Owner	Pose
Buffy Summers	Saturday nights were meant for parties, good times, going out with friends. For the Slayer, they were just another night on patrol. Until she'd gotten the frantic call from her mother. Seems Dawn wasn't home. No one knew where she was or how to reach her. She was either ignoring her phone or it didn't have service so never heard the calls or texts. What it all boiled down to was Buffy had to help with the search. She left her patrol, messenger bag still slung over her shoulder and carrying the tools of her trade. For a couple of hours, they searched the streets. Then she opted to run back to the house, just to see if Dawn maybe went home while they were out searching. She'd rushed upstairs only to find the girl's room still empty. "Where are you?" she whispered to herself as she turned to exit the bedroom, heading for the staircase. "If anything got hold of you, I'm going to kill it. Then revive it so I can kill it again." She reaches the bottom of the stairs and heads for the front door.
Dawn Summers	Dawn makes her arrival. Normally, if she was coming in this late, she might try to do it quietly. You know, sneak in so you're in less trouble. Or at least in trouble later. Not this time. No, the teenage brunette comes in looking like she's seen better days. For the first part, she looks like she's come through the parallel dimension of Slutty Looks. She's in a sleeveless black minidress, earrings, stud on her upper lip, 3" black heels. Oh, and then there's the makeup and other changes. Black mascara and eyeliner; an excess of both. A /tattoo/ of a red rose visible on her thigh. And a leather jacket topping off the look. All of that would be troubling enough, if it weren't for her coming in with her makeup an absolute disaster; that soggy-raccoon look one gets when they A) have too much eye makeup on and then B) followed it up with crying. Dawn comes in, hugging herself and looking traumatized.
Faith Lehane	Faith gave Dawn a ride on a motorcycle. More on that later. Faith doesn't seem inclined to wear a helmet but there is one being racked to suggest that Dawn, at least, was safer than one might eexpect from the younger, moodier Slayer. She stands by the bike for a moment and watches as Dawn walks toward the door, shrugging slightly as she does. Faith looks like Faith, albeit in a new leather jacket. She's waiting for Dawn to get inside, but it's pretty clear she intends to be astride her bike and out of here at any moment.
Buffy Summers	The door opens before Buffy can touch the handle. When she sees Dawn, she lets out a soft cry of relief and immediately. She goes to wrap her arms around her little sister. Little being relative since she's shorter than the younger girl. "Dawn! We've been worried to death!" She squeezes for a moment before trying to step back, getting a better look. "Are you alright? What happened?" She flicks her gaze past her sister's form and sees Faith by her motorcycle. Her eyes narrow, lips tightening. "What're you doing here? Did you do this?" she demands immediately, all her protective instincts in full force.
Dawn Summers	Dawn gets hugged, and it takes a moment for her thousand-yard-stare to resolve over to recognize that A) she's being hugged, and B) it's her sister doing the hugging. She's shivering like she's cold...or more likely, like she's coming down off an adrenaline rush. Her hair, which has been /dyed/ with streaks of blue, falls partially over her face as she looks down. There's officially a lip quiver. She's not crying...now...but she did plenty of it on the motorcycle ride home. Hence the black streaks running down her cheeks. "I'm okay." she says, voice tight. It's pretty obvious she's NOT, but she's not /physically/ hurt, and she's run with the Scoobies enough to get that out first. If you're bleeding, that needs patched up. The emotional trauma you fix later. "I need to clean up some." she says, voice still quiet, as she tries to unentangle from the hug to get herself to someplace with a sink and a mirror.
Faith Lehane	"Yeah, I forced her to dye streaks in her hair and get a bunch of tattoos and a piercing, then kitted her out, roughed her up, and brought her home afterward. Good detective work, B." Faith rolls her eyes and mmoves to climb up onto the motorcycle. "Tip, though. Save interrogating the kid for after she's calmed down a little. She doesn't need you pushing her right now."
Buffy Summers	As Dawn tries to disengage, Buffy doesn't resist. She knows not to push, especially at a time like this. But for the Slayer outside? "I don't plan to interrogate her," Buffy says, stress on the last word. "While she may be responsible for her appearance, I have no doubt you had a hand in whatever has upset her. That being the case, slink back to whatever hole you crawled out of and leave us alone." With that she turns back to her sister, setting the messenger bag on the floor just inside the door as she does so. She pulls off her leather jacket and slips it around her sister's shoulders, if Dawn allows her to do so. "C'mon, let's get you upstairs and cleaned up. A shower will help. Then we can talk." Offered as an option, not a requirement, tone lilting up just enough to make it not severe. She doesn't point out that Mom is worried sick. That won't help Dawn right now. She doesn't need more on top of whatever happened.
Dawn Summers	Thankfully, it's the right tactic to take. Dawn's got a jacket already, so she just heads for her room. The jacket and the heels are left there. And from there, a couple moments later, into the shower. Sounds of running water will take over there. If there are to be answers on what happened, for now at least, they'll have to come from Faith; Dawn is comment-less as she moves from room to room.
Faith Lehane	"You don't have to tell me twice," Faith replies, rolling her eyes. She settles in on her motorcycle and for a second it looks as though she's going to pull away. Then Faith pauses for a second. "You know, this wouldn't happen if you actually did your job."
Buffy Summers	As Dawn drifted up the stairs, Buffy reached to close the door behind her when she heard the response from Faith. That has her spinning back around, surprise showing on her face. "My job? I was doing my job when I got a panicked text from our mother wondering where her baby girl was. I was doing my job when I had to drop everything to start scouring the streets for my missing sister, hoping that a Big Bad hadn't gotten ahold of her. Which job, precisely, is it that you think I'm neglecting? I am trying to get rid of the monsters so that when my sister runs out into the world, she isn't in danger. So please, tell me how I'm not doing my job."
Faith Lehane	"Were you really?" Faith scoffs now, giving Buffy a long stare before swinging back down from the motorcycle she was sitting astride. "You're predictable. And you care about what you care about and anyone who doesn't fit in to that paradigm of yours is pretty much screwed. And for some reason it includes *vampires*, B. Your priorities are kind of weird." She shrugs as she moves to confront Buffy. "And the kid has no survival instincts, at all. You're lucky no one actually hurt her tonight."
Buffy Summers	Buffy heads down the walk toward Faith, the door sitting open behind her with her messenger bag a heap on the floor. She doesn't stop until they are within five feet of each other. "Her lack of survival instincts is exactly why she is supposed to be home. Then she isn't in danger. I have a choice of staying here watching her 24-7 or going out and doing what we were made to do. Y'know, slaying the bad guys. Not all beings that aren't us are evil just because they aren't human. Yes, I have vampires who are friends or allies." Or more. Not going there. "They help kill the other monsters. It isn't all black and white, more gradients of gray where you have to figure out what the lesser of evils is." She shakes her head. "You could've been part of that group but instead you just push everyone away with that giant chip on your shoulder." She crosses her arms, forcing herself to step back emotionally speaking and try to focus. "What happened?"
Dawn Summers	The upstairs door opens, and out comes Dawn, now dressed in about the opposite of the earlier outfit; she's in pale pink pajamas. The temporary hair dye's been washed off, as has her makeup, and the lip stud removed. In short, she's back to looking like Dawn. She starts down the stairs. "I was stupid; there were vampires." She sums it up, though she leaves out all the bait-encouraging choices Faith had her make.
Faith Lehane	"I mentioned there was a party and Dawn wanted to go. I got her made up and took her along. I didn't know she was going to off with the dude and get dragged into a back room vampire party. Her dance partner wasn't one of them so I didn't-" Faith looks over at Dawn and pauses for a second, visibly. She takes a deep breath. "Anyway, I kicked down the door and brought her home. Just like that. No virgin sacrifices or drugs, even. Kind of a bummer, right?" Faith looks as if she might be about to say something to Dawn but insteand she stops herself and asks, "What, no ponies, kiddo?"
Buffy Summers	"So you dressed her up like that and took her to a party? She's 15!" Buffy says, uncrossing her arms to flare her hands briefly through the air as she tries to physically emphasize that fact. "She shouldn't be dressed up like a 30 year old street walker and taken to a party. You're telling me I'm not doing my job but you took her right into the danger!" She looks over at Dawn, noting that she looked a bit more normal. She was worried about that tattoo though. Hopefully it was fake. Otherwise, Mom was going to flip. Who was she kidding? Mom was going to flip anyway. Damn, she hadn't texted yet that Dawn was home safe. "It's not all monsters. It's predators too. The human kind. Did you hurt him?" And in that moment, it's clear that if Faith didn't, Buffy intends to. Then she does the one thing she didn't think she'd ever do. "Thank you for saving her, Faith." For a moment, it seems like that's it. But no, she can't end it on a positive note like that. "But you should've never had her there in the first place." She looks over at Dawn. "There were vampires. There are always vampires! I think we are like a holiday destination for them or something. Come and see lovely Sunnydale, as close as you can get to the sun without going POOF!"
Dawn Summers	Dawn gives Faith a moment of stinkeye. Apparently, getting her nearly killed at a rave has Faith not on her "favorite people" list at the moment. Or maybe it was the teasing her about MLP pajamas earlier. "I told you, not since I was nine." She looks...and sounds...more her normal snarky self now, though. Clearly, no lasting trauma. Either that, or being the perma-damsel-in-distress just eventually inures you to the trauma. "I just thought it'd be cool to go to the party." she says, a little defensively. She was being classic Dawn: trying to get people to treat her like a grown-up instead of a kid.
Faith Lehane	"...You're right, B." Uncharacteristically, Faith actually demurs for a moment. She takes a deep breath and holds it for a beat. "I shouldn't have. But no, the dude was actually- you know, pretty cool. Guy tried to take on four vampires by himself. I mean, he's a moron but - I don't think we need to break his legs or anything." Faith wrinkles her nose briefly at that. "Look. It won't happen again. But you should probably teach her how to fight. You know... Just in case. Anyway- be seeing you, B. And... You don't have to like me but I'm not goin g to let anyone hurt Dawn. You should know that." As Faith finishes speaking she looks over at the girl in the pink pajamas. "Serious."
Buffy Summers	"Next time you want to go to a party, we need to make sure more of us are there, to watch over you. There are just too many things that can go wrong." She's not going to beat a dead horse. Dawn hopefully got the hint after her experience. Course, knowing Dawn, it won't change things. Maybe Faith is right. Buffy wants to shoot herself with a crossbow just for thinking those words. But Dawn does need to know how to protect herself. She's in more danger than the average teen thanks to Fate's choices for her big sister. Glancing back to Faith, she gives her a brief nod. "With her habit of wandering into stuff, we can use that help. Thank you again, Faith." With that, she turns to walk toward the door, allowing Dawn a moment with Faith if she would like it.
Dawn Summers	Dawn is clearly on edge; her "moment" consists of a headbob in Faith's direction...apparently the teen is holding a little bit of a grudge on this one. "See you around." she says, by way of a farewell. Part of her isn't yet sure she's not going to catch both sister barrels the moment Faith is gone, and it has her in a combative sense. Well, socially combative, anyway.
Faith Lehane	See you around, kiddo." Faith waves as Buffy disappears inside. "You looked good with blue hair, though. You should try it again sometime. Maybe when your mom's not watching. See you on the flip side." She waves and then actually mounts the motorcycle with the intent of driving off.