Just before English, first period, Theo appears! He sneaks up to her to kiss her on the cheek and say, "Happy birthday!"

He seems to be holding something behind his back.

She giggles. "Thank you!" And, of course, tries to peek.

Gosh, couldn't possibly have that.

After hiding it for another two-ish seconds, he holds it out to her. It's wrapped and rectangular-ish and would be quite thick were it a book, but who knows, maybe it's just a few DVDs stacked together.

"Ooh! Can I open it?"

"Hey guys! Happy birthday! Ooh what's that?"

"It's a present to Sadde!" he responds, then looks around briefly. "And sure, you can open it."

She does!

It is: a book! Has Latin on the cover, has Latin inside, is apparently a magical book.

Theo probably got it from the Magic Box.

"Oooh this is so cool you're the best!" Hug!

Hug! "I hope you enjoy it."

"I will!"

And look who shows up. "Oh isn't that cute, the lil' lovebird's giving his freak girlfriend a gift." He looks at the book. "And it's a freak gift, too."

A friend of his guffaws.

Theo turns to face Brad. "Book," he says. "It's called a book."

"I know what a book is, numbnuts. This is a freak book."

"It's a book written in a foreign language," he says. "Foreign book. Wrong F-word."

"Whatever, freak." And just because he can, he slaps the book, which falls from Sadde's grip onto the floor, before going to his seat.

Sadde starts giggling.

Theo sighs and turns back to face Sadde, picking the book back up and handing it back to her.

He tries smiling a bit, seeing as she's giggling.

"You know, I think he's the single least creative bully I've ever had."

"I guess that's better than the alternative?"

"It is. I'm not even sure what he wants to accomplish, it's like he's just playing out the part of some TV character rather than trying to—do—anything."

"Maybe he just thinks it's expected of him."

"That's just silly. Who expects it?"

"The other people in his group?" Theo shrugs. "Society and TV shows?"

She purses her lips, but decides not to add anything to that.

"Anyway, we should probably get into class." Smile. "Happy birthday."

Smile. "Thank you."

Class!

Woo!

Theo is slightly bored in class. He is not a super great fan of English.

Enh. It could be worse.

Then English is over.

So Theo gets up and grabs his bag, then kisses Sadde on the cheek and says, "I will see you – after, I think you have math?"

"Yeah. See you later."

"Bye! And happy birthday again."

And off she goes to math.

Where Eva can be found! "Happy birthday," she says.

"Thank you! Hhhhow do you know it's my birthday?"

"It's my job – not literally – to know when everyone's birthday is," she responds. "Plus Theo knew when it was so I didn't exactly have to hunt it down."

"Naturally. Well, so, I was wondering, since you're party queen and we're all buddy-buddies now..."

"Want a party? Sure. Any preferences? People, food choices, activities – bit late for a pool party – venue? Probably my house or yours, that is."

"Mmmmy house can barely house me, plus I have all those, ah, ingredients," of spells, naturally, "so probably not the best place. Don't have much in the way of what I want or don't want—except I'd love it if you did invite Brad and his gang."

Paaause. "Are you sure?"

"Yep."

"Okay," she responds. "The actual thing, something like – oh you haven't been to any of my parties yet, hmm." Pause. "Like, drinks and games and music and dancing and pizza and stuff, does that work?"

"Yeah, sure, sounds like fun. How long would you take to set it up?"

"Hm – I could get it done pretty quickly if you want it asap, but it'd be easier to have it, like, Saturday or something?"

"—when you said 'pretty quickly' you meant before Saturday? I'd thought it'd take, like, a couple of weeks."

"My mom and I do parties quite often. I help other people with them. I'm pretty practiced at it."

She grins. "That sounds like fun."

"It is!" responds Eva, smiling, and then she stops talking as the teacher enters the room.

And they have math!

Which is of course lots of fun! And then it is over.

"I will text you with details tonight and probably query you on a few things, that okay?"

"Sounds good to me, yeah."

"See you later then."

Off she goes to Bio.

And Sadde has Latin.

And then: lunch!

Theo comes into the cafeteria shortly thereafter and gets some food and sits down. "Hey."

"Hiya."

"Hey," says an approaching Willow.

"Hello," responds Theo.

"So I got Eva to agree to throw me a party."

"Oh? Any details?"

She relays the conversation, including the part about inviting Brad.

"Um."

"Why."

"To be the bigger person?" she tries.

"… Is that the actual reason?"

"More or less," she shrugs. "I don't want to be the person who'll, like, invite the whole school except these people to a party, and I can't muster enough emotional energy to, like, hate them. It's just not worth my time."

Blink. "I… feel like inviting them to your party might just create more opportunities for them?"

"Sure, but then they'll do that? Throw punch at me? I can handle them, and they can have their fun and whatever, it's no skin off my back."

"Right," he says. "Uh, okay, I will try to keep that in mind."

"...keep what in mind?"

"That I should try not to get too annoyed at them on your behalf."

"You can feel free to get annoyed, but like, do realize I'm a half-demon witch who has dealt with this forever. There won't ever be a time when they'll be a threat, unless they become vampires or something."

"That sounds like a terrible idea and I really hope it doesn't happen."

"People becoming vampires is generally a terrible idea."

"Pretty much yep."

"But now we got a Slayer! We shan't fear."

(Who is sitting at a table, not too nearby, engaged in conversation about… something!)

"She seems like she might actually get things done, yeah."

Lunch proceeds uneventfully.

As does the afternoon, with a free period and then gym, and then Eva goes to visit Norma at the library for more Slaying.

"Hello, dearie."

"Hello," responds Eva. "More drills today?"

"Some, but I think we'll study some theory after and then go patrolling."

"Theory about demons or fighting? … Or both."

"Both, mostly the former."

Nod.

Norma leads her to the training dummy again, or where it usually is. Instead, there's a vampire chained to the wall, and a tarp prevents the sun from touching his skin.

"Let's go with some live practice before I take you out patrolling." The vampire notices them and snarls, trying to lunge at them but having his movement aborted by the chain.

"… Go and kill it or should I get close and be trying to dodge and block and stuff?"

"By all means, try to kill it, it'll be trying the same on you," she says with some amusement.

So she gets out her stake and goes in to attack it.

It's nowhere near as good as the vampires from her nightmares. But then again, neither is she as good as she was in her nightmares.

She's been training, but she's not awesome yet.

She does have Slayer powers though.

Slayer powers means the vampire fails to automatically swipe her head off as soon as she steps in. She does not have an easy time, though.

She keeps at it, being careful so it doesn't get her.

Well she can dodge him. He's apparently new and doesn't have a lot of skill and is being very inefficient at attacking. But she might need to be a bit less careful to actually stake him, because he's about as good at dodging as she is.

Even attached to the chain?

She might get a bit less careful, if it's clearly not working.

Oh look he just slapped her hard enough to send her to the ground.

She realizes she won't be able to recover in time so she swipes at his leg, trying to take him down too.

"Good one!" calls Norma as the vampire falls like a sack of potatoes then regains his balance like a gymnast. "Trust your instincts, only depart from them once you know what you're doing!"

Back on her feet, she swipes at the vampire and hops back preemptively.

The vampire dodges, then tries to reach out and grab her. Something tells her this is a feint and she should jump.

She does!

It was in fact a feint and the vampire does in fact try to kick her legs from under her, failing miserably.

Then she can land and kick forwards and try stabbing it while it's unbalanced, can't she.

She can! But she misses his heart, and he hisses and tries to grab the stake from her hand.

She pushes at it and tries wrenching the stake away.

It breaks the stake in half and throws the pointy bit away.

"Catch," calls Norma, throwing her a new one.

She does so, keeping an eye on the vampire.

Snarlllll lunge!

She dodges! Kicks the legs again – she's not sure how smart vampires are, this one seems young.

Yep, young, and it falls on the ground.

And then she's staking it better this time, through the heart–

– and pulling out her stake, so it doesn't dust along with the vampire.

Poof.

"Very good for your second vampire."

"I – actually thought I did pretty badly there, I had no idea what to do a few times and just sort of jumped to the next thing I thought of."

"You thought quickly, and you used your instincts. You wouldn't last ten seconds against an experienced fighter, but that's why I exist."

"Reassuring," she comments. "But yeah, thanks."

She nods, then finds some arm guards, which she wears on her arms, naturally. She walks where the vampire was. "Now me."

Oh, fun.

Sparring practice with Norma.

Yep. "Go ahead and try hitting me, dear."

She pauses, seems to think for a moment, and then she does.

She tries quite a lot, actually, aiming to catch Norma off-guard.

Norma is not as fast or as strong as the vampire.

That somehow seems not to matter. She's never where Eva's blows are.

Well Eva's going to try to pick up on habits that Norma's repeating or tactics she uses frequently or something, and try to improve.

Not a lot of those! And before she can land a hit, at some point completely indistinguishable from all other points, she takes a step back and says, "Stop."

Eva does! "What's up?"

"You were going to succeed at hitting me with your next swipe."

"– It is kinda cool that you knew that in advance!"

"Many Watchers scorn martial training, believing they need only the theory to guide their Slayers. I prefer a more... hands-on approach. So, do you know how you were going to succeed?"

"I… don't think so?" she responds. "I was trying to pick things up from you and use them back but didn't notice anything in particular there, so, mysterious instincts?"

"Not exactly mysterious instincts, no—I don't have those so I couldn't have predicted them. Rather..." And she goes on to point out a few details about her stance and guide her on how to react to a live combatant as opposed to a dummy like they've been practising for the past few days.

Eva tries to pay attention and do as instructed.

She continues to be quite good at it.

There will be more sparring, more dummy punching, and night will soon fall—

—at which point there'll be a knock, and guess who's there.

"Hello," says Eva. "I didn't realize you were joining us tonight."

"Well, first patrol and all, I wanted to help. Or watch."

"She won't tell how she knew there'd be a patrol tonight," says Willow, revealing herself from behind Sadde.

"I told her."

"Ssshhhh you're ruining my rep!"

"– I still need to get you details for partystuff, too."

"Like what?" she asks, walking in.

"I was gonna text you with ideas for food and stuff."

"Oh. Well, you can tell me them, now."

"While we go patrol, presumably, and check out the morgue."

"Oh, and, Theo suggested a thing the other day, you could put crosses around town so vampires would find them repellent."

"Right, yeah, which we couldn't do because we don't want to be snacked on by a vengeful vampire but you have a better shot at it than we do."

"– Do I need to buy a bunch of pieces of wood, then, or does chalk work or something?"

"That is a formidable idea—even painting the crosses on with invisible paint should work, I think, it's the shape not the material that repels them."

"Do we have invisible paint? I admit I have no idea where to get any – I guess varnish probably works too, if it's waterproof."

"Yes, it does. You should do that during the day, when they're unlikely to attack you."

Nod. "After school is probably a good time, when we're not doing drills, or at the weekend?"

"We probably won't cover the whole town in an afternoon, so yes, those sound like good ideas."

"Yeah, I mean, as a habitual thing."

"Cool! Now that that's decided, can we go after bloodsuckers?" She uses her index fingers to pretend she has fangs.

"I hope you have a stake and are prepared in case you get attacked."

"I have magic—but yes I also have a stake. And holy water guns. And crosses."

"I was under the impression that using magic was bad, somehow."

"It's—difficult to do it carefully. It's addictive, and involves contacts with all sorts of demons to borrow power at first, and can quickly spiral out of control."

Nod. "Morgue first?"

"Yes, it's as good a place as any for this."

Off they go, then.

Indeed!

And there's the cemetery. It is deathly silent (har-de-har-har).

Well at least there don't seem to be any vampires in evidence.

How sure is she of this?

Not super sure, they can be pretty quiet, but she at least doesn't see any…

She'll look around a bit, she guesses, since: cemetery.

Oh look vampire pouncing rawr.

She can go at it and try to stake it, then.

Convenient she has a crucifix on, gosh. Slayer standard apparel.

It is about as bad at fighting as the one Norma had captured, maybe a little bit worse. The crucifix trips it up enough it's not that hard to stake it.

Then she manages to dust it and keep her stake intsct, and looks around for friends if it has any.

Nope, no friends.

"That was really cool."

"I'm glad you think so!"

They continue on their way to the morgue and... there is a suspicious lack of other vampires, really, given that first one.

She notes this to the others. "I feel like there should be more, sort of?"

"It... is somewhat surprising, but it's not impossible that that one was buried before it could rise."

"Yeah. Just feels weird."

Eventually they reach the morgue.

Any vampires in sight around any corners when she goes in?

Nope! Just a regular morgue.

"Time to stake all the corpses again?"

"Indeed!"

Off she goes.

None of the corpses are vampires!

...curious.

"Did something eat all the vampires, is there a demon that's a vampirovore or something."

"Some demons are enemies of vampires but they're rare..."

"We should go look for vampires elsewhere!"

"… So we could go check out the club in case they're around there again."

"It's still weird that there are no new ones here, but yeah, Bronze's as good a place as any."

"I don't think there's any particular reason they should crowd there more than normal, don't think it's a cheaper drinks night or more victims or anything…"

"One of your skills as Slayer, which you will learn to use, is sensing the presence of vampires."

"Sounds convenient."

"Not very easy to master. You could try doing that."

"I will attempt to, I suppose?"

"At first you will need to close your eyes and relax and focus."

"While walking or should we stop briefly, or just me and then I jog back up if I notice anything?"

"It would not be wise of us to go around looking for vampires without you, and you won't be able to use it while walking yet."

"So, something to try another night probably or if we get a spare moment tonight?"

"If we don't find any vampires in the Bronze, I think it would actually be called for to try it tonight, yes."

Nod.

And then: Bronze!

(No vampires on the way to the Bronze.)

"I'll go check around it first, make sure none are lurking in alleys?"

"And we wait inside?"

"… It probably won't take me that long but you could come with me for, sort of safety?"

So they follow her!

She goes around the club, like she said, keeping an ear out for vampires.

Also her eyes. In case any pop out in her peripheral vision or something.

Nnnnope.

"… So there is either some vampire party going on, we have some rare demon that eats them all, or what, they all coincidentally just decided it was a bad night to go out?"

"A meeting of vampires... is not out of the question."

"I don't suppose there's some low-magic spell we can use to find a large congregation of vampires…?"

"The closest thing to that is your senses."

"Should I try it now, then? Shut my eyes, stand still, and…?"

"It would be easier with a vampire here so you could focus on them, but you should be able to—sense them."

She nods and tries it!

She's a little bit hyped, a bit on adrenaline because she expected to find a vampire, so she's probably not in the best state for sensing things right now…

Yeah there's no sensing going on, there.

… She tries it a bit longer?

Nnnnn—maybe?

She keeps at it for a bit longer.

Yeah no that was totally a fluke.

So she opens her eyes and hopes her friends (and mentor?) haven't been quietly eaten!

Nope, they're all whole and uneaten.

"Did it work?"

"Unfortunately not," responds Eva. "Thought it might have for a moment, but nope."

"Okay, so... any ideas about, like, why there are no vampires anywhere?"

"I think it's pretty much 'vampire party', 'vampirovore', 'freak chance'?"

"Vampire party's kinda broad..."

"And I would normally say a vampirovore is less likely than chance but this is Sunnydale."

"I mean, I got the impression vampires didn't team up overmuch so vampire party is probably low-chance, other than, like, if there were some person dropping lots of blood around somehow." Pause. "So, horrible idea and all, but do vampires do – like, keg parties, except with humans?"

"They don't do keg parties, but sometimes they do get together to plan apocalypses."

"… Why?"

"Because they're evil demons and that's what they do," she shrugs. "Most vampires don't aspire to such lofty goals, but some do, and they do tend to draw likeminded—or just bored—individuals to their cause."

"Apocalypse as in, like, a bunch of demons take over the world? Or like, actually try destroying the world, oh dear?"

"Mostly the latter, but some of both."

"… Why would they try destroying the world, are they suicidal, why can't they just go kill themselves without taking the world with them." Pause. "Not that you necessarily know, but ugh."

"They frequently do this while having the means to leave the world," she explains.

"Right. Okay, so they just want to destroy the – mortal world or whatever."

"Or at least make it as horrible as certain other hell dimensions, yes."

"Wonderful. And we might have to deal with one of these apocalypse cults, presence indicated by the ominous lack of vampires."

"Part and parcel of being a Slayer."

"W-well, where would we find an apocalypse cult?"

"I doubt they're calling for helpers on street corners. – I really hope they aren't doing that, it'd practically be confirmation I'm on a TV show."

"Would that we were," Norma sighs. "We should probably continue patrolling, anyway."

"Should I check inside the club? I can probably get in and out without being dragged into anything, tell them I'm looking for someone."

"We should probably all go."

Nod.

Clubwards!

Clubwards!

There are people there.

People! Okay but do any of them look fanged, or happen to be people she recognizes but acting really differently, or, like, being bitten in a somewhat-clearly-not-sexual kind of way…?

Nope! Everyone is fangless, as far as she can tell.

"Where next?" asks Eva of Norma.

"We should probably roam the town, perhaps visit the cemetery again and do a more thorough search." Pause. "You. You should do that. Vampires are less likely to attack groups."

"So I should do it alone to try baiting them?"

"Possibly with one lookout."

"I could do it!"

"Or perhaps the person whose job title is 'watcher' could."

"—or that, yes."

Willow raises a hand to her mouth to hide a giggle.

"And then these two probably need to stay somewhere safe, or like, go home…"

"Well I'm going to the Bronze."

"I guess I am, too."

"Enjoy."

Into the club they go!

Back to the graveyard Eva and Norma go!

Indeed!

It is eerily quiet.

Everywhere? She can check the graveyard relatively thoroughly.

Graveyard: is fairly devoid of the living.

But there's a rustling from over there...

Gosh, a noise? She goes towards it, of course! Look at her, being all easily bitten and a teenage girl and also curious about the noise! (Such a perfect victim for a vampire, of course.)

Came from that mausoleum there.

It's, like, a week after Halloween. Clearly she is just a random schoolgirl who might well be a little drunk and is curiously poking around the mausoleum.

The mausoleum: is quiet.

What if she pokes around a bit and opens a coffin?

Which one? One of the coffins in the walls, or that one in the middle, made of stone?

Sure, she'll go for the one in the middle, why not.

It is: heavy. Even for her Slayer strength.

Heavy enough she can't lift it? Even if she really tries?

Oh no she can totally lift it, it's just, you know. Effort.

Effort is expended!

What's inside?

Absolutely nothing.

Behind her, however, is a vampire swinging at her.

She ducks! Then twists around and tries to catch its legs to knock it over.

Nope, it jumps and knocks her into the coffin.

She tries to jump out of it, over the other side to get away from the vampire.

Nope she's punched in the face for her trouble.

So she gets knocked backwards and is slightly dizzy!

But she gets back up relatively promptly and darts in the direction of the entrance.

No she doesn't there's snarling vampire there.

She can try kicking it, she's had practice.

Or punching it in the face, if that has a better opportunity.

This vampire: is better than the newbie she met! It takes the kick and grabs her foot and tries twisting her in the air.

The vampire: is really fucking annoying and she wishes she had more training for this!

She can't really stop herself from twisting around but she can try to hit the vampire as she does so.

Yep that succeeds and the vampire lets go, pushed away against the wall. She finds herself horizontal in the air with gravity pointing in the usual direction.

But she knows how to take a fall and can get up faster than might be expected and is going for the door.

She can escape the mausoleum.

She looks for Norma.

Fighting a vampire.

Eva will attempt to help, if she's not too busy fending off the other one.

The other one attacks her from behind!

Then she'll attempt to fend it off!

With more space it's somewhat easier to deal with the vampire.

She tries to duck attacks and trip it up.

Yep, this works, she has half a second—

– In which she pulls out her stake and stabs into the heart, then pulls out and is ready in case she missed.

Poof.

And over to help Norma.

Yes that's helpful, she's good a fighting but so is this vampire—definitely not a neophyte.

Hopefully Eva doesn't hinder her. She tries to knock this one off-balance too, when she gets an opportunity, or just distract it by giving it a second opponent.

Eva provides them with the necessary distraction for Norma to poof it.

"– You okay?"

"Fine, dear," she says, only panting a little. "This seems to bring us no closer to a solution to our little mystery, however."

"It means they're not all missing, at least, less worst-case-scenario?"

"I'm not so sure..."

Oh look there's a shiny thing there on the ground.

Does the shiny thing look like a bomb that she and Norma should get away from fast – or is it more a curious trinket she might want to pick up?

The latter.

"Do I need to be careful about picking up shiny things, could it be cursed?" She points at said shiny thing.

She looks.

And picks it up herself.

It's an engraved ring.

Can Eva read what's written into it?

Nope, it's a symbol not words.

"Is that a typical mark…?"

"I've never seen it before."

"Any convenient low-power spells that might let us find out?"

"Unlikely. This will require research of the musty tomes variety."

"Got any convenient indexes of symbols?"

"Don't be silly, dear, of course no one'd be so helpful as to compile these things. Especially not the people who write musty old tomes in dead languages."

"… It'd be nice if there were some sort of central library for all this."

"The Watchers' Council has several books, but they were all handwritten and are not particularly organised."

"Should we be going back to get the others, or… going to find this symbol somewhere?"

"We should probably continue patrolling for now and look into the symbol tomorrow."

Nod.

Patrol patrol.

Patrol!

Yawn.

They find no more vampires.

"I will see you tomorrow, then, to look up the symbol?"

"Yes, dearie, and do check up on your friends."

She nods and waves bye to Norma, then checks the time, and sends a text to Sadde asking if she's okay.

Yeah, no vampires, how about you?

A couple, and a shiny symbol to research tomorrow.

Symbol? What of?

No idea! Hence the research. One of the vampires probably dropped it.

Send me a pic?

Norma has it right now.

Pause. "Norma, you still around?"

Silence.

Oh. Guess I'll see it tomorrow, then. Weird.

Yeah. Pretty sure that's everything.

The following day has school, as usual.

Where Theo is present! And planning on catching up on things.

"Hello," Sadde greets. "I think I want a birthday kiss I didn't get yesterday."

Kiss!

"Perpetually annoying how monosexual you are," he sighs, one arm wrapped around Theo's waist and one hand running through his hair.

"I'm sorry for being boring and monosexual," says Theo solemnly.

The image may be slightly ruined by the hair ruffling. Not that Theo seems to mind.

Heeee here have another kiss you're cute.

Kiss!

And then guess who appears!

Well he'll have to disentangle, then. "Hello."

"Hey!" she responds. "Uh, sorry to interrupt, but I have a picture of the shiny thing?"

"Ooh yes shiny thing!"

Picture!

"Shiny thing?" asks Theo. "Oh. A ring?"

"Probably off a vampire."

"Hey, guys."

"Look, shiny thing!"

"Hey." Shiny thing!

"What's this shiny thing?"

"Apparently a vampire had it, we don't know what it is."

"No idea about the symbol, no," says Eva. "I think Norma might be looking into it a bit now and then I'm going to help after school – anybody up for that?"

"Yeah, research on secret Watcher books!"

"Sounds fun."

"I guess?"

"Wonderful!" she smiles. "So, I'll see you all there after school."

Unless anybody has anything to add, off she goes!

"She needs to stay popular, of course."

"I think she maybe has enough popularity already," says Theo.

Eva has returned to her people! There is a large crowd, some who were eyeing the group as she spoke to them, but they are quite engaged in chatter.

She puts her phone away, quite casually.

"But it'll go away if she stays around us too long, black holes of popularity that we are." Pause. "Well, Willow and me, anyway, not you."

"I mean, am I at zero popularity because I hang out with you?"

"I dunno you're still pretty new."

He shrugs. "So there's a shiny thing that maybe fell off a vampire? What else happened last night?"

"Very few vampires, actually, only three. None in the morgue, none at the Bronze. Then we stayed at the Bronze."

"And did you find some horrible group of demons terrorizing people? – I expect I'd know if you had, so, just the shiny object off one of the three vampires?"

"I wasn't with her when she found the ring so that's all I know."

"Oh, was she just… hunting with Norma?"

"Patrolling, yeah. We went with her at first but then there were no vampires and Norma was worried so we stayed at the Bronze—half to keep an eye out for potential vampire threats."

"And didn't find any, I think you said?"

"Nope. Normal night at the Bronze."

"Maybe I should come out more often."

"Would help your popularity."

"I actually meant with you and Eva, but yeah, to the Bronze too."

"Oh. Well, 'more often,' yesterday was literally the first time."