taxonomites | 036 ━ [ visual ].

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036 ━ [ visual ].

Angel's not very good at public relations. He hates dealing with public relations. This is why Cordelia always handled people, and why he had a department to handle that when he was running Wolfram & Hart. Something, however, needs to be said before things get out of line. And if he doesn't say it, who will?

Here goes nothing.

"If we wanted to eat you, we would've already," is probably not the best way to start this, but it's certainly one way to get everyone's attention. "Most of the vampires here in Taxon have been here for a long time, some of us pushing a year, others two. The only evidence you'll find against us can be placed during times when we were glitched. None of us can control that. If anyone's at fault for the things we've done while glitched, it's the hamsters. If we're to be held accountable for those actions, then by that logic, you should be, too, for the things you've done when glitched out of your mind and acting on impulses that you've otherwise got under control.

"I'm not saying that your fear isn't justified or that you don't have reason to be cautious. You do. We're predators, specifically designed to hunt you down. The point is that we don't. Letting paranoia and fear control you is only going to make things worse. We want to survive as much as you do; getting rid of our means of survival is not paying us the same respect we're paying you.

"Many of us have been around a long time. We haven't lived this long by being so stupid as to do what you expect of us. Most worlds have vampires that have gone unnoticed, because we don't get involved or cause trouble... with a few exceptions here and there." Like him, back in the day before that gypsy curse. "Leave us alone and we'll leave you alone. There's no reason to ruin how well we've been cohabitating in Taxon, just because we're all stuck in the same building. If anything, we should be working together to find a way out."

( ooc | i'm heading out the door to a concert, but wanted to get this up before i left. will hit tags when i get home later tonight. ♥ )

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"...If you ever need a character reference," was Buffy's eventual throw-in to this whole topic. Not that she thought Angel would actually need a vouching-for from her -- but the offer is what mattered, not the follow-through.

"Coming from someone who can honestly say she's kicked my ass to hell, I think that reference will carry some weight."

Perhaps it's not the best joke to make, but Angel's once again stuck trying to find his footing around Buffy. They'd found a balance here in Taxon, and then Connor showed up and it had been thrown all out of whack again.

"I'll just let them know that if you step outta line, they can call me. Prior relevant work experience and all."

They could at least make poor-taste jokes together. The balance would be a tough thing to find again but they were a little like magnets to each other, these two. Worse things had come between them and yet some sort of wavelength remained.

"I'll be sure to direct them to you." Poor-taste jokes that neither took personally, both too desensitized to be stung so easily. "Someone's going to get hurt if they keep this up."

"...Keeping this up is like the equivalent of poking bears with sticks. There's a reason why our world had professionals. Okay -- press ganged and drafted and unwilling professionals who were unfairly signed up for a destiny gig they didn't need or want but still. Professionals."

"Maybe it's time the professionals stepped up to the plate," he suggests. "Godric's already talking about re-establishing a vampire heirarchy among us card carrying undead. I may not think I need a leash, but it might put people's minds at ease to know you're around and have their backs."

Faith, too, but he's not about to bring the other Slayer into this while he and Buffy are managing to talk civily.

"...I keep managing to forget that -- apparently -- I wasn't secret identity girl, the last time I was here."

And sure, things had gotten less discrete towards the end of her reign in Sunnydale; however, plucked as she was from that moment of triumph before the crater? It rarely occurred to Buffy that she should lead with the title. "I'll work on that."

"I'm kind of at fault for that. Partially."

Angel grimaces. Logically, that three month long soulless glitch hadn't been his fault. He'd defended those who were glitched out of their minds and not in control of their actions in this very post; but prone to guilt over the most trivial of things like he is, he can't help but feel a bit responsible for why the version of Buffy who was here before the girl - no, woman he's speaking to now arrived was so open about being a Slayer.

"I don't get how my absence-o-discretion could be your fault, unle--oh."

Buffy frowned -- mostly to herself, but aware that Angel could see.

"Yeah..."

Three months, time before last. Three months as Angelus. He was a large part of the vampire scare problem here in Taxon. People knew, they remembered. It had been bad during those three months, and he'd done things to people that he couldn't take back, regardless of the fact that it hadn't been his fault he'd lost his soul.

"Sorry."

"...At least it was for a good cause and not, y'know, some cheesy accidental reveal. At least I've got my dignity."

"There's one thing the tablets haven't accidentally tuned in for," Angel jokes. God knows the tablets have recorded and broadcasted so much else in the past.

Speaking of accidental reveals...

"I'm sorry, by the way. Even glitched? You shouldn't have been the one that had to drop, ah, that particular bomb. Someone else should've told me first."

She was talking about Kirk.

Angel nods in agreement.

"Someone not your evil at the time ex should've dropped that one. And..." He sighs. "I'm sorry, too. For, uh-- For Connor. I should've told you sooner."

As they were no longer texting, the tightness in her voice shows through: "N-no, Angel? I get it. It's an...awkward subject." What a brave face.

"For you. Not for me," Angel says, frowning at her tone, but continuing on, anyway. "I'm not ashamed of my son. I'm proud of him in ways I can't even begin to detail. Don't hold it against him. My silence isn't his fault. I'm just glad that no-one from LA who should remember him but doesn't isn't here, anymore. Did the memory wipe trip once, would rather not do it again."

...oh boy.

"Memory wipe..."

She sounded so hesitant. Wary. "Those magics are heavy magics, Angel. When Will --" Buffy broke off. It wasn't really the time and the place for that story, was it? "It's not exactly the kind of thing that should have a repeat affair."

"Not--" He starts, then stops, starting again. "It wasn't a memory wipe. Not technically. It was a sort of time altering... thing." Angel sighs. "I made a deal with the Senior Partners when I agreed to take over Wolfram & Hart. There were things they did that I couldn't have made happen otherwise. One of those things was giving Connor a normal life. Things got really bad, for a while. He was messed up and I didn't know what do or how to help him; there was no way to help him. This life wasn't something that he was ready for, and being in Quor'toth that long really screwed him. So, I gave him up. In exchange for stepping up as their new CEO, they altered reality and made it so he was never my son, gave him memories of a normal childhood and a family. No-one remembered him beyond myself and my liaisons to the senior partners."

And Cordelia, but Angel wasn't touching the topic of Cordelia with Buffy with a ten foot pole. Not yet, anyway.

That had all came undone later on, of course. But, the memories Connor gained, falsified or not, had helped his son in ways he never could have. It gave him balance, even when his original set of memories were returned to him after Wesley shattered Cyvus Vail's orlon window.

"He's from before that, obviously. And before things got bad." Another heavy sigh as Angel rubs at his eyes with one hand. "Thank God," he adds as an afterthought. The mere notion of dealing with the scared, lost and suicidal boy that his son had turned into after dealing with Jasmine terrified him.

"That's...that's kind of a tall call to make on your own, Angel."

Reproach? A little. Memory shenanigans never sat well with her after what happened with Willow. "But I'm glad he's -- I'm glad he's from a time that makes it easier for you."

"You don't know how bad it got," Angel snaps with an intensity in his voice that wasn't present before. It's every bit the tone of an overprotective father and someone who's lost too much and seen too much, all rolled into one. "He was going to kill himself. I couldn't-- I couldn't let it end like that for him. He deserved better than me."

She was going to argue. She really, really was. And then -- he was going to kill himself.

And all Buffy could think about was seeing Dawn in the hall, blood dripping down her arms. She swallowed, hard.

"You stopped him, then. With all that...undoing?"

"I did. And I'd do it again."

Angel, you really need to curb the messing with time habit. Seriously.

"To save your -- your someone who's so important to you? Of course you would. And again and again and again."

She may be thinking about Dawn, at the moment.

"You'd be surprised by the lengths I'd go to and have gone to to save someone."

Chewing out a mystical conduit to the Powers That Be: Not the best life choice, but he'd do it again.

"No, Angel." Her voice was firm. Affectionate, in its own steeled and harsh kind of way. "I don't think I would be. No matter what the length."

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