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Angel brings pizza to Faith and Eva. Mikhail also shows up, announcing he'd acquired his own place.
12/4/2016 7:00 PM
Beacon Hills
West Hills North[]
This collection of quiet suburban streets is primarily residential in zone with scattered patches of light commercial properties. The streets make up a generally ordered grid, featuring quaint names like Mountainview Court and Woodbine Lane. This place is the picture of classic small-town American life, made up of reasonably orderly yards and classic two-story houses on mid-sized lots, varied enough to have character but regular enough to feel like cohesive neighborhoods. It seems like a nice, safe place to live, even with the occasional curious call or howl from the nearby forest.
The Beacon Hills Public School occupies the north end of this area, nestled near the highway and bordering the woods. The local animal clinic can be found near the center of the area, just against the long, swooping curve of Circle Street, which separates orderly suburbia from the more widely spaced country houses that border the actual woodlands to the west. Just at that border, the highway separates the town from the forest as one long, winding barrier. To the east, both Northern and Roosevelt Bridge span the East Hills River.
The evening's stars are mostly hidden by dark clouds above. In winter, nighttime temperatures do not generally reach above 35?F. With the coming of winter, the trees are bare of leaves and there's a cold bite to the air. It's cloudy, cold, and damp.
On this wonderful evening, Angel's decided to treat the ladies forced into hiding to a wonderful night of pizza. Which...he can't really partake in, but that's not the point. It's not for him. Besides, Slayers need to eat a lot. Probably for the best that he isn't actually participating in the whole eating part.
Faith will gladly have his share. She's trusted the glamors some, but not enough. And right now, right now they're in their hidey-hole. And she's got cabin fever. It's a good job the only vampires around are good guys. Or maybe a bad job. She'd LOVE something to stake right about now.
Today in The Hills... Eva is rockin' her glamour: black hair in a short, pixie-style haircut framing an angular face with piercing crystal blue eyes. Hiding out with Faith, all she had with her was the clothes on her back and her messenger bag. One of the downsides to hiding out is no credit cards, so money has been tight. She did go out and get a new outfit better suited to the cold. The clothes are simple but get the job done and she picked something at least somewhat stylish: a black turtleneck with a white zigzag stripe down the side, white jeans and a pair of black heeled boots. Turning to Faith, she says "It's nice of Angel to come and visit. Maybe he'll have some good news. Or, maybe he won't have news at all and we can just hang out. Either way, I'm good." She's trying to be upbeat about the situation, as much as it might stink.
Mikhail is stopping by with an aim to be useful, he has supplies! Blankets, cards, clothing, food and for Faith booze. He texts ahead to the phone he gave to Eva to check it's ok to come in, he's still not sure where things stand with Faith.
Well, Angel has come, and he brings pizza for the ladies! "Hey." Given they're Slayers, they're actually two XL pizzas at that. He's quite confident not a slice of either one will be wasted. He set it up, one for Faith, one for Eva, with whichever types they like best. As far as news of the case goes...there's not much yet. The court system moves slowly, though, so it's not a surprise.
"Hey. Pizza is good." And he knows what she likes. Pepperoni and Italian sausage. She smiles at Eva for a moment, and then turns her attention back to Angel. "I assume no news."
As Angel arrives, Eva eyes the pizza. "You know, in another life I'd be worried about my figure eating all this pizza." As she reaches out for a slice, she says "But this life is more than happy with more junk food." She listens quietly as Faith asks Angel about any progress even as her phone buzzes. "Oh, Mikhail's nearby. He wants to come drop some stuff off for us." She gives Faith and Angel a brief look before saying "I'm going to tell him to come on ahead. Wonder what he has."
Mikhail walks in with about as much stuff as the vampire can manage, couple of backpacks, some bags and a box, "Er hey, thought you could do with supplies, clothes and stuff, there's some booze in there too cause well, this has gotta suck", he gives Eva a smile, using her scent to figure past the glamor.
"Yeah, no news yet. Hard to say what their next move is going to be. If Derek's right, you're out of reach here...but you can't go home either." Well, not easily. So there's something of a stalemate. "I'm not sure what to tell your parents, Eva. The truth isn't mine to tell, and if I told them how to see you, they're legally obligated to tell the police."
"Plus," Faith notes, taking a bite of pizza. "Neither I nor Angel have any idea how they would take the truth." No truth without Eva's permission.
Eva shakes her head quickly to Angel and Faith. "No, no telling my parents. I'm sure they're suffering, but its too risky for them and for us if you let them know anything. Mom and Dad are smart, they know something is fishy with all this and I'm sure they'd want me to stay in hiding. And the more in the dark they are about all this stuff, the better. For now. The moment they can stop honestly denying knowing any of it, the moment they're at greater risk." As Mikhail comes in with supplies, she smiles. "That's so thoughtful of you, Mik. I'm sure Faith will appreciate the alcohol enough for both of us," she says with a wry grin.
Mikhail puts the stuff down and waves a hand, "Vodux", and things start unpacking and getting laid out, "Your place is being watched by the cops, I went to check your folks are ok and they've got a squad car watching in case you go back, I left them to it because if the cops watching your place go missing, they'll assume you have something to do with it", he looks around the place, "Sooo... music?"
Angel nodded, to both reports. "That's what I figured, on both counts. Things said can never be unsaid, and 24 hour surveillance is something the police force can maintain indefinitely. Boring for whoever is on duty, since you're here, but they figure a 17 year old will want to come home eventually."
"I always appreciate booze, where is it?" Faith reaches across her pizza to make grabby hands.
Eva nods at Mikhail's rundown of how her family is doing. "I figured they'd be watched. They probably have their phones tapped, too, or something. Anything to get a trace on me that they can think of. I bet they've even gone to bug my band mates about the whole thing, though I can't imagine they'd have the reach to trace their calls as well." Shrugging, she watches as the supplies just move around on their own. "That reminds me of an old movie I watched with my mom once. Something about a flying bed and all the stuff moved itself around when this lady cast a spell." She watches as Faith goes for the booze and giggles a little.
"Bed knobs and Broomsticks, funny thing? Angela Lansbury, actual witch", Mikhail gestures and some beers and a couple of bottles of something stronger settle near Faith. "So is the idea to let the law play out or do we actually have a plan?", he fishes out the pack of cards, "So, regular poker or strip?"
Angel glares at Mikhail for bringing up strip poker. Back on the other target. "Letting the law play out isn't actually going to help us do anything. All it'll do is keep Eva and Faith away from home indefinitely. There's not a statute of limitations on manhunts." So, what then? "Eventually we need to get the charges dropped. I'm trying to come up with some conclusive we can take to the judge..."
"There's no statute of limitations on murder, to be precise. Either we fix this or we both have to leave the country." And change IDs. And probably never come back...
Eva nods to Mikhail and says "Yeah, that was the movie. I liked it." At the mention of strip poker she frowns deeply. "Mik, totally not funny." Looking back to Angel and Faith, she nods. "Yeah, I hear you. The question is what could we possibly take to the authorities? We'd need iron clad alibis for the time of death, and that would require a whole lot of magic I think." She shrugs her shoulders and stares at the pizza as she eats another slice. "I dunno. I don't really want to do that, though, Faith. There has to be a way to fix this, isn't there?"
Mikhail sighs and puts the cards away, "Just trying to lighten the mood, look you guys are being messed with using laws that shouldn't even apply to you, yeah Faith killed the guy but so would I have, probably would've ripped is throat out with my teeth, possibly would've done so while still human", he sits down, "You guys have to hide until this is figured out but I just don't see why you can't try to have fun in the meantime, life is a bitch but there's always time for games".
"It doesn't really lighten anyone's mood to suggest things like that, Mik." For someone as old as he must be, he is endlessly amazed at everything Mikhail seems not to know. Back on topic. "An alibi won't do it. They've conjured up Eva's bloody shirt, found in her room, with the blood of the victim on it. They somehow conjured up Faith's shirt and knife the same way. With bloody DNA evidence lying around like that, we'd need to prove it was tampered with, and that somebody had a motive to tamper with it."
"Plus, I was fond of that knife," Faith grumbles. She GETS fond of her knives.
Eva tilts her head at Mikhail. "Yes, Faith and I have been over this. The creep had to die. With your bare teeth? That's kind of 'ew' Mikhail. Just a bit." Angel pointing out how difficult the case was against them sighs. "Okay, so we're basically up against lawyers that can use magic however they want to get what they want. We would need something equally powerful, wouldn't we, to undo what they did?" She just shakes her head faintly. "It almost seems hopeless." She finishes off her pizza quickly.
"It wasn't a serious suggestion, harder to ditch the cops sans pants", Mikhail is a little out of his depth here, everyone is grouchy and his suggestions for the situation will probably be met with further glares, shrugging he grabs a beer and lays back listening out for passing police cars.
Angel has been thinking, and, "I'm considering having Willow come up with an anti magic spell. While that would force the evidence they conjured out of existence, they probably have it recorded in print and on the computers with finger prints and blood and DNA and hairs and everything else. If they disappeared now, Wolfram and Hart would just say 'the evidence was stolen.'"
Faith Lehane nods. "That's...a good idea, but yeah, they would. Unless we replaced everything. And Willow does have a skill other than magic."
Eva's eyes swing over to Mikhail who is now drinking beer. "Sorry Mik, it's just hard to joke around when things are looking so bleak. I mean, I know there's a light at the end of the tunnel somewhere but that doesn't mean its easy to find or walk towards." Angel gets a nod. "Even if we take the magic away, everything they already did with it is there. Ugh. So annoying." She listens to everyone talk about options and blinks at Faith. "What other skill are you thinking of?"
"Getting rid of the evidence isn't really doable while you're working with an evil demonic law firm, even novices can restore any evidence destroyed", he smashes the bottle he was drinking from, "Sanguinatum planicium", the bottle fixes itself. "Find a way for Wolfram and Hart to drop the case, they have their hands in enough dodgy dealings, get something on them, they don't drop the case, you go public".
"There's another approach," Faith says, quietly. "I have no alibi. I *did* it. We all know that. Trying to pretend I didn't isn't going to win this. So. We can't do anything that would break the Accords. But there IS the truth."
"...What'd be ideal is to defend with the truth. Faith saved Eva from being, well, raped and murdered. The problem is that the dead man had no weapons on him at the time." Pause. "That they found. What we need to do is give him weapons mortals accept that are dangerous enough that responding with lethal force was appropriate." It's basically planting evidence with the dead man's finger prints. "But with that option, you'd still have to stand trial."
Eva watches Mikhail exercise his magic. Glancing sideways at Faith, she looks between her and Angel. "Okay, so what is a weapon that demands lethal on-the-spot force?" She stops to ponder. "Small and hard to find in the park? That could be a needle, maybe. Dunno what would require lethal force, though. Um..." She pauses to think. "So maybe Mik has a point. They have their hands in a lot of dirty deals, right? I don't think that those people would be so careless as to let anything they do be used against them. But, what if it's something they didn't do being used against them?"
Eva looks to Faith and says "Conjure up something that would have made lethal force necessary. Implicate them as having hidden that evidence, object, whatever, from everyone. If it's done well enough they might back down, wouldn't they?" She shrugs. "I'm grasping at straws, honestly, but if they haven't done something I can't imagine they have a defense for it ready."
"You wouldn't even have to find something recent, or human related, just something that they wouldn't want someone to know, Wolfram and Hart have been around forever in some shape or form, lots of dangerous secrets there", Mik shrugs and takes another beer.
"They have a lot of dangerous secrets, the problem is finding the ones that don't violate the Accords. For example, they have dealings with demons to ritually sacrifice infants on a regular basis, but you'd have a heck of a time proving that without getting people more interested in magic then the Fae will allow." Finding the right secret...that could take some time.
"I still think we might only be better if we tell some version of the truth. The problem is...that with my history..." They might arrest her for something ELSE.
Eva rests her elbow on her knee and her chin in her hand. "I dunno, Faith. Telling the truth might open up a whole other can of worms. And, like you said, there are other crimes you're wanted for. So there's that. But it's not my call. I'm no good at this stuff," she admits with a frown. "I'll just keep hiding out here until something is figured out. School will have to wait, music will have to wait, pretty much everything will have to wait."
"The glamour should keep you hidden and if you really wanted to go to school I could get you into Beacon Hills high until this blows over, just need some fake papers and a little compulsion", Mikhail sits back up, "Or you could help me sort out my place, something of a disagreement with Damon, but found a new place that just needs a little work, that's what I'll be doing when not helping with this stuff".
Help Mikhail move into his new place? Well, it's something to do. "In the meantime, we'll work on coming up with a weapon for the dead man to have so we can go with the Good Samaritan plan." At least Angel got to spend some time with them.
Looking to Angel, Eva nods. "Let me know what you come up with. If there's any way I can help, you know, I'm all ears." As she closes the pizza box, she shakes her head at the idea of going to school at Beacon Hills High. "No, that would be weird. New girl in school, then suddenly disappearing? I'd make friends and know it was fake the whole time. I'd rather just neglect my education for the time being," she admits with a shrug. Mention of a house causes her to blink. "You got your own place? Neat. That's something worth looking at, I guess. See how livable it is for you. I'm sure it could use a 'woman's touch' as they call it." She adds quickly "Not that I'm moving there or anything. Maybe just help you decorate and... stuff."