12578/Brother's keeper

Brother's keeper
Date of Scene:	22 December 2020
Location:	Apartment, the Blue Lady
Synopsis:	Harry and willow answer the Scooby Signal, and plans are made to find Buffiny and rescue her. Meanwhile Tuffy takes a bath.
Cast of Characters:	Thomas Raith, Willow Rosenberg, Harry Dresden, Buffy Summers
Tinyplot:	Who's Who

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Thomas Raith has posed:
T'was the night after the Christmas Party, and all through the Club, not a creature was stiring except for some chaos in the private apartment. I'm not a poet, sue me. Thomas is sitting in the kitchen of the apartment, sitting over a coffee cup, his body trembling as he keeps taking deep breaths. He'd sent Willow for Harry... Harry would know what to do... Empty Night please Harry and Willow were the best magic users he knew... please...

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow was frowning when she escorted Harry to The Blue Lady's apartments. "It was so weird. I'm worried." She hurried on up the apartment, "Thomas? I've brought Harry. Maybe we can figure it out together."

Harry Dresden has posed:
"Bolshevik Muppet?" Harry exclaims as he follows Willow into the room with his coat billowing behind him like some dark knight's cape, his brow arches and his eyes scanning the room with his arm holding the blasting rod, it's tip glowing and smoking with charged up energy, following his eyes looking for a target. "I don't see a hallway full of black court vampires, nor any land mines. What's going on, Thomas? Did you get a glance of Mavra? Is she back in town?"

Thomas Raith has posed:
Thomas Raith inhales... he exhales... He points. He simply can't form words at the moment. He points to the bedroom. Buffy is laying on the bed. She's tied up in what can only be described as a "kinky" style, the ropes positioned in such a way that any struggle would be distributed through the knots. It's one way to restrain a super strong being, nulifying any force they can exert by using it agienst them. A weak magic circle is formed around the bed. And of course she has a bruise forming on her cheek that is obviously from a punch from someone strong enough to bruise the Slayer... "That's not Buffy." He says softly after a moment. "She calls herself Tiffany.."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Tiffany? huh." Willow shakes her head, then, "Mavra? What? Never mind. Did you take her protection off of her? What a rotten time I chose. After all, it's pretty powerful.. I think. Oh, Harry! That's what I made for you and Karrin. Surprise?"

Harry Dresden has posed:
"Uh..Thomas? I don't want to get involved in your kinky roleplay stuff here man..." Harry says with a eyebrow arched as he looks towards his brother before it dawns on him that this isn't a joke.

"Oh...you're serious."

Harry looks back towards Buffy as he lowers the blasting rod and lets it fall back under his coat via the cord tied to it. "Who's Tiffany?"

He glances towards Willow at the revelation of the surprise and offers a short, small smile before refocusing on the bed.

Thomas Raith has posed:
Thomas shakes his head. "Some oversexed former rival of some kind of Buffy's from highschool I think." He looks up to Willow, "You guys went to school with some /weird/ people." He shakes his head getting up and pouring himself another cup of coffee despite sitting next to one that is still steaming. "Over sexed... that's coming from me. So yeah... Anyway she said she used something called the.." He pauses to check some notes "Draconian Katra, and was running from the Red Order. Their after the Real Buffy, who at this point has amnsia and is in that bimbo's body." he says thumbing towards the bedroom. "Oh and just for funzies, she sicced some zombie mercenaries on her as well." He looks up at Harry, his eyes silver blue with frustration and grief. "Sorry, no land mines this time."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Ew. What would you ever think that I would be brought into his fantasies?! Ew, that's horrible. She's my friend.. although, I guess we could be that kinda friends." Willow looks around for someplace to sit.

She nods. "Really odd people." She has to give him credit. "So, she didn't pick out Buffy particularly? I might make this simpler. Except the little bit where our Buffy is trapped without her memories."

Harry Dresden has posed:
"None of that ring a bell, Thomas. I can check with Bob, but that is going to take time and I assume that is something we don't have a lot of." Harry grumbles as he squats down in front of 'Buffy' to take a closer look at her. "Do we have anything of this Tiffany's? Hair, Fingernail clipping, Blood...anything? If we do I can at least do a simple tracking spell to get Buffy back, or at least the body containing Buffy. At least I think we can. I have never tried a tracking spell on a body swap before...I think it would be tied to the body and not the mind."

Thomas Raith has posed:
Thomas Raith considers softly, looking at his brother with genuine hope in his eyes. "The fight happened fairly close by to here... Maybe Mouse can track down one of her hairs or something? When this happened they both fell down and..." He puts his face in both his palms. "Empty night Harry, I almost staked her. I came with in a hair of staking Buffy."

Harry Dresden has posed:
"How did you know not to?" asks Harry as he checks over the body of Buffy to see of there is any stray hairs or fibers that don't look to be Buffy's brand of blonde. "Mouse is at home, and it would take time to go and get him. We can if it is a last resort, but usually things like this are a race against time and I don't think we should waste any."

Standing with a sigh, Harry reaches into his pocket and pulls out a hefty piece of chalk, drawing a larger circle around the one Buffy already finds herself in, adding some arcane symbols that Thomas didn't add, before reaching down and touching the chalk outline and pushing some of his will into it to snap the circle closed. "What do we know about this Tiffany person?"

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers or, Tiffany, or...Uh, okay it's complicated..Tuffy? Is asleep on the bed, all tied up and what not. Too bad she didn't get any action last night, aside from a really hard punch across her face from an angry Thomas. Oh, and a double whammy from two angry White Court Vamps, who sapped her energy levels to near zero.

Maybe that explains the white streak in her normally dirty blonde hair..

At least she got some sleep in, but when she finally awakes, she is still a little groggy, groaning and struggling in her ropes, before realizing where she is and what's going on.

"Oh. Good morning, lover." she smirks wickedly at Thomas and..Well, everything about her is just not-Buffy. There's a lecherous look in her eyes as she regards Thomas, and just cold, heartlessness as she regards Buffy's other friends.

"Ooh, did you bring more people to join our little party? How sweet." let's see, the red headed wimp from last night, and..No, she's not sure who the other guy is.

Thomas Raith has posed:
Thomas Raith nods slightly. "Sounds like a plan, the device she was talking about is probibly still there too, maybe you can..." Thomas makes a swish and flick gesture like he was holding a magic wand "Reparo it?" he asks hopefully, though it's obvious he doubts it will be that simple. "I didn't stake her because she.." He points to Buffy, "Had passed out at the same time and i was more concerned about her." He admits looking absolutely devastated. When Tuffy... Buffiny? Nah Tuffy. wakes up Thomas snarls at her. "Shut your fucking mouth bitch, or what you got last night will feel like a stroll through the tulips." ...he might be a little annoyed.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Tiffany.. Why does that name ring a bell.." Willow sighs. Buffy was awakes and calling her names. "You know, I'm a lot more than that." Witness her holidays gifts to the bunch. "Thomas?"

Harry Dresden has posed:
Grabbing a piece of paper from the top of one of the nightstands, paying absolutely no attention to what the paper is, Harry places it under the hand of 'Tuffy' and scrapes out some dirt and other things from under the nails into the paper before folding it and placing it gently into his pocket, "Oh look. Someone is awake. Lucky us."

He looks to Thomas, "Keep in mind anything you are doing to her, you are doing to Buffy's body...and WHEN we swap it back, you can't undo what you have done. Show some chill. I know it's tough."

He looks to Willow, "What do you know about what happened?"

Thomas Raith has posed:
Thomas Raith growls slightly, "Oh don't worry Harry, I had no intention of hurting her /body/." he says in a tone that is... well frankly it's downright scary. It can be really easy to forget sometime that Thomas, for all his charm and good looks, is a monster. And right now he is a monster whose mate has been attacked. Still he stands back and waits.. He called Harry. He'll let the man work.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Not much, I'm afraid." Willow looks over at 'Tuffy'. "She was in a different crowd. A minor witch. Jealous of Buffy. The usual. I imagine it is worse now. Plus vampire." Yay. Not. "Did you need help, Harry?" After all two magic users must be better than one.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers flinches a bit as Harry cleans her fingernails. "Ooh, how nice of you. You must be the chivalrous brother he spoke of." she grins and winks at him. "Mm, not bad, not really seeing the family resemblance though.."

She sighs, clicking her tongue at Thomas. "Ooh touche. Why dont you let your baby brother handle this, hmm? How about you start with giving me some food and something to drink? I'm starved, and it's kinda nice to not have to drink blood all the time."

Tuffy makes a face before glancing over at the redhead and smirks. "Ooh, it's Willow, isn't it? I think you were in some of my psyche classes too. Why dont you just tell tall dark and crazy over there to give up on Buffy, she's probably dead by now, and if not, she's just an empty shell, so it's really just a waste of time what you guys are trying to do."

Harry Dresden has posed:
Harry Dresden smirks, not paying much attetnion to Tuffy's barbs. "Oh how little you know. Willow, come over here and you can lend me a bit of your will."

Moving to an empty spot, Harry draws another circle, placing the paper with the blood and skin scrapings from under Tuffy's nails in the center. From his pocket he produces a old compass, placing it into the center as well. The wizard closes his eyes and starts to focus, his fingertip touching the chalk outline on the ground.

Thomas Raith has posed:
Thomas Raith is about to snarl something rude to Tuffy... and instead leaves the room and returns with a sport's bottle. "Open." he tells the Imposter, aiming the nozzel at her mouth and spraying room tempture tap water into her mouth and throat. He doesn't try to choke her with it or spray it in her face...after all as Harry pointed out, it is Buffy's body.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers smiles sweetly as Thomas obediently trots off, totally expecting some sort of four course meal, or maybe wine, or..Or something. Oh. It's just a sports bottle. Ugh. So low class. She sighs.

"Geez, how am I supposed to nourish myself on *that?*" she sneers in disgust but opens her mouth all the same, her throat dry, her head still a bit achy from all the energy draining he and Didi did to her the previous night.

At least it shuts her up for a short while as she chugs down as much of the sweet liquid as she can. Boy, Tuffy really was thirsty.

Harry may have a little trouble getting a read on such a small amount of blood from Tuffy's nails. However, it miiight just be enough if he and Willow pour a bit more magic into the spell than usual.

Tuffy watches him curiously. "Geez, you people just don't give up, do you."

Thomas Raith has posed:
When Buffy speaks again, Thomas doesn't hesitate. He sprays her again in the face with the water bottle, this time specifically targeting it at her nose and mouth. "Quiet. Grown ups are talking." He says simply.

Harry Dresden has posed:
The thing about blood is it doesn't take much. Add in a bit of skin, and you can't get much more of an intimate connection to a person's body in the case of magic. There is a reason Wizards and other practitioners are so anal about not leaving bits of themselves anywhere for someone to find, it can lead to very bad things.

So, even though the amount of essence is small and might not work for some scientist to pull DNA from, for Harry's purposes it is more than enough given Willow's assistance. Focusing his will, and Willow's, on the circle, Harry lowly chants a few pseudo-Latin words and opens his eyes as he pushes his will into the compass to create a tracker of sorts.

Breaking the circle with an audible pop of rushing air filling a void, Harry picks up the compass and tosses it to Thomas. "There. It will point the way, but it won't give turn by turn directions..nor elevation. Just the location of the body...and that is a good thing. If the body ceased to have function, the spell wouldn't have worked."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"You know, just in case, lets us put a magical tracker on Buffy's body so that if she sneaks away, we can catch her easily." After all, 'Tuffy' could be harder to find with all Buffy's training. Willow nods.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Tuffy continues to watch in fascination as Harry and Willow work on a tracker spell. She's not a very good witch really. Which is probably why how she ended up ticking off a bloodthirsty cult in the first place. Still, they really seem to know their stuff.

"Ooh. That's brilliant. Bravo! I mean, like..You totally think Buffy's gonna want you to come knocking on her crypt, while she's trying to sleep in the middle of the day..The same person who tried to kill her mind you, storming her safe haven?"

Tuffy laughs, enjoying this waay too much. "You *really* think you'll earn her trust that way, you got another thing com--Ach!" she yelps and blinks a couple of times as she gets juice sprayed in her face.

Thomas Raith has posed:
Thomas Raith lets out a slow and shaking breath then nods a bit. "Well then I suppose that means that we have a Princess to save." He says calmly, though he does look out at the brilliant sunshine. "The Bitch does have a point though. She's in a vampire body. If she's safe we can't risk dusting her ourselves trying to rescue her. If we can get her hear safe she can stay in my wine celler till we work something out long term." he sprays Tuffy in the face again at that point, mostly just because. "You have access to some Azkaban type place to keep this one till then? I'd prefer not to have to sleep on the sofa. It gives you a massive crick in the neck.

Harry Dresden has posed:
Harry Dresden says, "Tuffy can't leave. I have her bound in a circle, and if she tries it will automatically yank her soul from Buffy's body and thrust it into the ether to be lost for good. The only reason I didn't banish her outright was because I wasn't entirely sure if we would need her to swap Buffy back over." Harry says with a straight face, not giving away the fact he is bluffing about the lost soul bit...but if he sells it maybe Tuffy won't even try. "I mean, feel free to toss a tracker on the body, but in any case it will still be right here."

Harry glances to Thomas, "Sorry. All out of remote supernatural prison islands at the moment," he jokes."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"You never can tell, after all Buffy could break free." Willow gives a faint shrug. "You have to, to switch bodies over."

Buffy Summers has posed:
Tuffy yelps some more as juice is sprayed at her face, coughing and blinking. Harry's explanation has her a bit worried though. "H-hey, wait a minute, you can't do that! Besides, I'm just demon now, vampire remember?" she smirks, "Demon soul, human mind and memories, although Tiffany has a strong enough mind that I'm sure even if you got rid of me she'd remain.."

More maniacal laughter from the body snatcher as she tries her bonds just to make sure. But of course they're as strong as before, and tied in such a way that they pull on different limbs whenever she tries to pull free of the opposite rope.

"Dammit.." she curses under her breath. "Cant I at least have a chance to stretch my muscles? I thought you were supposed to be the good guys!"

Thomas Raith has posed:
Thomas Raith nods slightly, "I suppose that would be asking much. Never a place where only a Demon can reach when you need one." He says to Harry. He sighs a bit and shakes his head. "I'm going to have to burn those sheets. Possibly the whole bed." He says annoyed. But as Faux Buffy speaks he snarls again, a very feral look in his eyes. "Good guys? Sister you have no idea. I'm the monster you will never have the balls to be... and the one thing that was keeping me in check? It's what you tried to take away." he says stepping away so Harry can reform the circle around the bed. "Find her." he says almost pleading to his brother. "I'll go back to where the fight happened. Try to find the pieces of that device. Maybe with it and bob you can repair or replicate it."

Harry Dresden has posed:
Harry Dresden nods to Thomas. "Alright. I'll head back to the lab and see if Bob has ever heard of this device. Did you get the name of it, because I am sure that 'body swapping device' is going to pull up a plethora of options knowing him, and I hate when he makes me look stupid for not having more details."

Harry checks the circle around the bed, eyeing Tuffy as he checks to make sure there are no breaks in the circle, and nothing can fall or accidentally break it. "Nice to know you just outed yourself as a demon, toots. Now I know for a fact you can't break out of this circle. What do you think wizards like us use them for? If you happen to get out of those bonds, which I doubt you can, you can pound at this thing alllllll day and you aren't going anywhere. Smart move on your part." Harry says with a satisfyingly smug smirk. "Checkmate."

Buffy Summers has posed:
Tuffy laughs, looking at Thomas while licking her lips again. "Well, honey, if you ever get cold or lonely at night, all alone on that sofa, I'm only too happy to keep you 'company'." she grins wickedly.

But as Harry calls her out, she frowns deeply, cursing under her breath. Oh great, she should really learn to keep her big mouth shut.

Thomas Raith has posed:
Thomas Raith nods a bit sourly. "The Draconian Katra... Sounds like a charaacter from one of those weird Japanese cartoons Butters always is watching. And yeah she is obviously not the sharpest knife in the block... She wanted to convince people she was buffy, very first thing she said? I mean before anything else? Damn it I chipped a nail. I mean that would have been like Karrin asking if you could reach something for her!"

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow gets up, and prepares to leave. "Anything else? Sounds like you got it covered."