So, So Not Los Angeles Anymore | Saturday Fandom Time
There were many things that could be said for Angel's car -- it was a classic, it was a convertible, it drove smoothly enough. But one thing that could never be said for it was that it was able to accomodate seven people with any degree of comfort.
Fortunately, as Wesley (who was squeezed in the front seat between Angel and Lorne) recited from the spellbook and Angel drove forward into the resulting ring of light that it created, the process of transporting themselves from the parking lot of the Paramount Studios film lot to a forest clearing in the middle of Pylea was quick enough.
So quick, in fact, that no one noticed the spellbook flying out of the open top of the car and landing on the pavement.
Oops?
Angel
The flashing bright colors that made up the portal meant that it took a minute for Angel to realize the number-one thing that was different about their new location once the car came to a stop. Yes, they were now in the middle of a forest clearing rather than a city film studio, but the other big difference had more to do with the time of day it was.
Which, if you were a vampire, was fire o'clock.
So he did a very un-Angel-like thing and started to flail. "The sun. Daylight. Quick, hand me a blanket. Hand me a blanket or I'm gonna catch on fire!" He tugged off his jacket and made to pull it over his head, yelling, "I'm gonna catch on fire!"
Except... not so much?
He glanced down at his hands. "Why am I not on fire?"
Wesley
Wesley was... about as mystified as Angel was, really. "Well... it is another dimension," he offered. "Perhaps their sun..."
Tara
"Suns," Tara pointed out, also looking baffled. (And grateful to have arrived in one piece.) "Look up. They, uh, have two of them. Maybe it ... changes the light."
Loki
"Magic," Loki suggested in a blase tone. Because the vampire was still sadly alive.
Undead.
Whatever.
Alex
"That's all it is anyway with vampires," Alex agreed, but he didn't sound quite as blase because, "Who cares, get off me!" was the next thing out of his mouth, shoving at Loki. Ew.
Susan
"Does it really matter as long as none of our party's actually burnt?" Susan asked, looking around at their surroundings. Somehow she'd expected something different. "We're sure this is the right place?"
Lorne
"Oh yeah," Lorne said with a none-too-polite roll of his eyes as he shoved the door open and stepped outside the car. "Home sweet hell."
Angel
Angel laughed out loud at that -- so you could tell that something was terribly, terribly wrong -- and stepped out of the car. "And I'm not on fire!"
Yes, Angel. That point had been made.
Wesley
"And we're together," Wesley added brightly. "And we didn't even merge into a freakish seven-person Siamese twin!"
Wasn't it great to know that that had been a risk?
Angel
"Can everyone just notice how much fire I'm not on?" Angel insisted, gazing up at the sky with a kind of wonder.
Tara
"Congratulations?" Tara offered awkwardly. "It ... must have been a while."
She said a silent prayer of thanks about not having become part of a
Siamese septuplet.
"Should we get going?"
Lorne
"Excellent idea," Lorne declared. "But first, may I suggest we find some way to hide the car? It'll be a little conspicuous, seeing as we don't have convertibles in this world." Beat. "Or you know, cars."
Angel
"Yes," Angel agreed with a clap of his hands. "Let's start gathering some branches, some brush. Anything to cover up the car." He paused, scoped out the area, and then -- "Oh, hey, look, there's some over in that patch of sun." He hopped out over the top of the driver's side door, exclaiming, "I'll get them!"
Aww. He was like a puppy. A hyper, occasionally blood-sucking puppy.
So... Thori.
Loki
Special is what it was.
"I suggest we kill the vampire before he ends up prancing through a field of posies," Loki offered. "For the good of the group."
Susan
This boy was going to end up on the business end of a lecture by the time this was over, Susan could see that now.
"I suggest we skip that part," she said dryly.
Wesley
"Seconded," Wesley said dryly, opening the door and stepping out of the car. Then he paused as he began to realize that something was missing.
"Wait," he said after a moment. "Who, ah. Who had the book?"
That would be you, Wes.
Tara
"Uh ..." Tara looked down at her own hands like she expected the book to materialize. "I'm, um, pretty sure you did, didn't you?"
Wesley
Wesley paused to consider that.
Yeah, he totally had had it, it was true.
"Ah," he said, peering back into the car to see if it was on the floor ro something. "Well. Er. I certainly don't anymore --" He cut himself off and sighed heavily as a prospect occured to him. "Loki?"
Loki
"Yes, I have hidden your book away on my person," Loki replied dryly as he stretched to show off the complete lack of places to hide such a book. "For I am an evil god, only here to vex you."
Wesley
"Sounds like a confession of guilt, to me," Lorne grumbled.
"Now, hold on," Wesley interrupted. "All right. Say he's telling the truth." Wes, apparently, was choosing to blatantly disregard the helpful flowchart about how to deal with Loki. Rookie mistake, Wes. "Now, the book was in the car. That much we know. But -- but perhaps -- perhaps its only function is to open portals to Pylea. In which case it would be useless in Pylea and therefore -- therefore it only exists in my own dimension."
Yes, he was rather proud of that reasoning. Cracked as it was.
Lorne
Lorne sighed. Sighed a lot.
"You know," he said, "ordinarily I take bad news really well -- I just drown my sorrows in an ice-cold gin and tonic, little squeeze of lime -- except where they don't have them here!"
Yeah, he even stomped his foot at that. Mature, Lorne.
Tara
"Well, um, we ... kind of aren't going to get one for you by staying here and ... fighting over who lost the book," Tara sighed. "Let's just put those branches over the car and go."
She felt like she was shepherding unruly kindergarteners on the worst field trip ever.
Angel
"Got some!" Angel said, scampering over with an armful of branches. He was having way too much fun with this daylight thing, it needed to be said.
"Okay. Let's move."
Lorne
"Just remember," Lorne cautioned the children others as they rounded a corner in the direction of what he swore was the town square. "Keep your heads down. Xenophobia's kind of a watchword around here."
He squinted up the road, where a long line of primitive... house-like structures were stationed. After a moment he pointed one out. "Now, right over there is Blix's house -- a boyhood chum of mine. Ah, we were the best of buds, always playing games, watching out for each other, close as a Torto demon and its parasite."
Beat.
"Anyone want to come in with me?"
Loki
Loki narrowed his eyes at the 'town', taking in every detail before sniffing and turning away. It was a foolish plan. Not even a real plan at all.
So. Pardon him for being less than thrilled to walk into the hovel of unknown demons. He really ought to have brought Ikol with him.
"Would anything keep us from going?"
Lorne
Lorne sighed. "What did I just say?"
He rolled his eyes. "Wait here. I'll make the approach. Wouldn't want you all going inside and getting beaten to death with sticks." Beat. "Well, most of you, anyway."
That was rude.
Susan
"Yes, I'm sure this will lessen our chances of that," said Susan.
Why yes, she did have to mouth off to everyone.
Tara
"Are they ... going to be happy to see you?" Tara asked Lorne. And tried not to sound dubious about it.
Lorne
Lorne looked a little dubious himself, but... "No way to know for sure until I try," he declared, and set off for the front door.
Oh god. This wouldn't be good.
Kennedy
Know what else hadn't been good? Kennedy copping an attitude and running her mouth off in what passed for a tavern in Pylea. Now, granted, this was probably inevitable anyway because A) you try to keep your mouth shut after being called a cow for about the five dozenth time, and B) Kennedy.
How was this relevant to anything? Well, it resulted in Kennedy tearing down the street toward the group with a small crowd of pissed-off locals lumbering after her, oh, right about the same time Lorne was heading toward that door. And since she kept sneaking glances over her shoulder to see if they were catching up, someone standing in her path might just get bowled over.
Tara
"That girl running over there kind of looks like Kennedy," Tara observed, softly but clearly alarmed. She wasn't in Kennedy's path -- she was a bit back, and to one side -- but close enough to see the brunette, and as the distance was closed --
"Oh my god, I think it is Kennedy." She flailed a bit. "Do we chase her?"
Wesley
"I rather think she'll be here soon enough," Wesley pointed out. He squinted a bit more in her direction to verify that it really was her and to get a good look at the people hurtling after her, then added, "With... that angry mob."
How thoughtful of her to bring one of those along, really.
Loki
"...I am never travelling to a foreign dimension with you all of you again."
Susan
"Let's all agree to agree, shall we?" said Susan. "Now about the angry mob."
Angel
Angel cleared his throat. "I'll take the fifteen on the left," he announced. There were almost certainly fewer than fifteen of them, though at that distance it was difficult to be exact. Pointing at Wes, he said, "You take the ten on the right. And the rest of you..." He trailed off.
He had such confidence in their abilities, clearly. If by 'such confidence' you meant 'none at all.'
Kennedy
"About time you guys showed up. Brought you a present," Kennedy yelled as she barreled toward them, somehow managing to spare a quick smile for Wes and Tara.
Quick, though, because. You know. Mob bearing down and all.
Tara
Tara glanced to Loki and Susan. "Do we know a spell to slow them down" she asked. "F-freeze, or, uh, stop, or ... ice missiles, or something?"
To Kennedy, she added, "Hi, honey!"
Wesley
"Kennedy," Wesley said, relieved. "Good to see you."
Meanwhile, that angry mob wasn't going to take care of itself, so he got to work unstrapping the weapons at his belt. "Slow them down, if you can," he suggested to Tara, while managing to multitask to the extent of tossing Kennedy an extra knife he'd happened to bring along. "Loki, Susan -- if there's anything you two can do to help her. And Alex..." Well, that sword of his looked fancy enough. "I trust you can fight?"
Loki
"Or, we could run," Loki suggested, edging away from the group.
Lorne
"I'm liking that plan," Lorne seconded immediately.
Then he made a face. Yeah, that had actually hurt to say, a little bit.
Wesley
"Well," said Wesley loudly over their banter, unsheathing his sword, "as a precursor to that, if there are no further objections...?"
Tara
"Oh, um -- I'm good." Tara confirmed. She tossed a spell to slow their pursuers over her shoulder, not watching for long enough to see if it would work, and then ran like hell.
[[nfb/nfi, ooc is love. preplayed with the delightful brat_inslayage, the majestic life_inshadow, the splendid inaskinnyway, the spectacular abitlowkey, and the fantastic thegodofxbox. plot and occasional lines taken from angel 2x20 "over the rainbow." follows this.]]
Fortunately, as Wesley (who was squeezed in the front seat between Angel and Lorne) recited from the spellbook and Angel drove forward into the resulting ring of light that it created, the process of transporting themselves from the parking lot of the Paramount Studios film lot to a forest clearing in the middle of Pylea was quick enough.
So quick, in fact, that no one noticed the spellbook flying out of the open top of the car and landing on the pavement.
Oops?
Angel
The flashing bright colors that made up the portal meant that it took a minute for Angel to realize the number-one thing that was different about their new location once the car came to a stop. Yes, they were now in the middle of a forest clearing rather than a city film studio, but the other big difference had more to do with the time of day it was.
Which, if you were a vampire, was fire o'clock.
So he did a very un-Angel-like thing and started to flail. "The sun. Daylight. Quick, hand me a blanket. Hand me a blanket or I'm gonna catch on fire!" He tugged off his jacket and made to pull it over his head, yelling, "I'm gonna catch on fire!"
Except... not so much?
He glanced down at his hands. "Why am I not on fire?"
Wesley
Wesley was... about as mystified as Angel was, really. "Well... it is another dimension," he offered. "Perhaps their sun..."
Tara
"Suns," Tara pointed out, also looking baffled. (And grateful to have arrived in one piece.) "Look up. They, uh, have two of them. Maybe it ... changes the light."
Loki
"Magic," Loki suggested in a blase tone. Because the vampire was still sadly alive.
Undead.
Whatever.
Alex
"That's all it is anyway with vampires," Alex agreed, but he didn't sound quite as blase because, "Who cares, get off me!" was the next thing out of his mouth, shoving at Loki. Ew.
Susan
"Does it really matter as long as none of our party's actually burnt?" Susan asked, looking around at their surroundings. Somehow she'd expected something different. "We're sure this is the right place?"
Lorne
"Oh yeah," Lorne said with a none-too-polite roll of his eyes as he shoved the door open and stepped outside the car. "Home sweet hell."
Angel
Angel laughed out loud at that -- so you could tell that something was terribly, terribly wrong -- and stepped out of the car. "And I'm not on fire!"
Yes, Angel. That point had been made.
Wesley
"And we're together," Wesley added brightly. "And we didn't even merge into a freakish seven-person Siamese twin!"
Wasn't it great to know that that had been a risk?
Angel
"Can everyone just notice how much fire I'm not on?" Angel insisted, gazing up at the sky with a kind of wonder.
Tara
"Congratulations?" Tara offered awkwardly. "It ... must have been a while."
She said a silent prayer of thanks about not having become part of a
Siamese septuplet.
"Should we get going?"
Lorne
"Excellent idea," Lorne declared. "But first, may I suggest we find some way to hide the car? It'll be a little conspicuous, seeing as we don't have convertibles in this world." Beat. "Or you know, cars."
Angel
"Yes," Angel agreed with a clap of his hands. "Let's start gathering some branches, some brush. Anything to cover up the car." He paused, scoped out the area, and then -- "Oh, hey, look, there's some over in that patch of sun." He hopped out over the top of the driver's side door, exclaiming, "I'll get them!"
Aww. He was like a puppy. A hyper, occasionally blood-sucking puppy.
So... Thori.
Loki
Special is what it was.
"I suggest we kill the vampire before he ends up prancing through a field of posies," Loki offered. "For the good of the group."
Susan
This boy was going to end up on the business end of a lecture by the time this was over, Susan could see that now.
"I suggest we skip that part," she said dryly.
Wesley
"Seconded," Wesley said dryly, opening the door and stepping out of the car. Then he paused as he began to realize that something was missing.
"Wait," he said after a moment. "Who, ah. Who had the book?"
That would be you, Wes.
Tara
"Uh ..." Tara looked down at her own hands like she expected the book to materialize. "I'm, um, pretty sure you did, didn't you?"
Wesley
Wesley paused to consider that.
Yeah, he totally had had it, it was true.
"Ah," he said, peering back into the car to see if it was on the floor ro something. "Well. Er. I certainly don't anymore --" He cut himself off and sighed heavily as a prospect occured to him. "Loki?"
Loki
"Yes, I have hidden your book away on my person," Loki replied dryly as he stretched to show off the complete lack of places to hide such a book. "For I am an evil god, only here to vex you."
Wesley
"Sounds like a confession of guilt, to me," Lorne grumbled.
"Now, hold on," Wesley interrupted. "All right. Say he's telling the truth." Wes, apparently, was choosing to blatantly disregard the helpful flowchart about how to deal with Loki. Rookie mistake, Wes. "Now, the book was in the car. That much we know. But -- but perhaps -- perhaps its only function is to open portals to Pylea. In which case it would be useless in Pylea and therefore -- therefore it only exists in my own dimension."
Yes, he was rather proud of that reasoning. Cracked as it was.
Lorne
Lorne sighed. Sighed a lot.
"You know," he said, "ordinarily I take bad news really well -- I just drown my sorrows in an ice-cold gin and tonic, little squeeze of lime -- except where they don't have them here!"
Yeah, he even stomped his foot at that. Mature, Lorne.
Tara
"Well, um, we ... kind of aren't going to get one for you by staying here and ... fighting over who lost the book," Tara sighed. "Let's just put those branches over the car and go."
She felt like she was shepherding unruly kindergarteners on the worst field trip ever.
Angel
"Got some!" Angel said, scampering over with an armful of branches. He was having way too much fun with this daylight thing, it needed to be said.
"Okay. Let's move."
Lorne
"Just remember," Lorne cautioned the children others as they rounded a corner in the direction of what he swore was the town square. "Keep your heads down. Xenophobia's kind of a watchword around here."
He squinted up the road, where a long line of primitive... house-like structures were stationed. After a moment he pointed one out. "Now, right over there is Blix's house -- a boyhood chum of mine. Ah, we were the best of buds, always playing games, watching out for each other, close as a Torto demon and its parasite."
Beat.
"Anyone want to come in with me?"
Loki
Loki narrowed his eyes at the 'town', taking in every detail before sniffing and turning away. It was a foolish plan. Not even a real plan at all.
So. Pardon him for being less than thrilled to walk into the hovel of unknown demons. He really ought to have brought Ikol with him.
"Would anything keep us from going?"
Lorne
Lorne sighed. "What did I just say?"
He rolled his eyes. "Wait here. I'll make the approach. Wouldn't want you all going inside and getting beaten to death with sticks." Beat. "Well, most of you, anyway."
That was rude.
Susan
"Yes, I'm sure this will lessen our chances of that," said Susan.
Why yes, she did have to mouth off to everyone.
Tara
"Are they ... going to be happy to see you?" Tara asked Lorne. And tried not to sound dubious about it.
Lorne
Lorne looked a little dubious himself, but... "No way to know for sure until I try," he declared, and set off for the front door.
Oh god. This wouldn't be good.
Kennedy
Know what else hadn't been good? Kennedy copping an attitude and running her mouth off in what passed for a tavern in Pylea. Now, granted, this was probably inevitable anyway because A) you try to keep your mouth shut after being called a cow for about the five dozenth time, and B) Kennedy.
How was this relevant to anything? Well, it resulted in Kennedy tearing down the street toward the group with a small crowd of pissed-off locals lumbering after her, oh, right about the same time Lorne was heading toward that door. And since she kept sneaking glances over her shoulder to see if they were catching up, someone standing in her path might just get bowled over.
Tara
"That girl running over there kind of looks like Kennedy," Tara observed, softly but clearly alarmed. She wasn't in Kennedy's path -- she was a bit back, and to one side -- but close enough to see the brunette, and as the distance was closed --
"Oh my god, I think it is Kennedy." She flailed a bit. "Do we chase her?"
Wesley
"I rather think she'll be here soon enough," Wesley pointed out. He squinted a bit more in her direction to verify that it really was her and to get a good look at the people hurtling after her, then added, "With... that angry mob."
How thoughtful of her to bring one of those along, really.
Loki
"...I am never travelling to a foreign dimension with you all of you again."
Susan
"Let's all agree to agree, shall we?" said Susan. "Now about the angry mob."
Angel
Angel cleared his throat. "I'll take the fifteen on the left," he announced. There were almost certainly fewer than fifteen of them, though at that distance it was difficult to be exact. Pointing at Wes, he said, "You take the ten on the right. And the rest of you..." He trailed off.
He had such confidence in their abilities, clearly. If by 'such confidence' you meant 'none at all.'
Kennedy
"About time you guys showed up. Brought you a present," Kennedy yelled as she barreled toward them, somehow managing to spare a quick smile for Wes and Tara.
Quick, though, because. You know. Mob bearing down and all.
Tara
Tara glanced to Loki and Susan. "Do we know a spell to slow them down" she asked. "F-freeze, or, uh, stop, or ... ice missiles, or something?"
To Kennedy, she added, "Hi, honey!"
Wesley
"Kennedy," Wesley said, relieved. "Good to see you."
Meanwhile, that angry mob wasn't going to take care of itself, so he got to work unstrapping the weapons at his belt. "Slow them down, if you can," he suggested to Tara, while managing to multitask to the extent of tossing Kennedy an extra knife he'd happened to bring along. "Loki, Susan -- if there's anything you two can do to help her. And Alex..." Well, that sword of his looked fancy enough. "I trust you can fight?"
Loki
"Or, we could run," Loki suggested, edging away from the group.
Lorne
"I'm liking that plan," Lorne seconded immediately.
Then he made a face. Yeah, that had actually hurt to say, a little bit.
Wesley
"Well," said Wesley loudly over their banter, unsheathing his sword, "as a precursor to that, if there are no further objections...?"
Tara
"Oh, um -- I'm good." Tara confirmed. She tossed a spell to slow their pursuers over her shoulder, not watching for long enough to see if it would work, and then ran like hell.
[[nfb/nfi, ooc is love. preplayed with the delightful brat_inslayage, the majestic life_inshadow, the splendid inaskinnyway, the spectacular abitlowkey, and the fantastic thegodofxbox. plot and occasional lines taken from angel 2x20 "over the rainbow." follows this.]]