taxonomites | 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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"Of course you haven't, precious," was all Angel had to say in response to that.

Many things go unsaid: How one day, she'd be able to; how if she was good, he might bring her someone to eat. Angel's Drusilla issues were a special sort, twisted and refined over the course of her undead lifetime, ropes that tied her to him forever seemingly only strengthened by the test of time here in Taxon. The affection he felt for her was honest, and should anyone try and harm her, they'd be dealing with her lethal when he wants to be sire.

Unsaid, yes, but Drusilla could read as clearly as if it had been written in the stars just for them. It touched the deepest parts of her. The parts that had once passed for her heart, back when it had been beating.

Her smile was empty of words and heavy with meaning.

"Did they pour the blood away?" she asked, curiously. "Are we going to go hungry?"

"Not all of it. I've saved you some. Don't worry, you're not going to starve."

Or rather, Willow had managed to grab blood from the kitchens. He wasn't sure how much of it remained in there, undrained. He'd go get blood from Willow, should Drusilla need it.

"Thank you," she said, because that was what you were supposed to say. She didn't have a soul, but, like any good princess, she had manners. Especially for the man who was both the villain and the king of the piece. "Don't forget to keep your own tummy full. There's too much work to do."

For him, not for her. Her destiny had been rewritten, but his stretched out ahead of him in ways even she didn't understand yet.

More the villain that Drusilla knew, if that 'true' version of the shanshu prophecy that Wolfram & Hart fed him was true. He'd been the key piece to a horrible massacre and would gain his humanity at the price of thousands of lives. It made him sick to his stomach to think about, but he clung to Cordelia's explanation for it. How could a person like him, who aimed for much better and strived to do so much good be the kind of monster they tried to convince him he would become? That whole hell ordeal had been a way of conditioning him for something he wasn't meant for, to shape him for their own purposes. It was a lie.

It had to be.

Now wasn't the time to think about that, though.

"I won't. Gone are the days when I'd willingly let myself go hungry."

The future was an uncertain place. Even Drusilla, who spent more time there than most people, couldn't untangle all of the threads that dictated what had to be and might be and would be. If it was simple, it wouldn't be exciting and prophecies were tricky things. The only voice she trusted was her own. The Angel Beast could learn a lot from that.

"Good. It isn't the right time to be stubborn."

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