And Cordelia's with a group of friends over there.

Eva can be found talking to a group of her friends elsewhere! She might be looking at Brad every so often, too, if he's in evidence, who knows.

Theo is just walking through the gates, spots Willow and Sadde, and makes his way over to them.

His hair is in fact not pink. It looks like it's got slight highlights or something in some places, not of pink but just slight variation from the otherwise all-dark color, but it just looks like he's been out in the sun and happens to have hair that goes lighter when exposed to it.

Or something.

Brad is, in fact, in evidence! With his jock friends, being harmlessly homophobic and sexist, probably.

"Your hair's different," Willow remarks.

"My hair is indeed different," he says. "Fortunately it's not different in a way that I strongly object to, such as still being pink."

"You look hot with pink hair."

"I looked pink with pink hair. I didn't actually see it when it was stupidly pink, but it still looked pretty terrible when I got 'round to looking in the mirror."

"Hot," Sadde comments simply.

He shrugs, smiling at her. "If you say so."

"You should dye your hair. Like, a dark purple or something, maybe not all of it but highlights."

"Maybe at some point," says Theo. "I'm not sure I'd like it, though."

"Well, we could do it by magic and then if you do like it you can do it by not-magic or something. Or if the fact that you don't object to your current haircolor turns out to be relevant we might not even need that!"

"What, just, try dyeing my hair various colors and see what sticks or something?"

"No, try dyeing it with purple highlights and then if you like it and it sticks we have interesting experimental data, if you like it and it doesn't then you can do it nonmagically and we also have interesting experimental data."

"… Okay, yeah, we can do that at some point then."

"Should be fun!"

And at this point a new person arrives and looks around, appearing to be somewhat lost.

Eva notices and– is somewhat confused! She excuses herself from her friends' conversation and makes her way towards the new person.

"Hi," she says. "Are you– looking for something?"

"Oh, hello again, dear! Yes, I'm the new librarian, but I'm afraid I haven't the faintest clue where the library might be."

"Oh, right," says Eva, looking at the building to see if she can point it out. "I can show you the way?"

"Why, thank you, love, that's very kind of you."

So Eva starts walking library-wards! "You're here– rather, um, soon? I mean, were you planning on taking over before the, uh, news, or…?"

"Oh, no, it was quite sudden, I was looking for a job and heard yesterday of the tragic, tragic news, and it happened I knew a thing or two about it."

"Oh, right," she says, leading the woman past various crowds. "Well, uh– it's fortunate that you were available."

"Yes, it is. So tell me, dear, are the nightmares still bothering you?"

"I was actually fine last night, fortunately enough!" she says with a smile, then it falters a bit.

Only temporarily, because then her smile is back, similar to how it was before.

Norma doesn't comment. "I'm happy for you, dear. If you ever want to talk about anything, feel free to find me, I'm a very good ear."

"Thanks."

And then they are at the library! "Here it is," says Eva. "Oh – I'm Eva, by the way."

"Thank you, dear. You may call me Norma."

"Do you need anything else?" she asks. "Or…?"

"No, it's quite alright. And I do believe it's time for—" She's interrupted by the bell. "That."

Eva smiles. "Well, I guess I'll see you around, then," she says. "It was nice to meet you."

And then off to class she goes.

As do the others! Theo has History, Sadde has Math with Eva.

She indeed does! It's very mathy. Lots of fun bits of… trig and whatever.

Then afterwards, Eva has History! Theo and Sadde have English.

Yay English.

(Nah.)

Then after English, Theo has French, Sadde has Latin, and Eva has bio!

And Willow has Math but she's a sophomore.

After that: lunch! "So, what are we gonna do?"

"… We could go there now," suggests Theo. "I'm not sure how busy it is around the gym – any idea?"

"His office isn't actually in the gym."

"And we should probably do it when he's not likely to be there. I have gym today, last class."

"Where's his office then? Is it anywhere near the gym, or is it by the staff room, or what? Last period today sounds good in that case, though."

"Between the gym and the staff room."

He nods. "Okay, but problem is – we have class? How long will it take, like, should I see if I can give myself a nosebleed and then hope it heals quickly or something? … Or just ask to go to the bathroom. That sounds probably better."

"Yeah, we can the three of us pretend we need to use the toilet."

"Okay," he says. "That sounds like it'll work, then. Any idea how long it'll take, though…?"

"No more than like ten minutes?"

Pff. "Okay, yeah, sounds good."

"We should be fine, then."

Nom. "Should be."

Lunch continues uneventfully and then they have class again.

Then last period of the day, Theo apparently needs to use the bathroom and he asks for permission from the teacher.

How curious, Sadde does, too!

And Willow! Quite interesting, isn't it.

It is! And oh look, Theo happens to be walking between-gym-and-staffroom-wards, so weird, isn't it.

Actually coincidentally, Eva also needs to use the bathroom and asks to be excused from class.

As does Cordelia! Today is a day of coincidences, it appears.

But since Sadde and Willow are only aware of each other and Theo they do not know this fact. Staffroom-wards they go!

… Eva notices Theo.

And it wouldn't normally be very weird for a student to be out in the halls during class, since they could well just be going to the bathroom like she is, but he seems somewhat– like he's trying to be sneaky.

So she follows him.

He continues staffroom-wards!

Cordelia is still in the bathroom, touching up her makeup.

Sadde, Willow, and Theo reach the gym teacher's room! Which is of course empty since he's teaching.

"Okay, so– what am I actually doing, am I just standing here keeping watch while you guys do stuff?"

Eva waits around the corner.

"Keeping watch, I guess?"

Sadde doesn't reply as she's too busy whispering in Latin so the door will unlock of its own accord.

He keeps watch, in that case!

Eva remains around the corner, out of sight.

She's… somewhat curious why they're trying to break into a teacher's office.

"What are you doing?" whispers Cordelia from behind Eva.

She doesn't actually jump, but she turns around to give Cordelia a look.

"What?" she continues whispering.

And the door clicks open and in go Willow and Sadde.

Theo follows!

"… Nothing," whispers Eva back to Cordelia. "A whole lot of nothing."

"Then why are you sneaking around?"

"For absolutely no reason at all," she says.

She can pretend to be dumb, right?

Yeah, and Cordelia can pretend to believe her.

Or she can, you know, not. "Come on, spill it, what's up?"

Eva rolls her eyes. "Some people are breaking into an office," she says. "I have no idea why."

"Oh? Who? And whose office?"

"Uh, Willow and friends? And I don't know – gym teacher or something?"

"Of course it's the weirdos." She peeks. "Did they get inside?"

"Yeah," she says.

And it should be pretty clear to her, since she's looking 'round the corner at it.

"Well let's figure out what they're doing!" she whispers, then scoots over there.

"… Sure," says Eva, following her.

Through the door, a few words in Latin can be heard.

Eva's not gonna be the one to go in first.

Well, neither is Cordelia!

Do the wind noises and lights coming from under the door change their minds?

They make Eva frown, and if Cordelia doesn't go in then Eva thinks she might.

Cordelia isn't going in, nope, but she's coming up with lots of (probably incorrect) conclusions about it from outside.

Eva will attempt to open the door, in that case.

It opens! The room is dark and smoky and there is a swirling cloud of dust around it and sourceless light sparkling.

And three very surprised teenagers.

"… Whyyy did you set off some weird smoke thing or– whatever," she says, then looks around a bit more. "Um?"

"Yeah, what do you freaks think you're doing?"

Sadde finishes her chant. The smoke and ashes finish their unnatural patterns and disappear. "Magic," she answers simply.

"Um. What?"

"Uh, yeah, what, have you been playing too much D&D or something?"

"I guess that depends on what you two are gonna do about it," she shrugs. "Aaalso you are not very good at keeping watch, are you?" she accuses Theo.

"I was watching before we got in the room," he says. "Sorry."

"How do you even know what D&D is?" asks Eva. "Anyway, I repeat what I asked earlier– what?"

Cordelia refuses to answer that question.

"And I repeat what I said earlier: that depends on what you two are gonna do about it."

"What I plan on doing about it probably depends on what it is?"

"Okay, suppose it's just three weirdos breaking into a teacher's office but not actually doing anything bad in it?"

...Willow will just be quiet over here and let Sadde do the talking.

"Probably nothing so long as I don't get dragged into some sort of punishment for you guys."

"Uh, no, I'm totally telling the teacher, who knows what you weirdos did here."

"We didn't touch anything!"

"Uh huh."

Sadde shrugs and makes a floating ball of light appear above her palm.

Eva looks at it and blinks a couple of times, then moves around to look at it from a different angle.

"Nice trick, but you're not gonna distract me with pretty lights," she says, folding her arms.

Sadde sighs, looks around, then grabs a pen over there and—

—makes it float. And fly here and there, slowly moving between and around everyone.

"… Would you happen to know anything about weird nightmares."

"Oh fuck are you for real?"

...Sadde swore. Okay.

Cordelia—

—looks done. "You know what, I don't care, just don't drag me into this weirdness, I'm going back to class."

And saunters off.

Eva looks at Cordelia as she leaves, then turns back to Sadde. "Because I have no idea about weird nightmares. But: weird nightmares."

"Aaaare you free this afternoon, we kinda need to talk."

"Yeah. I think I'm free. Or if I'm not and you know about these, I can make myself free."

Theo: seems kinda confused.

"She might be the Slayer," Sadde explains to Theo. "Did I forget to tell you about the nightmares?"

"I, uh, you might have mentioned them? I don't remember."

"Slayer? Or should this wait for later, you guys seem busy and I've already said I have a free afternoon, so."

"Right, and let's get back to class before our respective teachers miss us."

"Yeah, um, meet up in the courtyard at the end of class then?"

"I've got soccer," says Theo. "But I guess I'm not needed for the explanation thing."

"Sounds good."

So Eva proceeds to the bathroom and then returns to class.

Sadde and Willow return to class themselves.

Theo does likewise, and then when class ends he goes to soccer.

Eva can be found out in the courtyard, as previously mentioned.

"So, nightmares that you thought were relevant to the fact that I have teekay, go."

"Weird demons. And I stabbed a vampire. And– was a different person quite a bit," she says. "They were also terrifying."

"D-do you have superstrength? And reflexes?"

"Not that I've noticed? But I don't tend to keep track of 'whether I have superstrength'?"

Sadde points at a bench. "Try to lift it a lil' bit?"

So she does! It seems to be rather easy.

"I guess that answers that," she says.

"That is so. Awesome. When did this start? Recently, I presume, since nightmares? We got our very own Slayer!" Sadde squees at Willow.

"We do...?"

"Thursday, I think?" she says. "Maybe Friday. I don't really remember, I was a bit– tired over the weekend."

"Right, yeah. Nightmares are supposed to be pretty sucky for some reason. So: vampires are real, magic is real, demons are real, you're the Chosen One to protect the peace and prevent apocalypses."

"… Um, why is there a Chosen One?"

"Who knows, but it's always a teenage girl, and she's the Slayer."

"… Do you happen to know a way to get a Chosen Many? Maybe some governing body I can talk to about this?"

Willow giggles.

"If I knew one I wouldn't be nearly as excited about meeting you. As it is, it's... not totally surprising you're here in Sunnydale but it's still a nice coincidence."

"I think I'm missing something here?"

"You're missing lots of things."

"Sunnydale is kinda demon central."

"I don't think I've had it properly explained what demons are," she says.

"Catch-all term for everything that's sapient but not human. They're not universally unfriendly as the name implies but most of the ones who bother coming to our dimension are so it's easy to be racist."

She nods. "Okay, and– vampires? Those are a type of demon, right, since they're sapient and not human?"

"Yeah, those are universally evil, if you die with vamp blood in your system you become one, become dust in sunlight or when staked, allergic to holy symbols, superstrong, superfast, superagile, you as the Slayer probably would become a terrifying vampire, and also it's your job to hunt them and slay them."

"And they're– bitey, like you'd expect, right? Just humans, or…?"

"Some books say they can drink any mammal's blood but I'm not aware of any that do. They tend to lose all sense of empathy and morality when they lose their soul—by the way, they lose their soul when they become vampires."

"… Rrright," she says.

"The good news is, now that you're here there'll probably be a Watcher and he'll have all sorts of books with more information that we crave!"

"Ooh, books!"

"… How suspiciously mysterious do Watchers tend to be?"

"...you met one. Didn't you."

"I. I don't know if I want to go around saying things, but. Yes? Relatively sure."

"That is awesome where is he?"

"She," she says. "Pretty sure– it's a she."

"...a female Watcher? Did the crinkly old British men decide to go progressive all of a sudden?"

She shrugs. "Maybe I'm wrong. Could just be coincidence or something."

"W-we could ask?"

"Yeah, just walk up to her and ask if she's a Watcher, if she acts confused we pretend it's a game or something."

"Okay," she says. "Um. – I should possibly do it myself if she expects me to be the Slayer, I'm not sure?"

"Yeah. Do you know where to find her?"

"Yeah. Uh. I will go see her and text you guys if I'm going to be more than like five minutes, does that sound okay? And if she happens to be some evil mysterious demon or something and you don't get a response from me in the five minutes, you can come check to make sure I'm not being eaten or in the middle of some wonderful fight?" She blinks. "Uh, you'd need to know where I was for that, so– library."

She raises both eyebrows. "Isn't the librarian dead? ...she's the new librarian. There's a new librarian, okay, suspicious coincidence, the mysteriousness might be because she's a murderous demon, are you sure you don't want us with you?"

"Yeah, um. You could– stand outside the library? Maybe? Um. At that point I don't know if you might not as well just come with me, really."

"Is there a reason not to? I mean, maybe the Watcher won't tell the truth if the Slayer has other people with her, but..."

"I was originally thinking because I didn't want to go around saying 'by the way, the librarian might be a Watcher', since if she's not I don't know how that'd affect how you-or-whoever interact with her, but I've already done that so, nope, don't think there's a strong reason anymore." She shrugs. "Let's go, then?"

"Yeah." She looks excited and giddy.

"What's up?"

"We'll get to meet our very own Watcher! Can you imagine? All the knowledge she might have!"

Off they go then, librarywards!

And the new librarian is there! She looks up from—surprise surprise!—a book. "Hello, dearies. How can I help you?"

"So!" says Eva. "The nightmares have sorta gone, they were gone last night at least, apparently the things are still in fact things, haven't been wiped out, there happen to be various people and things and such around, some very friendly various people and things, in fact, as well as some evil and-or terrible ones, and I'm really curious what you know about all of this!"

Educated guess, vagueness, you know, this is all so much fun. Look, Eva's smiling at her, quite happy just to get it all out there.

She blinks slowly. "Are you quite certain you've slept alright, dear? I don't think I followed that."

Well, she at least ticks the 'British' and 'old' boxes, even if not the 'male' box.

She sighs. "Are you or are you not a Watcher?"

She raises an eyebrow, then looks at the other two, then at Eva. "Why yes, I am. And are you the Slayer?"

"Yeah, unless there's something else that causes nightmares about demons and apparently gives me superstrength or– something." She folds her arms. "Glad we got that sorted out, now, something I need to be doing because I'm apparently the Chosen Teenage Girl for however long until I meet my horrific death?"

"Well, do you want to be the Chosen One?"

"I mean, prrrrobably not if it involves an untimely death, no, I'd rather be the Chosen One without that. I'd rather not put anyone else in that sort of position, either."

"Well, my job is preventing you from suffering an untimely death, but I won't promise you your life will be easy. Even if you decide not to do anything with it, the universe will conspire against you."

"Lovely."

"I am sorry this has been dropped on you," she says gravely. "I'm afraid it's not a coincidence that you'd be here, and even if you leave Sunnydale it's likely that a series of very suspicious coincidences will follow you wherever you go. Although it looks like you may have found someone to help you deal with that already," she says, eyeing Sadde and Willow.

Who respectively grin sheepishly—

—and not so sheepishly.

"Mm," she says. "Any impending horror yet, huge demon creatures that plan on killing a bunch of people, that sort of thing? Everything's seemed pretty normal from what I can tell, but–" she shrugs.

"Well, I've been looking into the librarian's death..."

"Gym teacher started acting weird at the same time the librarian died, and there's a magical signature in his office that's very similar to the one on the librarian's corpse."

"...well, then," she says, looking suddenly very worried.

"… And here I was hoping he was just having an off day."

"Do you know what demon it is?"

"The Sunnydale High library is surprisingly well-supplied with books on the occult, but unfortunately none that include information on this particular demon."

"Not that surprising, considering, but I see. Well, I have more books."

"We're gonna be such good friends."

"Okay, so, we should probably check those if we can– do that relatively quickly? We don't know what it's up to, so, we might not want to delay much while it kills-or-whatever?"

"Quite, dearie. Would you be so kind as to use your superstrength and enhanced reflexes and balance to help me get a large pile of books?"

"Sure," she says, "but I haven't had much practice with them yet."

"Thank you kindly."

And she goes to the little door behind the counter that leads outside, opens it, and finds her way to her car (which was probably repositioned once she knew where the library was and about this entrance).

… Probably.

Eva follows and helps to grab stuff out of the car as necessary.

Lots of books! Lots of very heavy, very thick books! All of them weird and with ominous names, most in other languages!

Ooh, ominous names!

She helps to carry them all. Apparently the superstrength and balance and such are very helpful and she's– not that bad at dealing with it all, actually.

And then they're back to the library!

Sadde gravitates towards the books like a moth to a flame.

Eva places them down in an appropriate place or where guided to place them, then asks if there are any demons in particular that might take over or replace or mess with the behavior of humans, as opposed to devouring them or whatever.

"Several, each with their very particular ways of doing things. Given the way I heard the corpse was found, my hunch is that it was some form of parasitic demon."

"Mm," she agrees, "but I don't know what it'd be using the body for."

"Depends on the demon. It could be draining the body's energy, using it to grow, eating it from the inside, maybe taking over people is part of its reproductive cycle."

"Th-there were some b-books missing from the library," she says. "W-when he died."

"Hmm. Are they still missing?"

Sadde goes to check. "Yep."

"Presumably you don't know which books these are, or we could just– get more copies of it, see what's there, unless it takes too much time?"

"I haven't read literally all books here so I don't know which those were."

"But in any case burying ourselves in books is probably the best way to figure out what demon it is and what to do about it."

She looks at the titles. "It seems like I might only be of use reading a couple of these, seeing as I don't take– Latin?"

"You can leave the Latin books to me."

"And us, too, Willow and I take Latin."

She nods. "Okay, so, should we get started?"

"I would think so."

And: books!

Books! Eva's good at skim-reading for bits of text that are relevant.

They can spend quite a while like this!

"You know, it occurs to me that we might find the relevant books in the ex-librarian's house..."

"… Are you planning on breaking and entering or something?"

"Does it count as breaking and entering if the owner is dead?"

"...y-yes?"

"Shush you, I'm trying to make a point here."

"I think I'm gonna agree with Willow here and say yes, but I mean, I get that it's also different because ex-demon and ex-victim-of-demon or whatever."

"As your school librarian, I must recommend against this course of action."

"And as watcher?"

"As Watcher lockpicking is part of your curriculum."

Sadde giggles. "I like you."

"Part of my curriculum? Huh, what else is on it?"

"Various forms of combat, a general education in mythology and demons, how to best use different kinds of tools and weapons..."

"… Like guns or like crossbows?"

"More like crossbows, I don't think there are any known demons with a weakness to bullets. Perhaps one with a weakness to iron..."

She nods. "Anyway, should we go break and enter now, then, or…?"

"It's probably best to do that at night, and continue researching here in the meantime."

"But what about vampires?"

"You do have a Slayer now with you."

"Untrained Slayer," says the Slayer. "Who doesn't have much of an idea about actually fighting vampires on account of never having actually fought a vampire before."

"Fighting vampires is for the most part an instinct, you will find. They get an instinct for eating humans, you get an instinct for fighting them. Unless you find an experienced one or are ganged up on by several of them, it shouldn't be a problem." She reaches below her counter for a box and puts it on the counter. "Besides, we have toys."

"Oooh, toys!"

"… Toys?"

She opens the box. Stakes (very sharp ones), crossbows, a gallon of holy water, water pistols, crosses in a variety of shapes and sizes, crosses-that-are-stakes, crosses that can squirt water, crossbows that shoot tiny stakes that are shaped like crosses, crossbows that shoot tiny stakes that are shaped like crosses and also squirt water...

"Looks like fun," she says. "So, before I get started killing vampires: on a scale from one to ten, how evil are all vampires and is there variation?"

"There's variation, just like there's variation in humans. Vampires have the basic personality and memories of the person that used to occupy their bodies, but lack any and all empathy, morality tends to stop moving them, and they get an instinctive thirst for blood and violence and destruction."

"So if they're not actively trying to kill me I should see if I can convince them not to be so… evil?"

"Amend that to 'also not actively trying to kill someone else,' that will be rare enough."

"I was sort of assuming that I'd go stopping them if they tried killing other people, and then they'd be trying to kill me, but yeah, point."

"If you do find a vampire that's not murdering anyone, it might be a good idea to try to tail them undetected for a bit to make sure they're really not murdering anyone."

"And then talk to them to make sure they're actually not evil?"

"Yes, if you like, but I wouldn't be so sure you'll be able to actually detect evilness just by talking."

"It depends on how much they pretend, I guess, but I mean– ugh, I don't know, I just mean I'd rather not go staking literally every single one of them without remorse or forethought, because I don't know if they're all like that or if they're just mostly like that nor what sort of variation there is."

"It's unlikely you'll run into a vampire that's not like that, I would expect those tend to avoid human contact in general."

She nods. "Okay. So, uh. Anything in particular I should be looking at?"

"Anything that looks parasitic or that could change someone's behaviour."

Approximately what it was before, not starting any generalized stuff or whatever, then, okay, yeah, that makes sense.

Research. Woo.

Research!

And by dusk they won't have found anything relevant, but they will all be much more knowledgeable about the different ways humans can be hurt, maimed, tortured, killed, dismembered, disfigured, tormented, and eaten.

"I'm hungry," Sadde declares.

"Yeah, I am a bit too," says Eva. "Should we just meet up again in like an hour or so, go grab some food, or…?"

"Let's eat and then break and enter. Wanna come with us?" she directs the question at Norma.

"No, but thank you for offering, dearie."

Food it is, then!

Yep!

"S-so. Hi. I'm Willow."

"I'm Eva," says Eva, smiling.

"I'm Sadde! You probably know this."

"I do!" she says. "Anywhere in particular you want to go for food, or…?"

"Not in particular, no," she shrugs.

"Could just go grab some fries or something – not particularly healthy but then again fast food doesn't really tend to be?"

"Well doesn't need to be fast, does it, we have a while before it gets full dark, but I don't particularly care much," she shrugs.

"We could get Chinese," Willow suggests.

Shrug. "That's fine with me."

Chinese it is, then!

"I'm gonna text Theo about this," she says, and does, informing them of the findings of the afternoon, Chinese, and the plans for the evening.

"You're taking this pretty well," Willow says, looking at Eva.

"I… am trying to cope well because it's probably better than not coping well."

"I guess?"

"Not a whole lot of people choose how they cope," Sadde points out.

She shrugs. "True. I'm pretty good at feeling emotions I want to, though."

Sadde's phone buzzes! Apparently Theo is up for breaking and entering and soccer has just finished and would he be able to join them or should he just see if his dad's cooked something and meet them wherever the librarian's house is?

She wouldn't be opposed to seeing him, but it's up to him.

"Um, congrats, then. I think."

"Thanks," she says.

Theo will in fact meet them, then! He's sure he'll find the Chinese eventually, maybe with the help of Google Maps or something.

Sadde sends him the address, and soon enough the other three have arrived.

Then they'll probably grab some food? Or are they waiting for Theo?

They could wait a couple of minutes before ordering? Sunnydale is tiny, Theo can't take that long to arrive.

He probably won't! She's fine waiting. Smalltalk in the meantime is fine.

Theo is in fact there shortly. "Hey," he says.

"Hello! So Eva really is the Slayer and she's taking this all with more aplomb than I'd expected!"

Bit of a smirk.

Raised eyebrow. "Cool," says Theo. "I forget what the Slayer actually– does, like, slaying, but what other perks, I think you said supernatural something?"

"Enhanced physical aspects in general, like strength, speed, agility, dexterity, etc, plus the ability to sense vampires and demons and some miscellaneous magical things."

"Which I haven't really used much because I thought it was just some horrible nightmares. Aaaand… sense demons? How exactly, any idea? Uh, maybe I should be asking– Norma."

"Norma?" asks Theo.

His hair still has the highlighted streaks.

"Her Watcher is called Norma."

"Ah," says Theo. "So, uh, should we get food?"

"Yep!"

She finds a table for four and the waiter gives them a menu.

Ooh, a menu. Theo reads through it and picks a noodle thingy.

Eva looks through it for a bit longer than Theo did and gets a few small dishes.

Sadde gets whatever.

And Willow gets some Yakisoba.

Yum.

"So does anybody have any idea where the house is?"

"...that is a very good question! I don't!"

"We could… go see if 'Norma' knows? Who is she, I don't think you told me but I might just be failing to remember?"

"Librarian," says Eva. "New today, probably doesn't know."

"Oh, hm. Could you magic it, not that that's the best idea…?"

"Or I could hack the school systems..."

Sadde grins at her.

"...that may not be a good idea, Sadde likes it."

"I resent that!"

"Probably better than magic."

"Hm?" asks Eva. "I think I'm missing something."

"Magic is addictive and can cause lots of bad effects on your mind and soul if abused."

"… Ah." Frown. "Do you think that applies to the weird Slayer stuff I have? Because, um. Ew."

"Pretty sure it doesn't..."

"Hopefully."

"Okay, so, what are we actually doing at the librarian's house? Just looking around for the books that are missing, likely to be titled in some old fashion with no author and maybe in Latin? Or are we looking for demon residue or– something like that?"

"We'll try doing it the muggle way and if that fails we'll use magic," she shrugs.

"I didn't realize the term 'muggle' had generalized out of Harry Potter," he says, raising an eyebrow.

"But yeah, anyway, probably a good idea."

Nom.

"Well, if it hasn't, now it will," she grins.

"I-it shouldn't be hard to find, these books are usually big and ugly and attention-grabbing."

"Yeah, makes sense," says Theo. "Unless the librarian had some sort of hidden room for occult books, which, I don't know how likely that is?"

"He never seemed interested in all the weird books I used to check out but that might be because he was already used to dealing with it."

Theo shrugs and continues eating.

And eventually they're done eating!

They are! Then they pay and – "So, now is when Willow goes and gets the address? Do you need to be on school grounds for that, or…?"

"I just need a computer and internet access, but maybe we should first find Norma and tell her about it?"

"Yeah, probably a good idea? Uh, did she say where she was going to be or are we just hoping she stereotypically lives in the library or something?"

"We said we'd meet up after eating but didn't say where, so presumably the library, I guess."

"Okay," he says, and then library-wards they can go?

That's fine by Eva.

The school: is closed.

"Um."

"So that's probably a no to the meeting back at the library thing? Unless she happens to mysteriously appear here, since she's apparently a mysterious Watcher or whatever?"

"Got it in one, dearie," says the mysteriously appearing Watcher, behind them.

Willow jumps and yelps.

"Ha."

"Wonderful," says Theo, raising an eyebrow. "Okay, so, breaking and entering now?"

"I still need a computer and internet access to find out where he lived..."

"Way ahead of you, dearie, I got the address."

"Which way?" asks Eva.

So she starts leading them out to the place.

"By the way, dearie, have you gotten a crucifix yet?" she asks Eva. "I presume you three already have one."

"Uh, no," she says. "Oh, is this because they're allergic to– holy symbols or whatever?"

"Fun, isn't it?" Sigh.

"Yes, that is indeed why. We'll arm you fully tomorrow, but for now," and she reaches inside her purse for one of the crucifix-stakes. "When you stake a vampire, pull the stake before it turns to dust or the stake turns with it."

She nods and takes it, assuming it was handed out to her.

Yep, it was!

And they reach a medium-sized one-story house without much ado.

"So presumably we're not gonna break any windows or knock down any doors if we can avoid it…? Does anybody know how to pick a lock, then?" She looks at Sadde, then says, "Oh, wait, part of my curriculum, okay."

"I'm not pressed for time but you might be, I don't need to teach you that right now."

"Uh, yeah, probably don't need to learn it right now," she says.

"In that case, allow me."

Back door: meet Norma Lapère's years of lockpicking experience. It clicks open very quickly.

Sadde's kinda amazed by this.

Eva is likewise!

Theo frowns a little, but okay, sure.

"Do try not to disturb too much," she whispers, and makes her way inside.

Willow follows.

As does Sadde.

The interior of the house is... pretty ordinary. The back door leads to a kitchen, which opens to a hallway leading to a living room, and two closed doors. There's no evidence that its owner is dead other than the absence of people.

Well, that's somewhat to be expected since he died relatively unexpectedly. Probably.

Theo follows in.

Eva also follows in! (Woo.)

The place is fairly small, so it doesn't take them long to find the three tomes in the bedroom. One of them, is, in fact, conveniently open at a page detailing a summoning ritual, how helpful of it.

"Oh, wonderful," she says. "This looks like it might just possibly be related to this."

Is it in Latin? Or can she read it and work out what the demon is?

It is in fact Latin.

"Should we bring this back to the Library?"

"Probably easier than having to break and enter again if we need it for reference?"

"M-maybe we could a-also go home? And look into this tomorrow?"

"You can if you want, that's fine, but if the demon attacks every three days or something, I'd rather find that out soon so we know what sort of timescale to expect an attack on."

"Oh. Right. Yeah. Library, then, I guess."

Eva looks a bit apologetic, but moves to go back to the library.

Theo will follow.

Library! As soon as they arrive Norma grabs the book and starts reading it.