damned_institute | Nightshift 33: F21-30 Hallway

[F22]

The intercom startled Falis when it went off and thankfully, she'd set the newly crafted spear down or she might have jabbed a splinter into her palm. As it was, she was stading over her bed looking at all her weapons laid out upon it. One sharp spear, still stained with Eve's blood, one fresh spear, and a stake. Maybe she needed another stake. Nah... Namine should remember hers; Namine didn't forget things. This was why Falis liked the girl so much.

Her eyes moved to look at the intercom as the announcement continued, nodding as it pretty much conformed the whole ancient technology thing she'd been pretty certain of in teh first place. And since it seemed like it was on the fritz, whatever it did, that maybe the princess wasn't going to have to use her super-secret sealing Forland blood anytime soon. Maybe there was another princess around with special blood doing it for them.

What was her name? Jill? Jane? Whatever.

Now, if the people that were supposed to be showing up showed up soon. Bounty hunters had to be patient, but that didn't mean they liked waiting.

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Skuld nodded, something close to a smirk flickering across her face; she did love to show off. "Yeah," she said. "It's already getting long, though."

It then occurred to her that they might have a problem... "Um, would this be for that friend you brought last night? 'Cause... what is she?" A demon she knew and thought was trustworthy was one thing. If that woman was too... Skuld was only willing to bend the rules so often.

Angel raised an eyebrow, unsure if he was slightly amused or just...yeah. He was slightly amused. Anya had left a certain impression, he supposed, which was hardly a surprise.

"No," he replied, recalling what Skuld had told him when they first met about her people's war with demons. "It's for someone else. Her name's Willow. She's a Wiccan, but she's human."

He deliberately chose to leave what Anya was unanswered for now, although he wasn't unwilling to tell Skuld if she asked again.

"Wiccan?" Skuld asked blankly. She hadn't spent much time outside Japan this incarnation, and Wicca wasn't exactly well-known there.

At least he was asking for a weapon for his human friend, though Skuld winced to think of it that way. Not all mortals were human, and as long as they weren't her declared enemy, helping should be okay... in theory. She didn't know for sure, and it bugged her.

"She uses magic," Angel explained. Skuld seemed hesitant, but she didn't look like she was going to say no outright, and that was all he needed. She'd been willing to help him out in spite of what he was. He couldn't ask for more than that.

"She doesn't need anything too complicated," he went on. "Just something easy to handle. She's not a fighter, specifically."

"So... a staff, or something?" That was one magic-related weapon Skuld was familiar with. It could be used at a distance, and unlike a wand it had other purposes even if she didn't put a blade at the top. They still took some training to use effectively, but hopefully not too much. "I'll talk to her."

She hesitated, but blurted out, "So what's your other friend?" It was way too easy to picture the woman with certain markings. And she hadn't missed the fact that Angel had tried to avoid answering her.

Staff? Angel tried briefly to imagine Willow wielding a staff and somehow couldn't quite see it.

"I was thinking a knife, actually," he said. "But it might be better to talk to her."

When Skuld hesitated, he could tell she was about to broach the topic of Anya again, and sure enough, she did. He couldn't blame her curiosity, given what he knew about her.

"She's a demon, too. I know she's...different. And, um." He paused, searching for words. "Lacking in tact. But she's not dangerous."

Anymore, he didn't add. But anymore could be said of any demon, himself included. Finding your way back was what mattered, wasn't it?

"But is she from Nidhogg?" Skuld wasn't nearly as curious as she was bothered by this, and she didn't know what to do. And Belldandy wasn't around to ask. "Because--she kind of seems like it."

She really shouldn't be asking Angel of all people, but he was there, and she kind of needed to know more about both him and Anya, anyway. "And it's not like we're only supposed to help out humans, but there are rules..."

She stopped herself just short of admitting that she didn't think she was even technically allowed to make him that ax. The one thing that was outright forbidden to all in the war between gods and demons was killing, and at her power level that was almost impossible anyway.

Skuld said it like it was a place, but Angel was fairly certain Nidhogg was a type of dragon or serpent. In mythology, no less, which didn't mean it couldn't be real, but it certainly wasn't—or, unless she meant to ask if Anya was born out of a dragon, which was, uh...

Never mind.

"She's from Scandinavia, actually. I think," he added, with a slight frown. He wasn't too sure about her history. "Demons don't—we don't all come from another place entirely. Some of us...used to be human."

However long ago that was. And a number of demons were native to this world, anyway.

He glanced at her, curious. "You mean like laws," he stated, starting to catch on. He'd been under the impression she was following an unspoken moral code of sorts, but it struck him just now that she might've been much more literal when she talked about not being "allowed" to do certain things.

The more they talked, the less sense this all made. What mattered more--what someone was, or what they were like? Skuld was mostly sure Angel was okay, figured Anya wasn't, knew well that not all humans were good, didn't know what to think of the daytime staff at all...

When he asked about the rules she was referring to... "Yeah." At least she knew it was okay to talk about this. "There's not many, but the rules that gods and demons have to obey are strict." Which just made things even more complicated. The really big problem was that here, she was charged with protecting all of the prisoners that weren't... she didn't even know. Against her?

Argh! This was all way too confusing.

Angel smiled wryly. "Sounds like something my world could use."

Hard to imagine how they'd managed to get everybody to adhere to those rules, but from the way Skuld spoke, it seemed like it'd been something that'd been going on for a long time. Either way, it was sort of nice to know that somewhere else, they'd managed to find some semblance of order among the chaos.

"Anyway. Thanks for the—" He hefted the weapon, indicating it. "—axe."

He opened the door halfway, but paused briefly with his hand on the knob. "You can find me in M2 or F23," he said, before walking out. "If you need anything."

[moving up here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/399959.html?thread=31760983#t31760983)]

Nightshift 33: F21-30 Hallway

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