What Could Be Lurking In The Corner

[whole_bloody_business]

Something's killing the students. Again.

Cara didn't ask to be stationed right on top of the Hellmouth. She certainly didn't ask to put her extremely expensive education to use trying to convince a bunch of drooling American teenagers to pay attention to Latin verb conjugations. In fact, she'd strongly prefer to avoid demons, non-Slayer high school students, and other such unsavory creatures altogether. But, well, she's the one who decided to become a Watcher. She made her bed, she has to lie in it.

Of course, when she signed on, she didn't expect a missing Slayer.

The girl seems to have vanished off the face of the earth, which, of course, means demonic activity is skyrocketing. And, of course, Cara's the only one around with even the tiniest chance of keeping it in check. Which is why she's poking around in the boiler room during her lunch break instead of popping another aspirin and taking a nap on her desk.

Whoever this missing Slayer is, she'd better have a damn good explanation.

Comments

[whole_bloody_business]

Cara winces involuntarily when she hears about the dead Potentials.

"Can you tell me more about the USADI?" she says. "Public or private institution, modus operandi, that sort of thing?"

[impetuous_force]

"Public. There's a draft in effect if you have the right skills, so I'm not publicly a witch, although signing up voluntarily's a viable career option if I think I can get research or medic work, and they might be smart enough not to try to put me anywhere the ability to walk across a flat surface without tripping is necessary, so my odds aren't awful there. They're - ruthless, but they keep it pretty damn firmly aimed at the nasty biteys."

[whole_bloody_business]

"That sounds more effective than what we've got, at any rate," says Cara. "Plausible, too, although imagining a clumsy Bella is a bit strange."

[impetuous_force]

"Witchcraft didn't cause that," says witchy Bella.

[whole_bloody_business]

"I see," says Cara. She seems to have relaxed slightly. "I should tell you that thus far, you don't strike me as a malevolent being, but I'm going to hold off on definitive judgments until Bella gets here."

[impetuous_force]

"I appeared under highly suspicious circumstances, I get it. If I thought you'd done it on purpose I would be highly suspicious of you too, but you weren't even home, so."

[whole_bloody_business]

"The only issue is, if you're not either consciously or unconsciously murderous, I'm not sure where the 'vengeance' comes into play," she says. "Having two Bellas around strikes me as an unambiguously good thing."

(The idea that the 'vengeance' piece may have something to do with the fact that she has no way to send witchy-Bella back home does not cross her mind.)

[impetuous_force]

"Well, maybe it was more obscure than a vengeance demon, but that was the first thing to come to mind."

[whole_bloody_business]

"That could be true, though I'm not aware of the existence of 'pleasant surprise demons' or 'utility maximization demons'," says Cara. "It was more similar to a vengeance demon than anything else, but I suppose there's a small possibility that I've forgotten one or two of the more obscure species over the years."

[impetuous_force]

"You realize I may be stuck very far from home with no way to tell my parents I'm even alive, right?"

[whole_bloody_business]

Cara winces.

"Shit. I didn't think of that. I'm sorry."

[impetuous_force]

"There are worse places I could have ended up, this doesn't seem like a hell dimension, but I did not wish to pretty please go meet Slayer Me on a one-way ticket."

[whole_bloody_business]

"Yes, I'm the only one who did any wishing," she says. "I'm...there are a lot of adjectives I could put in front of the apology, but none of them are quite adequate. I'm sorry. There's got to be a way to send you back, I'll try to find out how." She doesn't sound all that optimistic about her chances.

[impetuous_force]

"Get me enough books and I'll work on it in my spare time, after helping with whatever Slayer Bella's big-deal priorities are."

[whole_bloody_business]

"Books I can do." She's not quite ready to tell witchy Bella everything (even though she feels she owes witchy Bella that much at least, and is bursting to talk about the project besides) due to lingering suspicions.

[cross_and_bow]

And with that there's a knock on the door.

[whole_bloody_business]

Cara opens the aforementioned door and lets Bella in.

"She's at the kitchen table. I don't think she's evil, but you should probably cross-check with her anyway," she says.

[cross_and_bow]

"In your professional opinion, is there any way that any sort of entity she might be has a way to read my mind?"

[whole_bloody_business]

"The Powers-That-Be could not read your mind. You're safe."

[cross_and_bow]

"Okay. Then I should be able to check her out if I'm creative."

The Slayer sits at the kitchen table.

"Hi. I'm Bella. We're probably going to need nicknames. I apologize if my Watcher mishandled you. By any chance do you know what I'm talking about if I ask you what the three questions are?"

[impetuous_force]

"No duh, but I wouldn't have to read your mind, I'd just need to read your notebooks, for that, so you have something else in mind."

[whole_bloody_business]

Cara shifts uncomfortably when Bella mentions her, but doesn't feel she has the right to speak up in that instance. However:

"How well, exactly, would someone be able to reconstruct you if they'd read your notebooks?"

[impetuous_force]

"Well. But not perfectly, because it's all in note to self format. You could guess what somebody was making for dinner by reading their grocery list, but if they didn't bother to write down the brands or quantities because those were obvious, you might not know how many people they were having over or their budget or the preexisting contents of their spice cabinet."

[cross_and_bow]

"Nicely put. Is it too invasive to ask you to walk me through a three questions assessment of where you're at now, in real time, out loud?"

[impetuous_force]

"Uh - I don't think so, although I guess I might stop abruptly if I find something."