Title: e-mail from
POV: Alternating Jocasta/Jack
Collaboration: Jocasta
written by Voirrey, Jack written by Speaker-to-Customers
Timeframe: From episode 14 “Hotel
Note: the e-mail addresses as written are fictitious; if
they do exist they will be someone else’s.
They are hyperlinked to genuine e-mail addresses – but messages sent to
those addresses will probably not be read.
(When you go will you send back an)
e-mail From
Hi,
We are safely in
We’ve just got back to our hotel, from seeing Angel’s crew,
but things are a bit odd here. We
just turned up at their base – nice place, ex-hotel – because we couldn’t get
any answer to phone calls at all. The
city feels a bit odd – everyone says that they are just getting over
some really unusual weather conditions which caused dust clouds to blot out the
sun for days, but it feels as if they are ALL trying to convince themselves
about it. It wasn’t just a dust cloud
though – it was definitely a demonic problem, but I don’t think it’s any of OUR
big three! I’m afraid the whole world is
feeling a bit “apocalypse now” – and not just like the film!
‘All the “Angel Investigations” team were acting a bit odd
as well. I gather that Angel had been
temporarily de-souled, and then went on the rampage,
but no-one really wanted to talk about it.
It seems that they thought his non-souled
persona, Angelus, knew something about the demon that blotted out the sun, but
that when he had his soul, he didn’t know whatever it was! I think his demon is particularly nasty
because he is REALLY evil when he is without his soul, so when he’s being Angel
he is frightened of Angelus getting the upper hand. There is a spell to hold his soul in his
body, and it can be broken.
Somehow they had his soul removed, but then couldn’t have it
replaced. Fred, who is a girl, by the
way, is one of the Angel group, and she called in Willow Rosenberg from
Sunnydale to recast the ensouling spell.
He’s quite tall, and dark haired, originally Irish, although
he doesn’t sound it, but he has that dark Irish look. Doesn’t smile a lot! Not that there’s a lot to smile about around
here at the moment, well except the sunshine after the demonic darkness! The others say that he broods a lot – and I
can believe it. He is SO bad when he’s
without his soul, that you can see why the soul was wished onto him as a
punishment. The realisation of all the
horrible things that he’s done makes him permanently guilty, and if he ever
forgets enough to be truly happy – poof! Soul gone! I don’t think I’d find him an easy person to
live around!’
He was pleased to get the ring, happy to wear it (although
obviously not ecstatic, as he still seems to be broody, but not
evil!) His ring does the same as yours,
so we were able to sit out in a courtyard and talk.
He seemed surprised to find that he is not the only vampire
around with a soul, even though this other guy called Spike is only at
Sunnydale. You’d think that as both
Angel and Wesley (about whom more in a minute!) and a young woman called
Cordelia, who we didn’t meet, all came to L.A. from Sunnydale, where they were
part of Buffy’s group, they would at least give each other a ring (O.K. phone
call!), now and again!
Apparently there is a prophecy (and where would we be
without prophecies – probably at home in
He says that he met you, down a coal mine, in the late 19th
century, before he got his soul, and found you weird because you warned them
off eating the other miners! He says
that of course now that he knows that you have a soul, he understands, as of
course you would never feed off humans, or entertain the idea of any vampire
doing it and continuing to exist. I did
not disillusion him! I would guess that
you would just want to keep a low profile, and drained miners might have made
people suspicious – am I right? Do I
know you as well as I think?
Wesley – he is the guy who was a Watcher, briefly replacing
Rupert Giles with Buffy. I explained
that we could not identify enough living functional Watchers to wear all the
rings, but we thought that maybe one was for him. He said that he wasn’t really a Watcher any
more, but he would very much like to try, only I’m afraid that there is no
Watcher left in him at all, the ring just sat there on his finger, without
moulding to fit. I think he was rather
disappointed really, although he put a brave face on it. So we still have Watchers’ rings to give away
to persons unknown!
However – we have already been able to pass on another of
the Slayer rings, as the Slayer called Faith is here. She was “Called” when Sam’s Slayer Kendra was
killed, but found herself at Sunnydale with Buffy Summers. She is a tough cookie – from “The wrong side
of the tracks” I guess – the
Apparently they filled her up with enough Orpheus to cripple
Angelus, knowing that he would not resist the chance to feed on a Slayer, and
she let him beat her, and start to feed until he passed out. Only trouble is that she was very lucky to be
able to survive the dope, let alone the partial draining. A very brave young lady, even as Slayers go.
Once they had captured Angelus,
So tomorrow we are travelling to Sunnydale with both
How are things in
Are you taking care of yourself? Remember that you can easily get sunburn even
in
I do miss you – let me know how you are as soon as you have
time,
Take care,
Cass.
Cass- thanks for the e-mail, I think I would have been out
‘on patrol’ if you’d rung when you e-mailed.
Everything is fine here.
Actually I’m sleeping in the mornings – keep an eye on the
kids at night, work on the tan in the afternoons! I could probably go without any sleep at all
for a week or two, but a couple of hours feels more human!
The weather’s pretty good, and before YOU started on about
not forgetting I can burn, in the non-up-in-flames sort of way, “even in
It sounds as if Angel doesn’t have a very good grip on his
soul! It also sounds as if it makes an
awfully big difference to him I’m not sure mine makes so much difference. I think it’s got my conscience, but I don’t
think it changes me that much, does it?
So he’s the bloke – well, vamp – I met down a mine in 1880
or thereabouts, then? There were four of
them, two men and two women, but I only really talked to the one. If he’d been alone I’d just have killed him
straight off, but four to one means I could get surrounded and staked in the
back. So I just warned them to behave
themselves.
Not just for the sake of a quiet life, pet. I was working down the mine – about the only
honest work I could do in those days where I could keep well out of the
sun. The only wars around at the time
were the Zulu War and the Yanks against the Apache Indians, neither of which
were very attractive to a vampire mercenary.
So the miners were my workmates.
Some of them I’d definitely have counted as friends. Nobody kills my friends and lives.
Luckily they took me seriously and behaved themselves for
the few days they were down there, and then they buggered off. Just as well I didn’t kill them, isn’t it?
Not a lot else to say, except that I miss you.
Let me know how things go in Sunnydale.
Love, Jack.
Hi,
I’m so glad that things are quiet in
We’ve been to Buffy Summers’ house, but I’m quite glad to be
staying in a hotel – the house is VERY crowded!
Buffy seemed genuinely glad to see us, despite the
overcrowding. She normally lives there
with her sister, Dawn, who we had a ring for, but as Giles has gathered up all
the Potential Slayers he can find, and they are all staying there, it is
extremely full, with sleeping bags and things everywhere.
Our arrival was interesting – we waited outside in the cars
for a few minutes until
One of the oldest of the Potential Slayers appears to have
become the sergeant major of the group – not sure how, maybe they chose her, or
Buffy chose her, but I get the feeling that she chose herself. Oh, and she is
The other girl almost went through a wall! I suppose that I really should remind Roxy to
be more careful, but Kennedy should not have been so rude! ‘I’m in charge of
Potential Slayers, and that includes YOU’ were her exact words I think! After she hit the deck, Roxy gave her a
‘Look’, and answered “Well, Kennedy the Potential Slayer, I’m Roxy the
Vampire Slayer and I’m going downstairs with the real people.” I think that the main expression around the
room was one of pure amusement, and some pleasure, only
Buffy is a complicated young lady, not as straightforward as
Roxy or Gabriella, more complex. I
suppose it goes with having been a Slayer for so long, and having been dead as
well! She’s more like Teresa, but less
intense than Sally! On the whole I think
I like her, but she is quite stressed out.
Perhaps the Creators of Slayers had a point when they decided that
mid-teens was the right age, they are less aware of their mortality, and don’t
have other things to worry about. Maybe
they should be biologically ‘retired’ at about 22 or 23, and the new Slayer
Called. I would like to think that I can
keep Roxy alive that long. I wonder if
anyone can work out the magic to change the Magic, if you see what I mean!
Anyway, talking about Teresa, I’m not sure why, but she
doesn’t seem to like Buffy at all – I must find time to talk to her about it.
Back to the narrative!
When we went down to the basement we discovered that ‘Spike’ lives down
there. He is an unusual young man. He is almost beautiful – almost perfect
features, with bleached blonde hair, sleeked back. Apparently he was a punk, and decided to keep
the hair. He looks rather like a
smoothed down Billy Idol from the ‘Dancing with Myself’ era – when I mentioned
this later he laughed, and said it was more that Billy Idol looked like HIM,
he’s sure B.I. copied his image from a meeting with him!
I think he has been through an awful lot recently – worse
than Teresa, and there is a definite connection between him and Buffy (even
though notes on her on file only mention an ‘unfortunate’ relationship with
Angel). They are not comfortable with
each other though, and her friends don’t seem to want him there. A pity – I think he is a Good Thing.
When we gave him his ring, and explained that yours and
Angel’s allowed you out in sunlight, almost before I could add that we couldn’t
be sure that his would do the same thing, he let out a whoop, and ran upstairs
(with some of us trailing behind) shot straight out of the door into the
sunlight, and ran around flapping his coat like a great bird, before he rolled
around on the grass laughing! I said to
Buffy that both you and Angel had been a bit more careful, and she said
‘Spike’s – well, different.’
Talking about coats – do you have any urge to buy a long
leather coat? Both Angel and Spike seem
to spend most of their waking hours in them!
Such a good thing that they can’t overheat! It does tend to make them look a bit out of
place clothing wise, in the temperature here!
When we get around to re-writing the Training manual perhaps ‘be wary of
people dressed inappropriately for the ambient temperature’ should be added –
although this might make the trainees too wary of Geordies!
I was interested to meet Buffy’s sister Dawn, because she is
the one identified in our prophecy as a thief.
Actually she is a fairly normal teenager; she would probably get on fine
with Donna and Louise, and Jenny of course.
Buffy ‘mothers’ her too much I think, but that is probably not
surprising, as they are parentless, and I suppose Buffy knows better than most
that the world can be a big bad place.
However, living in that household, with all that is going on around
her, I’m sure that Dawn is also well aware of this. She is of an age with many of the Potentials,
and wants so hard to be at least as important as them. Her ring will achieve this though!
When she put it on she was very still, and then very
shocked, upset even. It appears that HER
ring enables her to open Hellmouths, which shocked
her, as she thought this could only be an evil thing, so her ring must imply
that she is something bad. Everyone was
very shocked. Here I must boast a bit! I was the first person to ask whether being
able to open them might also mean that she could close them? Bingo! Although apparently only ones that she has
personally opened, but still a Very Important Skill! We will need her soon, I’m afraid.
We gave Rupert Giles his Watchers ring, of course, and I
also asked him about any possible other Watchers, as we are still at least a
couple short. He felt that people may
well be ‘natural’ Watchers, and so we should try some of Buffy’s friends who
have been through a lot with her, and also the somewhat older guy called
Robin. The only person it ‘worked’ for
was indeed Robin. Apparently his mother
was a Slayer, who died when he was little, and her Watcher brought him up! Giles also suggested that we ask Jenny’s Aunt
and Uncle to try, as he feels they may have the right
qualities – good idea!
Mind you, when Robin got his ring on chaos ensued, as both
his ring and Spike’s ring started to burn them, and they could not get them
off. Dawn (the Key ring holder!) took
them off them, and we found that only one of them could wear his ring at a
time. Quelle
bugger! We need everyone to have them on
together.
Giles suggested that as we are a Fellowship, any dissention
within the Fellowship may cause such a malfunction. This appears to be enlightening to those
around - Robin and Spike have ‘issues’.
Spike killed Robin’s mother, Robin tried to kill Spike only
yesterday. Not an easy relationship
then! Both accepted that Spike is a very
different person now, that Robin had a right to try, but that it was foolish at
this time, as both are obviously useful in the current situation, and they made
a degree of peace, so that both rings can be worn at the same time. A sort of built-in anti-Boromir
spell Spike called it. Well worth knowing,
as it will mean any dissention will be obvious.
Well sort of – Dawn insists that she hates Spike, but he says that he
loves her as if she was his sister, and so no burning fingers – so it only
works if 2 of us are out of kilter, not just if 1 of us is. Or Dawn is wrong about hating Spike?
We have found for sure that only the wearer, or Dawn, can
remove a ring from a finger – so no worries about losing it swimming and being
frazzled, love!
We have also found our fourth soulless with a soul. Buffy’s gang recognized the description as
definitely correct for the mummy girl that they had encountered a few years
ago, and were able to take us to where her body was hidden – in a ventilation
shaft at the local museum! Long story –
I shall tell you in bed some night if we need a breather!
We took loads of Potential Slayers with us, so we looked
like a school outing. Teresa,
incidentally, solved a major problem with one of the Potentials. This girl spoke Chinese, and no-one else
there did, so she couldn’t communicate.
Teresa could talk to her, and discovered that she also spoke Portuguese,
which a South American girl did, so now they have a communication chain! Spike berated himself for not trying to talk
to any of the girls in their native languages, as it would have made them more
at home, and both Buffy and Giles seemed surprised that he was
multilingual! Really if James and Roxy
and I can cope with the fact that a 150 year plus-old person may have picked up
a few languages along the way why did it not occur to them? A bit of blinkered thinking there I
think. We must make sure that newer
younger Watchers are more open to ideas.
Back to the museum.
Buffy’s friend Xander, who is a ‘construction worker’ put on his hard
hat, and went into the shaft as if he had every right to be there, clutching
the ring, which he slid onto the remains of Ampata’s
finger, and it was like ‘just add water’ – instant teenager!
Actually she was very shocked, not just at being alive, but
at Xander - apparently when she had been around energy draining people she had
been in love with the seventeen year old Xander, and the current Xander is
quite a bit different! He is only 22 or
23ish, but looks older, and was quite athletic then, but he must eat the
typical American diet, as he is NOT very athletic now! He was more of a nasty shock than finding
herself alive and well again was a pleasant one!
Ampata is very strong, not quite a normal
girl! She is going to come to
Dawn will have to come to
I am not looking forward to
First we have to get to
Give my love to everyone, take care
of yourself, and them,
Cass.
XXX
Cass – things are still quiet in
I’ve been in touch with a witch who might be able to give
Louise some proper training. She’ll be
coming to
Sally has got a new boyfriend. Not one of her boring accountants, this bloke
is six foot two and a copper. No
ordinary one, he was in the
Jenny’s lad Julius has changed a bit. She made him get designer frame glasses and
some new clothes, and suddenly he’s quite a good-looking young man! Some of the other lasses are quite interested
in him, but I don’t think they stand much of a chance.
That’s about it.
Your trip sounds very interesting so far. Shame I couldn’t have come. I’d have liked to see Roxy doing her
put-down.
It would also have been interesting to meet Buffy Summers,
who is supposed to be the second-best Slayer since the 19th Century,
just behind Sally, and to have prevented more apocalypses than anyone
else. In fact she’s probably the first
person to have needed to know the plural.
I was going to put “apocalypsi”, but the
spell-checker put me right! Which is worrying, when you think about it. Why does Bill Gates think we need to know the
plural of “apocalypse”?
Who do you think set the fashion for Geordies wearing
T-shirts in all weather, love? Not my
fault if humans copy me.
Hope your trip to the Dungeon Dimensions doesn’t take too
long, and you don’t get bitten by any Hell Midgies. I’m missing you a lot.
Love (and lust)
Jack
xxx
Hi,
Greetings fro
I’m so glad that everything is quiet at home; let’s hope it
stays that way! Sally’s new man sounds
quite exotic; I wonder where she found him?
Definitely more exciting than an accountant! Jenny sounds more and more like a normal
teenager – I do worry about what happens to her in the long term – I mean when
do they decide that the experiment has finished, and do they just switch her
off some night during her down time, and dismantle her? I think her ‘aunt and uncle’ would find this
very difficult now, but what else can they do?
The flight to
So we arrived at Anita’s place, and met their Slayer
Gang – sans Slayer of course. And mostly
sans Vampire, as Drake was in a drunken maudlin heap in the basement totally
not communicating. (Isn’t it lucky that
so many houses in the States have basements to keep vampires in? Did you think a month or two ago ‘I can’t get
involved with this lot, not a decent basement between them.’?)
He would appear to be having the ‘Oh my God, what have I
done?’ guilt trip that Angel and to a lesser extent Spike, and Teresa, had,
coupled with an ‘Oh my God, Kat has thrown herself into the Hellmouth,
and it should have been me!’ guilt trip.
However no-one could tell, as he no longer functioned in English. Spike and Teresa spent some time with him, as
they figured that he was speaking Romanian, or was it Hungarian? They reckoned that they could talk him out of
it a bit, having been there and felt that, one way or another. They also thought it likely that The First
was also haunting him, and trying to drive him mad.
They were of course quite right, and between them managed to
talk him round, and sober him up enough for us all to be able to talk to
him. We were really quite brutal, as,
just at the moment, time to be gentle with those in shock is a luxury. We more or less forced him into a rapid
de-briefing/ de-programming, to break any hold that The First may have over him
associated with a major trauma, as Spike and Teresa both had. I’m afraid it was a bit ‘What was the worse
thing that has happened to you? What was
your favourite music at the time? Right
– FORGET IT! Lets get on with things,
you can be traumatised later!’
An interesting thing happened when he put his ring on – the
pictogram of a duck (or a drake?) changed into a pictogram of a dragon! Drake is an anglicised version of his name
rather than a nick-name (although thinking about it I’m not sure how anyone
would get a nick-name of Drake anyway!), his proper name is Draco
– the dragon. Sometimes the makers of
these rings were seriously spooky.
Tomorrow we are going shopping for javelins. Jon, an ex soldier, has lots of weapons we
could take with us into the Hellmouth, but nothing
with a metal point to pierce, and a long wooden shaft, which Ross’s experience
has taught us is the best thing against the uber-vamps. Of course most modern javelins have carbon
fibre shafts, and we aren’t sure if that would work, and so we are going to a
shop which supplies schools, where apparently they still learn with the more
basic variety.
After that, we are probably going to start the next leg of
the journey late on tomorrow. The
entrance to the Pittsburgh Hellmouth is under a large
ornamental fountain in the main city park.
Dawn is not sure how she is to open it, but she knows that she can, so
we should have no problems getting into whatever dimension!
The thing that worries me the most is not whether we will
find Kat, or even whether we will survive, but the time thing. What if we do find Kat, give her the ring,
and get back here to
If you haven’t heard from us in thirty or forty years, when
the people who know us in
One of the last things I’ll do before we go is check my e-mails.
Give my love to everyone back in
Love Cass.
XXXX
Hi Cass.
Really not much happening here at
all. Considering how all Hell broke loose here
last time you were away, I’m starting to think it’s too good to be true. I’ll enjoy it while it lasts, as much as I
can enjoy anything without you beside me.
I don’t like the thought of ‘dismantling’ Jenny. I know she’s a robot, but by now she seems
exactly like a normal girl. Dismantling
her would feel exactly like murder.
I’ve had a talk with the Fergusons. I didn’t mention the idea of one of them
becoming a Watcher, but I thought I’d size them up. It does seem like a very good idea.
They created Jenny with space exploration in mind. She, or ‘somebody’ like her, would be
fantastic for a mission to Mars. No need
for oxygen, or food, so far less weight to boost. Standby mode during the
journey, so no problems with isolation and boredom. Then the same mobility as a human, the same
ability to react immediately to changes in circumstances without the massive
signal lag between Mars and Houston which makes unmanned missions so limited. And it could be a manned mission as far as
the media were concerned anyway.
Of course much the same thing applies to vampires! Of course it wouldn’t help Earth’s galactic cred if we did send off vampire astronauts,
they met intelligent aliens, and immediately ate them. ‘Don’t run.
We are your friends.’
I saw a problem with their plan, of course. There are definitely humans who would want
Jenny dismantled immediately, and would try to kill anyone making any
others. Two lots. The Luddites –
‘those things are taking our jobs!’ and the religious nuts.
So Drake is Draco? I’d heard of him. Fought against the Russians in the 1956
uprising, and fled to the
Doubt if there will be much problem with differential time
rates. No point in sending you to rescue
Kat if Gabriella, Ross, Donna, Sally,
Buffy Summers, and the other Watchers have died of old age while you’re
away. That wouldn’t be completing the
set.
But, if it comes to it, I will wait for you for ever.
Love you
Jack
xxxx
Get back here as fast as possible. Ring me as soon as you read this.
We are fucked. I said
it was too quiet.
Sally is missing.
That new boyfriend of hers looks to have been a set-up. Gabriella’s had dreams of her being drugged
and kept in a cage. We went to her house
and there was human blood – not hers - and vampire dust there. Don’t know what happened but doesn’t look
good. Her ‘boyfriend’ called in to work
sick on her behalf. No sign of him
now. Checked up on him with some friends, and people who aren’t friends but are scared of me,
and he’s got a bad reputation. Nothing
ever proved against him, but think he was running with
the hare and hunting with the hounds. Involved with people smugglers and the sex trade.
If I find him he dies slowly unless he talks. Looking, getting nowhere yet. Louise and Donna are working on a spell to
track Sally.
And that was the GOOD news.
George Ferguson is dead.
Elizabeth Ferguson is in a critical condition in hospital.
Apparently they went out for lunch from Fylingdale
to a café in Malton, and somebody threw a grenade in
after them. The police want to interview
two Orientals seen in the area. I’m
thinking Triads, and I’m wondering if it connects with what’s happened to
Sally.
Also whether it is connected with
them being potential Watchers and ring-bearers.
Which would imply leak at Sunnydale end?
I didn’t mention it to anyone, not even to Gabriella.
Jenny’s in a bad way.
Her lad Julius and Louise are looking after her, but she’s in
shock. I don’t care if she is made of
carbon fibre, silicon, and plastic.
She’s as human as I am. Not the
bad example it seems.
I have a feeling that the person responsible for the grenade
attack should be praying that I find him before Jenny does. Even though I’m going to rip out his
intestines and strangle him with them.
Get back here as soon as you can. We need you.
Love
Jack
xxxx
More news.
I’ve had a call from Buffy Summers.
They’re in the shit too. Three
dead Potentials, two injured, and both Buffy and Faith beaten up (no serious
damage).
She was after help from us – specifically Jenny. Seems they had a run-in with a psycho
preacher like the one leading that army of nutters we
fought in
Buffy remembered you telling her that Jenny had ripped the
Ugandan bastard’s head off, and wants her to do the same to the Sunnydale
version. She was a bit shaken when I told
her no chance, and why.
Then she called again later wanting a copy of the
Jenny is still in a bad way, but she put together a program
and FTP’d it to Buffy as requested, including a lot
of combat moves.
Anyway, Spike and Dawn had better call Sunnydale ASAP. I guess they’ll be wanted back there pronto,
but they’d better check with Buffy first.
And be on their guard when they get there in case of ambush, I suppose.
Here, Donna & Louise have done a locator spell to try to
find Sally. They’ve traced her to the
Tyneside or Wearside area, but can’t pin it down any
closer. Not from here, anyway. We’ll be heading in that direction soon to
try and get an accurate fix.
And then we’ll be going after her. Sam thinks she might be being dissected alive
for Chinese medicine, and I think he’s right.
Were-lynx, super version – bound to be ultra-valuable to people who’ll
pay more than its weight in gold for tiger bone.
We won’t wait for you – no way of knowing how long you’ll be
– but call anyway. If we’re going to be
in a situation where a ring-tone would blow our cover I’ll put the mobile off,
so don’t panic if you can’t reach me.
Remember I’m damn hard to kill.
Love you
Jack
xxxx
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