Successor (BTVS)

[X] Harmony Kendall, teen vampire

Previously, on Teen Vampire: Harmony!:

INT. DESTROYED SUNNYDALE HIGH - NIGHT
Harmony's corpse is barely visible, mostly buried under rubble. After a beat, Harmony vamps out and wakes up.
HARMONY: Ahhh!
Harmony scrambles out of the rubble in a panic, but trips getting up and lands facedown.
HARMONY: Ow. (Checks her face for damage.) No, no, I'm scarred for life!


INT. KENDALL HOUSE - HARMONY'S ROOM - NIGHT
Stuffed unicorns and other various pony paraphernalia are the main feature of the extremely girly room.
HARMONY: (Lying on her bed, on the phone) No, why would I kill my dad? He gives me money! That's just crazy, Aura.
HARMONY: (After a pause for the other end of the line) Well, yeah, of course I'm hungry, I'm going to have to eat someone eventually. (Beat) No, not you, duh, then who would I get gossip from? Anyway, I've been dead, stuff has probably happened, and I'm supposed to be dieting anyway. I can eat later. What's the what?
HARMONY: (After another pause) That's hilarious, Aura, but I'm not actually dumb enough to believe Buffy became the mayor somehow. I mean, she wasn't even Prom Queen!

INT. CITY HALL - WASHROOM - DAY
CYNTHIA: Trust me, the opposite of blonde is brown, not black. If you want to obscure your image, this is better.
Harmony is lying back in a hairdresser's sink, and Cynthia is carefully working on her disguise.
HARMONY: And it'll definitely wash out? I think my hair grows slower now, it'd be a disaster if this was permanent.
CYNTHIA: It will wash out. But even if it didn't, vampire hair grows at about a tenth the speed it did when you were alive.
HARMONY: Oh, that's reassuring. Man, you really know a lot about this stuff. Where did you learn it all?
CYNTHIA: (pausing) Oh, I've picked up bits of it here and there, I'm sure.


INT. BRONZE - BALCONY - NIGHT
Harmony's dancing with a random guy. It's deserted up here, and things are getting pretty hot and heavy.
HARMONY: You can be more forceful if you want.
He pushes her against the wall and starts nibbling at her neck. Harmony seems frustrated.
HARMONY: You could focus on my face you know?
Random guy vamps out, kisses her. Harmony vamps out too. She's getting into it for a second but then gets annoyed again and shoves him away, hard. The vampire stands there, confused.
VAMPIRE: What do you even want from me? You're going all hot and cold.
HARMONY: Whatever, I don't even know. (pouts)
VAMPIRE: Well, not my problem.
He approaches her again, trying to repin her against the wall, but Harmony knees him in the groin. Rolling her eyes, she grabs a stake out of her jacket and dusts him before he can recover.
HARMONY: Loser. (loses the vamp face, still pouting) No one to train with, the boys are no fun, this weekend just sucks. I wish Buffy was here.


INT. SUCK HOUSE - LOWER LEVEL - NIGHT
HARMONY: This is so embarrassing, but like, I have to ask. I don't have a choice. Are vampires just… less horny or something? Us girls I mean. Guys are all the same, duh.
GWEN: Not that I know of, Miss Harmony. For me it was sort of the opposite.
Harmony preens a bit at the title, but is still concerned.
HARMONY: It's like, everything's so much more exciting now. I feel so connected to everything, even stuff that was totally lame before is way cool sometimes. But boys are just, I don't know, boring. Or maybe they're still the same.
TRISH: You don't feel the thrill?
HARMONY: Exactly! Like, fighting dragons, learning new moves from Buffy, enforcing the rules on unsuspecting demons, it's all so wild. Umm, no offense.
TRISH: Don't worry about it, everyone Gwen told you guys to kill sucked anyway. Metaphorically, I mean. This place is way more chill now. Are you sure it isn't about the specific boys though? Maybe you're jonesing for someone more into your new lifestyle.
HARMONY: I guess Xander is kind of cool. Don't tell him I told you that. He's super-duper-taken though, and it'd be weird anyway. And I tried a random vampire, but that didn't do it either. He was totally pathetic. It's like the only one who can really keep up with me is Buffy.
TRISH: (smiling) You keep talking about her. She's really something huh?
HARMONY: Yeah! She's strong and she's fast and totally smart, it's like she knows everything. Plus she's a great leader and everyone always listens to her, because like, why wouldn't they, except when they don't and then she beats them up! She has this totally awesome look too, her hair does this wavy thing when she fights and her eyes go all 'grrr', but in a pretty green way instead of yellow.
GWEN: (nervously) Buffy isn't coming tonight, is she?
HARMONY: No, she's in LA looking for Cordy. I guess it needs doing but it totally sucks. I wish I could've gone, but 'poof': sunlight, so I get left behind. It's a drag.
TRISH: Harmony, have you ever had a crush before?
HARMONY: Well duh. I don't see what this has to do with that though!
TRISH: You have a girl-crush, Harm. On Buffy.
Harmony opens her mouth and raises a finger to deny it, but then pauses. Silence.


INT. CITY HALL - STAIRS - NIGHT
HARMONY: Buffy was all distracted and quiet last night, even though she said Cordy was fine. It was totally depressing, even with that cool new hammer. Did something happen in LA?
ANYA: She broke up with Angel.
HARMONY: What? I thought they were already broken up? There are no take backs, right?
ANYA: Not anymore. Sometimes you have to do it more than once to make it stick.


INT. SUNNYDALE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM - BASEMENT - DAY
Joyce is seen going through big crates of storage, struggling to open one.
HARMONY: Hi there!
Joyce jumps up and spooks before realizing who it is.
JOYCE: Harmony. You're very … quiet. How did you even get in here? It's the middle of the day.
HARMONY: Did you know this place had a sewer access? You might want to get that checked out.
JOYCE: (groaning) I really had no idea how much work all this stuff would be when I accepted the job. Giles just seemed to sit around paging through old books and drinking tea.
HARMONY: I can help you out with some of this if you want! (she pops the crate open easily, though the top flies off and crashes into something offscreen.) Sorry about that.
JOYCE: No, it's fine. I could use the company. Why did you come though?
HARMONY: Well, always nice to check you aren't kidnapped again, right? Plus, you know, gossip!


It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, and the weather was nice. At least, Harmony assumed it was, but she couldn't tell, since she was down in the sewer. Her fancy new watch assured her it would be over soon enough.

She'd been spending a distressing amount of time in sewers since she'd been turned, but really it was the only way for a vampire in Sunnydale to get around. They went everywhere, and most important buildings had a sewer access too, though Buffy had been doing her best to get a lot of them on official buildings to at least lock from the inside. It was just another of Buffy's good ideas even though it was inconvenient for Harmony.

Even without considering their extent, the sewers were spacious, with one or sometimes even two dry sidewalks, and what water there was flowing through was treated so strongly that she could pick up wafts of the chemical smell in the air. Really, it was more of an underground highway that happened to have sewers than anything else.

Two months ago, Harmony would've thought this was a totally depressing future. She was tromping through sewers (however nice they were), she was hiding from the sun (even though her skin had never been better), and she hadn't had a real date since school ended. But none of it mattered, because tonight she was going to see Buffy.

When Harmony was alive, she hadn't known that Buffy was so special. Sure, she'd known in a general sense that she was good at killing dangerous stuff, and she hadn't been blind; Buffy was obviously a pretty girl. But her human senses had just been too lame to see a tenth of what was there. The speed and the power and the elegance, she was like the kind of beautiful predator you can't help but dreaming about hunting you down and savagely murdering you. Or more preferably, savagely-something-else.

She'd been beyond denial about it at first, for weeks and weeks. Sure, she'd realized right when Buffy had stopped Xander from staking her at the start that she was cool, and she still just shook thinking about how cool it was when she killed the robot maze thing with its own club, but it had been kind of an innocent hero worship then. She just saw Buffy doing all this stuff, and started doing some of it herself, and was like; 'why not me?'

But eventually, Trish had opened her eyes. Obviously, she was crushing on Buffy. How couldn't she be crushing on Buffy? She was the most amazing beautiful dangerous person in existence, the real surprise was that the entire rest of the state of California wasn't also crushing on Buffy. Their loss. It was probably those lousy eyes and ears that couldn't really see or hear or smell or feel, and made it so you went through your whole life half-asleep.

But as much as dreaming about Buffy could while away endless sunny afternoons spent under cover, it wasn't really enough. And that's where the problem was. Harmony knew she was obsessed, but she wasn't stupid (well, people still kind of thought she was, but it was way less now.) Buffy liked boys. And just Harmony's luck, Buffy had been dancing around boys almost constantly ever since Harmony realized that the one true goal of her entire unlife was to be with her.

She'd been trying to spend a lot of time with Buffy. To research her interests. To build a rapport. But time was running out. Buffy had been window shopping for a month now, and if Harmony knew anything she could tell Buffy was getting in the mood to buy. Warren Mears. Sam Lockett. Nathaniel Smith. Hell, maybe even Xander, Anya be damned. All of them were big risks. Harmony needed to do something fast, but she had no idea what. Ever since that fateful Fall Formal, throwing herself at guys had been the best play (... only play ...) in her book, but she had a feeling that might backfire if she used it on Buffy.

Harmony could put all that in the back of her mind for now though. She'd reached City Hall, and the sun was about to set. They didn't actually have anything scheduled, but surely she'd be able to snatch up Buffy and have another idyllic night with her. It was even time for the weekly Suck House collection, and Buffy would be so impressed to see how nice the place had gotten in the past month. Harmony took building Buffy's empire very seriously, plus the girls there were nice, as far as vampire prostitutes went.

She buzzed the intercom and wondered if Buffy would answer herself. That had happened once, but it was almost always Cynthia instead. Cynthia was maybe the coolest person over thirty in Sunnydale; without Cynthia, Harmony would probably either be dust or wandering far-away Buffyless locales, but still, Cynthia wasn't Buffy.

"City Hall front desk, state your business Harmony," she said formally, but Harmony knew it was just the way she was.

"Hi Cynthia! I was just coming over to hang out until Buffy was ready to go," Buffy was a serious worker, but Harmony secretly thought she'd always wrap things up a little faster when she was around.

"Ah, yes. I'm afraid she already left, but you can come in of course," The electronic locks disengaged the bars on the door, but Harmony's good mood was shattered. She went in anyway. Cynthia would probably tell her where Buffy went.

It being a Friday night, City Hall was already kind of deserted, which made sense because a lot of the people working there were on the younger side now. Cynthia was manning the front desk as usual, but when she looked at Harmony the expression on her face was troubled.

"Where'd Buffy go? She almost never leaves before sundown!" Harmony knew she could just call her on her radio, but she didn't want to seem desperate. It was one thing to put out for a guy, but calling him first the next day had always led to ruin, and it was a lesson she'd taken to heart.

"She's at Calax, no, excuse me, now it's Mears Research and Development. She said something about new exercise equipment." Cynthia drummed her fingers on the desk, pensive. Harmony could tell that Cynthia knew about her crush, though she didn't know how, and never really said anything directly. She seemed to be rooting for her, but there was only so much she could do.

This was a disaster either way. Buffy had been totally sad that she couldn't measure her strength for Willow's nerd stuff the other week, so she'd be eager to try out whatever jury rigged monstrosity Warren had set up in that cavernous lab of his. He'd totally get brownie points. Plus, she'd be in workout clothes, getting all sweaty and fit, and Harmony wouldn't even be there! And she might go back! Frequently!

Harmony flounced into a seat carelessly and hung her head in her hands. Needing to do something fast had evolved into needing to do something now. But what would she do?

Vote: For this episode, you'll be controlling Harmony's actions instead of Buffy's. You're still able to write-in new ideas or stunt to add to existing ones, and given the challenging situation Harmony finds herself in, thinking carefully about what you could do there might be advised. What does Harmony do tonight?

[] Harmony can't just let this thing spiral out of control on its own. She goes directly to MRD. Use stunts to control what she does there.
-[] Harmony crashes the date-like-event, pretending to be oblivious.
-[] Harmony tries to be sneaky and find out exactly what they're doing without being noticed.

[] Harmony still needs more information. She'll talk to people to try to find out more about Buffy and possibly advice on how to woo her. Stunt to control who Harmony talks to (multiple people may be allowed if circumstances work.)
-[] Who? How much does Harmony reveal?

[] Clearly Buffy hasn't noticed Harmony yet. This calls for drastic action. She needs an emergency makeover, and Cynthia will definitely help. Stunt to determine what Harmony changes.
-[] What makeover style?

[] Write In. For completely different courses of action, use a fully separate Write In like this.

[X] Harmony still needs more information. She'll talk to people to try to find out more about Buffy and possibly advice on how to woo her. Stunt to control who Harmony talks to (multiple people may be allowed if circumstances work.)
-[X] Lorne at Caritas
-[X] Cordelia

Cynthia sighed. "Dear, I know these matters can be disappointing, but-"

"But what? It'll all work out in the end?" Harmony asked.

"Well, no, but people do like to say it will. We simply must persevere."

"Buffy's always good at that," Harmony reflected. "She never gives up." She was pretty sure that was what 'persevere' meant, anyway.

"Just so."

Harmony knotted her brow, trying to think. It made her vamp out by accident instead, but Cynthia politely ignored it and she forced it back down. That was so mortifying, nothing said 'worthless fledge' more than going around in vamp face all the time. But back to the point; she was in an impossible situation, just the kind Buffy always figured her way out of as if it was a breeze.

She had a thought. "Wait, so you're saying I should ask myself what Buffy would do? Even though what I want to do is Buffy?"

Cynthia just raised her eyebrow at her, but Harmony knew she was onto something. She got up and started pacing back and forth, copying Cynthia's drumming on the desk as she did. The problem was Buffy always seemed to know what to do. Harmony on the other hand, had no idea what to do. What would Buffy do if she was confused? Who could possibly have a better idea? You'd almost need to have superpowers. Wait-

"Didn't Buffy talk to some psychic when she was in LA?" Harmony asked.

"Yes, Lorne the Deathwok, owner of the Caritas karaoke bar." Cynthia answered. "I suppose you'll be wanting the address?" Harmony nodded eagerly, and she noted it down on a post-it without even having to look anything up. There was definitely something a little… something about Cynthia. But that wasn't important now, what was important was that she finally had a good plan. It was one Buffy had already used, even!


Harmony hadn't done much driving since she was turned; it just wasn't a very practical method of transportation. She'd burn up in the sun if she tried to drive during the day, and a lot of her time spent moving around at night was patrolling, which driving was less useful for. Adding to that, if she drove somewhere at night and then had to get back by sewer during the day, she'd have to leave her car.

Walking wasn't nearly as lame as it had been when she was alive anyway. She could race around for hours without really tiring, and it felt like she owned the night when she wandered the streets. When she was bored, she would look for unsuspecting rabbits or possums, stalking one quietly. She'd snatch it up to a quiet place and slowly maul it, or sometimes she would just break one of its limbs and then make it run itself to death. It wasn't exactly challenging, but at least that meant she could avoid getting blood on her clothes while she passed the time.

All that being said though, she'd been happy she still had her car for things like driving to LA. She'd been happy until she hit the LA traffic at least. It'd given her time to think though, which was good, because she remembered a critical fact before it was too late: going to bars alone was kind of terrible, and being a vampire didn't make it any better. It might not apply to psychic karaoke bars, but she didn't want to take the chance.

Luckily, Cordelia was in LA, and still carless in a tiny apartment, so she was eager enough to go out somewhere when Harmony hastily dialed her on her cell. Cordelia was even all dolled up and waiting on the streetcorner as she drove by, letting them avoid any awkwardness about Harmony being invited into places.

Cordelia turned to Harmony with a concerned look on her face after she got into the passenger side and shut the door. "So you're still all non-evil right? Vampires anonymous two months running?"

"Totally! I'm still working for Buffy, and I haven't killed any humans," Harmony stated.

"Well that's a wonderful recommendation," she said sarcastically.

"If I wanted to eat you, you'd have pretty much been dead as soon as you got in the car anyway," Harmony said.

"Comforting. But at least I'd have died in air conditioning. My landlord should be brought up on war crimes." Introductions handled, Cordelia's expression pivoted back to something more like Harmony had known in high school, both curious and dismissive at the same time. "So what's the what with this then? You just had a special hankering for demon karaoke that you had to drive all this way for?"

Harmony then realized there was a terrible flaw in her plan, but it was too late to do anything about it. "Umm, would you believe yes?"

"C'mon, spill. What's your huge existential problem that you have to ask the magical karaoke demon about?" Cordelia paused. "It isn't about being evil is it? I totally don't volunteer to be your first snack."

"No!" Harmony said angrily. "I told you, I'm working for Buffy, she'd hate it if I ate someone."

Cordelia narrowed her eyes. "When did you ever care about Buffy? Or for that matter, things like telling the truth and doing work? Are you saying you're that afraid of her now?"

"It's not that I'm afraid," Harmony said. "Though like, it'd be totally justified. I just don't want to disappoint her."

"Harmony Kendall doesn't want to disappoint Buffy Summers. That's only slightly harder to believe than her getting promoted to mayor for being all violence girl in the right place and time." Cordelia was still skeptical, and eyeing her door too. Considering the traffic they were in, she wouldn't have much trouble just getting out if she decided she didn't like Harmony's story. Then she'd have to go to the demon bar alone. That wouldn't do.

"OK fine," Cordelia might have some good advice anyway. "But you have to absolutely promise to tell no one."

"It's not like I have actual friends to tell down here. And I seem to remember that you turned most of the girls from high school on me." Cordelia said, still annoyed.

"I'm serious! I know we like, didn't end on exactly the best terms before. But then we killed a bunch of vampires and a giant snake together. That has to fix it, right? Pinky swear." Harmony held out a digit very seriously.

Cordelia still looked reluctant.

"I'll even pay for your drinks!" Between the money from her dad and the salary she was getting from City Hall she wasn't exactly hurting for cash lately.

"Fine." Cordelia accepted the sacred bond. "This had better be good though, what's going on?"

"I like Buffy," Harmony said quietly.

"Well, yeah, I get that, but what does that have to do with big pressing questions?" Cordelia said.

"No, I mean, I like like Buffy."

"You- oh," Cordelia paused, assimilating. "Oh. So it's not like vampire evil, it's vampire - um, I mean, Buffy, really?" Cordelia looked concerned. "I'm pretty sure she's not, well, you know."

"That's the problem!" Harmony whined. "Ever since she and Angel got double-broken up she's been chasing around all these boys. Or they've been chasing her around. Something involving chasing, and looking, it's really bad!"

"I mean, she is pretty eligible," Cordelia said. "She stumbled into being mayor of a medium-sized city at eighteen after all." There was a bit of jealous eye rolling.

"She deserves to be mayor!" Harmony said. "She kills things, and makes speeches, and stuff. It's hard."

"OK, sure, whatever you say," Cordelia said, smiling. "You've got it kind of bad. And you haven't even told her?"

"Well, no, duh." Harmony frowned. "She'd probably think I was a freak or something."

"Harmony, you're a soulless vampire that doesn't eat people, you're already a freak," Cordelia said. "But seriously, all this running around on secret psychic demon missions is avoiding the problem. If you're going to tell her at all, you might as well just bite the bullet and do it."

"She's just going to shut me down though," Harmony said.

"Well that's just going to be more likely if she already has a boyfriend by the time you tell her!" Cordelia said. "Plus, none of these guys are vampires, right? So you have that at least."

Harmony furrowed her brow, but not in a demony way, "No. But wait, what?"

"I didn't interact with Angel much, but his hands? Seriously cold," Cordelia mock shivered. "It's definitely something you'd notice, you know, when things get close. You might be better off than you think. Buffy's not exactly the traditional type."

"Oh." Harmony's eyes widened. "She did make that one comment, sort of, but I thought she was joking,"


Even with Cordelia's compelling and sort of hopeful arguments, the fact remained they were already together and driving to Caritas, and even if Harmony was going to tell Buffy, she could use all the help she could get to soften the blow. Neither of them had actually been there before, but the directions were good, so eventually they found themselves descending a gross-looking staircase.

Harmony hoped the whole bar wasn't like this, but was pleasantly surprised when they reached the bottom and saw the well-appointed interior. The bar was crowded with demons and humans, though there weren't any other vampires in evidence, and none the demons seemed like too big a deal. As they sat down at a table, Harmony decided she'd be comfortable fighting anyone in the place, which was a bit of a change from Willy's; it was mainly Buffy's terrifying reputation that let her throw her weight around there.

Lorne looked pretty busy watching the orange curly-haired demon (his hair was orange too) singing onstage, but a waiter came by to give them a drinks menu right away. Harmony was surprised to see they had otter here, and at a reasonable price too. She'd heard good things. For her part, Cordelia didn't even have to show the fake ID Harmony knew she had. A place like this would've really rocked in Sunnydale when she was in school. She would've braved demons even as a human to avoid the hassles of fake IDs. Probably.

Now that they were here, neither of them was too eager to get up and sing, leaving the possible embarrassments and disappointments to the future. Harmony was afraid that Lorne would just tell her it was hopeless, and Cordelia seemed beaten down enough that she probably had her own reasons; after all, she'd known about this place for a month and she hadn't come. Harmony figured that without that uncertainty, the free drinks wouldn't have even worked; the Cordelia she'd known half a year ago would've had way too much pride to accept.

Drinks came one after another though, and singers of all varieties, many of them really bad, passed along the stage. Harmony was only a little tipsy (she had a lot of tolerance ever since she died), but Cordelia was getting totally smashed. Harmony learned everything she'd ever idly wanted to know about the sleazy entertainment industry and more, from gropey producers to bounced checks. Cordelia was getting by working as an actress in LA, but only just barely.

The stage opened up again, and this time, Cordelia had an idea. "Let's just go together!" She got up excitedly, and Harmony let herself be dragged forward while covertly making sure Cordelia stayed upright. It was a weird moment; Cordelia was like some sweet smelling perfume in a fragile glass bottle, and Harmony wondered if Buffy had felt this way about her friends for years.

Cordelia seemed frozen with indecision upon seeing the music on offer, and Harmony was tempted to hit Candle in the Wind, but then her eye fell on something else. Buffy would like that one better, so she picked it instead.



Harmony really got into the song as they were singing it, especially the part about Romeo and Juliet. Maybe she could be together with Buffy forever too, even if Buffy didn't want to be together together right away. Cordelia managed well enough too, despite almost falling down a couple times. Harmony thought they sounded good anyway, and they got some applause after they sang (it was from drunk guys, but still.)

Lorne looked chipper as they walked over to him, wearing a big smile on his face. "Well wasn't that just swell; two girls still arm and arm across the soul divide. People don't like to sing duets very often here, but it really warmed my heart to see it. It's just what I envisioned when I put this place together."

"Does that help you read my ticket to success?" Harmony let Cordelia go first, setting her down carefully on a barstool. She'd live in the dream for a few moments longer.

"Just the fact that you're here in the first place is what makes your resume special." Cordelia looked confused, but he kept explaining. "You may not have chosen to live your night life on the dark side, but you're pretty good at it. Maybe you should go back a little closer to what you know?"

Cordelia blanched. "I can't like, fight vampires and stuff. Definitely not good enough for money!"

"Who said anything about fighting?" Lorne replied. "Horror movies exist, and let me tell you, there were demons working those flicks long before digital SFX came to Hollywood. Maybe try a couple out? Being able to work with your co-stars without flipping out for real is a huge plus."

"Huh, I'd been kind of avoiding them, actually." Cordelia said, but it was clear she was rethinking that.

Lorne turned his attention to Harmony, and she decided to take it like a big girl. "Tell it to me straight, doc. Or umm, hopefully not-straight?"

"Would you accept an 'it's complicated'?" Lorne said. "You've got a lot of questions in that pretty head of yours, and you need even more answers than that. I know enough to know I'm not the best source."

"Wait, you can't help at all? Even to tell me it's hopeless?" This was almost worse.

"Well, I didn't exactly say that," Lorne got a sticky note out from under the bar and handed it to her; he must have been writing it during their song. "There are directions on this to the Fowler Museum at UCLA. If you follow them tonight, you'll get some of the answers, even if they might not be the ones you were looking for." He paused, considering. "You might want to drop your inebriated friend off first though, just in case."

Harmony nodded. It was a little stomach wrenching for things to be extended like this, but at least she had a lead. She glanced at Cordy, who nodded a readiness to get going, and they started to carefully make their way out of the bar. Before they got to the stairs though, Lorne piped in with a last word, "Don't you leave thinking there's no hope though, sweety. The girl you're thinking about is almost as confused as you are right now, and I should know if anyone does. Try to make sure she doesn't get herself in too deep."


Harmony made sure Cordelia got all the way up to and into her door; LA wasn't Sunnydale, but Harmony knew all too well the sorts of things that lurked in the dark. Cordelia was a total morsel; just leaving her on the street in her condition was asking for her to wind up dead.

Dropping off Cordelia and then navigating the directions through LA took a while, and they'd been at the bar into the late hours as it was. It was the dead of night when she got to the Fowler Museum, and of course it was locked. She wondered how her answers would be in a dusty old place like this, and if they were, why they had anything to do with ducks. But Lorne had done Buffy a good turn, and that was good enough for her, so she went through the careful and delicate process of breaking in to see what was going on.

One busted doorknob later, she was wandering the abandoned halls of the museum. It had a lot of old weird stuff in it, though surprisingly, there were very few ducks. She had an easy time seeing everything even with the lights off, but the exhibits were mostly boring. She ended up wandering most of the first floor before remembering when she'd gossipped with Joyce in the basement of the museum in Sunnydale.

All the cool stuff there had been hidden down in storage, so she figured the same might apply here. A couple more forced doors later, she was down among the dusty crates, poking around for anything interesting. Maybe there was a love potion or something buried here that she could use? Buffy might object to something like that beforehand, but it was how happy she ended up that counted, right? Trying to figure out the logic gave her a headache, so she decided to table it until an actual love potion-looking thing appeared.

"Looking for something, pet? Don't see girls like you down with the dusty scrolls too often," the unseen voice was smooth and jarring at the same time, and the surprise made Harmony jump and shriek.

Turning quickly, she saw him leaning against the wall, way too close; she didn't understand how she'd missed him there. She could feel him there now, in a way that no one but Buffy had ever registered to her senses before. He was somehow intrinsically less, and that gave her some courage, but he was still a powerful vampire. Certainly older than her, older than any vampire she'd seen in Sunnydale by a lot.


Vote: How does Harmony react in the heat of the moment?

[] Kill. Maybe he's older and stronger than her, but she was trained by Buffy, she can still maybe win. He's probably up to no good down here, being a vampire and all, and if she can prove herself now she might still find the secret to Buffy's heart hidden down in this basement.

[] Lie. He doesn't seem hostile, and maybe she can learn his agenda. He has no reason to know she's working for Buffy, and she could find out if he has some evil plan without him being the wiser. He might even spill something about the secret down here that she's looking for.

[] Talk. He seems calm for now, and she doesn't have anything to lose by talking. She's not sure what common ground they could have, but maybe she'll be surprised. She's never really gotten to talk a stronger, older vampire; not that she feels like she needs to or anything.

[] Run. She doesn't know exactly what's going on here, but she doesn't want to re-die in some dirty basement, far from Buffy's side. This guy is powerful, and training or not she's only two months turned. He doesn't seem hostile yet, but that could change at the drop of a hat, and she might have a chance to get away right now.