taxonomites | 016: Beating to a Funeral Song [Accidental Visual / Location: Hyperion Hotel]

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016: Beating to a Funeral Song [Accidental Visual / Location: Hyperion Hotel]

She could feel her heart beating.

The blood pulsed through her veins to a rhythm that, once upon a time, Drusilla would have danced along to. But she wasn't dancing today. Because it was her heart. A heart that had been silenced for centuries.

Her eyes snapped open.

No. Not her eyes. She'd fallen asleep as a vampire, safe in the forest and with Miss Edith in her arms. She'd woken up as a human. And not just any human. Somehow, she'd slipped into the skin of the Vision Girl.

For a long time, there was nothing but silence. It shattered with a scream and, for an even longer amount of time, Drusilla didn't realise that it was coming from her lips.

She screamed and she screamed and then, because there was nothing else she could do, she laughed.

The Vision Girl's heart kept on beating.

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Lorne holds his hand to his throat. His feminine, not green hand. The vibrations of this new voice feel so strange. "Cordy? This... this isn't Anya. I'm Lorne."

Suddenly the scream clicks into place. "Wait a minute, did it happen to you too? Are you Cordy, or someone else?"

"Trust me, I'm still Cordelia. And when I find these furry little monsters, I'm going to show them that they've been messing with the wrong group of people."

It was strange, wasn't it? Drusilla could have said the same thing and they would have looked at her with fear. But Cordelia's lips gave the words a strange sort of magic. A sort of honesty that the vampire could never achieve as a vampire.

Lorne gets up and goes to the mirror. Tosses his hair a little. "Huh. Could be a lot worse." He looks back at the tablet. "Don't worry, Cordy. I can deal. As far as glitches go, this isn't world-ending. I just wish this could have happened back in L.A. I'm finally fit for the silver screen."

OK, the pulse is a little. There's a beat in his chest. And his hearing's not what it should be. But he can handle it. Cordy seems to be the one in trouble.

"Are you sure you're OK? That was some mighty bellowing you had going there."

"I'm fine, Lorne," she said, dismissively. "I just had a bad dream."

A dream about the night and the stars and a desperate hunger than clouded the senses and clawed at the throat.

"What we need to worry about now is finding a way to get you back to being ... you. Have you seen Angel yet? Is he still Angel?"

"You're sure you're alright?" The look of genuine concern might look a little strange on Anya's face.

Then he realizes that it might be something she wants to discuss with Angel in private. He can understand that. "Sorry, baby doll, haven't seen him. I only just woke up. You'd better make a broadcast - if I'm not the only one glitched, he could be anybody right now."

"I said I was fine, didn't I?"

Which was just a word. Just a little word. It didn't mean anything. Only the power of Cordelia's voice - sweetness and light, loved by her friends in an impossible way - made it seem real.

"That's just what we need."

Lorne still looks worried, but just says, "I'll keep an eye out for him on the tablets, OK? We'll track him down soon, sugar puff."

"Thanks, Lorne," she said, with a soft smile that Drusilla would never have given. (Her smiles had a lot more venom in them.) "He'll be all right, wherever he is. At least we know he hasn't swapped with Spike."

Which was almost a shame, really. Drusilla would have enjoyed watching that.

"How do we know that?" Lorne grimaces at the tablet. "We might get a broadcast any moment of Angel yelling 'I can't believe I'm a bloody poof' or something like that."

"Because I've already spoken to Spike and it looks like he's in Wesley's body."

Drusilla hadn't been able to decide if that development had been amusing or alarming and, judging by her expression, 'Cordelia' was struggling with the same dilemma.

"Besides," she added, covering her tracks and brushing aside her concerns, "Their shouts would have deafened me from here."

Lorne blinks. "Oh. That's... wow. How're they holding up?" Just the thought of hearing Wesley's voice saying Spike-ish things and Spike's voice saying Wesley-ish things is a bit bewildering.

"Spike's as fine as he can be in hamster city," she said, appropriately dryly. She'd never had a pet hamster. She'd always preferred birds, even when they decided not to sing to her. "I don't know about Wesley. I'll let you know as soon as I've seen him."

"I'm sure they'll be happy to know you're looking out for them. Queen C to the rescue." Lorne smiles, maybe a little shakily. This whole bodyswap thing has him off-balance.

"No, not a queen. I'm a princess."

The words slipped out. She couldn't help it. She'd been a princess for centuries and that hadn't changed, even if her body had managed to get lost.

She gave him a sweet smile a moment later, though, as innocent as the Vision Girl could be. Maybe he was too worried about himself to notice that there was something wrong with her?

"I'll come and rescue you, too," she promised.

"A princess? Since when?" Lorne's first instinct is to ask Cordy to sing something, so he can get her head checked. Except, of course, that's not gonna work anymore. "Cordy, I think there's something seriously wrong. You sure you don't want to see a doctor?" He grimaces. "Assuming the doctor's still in the right body."

"A doctor?" Drusilla wrinkled her nose. "They don't even use leeches any more."

A doctor was only a step and a jump away from being a scientist. She didn't trust them. She didn't trust their medicines.

Now the pieces are falling into place. Lorne knows only one person who talks like that. "Drusilla?! What are you - " Oh, why does he even bother? Of course she would pretend to be Cordy. She's evil. "You better take care of her body," he says sternly, arms akimbo. "Or you will regret it. Don't think I don't have ways of making you miserable."

She didn't need to pretend now, so Drusilla gave Lorne a smile that was all angles and sharpness. A vampire's smile formed from warm human lips.

"Not as many ways as I have to make little Cordelia miserable," she said, musically.

Lorne goes cold inside, but refuses to let it show. He folds his arms over his chest - and wow that gesture feels different in this body - saying, "Go ahead. I'm sure Angel will be real thrilled about you hurting Cordelia. He'll write a thank-you note on his fist before he beats you to a pulp."

It was a good threat - after all, she didn't want to tip the scales and turn the relationship she'd built up with the Angel Beast sour - but Drusilla couldn't let him see that. It was easy to get Cordelia's pretty little features to show what she wanted them to show. It was a smirk rather than a smile and her eyes were bright.

"I didn't choose to switch with her," she pointed out, "She's going to make herself miserable, just for me."

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016: Beating to a Funeral Song [Accidental Visual / Location: Hyperion Hotel]

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