015: ... As a Bird on a Big TV [Accidental Visual / Location: Wolfram and Hart]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

As Spike had shown her a few days ago, Angel's office - as quiet and neglected as it was in Taxon - had a telly. The forest didn't. Oh, the forest was beautiful, yes, but it didn't have a telly.

Miss Edith had been missing the telly.

Drusilla sat on the floor of the office with her legs crossed and her doll in her lap, watching the screen with unblinking eyes. At first, it hadn't seemed as if there was much on. There never was, in Taxon. But then she'd found something wonderful. Not just because of the pretty colours, although they were terribly pretty, but because the strange, discordant voices that floated from the screen spoke to her. Really spoke to her.

They were quite mad, those little monsters. If only they'd been able to hear her replies!

As a new episode began, Drusilla - who had already watched half a dozen, drinking the odd images in like warm milk - hummed along to the theme tune. (So did Miss Edith, even if the tablet - watching Drusilla watching Floop - couldn't pick up her tiny - tiny, but sweet as sugar - little voice.)

OOC: Again, backdated to a few days before the end of Glitch's glitch. This is all Keri's fault and I've finished spamming the community now, I swear.

Comments

[ voice ] I SEE THAT BLAMING

[aintnoconvict]

...you watch my show!

[FINALLY! Someone in this city knew good entertainment when they saw it.][

[Visual] :P

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Without the surprise that she should have been feeling registering on her face, Drusilla turned to pick up the tablet and look at the speaker. It was him. The man who made - controlled? was controlled by? - the monsters. Here. In Taxon.

Was it Christmas? The hamsters should have told them!

"Oh, it's my favourite," she purred.

[Visual]

[aintnoconvict]

Fantastic! While Dru was (really, really) outside the target age audience, but Floop was delighted to have a fan.

"Is it?" And he had to ask, he needed to know. "You don't think it's...missing anything, do you?"

[Visual]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

"It's like peering into a dream," said Drusilla. And, although it wasn't as dark or as twisted as her dreams, it came closer than anything else she'd ever seen. "Did it really come from your head?"

She'd dearly like to peel off his face and get a closer look, claiming some of that delicious creativity for herself.

[Visual]

[aintnoconvict]

"Is it?" Oh this was entirely too perfect and delightful, he was beyond thrilled that someone understood. "Wonderful! Yes, I created it all from my dreams so I could share them with the chil- with everyone."

[Visual]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

The world that bubbled and boiled in Floop's head was nowhere near as strange as the world that swirled inside Drusilla's mind. She wondered, absently, if she could get her thoughts on to the television. She could always push her thoughts into his head, tangling things together until it was impossible to tell where he started and she ended.

"A dream like that shouldn't be hidden away."

[ Location: Wolfram and Hart ]

[revivedqueen.livejournal.com]

Illyria had been roaming the halls of the building again. She's used to the silence and the emptiness of the place, which was why when she heard odd sounds coming from the vampire leader's office, immediately she headed straight towards it. And found a lowly vampire in her midst.

"You," she spoke. "Unfamiliar."

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

After a moment of silence that could have been cut with a knife, Drusilla rose to her feet. (Miss Edith, forgotten in all the excitement, remained on the ground.) Illyria was old and powerful and filled the room with a presence that was as intoxicating as it was frightening.

Because she was a good princess in the presence of a queen, Drusilla curtsied gracefully.

[revivedqueen.livejournal.com]

She tilted her head to study the vampire.

"You dare mock me," she said quietly, taking a step forward. "What games are you playing?"

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

At that, Drusilla frowned slightly, genuinely confused and a little insulted.

"A good girls knows how to greet her elders and betters," she explained. She could hear her mother and her father - the other one, the living one, the one that had left her - repeating that as she and Anne readied themselves for an important dinner. There had been red wine in the glasses, looking just like blood. She'd spilled it all over the white linen.

That was better. She understood games.

"What do you want to play?"

[revivedqueen.livejournal.com]

There. That was infinitely better.

Illyria stepped and moved around Drusilla, as if studying her from every angle. "Most vampires know not their place in my presence. Most speak to me as if I am their equal." There's a hint of bitterness and resentment there. Illyria paused, then looked at the vampire with something akin to amusement. "Interesting, that you don't."

[ visual ]

[exdemon]

When Anya sees the strange woman with the doll watching Floop's show, she immediately turns on her tablet and flashes her a bright smile.

"Purchase Floop toys!" she demands, holding one up.

[Visual]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

The demon - once upon a time a demon, at least - had a smile that was bright and brittle and, best of all, uncomprehending. She didn't know Drusilla. Who she had been and could be and would be. They'd forgotten to warn her.

Anya only held her attention for a moment, however, because the dolls were as deliciously unnerving as the show that carried on playing behind her.

"Oh," she exclaimed, "Isn't it pretty?"

[Visual]

[exdemon]

It's true no one had told Anya about Drusilla, but it wouldn't have made much a difference if they had. It's not like Anya's customer base was big enough that she could look to shun potential customers simply on the basis of their moral alignment.

She held the toy out so that Drusilla could get a closer look. "Isn't it? We have a store."

[Visual]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

"Where?"

She and Miss Edith would have such fun with dolls like that and she had plenty of credits left. Blood didn't cost much and the dolls she already had didn't need new dresses just yet.

[Visual]

[exdemon]

"It should be on the map. The Flooporium! It's all sorts of fun."

A real customer? This was so exciting. She could get money!

[ visual ]

[undoing.livejournal.com]

The last time the vampire had seen children's programming on that television, he'd been turned into a puppet. Though, nothing seemed to be amiss...yet.

"What are you doing, Drusilla?"

[Visual]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

It was an easy question to answer. Too easy, in fact. Drusilla found herself wondering, as she often did, what words he hadn't said.

"Watching telly," she said, plaintively, pointing at the freakish creatures on the screen. "It found me. It's all new."

[Visual]

[undoing.livejournal.com]

Angel was unsettled by her presence in the office - not by her, herself, but by the reminder of what he'd done in there to Dawn when he was glitched, before that same girl had restored his soul. He'd been back there a few times, sometimes to get things, sometimes to just be alone and sit at the desk to think without interruption or distraction. One of the ironic upsides of having Wolfram & Hart in Taxon was being able to take refuge there when he needed to get away without much concern for someone barging in. There were few who'd even go in there, let alone near it.

"Doesn't look like anything I've seen before." He means the creatures in Floop's show and the show itself, not the television, of course.

[Visual]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Drusilla, on the other hand, didn't like to think about what had happened in the cool corridors of Wolfram and Hart in the past. It made her miss Angelus. (As wonderful as it was to spend time with the Angel Beast, it wasn't the same. He wasn't the same.)

"They're from his dreams," she said, gesturing at the screen. She hadn't expected to meet someone who dreamed like she did. In loops and swirls and mysteries.

[Visual]

[undoing.livejournal.com]

He wasn't the same, because he didn't allow himself to be. The urge to do things associated with his soulless self were still there, those dark thoughts still being entertained in his head, but none of it was acted upon and words were withheld.

"His dreams. Whose dreams are you peaking into, Dru?"

[ voice ]

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

...Oh my God, what even.

[ this is... not something dawn meant to send. ]

[Visual]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

It had been far too long since she'd last seen the Dawn bird and, consequently, the girl's deliciously familiar voice made Drusilla smile brightly.

"Would you like to watch it with me?"

She remembered sitting in the living room with Dawn and Joyce and popcorn, pretending that she had a family. It had been the best sort of game.

[ voice ]

[tothelibrary.livejournal.com]

[ this is muttered. ]

Seriously, what is my life.

[ now, louder ]

I'm going to skip it. Why are you watching TV? And why are you watching TV in... is that Angel's office?

[Visual]

[a-pretty-fire.livejournal.com]

Drusilla pouted a little at that, unable to hide her disappointment entirely, but she answered Dawn's question as goodnaturedly as possible. It didn't pay to upset the girl who would bring her plans to fruition.

"I don't have a telly. I borrowed the Angel Beast's."