Clocking off at 5am (Dee'Anu)

[liz]

As the bronze chimes of the church clock struck five and the first pinpricks of light touched the sky, Elizabeth felt that her night in the office was finally done. She usually aimed to be at home for two, when the bulk of the mortal night revellers were in their beds and safely, or as safely as can ever be, asleep. However, there had been a particularly nasty nest setting up camp in the cemetery nearest to Whimsy, the first that she had scouted in fact, and that was something that Elizabeth was simply not going to allow to stand.

She carried bruises and minor cuts, a gash was also healing, it had not been the easiest fight, but it was one that she had seen through to the bitter end. She would ache when she woke up later, that much was for sure. She unlocked the door to Whimsy and quietly let herself in. She had some cleaning up to do, she had taken a couple of the weapons that she didn’t often carry for this one, a crossbow, a scimitar, a couple of silvered throwing blades, she had needed more range than her favoured weapons would usually allow. She idly reflected that this was not the kind of activity most girls had in mind once they had sat their last school exam, especially not if they took them a few years clear of the usual age. Maybe she would fly to China when she had a chance, she was doing a decent job of speaking the language, it would help her pick up the nuances she was missing.

She took the crossbow apart with a practiced ease, cleaning and oiling each component before sliding each one back into place. Finishing the job in short order, she hooked it back on the wall. The crossbow was the main job, vampires never did get the chance to bleed around her, wiping the blades free of ash was really the bulk of the tidy up when it came to those. She would have to think about college, homeschooling had worked well this far and she was confident enough that Dee’Anu could take her learning that step further, but it was something that she had been encouraged to think about. That she would be the youngest in any college was slightly intimidating, but it was not something that she doubted she could handle. She had not thought about any Ivy League school, she was sure that she could get into them, but it was not something that appealed to her. Besides, as she turned her mind to the other thing that was keeping her up, a series of dreams, she wondered if she had much choice in the matter. They suggested that a place that had once held a Hellmouth was going to become dangerous once again, and with the Slayers mostly around Cleveland, it crossed her mind that there may not be enough where they were once needed, and might be again.

That was going to take some fact finding, a weekend in Sunnydale might well be on the cards.

She locked the door to the armoury, it was one of the few doors that were ever locked, if someone came around, it was not a room people wanted to see, the sentiment was mutual given that it was not sensible to leave an open invitation to try a crossbow out or swing a sword. Next on the agenda was cleaning up herself, she had healed enough that she was not bleeding all over the place, and the weapons she had been cleaning, but it was not quite a state she would like to go to sleep in. Also, Slayer healing meant she was not too prone to infections, but a little antiseptic never hurt matters, stung, but it was better than the one in a hundred off chance.

[Dee'Anu]

Hardly much of an entrance as the front door opened and closed quietly, allowing a shadowed figure to slip inside and migrate toward the kitchen right away. It had been a rather long night for the woman, especially after an afternoon of pondering how it could be that time had slipped past so quickly. Although her life had changed rather dramatically following the move to Los Angeles some couple of years ago, it seemed now that everything that had gone on - that was still currently going on - was just part of normal everyday life now. Being the granddaughter of the Queen of the Unseelie Court, being a mother herself to an immotal creature that was nothing short of some kind of disaster waiting to happen, and still raising a slayer and running her night club on top of her other job as a spy.

Dee'Anu was quite content in her life - for the most part. Sure, there were a few things here and there that she certainly thought could use some improving or an addition, but all in all she was content. Tonight had been something interesting with a visiting crowd at Unbridled Passions, a fight had broken out and it turned out in the end that it had been started by a demon which for some reason or other took offense to her business. That could hardly do, Dee had ended up showing them the way out of her establishment personally and none too gently either. Once that was done the night went reasonably smoothly, but she found herself growing bored and ended up leaving earlier than usual. Though she could have been chauffered, she chose to walk home to Whimsy, only to find a few lights on and she chuckled softly before having entered.

Now, in the kitchen, Dee'Anu spoke aloud figuring that Elizabeth would more than likely hear her, "So is there anything in partcular you feel like eating?" She knew that the girl must have only just come home and was probably cleaning up before getting something to eat. She was always hungry after a night of dusting vampires, and with her only just arriving home not long ago, it must have been one busy night. Dee glanced at the table where a few unopened letters sat, Elizabeth hadn't seen them yet, but that was fine. They were all acceptance letters, the fey was very certain of that - which meant her charge would be pretty much set for the next year once she decided where she wanted to go.

"And what about to drink?" Dee'Anu called out again as she switched the kettle on, and considered whether she felt like anything herself.

[liz]

Not many people would have caught the entrance made by Dee’Anu, Elizabeth was not sure just how many Slayers would have heard it even with their enhanced hearing, but while she was not as in tune with this place as only a fey could be, she knew the subtle sounds, she had also not quite wound down after the night’s work, so her senses were still stretched out further than she would usually concentrate. It had been a good year or so for Elizabeth, she caught herself when she was pushing her body too far on her low days, she had certainly decided when her life had hung in the balance of a punch or kick landing a couple of times that she wanted to live, and that had helped her come to terms with things as much as she ever would. That had led to her finishing her school work all the quicker, though she was still quite sociably awkward to say the very least, she did feel that she needed to get out there as much as she could, go to college, perhaps do something on top of the Slaying, or just visit parts of the world in the knowledge that with her grasp on languages she could get work of some kind or another anywhere. Not that she was going out there looking for a husband, two children and a settled life. Two boys had tried to date her, they had both been smacked, one for a corny line regarding angels falling from heaven when she was still healing from a nasty fight and the other more recently for telling her that her clothes would look good on his bedroom floor, she was not one to suffer fools gladly.

Elizabeth had not heard of the problems at Unbridled Passions, she had been somewhat busy, but she would be happy enough to hunt down the demons and deliver the message somewhat more finally that such behaviour towards one she cared about, quite ignoring the fact that she couldn’t take her if it came to a fight, was simply not going to do. She still played the piano or the guitar at Unbridled Passions, still with her back to the crowd on the piano and only side on when playing the guitar, so she didn’t take a threat against the place lightly either. Elizabeth should really have looked after herself before the weapons, she knew that, but it was as much a part of the job and while they wouldn’t rust overnight, she wasn’t going to die in the next few hours either so she might as well get it over and done with. She had only had on as many lights as she had needed, of course, but that there was activity was obvious to the casual observer and that Elizabeth was usually in bed by now was well known to Dee.

Elizabeth had been getting the antiseptic stuff as Dee’Anu had called out to her, and she considered for a moment, “I could probably do with something that would put an elephant into sugarshock right now, but since I also need sleep I’d settle for a pasta.” Elizabeth did tend to eat healthily, junk food, at least to that degree, not as a whole, was a rarity and certainly not five in the morning food so Dee’Anu would have known she was exercising her wit there. Elizabeth hadn’t seen the letters, she had been readying herself to dust vampires, eating energy type stuff had been more important than letters she had had no reason to expect to come, Dee had been busy then, and worked crazy fast. She didn’t quite know what she wanted to do, but she’d certainly have a look at what there was on offer. Had she known there were letters in the works, she wouldn’t have doubted that they were all acceptance letters either, with the coursework she had done she had simply needed to write her name on the exam papers to pass each individual course, or not much more, and she had put as much effort into the exams as she had with anything else.

She poured antiseptic onto a piece of cotton wool as she walked towards the kitchen, “Willow bark tea would be good right now.” She held back a wince as she dabbed the worst of her cuts, walking into the kitchen. She didn’t need to say you should see the other guy, she was alive meaning that whatever had done that to her was dust, “Good night at the club?” She looked to see where she might help out in food and drink goodness.