Mauvaise Chance Lobby/Office, Thursday [2/1] , all day

[needsaparrot]

There's a frog-tank on the counter.

...there's also a Xander, yes, poking at the computers in between making phone calls and searching through desk drawers trying to find anything that looks like blueprints for the brand-new floors that suddenly appeared in the sub-basement. As such things do.

The office is open for tenants or anybody else who'd like to stop in.

Comments

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

And there was a Peter who was definitely, definitely very tentative about coming in here. He opened the door carefully. "Good afternoon?"

[needsaparrot]

Jeremiah croaked at the newcomer, and Xander looked up from a set of building plans that definitely didn't include hidden apartments in the basement.

"Peter, hey!" It'd been long enough that his first thought wasn't of the last time he'd seen Willow's boyfriend; more that they hadn't spoken yet as themselves, since he'd been back.

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter grinned at Xander, happy to not talk about the last time they'd met. "Xander. Welcome back. How do you do?"

[needsaparrot]

Xander rubbed his forehead, then tapped the blueprints in front of him. "Apparently I do pretty well, since I suddenly have a hallway. Also an apartment building, but the hallway is suddener."

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"It's the new thing to give for the person who has everything?" Peter asked, glancing towards the blueprints. "Where does the hallway go?"

[needsaparrot]

"Not on these blueprints, for one thing." Xander pointed towards the stairs. "It's in the basement. There was a fake wall behind the boiler."

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"A fake wall blocking off a hallway?" Peter repeated. "That's...a bit strange. Any rooms back there?"

[needsaparrot]

Xander nodded. "Well, I think so. There's doors; I haven't looked in them yet. Call me crazy but in the Jeopardy category of Unexpected Things Discovered In Basements, most of the big-money answers tend to also be found under Things That Eat Your Soul And/Or Possess Tentacles."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

After library duty- and making sure that Anders is hanging out with Wyatt and not by himself- Bridge heads out to town and the apartments.

"Hi!" he calls out as he enters the lobby.

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"True, but we already had the tentacle demon," Peter pointed out. "This being Fandom, it's probably some new and special unexpected thing awaiting."

[needsaparrot]

Xander, on the phone after finally getting through to London, waved and beckoned him in. "So yeah, that's the deal. She's not coming in, but she does need somebody. It sounds like maybe she got sent back here because she needs training. At least that's part of it."

[needsaparrot]

"This would be my point," Xander said, nodding. "Thus I wait until I have somebody around who can wave a hand at Evil and know it's there. And maybe also somebody who can banish it or at least shake smelly herbs at it, if it is."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge waves back and sets his "Assistant Assistant" sign on the counter before going to sit down- and glancing around to see if he can spot where the temperature control is because it freezing in here or *what*? Seriously.

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter grinned. "Bridge and Willow then?"

[needsaparrot]

Xander blinked, then grinned at the sign, then returned his attention to the phone. And Buffy, since he'd actually caught her on one of her rare moments at HQ. "I know everybody's bus--"

"Andrew's free, actually. He's been in the office for three hours and already I feel the need to give him a job that'll take at least a year. Think this would do?"

Xander stared at the phone.

"Xander?"

Nope, still staring.

[needsaparrot]

"If I can get 'em both here at the same time, yup. Well, them and the smelly herbs."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

And now there's a slightly confused "Xander?" coming from somewhere that *isn't* the phone.

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

"I can possibly help with the smelly herbs bit," Peter said. Blushing, he pulled a number of folded bills out of his pocket and went to hand them to Xander. "I'm so sorry. I -errr - meant to give it back before and errr, hadn't got to town. Recently. At all."

[needsaparrot]

"Xander? Is there somebody else there?"

".......yes?"

"Could you give them the phone?"

"..................yes?"

And now there was a phone being held out. And a Xander still staring at it.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge takes the phone. "Um, hi?" he says tentatively.

[needsaparrot]

Okay, now Xander thought of the last time they met. And coughed. "Oh yeah, it's that money I lent you to go on vacation with the weekend before last. While I napped for two days."

[needsaparrot]

The voice was Buffy's, if maybe a little rougher around the edges than the Buffy in Fandom. Not much less perky, though. "Hi. Could you tell Xander I'm just kidding, of course he's staying there? And then take a picture of his face? There's a little button that looks like a camera..."

[once-a-king.livejournal.com]

Peter ducked his head. "I had a very nice vacation. There was lots of, err, reading."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I know," Bridge says. "I'm the one who *put* it there."

He holds up the phone and does as requested, then quickly scrolls through the address book to find Buffy's email. "She says she's kidding, of course you're staying here," and yeah... that was totally a face-splitting grin on Bridge's part just then. "Check your inbox in a minute, Buffy, it's on its way."

[needsaparrot]

"Yeah? Did you go home to..." Had he ever known the name of Peter's country-that-wasn't-England? "Um, Closetland?"