[OPEN] What’s that you say? Minions from Hell getting you down?

[vampdetective]

Who: Angel & you!
Where: Fourth Floor: Room 010, then the diner.
When: Tuesday, 6/02 & Wednesday, 6/03.
Rating: PG probably. There will at least be discussion of monster guts.
Summary: With Angel’s soul back in place and Cordelia’s visions still painful in their persistence, it’s time to get the gang back together. Grand(-ish) opening of the Wonderland branch of Angel Investigations-- as well as a visit to the diner to find that something important is missing.
The Story:

( Tuesday, 6/02: Fourth Floor, Room 010. )

For the most part, Angel has made a very concentrated effort to keep to himself since regaining his soul. It's been months, now, but he knows that Angelus' actions aren't easily forgiven, if they can be at all-- and yet he knows better than most people that hiding is never the answer, no matter how bad things are, no matter how ashamed a person might be of what they've done. The best thing you can do is to pick yourself up and push forward, and given that select friends from back home have joined him in Wonderland-- some of them more recent than others-- it's time to do what they know best, what he should have done ages ago, although it's Cordelia's presence in particular that's inspired him to pull the operation back together. After all, what are a Champion and his guide to do when trapped together in an alternate dimension?

They go to work, that's what.

He's more of a presence on the fourth floor early in the week than he has been in months, moving between his own room near the stairs to room 010 a little further in, occasionally empty-handed, but more often loaded down with any number of things-- some of it doesn't seem terribly significant, but there are trips where he can be seen lugging a number of sharp weapons down the hallway, most of them looking like they could at least pass for antiques, if Wonderland hadn't provided him with the real deal in the first place.

By the time Tuesday rolls around, he'll be spending most of the morning and early afternoon in room 010, though the door is left open for much of it. At least two hours of that is spent organizing and re-organizing the weapons cabinet set up in one corner, with Angel regularly stepping back to survey it with his arms folded, letting out a series of thoughtful noises before he decides it's not quite right and starting over again.

On at least two occasions, he knocks over a lamp set up by one of the sofas before he gets frustrated with it and leaves its remains in a heap by the door.

By mid-afternoon, the place appears to be finished-- it's been a work in project for awhile, but the room has been altered to resemble the lobby of a certain hotel, although the stairways seem to lead to nowhere other than a short expanse of corridor that ends up serving as a small balcony rather than an actual hallway, and the elevator is non-functioning. Beyond the main room, a replica of the old office is accessible from behind the counter-- it had been his, back in Los Angeles, then Wesley's, then his again, and including it had seemed vital in making the place feel right.

The whole place is an almost perfect replica, even if it's a much smaller scale than the genuine article. It's missing a few bites and pieces, dings and scratches and the remnants of a blood sigil on the floor to really jog the old memory, but even without those details, he's reasonably satisfied. There's only one detail left to be added, and before the afternoon is out, there's a plaque hanging on the door that reads Angel Investigations: Wonderland Offices in bold print.

( Wednesday, 6/03: The Diner. )

It's the first time he's been to the diner since Tohru's disappearance. At first, he's not even aware of the fact that he's gone-- they kept contact just sparsely enough that it wasn't all that unusual for him to go a few days without hearing for her, but once he's been in the diner for ten minutes and she hasn't excused herself from behind the counter to come and sit with him? It clicks that something isn't quite right, and only then does he notice that her scent there is no longer fresh, recent.

He frowns as he pulls his phone out, seated in his usual booth, skimming through the contacts to look for her name-- there's nothing, and he feels his heart sink all the way down to his stomach as the idea of her being gone begins to take hold. Maybe it's just a short trip home, or if she's gone for good, then surely it has to be better than here--

But Tohru had always believed in him, despite everything. Even when things were at their worst, when she had no reason to forgive him, she'd done it anyway. That kind of understanding was hard to come by. He had it in Cordelia, had found it with other members of his created family back home, but it was incredibly rare to find it in someone who hadn't been through hell and high water with him already.

He grimaces, putting his phone away and opting to move to a seat at the counter. It doesn't feel right, sitting in his booth if Tohru's not there to sit across from him, and he folds his hands in front of him once he settles onto one of the empty stools. He's not sure how long he'll stay, but coffee wouldn't be terrible.

(OOC: Prose or action is fine, I'll match you!)

Comments

[therapize]

No, but I’ve gotten a Master’s in understanding people, plus a few years. So it’s complicated, messy, tragic—and I get it. [The human psyche, so much as anyone can through the study of psychology and behavior. There Cami has always felt some sense of certainty, being able to see and discern, to piece together the truth through observation, knowledge. That stability is nice, quite frankly, when so often her world gets shaken apart by things that just a short time ago she never would have believed could be real.]

What screws me up is my sense of reality fluctuating on a constant basis, thanks to some supernatural force redefining what’s possible—and since nine times out of ten it revolves around vampires, you get the blame. [It had been a vampire who dragged her into this world to begin with, after all, to give him an outlet while he dealt with the massive pile of family drama racked up over the course of a millennium. Now, she’s talking to the vampire who opened up a whole new field of trauma recovery for Cami to work through firsthand: what to expect when you’ve come back to life.]

[vampdetective]

[He smiles, but there's no mirth behind it; it's small and apologetic, a show of sympathy more than anything else.]

I still remember what it was like, having my own reality changed.

[It hadn't been quite the same, because he'd died immediately, died and come back as something else, another creature inside of Liam's body, but he remembers how it had been. How the last traces of Liam died during Angelus' first days, what it was like to lose his humanity and realize the world was so much bigger than he first thought.]

I'm sorry-- that yours was changed at all. And for my own part in it, even though I know no apology can ever be good enough. You're right. It's complicated and messy-- none of it is easy.

[It's not as simple as turning a blind eye, pretending you haven't seen what you've seen, haven't heard things that have made it hard to stick to your convictions, to stay angry.]

[therapize]

When you were turned? [Because of course that would redefine the world in ways that stretched far beyond even Cami’s own experiences. Not only had Angel died, but the transformation took away his soul, an essential part of what made him who he had been. Throughout everything she’s been through, even when she questioned her own sanity, at the very least Camille O’Connell remained Camille O’Connell.

That she’d always been able to hold onto.]

Don’t. I don’t hate it as much as I make it sound like I do. [She shakes her head; Cami’s had some time to consider this, the greater world she’s become aware of and her role within it.] And I don’t think I could have avoided it even if I had known to try. Turns out my family has a long history of involving ourselves with the supernatural back home. Maybe it was always something that was destined for me.

[Kieran had meant to bring Sean in on it, after all; he couldn’t have expected Cami to always be one step behind. Not to mention that even without telling her about the code or anything about the key, he’d left her a folder in his hidden room, knowing she would stubbornly find her way there against all of his well-intentioned warnings.]

Plus, it made me about as prepared for being here as anyone could probably get, so it’s not like it hasn’t come in handy. [Truth be told, Cami’s unsure just how she might have reacted had she not already had her worldview shattered once already before alternate realities became a part of them.

It does bring up an interesting question, though, and Cami looks back to Angel with open curiosity in her eyes.] What about you? Do you regret having your world changed like it was?

[Certainly he regrets things he’s done because of it, but it’s just occurred to her that she has no idea what Angel was like before he became a vampire. Her humanity defines her, but Cami can’t deny that there aren’t people she’s met who didn’t believe themselves better for their undead existence. Marcel had strived to recreate a community for people like that, who found as vampires what they lacked in their human lives.]