we are convenient to major metropolises

[cross_and_bow]

This vampire nest was supposed to have six vampires in it. This trip to L.A. was supposed to involve this nest as the first stop of several. This time Sherlock's information is imperfect.

[Fuck,] says Bella, after having burst through the door, masked and armed with her stake, [they're having all their friends over today - help -]

Comments

[cross_and_bow]

"Thank you, Sherlock, what are you doing in my house," says Charlie, still hugging Bella.

"Complicated magical things," says Bella helpfully. "He can do that now. He will not be doing anything nefarious."

[eversomuchfun]

"My already negligible nefarious tendencies have been drastically reduced," he agrees. "Because of the complicated magical things. Also, I can now walk around in sunlight without catching fire, I'm quite looking forward to that part."

[cross_and_bow]

"Ooh, let's stay up all night and watch the sunrise," says Bella.

"...Bella, you have school -"

"Complicated magical things, Dad, I will appear at school just fine, promise."

"...Right."

"Have you been sufficiently reassured that I am okay, so that I can go do other stuff?" Bella asks. "I need to go warn a person about a thing, and I also need to talk to Giles so that he too can be clear on my being fine. Can you handle my being not legally dead, I'd find it potentially inconvenient to be legally dead."

"...I can do that. Since it doesn't look to me like you're dead."

"Thanks, Dad, I love you," says Bella with a brilliant smile.

[eversomuchfun]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

[cross_and_bow]

Now! Where might Giles be? Because now that's where Bella and Sherlock are!

[pythbox]

Giles is at home, drinking tea in his living room.

[cross_and_bow]

"Hi, Giles! I am only technically dead!" says Bella brightly.

[pythbox]

He yelps and drops his tea; the mug bounces off his knee and thumps onto the carpet, spraying tea everywhere.

"Good god," he says. "What have you got into now?"

[cross_and_bow]

"Mint powers," says Bella gleefully, unspilling his tea for him with a wave of her hand and a triangle.

[pythbox]

...He grins.

"Well," he says. "Congratulations."

And he peers dubiously into his unspilled tea for only a moment before shrugging and taking a sip.

[cross_and_bow]

He will find it still hot and uncontaminated by any of the flavors that may be present in his carpet.

"Since I did, technically, die, I am going to go warn the next Slayer of what's to come before your old friends find her," Bella says. "But I don't think she's got much to worry about. I am awesome. Also the form of technically dead I am makes me invincible. It's kickass."

[pythbox]

"Let me know if you need any help," he says. "Although while you're doing me favours, would you mind reinforcing me against further knocks to the head?"

[cross_and_bow]

She is in a whimsical mood, so she does this by briefly conjuring a fairy-godmother sort of wand and tapping him on the head while she applies the hex. "There you are. Will you want anything else in the next little while?"

[pythbox]

He laughs.

"No, thank you."

[cross_and_bow]

Goodbye, fairy godmother wand.

"Sherlock, do you want to meet the new Slayer too, or go catch up with Tony?"

[eversomuchfun]

"You go on," he says. "Tony and I do have some catching up to do."

[cross_and_bow]

Sherlock gets a kiss. Giles gets a wave.

The new Slayer, wherever she may be, gets a visitor.

[neverbeatme]

The new Slayer is lying in bed with an open calculus textbook propped on her stomach and her feet halfway up the wall, drumming her fingers on the book's spine while loud rock music plays in the background. She is wearing Captain America pajama pants and a plain white T-shirt.

[cross_and_bow]

"Please don't panic," says Bella, first, "I'm here to help."

[neverbeatme]

She blinks.

She lowers the textbook until it's open flat on her chest.

She looks at Bella.

"Okay, talk."

[cross_and_bow]

"I'm technically dead, and you have the fortune or misfortune to have inherited my job slash mystical destiny. You'll find that you're now many times stronger and faster and instinctively better at fighting than you were -" Bella glances at the clock. "An hour and a half ago. And you might also get bad prophetic dreams and, if you go out at night, notice that certain people seem off, although I was lucky enough to avoid those symptoms. This office is called being the 'Slayer'; the things you are supposed to slay are vampires and demons. I am not technically meant to be telling you about this. I am technically not meant to coexist with you at all, because of how the title passes. But the people who are supposed to find you and tell you what's what are not as friendly as me. They're why I died."

[neverbeatme]

"You're serious," she observes, and she takes her feet off the wall and closes the textbook and puts it on her night-table and stands up in a fluid progression that definitely seems Slayerly.

"Plan on giving me any help besides the friendly warning?"

[cross_and_bow]

"Sure. In the course of my coming to be conscious-and-capable-of-affecting-the-world in spite of technical death, I have also acquired significant magical powers. Er, they're not native to this world, I've been warned off the native sort of magic by people with my best interests at heart and should probably pass that on as long as I'm spilling the beans. If you want me to make it so the Watchers can't find you - by their traditional methods - and you'd rather go on doing whatever you were doing, I can arrange that. If you want to be equipped to do more than punch things but you're otherwise on board with helping to neaten up the edges of this overpopulated-by-things-that-eat-humans world we live in, I can get to know you a bit and maybe we can do that instead. I am Helpful Technically Dead Visitor. My name's Bella, what's yours?"

[neverbeatme]

She gives Bella a sizing-up sort of look.

Then she says, "James."

[cross_and_bow]

Blink. "Pleased to meet you, James. So, are the circumstances of this household such that I should be invisible and we should have the rest of our conversation telepathically?"