Around the World in 20 Minutes{Richard/Tanzy/Open}

[Anya]

Communism. There was an interesting concept for you. It sort of made Anya giggle, recalling that fateful occasion on which she'd granted the wish that had sparked the Russian Revolution. ...Until she remembered that she wasn't supposed to giggle about that. Even if it had been one of her more major achievements as a vengeance demon.

So how did a girl who'd made her home in New York City end up wandering around half-way around the world? That was a...reasonable question, she supposed. When she'd given up the whole 'evil' thing started hanging around a bunch of humans who could only be described as having a death wish heroic, she'd very rarely stepped out of Sunnydale. And while she'd only come to New York to help get rid of a couple of those nasty zombies, she had ended up settling down there as well. What...was that? That tendency humans had to get attached to a place, get attached to the people there, to...make a home for themselves? A couple of years ago she would have scoffed at the idea of being confined to one place. And yet she'd experienced it twice - first in Sunnydale, then in New York City - the sort of contented, benign normality that seemed to be a part of human life. And she'd liked it. A lot.

But Anya had been thinking recently. The world was always changing, and there was always quite a lot to see. She hadn't been to China since this whole Communist thing had started, for instance! And if you couldn't just up and decide to go to a foreign country thousands of miles away at random, what was teleporting good for? Exactly. NOTHING. ...Well, saving people from burning buildings and stuff, but that was a bit dull in comparison.

Naturally, Beijing occurred to her as being the first place to check out. It was just so full off...exciting human life! ...Or, it should have been. Actually, the streets weren't quite as bustling as Anya remembered them to be, which she was guessing was mostly due to the stormy weather they seemed to be experiencing. Oh well, it was their loss! Personally Anya didn't feel that life was quite exciting enough if there wasn't a risk of randomly being struck by lighting hanging over your head, and her demeanor remained mostly chipper as she continued her curious, casual sort of exploration of the city streets. Now and again she'd stop to investigate something, like - at the moment - a man working a food stand who was ushering her to buy something in slightly broken English, no doubt being able to tell she wasn't exactly from around here. Anya blinked at him, smiling politely. "Oh, your food looks very appealing. I really would love to buy something from you and further your economic standing in this wonderful country, but...um, I only have American money." she prattled off in fluent Mandarin without thinking.

The man stared at her, slightly taken aback. And Anya - who realized a little too late that she was the spitting image of some clueless American tourist, and clueless American tourists did not tend to be flawlessly fluent - backtracked quickly. Best not to draw any more attention to herself than necessary, seeing as she wasn't exactly human...not to mention the fact that she wasn't exactly authorized to be in this country. She really did need to invest in a passport one of these days. Reverting to English, she spluttered, "Oh - I mean. Um. TOURIST." before pointing to herself meaningfully to emphasize her words, giving him a cheery nod, and continuing on her way. Awkward interactions with the locals aside, she was beginning to look upon this as her own little mini-vacation. This was gonna be...fun!

VROOM!

Anya let out a slight squeak and leaped backward, very nearly avoiding being hit by a bus as she attempted to all but skip across the road. Right. Maybe it was safer to...work her way up to fun. Baby steps.

[Kiseichu Clossiana]

While some interestingly suspicious things were going on in Beijing China, the rather young demoness who could call almost every other demon `REALLY OLD~!` was chilling in the shadows with a fleet of creatures waiting to roam the surface. For what? Well...they had a surprise they wanted to work on but IN AMERICA, it wasn't the most grand idea. A lot of people mistook her for an idiot, which usually played out in her benefit anyway, but summoning a bunch of lesser demons to a place where she was having a bit of an honest living...didn't seem wise nor very entertaining at the moment. PLUS! It would be bad if one of the humans she had to repo organs from got eaten or their luscious insides damaged. Despite her love for operation and mending wounds...that would be a little problematic. At least it was for now since she opted to care! SO!

Instead she was going to take the parade practice to some where like here! That's right! The hell she came from was going to have a parade and as if she was gonna let the old futtie dutties out do her amazing talents! Across the street where a PARTICULAR FAMILIAR SOMEONE AND FELLOW DEMON was going to have as her final destination after confusing the crap out of some locals by speaking fluently (YET ODDLY HAVING AMERICAN MONEY...they would never suspect a thing!) is where the happy demon lady was going to start her minor invasion. Slinking up from a shadow caused by a random beverage vending stand while humming an upbeat and delightful melody. Honestly, she didn't bother with a fancy outfit aside from her usual `nurse` attire that some SO ELOQUENTLY insinuated as STRIPPERWEAR, not like she cared. Mortals were so amusing, and they were even MORE amusing when slit open and on an operating table!

Besides she liked her strange outfit and it was comfortable! EXTREMELY poofy locks that almost made it seem like in case of emergency she could use those ivory tendrils as a boa, let alone waved and styled rather crazily. Chances are if someone FELL OFF A CLIFF AND LANDED ON HER HAIR they'd survive...it was that insanely poofy. Well to sum it up her short dress complimented her figure a great deal and hey guess what? The high heeled boots going up several inches past her knees and hooked up to red cross garter belts looked FABULOUS with the outfit! NEVER underestimate a female who could kick in heels and not fall flat on their pretty little butt, it was a skill she had but didn't show off often due to being so freaking chill majority of the time. What about her gloves with red trim and little red belts around the wrists ending about two to three inches away from her elbow? DUH OF COURSE those too made the gods of fashion somewhere out there flail with happiness!

Calmly unbuttoning the top cross clap around her neck so that it would open it up as some bystanders were gawking like `OH CRAP` as she unnaturally arose from the shadow as though it was an elevator. More so with her super chipper humming like it was pseudo music for her entry. Reaching into the top portion of her shirt, she was focusing on the damn shiniest scalpel in her imaginative possession with a bunch of rune-like carvings upon it aaaand slowly pulled it out with a sly grin across her cherry glossed lips. Now what WAS she standing on? Well as it became more and more visible, like an eight foot dragon with deep black eyes and bone-like horns twisting out from its back...though...it didn't appear to have wings...weird. ANYWAY at least it made its claws pretty with blood upon them as though it recently ripped into something! What a cute black demon dragon thing!

Jumping off of its head as some old couple fell over while experiencing a crazy heart spasm known as a heart attack which would change their lives FOREVER. With a twirl and flip not flashing off her pantsu thanks to these nifty things she wore called WHITE LEGGINGS, she had her scalpel pointed toward the throat with a sweet smile across her lips as she spoke in a tone to match even cooing out the words "My oh my hello there mortal~! I feel far too lazy to speak in your dialect as you can tell plus I am in a bit of a rush~ I need supplies to help my-" Lowering the scalpel a bit as her smile softened...the person screamed and fainted...like a loser. "Hmmm....that wasn't useful...not at all....OH IF ONLY I HAD MORE TIME TO WELCOME YOU TO MY OPERATING TABLE~! Then your fainting would be absolutely ideal!"

Tapping her finger tips up to her cheeks, the VERY FAMILIAR PRESENCE is one she chose to acknowledge as she turned her head toward the bunny hater's direction. "How delightful~! Someone I know who could be useful! ...perhaps instead of talking to myself for a moment I should actually say something directly to her. Yes....yes this would be a splendid little notion~!" As though she was going to finish that sentence with a non-existant manga style heart, she raised her free hand while about thirty five more demons decided to crawl out of the shadow and crowd behind their demonic mistress with crazy hair. Waving over at Anya AS IF THAT WAS GONNA BE THE THING TO CATCH HER ATTENTION looking oh so very happy to see her while speaking up in a tone that would make diabetics everywhere want to stab themselves with syringes and inject some insulin into their blood stream....

"AAAANYA~! I would greatly appreciate your assistance, these are extremely important matters about assisting me with a parade I'm competing in!" Quirking her only exposed brow...she heard some strange smacking noise and slowly turned her gaze toward it while tsking at the largest of her demon pals who was chewing on one of the fainted locals! "...Oh dear...I thought you were trying to make a funny when you said you were a gluttonous demon! Spit the mortal human out and make sure you don't damage its organs before I can see how they look...hm?" Chuckling amusingly at the large demon's antics as it sloooowly and carefully spat out the extremely traumatized individual upon his feet. Honestly...she was treating this whole thing like a game filled with lightheartedness all around and it wasn't very serious at all.

The strange organ obsessed woman's lips curved into a very delightful and pleased smile, especially when her demon pal let out a growl which meant sorry. Such great manners! Ahhhh she taught them well so far...

[Richard]

Another day, another locale...

Wait. Who said locale anymore?

"I need to stop reading these pamphlets." And the pamphlet in his clawed, bony fingers melted away into a small pile of ash that quickly blew away. "Well now that THAT's taken care of...." Dusting off his hands, he directed his attention to where he was. Specifically, where the bus he was standing on was. "Hmm. Nope, still can't read anything written around here."

So the whole point of reading the pamphlets was moot, then.....how quaint.

He planted his arms on his hips, staring around as the buss went about doing whatever it was a bus did. He got a laugh out of someone almost getting run over, though it was tempered when he realized they managed to avoid becoming roadkill. "Well, board of this thing already."

Leaning forward, he leaned down in front of the windshield of the bus. "Hello there. This is my stop." He waved cheerily at the driver, causing the poor person to panic, and as paniced people are wont to do, stamp on the gas and swerve radically, ending up with the bus careening off the road, onto the sidewalk, and flipping over onto its side, crashing into a building and exploding.

"And the bus exploded in a giant fireball and everybody DIED!
Except for me!"

Leaping from the burning wreckage, Richard flipped through the air, lancing in a martial arts crouch.

"Y'know why?!"

"No really, does anyone know why? That would've at least made things interesting." When no one responded, Richard got distinctly disgruntled and threw his hands up in the air. "OKAY. I GET IT. IT'S GOTTA BE ME."

[Anya]

...Of course. Of course on the one day she picked to visit China, there'd be some sort of demonic invasion going on. Or maybe it was just National Demon Tourism Day and she'd missed the memo. Either way, the appearance of some sort of hellish dragon-esque creature emerging from the shadows not too far away brought the vengeance demon skidding to a stop, though...while most of the onlookers around her had varied reactions of 'OMFG WTF IS THAT?!', her's was more of a 'huh...you don't see that every day' type of surprise. She spent a moment debating over whether to brand this thing as some sort of threat and deal with it accordingly or...walk away sloooowly and just pretend she hadn't seen anything, when she finally tore her gaze away from the dragon's scary looking claws...and scary looking teeth...long enough to realize that there was actually someone standing on top of it.

As that someone hopped off of the creature and onto the ground, causing a couple of bystanders to spazz out even more completely, it actually occurred to Anya that she was distinctly familiar. Omigawd, so that whole trippy stroll through that not-so-happy helltown hadn't been just a weird Wizard of Oz-esque dream! The blonde perked up briefly at this newfound knowledge, right until the moment when about a gazillion around thirty-something demons decided to up and crawl out of the shadows behind Tanzanite. Anya promptly turned to give the little entourage a not-so-amused 'hey! get your butts back to hell' glare, for a split second actually under the impression that the poofy-haired woman didn't know they were there. Until she realized that all things considered...that was kind of stupid...

Her attention finally switched back to the other demon when Tanzanite called her name, informing her that she needed help with...some kind of parade? Uh, well. The arrival of her demon friends had already pretty much cleared the streets, so that part was taken care of at least. With a shrug Anya finally started to move toward her, keeping a wary eye on the little demonic army lest one of them decide to make her their next chew toy. Yeah...that poor guy...he was probably gonna be traumatized forever...

"Tanzanite! Hi!" she finally spoke up, her amiability genuine despite the general chaotic-ness of the situation. Because humans were really, really wonderful and all (well, most of them), but it was nice to have at least one other demon around who...didn't seem to immediately want her dead. "Um. You sure do know how to make an entrance." Anya couldn't help but add, glancing uncertainly at the demon posse again. At least they didn't seem to be the type to be running around wreaking senseless havoc; Tanzanite seemed to have them under control...mostly...for now. Still, she could see how the locals might be a bit unnerved. With a slightly apprehensive smile, she reminded herself that she'd been called over here because her assistance was in someway needed, and made an attempt to finally get to the point. "So you said something about a parade? Are they going be in it too?" Yeah she really, really hoped that a fun little parade were all this bunch was here for, but that was probably hoping for a little too m--

Her thoughts abruptly broke off as a bus a little ways down the street chose that exact moment to (seemingly) randomly swerve off the road, crash into a building and bursting into flames. Anya had witnessed many acts of random violence over the past few centuries, but this one kinda took her by surprise to say the least. Slightly bewildered, she turned to inquire of Tanzanite, "Did you do that?! 'Cause I didn't do that!" Telekinetic powers of any demons present aside, this could've been the work of...well, plain ol' reckless driving. In which case...ALL THOSE POOR PEOPLE! Some of them were probably going to work to make lots and lots of money! Or...maybe some of them were going to the zoo! Maybe there'd been a bunch of kids on board, and all they'd wanted was to see a stupid rhinoceros laying in the mud, and now they were never gonna get to see a rhinoceros again unless they ended up in some sort of rhino-heaven...

The vengeance demon fidgeted anxiously as she stood, genuinely upset by this sudden turn of events...and then her light brown gaze settled on a man who seemed to have rather dramatically escaped with his life somehow. She couldn't make out his features; most of them were hidden by the black robes he wore, but she could tell that he seemed to be shouting some sort senseless nonsense to everyone that looked on. Clearly he was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or something. Poor guy. She watched him with a nonplussed frown for a moment before deciding that it was probably a good idea to get him away from the wreckage that was so CLEARLY the source of the stress he was experiencing. "Hey! Shady looking robed man! Come over here and get away from all of that dangerously destructive...destruction!" Anya called over to him anxiously. Because him wandering over to a crowd of demons totally wouldn't be more traumatic, or anything.

[Kiseichu Clossiana]

Letting out a delightful chuckle in the midst of her demonic pal, absolutely FLATTERED that this fellow demon female acknowledged her talent for making an entrance! Hmmm...but why ever would she seem a little unnerved? It didn't make sense...this woman WAS a demon, was she not? Oh well, it wasn't worth dwelling on for now since there were way more things to be focused on and that wasn't exactly high on her priority list! "Oh of course~! It's all part of getting ready for the parade~! I plan on taking that prize this year, I'll even share the spoils~!"

Delightfully cooing out those words, she twirled the scalpel in the air as though to make invisible figure eights in response to her questions of the moment. Theeeen soon after a KABOOM took place and her smile was merely happily puzzled as she turned her head to glance over to the ridiculously dark aura radiating from the wreckage. Pointing on over with the scalpel, chuckling as though this wasn't a bad thing at ALL, she truly found it rather humorous...especially because dear ol' Anya over there thought it was her doing! "You don't seem the sort to do something so crafty~ though I wish I could take credit for that...such a display would be quite the lovely addition to my routine...in fact.." A deviously chipper smirk made its way across her lips almost to the point of looking rather seductive. Not like she intended it to look as such, but she just had an interesting idea that would be what some arcade junky called `EPIC WIN`. OOOOOH! Plus he was the sort to make creative little songs!

This WAS certainly a treat! Applauding as she casually strolled on over to the fellow who practically wreaked of dark arts, careful not to stab or cut herself, she stopped her little cheer session to the cloaked fellow who had his hands up in the air. "How very interesting~! Since you were so quick to take credit for this little explosion, would you mind if I asked you for a favor? I'd give you some sort of reward so it won't be a waste of your tiiiime~!" A twistedly sweet tone sugar coated her words toward him. The dragon demon who spat up the random bystander carefully grabbed the bystander dripping in drool by the arms.

The peculiar creature lifted the COMPLETELY traumatized human toward his master's apparent friend making it look like the human was waddling before having it give the lady a big ol' slobbery hug. A few of the demons just chillin' couldn't help but softly snicker and giggle out of sheer amusement. Save for one that seemed a little slow in the head and had a `HURRRRRHURRHURRRHURR` kinda laugh. Pleh...the demon nurse would worry about what was amusing them soon enough!

[Richard]

Richard was still fuming and ranting about apparently no one noticing him when he heard someone talking. More specifically, talking to him. He swivelled his head about -- and only his head, the rest of his body remained frozen in mid-rant -- to stare at who it had been. "Dangerously destructive destruction....." he repeated slowly, mostly to himself. Dropping his posture back to normal, he lazily waltzed away from the burning wreckage toward the master of alliteration.

"Your alliterative prowess is astounding," he said when within normal speaking distance. "Truly. I'm almost jealous." He gestured at the air blankly. "If you were any better at it, I might have to call you the Master of Alliteration, then brutally maim and kill you to steal that title for myself." He stroked his masked chin in thought. "Actually, that's not a bad idea..."

He was distracted by his potential murder to be by someone else speaking to him. "Eh?" And his eyes and expression slid off to one side to stare at this new speaker in what those on the internet might call a >> face. "A favor?" And Richard's entire body spun about to face the direction his eyes were. "That depends on what sort of favor it is. I happen to be very selective about what I do."

And that was his massive lie of the day.

[Anya]

Having a whole horde of demons so close to human civilization was still making her a bit jittery, but when Tanzanite elaborated a little further on the parade she was planning Anya gave her a genuine smile. She sounded so excited! And...well, cheerful! Surely she couldn't be up to anything too awful, right? "Well, um - I'm not in any hurry, so I suppose I could help out if you need me to! And...I really hope you win! I'm sure you will. Your demonic minions look...um, intimidating, but lovely, and I don't see anyone else around here even attempting to put together a parade!" Anya told her brightly, glancing around the street just to make sure. Nope! No competition so far! "What's the prize? Do you get money?" If money was involved, it would certainly explain why Tanzanite was so invested in this whole thing. What was better than money?

Still, even Anya had to abandon her money-related thoughts when the explosion took place a little ways down the street - and it was then that Tanzanite's lighthearted chuckle, along with her words about wishing she could claim responsibility for the event, gave Anya something of a sharp reminder about the reality of this situation. Her fellow demon here was just that, a demon. And while the bunny-fearing blonde certainly didn't have anything against her own kind, she needed to remember that it wasn't safe to just immediately assume that Tanzanite didn't want to hurt anyone.

And speaking of hurting people - that man was now walking right toward her! While she was initially rather relieved that he appeared to be listening to her, her relief quickly turned to alarm at the man's words. Not because he was threatening to kill her, because really that wasn't anything she wasn't used to - but because his words suggested that he was responsible for that little 'accident'. Of all the days to visit Beijing, really! It had to be one where she'd be forced to deal with something like this. She snorted briefly in response to his comment on her unintentional use of alliteration, choosing to ignore it in favor of focusing instead on the much more important issue that was at hand. Placing a hand on her hip, she narrowed her eyes slightly and gave the man the same sort of disapproving glare a kindergarten teacher might give some child who was coloring on the walls. "You hurt those people." she huffed, though 'hurt' was a bit of an understatement. "I mean, I know people on public buses tend to be generally creepy and/or obnoxious, but was it really necessary to blow them to bits? Just look at all the chaos you've caused!"

Her scolding, however, was interrupted when Tanzanite approached the man as well - which was probably a good thing, given that the man in question was currently thinking of trying to 'brutally maim and kill her'. But then...her demonic friend proceeded to compliment the man on his 'achievements', and even ask him for a favor. What? Blinking, Anya turned an incredulous gaze on the other woman. You didn't...ask violent, explosion-causing people for favors! They really weren't what you'd call the reliable type, and - and the next thing she knew, he'd probably be trying to hurt Tanzanite too!

Ugh....this wasn't going to end well. For anyone. She could already tell. Now REALLY starting to wish she'd chosen to stay in...well, her own country today, Anya gave an exasperated shake of her head and turned away from the conversation at hand...and then.... "Oh!" Perfect timing to be almost knocked off her feet by the weight of the human that had suddenly been slumped on her in some sort of parody of a hug - which was thanks to the dragon-demon standing nearby, Anya realized a moment later.

Though her first instinct was to cringe away from the drool-covered human, instead she gingerly shifted him so that she had one arm around his back to support him as he slumped against her shoulder - evidently, he was much too traumatized to stand on his own two feet at the moment. "I am so very pleased you find this amusing!" she snapped sarcastically at the group of demon-minions, who seemed to be getting a kick out of the whole thing. And then (because the poor human just hadn't experienced enough craziness today), with a faint pop Anya and her newfound companion disappeared for a moment - reappearing about a block down, where she dumped the traumatized man unceremoniously at the feet of some random woman. This, she figured, was at least...safe enough distance from the company she was keeping.

"Make sure he doesn't...die of shock, or something." the vengeance demon told the momentarily stunned woman briskly, not even stopping to actually bother to speak Mandarin in her agitation. Seconds later, she'd teleported back to the scene of all the commotion, wrinkling her nose and wiping a bit of residual slime from her arm as she stood relatively close to Tanzanite and the possibly-dangerously-insane man...though her gaze was still fixed firmly upon the crowd of demons, wary of any further mischief they might get up to if she turned her back.

[Kiseichu Clossiana]

(AH HOPE DIS IS ALRIGHT! SORRY FOR THE WAIT D: !!!!)

What oh what was the prize is what her dear demon friend Anya pondered, even to the point of guessing money. That and her pal seemed to have quite a bit of confidence in her since her lovely minions were absolutely intimidating. The prize was something glorious, enough souls from the rivers of hell itself to give her even more power. Though she wasn't about to share that little fact since her friend may very well wonder what sort of catastrophe the demon nurse would have in store for the mortals. Certainly it would help her do all that kindly work of aiding the hospital go MUCH faster...but...of course, seeing how she wasn't exactly the most docile creature from hell in the whole wide world...there may be room for concern. This crazy haired nurse practicing a whole lot of malpractice wasn't what one may call an bubble brain. There were a whole lot of deadly smarts under that puffy mess of hair and a true monster capable of dreadful things.

However, she opted to just toy with the mortals most of the time out of sheer TROLOLOLO amusement. Such as now, she could have gone elsewhere for their practice but what good was that? Besides it would be so much easier to see how others would react to their little show! Grinning toward her friend, she cooed out a quick little response to her money inquiry... "Oh...you can say I'll be getting some money." That tone of hers almost seemed sweetly sinister with an undertone of deviousness in her smile. It was awfully rude to neglect others when they took a moment to speak so she wanted to at least give her that much acknowledgement.

Ah but when it came time to dishing out a little compliment in the interesting fellow's direction, it seemed that the vengeance demon was a little surprised and not the SURPRISE HAPPY BIRTHDAY kind of shock with good results. Well tough luck for her, she needed some brutal creativity to succeed and if that demoness trying oh so hard to be like the good doing humans wanted to do some damage control, so be it. It wouldn't anger her, more along the lines of provide sheer amusement in regards to someone helping mortal victims. Oh...and probably provide some usefulness since it wouldn't hurt to have someone making sure things didn't get out of hand. Despite her occasional, chaotic tendencies...she certainly didn't want to have unwanted interruptions. Someone like Anya was perfect for such a job. Chaotic creativity with a sense of control, it was something those damn judges would have to give some praise for!

While her fellow demon was making sure the tormented, slobber coated human was alright, she was giving her full attention to the bus crashing avenger giving him a sinister smile with her scarlet glossed lips. "Obviously you have a sense of creativity, do you not? I could use that for a little parade I'm setting up in a competition. If I win...well, let's just say your hard work won't go without reward, hm~?" Speaking in such a calm and sweet fashion toward the stranger, she brought up her hand over where her a human's heart generally is and proceeded to politely introduce herself, "I'm Kiseichu Clossiana, but you can call me Tanzanite or some variation of either if you wish." The chuckling demon with the HURR HURR HURR HURR HURR laugh grinned at Anya and tapped its claws together as though to say `Oh yes, that IS very funny` with its fang filled grin. Side glancing toward the larger demon, she figured it would be best to bring her hand off of her chest and swiftly slap her demonic minion and chuckle for a short moment before cooing out, "Sweetie, don't give my friend here too much trouble or I'll have to send you back home early...."

As sweet and caring as she may have sounded at that moment, there was just something horribly evil about her tone considering the demon she smacked got wide eyed and developed a SRS serious look on its face as if what many humans would call an `OH SHIT.` moment just took place. There was even a glint of something one may call `evil` in her amber optics for a second that didn't mind having an excuse to take over the situation if needed. Didn't seem like ANY of her minions wanted to deal with that side of her!