entrancelogs | [OPEN] Turn around and look at me;

Entry tags:

[OPEN] Turn around and look at me;

Who: Angelus & you!
Where: The Rabbit Hole
When: Tuesday evening, 10/14 and onward through 10/17.
Rating: R, warning for stalking. Will add other warnings as the need arises.
Summary: Angelus has been playing things close to the chest and masquerading as Angel, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have something on the backburner.
The Story:

It wasn't unusual for Angel to drop by the eighth-floor diner once or twice a week, perhaps even three times -- but being as he was a man who didn't exactly need food to survive, his visits tended to be short, usually spent at the counter and chatting with the diner's proprietress. This week was different. Every evening, without fail, Angelus makes his way to the Rabbit Hole and seats himself in a booth, one that faces the counter and gives him a fairly good view of what's going on behind it. He orders coffee, as his soulful alter-ego often did, and smiles politely at the wait staff whenever they happen to be looking, but otherwise, he watches.

In particular, he watches the bright and energetic girl that seems to run the place, mentally analyzing her every move and making notes to himself when she speaks, trying to figure out what it was about her that had Angel so interested. This wasn't like Buffy; it obviously wasn't some desperate romantic fantasy best left for some drippy Barry Manilow single, but something else entirely. What he did know was that this girl, whatever it was about her, made Angel feel something approaching human.

That, as always, was unforgivable. He'd been forced to keep his movements quiet, to sneak human bloodbags from the closets and drink it cold like some kind of animal to maintain the illusion of being on a strictly-animal diet, but he was quickly losing patience. He'd be forced to show his hand sooner rather than later, but if he was going to reveal himself, he was going to have to iron out his priorities, the first of which was to systematically rid himself of anyone or anything that tethered Angel to humanity.

This girl was first on his list, but it wasn't time. Timing, he had learned over the course of centuries, made all the difference.

For now, he sips at his coffee and waits, watching intently. Any regulars might find the sudden frequency of his visits to be out of place, given Angel's openness about what he is, but that doesn't seem to trouble him -- easily explained away, and hiding in plain sight has its advantages: it's an opportunity to test the waters and size up any other residents that might come through, not to mention sniff out future meals. Angelus was neither subtle nor patient by nature, but there was something to be said for reconnaissance.

[OOC: Angelus can primarily be found in the diner throughout the week, but if you'd like to run into him anywhere else in the mansion or on the grounds, just leave the date & location in your comment header and I'll gladly make it happen!]

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Saki now comes to the diner on a regular basis not just for food, but to make sure Tohru isn't working herself to death again. So in her usual 'creative' attire, she walks on over, gets in the doorway -

- and freezes. There is something wrong. Very wrong. Terribly wrong. Oh, so wrong. She doesn't know what it is, but it's bad. These are bad waves. She holds her head, trying to 'put the walls up', and she breathes deeply, collecting herself. It's only then that she realizes -well, duh- someone else is there. Angel.

"Angel?"

She's still acclimating to Wonderland and the various lifeforms that are comprised here. Perhaps it is being a demon, but she isn't various shocked by the new species or the differences in world. It almost seems...expected. For a place named after a storybook, it's exactly how she pictured it.

There are at least some interesting additions. Some that feel dangerous and cruel. Much like the man that is in front of her now. He's not human, she can tell that much. That would explain why her vessel's hair seems to stand on end, as though she is in the presence of a predator.

She watches him, following along in the gardens. Pausing at a nearby rose bush, she manages to catch his eye and smile.

Souji works in the diner nearly every day, doing quite a bit of the cooking, though Tohru certainly does her share. He's never spoken much to Angel, but he's certainly seen him around, seen him talking with Tohru, served him coffee. His presence isn't really surprising or out of place.

It is strange that he starts coming every night. And it's also strange that he doesn't seem to be talking to Tohru all that much. Souji had gotten the impression that the two of them were fairly good friends.

Souji isn't paranoid by nature. He also isn't one to judge others. But there's a lot about Tohru that reminds him of his little cousin at home--Nanako will probably look a bit like Tohru when she's older, and they have the same sweetness to them, although Nanako is a bit more down to earth than Tohru has probably ever been. Their differences aside, he's developed a fairly strong protective instinct toward Tohru. There isn't usually much reason for him to act on it, other than checking up on her during dangerous events if he can, but he still feels it acutely.

There's probably a perfectly good reason for Angel to be behaving as he is. Although it's none of his business, Souji would like to know what that reason is, and he's nosy enough not to feel the least bit ashamed as he heads over to the booth where Angel's taken up residence to pour him more coffee.

"You're here a lot this week."

This isn't her off ramp.

That's what Cordelia knows. She did the farewell tour, got Angel back on track and everything like the Powers wanted (like they owed her, honestly) and then she was supposed to be out of there, working with them, etc. But she's not. She's instead found herself inside what appears to be a really nice mansion.

And hey, no one appreciates a good mansion more than Cordelia Chase but that doesn't change the fact that she isn't supposed to be here. So she's looking around, trying to get her bearings when she spots a very familiar silhouette.

Hey, at least if she's stuck in this weird place she's not alone. And she couldn't ask for better company.

"Angel!"

Someone is already dashing towards him for a hug -- she has yet to realize she's going to be stuck with his evil alterego for a bit.

For the first couple of days, Tohru doesn't think much of it. She likes seeing Angel, and she's happy he comes to the diner as often as he does. She knows he doesn't have to at all, since he doesn't really need to eat, but he still comes to visit anyway, and seeing him always makes her smile.

It isn't until the third day that she realizes that he's been staying for a long time, hasn't he? And he doesn't usually come so many days in a row either. It doesn't make her suspicious at all though. Instead, she wonders if she hasn't been paying enough attention to him. Could he be coming to the diner to tell her something? Was something wrong? She's spoken to him in the last couple of days, but never for terribly long.

Today though, she makes the time. On a break during her shift, she swings by his booth with a warm, welcoming smile.

"Hello!" she says. "It's nice to see you again, Angel! Would you like some company today?"

Thor is still learning his way around, and he hasn't been to the Rabbit Hole before, so naturally he ducks in.

Literally, bowing his head slightly to clear the doorway, all six and a half feet of him then straightening to aim a smile around the room.

Good evening, Wonderland. Pay no mind to the giant in a bright red cape who just stepped into your midst. Surely there's nothing to see here.

It had only been a matter of time until Tohru's little friend came sniffing around. She was one to watch out for, gifted with something that Angelus had never quite been able to put his finger on, but something powerful enough that it could cause a problem for him if she put it to use. Not as much information as he'd like to have, but he gives her his most winsome smile anyway as she approaches, leaning back in his seat almost a bit too casually, letting his arm rest atop the back of the booth, outstretched.

"Hey, Saki." She and Angel had talked enough that he knew he could get away with the first name. Whether being openly friendly would help or hurt his cause, he didn't know -- Angel wasn't exactly known for being a social butterfly, but most people here didn't know him well enough to know his track record, now, did they?

"You here to see Tohru?"

He's never cared for the wilting flower routine. He can feel her following him, hear each and every one of her footfalls, smell that sulfuric smell he'd come to associate with Meg and Ruby even when he'd been buried deep down inside of Angel. He almost passes her by completely; standing and smiling and asking for some kind of handout doesn't exactly ring his bell. Instead, he pauses just long enough to fold his arms and turn in her direction, raising an eyebrow.

"I know I'm devilishly handsome and all, but doe-eyed stalker bit is so 1990's. If you've got something to say, sweetheart, just say it. Sing out, Louise."

"I like the ambiance." He lifts his coffee mug to his lips once its full, though he pauses midway as if to toast Souji for pouring it. "Thanks for the warm-up."

It wasn't unsurprising that the rest of the diner staff had taken to Tohru. She seemed to be the kind of girl who just screamed for overprotective knight-in-shining-armor types to flock to her with every fiber of her being. He has to resist the urge to snort. No wonder Angel had taken such a shine to her. A beacon of goodness and light just a few floors up from his own room, which Angelus had already deemed a tacky and miserable pit of despair -- worse than most other bachelor pads, but he can't say he expected much better of his inferior alter-ego.

He leans back in his seat, looking Souji over with interest.

"You've been working here with Tohru a long time now, haven't you."

Angelus has taken care not to draw too much attention to himself, allowing other people to approach him if they so desire while he continues to play shy and keep himself tucked away at his booth with his seemingly never-ending cup of coffee, but there's something about this particular guest that makes it seem impossible not to comment.

Really, it's the cape.

He lets out a low whistle, tilting his chin upwards as he smirks in the newcomer's direction.

"Nice cape. You got the tights to match, Man of Steel?"

"Yes... but she's not here."

That much was obvious. She'd put up her mental walls in order to block the waves out - but she couldn't shake what they had 'said' in the first place. She'd once spoken to Angel when he had similar waves - when he was compelled by a 'thirst' she dared not ask about.

But.

"You're very calm."

Yes, when he was being driven to hunger by the thirst, he was panicked, upset, afraid - you didn't have to read minds, you could see it in his face. But now, Angel was smiling. Carefree. The inside was the same - the outside was not.

She slowly looked at him. "How are you feeling today, Angel...?"

Her voice stops him in his tracks.

He'd prepared himself for a lot of things. Considering the fact that the mansion really wasn't all that big a place, it was only a matter of time before people caught on to what was really going on with their resident 'Champion,' if they even knew him enough to care. It was hard to deny that Angel hadn't let himself get close to many people. In some ways, that made things easier for him -- fewer people sniffing around, less folks likely to recognize Angelus for what he was before he was ready, but it also meant he was short on the best kind of playmates. The ones who'd made the mistake of trusting Angel were always the best. Didn't get much better than that, unless they were a screamer.

That tended to be icing on the cake.

Cordelia Chase's presence was both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, there was nobody he wanted to stick it to more after all these years -- even moreso than the Slayer, she'd gone and made Angel's heart beat, in a manner of speaking, made him feel like a man instead of a useless shell and that was unforgivable. It allowed him to deny what he was, keep Angelus buried inside where he'd never see the light of day again, if Angel had it his way.

She also had the potential to ruin everything before he'd even gotten started. Not ideal.

"Cordy?"

He reacts quickly, turning towards her and putting on his best heroic doe-eyes, arms open to catch her as she catapults herself towards him, hugging her against his chest tightly enough that he lifts her feet up off the ground, burying his face against her neck and shoulder.

She smells as good as he remembers. She's been his most coveted plaything for a long, long time, and if he remembers correctly? Last time they met, she'd welched on a deal. Maybe it wasn't technically her, but hell. It had been her face and everything that went with it.

Good enough.

He exhales as he lets her feet touch down again, taking hold of her shoulders. "You're here-- I can't believe you're actually here."

Playing sappy isn't his favorite part of the gig, but he'll do what he can to keep from going overboard.

And there she is, right on schedule. He'd figured it wouldn't take her long to come to him, something very telling in itself. As a person, Angelus sees her as nothing more than ordinary, unremarkable, but there's something about her that's taken hold of Angel, and that's reason enough to make him want to dig deep and find out what makes her tick. He could be quick about severing Angel's links to humanity, but then it would be over, and that would a shame. No question about it.

He gives her his most winsome smile when she approaches, lighting up from ear-to-ear like there's nothing else he would have rather been doing at that moment in time than talking to an underwhelmingly normal teenage girl.

"If it's yours, always," he quips, perhaps a bit too cheerful to suit Angel's usual tone. "Looks like you've been keeping busy around here lately."

"Yeah? Guess after all this time, Wonderland is finally starting to agree with me. You can only fight something for so long, right?"

And hell, had Angel himself been fighting against this place from day one. Oh, sure, he'd taken solace in it while his girlfriend had been here, given a lot of speeches about second chances and not wasting opportunities, but in the end he'd wasted them all the same and this whole place was like some gaudy holding cell that Angel had never managed to find himself at peace with.

As far as Angelus was concerned, that was about to change. What's not to like? A magical playground that allowed you easy access to your every whim, where there were no bonafide Slayers or Powers That Be to lay down consequences when he did the inevitable and did what he wanted.

He raises an eyebrow at her question, that smile hitching up a bit higher on one side. "Feeling fine, sweetheart. Nice of you to ask. I'd ask if I look pale, but you know -- the whole sun thing means that's just the status quo."

Angel never resorted to pet names. Strike that one from the record.

Saki didn't really care for pet names - there was a wide difference between the cute "Hana-chan" and "sweetheart." She raised an eyebrow. Maybe if this was another person, she would have left it alone, left the diner and gone on a different search. But Angel was a friend to Tohru, therefore if something was different about him, Tohru had a right to know.

"... Do you remember that time we were both together..." She spoke slowly, watching his reaction. "... I came in to get a meal. You were drinking red liquid. I didn't ask." Didn't dare to ask, really. "You told me to leave you alone. What I felt from you, was not in words... but it appeared to be as if you were saying... to leave you alone, if you're acting strangely."

She tilted her head slowly, allowing her braid to fall down behind her back. "Do you think you're acting strangely, Angel? You have never used a pet name before, especially in regards to myself."

Not good enough. She refuses to uphold any deals Jasmine made when wearing her face. Not that she knows this is Angelus or that he's expecting that but still. The point is no. That's not going to happen, buddy.

He hugs her close and her eyes flutter closed for a moment, smiling. It's nice to get to do this again -- especially when she wasn't expecting to see Angel again any time soon -- if ever, honestly. Something about it feels a little...off somehow, but she tries to shrug it off.

"How long have you been here?"

Because she's had enough experience with portals and world travel to know that just because she just got here doesn't mean that he did. If he's been stuck here for a while -- maybe that's why the Powers had her make a detour on her way to wherever else she's supposed to be going to now. It's possible, at least.

The sniffing part is a little weird -- but it's not like it's the first time he's done it. Vampires -- they have some weird habits you just have to put up with sometimes. All in all, it's not the weirdest thing he could be doing right now.

He places her back on the ground now and she looks up at him with a bit of sheepish smile.

"I can't believe I'm here either -- which, speaking of here -- where is here, exactly? Because I haven't exactly had that filled in for me just yet."

She hasn't had a chance to talk to anyone else just yet, so she's not up to date about what the situation is.

"Doe-eyed stalker? What a compliment." She chuckles, bringing the rose to her nose as she enjoyed the perfume. "Let's just say this is more of an interest and less of a conversation."

She looks over him. He's handsome. That must be useful in doing whatever he pleased and gaining whatever he wanted.

The fact that he is a predator makes him all the more interesting.

"You're a vampire, I believe?"

Souji shifts his weight, putting a hand on his hip in what would probably be a feminine stance if he weren't so tall for his age. Just the pleasant side of expressionless, he watches Angel drink his coffee and considers his answer.

"I've been here a long time." Over three years now. But the diner hasn't existed all that time, and he hasn't worked in the diner all the time that it's existed. "I came to help after Ruby and Aerith left."

He hadn't really ever spoken to Tohru before that. Working with her like he has, though, it feels like he's known her quite awhile.

Tohru's smile only grows, and she accepts that as a silent invitation to sit in the seat across from him. She's careful and delicate about it, and smooths out her skirt once she's sitting, but that smile never fades. She's very genuinely glad to see him, and doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong with him being so cheerful.

"Ah, well, no more so than usual," she says modestly. The truth is that the last couple of days have been a tiny bit busier than normal, but now that Ned and Souji are both back from Mirror Side it hasn't been a problem at all.

She folds her hands together as she speaks, and though she's permanently polite, she's friendly and warm.

"It seems like you've been here a lot recently, Angel! It's nice to see you so often," she says. "I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to stop and say hi as often as I would like to though."

He remembers that night, even if he hadn't been the one on the outside. It was a very pointed question; anything that didn't include sitting around and cataloging his past sins qualified as 'acting strangely' for Angel, though the vampire himself would never admit it. Angelus knew the difference, and if someone was already picking up on the fact that it was damn near impossible for him to be as dull and boring as his ensouled self, he either needed to try harder or find some other way to handle the situation.

Right now, anyone with suspicions was a liability.

"Maybe I'm just in a good mood. It's been a good week," he tells her, almost too flippantly. "A guy can't be down in the mouth all the time, now, can he?"

"A good week."

She let that hang. To be fair, anytime that Wonderland wasn't siccing its strange events or the mirrors weren't switching people could be granted as good. It was a sign you were getting too adjusted to this place. Given how some people could be here for years, this wasn't too odd a thought.

"... I'm not normal. I'm sure you've heard. If I will it, I can hear people's emotions... how they truly feel about someone or a situation. Right now, my mental walls are up. If I bring them down... will I hear how content you are? Or is anything else going to show up?"

She'd already 'heard' it as she came in. But she could be wrong. She wanted to be wrong.

"Awhile -- long enough that you might not believe me if I told you." As if it were something so far-fetched. They'd hopped between dimensions more than once; time never worked the same way in any two worlds, something they were both familiar with, though neither ever became the expert that Fred was forced to be.

"First thought was hell dimension. Turns out? Wonderland." There's stress on the name that's not quite Angel, like he actually takes some kind of pleasure in just how bizarre and borderline unbelievable this place is. Really, he's still not convinced the whole thing isn't some kind of ridiculous cosmic joke. If he hadn't been present for every damn moment of Angel's miserable life, he might have thought the guy gambled with the wrong inter-dimensional wiz and lost.

He pushes past the explanations. They can wait, and he's not feeling particularly helpful -- Cordelia's going to catch onto him fast, he knows that, and giving her opportunities to do so? Not a good idea. The more he explains things, the less like Angel he's going to sound. Hardly his fault. Not everyone could be as dull and monotonous as the so-called Champion.

"We'll have time for that later. First--"

He takes her by both shoulders, cutting himself short as he leans in for a kiss.

"You can tell just like that, huh? Guess you're a little more than meets the eye."

Maybe not much, but a little something more. Even without his sense of smell, he would have been able to pick up on it. Different presences of power had a certain weight to them, changed the air around them without even trying.

"You're a demon." Hardly the first he's met, here or anywhere else. Meg and Ruby seemed to think that demons were awfully special and a singular breed, in their way, but where he was from, they were a dime a dozen. Came in every shape, size and color imaginable, most of them useless, most eager to write vampires off as demon-hybrids. Angelus had spent a lot of years teaching them by example not to underestimate him.

"Looks like we've both been eating our supernatural Wheaties."

"Good of you. Chivalrous. Can't leave a young girl to run a business all by herself."

Something could happen. Someone might take advantage of her. With that syrupy-sweet nature of hers, he wouldn't have been surprised, but she seemed to have made it just fine so far.

"You kids do pretty well for yourselves around here," he goes on to comment, his gaze still fixed on Souji in a way that might be uncomfortable if the boy noticed how steady it was, focused and unblinking. Angel didn't have ties to this kid as far as he knew, but if there were a few unexpected casualties in getting Tohru out of the way, it didn't bother him.

It didn't matter that Wonderland would bring them back. It wasn't about the end result. It was about forcing Angel to once again become something he couldn't possibly live with, something that let Angelus stay on the outside for good.

He gets the feeling that the place could be packed full and this girl would brush it off like it was nothing at all. Humility. What an irritatingly human trait.

"What can I say? Even I get lonely sometimes." There has to be some reason aside from the food, after all. His own smile hitches wider, too wide for someone who's usually so sullen and reserved, but he manages to tone it down after a moment, letting his eyebrows draw downwards as he lets a very decided brood settle over him.

"Don't you worry about it. You have work to do. I just like to be where the people are sometimes. Watch them. It helps me-- remember what it was like, almost."

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Page 1 of 3

[OPEN] Turn around and look at me;

10/14

10/14 - The Gardens

10/15

10/14 - Entrance Hall

10/16?

10/15 diner

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>:]

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:3

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