taxonomites | [Holo | Location: Sanctuary]

Okay. So this didn’t make any sense.

Anita frowned to herself as she surveyed the room she’d found herself in. Definitely not where she’d gone to sleep, and if this was someone else’s idea of a good time, namely someone named Jean-Claude, she was definitely not amused. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen fit to interrupt her sleep with whatever nonsense, though in the past it had usually been dreams. He’d only ever moved her somewhere once before, and she had to give him a break on that. She kind of had been bleeding to death from the inside. … and he had saved her.

But this was totally different. This was a sterile-looking metal room that didn’t look like any place she’d ever seen in St. Louis before. That was saying something. She’d been just about everywhere off the beaten path in that city for some reason or another. Oh, the glamorous life of a vampire executioner.

“Alright, come on out. This isn’t funny,” she said aloud, feeling at her right hip for the Browning Hi-Power. Find yourself in an unfamiliar place? Get a weapon in hand. It really did wonders for one’s confidence. The gun was tucked into the waistband of her jeans at her left hip – had she slept with it there? That didn’t make sense, she usually put it in the holster hanging off her headboard – and reached across with her right hand to draw it. Better safe than sorry.

“… what the hell?” She had caught sight of the silver band that had been closed around her wrist, and, gingerly placing the Browning in her left hand after checking to make sure the safety was on, she lifted her wrist to examine the anomaly properly. Huh. Strange piece of jewelry – was it fused into her skin? She made a soft ‘tch’ sound as she turned her wrist over to get a better look. “Alright, now I’m really on edge. I want some answers. Who’s been screwing with me and how’d they keep me out while they did it?”

She snapped her head up to take another look around the room, searching for any other signs of life. There, in the center – a pedestal. Was that a cell phone perched on top of it? … someone had left their phone in here?

What the hell.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Occupational hazard. That's how it was in St. Louis, too. I mean, there are regular people who commit crimes all the time, I'm not one of those people who blames everything on the supernatural," Anita went on to explain, "But the most interesting stories are usually links to the vamps and the lycanthropes."

Hmm... Anita will be one to get to know... somewhere other than the silly tablets. Willow offers a smile of understanding. "It's usually the vampires, isn't it?" She's going to avoid the werewolf issue, because of Oz. That still stings a little bit and deep down, she does miss him. She sort of still expects to turn around and see him again, but something in her wonders how that would be. She's so different now and he'd be so different. Everything would be different.

Willow snaps herself out of her thoughts. "Normal people do crazy things a-and so do the not-normal people. You never really know."

"And sometimes they get up to hijinks in mixed company," Anita went on with a raised eyebrow, though her lips were smiling. All things considered, she was in a fairly good mood for having been uprooted and dumped in an unfamiliar metal room. It wasn't her best day ever, but certainly not her worst. Waking up trapped in a coffin with an unfriendly vampire still ranked pretty high up on that list. So did bleeding out internally due to lamia poisoning.

Really, this was one of her tamer adventures.

"Wacky fun around every corner. But hey, it keeps me in business."

Willow just laughs a little at that. "Yeah, well, nothing's perfect, right?" She's had her fair share of crazy encounters, that's for sure. Getting kidnapped, taking on an actual hell god and living to tell the tale...? Just minor blips on the radar.

"I'm not sure I'd want a job that revolved around keeping Sunnydale vampire- and demon-free."

Except the whole being friends with the one who does have that job negates everything.

"Vampire-free seems like kind of a tall order," Anita observed. She couldn't imagine keeping St. Louis vampire-free, even before that had become legal citizens. There were just so many of them, and they were so much stronger than just about anyone knew how to deal with. Even with her partial immunity, it wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination when it came time to do an execution. The sanctioned ones weren't so bad, the vampires were occasionally in police custody and already restrained, but when they left the hunting to her?

That was always on the athletic side.

"But even if we're just counting court-sanctioned stuff, yeah. Vampire execution is a dangerous business. Keeps me on my toes, at least. Earns you a lot of enemies, but that's true for any line of work."

Except in most other lines of work, your enemies were more likely to sabotage your morning coffee than, you know. Try to kill you.

Vampire executioner, hm? Sounded a lot like what a Slayer did, but Willow didn't voice that.

"I guess it would. Good luck with that. I, uh... don't think it would spare you a lot of time to yourself if your home is anything like Sunnydale."

[Holo | Location: Sanctuary]

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