'Elsewhere', unfortunately, is an alleyway that includes three hungry vampires. All of whom immediately zero in on the newcomers to their alley - it's what they'd been waiting for, even if they'd been expecting something more along the lines of 'walking in' rather than 'suddenly there'.

The question, really, is 'who is it unfortunate for?'

The first is cut in two before she's even oriented, her 'saber moving on instinct and danger sense alone. The second is beheaded with a barely more intentional slash; the third, hanging back slightly, may have the opportunity to run, if she's got her wits about her.

She does, and she does try-

-except for the guy she runs directly into, who doesn't look all that surprised to be collided with, there's a short stabbing motion from one of his arms-

And the final vampire dusts.

He looks up, cautious, and still holding a...wooden? stake in one hand.

The face she makes at him, lit by the red glow of her 'saber, is a little haughty, but curious, and not unfriendly. She comes out of her fighting stance, lowering the glowing blade, and gestures; her droid steps out from behind her and asks something in an unfamiliar language.

He straightens as well, spinning the stake idly around his fingers. "-Yeah, not got a clue what you're saying."

She tries another.

He responds with Swedish, shaking his head: "Still nothing."

The robot steps forward, keeping a careful distance from the glowing blade, and signs to her companion.

The woman peers at him, now even more curious, and the glowing blade disappears. She signs back, and then leans against the alley wall and closes her eyes; the robot says something brief and polite to him.

-polite is not something he has much experience with. Pauses (because this is so not his problem).

(Except for the part where it will be if the woman with the glowing blade decides to go on a rampage.)

(And Ant would yell at him if ey ever found out he'd just abandoned someone.)

"You're not going to have anywhere to stay are you?" he doesn't expect that to get an actual answer.

The robot repeats herself, just as politely.

-He could just walk away. Instead he settles back on one heel.

The woman stays in place for a few minutes, not moving, and then signs, just once, to the robot, who asks him another question.

"I could try Japanese if you want, but I think we're still going to get the same: I can't understand you."

This time, the woman signs, just a beat after he speaks.

"I understand," says the robot. "Try?"

"...She's translating for you somehow?"

"Translating," the robot nods.

"Right," he says, pauses. "You're not from around here are you?" He's definitely talking about more than just whatever city they've found themselves in.

"Right," she agrees.

This isn't his problem, and their motel room is already cramped with the three of them and-

"What are you both? You're a...robot?" aimed at the robot, and at the woman: "and you look human, but I don't think you are. Not entirely."

"Robot," she nods again. "DZ." And then she gestures to the woman, "Entirely human, and Sith. Deskyl."

"-I'm gonna guess that whatever 'Sith' is, it's what's twigging me 'not entirely human' sensor."

"Right."

Desykl signs some more, and DZ watches. "You, entirely human and..."

He's still for a moment. "Slayer. One girl born to every generation, yadda yadda, destined to fight the forces of evil, a lot of stuff I totally ignored, supposedly gonna have a short, violent life."

She nods. "Sith fight." Her tone is conversational; it's not a threat. Probably.

It gets a slightly suspicious look. "-it's probably better not to be out for much longer. More of those things," he makes a vague gesture, "might come out of the woodwork."

He tells himself it isn't an invitation (he's not very good at lying to himself).

Deskyl straightens up when she's done translating this last sentence, and nods.

Yeah, he's really bad at lying to himself. "C'mon then, I know a back way back to our motel. Not that there's many people out right now anyway."

He steps back, not fully turning his back on them as he picks up the satchel and shopping bag he'd clearly dropped before getting involved in the fight.

The robot steps forward again, offering to take the bag. "I don't fight," she explains.

He hesitates, watching her suspiciously, as though he could find any signs of deceit, before plucking something from the top and tucking it into his satchel, and handing over the shopping bag. "Thanks," he says gruffly.

"This way," he says, and leads on.

And off they go. Deskyl watches carefully for more vampires, or any other threats.

Either they're lucky, or their guide (who hasn't actually introduced himself) is keeping them away from potential threats.

It takes maybe ten minutes for them to get back to the motel he's staying at.

There's another guy sat outside the room he leads them to, and while he appears human (mostly) he definitely isn't. He starts to his feet when he spots them, concern not-quite-apparent on his features.

This seems like their host's to deal with. Deskyl stops a little short and finds something to lean against, again; it's also a good opportunity to get DZ some more vocabulary.

"Ira?" And that singular word is definitely doing a lot of work in terms of meaning.

"Not from around here," 'Ira' fills in. "Deskyl," he jerks a thumb at Deskyl, "is apparently fully human, but something called a 'Sith'," thumb jerk at DZ, "robot is DZ. Deskyl's doing some translation thing for DZ."

"And they're here, because...?"

"Because Deskyl's got a sword made out of light or something and I'd really rather know where she is?"

(That isn't the only reason, but it's a good enough one that Shin won't ask questions.)

Although apparently Shin's not taking that entirely at face value.

"M'Shin," he says, pointing to himself, "That one, who I doubt bothered with pleasantries, is Ira."

"Thanks."

"Ant?"

"Asleep, for now."

He nods. "Quiet when we go inside," he says to DZ and Deskyl. "Ant's sleeping. You can use the bed on the left."

Deskyl nods agreement when she's done signing this to DZ.

    "Deskyl sleeping, I not sleeping," the robot offers.

"Fine-"

Shin reaches out and flicks Ira's ear. "You need anything, DZ? Power or anything?"

"Power," she nods, "and. Translating, look..."

"-I've got a laptop with an internet connection? That help any? Or we've got a load of books..."

She nods, enthusiastically enough to suggest that this was precisely what she wanted. "Thanks."

Ira pushes the door into the room open, and heads inside on near-silent feet.

There's faint light coming from what is probably the door into the bathroom, giving them enough light to find their way by. The two beds are pushed against the opposite walls, leaving four or five feet of space between them.

The bed to the right is inhabited by another teen, who seems to be sound asleep.

Shin picks a laptop up from the desk. "Trade," he whispers, nodding to the bag DZ is carrying, holding out the laptop.

She makes the trade readily, but doesn't seem to know what to do with the laptop.

Deskyl, meanwhile, gravitates immediately to the empty bed, and falls asleep just as quickly.

Shin puts the bag down where the laptop was. "Here," he says quietly. "I'll show you."

And he demonstrates booting the computer, and how to access the browser and the search engine.

Ira meanwhile, settles down on the bed beside Ant, back propped against the headboard, legs stretched out along the edge of the bed. Ant snuggles into him as soon as he's settled, still obviously asleep.

He doesn't seem inclined to try to sleep.

It takes a couple tries, but DZ gets Shin to find her a dictionary site, and she settles in to read it; it will keep her occupied for a while.

Shin leaves her in peace, stretches out on Ant's other side, flings an arm over both Ant and Ira's legs, and apparently goes to sleep. (The three of them obviously have experience sharing a bed that, by rights, they shouldn't all fit on.)

Ira is definitely not sleeping, watching DZ and Deskyl through slitted eyes, and making no effort to hide what he's doing.

When DZ's done with the dictionary, she leaves the laptop and goes over to sit on the floor by the bed, as close as she can get without upsetting Ira.

"Do you have any questions for me?" she asks, very quietly.

"You're not from this dimension," he says slowly, "and if you're not lying about her being human, you're not from any of the other dimensions I know about. So. Can you tell me where you're actually from?"

"The planet we were on is called Jaonus. I don't know if it's in a different universe or just a different galaxy, or a different part of the galaxy. Deskyl teleported us, and Sith can't usually teleport - they can do extra things when they're very upset, sometimes. But I don't know how it worked, because I've never seen it before. I can ask her when she wakes up, but she might not know either."

Ira hums noncommittally. "Is she gonna be a threat?"

"Only if there's a reason for it."

"I'll behave if she does." (It's trite and trying to hide his concern that he can't take Deskyl in a fight.)

"I don't think she's going to threaten you, unless there's something important that she doesn't know. But she's very calm, for a Sith, and you've helped us; I think she'll help you."

"We don't need any help." And that's far more defensive than true. Pauses, goes over the sentence. "If I'm not telling her something, I've probably got good reason. But if she asks, I'll try to answer."

She nods.

"Is there anything else you want to know? Or anything that we should know?"

"Ant's probably gonna have a million and one questions for you," he warns, smiling fondly down at Ant. "And there's like, vampires, and demons. Going out after dark here isn't super risky, but it's worth knowing they exist. Did you have any questions?"

"Is magic a secret here?"

"By and large: yes. So are the vampires and demons. Also: we don't have robots. Not like you."

She nods. "It's not secret where we were before; the Sith run the empire there. Not Deskyl, though, Deskyl's an engineer - low rank, but she's very good at it."

"Our technology might be very different from what she's used to."

"Yes, probably. But you have electricity, and she invents things, she'll probably be okay. She needs to recover first, though. She was hurt with magic a few months ago, very badly."

Ira shifts, a little uncomfortable. "Think I'm supposed to stop people being hurt by magic. So, here's probably as good a place as any."

"Thank you. I can help pay for it, if you know of work that I can do."

"Y'know. Given how fast you've picked up English, you could probably make a bit doing online translation."

She pauses for a moment to consider. "I'll need to ask Deskyl before I forget another language; I'm only able to know four at once. But if she allows me to, I can do that."

That gets an eyebrow. "You need her permission." It's flat, and not a question.

"I don't think she would - hurt me, or anything like that, if I did it without permission. But I should ask anyway, yes."

There's that noncommittal hum again. "You said something about needing power?"

"Yes, in the next few days - longer if I don't move around very much. Deskyl will be able to make me a charger once she has parts and tools."

"She gonna be up for that?"

"Yes, she'll be fine. It's hard for her to be awake for very long, but she can do things when she is."

"Let me know what she'll need. I can see what I can get."

"I'll ask when she wakes up, thank you."

He nods. "If you have any more questions, let one of us know."

"I will, thank you."

Ira hums again, acknowledgement more than anything else.

Ant starts to stir against his side, a distressed whimper leaving eir lips, and his eyes leave DZ and Deskyl.

"S'okay," he murmurs, one hand stroking Ant's hair, the other reaching over to poke Shin.

Shin stirs enough to press his lips to Ant's hair, and there's a faint glow, that slides from Ant's head and into Shin.

Ant relaxes back against Ira's side.

Deskyl stirs, wakes, and peers suspiciously at Shin.

He props himself up far enough to level an even look at her, half a challenge. "Ant has bad nightmares," he says. "I stop them waking em up."

Ira looks ready to intervene if this goes further than looks.

DZ and Deskyl sign back and forth, a bit.

   "She's not sure that's safe," DZ reports. "But if you've been doing it for a while, it can't be too dangerous. She can check more closely later."

"This is the first time it's been done like this," Shin admits. "My kind aren't famous for getting on with humans."

Deskyl relaxes a little at that, oddly enough.

    "Well, she can check in the morning. Or now, but she might miss something. And she can do something about the nightmares herself, once she's recovered enough to make new magic effects."

Ira opens his mouth to say something. (Probably a refusal.)

Shin pokes his stomach. "We can talk about it in the morning. We all-" Pauses, looks at DZ. "Most of us need more sleep."

    "That's fine."

Deskyl goes back to sleep.

Shin pokes Ira again.

Ira sighs, and makes a show of closing his eyes. (He doesn't actually seem to go to sleep though.)

A few hours later, an alarm goes off, and Ant gives a muted groan and tries to bury eir head under a pillow. Which is slightly hampered by Ira and Shin.

Ira smiles fondly down at em. "Up and at 'em, Ant," he encourages.

"Mmph," Ant doesn't sound pleased but does sit up, and then-

Stops, staring at Deskyl and DZ. "-Who are you?"

"I'm DZ - DZ-12Q - and this is Deskyl. Deskyl teleported us here last night and Ira invited us to stay with you."

"-Ira, as in the prickly pear sat next to me Ira? He invited you back here?"

She nods. "He said he wants to keep an eye on Deskyl, because she might be dangerous."

"-Okay, that sounds like Ira. Invite the dangerous person home." Pauses. "I'm Ant by the way, pleased to meet you!" Ey scrambles over Ira and holds out eir hand towards DZ.

She hesitates for a moment, but mirrors the gesture.

Ant smiles and shakes DZ's hand. "So, you're what? A robot? -Or is there another word you prefer?"

"Robot is fine. You don't have as many words for us as the other languages I know."

"Oooh, what other languages do you know? I speak Swedish, and a little Japanese, but I haven't managed to pick it up as well as Ira has, and Shin isn't really a good teacher given it's not his first language and-"

"Ant," Ira chides fondly. "Give DZ a chance to answer if you're going to ask questions."

"It's all right. I'm able to know four languages at once; right now I know the common language from where we were, and the Sith language, and Deskyl's sign language, and English. I forgot the Zabrak language to learn English; Zabraks are one kind of humanlike aliens."

"-Oh, you know a sign language? That's really cool! What're Sith? And Zabraks? I don't think I've heard of those before? Ira tries to keep me out of the whole Slaying thing, except when something comes up that he can't ignore and he needs to do research, and then he just wants more eyes!"

"I think the slaying thing is just here; I've never heard of it before. Sith are magical people with a particular kind of training; Deskyl is a Sith. And Zabraks are aliens; they're related to humans, but they have some differences - the horns are the most obvious one - and their own cultures and language."

"I mean, some of our demons have horns, and from what Shin says, they've got cultures of their own, just, a lot of it revolves around trying to end the world or eat humans."

"That might be the same thing, I guess. But it would be strange for all the different kinds of aliens to agree to be a secret here, when they aren't a secret anywhere else. It would make more sense to give you technology and have you be part of whatever society found you."

"I don't think demons are as technologically advanced as you. I think I'd end up fighting more robots if that was the case."

"He's actually right about that. Demons seem thoroughly stuck in the Dark Ages."

She nods. "Zabrak aren't demons, then, they have the same technology as anyone else."

"I resent the implication that I'm not good with technology," Shin mumbles. "I was the one who introduced you and Ira to mobile phones."

"You also introduced us to maple syrup, so that's really not saying much. Does your world have maple syrup, DZ? Or pancakes? Are pancakes a thing?"

"We might not have the same plants that you do, but we have things similar to those, yes. Most of the kinds of food you have are similar to things we have."

"And they're in a completely different universe, so I can't even do a taste comparison between the different things."

Ant falls back dramatically over Ira's lap.

"Go get ready for school," Ira tells her. "There's cinnamon buns for breakfast."

"You mean I have to go to school even though something cooler is happening here?"

"Your education's important, Ant. DZ and Deskyl will still be here when you get home."

Ant grumbles, but gets to eir feet and rummages in a case for a change of clothes.

"We will, I'm fairly sure. Deskyl might even be awake."

Ant brightens a little at that. "Oh, cool!"

And skips into the bathroom, closing the door behind emself.

Once the bathroom door shuts, Ira turns back to DZ. "I know ey can be a bit much, but ey's overly curious."

"It's fine, I don't mind."

"Let us know if that changes. Or let Ant know. Ey's good at boundaries when ey knows where they are."

"All right," she nods.

Shin gets up, stretching. "Is there anything you like to do, DZ? Ant has school, I think Ira has work?"

Ira makes a sound that's probably assent.

"And sitting around here all day could be pretty boring."

"Robots don't get bored. But I should read more about your world today."

"There's some books about the nightlife," Ira points at the desk. "Internet only has conspiracy nutjobs on it."

"All right. Thank you."

Shin has found the cinnamon buns and is munching on one. "I'll be around as well if you have questions. Although I'm not so good with the human side of things."

"Thank you. Are there enough of those for Deskyl to have one?"

"Good thing you asked that before Ant got eir hands on these. Kid's got a thing for cinnamon."

He produces a paper plate from somewhere, puts two of the buns on it and holds it out to DZ.

"Probably wanna hide these."

"Ira-"

"Not hungry."

She takes one and hands it back to Ira. "Sith don't need as much food as normal humans."

Ira takes it with a shrug, and puts it on another plate, setting it on the desk. "Ant, hurry up, you're gonna be late."

Ant reappears. "Relax, bro. There's plenty of time, and you don't need to walk me, it's broad daylight."

The two siblings snipe at each other, relaxed familiar, as Ant snatches up eir bag, and steals the end of the cinnamon buns off Shin - who ruffles eir hair.

While that's going on, DZ wakes Deskyl. It takes a bit of effort, but the Sith startles to full wakefulness when it finally does work, and scans the room suspiciously and signs to DZ before taking the roll and watching the robot sign in turn.

When the robot is done talking to her - which has involved gesturing to each of the other three in turn, and then further gesturing to Shin and Ant - Deskyl puts the roll down and closes her eyes, and after a few moments, nods and makes a terse few signs.

Ira's keeping an eye on them, and isn't even trying to hide it.

(Ant's fine, there's not a thing wrong with em, ey's a perfectly healthy teenager.)

"We good?" Shin asks, almost casually.

"Yes, ey's fine."

"Of course I am, I've got these two idiots looking out for me."

(Aww, cute.)

   "It's better to be too careful than not careful enough."

"If you could teach Ira that, we'd sure appreciate it. The number of times he comes back blee-"

That jerks Ira into motion, a hand on Ant's shoulder gently propelling em out the door. "Okay, you got school, I got work, bonding with the strangers later."

He glances briefly to Shin. "You good?"

"You're going to be late."

And then the siblings are gone. Shin looks over to DZ and Deskyl, and tilts his head.

"So, I wasn't accidentally making things worse for Ant?" (He seems invested in that answer.)

"No, ey's in excellent health."

"Good. That's- good. We do our best, but like," he gestures around. "We're living out of suitcases in motel rooms for a reason."

Deskyl nods.

    "We can help with that, probably. What would you need, to have a better place to stay?"

"A few things. We got pretty decent fake IDs, but they're still gonna want to run a credit check, and none of us are on the system enough for them to find anything, and we can't afford to pay anyone to fix that."

    "That's exactly the sort of problem Deskyl can solve with magic. Once she's recovered, anyway, she'll need to speak to do it."

Shin snorts. "It'll give Ira time to get used to the idea. He's not good with accepting help."

    "It'll be a few days, yes, even if she spends the whole time asleep."

"-Option two is we just don't tell him till it happens. But I'm not sure he'll respond any better to that..." Pause. "I should probably let you sleep more, Deskyl?"

    "It's better to do any planning we need to do now, if we can. Once we're ready, she's going to make herself very asleep, and we won't be able to wake her."

"-yeah. That probably is wise. What exactly does Deskyl need for her to do this magic anyway?"

"For this in particular, she'll tell them something in a language that they understand, and they'll believe it. She has to understand what she's saying, and it works best if they can see her."

"-We should be able to arrange that. I'll get a viewing we can go to. How long will it take her to learn enough to understand what she's saying?"

"We're not sure when she'll be ready to actually learn the language, but she can probably learn the words for this within a week if it's something predictable."

He nods thoughtfully. "It probably should be. Would telling the landlord they've already done a credit check and it's fine work?"

"Yes. Or that your credit is fine and they don't need to check. If they find evidence later that what she told them isn't true, that can break the effect."

"-Then telling them they don't need to check is going to be smarter. I'd prefer them to barely acknowledge we exist once we have the place."

    "She'll be able to help with that, too, if it's a problem."

"Occasionally people realise I'm not human. And Ant and Ira have their own reasons for wanting to make sure no-one notices them. I'd appreciate any help making sure any landlord doesn't notice those things."

    "She'll be more able to do that once she knows the language, but she can help with it, yes."

"Thank you," Shin smiles. "Was there anything else we needed to figure out?"

"Do you need anything else?"

"Mmm. No. Not that I can think of right now."

"All right." She pauses to think, and then signs to Deskyl. "It will be better if she can make a charger for me before she's very asleep."

"Mm. You're probably gonna need Ira for that. But if you can tell me what she'll need I might be able to get it?"

"Maybe we can figure it out."

They consult the internet and come up with a shopping list: Two laptop chargers to cannibalize for parts, plus a few extra components and some wire and tools. "She can use other things instead; if you can get a box of broken electronics, that will probably have everything she needs, too. But this will definitely work."

Shin hums thoughtfully, sends Ira a couple of texts, and gets a pretty immediate response. "Ira says he can get that stuff, I can pick it up during his break - four hours from now?"

"Sure."

Deskyl goes back to sleep.

Shin shrugs. "I'm gonna take a nap, wake me up if you have any questions, DZ."

"All right, thank you."

She gets started on the books.

And Shin takes his nap.

One isn't in English, and doesn't seem to have any translations to hand. The others are in English, or have hand-written translations scrawled on sheets of paper tucked between their pages (whoever did it has atrocious handwriting). The books cover a variety of different types of demon, including vampires, and 'vengeance' demons, and two types of demons from different dimensions that are theorised to be related - one that just eats dreams, the other seems to want to eat the heads of the dreamer as well. There's also information on 'The Slayer' - one human girl who's given enhanced abilities to fight the 'forces of evil' - and an organisation referred to as 'The Watchers Council'.

Does she have any questions?

Some, though the books might cover most of them. How likely are they to run into various sorts of demons? Do the demons have structured organizations that might be negotiated with or disrupted, or are they stuck dealing with individuals? Are there any types of demons that are powerful enough to represent a threat to Deskyl if they manage to catch her by surprise? Who else is working on the demon problem?

Most of the demons they're likely to run into are the ones who're trying to end the world. For the most part, it'll just be vampires, although there's always a risk of others. If they do, none of these books have managed to figure it out - the information is mostly based on dealing with, and killing, individuals or small groups. There's one or two that might - there's a mention of a demon called Olvikan that was only defeated with a timely volcanic eruption, and another mention of something called 'Old Ones', although that seems to mostly be rumours. There's no reference to anyone else working on the demon problem.

It seems like a situation that Deskyl is well enough equipped to handle, then.

She puts the books back and goes online again, this time to look at translation jobs and find dictionaries in various languages; if Shin isn't awake by the time she's done learning Mandarin, she'll wake him to ask if they have a paypal account that she can use to be paid for her work.

He isn't, but he wakes fairly easy when she tries to. And they do! Shin does some translation work. But wouldn't DZ prefer an account of her own?

She and Deskyl should have one, yes. But she expects that the paperwork for it will take a few days, and she'd rather not waste that time.

Fair. Here's Shin's account details. If that's everything, Shin's going to go and grab the stuff from Ira now?

"Yes, thank you."

Shin makes a few sandwiches before he leaves, leaving one on the desk for if Deskyl wakes up, munching on one himself, and obviously taking the other for Ira.

He'll be gone for about an hour.

Daisy is in the middle of translating some text, but pauses to greet him. The sandwich is gone, and Deskyl is asleep again.

He smiles and nods to her, holding up the box he's carrying. "Got the stuff for Deskyl here." He puts it down on the desk, plucks one of the books up, and retreats to the other bed.

"Thank you."

She waits to wake Deskyl until she's finished her work, and then switches over to helping her identify the components in the scavenged electronics. It doesn't take very long for them to have a working charger.

Shin's split his attention between reading and watching. "Heh, maybe you and Ira can bond over fixing things," he comments.

    "She'd like that."

"He probably will too if he lets himself."

    "What's his story? She's curious."

"Mm. I'm not sure how much I should say. But you've probably noticed all the references to the Slayer refer to a 'girl' right?"

"Yes, this language doesn't have very good vocabulary for that sort of thing."

"It doesn't help that as far as Ira can tell, every Slayer before him has been a girl. His parents were pretty certain that he was a girl as well, even before they found out he was a...uh, what they call a 'Potential', someone who might be called if the Slayer dies. It just got worse once they found that out. Then he was Called and well...I don't know exactly what happened, you might have noticed he's pretty prickly. About all he'll say was that he was protecting Ant, and that they're not going back." (There's a flash there, of Ant's nightmares, of a bloodsoaked hallway, and two mutilated corpses.)

Deskyl doesn't seem disturbed by this in the slightest.

    "That's reasonable. Some people shouldn't raise children."

"No," Shin agrees, relieved by Deskyl's lack of reaction, reassured by it even. "They shouldn't. But apparently the universe just fucking sucks sometimes."

    "It does. But it seems like he's done well enough for himself, considering."

"He is. But that doesn't stop him wishing he could give Ant more." Pause. "Even if ey seems pretty certain he hung the damn stars."

    "It's good that they have each other. How did they meet you?"

Shin gives a sheepish smile. "I tried to eat Ira's head. He laughed, and somehow it ended with us talking. He has form for inviting dangerous people home."

    "It seems like that's working for him, anyway."

Shin laughs. "Yeah. And why change something that works?"

    "Exactly."

    "Is there anything else we should know about?"

Shin pauses, and then far more seriously than the words might seem to require: "Don't make wishes."

DZ and Deskyl sign back and forth, obviously more than simple translation would require, and then Deskyl nods solemnly.

"Thank you," he says, equally solemn.

    "She'll wait for Ira and Ant to come back, before she goes very asleep; it seems better not to surprise him with it." But the Sith re-settles herself anyway, and nods off again.

"Probably wise," Shin agrees, settling back in to read his book. "I mean, he's okay with surprises, but he's more comfortable when he knows things. Ant'll be back soon, not so sure about Ira."

"That's fine. A few hours won't make much of a difference."

She goes back to the internet; she'll be more useful if she has a better idea of what the local culture is like.

And fairly soon after, Ant returns. Ey drops eir bag and flops face first onto the bed next to Shin.

"I swear, if that old witch calls me 'Miss Becker' one more time, I'm gonna...I don't know. Do something."

DZ looks up from her reading when Ant comes in, but goes back to it when she's not addressed.

"Do me and Ira need to arrange something?"

Ant pushes emself back upright. "You're not allowed to kill my teachers!"

"-I meant arrange a meeting, Ant."

That, on the other hand, gets her attention. Not that she's going to interrupt; she's far too polite for that.

"Uh-huh," Ant doesn't sound too convinced. "It's probably not worth the attention."

"It's upsetting you, bean, it's worth it."

Ant shrugs. "Thanks, Shin."

Then ey looks over to DZ. "Hey. You had a good day?"

"Yes, thank you. Your planet is very interesting."

"It's really cool that you think that! Given like." Ey waves a vague hand. "Although I suppose where you have...uh. Aliens? Non-humans? We've got demons and stuff..."

"We have aliens, but it's unusual for a single planet or star system to have as many different cultures as you do."

"I mean, most demons are technically from another dimension if you're including them."

"It's weird to think of there being less cultures in the same space..."

"I've just been reading about the humans, this afternoon. And I think it's - you don't all have a shared language, or shared currency, and it takes more effort to travel; places here are more separate than places at home, even when they're relatively nearby."

"Yeah. That changes a lot. I mean. Even English. It was weird moving over from England, the dialects are completely different!"

"Mmhmm. And we have aliens who don't speak the common language, but everyone can understand it, no matter where you go."

"That is a thing! I can understand more Japanese than I can speak! Ira and Shin use it when they don't want me to know something!"

"Damn. You've lost me that bet. Ira swore you understood more than you let on."

"Pretending I don't makes him worry less. You wouldn't think he worried as much as he does!" The last is aimed at DZ.

"Yes, Kessen."

Ey tilts eir head curiously. "'Kessen'? What does that mean?"

"It's the gender-neutral honorific from the common language where we're from, similar to ma'am or sir."

"That's really cool! English is missing that. And I mean, the first couple of times cashiers stumbled over what to say was funny but then it just got tiring." Beat. "But, uh, you can just call me 'Ant' if you want. We don't stand on the ceremony here."

"All right."

"-although you should call Ira 'sir' at some point. His reaction would be hilarious!"

"Yes, Ant"

...that's probably not what ey was asking for, tonewise.

No. It wasn't, but ey isn't entirely sure how to explain otherwise. They can work on it.

"Mm. I should get my homework done," ey groans. "Reckon I can get away with linking an essay about women's suffrage to modern day gender presentation?"

"What's the assignment?"

Ey hooks eir bag strap with one foot to pull it close enough to rifle through. Ey pulls out a folder, and leafs through it.

"'Explore whether militant behaviours within the suffrage movement helped or hindered women getting the vote'. Mmph, probably not."

"Were women expected to be less aggressive than men in the nineteenth century?"

"From what I can tell, women were supposed to be meek, mild, obedient, and stay out of politics. Oh. And have babies if they were married. And look after the home."

"So being militant was a transgression of their expected presentation; you could write about that."

"Oooh," Ant says, eyes widening slightly. "Yes, yes I can. And I think I can in fact segue that into a perfectly reasonable comparison to modern day methods being used to raise visibility of the diverse gender issues we're facing now-" Ey starts mumbling at that point, scribbling notes on eir pad.

It's good to be useful.

DZ goes back to her reading.

Just over an hour later, Ira returns. He's still got oilstains on his hands, and a smear on his head.

He looks around the room. "This is domestic."

Ant shushes him, but glances up. Ey wrinkles eir nose. "Does any of the oil stay in the cars you fix?"

"I'm not that messy," Ira retorts as he looks around. "Deskyl got the charger made okay, DZ?"

"Yes, thank you."

"Good," he nods. "Mm, I'm gonna take a shower, actually. Shin?"

Shin nods and follows Ira into the bathroom.

"They're not together," Ant says without any prompting. "Not like that at least."

"All right."

"Did you have any questions for Deskyl? She wants to talk to Ira, but I can wake her up now."

"Oh, yikes. Uh. I hadn't thought about it." Ant flicks eir pen idly between eir fingers. "Um, probably nothing that can't wait until she's feeling better?"

"We're not sure how long that will take - a few weeks, at least; probably more like a few months. And it won't hurt her to be awake for a few extra minutes."

"I- well, if you're sure?"

"Yes, it'll be fine."

It takes a bit of effort to wake the Sith. When she does wake, she glances first to Ant, then at the bathroom, and then signs to DZ; after a few minutes of conversation, she nods a greeting to em.

"Hi," Ant waves. Pause. "Are you feeling any better?"

    "About the same. She'll be all right, though, it's just going to take a while."

Ant nods. Glances towards the bathroom. "I- when you're better, can you help Ira? He- I worry he won't come back."

-ah.

    "Yes, she'll do that."

    "Sith are very good fighters, but their magic is mostly defensive; she should be able to keep him safe."

"I'd appreciate that. He seems to forget that 'Slayer' doesn't mean 'Immortal'." Eir eyes darken. "Most the time it means the opposite."

    "She'll do the best she can. She's already planning a few things that should help."

"Oooh. Thank you."

The shower shuts off in the bathroom.

Ant's response gets a tiny smile from the Sith.

    "You're welcome."

Shin appears first, looking between the three of them half curiously, but doesn't say anything.

A couple of minutes later, Ira follows, hair a mess from where he's roughly towelled is. It actually looks kind of fluffy.

Deskyl waits for them to sit before beginning to sign.

    "Thank you for the supplies," she starts with.

Ira nods to that, but doesn't say anything.

    "There are some things Deskyl wants to help with - getting us all an apartment, primarily, and improving our finances so that you can work less and have more time to train."

    "She knows that you don't need the help, but she wants to help anyway."

Ira has gone very still. Then he looks over at Shin looking almost betrayed.

"Is this what you were hinting at?" (There's mild panic, and a sense of not being good enough.)

Shin moves closer to Ira, nudges their shoulders together. "We all need more space. You've said it yourself. And they can help."

"At what cost?"

    "As little of one as we can arrange. It might not be perfect, but we won't ask anything of you that we don't have to."

Ira presses his lips together. He's still suspicious. (But he's still pretty sure Deskyl isn't lying.)

Shin nudges their shoulders together again.

"Credit checks are still going to be a problem," he says after a minute.

    "She can solve that with magic. Not right away, but when she's recovered enough to talk a little; Sith can convince people of things by saying them the right way."

(Ant goes still.)

Well then.

"-If you're sure."

Deskyl notices Ant's reaction, and makes a face about it; that's sufficient to get DZ to ask: "Are you all right?"

"I- um, yeah. I just- mind-control. It's- Scary. To think- what the- the wrong person could do with that."

    "Yes. She's careful with it, though; even for this she won't do it unless she's sure enough that we'll be able to pay the rent."

"I- good, that's good."

Ant tucks emself against Ira's side.

He wraps his arm around her, and kisses her forehead.

"Your assistance would be...appreciated on the matter then. We'll start looking."

Deskyl nods.

    "The fastest way for her to recover enough to talk is for her to go deeply to sleep for a few days; we won't be able to wake her, but she'll wake if anything dangerous happens. And she'll need a few days after that to learn what she needs to say."

Ira nods slowly. "Alright then."

"Thanks again for this," Shin adds when it's obvious that Ira won't say it.

    "It's no trouble. She wants to."

Shin elbows Ira when he goes to snort.

"Still. Was there anything else we needed to talk about?"

    "She'll be hungry when she wakes up. Not desperately, but she's going to want a meal, if we can have one available for her. Other than that, no."

"We can have something," Ant confirms. "Um, is there anything we should avoid? Or anything she particularly likes? I know our foods aren't quite the same, but..."

"Nothing too spicy; other than that, anything is fine."

"She says she liked the cinnamon from this morning."

"Well, we tend to have cinnamon things a lot. Like I said, Ant likes it. And Ira doesn't like spicy food either, so we tend not to have it."

"Ira just doesn't like food," Ant teases.

Ira ignores em. "We'll have something."

    "Thank you."

Deskyl closes her eyes, but doesn't lie down yet.

Ant goes back to eir homework, Ira flopping down next to em on the bed and closing his eyes.

Shin picks up his book again and goes back to that.

Deskyl meditates for a little while, and then she signs briefly with DZ, and then she goes to sleep.

And DZ goes back to translating.

Ira wakes a few hours later as the sun is setting - Ant's finished eir homework and is drawing instead, Shin changed books. He eats the food Shin hands him with a roll of his eyes. After that, he grabs his satchel, kisses Ant's head (and whispers something too quiet to be overheard), tells the room in general that he'll be back in a few hours, and leaves.

"Slayer stuff," Shin says in DZ's direction.

Ira comes back after Ant's asleep, although Shin's stayed up, and the two of them slide into bed on either side of Ant again.

And over the next couple of days that's their routine - Ira and Ant leaving for school and work, there's a period in the evening where everyone's in where they have dinner, and Ira sometimes catches a nap, and then Ira will go out again to do 'Slayer stuff', coming back in the small hours of the morning to grab a little more sleep before he needs to go to work.

DZ notices, but doesn't comment. She spends almost all of her time working - translation, proofreading, data entry, and so on; if asked, she'll admit that Deskyl asked her to spend this time building as much of a nest egg as she can for them. On the second day, she tells Shin that she's earned enough to get her own laptop, and asks him to help her order it. And on the fourth day, in the evening shortly before Ira would usually leave, Deskyl stirs, then stretches and sits up.

Shin's more than happy to help, and says that if DZ had asked, he'd have leant her the money to pay for the laptop so she could get it sooner.

Well, Ira had found a Moroccan restaurant near them that did takeaway and wasn't too expensive, and he'd picked up dinner from them on the way back from work - a lamb dish made with dry fruit and cinnamon, although there's a few other options from the staples they kept on hand if that's not going to work, and another packet of cinnamon rolls on top of that.

He serves up another portion when Deskyl wakes up and holds it out.

She seems distant, almost drugged, not quite looking at any of them, not quite looking at anything at all, but she takes the food when it's offered, and eats. DZ signs to her, and she signs back, perfunctory one-word answers without any accompanying body language, more robotic than the robot herself.

    "She'll be okay," DZ diagnoses. "It's strange here, her powers work a little differently and she wasn't expecting it. But once she meditates she'll be fine, I think."

Ira hums. "I suppose that's probably to be expected in a different...hm. Well. World."

She glances at him, signs a word.

    "Different universe, she says."

"Huh, okay. I'm off out. Anyone need anything?"

"I could use a new sketchpad?"

"-I'll see what I can do at this time of night, Bean." He looks over at DZ.

Deskyl signs again.

    "She'll go with you."

Ira raises an eyebrow. "She will? Why?"

She repeats the sign; DZ asks her a few questions that get more one-word answers.

    "It will help her remember how she's supposed to be, to go out and walk around and fight. More than meditating would."

Ant pokes Ira's side.

"Alright," Ira agrees after another moment. "You can handle yourself, I've seen that. You ready?"

She nods and heads for the door.

    "You should know about her sword, before you go, sir."

There's a moment where he startles at the 'sir', but he shakes it off. "Do I need to know anything apart from 'don't get in the way of it'?"

"Be very careful not to get in the way of it, sir - it's plasma, and it can cut through anything. It won't go where she doesn't mean for it to, but it is possible to surprise her, and she doesn't know your fighting style yet."

"Huh," Ira says thoughtfully. "Noted."

And he grabs his satchel, kisses Ant's head, and crosses to the door, pulling it open for Deskyl.

And off they go.

Ira doesn't seem to feel the need to try talking - it's not like he'd understand the responses anyway, and he's just as comfortable moving in silence. He does seem to have a location in mind, although his gait suggests a more aimless wander.

She follows, matching his gait; she does quite a good impression of being familiar with the area.

Well, that's useful. A few minutes later, he turns into an alley between two warehouses.

There's a woman leaning against a wall next to a door, she looks up, and narrows her eyes at them, looking confused. She doesn't appear to have a pulse, or be breathing. And then she lunges forward.

Ira doesn't seem inclined to move, smiling lazily.

It's really pretty impressive, how vampires explode into dust when they're killed.

She looks back at him, eyebrow raised in question.

He shrugs. "A dead vamp is a dead vamp."

Points at the door. "Nest." Gestures to the right. "I'm going right once I'm inside. Try not to kill me."

She squints, then taps her chest and gestures right. "Mh?"

"You could go left? Divide and conquer and all that crap?"

She makes a face and rocks back on her heel, gesturing with her head for him to go in.

Ira shrugs again, and does, ducking immediately to the right, spinning a wooden stake around his fingers.

People - vampires most likely - can be heard talking from both directions.

She follows, saber ready but not lit yet.

Ira notices, but doesn't say anything. There's some boxes that were obviously left here by whoever the previous owner/tenant was that provide convenient cover. He reaches a point, and peers out from between a couple of boxes.

There's a group of six vampires ahead of them. Ira tucks his stake into his pocket, pulls a bottle (with a rag trapped in the neck) from his bag, lights the rag, and throws it into the midst of the vampires. It shatters and manages to set two of them alight, but the others manage to get out of the way. Ira's retrieved his stake, and is already moving out into the open space beyond the boxes to meet the four who haven't just recently been set alight.

Deskyl approaches the group from the other side, letting Ira engage them for a moment while she dispatches the two flame-covered vampires, then following up by dusting the nearest of the remaining ones.

He's doing pretty well for the fact he's fighting with a wooden stake and his bare hands. He's easily taken out one, and a second is in the process of dusting.

The final vampire can't seem to decide whether to go for Ira, or Deskyl, or to run. Still dithering, he yells.

He gets a lightsaber blade to the sternum for his trouble, and then she moves to guard Ira from the vampires she can sense approaching.

That gets her a perplexed look. But he doesn't have time for much more than that because there's four more vampires to deal with.

Although they seem at least fairly wary of Deskyl and her lightsaber.

She keeps her guard position, handily blocking all four from getting past; they're fast, but she's faster, and has better reach. There's a sense she's actually toying with them.

They hover uncertainly, attempt a few feint. They're definitely not used to dealing with someone with Deskyl's fighting skills.

Eventually though, one of them manages to get past her by sheer dumb luck.

Ira, who up until this point had been fairly willing to leave Deskyl to it, starts to step forward.

She drives the three back with a horizontal sweep - one is too slow in dodging it, and loses half his arm - and shoots a bolt of lightning at the one threatening Ira.

Ira steps back smartly to make sure he's well clear of the lightning.

The lightning does in fact manage to dust the vampire. One of the ones who hadn't just lost an arm dives directly at Deskyl, shrieking something that is probably about having just killed that vampire.

She was definitely toying with them before. She dusts this one, too, and then goes for the remaining fully-armed one.

He makes a brave stand! But fails utterly and is very rapidly dust.

The one missing part of his arm manages to overcome his frozen fear and attempts to flee.

She's faster than he is; he doesn't get far.

Ira is grudgingly impressed. (And he seems to be avoiding thinking about just how good she is at fighting.)

He's still for a moment, and when no more vampires appear, starts poking around the warehouse.

And Deskyl finds a box to sit on, and meditates.

There's no more vampires or threats in their immediate surroundings.

Ira's quick. He finds some money tucked away, and a handful of easily portable items he can fence, all of which gets tucked into his bag. That done, he returns to Deskyl, but doesn't immediately disturb her.

She opens her eyes as he approaches, and stands.

"More fighting?" he asks.

She gestures from him to the door.

...Well, he'll head towards the door then, he was done in here anyway.

She'll let him lead, if he wants to lead. If not, she knows where the nearest gathering of vampires is.

He's pretty easy on who's leading, and if she seems to have a direction in mind is willing to go with that.

Nearby vampire nest it is, then. She's no less competent at clearing out this one, but a little more inclined to let him fight, and to watch him doing it.

He's pretty competent at fighting the vampires himself, definitely knows how to handle them, but he doesn't seem to be particularly avoiding the potential for non-fatal injuries.

She's not too happy about that, and steps in the first time it looks like he might get significantly hurt.

Ira gives her a somewhat irritated look, but doesn't say anything, and declines to be any more careful in his fighting style.

The next time, she lets him cut it a little closer.

He actually tilts his head to one side as a vampire lunges at him, and while his stake is ready at his side-

(They're not likely to be overwhelmed, their efficiency has it down to the last few vampires, and this attack does seem to be a last ditch attempt at survival.)