we are invariably pleased to welcome tourism

[cross_and_bow]

Sherlock is usually very puncutal. He's only one minute late, but that's still not quite as punctual as usual. Bella peers out the window, not yet allowing herself outright concern.

Comments

[dark_light]

"Bella's always home at sundown, and I'm trying to stick with her, because my phone is from 2013 in another world and does not get service here and I want to know if she finds a door to Milliways," says Amariah. "Should I run and get the ingredients for spells to be added to your person, or would you rather set up a time to do that some other place than the school library?"

[pythbox]

"...The latter is probably the wiser course," he says.

[dark_light]

"Okay. I'll bring the stuff tomorrow; do you have to stay here until a certain time or can we go to your house after school or something? Bella's place won't do, there's always the risk that her dad will be home earlier than expected."

[pythbox]

"No one ever visits my house unexpectedly," he says wryly. "And I can leave as soon as school lets out."

[cross_and_bow]

"So you've just been sticking around for my charming company?" asks Juliet impishly.

[pythbox]

"Not when you put it like that," he says.

[dark_light]

Amariah laughs.

[cross_and_bow]

"Oh, sorry. You've been -" cough, fake English accent - "making yourself available for a student with an interest in extracurriculuars in which you have some expertise you are willing to share?" She cleans a pair of imaginary glasses and grins.

[pythbox]

He laughs.

[cross_and_bow]

Juliet hums to herself and writes a half-word of further notes before her phone goes off. "Time to head home," she says, putting her pen down and packing up. "See you tomorrow, Mr. Giles!"

[dark_light]

Amariah parks her cloud-pine in mid-air, sits on it, and follows Juliet.

[pythbox]

Mr. Giles watches them leave, shaking his head slowly.

[dark_light]

Whoops! Amariah almost forgot to renew her notice-me-not again. She pauses to redo that before leaving the library, and then catches up.

[cross_and_bow]

Juliet is home at exactly the right time to put Sherlock's blood for the night in the microwave. Meanwhile, Amariah hovers fifteen feet off the ground, in case any nasties come out in the falling dark.

[eversomuchfun]

There he is, right on time.

"And what did we learn at school today, dear Juliet?"

[cross_and_bow]

"Mr. Giles, when he was young and stupid, used to indulge in demon-summoning for recreational psychological effects, and this left him with something on his arm that let him see partway through Amariah's notice-me-not and also a dead friend," reports Juliet, handing over the blood and bending her head to breathe through the fabric of her t-shirt sleeve. "So we had to explain her, but at least he didn't curse first and ask questions later. He wanted to know who or what he, she, or it was and whether we were on good terms."

[eversomuchfun]

"Well, that's more life than I expected out of him," says Sherlock.

Slurp!

[cross_and_bow]

"What, a history of recreational demon-summoning? I suppose it's lively except insofar as it wound up being anti-lively," says Juliet. "I promised him never to use magic primarily for recreational psychological effects. I half-suspect I couldn't even obtain same, actually, but even if I could it'd be a trivial promise, I am apparently less reckless than Mr. Giles was at my age."

[dark_light]

"And tomorrow after school we're going to his house and I'm going to load him up with some of the same protections Juliet got. Oh, and we managed to explain my presence without reference to you, Sherlock - he's not supposed to know about you, I take it?"

[eversomuchfun]

"I am a vampire. He is part of an organization dedicated to exterminating us. It would probably be unwise to mention me around him."

[cross_and_bow]

"I'm not sure if that will be long-term viable," says Juliet, hefting her messenger bag and starting down the sidewalk. "Is there some set of criteria he could meet such that it'd be okay to reveal you, or are we just going with he-can-never-know! until that falls apart or I stop interacting with him for some reason? Or I could introduce you to him and react to any suspicion by rolling my eyes and suggesting offering you a glass of water with a drop of blood in it. Hide you in plain sight, like."

[eversomuchfun]

"Let's say that he can know about me only after he knows you're the Slayer, and only if he seems sufficiently reasonable under those circumstances to deal with the revelation without throwing a fit."

[cross_and_bow]

"Okay. I'm hanging on to the Slayer stuff until I learn about his - well, not his day job, librarian is his day job, but until he tells me about his side project, so to speak."

[dark_light]

"He was very reasonable about me," says Amariah optimistically. "Took the explanation pretty much at face value, let me cast a divination on him to see why he could see me, wasn't hostile or anything. Even though I'm pretty far-out. Am I less far-out than a non-asshole vampire?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Much less."