Successor (BTVS)

[X] Cordelia scored a starring role in a big horror movie, and they want to do shooting in Sunnydale. It could be great for the city's publicity, and might provide work for peaceful demons in the city. What's the catch? Buffy's still popular in Hollywood, and she might have to do a cameo role.

Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

EXT. RESTFIELD CEMETERY - NIGHT
BUFFY: (walking, shaking head) I remember pretty much all of it, in 3D-technicolor even. More colors than were probably actually there. I was a total spaz in front of Willow, Warren, Xander, half the SDCW, and last and most awfully of all my mom. She probably thinks I'm a closeted necrophiliac lesbian now.
HARMONY: (trips over a gravestone, then gets back up, acting unperturbed) Wasn't she already all disapproving and demanding though? I mean, you have money and power, why do you even care what she thinks?


INT. MEARS RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT - GYM - NIGHT
WARREN: So, almost three tons. It's enough to make a guy feel inadequate.
BUFFY: (still a little winded) But without you, we wouldn't even know. So partial credit?
WARREN: (smiling) I was always an A student. Is there any way I can raise my grade?
BUFFY: (takes a step forward) Extra credit may be available.
WARREN closes the rest of the distance, and kisses her. It's a little cautious, but they're both smiling at the end.


INT. BUFFY'S BEDROOM - MORNING
BUFFY: (desperate) I mean, Harm, before, like, there were boys. You and boys.
HARMONY: Well, yeah. But it's not the same. Everything's been so different ever since I died. Giles says vampires are like, different people. Maybe he's right?
BUFFY starts to pull away, but HARMONY darts forward at vampire speed and kisses her. BUFFY kisses back hard for a second before pulling away.


INT. CITY HALL - BUFFY'S OFFICE - DAY
ANYA: (wide eyed) Wait, so Harmony kissed you too?
BUFFY: Keep it down! (quieter) Yes. It totally caught me out of left field. It was the leftest, like, it was a foul ball.
ANYA: (reluctantly quieter too) Foul like 'eww'? (BUFFY doesn't answer, looks conflicted) Or foul like 'ohhh'? I'm sensing the latter.
BUFFY: (collapses into her seat) Total 'ohhh'. I'm such a freak. (puts her head down in her hands)
ANYA: I mean, if Harmony kissed you better, shouldn't she win then? I was pretty sure that was the point.
BUFFY: But … (waves her hands wildly) she doesn't have a soul. And didn't you say she was just one of my vampire groupies or something? Plus the whole lesbian thing.
ANYA: The vampire glomming thing is just another biological imperative. It's no different from all this romance stuff in the first place, really. Plus, it's even better than the normal human one, since she's probably way less likely to cheat!

Buffy leant against a locker, waiting silently. The other two girls with her were less restrained. Classes were over for the day, and there were only a few kids passing through the halls. Her group got the occasional worried looks (especially when Jonathan walked by), but Buffy's glares kept the passersby silent. Teachers were nowhere to be seen.

"What lame story do you think she found this time?"

"Maybe it's a cat up a tree."

"Hey, be fair, maybe there's a lost dog this time instead!"

"Quiet you two," Buffy made a put upon sigh. "Seriously, you'll screw it all up, just give it a minute." Buffy examined her nails again without even paying attention to their reactions. Bitchy schoolgirl was an attitude she knew well.

She didn't have to wait too long though, before Cordelia came barrelling out of the room they'd been watching. Unfortunately for her, she didn't notice the suspicious state of the door in her rush, and the precariously balanced bucket of cranberry juice came down off of it and drenched her head to toe. Buffy's lackeys burst out laughing, and some of the other students passing by gathered to watch the spectacle.

Buffy herself just smiled a naughty little smile and released her quip, "I know they say the news is red all over, but did you really have to take it literally, Charisma?" That got another laugh out of the gathering crowd.

Cordelia's clothes were ruined, her bag was overflowing with juice, her hair was unrecoverable, and there was a bucket on her head. She knocked it off to the side, and she was apoplectic with rage. "Why do you have to keep doing these stupid pranks, Sarah? The whole town is in danger, and forget about helping, you still won't even leave me alone!"

The redheaded girl on Buffy's right was quick to respond. "Nerds like you need to be put in their place!"

The brunette on her left said, "And that place is the garbage!" They both redoubled their laughter at the lame joke, but Cordelia didn't even respond.

Buffy got to the interesting bit, "What could ever even happen in this place to put it on the news, much less in danger? Did you find another junkie to tell you a crazy story?"

Cordelia visibly tried to calm herself down, and her words were serious, "Strange patterns are getting burnt on the ground! People are saying they've been abducted! There are mysterious lights in the sky! But nobody's paying attention but me. We need to-"

Buffy interrupted her with a snort. "We need to what? Make up some more tabloid garbage to feel important? Fill pages in a worthless school paper with pop scifi? Or maybe what we really need is to distract ourselves from how pathetic our real lives are." She paused, pretending to think. "Oh wait, we don't need any of those things. That's just you. Later, loser." Buffy turned and walked away, her two minions following her without needing to be told. She heard Cordelia choking back tears behind her, and then the sound of her feet running in the opposite direction.

"And cut!" Director Cortez shouted. "And that is how we do scenes here, everybody! Filled with emotion and elan!" People scrambled around at his command, cameras were rolled out of the cramped hall, and she heard Cordy screaming about her hair. Buffy felt kind of bad, even though it wasn't like she'd actually been the one to set up the prank. She turned and was about to go after her friend, but was interrupted by someone walking up to her.

"So, how's showbiz feel? Maybe you're going to reconsider that career in politics." Ian's cousin Jeff was here on set, even though this sort of thing wasn't normally his job. He had been the one to greenlight the script though, and was part of the reason it was being shot in Sunnydale; Buffy figured he'd come along to make sure things went smoothly. That or maybe just to take another swing at recruiting her.

"It feels surprisingly like LA did when I lived there," Buffy said speculatively. "I'm the queen of the high school and saying a lot of nasty things."

"But now you're being paid to say them!" Jeff gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"That does make it better," Buffy agreed. The budget situation wasn't bad enough that she was tempted to donate this almost-entirely-legitimate income either. She might get that motorcycle after all. "I think I'll see how the election thing goes before trying my luck with any more roles though."

"And such a shame that is!" Director Cortez had finished whatever he had to do post-cut and had strolled over to their conversation. "I should've found you back then, you were made for the camera's eye!" He was pretty flamboyant, but apparently it got the job done; he'd turned several B movies into cult hits in recent years.

"Really you should be complementing Cordelia," Buffy said. "She made cranberry juice look good." She felt a little bad that she was stealing some of her thunder, but without the whole big deal to bring a movie to Sunnydale Cordelia might not have even got the part.

"She is wonderful as well. A little shrill, but the authenticity, the fury? Such things cannot be faked." He nodded to himself. "And speaking of the authentic, How has the search gone for the, how shall we say it, the 'special talent'?"

"I've got my best people on it, they'll know just who to get and how to motivate them." Buffy said confidently. Anya and Andrew knew almost everything there was to know about the local demons between the two of them, and they'd been canvassing for ones that would react well to the movie alien experience. She'd wanted to get Giles involved too, but he'd been too busy; he was still in full research mode over Spike's nighttime visit to the Fowler Museum.

"Of course, of course!" Cortez said. "I am hoping that casting those truly meant for their parts shines through for us, something all too lacking in this new era of these computers and their effects. P'shaw!"

Hopefully this guy wouldn't run into Willow in a dark alley. "Anyway, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have a feeling Cordelia might need a friend to help work through that authentic fury of hers." Buffy waved and left Jeff and Cortez to discuss whatever it was movie gurus talked about between scenes.

Buffy knew there weren't any showers in this building, so Cordelia would've probably gone outside to look for one. She knew this because it was the same school building she was borrowing from UC Sunnydale, which had the distinction of being the only thing that looked like a high school in the city for Cortez to shoot in. There hadn't even really been this when he first showed up, but luckily he'd had some of his set carpenters help them finish refurbishing the place with lockers and everything. With all the hats Buffy had to wear these days, getting two vampires with one stake was a real accomplishment.

By day, she was the mayor. By night, she was the slayer. As Buffy Summers, she campaigned for votes. And in her totally-not-just-a-cameo as the queen bee 'Sarah', she terrorized an innocent high schooler. It was enough to make a girl forget that sleep was a thing that existed. And then there was Harmony, which was a whole extra barrel of wacky. Good wacky, but still.

Finally exiting the building out into the late afternoon sun, she was surprised to see a still-drenched Cordelia wasn't running for a shower but instead berating Jonathan. "Enough with the mojo talk! Can you fix it or can't you?"

"I thought that I wouldn't need to do anything, it should've just worn off," Jonathan said with a confused expression. "I switched the real juice with some illusioned water, but it won't turn back."

"Whatever. The false hope was almost worse than this mess in the first place!" With that, Cordelia stalked off in the direction of the athletics building, leaving a sad little trail of juice behind her.

Buffy made a sympathetic expression at Jonathan as she ran to catch up with Cordelia. Maybe he'd have better luck next time? He just shook his head and sighed. She was kind of surprised he was still carrying a torch for Cordelia, but even though the summer had seemed like it'd lasted half a year it had only been two months, really.

With Jonathan left behind both of them, Buffy finally caught up. "Cordelia, hey, sorry about the whole-"

"Don't be. You're not the one who insists everything be 'authentic'," she scoffed. "I won't say this job isn't worth it, but that was totally not what I was expecting when they said I'd have to do my own stunts."

"That Cortez guy does seem a little intense," she agreed. "He does have a stellar record though. If this is a hit, you could look back and laugh over your glass of juice someday."

"Intense, that's a nice way of putting it." Cordelia shook her head. "Do real kids even do stuff like this? If I pulled that prank on you back in tenth grade you would've probably cracked my face in half or something."

"I like to think I would've had more restraint," Buffy said. "Charisma seems more like the intrepid reporter type than the 'violent delinquent' though."

"Did people really call you that? It sounds like something out of Happy Days," Cordelia said.

"And so it was fully in line with Snyder's worldview," Buffy replied.

Cordelia paused to think about that, drops of juice still occasionally falling out of her hair. "But now he's eaten and you're mayor-slayer, so in a way, violence won in the end."

"It's inherent in the system," Buffy agreed. "This is the athletics center, you can wash off here."

Cordelia's face scrunched up. "I just realized I don't have anything to change into. Ugh, this movie needs better service staff."

"I have it under control," Buffy said. She did some dialing on her radio and gave a few quick orders as the security guy waved them inside. Most of the school extras in the movie were SDCW members (it paid to be safe), so it was easy for Buffy to setup a special clothing delivery.

The summer term at UC Sunnydale didn't lend itself to big crowds at the gym, and Cordelia and Buffy found themselves alone in the locker room when she was about to get into her shower. Cordelia got into the little booth and threw the destroyed clothes over the door, but there was a pause for a second. She didn't turn the shower on, and instead she asked, "So, how's Harmony been doing lately?"

"Well the timing of this question isn't at all suspicious," Buffy said sarcastically.

"I mean, like, did she mention anything kind of surprising?" Cordelia probed.

Buffy took a last quick look around and couldn't hear anyone else nearby. She could just deny, but Cordelia already knew half of it, and getting a non-demony perspective on the whole thing would be reassuring. "Well, would you count coming to my bedroom at five in the morning and kissing me surprising?"

"That was a little more extreme than I expected," Cordelia said. Then she asked in a quieter voice, "Does she still, you know, exist?"

Buffy's eyes went wide. "Yes! She totally still exists! Did you think I was going to stake her over it? I thought you were all pro-confession with her!"

"I was, but I didn't tell her to be so aggressive," Cordelia defended. "You can get jumpy. So did you let her down easy? She had it pretty bad, I think she might've took a staking better, honestly."

"Umm."

"Buffy."

"It's complicated."

"No. No way," Cordelia was quiet for a second. "Were you in the closet all this time or something? Do I need to protect my virtue? I'm naked in here!"

"No!" Buffy boggled at the notion. "I mean, the Harmony thing, it's new. The kiss was good. It's just all very something. Not like, a regular Buffy thing."

"Not like you're a vampiresexual or something?" Cordelia asked. "Kind of seeing a pattern here."

Chilly lips. Strong arms. "Maybe like that. Does that make me bad?"

"Buffy, you saved the world what, half a dozen times already? I don't think you could be bad if you were selling puppies into slavery." Cordelia said. It was probably for the best she didn't know about the kittens she'd traded for her mother. "Just, admitting these things to yourself is important. Even if you're not admitting them to certain other people."

"I want to! But if it got out-"

"I know, I know, the Scoobies couldn't keep a secret even if all of them were dead. Maybe especially not then." Buffy was reminded that Cordelia hadn't left the group on the best of terms, despite how Graduation went. "I'm just saying,"

"I know," Buffy said. "But, I'm seeing her tonight. Do you think it's, well, OK?"

"Just don't barge in on my shower and you can do whatever to whoever makes you happy," Cordelia said. "But really, Harmony? I mean, forget her being a girl and a vampire, but Harmony?"

"She's changed. And grown, and stuff," Buffy said. Not that she'd known her super well in school, but Harmony-the-vampire was actually pretty cool at times these days.

"I guess she was better company than usual last weekend," Cordelia allowed. "Though I did get very drunk. So what are you doing with her tonight? Care to share gossip about your torrid romance?"

Vote: Well, you heard Cordelia. What's Buffy going to do with Harmony tonight?

[] Harmony always likes to patrol. It's not exactly a novel activity, but familiar can be good. Buffy does happen to know about a few secluded spots in graveyards, too.

[] Buffy knows that Harmony always loved going to the beach, and that's obviously been a non-option for her this summer. But they could go at night, and it'd be pretty private. It's not like either of them have to worry about drowning.

[] Write In. Buffy has some better idea that you'll put instead of one of the other two, but she has to remember to be careful to keep things on the downlow.

[X] Buffy knows that Harmony always loved going to the beach, and that's obviously been a non-option for her this summer. But they could go at night, and it'd be pretty private. It's not like either of them have to worry about drowning.

"Wait, Willy's Place is always open past 2AM. They don't have last call until sunrise," Buffy was confused. There was a lot for her to learn if she wanted to be mayor in more than just name, and she'd been brushing up on a lot of topics with the debate approaching.

"While that is California state law, it typically isn't enforced on establishments with significant demon patronage," Ian explained. "The exact mechanism varies locally, but in Sunnydale there are zoning regulations that make it more difficult to run such businesses outside of certain areas."

"The zoning again?" Buffy asked. It was somehow always the zoning.

"What you know of as the bad part of town was setup by Wilkins as something of a containment zone for more overt demon activity," Ian continued. "It's a commercial area with slightly lower property taxes, which discourages such businesses from spreading into the rest of Sunnydale, and its surrounded on all sides by buffers like warehousing and cemeteries. It was traditionally something of a no-go zone for the police too."

Buffy nodded. Chief Matt had changed that up a little recently, but she knew most of the coverage in that area was still down to the SDCW; the Crawford street mansion they based out of was even nearby. Cleaning the more destructive elements out of the neighborhood without stepping on too many toes was a bridge they were still walking.

"What if Carl brings that up in the debate though?" Buffy asked. "It might look bad as Ms. Law and Order if I can't even keep the bars closed after hours."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Ian reassured her. "Politicians don't usually call attention to anything related to the supernatural on stage, and Mr. Gervais has even less reason to do so. To make the accusation he would need to provide proof, and due to the nature of Willy's Place that proof would be very suggestive."

"And that's bad for him somehow?" Buffy guessed.

"Well, we still aren't sure how much he knows about the darker side of Sunnydale," Ian said. "If he doesn't know anything, then the people who surround him wouldn't want him to find out, so they wouldn't bring this to his attention. If he does know something, he knows he'll lose more votes to you the more in the open the supernatural becomes, so he won't put a spotlight on it."

"If getting people in the know will win votes is there a reason we aren't going all PSA ourselves?" Buffy asked. She was pretty leery of the idea herself, but wanted to know what Ian's thoughts on it were.

"Well, it's one thing for someone like you to be … as blatant as you are about your strength, Miss Mayor. That's indirect, and people are good at making up excuses. On the other hand, if you go on TV claiming outright that vampires are real, people will just call you crazy, and it would backfire."

"So we want to be sort of obvious about things without ever coming out and saying them?" Buffy asked.

"Yes, exactly," Ian seemed relieved. "I admit the nuance of this isn't really my specialty, but Congressman Gold should be able to come down to Sunnydale and give us some help with the particulars of the campaign soon. The House went on recess and he just needs some time to wrap things up in DC."

"He's your second uncle or something right?" Buffy had been surprised that someone in Ian's extended family was an actual House Rep, but people had said they had some pretty wide connections. Before Ian could answer though, her watch beeped at her; it was 11PM. "Wow, time flies when you're doing paperwork huh? Harmony was going to pick me up for a quick swing around the city, I should clean up." The conference room desk was covered in legal books, paper records, and a binder full of liquor licenses.

"Don't worry yourself, Miss Mayor. I still have some things to finish, I'll put this away before I leave," Ian said.

"Thanks Ian, you're the best," Buffy felt a little guilty that she was secretly dating instead of patrolling, but she had been working (or shooting) since morning, and doing paperwork honestly seemed to be Ian's idea of a Friday night anyway. "I'd tell you to have a good weekend, but we'll probably just see each other tomorrow anyway."

He cracked the slightest little smile at that. "Of course, Miss Mayor."

With that, Buffy grabbed up her warhammer and went out to meet Harmony. For the date. She felt her heart speed up a little, and it seemed so illicit and risky, but what were people even going to think seeing them driving around? It would just seem like a regular thing. Like it had been for the past two months.

Harmony was already waiting out in the lot, her car still revved up. Of course she'd be early. Buffy ran up and threw her hammer into the back before sliding into the passenger seat. "Hey. So." Talking was hard sometimes.

"We're really going? You're all ready? No emergencies?" Harmony asked.

"Drive away. Beach night, here we come," Buffy affirmed.

"Gotcha! You know, I never really thought of going to the beach at night. Like, it totally makes sense, but beach, sun, crowds, the whole thing felt like a package deal," Harmony was apparently having less difficulty with the talking right now.

Buffy just felt really hyped up. The idea of being on an actual (secret) date without some stupid curse hanging over her head telling her what to do made her kind of giddy. Not that they were going to like, do anything like that. Yet. But it was the principle of the thing. She'd been getting herself more and more excited for this as the day went on, and Cordelia's playful taunting about it had just fueled the fire.

"Yeah, though there is the whole, 'long walks on the beach' thing," Buffy said. "Not that we need to walk longly tonight, or anything. Or that we don't need to." The silence stretched a bit after that, and even though Harmony still had the same happy puppy look on her face Buffy decided she needed to deflect a little. "Sunnydale beach at night probably wasn't historically the safest for that kind of thing, I guess."

"Josh used to use it as a make out spot, but he died in ninth grade," Harmony said. "I wonder if that was why. Do you think anything will be stupid enough to try to kill us there? Maybe there'll be a sea monster!"

"I was going to leave my hammer in the car, but maybe I shouldn't," Buffy said. "But then again, it's not the best for watersports."

"Are you ever going to name it? Your hammer, not the car." Harmony said, distracted by a new subject.

"Huh. Do you think I should?" Kendra had named Mr. Pointy before (which was getting a little careworn these days), but it hadn't really occurred to Buffy to name her hammer anything, despite it being pretty cool and probably magic.

"You don't have to," she said.

"No, you're right," Buffy decided. "It should have a name. But it should be good. I waited so long, after all."

They threw a few ideas back and forth for the rest of the ride, but neither of them came up with anything that seemed right. Eventually, they reached the beach and the effort was put on pause. If anything, it was even more desolate than either of them had expected. There wasn't a single other car left in the lot, and even dim moonlight was blocked out by a cloudy sky. With the Chrysler's headlights off, Buffy could just barely see well enough to get around on the light pollution from Sunnydale, but Harmony seemed to be in her element. Buffy did end up bringing the as-yet-unnamed hammer with her when they walked over the dunes to the beach proper. Couldn't be too careful.

The few beach houses huddled by the entrance were dark too, but Buffy wasn't sure if they were vacant or not. Harmony seemed inclined to cater to her paranoia in any case and they kept walking, down the beach in the other direction from the more built-up area Buffy knew would eventually lead to the docks. She knew this part of the beach got a little rocky, but it wouldn't be dangerous to them or anything. She'd been to the beach as a slayer a couple times before, but it felt different at night. She didn't have to act, not even a little.

"Is here good?" Harmony asked.

"Yeah, this is nice."

The beach was windy, but it was a warm night, so there wasn't much bite to it, and Buffy could barely make out the big crashing waves ripping up and down the shore. Their towels wouldn't have stayed down on their own, but Buffy's hammer saw to that.

"Well, tanning isn't really a thing I guess," Harmony said. "Do you want to go in?"

"Yeah, it looks fun," Buffy hoped it wouldn't be too cold, but wasn't the water temperature supposed to be stable or something? This was her idea anyway, and if they weren't going to swim, what were they going to do, build sandcastles? Or like, the other thing, but just coming out here and doing that immediately felt a little wrong somehow. Even if it was kind of tempting. Maybe some cold water would be useful.

"OK, so swimsuits right?" Harmony said. "I wore mine under my clothes, did you-"

"Yeah. It seemed easier." It definitely had after Cordelia made some comments about getting changed in front of Harmony. Buffy wasn't feeling quite that adventurous yet. Her suit wasn't super skimpy or anything, but she wasn't some shrinking violet that wore one pieces either.

Harmony's on the other hand... Well, she probably should've expected it. She definitely wasn't surprised by the pink. What she thought about it in the other sense was harder to untangle. A lot of her original attraction had been based on how Harmony felt to her rather than how she looked, but it was all kind of getting mixed together. She was definitely attracted now. Would she have she been attracted before? Had she been repressing?

Would she have felt like this seeing Warren in a tight swimsuit? Something told her no. She still felt a little guilty for the sort-of-holding-pattern she'd left him in (not that they were ever like, actually dating or anything), but what could she say exactly? That she was dating someone else instead, but she couldn't tell him who? She'd try to make it up to him in September. He wasn't a bad guy. Maybe he'd solve her problem and get interested in someone else before then.

Harmony might've mistaken her woolgathering for hesitation, or maybe she was just eager to get in the water. Either way, she grabbed Buffy and led her down to the shoreline.

The water was chilly, but only a little, and the breaking waves helped with getting used to it quickly. Harmony didn't seem to hesitate at all, and Buffy wondered how that worked. She was pretty sure cold-blooded things still mostly disliked the cold, but vampires probably weren't a good analogy to that. "Is this just like bathwater to you?"

"Pretty much, yeah. I don't understand why the beach isn't full of vampires, this is really cool," Harmony let herself get dunked by a wave and then continued, a little concerned. "You aren't too cold, are you?"

"Nah. It was a really hot day, and unlike Cordelia I didn't get a refreshing cranberry bath midway through," she had extracted some gossip after all, and turnabout was fair play.

"No way, you have to tell me all about it!" Harmony shouted. "Is it going to be in the movie? I so wish I'd been able to be one of your backup girls." Unfortunately there was just too much day filming scheduled for Harmony to do a human part.

"You could still maybe try out for being an alien tomorrow?" Buffy asked.

"I don't know if I want to do a whole movie all vampy and bumpy," Harmony said. "I mean, what could I tell my dad?"

"That you were in makeup?" Buffy wondered. "I mean, isn't that what most people will think?"

"Well, I guess," Harmony said. "But it's still kind of eww. I don't like how I look like that." Buffy wasn't sure if that was Harmony's own unique take on vampirism or just that it creeped out most of the people she hung out with, but she decided to leave the sore spot alone and described the scene where Sarah humiliated Charisma instead.

They played around in the waves for a while, but neither of them really knew much about body surfing and they ran afoul of the rocks a few times. Harmony was still getting used to swimming without having to breathe, and it made for some… interesting positions. Buffy had gotten used to the water and Harmony had gotten more distracting again.

Maybe being so distracted was how Buffy got knocked down and turned around by a wave and found herself bumping into Harmony in the shallow water. Maybe it was a little more intentional than that. But whichever it was, Harmony brought her head up out of the foamy water and then they were kissing. Harmony tasted like salt and iron and Buffy kind of let herself go in it, just doing instead of having to think about everything. She let the angsty thoughts about what it meant that she was kissing another girl just drift out of her head.

The sensations felt a little like they had with Angel, but there wasn't that insistent worry to hold herself back echoing in her brain. On the other hand, she wasn't at all like any of the other non-vampire people Buffy had kissed, and that was freeing because she could be forceful, she didn't have to watch every inch of herself in each movement she made to make sure she wouldn't snap Harmony in half. They were small things. Angel wasn't ever going to lose his soul over a make-out, and Buffy had mastered the art of not breaking doorknobs years ago. But the difference between needing to be a little bit in control and not at all in control was big.

Harmony was all over her and she was all over Harmony, even though neither of them was pushing past make outs into X-rated territory quite yet. Such things might provoke the troubling girl thoughts again, and thinking was not what she wanted now. They didn't really pay much attention to the waves crashing over them, and as they washed up into the tide zone Harmony let her stay more or less on top. They ended up with Harmony lying down in the sand under her, her head pointing out to the ocean, waves crashing at random over it every few seconds. It probably would've been a buzz kill if Harmony needed to breathe, or talk, but those weren't on the agenda right now.

Gravity was more of a thing with them half-in and half-out of the water, and what had been intermittent contact was now her whole body pressing down into hers and one of Harmony's thighs sticking up between her legs. Buffy was drowning in Harmony, kissing in water and air intermittently. Harmony was pretty much just drowning, but she really didn't seem to mind.

Until she did. Harmony started sharply, and Buffy backed off her and into a kneel. Did she handle her too hard? She was a very young vampire, and Buffy had been getting stronger lately. But before she could worry any more Harmony got up on her elbows, spitting out some water and pointing over Buffy's shoulder at something.

Buffy turned and looked up the beach, and for the first time in a while, she was honestly shocked by what she saw. About a hundred feet away was a trailer-sized circular disk hanging just a few yards up in the sky, covered in neon lights that blinked and raced in confusing patterns. Beneath it in a cone there was a glowing haze extending down, and the sand it was touching almost looked like it was on fire. She was looking at a flying saucer.

It wasn't clear if it had noticed them, and their stuff was all in the other direction down the beach, making a triangle between the three points. Buffy thought that it must be connected to the movie somehow, but there was no way of knowing exactly what was going on without more information. A glance out of the corner of her eye at Harmony confirmed that she was as shocked and clueless as Buffy was.

The waves crashed in around them as they witnessed the spectacle from the edge of the surf.

Brainstorm: What do Buffy and Harmony do about the flying saucer? It's a little after midnight, it's dark and nobody else is around. All their stuff (including both their radios, their outerwear, and Buffy's hammer) is with their towels, about a hundred feet up the beach in the direction away from the saucer. Further clarification about the situation can be had at request.

This is going to be an experiment in a brainstorm planning format. Post ideas and discuss, maybe make plans if it suits you. I'll survey what's been brought up after 24 hours and create a more formal vote, either as individual selections, as tasks, or between plans that have been made.

Oh, and while you're brainstorming, try to name the hammer too.