Fandom High Dormitories

Wanted: one interviewee.
Needed: by ten p.m. EST.
For: Journalism final project.
Must be: a student, and someone I don't know well.
What's in it for you: I won't flunk money.

Contact: Beka Valentine.

((And now I go to work, to discover just how bored I can be.))

Beka caught the radio and was surprised to hear Tara's voice. Not surprised as in, surprised like she expected her dead, just surprised as in 'huh, never figured Tara for the radio type'.

She'd been expecting the news about Angelus-who-was-now-Angel. Not that she looked forward to seeing him or dealing with it. But, the fact that he'd washed up with her old friends didn't surprise her much. If she'd been him, it was probably where she would've gone too. She'd have to tell Crichton and Aeryn and Lee, right away, that she applauded them, no matter what she thought of the resouling.

Angelus gone. Strange. She'd miss him. But he'd hurt her. She'd let him do it, trusted him when she knew what he was. Her own fault. Still. A not insignificant part of her thanked Crowley and Mr. Phale's Divine Being that he was gone. It would make cleaning up her messes a lot easier.

Bel would be harder. Best friend Bel. With a mad-on against everyone who'd hurt Angelus and her with no way to stop him. Betraying him was out of the question. She'd do her best to keep an eye on him. Keep kicking him in the soul. Maybe she could get him to come with her to see Phale at some point, too. She tried to put responsibility for Bel out of her mind. Her promise to him extended to hurting Phoebe and her sisters. She might interpret that liberally, but she hadn't taken responsibility for everything he'd do, and she wouldn't. Her own messes had grown more than big enough to keep her busy. For a long while.

Future-Beka's warnings had rattled her. If she lost everything here, even Bel and Phoebe, it couldn't compare to the nightmare-futures her actions would create. Keep your heart and mind in balance, she'd said.

"Yay me. What the fuck does that mean?"

For one thing, it probably meant a whole hell of a lot of apologies. And even more question. She'd never be a 'good girl', but it looked like evil was right out. Not that she'd ever really wanted to be... except the few times she'd considered ways of getting rid of her soul, assuming it existed.

Beka sighed. Today was probably not going to be her best day.

To: mystique@fandomhigh.com
From: beka.valentine@fandomhigh.com
Priority: Normal
Encryption: Standard school encryption
Subject: Chat?

( Are you Mystique? Didn't think so )

When Beka arrived back at the Attic by Beleportation after the super sekrit Scoobies JA officers' meeting, Callisto was already home, door shut and almost certainly not interested in talking.

She made enough noise to let Callisto know she'd arrived, on the off chance Callisto wanted to talk about Angelus, which, weirdly they'd never really done. All right, maybe it wasn't so weird. Still, not like she cared who else Fangs played with. She shrugged at Callisto's door, then sat down at the table to make a few calls.

( Mystique and Phoebe )

Next came Tara. Because Tara would be fretting about Angelus. And Tara would be one of the few in Admin who wouldn't immediately assume he'd done it. Tara and Camulus. Of all the weird combinations sexy, but weird.

( She left a message, but Tara called right back )

After she hung up with Tara, Beka called Bel and left him a message. Then she began doodling notes from Bel's to do list. There had to be things they could do. Bel had forbidden her to talk to Veronica, which, all things considering was very smart. Still it meant she couldn't try to find out what evidence there was.

If Lamb was as incompetent as Faith said, then she probably could break into the police station. The security couldn't possibly be as good as what she usually faced back home. Definitely not as good as the Museum, which she could almost break into. But what would she look for? She wouldn't even know where to begin. She wouldn't have long enough to search the whole place. Too bad they didn't have an insider.

Oh. Ohhhh. Mystique. Beka picked up her comm and left a pithy 'get in touch' message on Mystique's voicemail. She'd have to discuss the idea with Bel - how much was that going to annoy her and everyone else who was subjected to reading it a million times per post after awhile? - but no harm in getting a headstart on it. Angelus's unlife might depend on moving quickly.

( Angelus - no emo, high dithering )

But done was done. Like burnt toast, even.

Time to steal a pillow from Buffy and sleep.

Beka woke early from another night of troubled dreams about slaying Bel. After almost a week of this, she knew better than to try to go back to sleep. The dreams would be worse, more violent, more awful.

She checked her chrono. Way too fucking early. "Fuck." Growling at the universe, she slid out of bed. Restless, she thought about calling Bel to come play with her in the gym. But she wouldn't drag him out of bed with Phoebe for adrenaline-soaked nightmares. She might go join them in bed, but that was different.

Alone again, then, unless she felt like waking Buffy for some slayer-training. Wilson would probably frown on that. Her ribs were fine, but he'd said ten days. So she'd lift weights instead.

Some time later, she returned from the gym sweat-soaked, pleasantly tired, and feeling much better. She showered, then flipped on the radio to see what sorts of new slanders the media had come up with for the day. It seemed an unusually quiet newsday. No sex scandals. No thefts, which disappointed her. A good high-profile heist would've been something fun to contemplate. Maybe she'd see if Amanda and Chi were up to a little something...

She'd just reached over to turn it off when she heard the words "New evidence has arrived in the case of Katherine Pryde". Huh. Well that was good news...

( Angelus? )