Violently shunned, Quietly stunned, But I'm alright

[kick_ash]

Ever since Martha had brought Ashley to the Kashtta Tower, Ashley's day had fallen into a routine. Her kata in the morning, unwilling to go for a run in the still dusky light of dawn. A quick weapons check and then breakfast. It was more disciplined than she had been in the last few years, and only now, trapped in Chicago, did she realise how much

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[xandtheman3]

Xander is on his way out of the Tower when he sees her- it- vampire. He freezes. After a year of being here (almost), he has been miraculously vampire-less.

He was never told that vampires here do the face change-y thing. Even if this one's face is not like the ones he knew back home, his instinct is to reach for the stake that he tries to keep with him at all times. He points it at her, taking a defensive stance.

"Wrong place to get fang-y, vampire," Xander says and then winces. "Really rusty on the quips to evil... doers. Guess that's why it's more of a Buffy thing then a me... thing."

Right. Focusing on the staking.

It's not even that he's afraid. He could be dealing with some master vampire race here, but it feels so nice to be back in his element. There's adrenaline that's cutting out where fear should be.

[kick_ash]

This had to be a bad dream, or a nightmare. Hell, Ashley would be happy to find out it was mental manipulation of some demonic kind. Anything but to be all Tesla'd and vampire race.

Her head snapped up when she heard Xander, eyes wide. But then so was her mouth, revealing those teeth to the world.

"Vampire? What?"

Knowing it and being accused of it were not the same thing. It almost hurt.

"No,' she said, shaking her head even as her hand edged for the gun at the small of her back. Her voice sounded thick to her own ears, changed with talking around fangs. "I'm not... Really!"

She wasn't. Was she?

[xandtheman3]

Xander makes a disgusted face at the sight of those teeth.

"Vampire," he repeats in a tone of voice that says that this fact should be obvious to them both. "You." Xander gestures between them both. "You are the vampire, and I'm the guy with the stake."

The face-changey vampire is reaching for something. This is not good. He should probably stake, but what if he's wrong? What if she's more like the vampires here than the ones that killed Jesse and Jenny Calendar and who knows who else.

"Really?" Xander takes another step toward her. "Cause you might wanna talk to your fangs about that. They seem to disagree."

[kick_ash]

"The hell I am,' she snarled, sounding and looking just like what she was denying she was. It wasn't just wrapping her head around the reality of it, but knowing that the rift had only screwed with her blood. Had this been inside of her all along?

"Listen, I don't want to do something rash,' Ashley said, moving so that the gun was visible at her side. "I really don't,' she repeated, sounding more as if she were trying to convince herself and not him. But she could feel that aggression welling up within her. Daddy's blood hadn't been kind to her as a human and now, like this, she was forgetting why it wasn't a good idea.

"I didn't... The rift." Ashley shook her head. Hard. It did a little to clear the cobwebs. "I'm not a vampire," she insisted, advancing on him with a snarl.