taxonomites | xxvii [ location: sunnydale playground ] / [ visual ].

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xxvii [ location: sunnydale playground ] / [ visual ].

Taxon was a very capricious place, unpredictable and unbalanced like a scale that kept tipping back and forth without ever finding it's center. All this nonstop disequilibrium was beginning to wear thin on the vampire. Angel was restless, tired and frustrated all at the same time, and while that was pretty much the norm for him, being here and not having any control over anything, whether it be comings and goings or glitches or the world almost ending. None of that, did they have a say in. Regardless of the fact that there were certain elements of life here in Taxon that made it not quite the horrible experience some made it out to be, not being able to affect anything made being here near unbearable at times.

Angel liked being in control and hated being manipulated and being told what to do, but most of all he hated being unable to rebel against the unique sort of oppression the aliens placed on their captives. Defiance was at the very core of his person, something that was a key part of him long before he became a vampire; something his demon nature capitalized upon and thrived on. Only one person had been able to get away with pushing his buttons, giving him orders and revoking his right to take a stand - and that woman was long dead, twice over and more importantly, not these goddamn aliens.

It was only natural for him to seek out a constant for balance when the that which wasn't began to grate on him more so than before. (Classic bottler. Eating, eating, eating away until that cap came unscrewed and that which was put aside came boiling to the surface.) Someone whose presence he'd always found soothing, who was the person he'd known longest in the world now that said woman - Darla - was gone.

He went to the playground first and would try the forest next if she wasn't there.

"Drusilla?"

[ ooc | backdated to before spike's glitch. sorry i didn't get this up sooner, emma! today was a busier than i anticipated. ♥ ]

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In a move that was very reminiscent of the vampire he was before the gypsy curse, Angel lifted her hand and gave her a twirl with the expertise of someone who knew how to dance to the steps of the proper dances of days long gone. None of this modern madness that was more seizure than it was skill, but real dancing with rules and patterns to be followed. In retrospect, the rules of dancing were perhaps the only rules he followed and hadn't rebelled against back then.

"They said you took Cordelia shopping when she was glitched," he put simply. No accusation, no jump to what-if conclusions, just what had happened before Wesley stepped in - or so he was told.

Moving with the elegance of a dancer - albeit a dancer that moved to her own music - Drusilla twirled joyfully, her white skirt and dark hair fanning out around her.

"We were going to buy dresses," she said, thinking of the times she and Darla had been shopping together. Such fashionable outfits! Grandmother had been terribly good at picking out the right colours and she hadn't taken any nonsense from the shop keepers.

"I was trying to be nice," she added, with a touch of bitterness. Which was true, though she wasn't entirely sure why. For him, perhaps? Because the soul - the filthy little soul that had infected her for too long and not for long enough - had twisted her mind even further? Just to see if she could get away with it? It didn't matter. It hadn't worked.

Angel couldn't hear Drusilla's music, but in continuing on with this Angelus-like pattern he'd struck, he tried to follow the steps of her dance. To make up for the lack of tune, he pulled up a classical piece in his mind and played it - a good, slow piece, perfectly suited to dancing. And dance he did, pulling her back in after that twirl; one hand in hers, the other at her hip as he moved back and forth to the music of his own version of an unheard song.

"Nice to Cordelia," he commented as they danced. "And here I thought you didn't like her much."

"I don't," she answered, as honest as the moonlight. Her eyes were closed, allowing her to focus on the music, but she didn't miss a step. If anything, she willed the universe to adjust it's song and follow the Angel Beast's rhythm. You could do that, you see, if you asked nicely. If you were all politeness. "But you do."

That made her important. Not in the same way the Dawn bird was important - not integral, not a vital component to the way lives were lived and lost - but important enough.

Angel's eyes, in contrast, were open, watching his childe as she confirmed that she didn't like Cordelia, but acknowledged that he did. It made sense to him then, just why Drusilla had done what Wesley and Cordelia herself had interpreted as a malicious act.

"You were being nice to her," he ventured. "For me."

"Yes," she said, because she had no reason to lie. She opened her eyes to look up at him, trying to fit a name to a reaction that she didn't fully understand. He wasn't cross. Wasn't he supposed to be cross at her for getting so close to Cordelia? Or did he actually understand?

Drusilla would never be used to this.

"I won't do it again. They didn't like it."

The question that she didn't ask hung in the air, as heavy as blood. Had he liked it?

He wasn't mad. He got it, understood what she had tried to do and he appreciated it, even if Cordelia and Wesley had assumed the worst of her and regarded her with a suspicious eye. Who could blame them, though. Angel knew well that as hard as a vampire might try to be good, it went against their nature and clashed with everything that they were. Harmony had been proof of that. The moment the right opportunity arose, she turned on him because she was evil. He hadn't held it against her, had expected it.

Angel expected it of Drusilla, too, because chip or no chip, his presence or not, she was what he'd made her to be.

"Maybe not, but what they think doesn't matter as long as you know that even if they didn't, I did."

He'd made her to be wicked and vicious and dangerous and she was. But she was also loyal and loving. If you earned Drusilla's heart, you held it for life. The problem was that she had a strange way of showing her affections.

"I won't take her away from you."

Really, she didn't have to. Other forces - in and out of Taxon - would get rid of the Vision Girl for her. She hated Cordelia. She enjoyed toying with her. But her path was taking her to a place that no one else - not the Angel Beast and certainly not Drusilla - could reach.

Angel nodded. He understood, without saying it, that such 'justice' had been done for her, elsewhere. Back home, from his own point in time, Cordelia had been long gone. He couldn't touch her, couldn't see her, couldn't even talk with her, half the time. He'd ask the Powers to speak to her and get someone else on the line instead. It was maddening. At least here, that wasn't so and a large part of his selfish reasoning for wanting to stay.

"And she won't take me away from you," he assured her.

After all, he was defying Cordelia's - everyone's, practically - wishes by even being here; but since when did Angel listen to anyone but himself? Even the Powers couldn't get him to do as he was told. Only Darla had ever really possessed that ability.

It was a promise she'd never expected to hear. Even the soft, insecent murmur of the false stars above their heads hadn't prepared her for it.

They'd been dancing and talking but, all of a sudden, they were on their own in a world of shadows. Drusilla, young and old and wide eyed, felt adrift. She wasn't supposed to be grateful. She wasn't supposed to care about the Angel Beast when her father was in there somewhere, waiting to be freed. Being in Taxon had corrupted her. Had broken her.

She clutched at Angel, stopping herself from floating away.

One of the things Angel had come to recognize over the years was that he was still Angelus. It was something he knew from the beginning, but had allowed that perception to change when he allowed Whistler to direct him to Sunnydale. In the days prior to him losing his soul, Angelus was I; he spoke of his actions as being his, one person. After and when he came back from Acathla's hell, it had been we, he and I. It was how they'd put it. He wasn't Angelus and although that had made little sense to him, he'd gone along with it, for arguing with them hadn't seemed worth it; they would believe what they wanted to believe. His mistake lied in allowing himself to believe it, to give him an easy out to his guilt by brushing it off as the result of the actions of a split personality and thus ones he couldn't be held accountable for.

He hadn't had a soul when he did those terrible things, but he was still him. In his nature and unable to fight it or not while without a soul, he was still one person. He was still Angelus as much as he was still Liam. Going by different names didn't change that.

Angel stopped as well, lifting a hand to brush the back of his fingers against her cheek. "Something wrong, princess?"

"You have to wake up from dreams," Drusilla said, on the edge of tears. (Real tears, of water and not of blood. She'd forgotten about them.) She'd been pulled out of every dream she'd ever had. "I don't want to wake up."

Usually, it was a matter of patience. Her dreams told the future and the future unfolded when it was ready, not when she wanted it to. But this wouldn't happen in the real world. If she opened her eyes, he'd disappear forever and she'd be all alone again.

"I'm not a dream," he assured her. "And you're not even asleep. I'm not going anywhere. I promise."

She believed him. For better or for worse, she believed him.

Drusilla nodded and hugged Angel and decided that, for now, what they had was enough.

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xxvii [ location: sunnydale playground ] / [ visual ].

[Location: Sunnydale Playground]

[Location: Sunnydale Playground]

[Location: Sunnydale Playground]

[Location: Sunnydale Playground]

[Location: Sunnydale Playground]

[Location: Sunnydale Playground]

[Location: Sunnydale Playground]

[Location: Sunnydale Playground]

[Location: Sunnydale Playground]

[Location: Sunnydale Playground]

[Location: Sunnydale Playground]

[Location: Sunnydale Playground]

[Location: Sunnydale Playground]

[Location: Sunnydale Playground]