Weirdness

Air Date: 14/03/2000?

Over the next few days…

Neo comes back in a couple of days - he's getting fed up with Val's paranoia and just wants to get on with his life.

Angel hangs around a bit longer, staying in Neo's room until Neo gets back.

Faith keeps mostly to herself. She hangs around the house playing computer games during the day unless there are people around and in the evenings she goes out with Angel.

Conrad has been rather quiet and less interested in following Jayde everywhere during her patrols. These days he's more likely to meet her at a set destination and ask her how it went rather than watch her like a hawk and critique every kill. Jayde feels much better with the extra freedom

29 Aug 2000, Tuesday

Faith's ID finally starts coming through. Her new name is Elizabeth Faith Hopkins. She has a new bank account, drivers licence etc so she can finally start being independent. Angel has given her back her money also.

Mary, Jonathan and Gemma discuss getting Faith a housewarming gift:

Gemma: "How about a plant of some kind?"

Mary: "Yeah, a cactus."

Gemma: "Good idea, she doesn't strike me as the plant watering type."

Mary: "And its spiky"

Jonathan: "You don't like Faith much do you?"

In the evening Jayde runs into Faith and Angel walking around the uni grounds while she is on patrol and goes over to say Hi. They are discussing shopping - Faith has decided that if she is going to settle down she needs some stuff but doesn't know quite what. The three talk about this for a while - some clothes, a new mattress, a big coat (offers Angel), a stereo and TV, definitely some wheels, a lava lamp, a set of drawers in which to keep things etc. Angel suggests they talk to Cordelia as she fitted out his place and he was pretty happy with the result. Jayde offers to take Faith shopping the next day and heads off to continue he patrol. As she leaves she overhears Faith say "where would I go about finding some of that stuff?" "I dunno. The local underground probably. You know of anyone like Willy the Snitch around here?" "I haven't been here long enough to know." "Well there's normally one in every town…"

30 Aug 2000, Wednesday

 Jayde takes Faith shopping and she pays with her new credit card. Jayde drops Faith back by the sharehouse and heads in to the psych department for the scooby meeting. Mary brings Casey along for the first time now that he's become involved. Conrad says he has something to say. Two things really. The first deals with his status in the group, and the second is that he has a potential lead on the map that Jayde found several weeks ago.

"Right then. Mr Conrad Cayse is a member of the war council and he agrees with the ideal of creating an army of slayers. The tests being carried out on Buffy and Faith were to ascertain their suitability for creating said army. He was also looking into poisons and the reversibility of the drug used to remove a slayer's power on her 18^th birthday so that the ceremony would be altered to kill and revive the slayer, creating a new slayer in that one event as well as testing the current slayer. That was Conrad's mission but it was interrupted on his arrival in San Francisco. I am not Conrad."

All look incredulous and Mary gets all funny about the bracelet again.

"I am a spiritual entity. I can possess natural forms, usually people but sometimes objects also, much in the same way as ghosts can. Yes the bracelet is indeed linked to me. My greater mission was to look into the possession of the slayer. I was curious to know how it would feel to possess the body of a slayer and whether it would be possible for one such as I. I can only interact with the physical world when in possession of a vessel. I have no link with the council and I have no desire to see the council's plans go through. The slayer is usually called in locations where a slayer is required at the time. The presence of the slayer possibly attracts evil to that location or a greater evil will manifest and the slayer is called to combat it. But I have concluded that the slayer is a necessary part of the world and as such possessing one is not a good idea. I offer my services to you instead. I would like to help you in your fight."

Gemma is fascinated but Jayde is less than impressed. They continue questioning it for a while.

Jayde doesn’t trust it as is has not been sent by the PTBs. The entity recognises that he and the slayer differ in their views on the world - he sees logic and simple ways to get one's desires while Jayde is more emotive and ethical. He recognises that if he and the slayer differ in these views he must be lacking something and is curious to lean what it is that he lacks.

When a person is possessed the host's mind becomes suppressed and the entity is in control. The entity has access to the memories of the host but it is more difficult when the host resists as Conrad is doing. Possession of demons is possible but difficult as they tend to resist more than humans do. The entity also remembers everything from its previous lives. Conrad hasn't been reporting back to the council while the entity has been in control. It recognises that Conrad is a threat to the slayer - the plan could work but is detrimental to the role of both slayer and watcher.

The entity was never human but has been around always. There are only a small number of them - he has met maybe 200 over the years. It is possible to recognise others of their kind but they can also disguise themselves. The violent death of a host means a long time before the entity can coalesce into another host.

Jayde: "So you want to help because you're bored. You could change sides at any time. Why are you telling us all this stuff?"

"Because I can be more use to you this way. I don't have to hide."

Gemma: "I trust it more. Its better knowing we have a supernatural entity that lacks humanity than a total sociopath and it does explain a lot of stuff."

Alex reinforces to not let the give the council the impression that Conrad's mission has changed. The names pulled from Conrad's memory have been dealt with but there is more than just the war council to fear. They have external supporters.

The entity tells them that he knows magic, can sense it and speak the necessary language. Conrad was attempting to learn it but it wasn't his greatest skill. Conrad can sense some of what goes on with the entity in control but it has a dreamlike quality to it.

They ask about his limitations and he tells them that some incantations will harm him and he is detectable by some magics. They agree that it is in their best interests to not let Conrad regain control of his body.

He tells them his name is Ulther and that the missing character on the bracelet is his name. He also says that it seems a waste of energy to be accessing Conrad's watcher memories so he will cease training Jayde as he is not her watcher. He can however school Gemma in the supernatural.

The conversation turns to his lead on the map. He points out the locations of the areas and tells them about lay lines - channels for magical energies that run through the earth. These lines can shift over time or be shifted with a lot of work and modification of the environment. Often lines stem from a point of focus so changing a magical focus can change the location of a line. Several of the areas on the map lie near these lines. One is at an intersection of two lines, the south west corner of the area containing the TransAmerica Pyramid. Another, around Washington Square is also on a lay line. A third area, between Portsmouth square and St Mary's church, lies just south a line. The final three areas are around Union Square, to the east of Coit tower and to the west of a park. These three areas do not appear to be near lay lines.

Gemma and Mary hang around and continue to talk to Ulther about him and his kind while Jonathan and Casey head back to class. Jayde takes in a couple of classes then heads home to find an invitation awaiting her. The envelope says simply "Gemma & Jayde Garner" (Must be alphabetical thinks Jayde) but contains no address, stamp or postmark indicating it was hand delivered. Stella tells her it was in the letterbox when she got home from doing the shopping. Inside is a piece of black card neatly handwritten on both sides with a silver pen. On one side it says "Dear Gemma and Jayde, It is my pleasure to invite you to a small gathering in honour of the occasion of your 18th birthday, and to bestow upon you a gift from your past. Your destiny awaits… A." On the other side it says "The corner of 18^th and Castro Streets. 8pm sharp!" Castro street is in a part of town not frequented by the twins - it is a popular area for the town's homosexual community. Jayde calls Gemma to tell her about the invite and Gemma comes home to puzzle over it with her. Who is A? What is their destiny? Why do they need to go to the Castro? What does this person have to do with their past? Gemma does eerie cosmic power things on the invite and gets a sense of excitement but not much else. Eventually they decide to go as "their destiny awaits!"

Mary hangs around with Ulther a little longer but then realises she's been alone with a demon for an hour and runs off.

Jonathan asks Angel to help him out with some calibration on his video equipment. Angel says he and Faith have places to be in the early evening but agrees to it until they have to head off. Jonathan tells Angel about Conrad not being Conrad and Angel tells Jonathan about demons. Jonathan's eyes go wide but Angel reassures him that not all demons are necessarily evil and gives him a crash course in spotting demons. "They are ugly but some pass as human". Jonathan gets the wiggins and goes out to the lounge to watch videos with Mary, Faith and Casey. Angel and Faith head out.

Jayde and Gemma have a quick dinner at home. Jayde panics that there was no specified dress code so goes for something she can run easily in while Gemma dresses vaguely gothy to match the invitation. The family discuss the party over dinner - David and Stella think it was a success but DMS spent way too long in the wrong room then noticed a bunch of people including the twins disappear for a while. Jayde comments that she was adding mystery and Gemma tells him she was dealing with an emotional crisis. DMS is bitter because he got trapped by Belinda for about an hour and found her less than fascinating.

The twins head for their mystery date and arrive early. They drive past it a few times to scope it out. There are shops and houses. The corner in question has a pizza shop, a bookstore and a video shop. Parked outside the video shop is a VW comby van painted in bright psychadelic colours. The twins look quite lost and go and sit in the pizza place, have a coffee and watch the street. 8pm rolls by and nothing happens. A few minutes after 8 the door opens and in walks a well dressed (arty turtleneck queer) gentleman in his early 50s. He surveys the room, spots the twins and takes a long drag on his cigarette and smiles at them.

"Its you. It has to be you. Ladies, come with me."

He tuns and walks out. The twins exchange glances and follow. He enters the bookshop next door. The sign on the window identifies it as "The 10% bookshop" and the books on display appear to be an assortment of gay and lesbian literature, alternative sexuality manuals, photography, poetry and art books, pornography, political manifestos and local underground magazines dealing with all sorts of topics. Gemma recognises the name and tells Jayde - this used to be Leda's shop. They follow the man inside.

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