4591/Battle Plans! (Also, Nice To Meet You. Again.)

Battle Plans! (Also, Nice To Meet You. Again.)
Date of Scene:	06 June 2018
Location:	Sunnydale, Bludhaven
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Dawn Summers, Constantine, Willow Rosenberg, Buffy Summers

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Dawn Summers has posed:
Getting away from the pursuing forces of the Chaos Demon would have been a really hard sell if it hadn't been for John's magic door. By the time they get clear, and get back to the Magic Box, Dawn is /exhausted/. Flying that far, that fast, is going to have her back sore for days. She flitters erratically down to the table. "Well, at least we know where we have to go now..." she chimespeaks. "Now we just have to figure out the whole, you know, not dying part."

Of course, to the others, they may be wondering A) why there's a pixie here, B) why someone dressed a pixie up in a Barbie dress, and C) what they're going to do about the Chaos Demon. Plus there's the whole question of whether Willow's still speaking pixiese.

Constantine has posed:
The magic door had taken them the House of Mystery only to have John hustle them out again quickly after grabbing his old doctor's bag full of mystical odds and ends. The house had been acting weird when they showed up, almost, friendly, lighting up the candles and summoning flowers out of thin air to liven up the place. Honestly, John didn't have time for the place's moods right now, so he hurried them on out and got them back down to the safer surroundings of the magic box.

"I'll give this place a good warding, and, gah!" John says closing the door and spotting the pixie. "Bloody hell, Willow, catch that thing will you? Before it does a bunch of damage Ripper's going to make me pay for."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow? Is gobsmacked. Like if you'd set in in a fairy circle and said she was actually a changeling and welcome home sunshine, she couldn't have been more surprised or impressed. "Oh my goodness golly! This place is not real!"

She's all wide-eyed impressed for John.

"You're messing with our minds, right? We're not really here?"

Of course that would be silly, given they'd run to avoid a confrontation, so a hallucination wasn't really the smartest of moves, which meant it /was/ real... which brought Willow back to wide-eyed staring at everything about her, forgetting for the mmoment that Tinkerbell needed their help, and there was some oppressively harsh demony thing that wanted to have a discussion with them.

Dawn Summers has posed:
Dawn looks indignant. "I am not a thing!" Though pixies do have the rep of being the pests of the magical world. "Come on, guys. We have to rally the troops or something. Get the guys who are better at the fighty bits..." She looks back to Willow from the table she's standing on. "Crap. Willow? Can you still understand me? Dammit, I'm gonna have to do the dancing cell phone thing again, aren't I?"

Constantine has posed:
John frowns and snaps his fingers in front of Willow. "C'mon now, don't space out on me, an' catch that pixie before it causes a ruckus, not like we don't have enough problems with a demon on the loose," he says. "Well, a powerful one, this place has got more of the other sort than you can shake a stick at."

He reaches into his doctor's bag and produces a jar, "Use this, like how you'd catch a bug," he offers it to her.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
It's debatable if Willow fully understands Dawn - at least for a few minutes, as she doens't immediately answer the other, more concerned with where she is, and how the heck did John own this.. this.. this place??

Her cheeks flush when John chastizes her. "Oh, we don't have to catch.. uh.. catch.. oh gosh and gee willikers, why can't I remember her name?"

Willow stares right at Dawn, who is fluttering about, and whose words are a magical and enticing mix of jingles and words, that if she focuses on she can still parse out as sentences.. it's just so hard to actually make herself do that. It's almost a physical pressure and pain forcing her to *not* do so.

"Mostly," Willow murmurs, making a squinch of a face in apology to Dawn. "I can understand most of what you say, but it's hard. Some things are tinkles and jingles.. and I can't remember why we're doing this." Or Dawn's name. But she does remember that *thing* approaching the circle. That alone is reason enough to investigate.. "Uh, what are we looking for again?"

Dawn Summers has posed:
Dawn nods in emphasis. "Yeah! Not with the catching!" Hmm. But if Willow's not understanding it all...she looks to John first, then to Willow, and pantomimes talking on a cell phone, then points to the tabletop near herself. "I hate this spell. Never drinking potions again." she mutters under her breath.

Constantine has posed:
"Wot, you can understand her?" John says to Willow as he watches the faerie miming. "Ask her what she wants then tell her to bugger off, we've got a demon to manage, can't be wasting time parlaying with the fair folk."

Fair folk. That stirs something in his brain and he reaches into his doctor's bag and produces small draw string sack, the sort the nerdy types would keep their dice for D&D, or a sorcerer might keep his stash of pixie dust. "Now, what did I bring this along for?" he murmurs to himself.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
If she's thinking about it, and focusing on the pixie.. uh.. Dawn.. Willow can keep it straight in her mind. It's when she gets distracted, or allows her thoughts to drift off that it becomes harder. And frankly the fancy ooo sparkly of John's place was terribly distracting..

/pull it together Rosenberg!/

There's a blink for John, and an overwhelming sense of deja vu.. "Mostly? And I can't tell her to bugger off. She's kinda why we're.. uh, something went wrong. That's it. She's not.. that is she's Buffy's uh.." A frown from Willow. "It doesn't matter. She needs help."

There. That felt right. And it was easy to think and say. Phew.

Dawn Summers has posed:
Dawn looks over to John. "Seriously?! You British people are supposed to be smart! Willow, take out your phone, please, so I can use it?" she asks the redhead, before looking back around. "And put that stupid jar away, I am not a firefly!"

Constantine has posed:
"Know what you mean, the magics must be getting thicker, forgot why I grabbed me pixie dust for," John murmured. "Ain't like a pixie would have much need for it. Well, sort out what sort of help she needs quick, I'm going to ward this door in case the demon followed us."

He sets down his bag and pulls out a pocket knife with a well-honed edge. "Sorry, Ripper mate," he apologizes to the absent Giles, "For the greater good an' all that," he says then begins carving a sigil into the wood of the door.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"So it actually /was/ a demon?" Willow's question comes breathlessly, and with nothing short of wide-eyed concern. "Why aren't we calling.. Oh. We're going to." Pause. "Call the others, I mean."

She nods slowly, and while she can still understand Dawn, it would perhaps be most expedient if she didn't have to translate for John. Especially given they might be on a tight timeline here. So she pulls out her phone and sets it down, complete with clicking through to enhanced keyboard with the bigger keys. "I really should see if I can't rig up some translations programs," she mutters to herself. "It would make dealing with some of the more esoteric races a lot easier.. Hrm.."

Dawn Summers has posed:
Oh, thank god. Dawn flies over to the phone, lands on it, and starts hop-texting, doing her own version of Dance Dance Revolution to type on the phone.

<I'm Dawn. Buffy's sister. The bottle Willow has is the baddie's focus for the spell that I got whammied with. Putting that in a warding circle is PROBABLY a good idea. We need people who can kill the demon, before the magic gets worse.>
Tiring! But at least she can communicate easily now; they both can read a screen just fine.

Constantine has posed:
"Buffy?" John finishes Willow's sentence, like as not the bindings put on John by Giles have made forgetting that name extra difficult. "Good idea, time to turn on the Buff-signal," he says as he finishes carving the sigil into the door, after a short bit of chanting and a brief flash of light and the sudden shift in the air that spoke of magic, it was set.

Done, he folds his knife away and comes back to peer at the phone screen, "Ah, see the Buff-signal was the right idea," he says, before he looks to Willow, "How about you handle the warding circle?" he says nodding to the bottle.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow blinks, then nods, "Buffy! yes!" Her words carry tones like someone snapping their fingers with sudden memory. "That."

But his suggestion that she cover the warding is taken to heart, and given her knowledge, and the materials at hand, Willow gets down to serious business.

Dawn Summers has posed:
With the bottle finally encircled in a warding spell, especially an effective double ward (the one that John placed on the shop, and the one Willow placed on the bottle), the spell loses its ability to continue muddling with people's memories. It won't restore any already lost, sadly...but it'll keep new ones from getting scrambled going forward.

Dawn watches, hopefully, and taps out more on the phone. <Okay. Evil bottle: handled. Store warded. We're probably good on the defensive side. Now we gotta get Buffy or Faith or somebody to put the serious hurt on this demon.>

Constantine has posed:
John nods, "An' yes definitely, a demon," he says to Willow's earlier question, before the circle is closed and the effects of the spell drain away leaving his mind clear. "Ah, that's better," he says moving to the counter to pick up the phone. "I'll give her a ring then, see if we can't deal with this demon of ours," he says before giving the Summers residence a call.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Why do they still have a house phone? It's something Buffy has wondered for years. Everytime she asks her Mom, Joyce laughs at her and continues whatever she was doing. Buffy has never gotten a straight answer. Yet here she is, having to answer a phone. At least it's cordless. They aren't completely in the Dark Ages. It even has caller ID so she sees the name of the shop. "Heya, what's up?"

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"I don't particularly like demons," Willow says once the warding is completed and things seem to.. well, settle isn't quite the right word, but at least it's not so hard to remember why they're helping Tinkerbell there..

"Note to self, don't include demon tongue in the translation program.. Wait, that's kind of an oversight, isn't it?" She looks to John for confirmation on that one.

Dawn Summers has posed:
Dawn looks hopeful. Since John has Buffy on the phone, she flies up to orbit his head some, trying to listen in and hear Buffy's end of the conversation. Not that THAT is distracting /at all/.

Constantine has posed:
"Ah, good thing you answered, not sure my Giles impression'd fool your mum. Got a demon situation down at the Magic Box, involves the whammy that turned your sister into tinkerbell," he says, frowning as he wondered if the Slayer still remembered if she had a sister. "Come on down and we'll give you the 'deets' or whatever it is you kids are calling that these days."

John puts a hand over the receiver, "Yeah, definitely want to know the what the big nasty thing is saying about you," he says, waving absently at the Dawn flitting about his head. "May want to hurry," John says into the phone to Buffy. "Liable to pluck her bloody wings off if she keeps buzzing about my head." The last is delivered with a pointed look for the pixie.

Buffy Summers has posed:
That gets a furrowed brow. "I'll be there in a couple," Buffy promises. Not because of the sister bit. Sister? She doesn't have a sister. Maybe whatever demon situation is going on has Constantine imagining things. Or believing stuff that isn't there. The comment about her sister having wings was really the clincher that he's under an evil spell.

She grabs her messenger bag. "Mom! I'm heading out! Be back in a few hours!" She hopes. And with that, she's out the door and on her way to the Magic Box.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Deets," Willow confirms for John's edification. "But you're kinda old to be cranking out lingo like that." She sounds slightly concerned, like 'how do I tell this old man that he's... old?'.

"And you will do no such thing!" Willow scolds, suddenly indignant. "How is that going to help anything. And if you say you have some spell that uses fairy wings I'm going to.. I'm going to.. Oh. Just don't." Her voice carries the sense of a stomp of foot that isn't given, and is carried by a great wave of earnestness from the girl. "She's Buffy's sister, not some fly by night fairy!"

Dawn Summers has posed:
Dawn flies back to the table, and lands. "Yeah!" she says, indignantly chime-speaking back. She looks over to the door, concerned. Come on, let it be her sister that gets here first, not the baddies.

Constantine has posed:
"Right, see you then," John says and hangs up the phone.

"An' that's the point, meaning it to be all ironic, what with a fossil like me talking like one of you youngsters,' he says with a smirk playing across his lips.

"Well, now that you mention it," John says when Willow brings up faerie wings. Then he snorts, "Relax... I'm not /that/ much of a bastard, besides, remember, swore an oath on my power to Giles that I'd look out for you lot," he says. "Anyhow, best get ourselves ready, time's a ticking and we'll need to move quick when the Slayer gets here."

He moves to where he left his doctor's bag and produces a golden ankh on a chain and lays it around his neck, then stuffs a couple of other items in his pocket.

Buffy Summers has posed:
It isn't long before Buffy arrives outside. She takes a glance around before quickly opening the door and stepping into the shop. She fully expects to find some giant demon with it's wings spread hovering over Constantine and feeding crazy thoughts into his head.

"Hey, so what's this about a demon and a sister?" she asks simply as she steps inside, letting the door shut behind her. Her right hand is in her messenger bag where all her weapons are stored. Just in case.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow throws the door open wider once it's ascertained it's Buffy, and she fairly drags her friend into the room. "Your sister is a Tinkerbell! And John is making threats to spank her bottom for dust.." Willow pauses, "You know that really doesn't work for flying, right?"

her head is shaken. "Oh my gosh, get in here and close the door. There are demons.. okay, ONE demon.. looking for us.. her? Us? Us." Willow nods. "Totally up your alley. And wow, you really don't remember, do you?" Though she hopes once Buffy is in the warded zone some memory might come back.

Dawn Summers has posed:
Dawn flies quickly over towards Buffy, the little lightball zipping towards the Slayer with intent to hug. Well, okay, so maybe it's hugging part of her neck, but it's something. "Buffy!!" She chimespeaks. "Oh, thank god, now we can get this all solved!!"

As for memories, no luck. The ward stops the spell from erasing memories going forward...but anything already lost is lost. At least until the Chaos Demon is beaten.

Constantine has posed:
"Alright, Slayer?" John says by way of greeting as he pulls some sparkly powder out of that leather pouch of his and sprinkles it on his head. He gives his head a shake as a moment of euphoria spreads through his body like golden warmth from he top of his head to his toes.

"What the girl said, is she's happy to see you an we can get everything fixed right up," he says. "Come here , and sprinkle a little of this on you and suddenly Tink'll start making sense," John says his voice taking on a slightly chime like tone as the dust does its work.

"Other than that, Willow's right, we've got us a demon, a chaos demon most likely, that's likely the source of this fairyland fun."

Buffy Summers has posed:
"What the..." Buffy takes a step backwards as the fairy beelines for her head. Then it's touching her neck and she's looking from Willow to John then back to Willow with a sort of panicked expression. "There's a fairy hugging me. Fairies are real? Giles never told me they were real!" Then something sinks in that they said as she walks over to take some of the dust. The things she has to trust in. It is sprinkled on her head then she looks to each in turn before trying to focus on the tiny fairy figure. "I don't remember what?" Since she doesn't remember. As she says it, she draws that lovely little hand axe out of her bag. She loved that axe. "Chaos demon. Alright, how do I kill it? Say with the axe. Please say with the axe."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow looks inordinately pained as Buffy makes like she's no clue that fairies were real, though in Buffy's defense they didn't usually greet you with hugs like this one. "That fairy is your sister, uhm.. Tinkerbe--" There's a wave of negligent hand. "It's not important. She's your sister. And Oh.." Willow perks up and look terribly pleased at the effect of the dust sprinkle, even if she mostly understood the chimes and bells of Dawn's speech without. "Holy, who knew? I need to learn how to do that. And.." There's a pleased little giggle from the young woman. "It kind of tickled. I feel all tingly good."

Her giggle continues for Buffy, "You always want the axe." Though she's fairly certain that this time the thing may be warranted.

Dawn Summers has posed:
"Dawn! My name is DAWN! And I'm Buffy's sister. And we TOTALLY need to get the weapons, and go kill this thing so I can be back to normal!!" She flitters over to the door. "Come on, someone open this up so we can get on the way!!"

Constantine has posed:
"Yeah, faeries are real," John says with a smile. "And a real pain your ass even if they're not related to you," he says with a cheeky smile for Dawn. "An' like Willow says, this one is your sister, you can't remember because the spell's taking hold in a bad way, blotting out folks memory, but trust us, she's your people," he says giving a chuckle at Willow's reaction to the dust. "Yeah, it does that," he says.

As to Buffy's question, he grins wickedly, "Yeah, an axe'll do for them, most forged weapons will do for em, forged things are things of order," he says before nodding Willow's way. "Same goes for spells in the name of Thoth or Isis," a pause. "That's the goddess, not the mad blokes in Syria, and the odd trinket blessed by the Lords of Order," he says touching the ankh around his neck.

"Anyhow, talking too much, get your axe, and we'll go put this demon down before we need to start clapping to keep your sister going."

He goes to his bag one last time grabbing the charmed dagger, which with a word floats of its own accord ready to lead them on to the demon. John moves to open the door for Dawn.

Buffy Summers has posed:
That gets Buffy's attention fully focused on TinkerDawn. "I have a sister?" Everyone seems to think so. "You sure this demon hasn't just made you all think she's my sister? I mean, is she even real? She might be a construct." But they do seem sure she's a sibling.

When Dawn urges her to go kill something, she has to agree that does sound like a reasonable plan. "Lead on, sis. Or whoever knows where it is. Just point me in the right direction."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow is still smiling, fighting the tingly good, while agreeing, "See? Dawn." Though the name isn't said with any particular form of conviction. "And you get to use the axe." Which seems a bonus to Willow, who is dredging up spells committed to memory that draw upon Thoth and Isis.

"Totally the wrong kind of Isis," she agrees, having latched upon a protection spell she thinks might work, as well as one for blessing food that she's really not sure why she's memorized. It's an anomally in her memory banks. Only to have her thoughts dragged away. "Of course you have a sister, she's uh.. uh.." Dawn's name already fled, with "Tinkerbell" coming with grave decisiveness from the young woman. As much as to say 'you're welcome, see? I remembered' even if there's that niggle again that something isn't quite right. "We really need to get this dealt with.. I have a protection spell?" Said in a qauvering voice that suggests she's only hoping it will be useful, and not quite convinced now that push is coming to shove, and given things could always go wrong - it is from memory after all.

Dawn Summers has posed:
If they only knew. Heck, if SHE only knew. "I am not a construct! I'm your sister! You goof." Dawn says, indignantly. But she'll start on, being the air support. It's not going to take long. "There's some creepy looking things coming!" Six of them, all asymmetrical and twisted. Chaos Imps.

Constantine has posed:
John peers out beyond the door at the things coming their way. "Bloody imps," he says. "Well if they're coming to us, let 'em come," he says stepping back past the threshold through the hum of magic that is the protection spell. Knife hovering above his palm, he says, "Best bet is to let them come to us bash against the spell for a bit, but if you want to make a sortie or two," he says with a nod to Buffy, "Can't say it'd hurt."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Despite her uncertainty about the spell, Willow knows her part in this, and begins the soft and lulling chant of the protection spell that first came to mind. Totally devoted to Thoth, the spell, that is, she's hoping it buys time against the minor pains in the butt. The greater demon? Well, that's Buffy territory... though Willow is still wracking her brains in hopes of coming up with something to help there, too.

Buffy Summers has posed:
"Well, it's always good to stretch and warm up before a fight," Buffy comments as she steps through the protection spell to the outside. She hefts the axe in her right hand, spinning it once to the left of her and once to the right then falls into a ready stance.

She crooks her fingers at the imps. "Come get some!"

Only she doesn't wait for them to come to her. Instead, she's leaping into the fray and using her axe expertly. Apparently one of the past slayers had used one quite regularly, giving her that instinctive muscle memory. It didn't hurt that the weapon was literally created by a god. Not that it gave it extra abilities. It was just cool.

Dawn Summers has posed:
The imps have bad luck on their side; with the spells going on in Sunnydale right now, what can go wrong, will go wrong. But they're not anywhere near ready to take on a Slayer. Buffy takes out the first two almost instantly. The other four start going after though, trying to swarm her and limit her mobility.

Constantine has posed:
When the imps begin to gang up on the slayer, John rolls up his sleeves and steps through the protection spell, "With a glib, that's my cue," taking the ankh from around his neck and holding it in front of him. When he speaks again the glibness is gone and his voice carries the crackle unseen power as he intones, "Adolebitque!" thrusting his hands forward and letting loose with a blast of flame towards two of the little bastards.

Dawn Summers has posed:
And that'll do it. The fire spell engulfs two more, leaving only two left, as they both start to panic, not sure who to go after next.

Buffy Summers has posed:
At the smell of imp, extra crispy, Buffy wrinkles up her nose. "That is disgusting. You know what you should do?" Even as she's chatting to John, she's spinning around to use that axe against anoter of the imps then leaves the last one for John. If he wants it. Otherwise, she'll do what she does best. "You should create a spell that makes burning flesh smell like flowers. Or popcorn! No, not popcorn. I'd think of it every time I went to the movies."