``shadows of the past.. {open}

[Anya]

What was that thing Xander had once told her - about The First Slayer sending him and the others on some sort of 'mind trip' through the dream world? Yeah. Sometimes that was what Anya felt was happening to her. Her sleep had been...feverish at best for the past couple of nights. And barely existent at worst. Some nights she'd be drifting off only to jolt awake again, having the strangest feeling that someone was watching her - and some nights she'd sleep, which...well, at times Anya felt sleeping was even worse. Sleep was supposed to be restful, but her dreams were full of indistinguishable figures that would dart through the shadows and then suddenly appear behind her, or flames that felt a little too real (she swore she could almost feel the heat on her skin), or flashes of images that made even less sense than those. The vengeance demon had never been a very easy girl to frighten, but...this was making less and less sense. What were you supposed to do in a situation like this? Seek therapy? What was she supposed to tell a therapist; she was a demon...

Last night had been the worst so far. She'd gotten an hour of sleep, maybe a little less, which...probably had something to do with her passing out on the couch earlier this evening right after she'd gotten home from work. Only moments ago she'd come to, awoken by some dream that had been vivid at the time but which she couldn't remember much of now, and her usually warm but now slightly darkened brown eyes darted to the clock on the wall. 11:28, it read. Practically the middle of the night. Well, she'd managed to get some sleep - that was something. The demon forced herself up onto her feet, intending to wash up, change out of her work clothes, and go to bed properly - and then -

"Ah, the psychological effects of human life on a demon." a familiar voice sounded from behind her. "Truly fascinating, Anyanka."

Her breath caught in her throat, and she whipped around, every muscle in her body tense. That voice...no, no he couldn't be here. She was delirious. Hearing things. But even now, she could almost feel the air chill, almost sense some unseen being watching her. And, uncharacteristically, Anya trembled slightly. "...D'Hoffryn?" the whisper escaped her before she could think. Nothing but total silence answered her. She waited uncertainly for a moment, wondering if maybe she was going crazy after all. But no. No, she was sure she'd heard him...

All at once, she decided on a course of action: she needed to get out of here. To get outside where it was safe, where she could clear her head. Grabbing her coat, she hurried out the door of her apartment and down the hallway, practically bolting down the several flights of stairs and out the door of the building in the next few moments. Anya wasn't...quite sure where she was going yet, admittedly. Upon stepping outside the cold night air served both to clear her cluttered thoughts and freeze her in her tracks for a moment. But then...it didn't matter, really. New York was a big city. She could walk forever if she wanted to. She just needed to...go somewhere.

Unusually somber, the vengeance demon started off down the street, hardly even paying attention to where she was going or to whoever might be in front of her.





ooc:// have a couple of plot bunnies hoppin' through my head...but anyone's welcome to join in :]

[firstborn]

There was a sensation that Anya was being watched. In fact, she was - by a lot of somethings out there in the darkness. Most of them were inhuman - and one set of eyes in particular belonged to Cadecus.

The Ravener was one of Eliza's best, whose task it was to be a scout. In truth, he'd never played Tail to anyone before, but Anya, Eliza had told him in no small way, was worth keeping eyes on, especially after the incident with Hazama. She wasn't... dangerous, but she was a demon, and the man with the wrapped face was the sort you didn't take lightly. He'd backed down last time... but probably only because he hadn't expected Eliza's intervention. It wouldn't happen twice.

In truth, as Cadecus watched Anya stride from her apartment, he mused about her beauty - he'd been the one who she'd spotted in the tree in the part last time, and he'd not been able to get her out of his head ever since. Perhaps that was part of why Mother had sent him, instead of another who had more experience as a tail? It couldn't have been a romantic interest, he assured himself... not... like, baby-making. He was almost certain that wouldn't work. Maybe it was just... an infatuation? A fancy? That sounded better, more "right" in the Ravener's head.

The Ravener's claws gripped stone firmly as he sped along the side of the building, taking some care not to... stare at Anya - she could tell, he knew, when she was being watched, but he couldn't help it - he didn't want her to be attacked... and he'd deal rather curtly with the poor sod who tried something on these dark streets. He almost wished for it to happen... but as the rule goes, you should be careful what you wish for.

As Anya walked along, Cadecus spotted male humans, black-skinned mostly except for two, numbering six, who, after Anya passed a ways, began to follow her after some exchanged looks. He wasn't a humanologist... but even he knew that something wasn't right. Demon or not... a gun was a gun and a knife was certainly a sharp pointy thing... and she was human, for the most part. He pulled in closer behind the males, silent as the wind, well above them on the side of buildings, hopping from ledge to wall to ledge again fluidly...

"Hey honey, wait uuup!" One of the black males called in a mocking tone that made Cadecus's ears flatten in distaste - a woman should not be addressed that way! -10 points, me buccos...

[Anya]

The streets of New York were never really empty. It wasn't called the city that never sleeps for nothing - but at the moment there weren't too many people around, Anya managed to note. Which was why, after a moment, she found it so strange to be experiencing that all too familiar prickling sensation of being watched again. What was going on? This was exactly what she'd left her apartment to escape! Was...was D'Hoffryn really here? The thought of the other demon following her made her blood run cold, and very abruptly Anya whipped around to stare across the dark streets behind her. No sign of any movement. She stood completely and utterly still for a moment and then, with a barely audible but distinctly distressed sigh, turned and hurried on her way. It was the lack of sleep, she told herself again. It was making her paranoid.

With quite enough on her mind already, she hardly even noticed the gang of men she swept past. But...apparently they'd noticed her. After a moment, Anya became very aware of the sound of following footsteps behind her - but recognizing them as distinctly human, she didn't acknowledge them. Didn't look back, didn't quicken her pace, just...allowed a faint flicker of irritation to cross her face before proceeding to ignore the group entirely. For as many genuinely good humans there were in the world, there were also a few who weren't so pleasant. And she most definitely wasn't in the mood to deal with them. Hopefully this bunch wouldn't be stupid enough to try anything...

"Hey honey, wait uuup!"

...Aaaand so much for that. For a moment Anya considered just continuing to ignore them, walking right on her not-so-merry way. But for whatever reason - perhaps it was the lack of sleep, or the fact that she'd already been through enough tonight, or maybe it was just her inner vengeance demon snarling at the idea that these thugs would try bothering a woman who was wandering the streets by herself - Anya found her patience wearing thin much more quickly than it normally might have. So she turned around to face them, looking less than impressed with their behavior.

She'd make this brief: "Go away." she told the men, bluntly and just a tad frostily. Her gaze swept briefly over the group. There were quite a few of them, and she wasn't sure whether or not any of them were armed - if they were, she was going to have to take their intentions a bit more seriously. Still, the vengeance demon fixed the group with a dangerous, icy sort of stare, and held her ground. This was just...the last thing she needed right now.

[firstborn]

The man laughed openly, and his friends splayed out on either side of Anya, moving with sinister quickness to circle her, but some part of them had a little nodule that sensed a cornered animal and bade them keep their distance from the demon - even among the predators, there is that little bit of them that is concerned with self preservation. On the downside, that meant that they drew weapons without hesitation. This wasn't going to be a mugging where nobody got hurt. That much was clear already - these ones wanted blood. The youth who spoke crossed one arm over his chest and laughed, looking over Anya's body with a hungry little evil gleam.

"You're very pretty..." he crooned softly, and the other men snickered a little, but dared not draw any closer to her.

Cadecus bared his teeth. This was not his idea of a good evening, not his idea of fun. He dropped some distance from Anya and her little friends, but made no attempt to remain stealthy. They were in a part of town where a camera was unlikely... after all, the predators were out to play tonight. It was a marvel they had not simply tried to grab her.

The imposing figure scowled as it stalked through the darkness, silent as sleek death, until he was not ten feet from the lot of them.

He roared. He opened his mouth, and screamed at the top of his lungs, his eyes blazing, his fangs, rows of them, glinting as his jaw opened, revealing a gaping abyss that could have snapped around any of their upper bodies whole, with disconcerting ease. Before the shock had even worn off, Cadecus was on them, grabbing one of the men and hurling him, claws tearing his clothes like tissue paper as he was tossed aside like a ragdoll, hurtling through a pane of glass on the opposite side of the street without so much as slowing.

"Holy shit!" one said, and fired a pistol into the figure - that didn't seem to work, it just moved close to Anya, pushed her (with surprising gentleness) down as it snapped at the man, taking the gun out of his hand, and a couple fingers with it. Mister clever was already running now, and his mates compared survivability with profit and chose wisely. The one sans fingers even managed to stagger off - shock and terror make for great motivators.

The big figure with alltogether too many eyes looked at Anya, barely breathing any harder than normal at all, and grinned - Raveners are just... way too good at smiling. His smile, in fact, dominated nearly the whole length of his angular muzzle! He spat a couple fingers, and a long tongue, coiled around a pistol, flicked out and tossed the weapon over his shoulder, followed by its clip, both of them clattering into a nearby dumpster.

"Allo Ma'am." he said with disconcerting calm. "Nice night - shame about th' wildins'... yeh okay?"

[Anya]

Were these humans stupid or something? Any other creature could sense when there was a demon in its presence, and Anya had often wondered why humans seemed to be the only beings who couldn't do the same. But now wasn't really the time for wondering, because these idiots had decided to go and surround her...as if she'd actually been considering running from them, and...oh. And now they were drawing their weapons. Wonderful. A quick glance around the group told Anya that there wouldn't be any getting out of this one without injury. And if she had to fight all of them off, well...that wasn't really something the vengeance demon wanted to consider. The idea of violence towards humans, and the idea of wanting to commit violence against them - it reminded her a little too much of things she didn't like being reminded of.

Briefly, she contemplated just teleporting away. Just like that, in the blink of an eye. Seemed to be the easiest answer. But then the apparent leader of the little group spoke up, and his drawling tone, the way he looked at her - on top of everything else that had happened tonight - provoked a sort of disbelieving anger that rooted the demon to the spot. In fact, the rage-laced coldness that seeped over her as she stared at him was enough to distract her from the fact there was something...distinctly not human...approaching the group from behind.

And as an added bonus, then there was that temper she'd never quite learned to deal with - making her say things she probably shouldn't have been saying in front of a human. Bristling defensively, Anya kept her attention focused on the one who'd spoken to her - though she was painfully aware of the others surrounding her. "I've cursed men three times as intimidating as you into incoherent heaps, you--" But she never got to finish. Because in the next moment, there was a horrific...she could only think to describe it as a roar, and Anya didn't exactly scare easily - but the snarling sound actually made her heart skip a beat. But that was nothing compared to the fright it gave the men surrounding her, although none of them exactly got a chance to process it. In the next moment, the monster...or...whatever it was (as many sorts of creatures as she'd run into over the centuries, she didn't recognize this one) was flinging the men around with terrifying ease.

It was difficult to tell exactly what was happening - but suddenly there was a gun being drawn, and in the next second the monster was next to her. Instinctively, Anya tensed - half in anticipation of bullets being fired, and half out of the worry that this creature might try to attack her next - but all it did was give her a gentle but forceful shove down...out of harm's way? The demon was too stunned to even attempt to regain her balance for several moments - it was only when what was left of the gang turned tail and fled that she snapped back to reality. Quickly, Anya sprung to her feet again as the whatever-it-was turned to gaze at her with its many eyes. She regarded it warily, debating a course of action - attacking it didn't strike her as being a particularly necessary or wise course of action, and anyway...hadn't this creature just...defended her? It had. She wasn't quite sure why, but it had.

And then the monster grinned at her, and Anya froze. Because she'd seen that grin before, though she had to pause a moment to register this. ...What was going on? By this point, she really shouldn't have been surprised when it spoke to her - to her credit, she managed to accept this after blinking a few times. "......They didn't hurt me." she replied after a long, stiff moment. It - he? The voice sounded rather masculine - was awfully calm for having just appeared out of nowhere and all but torn a gang of thugs apart. Entirely unsure of what to make of any of this, Anya blurted out the first question that came to mind. Or she tried to, at least. The shock was making it sort of hard to formulate words, even for her. "But where did you - ? How...? ...I know you. How do I know you?" This...this was crazy, really. Tense and uneasy - but not necessarily afraid - she could do nothing but stare up at the creature, trying to make sense of everything.

[firstborn]

Cadecus's ears flicked a little, and he lifted his head a bit, well over the level of Anya's head, and looked around a bit as Anya stammered her way towards enlightenment. Voices in his mind, images in his consciousness, they flashed through his psyche. Police were responding to the silent alarm in the shop whose window he just tossed a man through. It... wouldnt be a good idea to linger.

Just the same, with a warm smile (which was difficult to tell, but he didnt show all his teeth and that WAS an improvement) he regarded Anya and considered questions he'd half-listened to, but heard just the same.

"Ah. Ya met my Mum - Eliza. See, she told me t'keep ya safe, special." he offered her his hand politely, motioning into the shadows

"Th' Coppers r'comin... m'lady -" he said with a gentleman's tone "we shouldn' be 'ere... M'names Cadecus, m'lady, its n'honor n' a pleasure t' keep ye safe." he rumbled in his curious accent, dipping a shoulder to the woman. "'op on, m'lady"

[Anya]

Eliza...? ...Eliza had sent him here? Recalling her encounter with the teen, Anya narrowed her eyes in confusion. Though a moment later, it clicked: Cadecus had been there in the park that day, in the tree - that was why his toothy grin struck her as being so familiar. She'd sensed then that he was somehow connected to Eliza - but how? ...Had he called the teen his mum? And she hadn't started on questioning why on earth Eliza was invested in keeping her safe, or why she thought Anya even needed to be kept safe in the first place - it was all far too confusing.

But he was right. Staying here much longer wouldn't be a particularly good idea, especially if the police were on their way - she would just take his word for it on that one. "Okay. Alright. Um...this is slowly...beginning to make a little bit of sense. Kind of." Blinking several times, Anya decided it'd be better to save the questions for later and regarded Cadecus with a little less wariness than she had previously. "Well. It's nice to meet you, Cadecus. And thank you for your help, really but I..." She trailed off, looking rather troubled as she brushed her hair behind her ear and took a nervous glance around. She couldn't just go running off with a distinctively non-human, not-even-demon creature she didn't know - could she?

...Then again...she did have questions she wanted answers. And she trusted Eliza to a certain extent, and Cadecus had just gone out of his way to help her- and besides, where else was she going to go? Back home? That was the very place Anya had just been trying to get away from. Hesitating only a moment longer, she sighed. "...Well. Alright." And with that, Anya tentatively stepped a little closer and gingerly maneuvered herself onto the being's back. This wasn't...Anya hadn't done this too many times before, and she had a few trust issues, and in her nervousness clung to Cadecus' shoulders perhaps a little too tightly - then winced, and lightened up. "But, um - where are we going?"

[firstborn]

Cadecus flicked his claws once or twice as he sized up the wall, and stood slowly so Anya could keep her grip on his back easily enough. Once he was satisfied that her grip wouldn't give, and after a brief pause from the short-lived nervous tightness of her grip, the Ravener stepped sleekly into the darkness, inserted his claws into the brickwork, and began to rise, quite smoothly. Good grief he must have been strong - the ride was quite smoothe despite its speed.

"Just as ye say, m'lady - what with one thing'n another, ahv got nothin' goin' on... where would ye likes t'go, m'lady Anya?" he asked, voice not at all winded as he climbed. He was so dark-colored that he was nearly invisible, only his body warmth against Anya and the faint glow if his eyes hinting at his presence as she clung to him. He soon crested the rooftop, and touched down, just as the police - three cars - pulled up to the broken window.

[Anya]

She'd never been particularly fond of heights. Not that she was absolutely terrified of them, but still - the vengeance demon made a conscious effort not to look down as they sharply but smoothly scaled the side of the building. Well this...certainly hadn't been quite what she'd had in mind when she'd left her apartment to get some air that night. It was definitely proving to be a distraction from everything, though. So at least that was something. Gradually her apprehension eased up a bit, though she didn't relax completely until they'd reached the top of the building. It was only then that she collected herself enough to respond to the question Cadecus had just asked her.

"Oh, um..." Anya tore her gaze away from the view of the streets down below, where the police had just arrived, and paused. Where did she want to go? Well...anywhere but here sounded nice right about now. Here and her apartment, which she still shivered at the thought of returning to. But there weren't many places that a vengeance demon and - well, she still wasn't entirely sure what Cadecus was, but she knew he wasn't human - could go in New York City...at night...Except maybe...she thought back to where she'd first spotted Cadecus, in the tree in Central Park. "We could try Central Park. I mean - it's generally, you know, not too crowded this late. And it wouldn't be too difficult to keep out of sight there." At any rate, it was a place that might be (at least temporarily) safe to talk - and it was well out of the way of these policemen.

In fact...it was a little ways from here, and although she had no doubt that Cadecus could probably cover the distance quickly enough, she tensed slightly at the idea of scaling more buildings the way they just had. Some probably even taller than this one. "I could teleport us!" Anya piped up quickly after considering this a moment longer. Then, a bit sheepish at the thought of sounding too intimidated by making the trip on foot, she quickly added, "I mean - might be quicker that way. I'd feel bad otherwise, with you having to carry me and all."

[firstborn]

City park was fine - the Raveners went there many-a-time at night to practice stealth and play games (Capture the flag was a favorite), and there might be a few out there now, even, as hard as it was to tell since part of the fun of capture the flag was detaching from the brood a bit for the purpose of stealth. What fun was seeing where your opponents were all the time and feeling what they felt when you were trying to avoid each other? None at all. Cadecus set Anya down and nodded - that would be fine.

But when Anya mentioned teleportation, it was Cadecus's turn to be taken out of his comfort zone. The Ravener fidgeted a little. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop, and scaling up or down sheer walls over muti-hundred foot drops, that didnt scare him, but being briefly nothing and moving in odd directions through space and time, that made him a little nervous... but she'd already put up with being carried up a four story building, and he was sure she couldn't do that. Fair was fair after all... Oh hell.

"Ah... righ'... Tel'portation..." he turned to her, and nodded deeply, nervous of it like a kid gets nervous of going to the doctor's office. It looked off on a face like his. "Arrigh." he consented.

[Anya]

Brightening considerably as Cadecus agreed, Anya grinned for a moment - and then, upon registering his tone of voice, paused. Maybe she was reading him wrong - she had enough trouble reading humans for crying out loud - but he seemed a bit...apprehensive? More than a bit, actually. Of course, it was very easy for the vengeance demon to forget that teleporting didn't seem as natural to most other people as it did to her - in fact, from the standpoint of someone who'd never experienced it before, she could imagine it being...well, a little freaky. She could remember Jimmy's initial reaction to it; he hadn't been too excited at the prospect of it either. Still, it was almost funny - the idea of something as formidable-looking as Cadecus being nervous about anything.

"Okay!" she chirped, not wanting to immediately rush him into it - though it might just be best to get it over with at this point. Surely there was something she could say to help him feel better first, though? Anya wasn't spectacular with words, far from it - but nor did she sugar-coat things, so hopefully he'd realize her reassurance was genuine. "Hey, look, there's nothing to worry about! I'm a...highly professional...um, teleporter. I promise we won't crash into any trees, or end up in the middle of nowhere, or accidentally teleport into a body of water...or...anything." Well. That probably wasn't helping as much as she'd intended it to. Deciding to stop while she was ahead, the vengeance demon did her best to radiate confidence about this for the Ravener's sake, at least.

Placing a hand on his forearm, Anya added a quick, "Ready?" before going right ahead and teleporting them - just like that. She'd already been envisioning Central Park in her mind, and a second later the two of them reappeared several yards behind an empty bench. Right. Smooth enough landing. Grateful to be off the top of the building, the demoness brushed herself off out of habit and turned to Cadecus with a slight grin. "See? That wasn't so bad...was it?" Hopefully he'd agree - she wasn't too certain how to try and gauge his reaction. Either way, though, the whole thing was over and done with now - they'd ripped that metaphorical band-aid right off! A little more cheerful now, Anya glanced around the darkened, empty park.

"Well. At least we can talk now." And there were about a million and one things she could have asked him, but she wanted to collect her thoughts a little first. By now she was...at least pretty sure that she didn't have anything to fear from Cadecus, so it'd be alright to stick around and chat with him for awhile. Though she wasn't entirely sure what you said to a tall, furry, and clearly dangerous being who'd just fought off a bunch of thugs for you. Had he been following her before? It seemed that way, especially since he'd mentioned that Eliza had instructed him to keep her safe. That being decided, Anya was fairly certain that she didn't have to keep up the whole 'human' act around him - which left her free to ask one of the questions that was nagging at her the most. "So I'm...guessing you already know I'm a demon, right? Would it be okay if I asked what you were?" Simple curiosity laced her tone as she blinked up at him, her head tilted slightly to one side.

[firstborn]

Anya's reply did little to console him, but several of his brothers and many opal beetles had been moved in a similar fashion... and it wasnt like he was going far. Knowing these things didnt help much though. But then she smiled at him, took his arm in soft hands and looked at him with something that approached compassion, and... it was over. He hadn't even noticed, save environmental cues like temperature, wind, and sounds around them. He felt only momentary dislocation from the brood before the space hed left was filled in and he made new room. There were people in the park, but it was fixing to rain - no more than homeless (which Raveners did not by-and-large mind) and a couple clusters of people doing this and that. They really were alone to talk.

He smiled at Anya, careful not to show his fangs - he did not want to frighten her, and the thought of making her nervous gave him a sick little knot in his gut, so he nodded. "Not bad... Ah bar'ly felt it." He said in a comfortable baritone. Then she asked him to explain his nature a little. He searched for the words, looking momentarily thoughtful. It wasnt a question he had ever had to answer. His mother and siblings knew what he was, but... did he, or any of them know how to put it to proper words? A thought struck him.

"Not sure how t'say... Mum calls us 'Raveners'... we're jus' another kind o' people, a'guess... Whats th' word... Mortar? Motal?" He looked sheepish, insofar as that was possible.

[Anya]

She watched Cadecus with keen curiosity as he began to answer her - just judging from how uncertain he seemed, she figured he probably hadn't been asked this question too many times before. A Ravener...well, Anya hadn't heard that term before, but she was beginning to realize there were a lot of things around here that were going to surprise her - despite how long she'd been around. "Mortal." she offered brightly when he seemed unable to find the word, nodding to show that she understood. Just another kind of people...that made sense, Anya decided after a moment. Not monsters. That word didn't really seem to fit anymore.

With all of this finally beginning to make some sense, the vengeance demon was able to clear her head a little. She blinked thoughtfully. "'Raveners'. Huh...and there are more of you, lots more? Like, your family? I'd like to meet them sometime! ..You know, if they'd be okay with that." She wasn't really sure what the protocol for something like this would be. She hadn't ever met a Ravener before now, and she suspected there was probably good reason for that - Cadecus and his lot probably couldn't exactly go wandering the streets of New York in broad daylight, after all. Not without drawing some most likely unwanted attention. So maybe his kin would be a lot more secretive than he was, a lot less willing to stop and chat with a demon, of all things. But Anya couldn't help but ask anyway - she really was curious.

"And if they're as nice as you, anyway." she added as a quick afterthought. Logically, they probably weren't all as nice as Cadecus - it made sense if, like humans (and demons for that matter), they were all different in that respect. But mostly, by 'as nice as you' she just meant 'not fixing to bite my head off or anything'. And apparently Raveners weren't the only creatures Eliza was associated with; she remembered being shown the Opal Beetle at the restaurant the last time they'd met - which made Anya wonder, just what else didn't she know about the girl she'd tentatively befriended? This was all a lot to take in, but Anya was mostly sure she could handle it. Mostly.

Gazing out across the dark, open space of the park, the demoness became lost in thought for a moment as she waited for his answer.