she wanted to go along with her boyfriend, which didn't surprise Wesley after the way the last few days had gone, but he didn't love it either. Staking vampires was not a two-person job these days.
With Cordelia away on some sort of yoga retreat with her high school friends and Lorne still bitter that he'd been left on babysitting duty the night everyone had gone to the ballet, that left Wesley and Angel in the hotel. After a great deal of deliberation, Wesley decided not to tell Angel about his translation right away. He'd mistranslated before and caused panic, almost to the point of it becoming an awful joke around the office. Better to find out information from a reliable source first to be certain of what was going on. Toward evening, after a few phone calls to an area wizard who was said to have reputable intel on the local prophetic deities, he managed to make an excuse -- something about a headache -- and set off to find a statue that was said to be able to give him the answers he needed.
"Thirty four degrees, twelve minutes north," Wesley said to himself, all of his attention on the electronic compass in his hands that he'd been using all the way since leaving the Hyperion. "One eighteen, twenty one, West."
The compass beeped, and Wesley switched it off. "This must be it."
Then he looked up, processing where he was -- a fast-food restaurant's drive-through speaker, which was shaped like a large, smiling hamburger with one french fry arm in the air in the form of a wave.
"You're supposed to be a statue," Wesley told it. The hamburger said nothing. "I guess you are. Sort of."
He sighed, unpocketing the packet of powder his contact had told him would do the trick for animating the Loa. "If this doesn't work, I'm going to kill that wizard," he warned, and sprinkled the dust over the hamburger's... er... top bun.
With both hands in front of him and a rather repulsed look on his face, Wesley recited, "Mange sec Loa, alegba, accept this offering - and open the gates of truth."
A bright yellow light flashed and the hamburger came to life, growing to twice Wesley's height and with its previously happy eyes flashing an angry red. "How dare you call on the Loa?" it demanded in a booming voice.
"I --" Wesley began. Oh, this was ridiculous. "I -- I come in supplication, O Great One, begging for answers to questions only your power can reveal."
The hamburger -- no, the Loa -- seemed unimpressed, and gesticulated to indicate this with its large french fry hands. "You have answers, human," it said. "You search now only for the question."
That sounded bizarrely familiar...
"Is it true?" Wesley asked, familiar with the convention of not keeping powerful deities waiting for longer than necessary before getting to the point. "Will Angel really kill his son as it says in the prophecies?"
"That the vampire will devour his child is certain," the Loa intoned. "The dark question you harbor is only 'When?'"
"No," Wesley said. He knew that that was certain. "The dark question I harbor is 'How do I stop it?'"
The Loa waved its hands in dismissal of that idea. "It cannot be stopped," it said.
"It has to be stopped!" Wesley shouted back, though he was appropriately deterred by the Loa's growl in response. "There must be a way--"
At that, bright lightning shot out of the Loa's gleaming scarlet eyes, forcing Wesley backwards and shoving him to the ground. It was also rather painful besides. "Your insolence is displeasing," said the Loa.
"You try chatting with a cranky hamburger," Wesley muttered in response as he started to get back to his feet. On very little sleep, he might add.
Fortunately the Loa didn't seem to either hear or care. "You risk your life, human, calling on the Loa," it said. "Perhaps what you really
seek is death. The pain in your heart begs for it."
That gave Wesley the push he needed to stand up more quickly, a newfound certainty in his posture. "Then do it and be done," he said. "Nothing else will stop me."
"Simple mortal," the Loa scoffed, "your pain is just beginning. Betrayal and agony lie in wait, and time is running out, yet still you ignore the question."
The question, then. "All right," Wesley said. "When? When will this happen?"
"The first portent will shake the earth," said the Loa, stomping its bright red foot. "The second will burn the air. The last will turn the sky to blood."
Wesley had heard similar portents before in Sunnydale, but no matter how frequent they might be, he continued to be amazed that anyone could ever do anything with that information. "An earthquake?" he asked in disbelief. "That's the first portent? We live in California!"
"Earthquake, fire, blood," the Loa repeated. "Be heedful of the signs, human, and trouble the Loa no more."
And with that, the red went out of the Loa's eyes and it shrunk back down to its previous size, leaving a blinking Wesley in a drive-through parking lot with rather a lot more concern than he'd entered it with.
[[nfb, nfi, ooc good, and i swear to god this really happened. angel 3x15 again, "loyalty," and there's one more for the night and that's it.]]