xiii [ location: hyperion hotel, basement ].

[undoing.livejournal.com]

[ ooc | backdated to after this thread, handwaving dawn's performance of the ritual. sarah, if you'd like faith in on this, jump right on in-- same for anyone else who feels their character would be present. :> also, we can treat this like a party post with jumping around/threadjacking, etc. whatever works best for y'all. ]

Everything's foggy at first and there's shapes that, while still somewhat caught in the tail-end of the ritual's affects on him, he mistakes for others, relying on what little of his sight is working and unable to access the other senses that would give him a surer sense of who's around him. He doesn't remember Taxon. Not yet. What he thinks is happening is an echo of the past for him, of another time when his soul was ripped from him the 'wrong way'-- but then it had been of his own consenting, where here it had been a game, something out of his hands and entirely in someone else's control. To the blurry figure in the cage with him (Godric) he ventures, "Connor?" Then, turning his head towards the equally blurry figure outside the bars (Cordelia), he commands in a tone that isn't as loud or commanding as he thinks it is, "Faith. Stop. He's just--"

But then his sense of smell flares back to life with an intensity that makes him shut his eyes, shallow hard and slam his head back against the stone he's chained to with a sickening crack that would've damaged him, had he been human. It won't even cause a bump; it'll just hurt for a while, but the pain is tangible. Pain is always tangible. He understands pain, especially the self-inflicted. Right now, it's all he understands.

The scents are wrong. It doesn't fit the picture of what's supposed to be happening in his head. Connor. Where is Connor? He wants to ask, but his lips won't move and instead, the unvoiced question receives an answer in the form of a memory of a woman he can barely stand; light brown hair, twinkling hazel eyes and a smirk he would have liked to-- quite literally-- rip right off her face.

"Hits you where you live, don't it?"

"..."

"Of course I know. You lost your son. Well, gave him up."

"To save him."

"Which you did. He's happy and well adjusted now that he has no memory of you-- and the rest of the world, including your best friends, never even heard of Connor."

But, he'd spoke of him. He remembers now. Sitting in his office at Wolfram & Hart, smirking and laughing as he told Buffy of the son whose existence he'd hidden from the world. ...yet, he doesn't know why he did it. What should be an obvious answer is just a big, gaping blank in his memory; the reasoning that it wasn't him, but Angelus, not within his grasp. He hadn't done that when he was Angelus last. He'd killed a bunch of people, terrorized Fred (Fred, he smells Fred in the room and his eyes snap open as he turns his head and looks at where she's sitting on the stairs, vision still not fully back yet), gave Wes a run for his money and bit Faith, but he hadn't spoke so...callously of his son. And Connor had still been his then and not the family the Senior Partners had reassigned him to. It didn't match up like trying to fit two pieces from different puzzles together to form a picture he didn't even have the box art to.

"I-- I don't--" He tries to stand, but finds he can't. Yes, he'd been shackled then, but he hadn't been bound to anything. "Why am I chained to the wall?"

Comments

[ location: hyperion hotel, basement ]

[glowingseer.livejournal.com]

It worked, didn't it? The spell. Angel was back... right? Nevertheless, Cordelia involuntarily took a step back when she heard him speak. The voice... it was still him, that freak who spent the better part of the last few weeks terrorizing her and everyone she knew. And even those she didn't.

And then she actually heard the words. Connor? Was he looking for Connor? And... and he thought she was Faith?

She closed her eyes. Maybe he was still disoriented - after all, when the glitch ended last Christmas, Angel was also dazed and confused. Maybe it's the same this time?

Cordelia glanced at the other vampire, before biting her lip. Then, "A-Angel?"

...how she hated the catch in her voice just then.

[ location: hyperion hotel, basement ]

[undoing.livejournal.com]

His head snaps up and his eyes go first to Fred at the sound of so feminine a voice. The realization of exactly whose voice it is catches up with him belatedly and his gaze shifts from the woman on the stairs to the one standing on the other side of the bars. He squints and as his vision begins to clear, the image of Faith melts away into Cordelia.

"...Cordy? I didn't want you down here."

[ location: hyperion hotel, basement ]

[glowingseer.livejournal.com]

She frowns, brows completely drawn together this time. Okay, what? First, he thought she was Faith, and now he has the nerve to tell her he didn't want her here?

"Yeah? Well, tough," Cordelia answers, her voice hardening when anger so kindly blends with it. "What are you gonna do - throw me out of the basement? In case you didn't notice, you kinda can't."

[ location: hyperion hotel, basement ]

[undoing.livejournal.com]

It hasn't quite hit him yet. Before, he'd had the time to adjust to the disorientation, memory gaps and the following rush of information that filled in the holes during the time it took his body to pull out of the affects of the orpheus while Faith kept Connor busy. And then, Cordelia had been upstairs. Why was she down here now?

He tugs at his arms, still bound to the wall. "Gunn, get me out of this."

...only, Gunn isn't there. His memory hadn't kicked in yet. It had taken a while the first and second times, too. The gypsy had told him he was a monster and did bad things, but to Angel, who'd thought he was still Liam from the last soul-having recollections he had didn't understand how he could possibly be such a thing until his mind had cleared and the memories had fallen back into place. And the second...he hadn't realized what was going on and it hadn't set in until after Buffy had stabbed him with that sword and sent him to hell.

[ location: hyperion hotel, basement ]

[glowingseer.livejournal.com]

Cordelia glances at Fred, silently asking the woman what the hell was going on. Then she refocuses on Angel. She contemplates on going inside the cage, but for now she contents herself with stepping closer until she can hold on to the cold, steel bars with both hands.

Maybe this was because he'd been Angelus for so long, so the transition was... harder? Longer? She isn't sure. But her heart is already breaking for him now, because when he remembers...

Dear god, when he remembers everything...

"Angel," she calls, her voice soft again. "Angel. Gunn isn't here. It's just... you, me, and Fred. Connor isn't here, too."

She hadn't meant to exclude Godric, but she was talking about those from their family in LA who's stuck here in Taxon. Hopefully, the other vampire won't take it against her.

[ location: hyperion hotel, basement ] last edit, I promise >_>;;

[supercompacted.livejournal.com]

Fred is just as confused, despite her experience- and a little surprised to hear Gunn's name out of his mouth. She comes to the same conclusion just before Cordelia does. He doesn't remember yet. When he does....

She rubs her arms, as if she were cold, and finally stands from the folded-up position she'd taken on the stairs. It wasn't hiding, exactly, she's just used to taking up small amounts of space when she feels she has to. She takes a couple steps toward the cage and weighs whether she should jog his memory by mentioning Godric or not. She decides against it, ultimately. His presence will do that job soon enough.

Not knowing what to say isn't a new sensation, but it's one she dislikes when it comes to her friends. Eventually she does realize what she can say- "Glad to have you back, Angel."

While the words are sincere, the smile that accompanies it is also fairly weak. That might be the sense of deja-vu from back in LA, when Angelus pretended their first attempt worked. Things here are definitely different, as there's no skull or smoke or instant apologies. She's glad for the differences, because it means this isn't fake- she just can't help but remember when it was.

[ location: hyperion hotel, basement ]

[faderbroderson]

Godric, for his part, had retreated to the shadows when it became clear that Angel was disoriented, and now he lingers there. He's right within reach if he's needed, but it's Angel's loved ones who Angel needs now, so he respectfully keeps out of the way.

[ location: hyperion, upstairs ]

[stacked]

Faith's not good with emotion. She knows that, and so does everybody else in Taxon who's spent more than thirty seconds around her. If Angel was by himself down there, she'd maybe give it a try (for him, just for him) but his sidekicks have that covered.

So instead she's up in the lobby with a beer in hand and legs stretched out on the floor in front of her, head tipped back and eyes closed. It's been a long fucking month.

[ ooc: OPEN FOR ANYONE Faith is just hanging back until later. ]

[ location: hyperion, upstairs ]

[undoing.livejournal.com]

Angel's not good with emotion, either. He's never handled this well and at least last time he'd had the distraction that was Jasmine's possession of Cordelia to distract him and focus his attention on something that wasn't what he'd done while the monster was let out of the box. He can't do that now and what he'd done here was so much worse in comparison. He was bad at dealing with it, hated that everyone looked sorry. Why? It was him. It wasn't him, but it was him. And here, there was no punishment delivered in the form of being thrust into hell or his son losing his mind and being forced to kill (or attempt, rather, given how that had gone down in the end) the woman he loved to save the world. Here, there was only him and the knowledge of all he'd done and the people who were witness to all of it.

Right now, there was only one thing he could do and it was the same thing he'd done back in Romania after realization had set in: run. And run he did as soon as he could get up those stairs and away from those looks and comforting touches, throwing open the door to the basement and storming through it and past the Slayer sitting on the ground, bound for the door, fully intending on walking right out of the hotel and to a somewhere that was elsewhere.

[ location: hyperion, upstairs ]

[stacked]

Faith's on her second beer by now, still leaning against the wall when Angel tears up the stairs and moves right by her on his way to the door.

"So, big guy, you got two choices. Stop and talk a while willingly, or I can beat your ass down and we can do it after." Another slug of beer. "So, really you got one choice, but the first way is gonna be wicked easier on you."

She feels for him, she really does. But Angel never let her run away from her problems, and now she can finally return the favor.

[ location: hyperion, upstairs ]

[undoing.livejournal.com]

Angel stops just shy of the door, a shuddering, frustrating sigh escaping him. If anyone else had told him what she'd she said, he would've ignored them and kept on his merry (well, not-so-merry) way to that afore mentioned elsewhere to get back to work on skulking professionally, but this was Faith. She got it. The fact that she was even here, even if she hadn't been downstairs with Fred and Cordy, meant the world to him-- though at the moment, he didn't feel like he deserved it. A stake to the chest felt more deserving and part of him wanted to challenge her, knowing fully that he couldn't take her while still recovering from the ritual's affects, just to see if she'd do it. She wasn't the only one with suicidal tendencies.

Slowly, he turns around to face her. "What do you want me to say? I'm back? Monster's in the box again? That I wish I didn't remember how good it felt to snap her arm like a twig?"

[ location: hyperion, upstairs ]

[stacked]

She doesn't bother to look up from the worn spot on the leg of her jeans, quietly sipping at the beer in her hand while Angel hesitates by the door. Odds are good he'll make the right call here, and if he doesn't she can always outrun him and slap him down when that happens. Doesn't mean she's bringing out the weapons though, because the only death wish she respects in this fight club of two is her own. There's pretty much no situation Faith can think of where she could take Angel out. She's working on the hero gig, day by day, letting the good fight matter more than her own shit; but Angel's in a category all his own. Comes down to it, she might just let the world burn if things ever shook down that way.

The face she gives him in response is two parts bitch please, one part nonchalant, with a little bit of sympathy hidden in the cracks between. "Yeah, that bullshit? Not gonna work on me, babe." Another long swallow of beer, then deliberately callous (because he needs this, somebody to shake him out of the funk he'll wallow in if they let him; and because Faith is so fucking not the grownup here, and she's only pretending to be one until he takes the mantle back) she shrugs, stretches lazily. "So freaking what, your switch flips for the kinky shit? Pretty sure I wrote the book on that one. So if you're looking for somebody to judge you, B's got this big freaking castle down the way, can't miss it."

[ location: hyperion, upstairs ]

[undoing.livejournal.com]

Any other day, she would've gotten an equally 'bitch please' response to that accompanied with a question asking if she thought he was stupid enough to go to the castle right now. But this isn't any other day, this is the day after-- the minutes after he's been walking around for the past two months as the Scourge of Taxon and showing the people here just why Angelus is the worst vampire ever recorded. He's ashamed, he's hurt, he wants it all over, so very selfishly so. The mission, the shanshu... None of it is worth putting people through that kind of torment when these alien hosts can simply flip a switch and make him go Alfred Hitchcock on the whole lot of them. He was in control before and only he, whether it be by a moment of perfect happiness or the dark magic of a shaman, had the power to let Angelus out. Wasn't the same here and that, beyond anything else, terrified him.

He'd be lying if he said that he wasn't half-expecting that switch to be thrown again any moment now.

"Then tell me what bullshit is going to work, Faith. I'm not exactly in the talking mood at the moment."

[ location: hyperion, upstairs ]

[stacked]

Not to get bitchy about it, but yeah. Faith does think he's stupid enough, today. She knows this one, what it's like to be so broken up inside that you go looking for someone to make the outside match. And like hell is she letting him turn to anybody else on this one, because she gets it. He wants a beating, she can give him that first, but he's going to deal with this shit if it kills them both.

"Should've thought of that one before dragging my ass back into the land of the living. Twice." She tosses it out offhandedly, but it's a reminder, even if Angel might be too in his own head to see it. He saved her, pulled her back from the brink when everybody else wrote her off as better off finishing the job. Now it's her turn. "And fine, whatever. I can beat your ass first, if that's what you're looking for. I owe you one anyway."

[ location: hyperion, upstairs ]

[faderbroderson]

Once the cage is open, Godric leaves Angel to his self-recriminations and Cordelia and Fred to try helplessly to soothe them. He isn't surprised to find Faith upstairs; he could hear her heartbeat, smell her unique scent and her beer even from downstairs. When he crosses into the lobby, the first thing his eyes alight on is the long line of her bared neck. They just as quickly slide off to search out a hatch. He's hungrier than he thought he was, and he realizes that it's been days. He must have lost track of time.

There is fortunately a hatch in the lobby, and he quietly gets a glass of AB. He isn't avoiding Faith, but he's not actively trying to disturb her, either. It feels like a storm has passed, and everyone deserves their moment of peace before it's time to start repairs.

[ location: hyperion, upstairs ]

[stacked]

Faith can feel Godric, even with her eyes closed. Just Slayer knowledge of her surroundings, sure, but also that deep down itch that tells her whatever's coming around the corner is dead, and needs to be put down with prejudice. It's an instinct thing, mostly.

Patting the floor beside her, she doesn't even bother to open her eyes or indicate she can tell he's around any other way. The month hasn't gotten any shorter since she polished off half the beer, and it's not like he couldn't wipe the floor with her ass either way. "Come on, pop a squat." Because that is how Faith addresses Jesuspires who have fed on her previously, obviously. "Floor's got plenty of room."

[ location: hyperion, upstairs ]

[faderbroderson]

At the invitation, Godric takes a few big sips of blood before turning back to the hatch, briefly, to grab another bottle of beer for Faith. Sliding down the wall to sit beside her, he holds out the bottle for her. Because clearly what Faith needs is more alcohol.

[ location: hyperion, upstairs ]

[stacked]

Faith finally opens her eyes and takes the second bottle with a grin. "Thanks, I'm gonna need that in a second." She yawns, stretching her arms over her head and arching her back, meanwhile doing nothing to help cut down on the the number of Slayer to cat comparisons that always seem to pop up. "So, heard you had a hand in taking the big guy down. Sucks that it came to that, but for what it's worth: thanks."

Two honest thank yous in the space of a few minutes. Everyone hold tight, Taxon may explode.

[ location: hyperion, upstairs ]

[faderbroderson]

A beat. When Taxon fails to explode, Godric responds.

"There's no need to thank me." Well, maybe for the beer. "River did most of the work." And he can't help but smile a little at the memory of a tiny whirlwind River making short work of a stunned and outraged Angelus. He takes another sip of blood, more leisurely this time.

[ location: hyperion hotel, angel's room ]

[undoing.livejournal.com]

Sometime later, Angel's still up in his room, alone save for the mess of broken, smashed and torn objects laying in pieces in around him. His hands are now cut and bloody from his, as Faith had so properly labeled it 'bitchfit' on top of the slashes and bruises he's still bearing from his fight with River, but he feels better now-- as better as someone who spent the past two months killing, tormenting, and feeding off the population in a sense he wishes wasn't so literal.

He should get up; move around a bit, wash himself off, get something to eat (pig's blood, pig's blood, no human even if he's craving it from the traces of it left in his mouth from the last time Angelus fed-- his mouth, he should wash out his mouth and rid himself of the taste) since his body's going to need the nourishment to heal from the fight, the ritual and the 'bitchfit.' Angel doesn't, though. He just...sits there, in that chair, staring blankly at the smashed glass of the doors to the terrace.

[ location: hyperion hotel, angel's room ]

[glowingseer.livejournal.com]

...if Fred tries to stop her one more time, Cordelia would really not hold back and probably hit her, or something. See if she didn't. Okay, so she kinda gets that Angel needs to be alone for quite some time - but damnit, the last thing anyone would want is for the vampire to revert to his old, brooding, holed-up-in-a-dark-corner-somewhere self. Which is very likely now, given the circumstances.

So now Cordelia is standing right outside Angel's room. The problem is, she doesn't know what to say - or even if she should say anything at all. Angel's actions in the basement earlier - telling her he doesn't want her there, saying don't, running the hell away from her - were real loud signs of something she didn't want to acknowledge, but damn if she was going to leave Angel alone in this.

He may not need her, but she needed him.

[ location: hyperion hotel, angel's room ]

[undoing.livejournal.com]

Angel would have to thank Fred later for doing that for him, but it was what he needed at the time. He couldn't let her see him in that fit of rage and pain, to be as raw and open about what he was feeling as he'd been able to with Faith. With the Slayer, it was easier, because it was a sort of 'You showed me yours, I'll show you mine,' sort of deal where he'd seen her in such a state, so letting her see him in his was the natural thing to do. Plus, she'd done what he'd needed: not put up with his shit. She'd stopped him from running out of the hotel, from leaving, and for the moment, from grabbing that broken table leg he kept shifting his gaze to and just ending it all. That little voice in the back of his head told him that the majority of Taxon would be glad to see him dust, but that scent that lingered just behind his reminds him that there are those who would be just the opposite.

"Come in, Cordelia."

[ location: hyperion hotel, angel's room ]

[glowingseer.livejournal.com]

She takes a deep breath, and prepares for the inevitable.

Cordelia grabs the doorknob and twists it slowly, silently - and is not surprised to find the room bathed in darkness. Dismayed and disappointed, but not shocked. Her eyes are adjusting to the absence of light - which explains why she's moving slowly towards the vampire, mindful of the broken pieces of stuff that littered the floor.

"You know, that never fails to creep me out - that sniffing thing," she says, trying so hard to make her voice come out cheerful and, well, normal. "Or were you able to hear my heartbeat? Or both? In any case, I guess hide and seek is one less game we can play, considering you'll beat me every single freakin' time."

[ location: hyperion hotel, angel's room ]

[undoing.livejournal.com]

"Both," he answers, voice tired and barely above a whisper. In truth, her heartbeat sang out louder to him than her familiar, comforting scent had; it was a reminder of what Angelus had so freely took from people in acting on that predatory nature of their demon and what he refused to with the soul he possessed and his evil alter ego didn't. He was going to have to rehone that control again.

[ location: hyperion hotel, angel's room ]

[glowingseer.livejournal.com]

Okay, so Plan A failed. Cordelia bites her lip, then sinks on the edge of his bed. It seemed safe to sit there, as it was spared from the brunt of his anger. She keeps her eyes off the broken, wooden furniture however, and doesn't entertain thoughts of what he could have done if he were a lesser man.

She twists her hands on her lap, still unsure of what to say. Everything that came to mind seemed so stupid, so... well, simple, and not helpful at all. Cordelia opens her mouth, and shuts it the next second, as she debates on how to battle this seemingly endless silence that has befallen them. Mouth, don't fail me now.

"I'm here for you. Okay? I won't leave." Even if he tries to drive her away.