fandomhigh | Library [2/6/2006]

Angel came in looking for Parker.

Who was twirling on her chair, bored out of her mind. "Hey," she said on one spin-pass, then stopped herself.

"Hey," Angel said. "Does the spinning help?"

"Keeps me from re-arranging the library according to a system only I know. So yes." Parker raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you want that info I found?"

"Hit me," Angel said. "Not literally."

"The good news? It's not easy to remove your soul. Bad news? It is possible." Parker sighed and pulled out her notebook. "Aside from your 'perfect happiness' clause-- which I don't see a way around, from what Miss Calendar said-- there's at least two magical ways to remove your soul. You'd need a fairly high-level practicioner of the magic arts for both, but once you had that, and the right artifacts, you'd be screwed, Wings."

"I miss the old days when avoiding being screwed was all I needed to do to take care of this," Angel said. "Not saying it didn't make me cranky, but at least it was one less thing to worry about."

"Tell me about it." Parker looked grim. "And if I found two methods? There's probably a couple more out there that I didn't find. However, if a shaman from the order of Kun-Sun-Dai approaches you, run like hell. Or ask us to lock you up. They're definitely one of the ones that could do it."

She shot him a piercing look. "I did find a way to tell if you'd had a spell put on you-- but I'm thinking that I shouldn't tell you about it."

"The less I know the better," Angel said. "If Angelus does come back I don't want him knowing how to trick anyone. On the other hand, if I start trying to kiss everyone in this school again I'm hoping you'll do whatever it takes to stop me."

"Even if it involves flamethrowers." She shook her head. "But I'd rather get Bel some goddamn therapy. He's the most immediate threat. Even your exes aren't the problem he is."

"How's he dealing with Marty?" Angel asked. "We need to put Blank under lockdown for his own safety?"

Parker looked perplexed. "I would've recommended that earlier today because they were doing their usual glare-hate-smolder routine, only with more focus on Bel's part, but then-- I don't know. They got to talking, and when they were done, Bel didn't look like he wanted to kill Blank any more. I have no idea what Marty said to him. It was extremely weird."

"Maybe Bel's still feeling the effects of the, uh," Angel glanced upward, "study group?"

Parker looked around, glanced upward and sideways, then gave Angel a shrug. "Maybe? I made a note of the, um, resources Marty used to help him out on Friday, if we need to use them again. The same way I've got notes on your curse stashed somewhere safe. Your guess is probably better than mine about Bel's mental state. Did he talk to you during the Superbowl party last night?" She shook her head. "I can't believe he had to ask if it was football. That's just sad."

"He did? Awh, man. I knew Phoebe had him pus - uh," Angel hastily changed what he'd been about to say, "busy but I didn't think it was so bad he'd forgotten how to be a guy."

Parker gave him a look for what she damn well knew he'd been about to say, then rolled her eyes. "While I'm sure she could have him crocheting doilies if she took him back, Bel said the Underworld didn't have a team. Then he got into an *odd* conversation with Mitchell, facilitated by Camboy being drugged up. I didn't really get it." She made a face. "How can he think he doesn't have a choice about what he does if he has a soul?"

Angel gave a look back that said he knew full well that he'd nearly given Parker more than enough reason to kill him using a pair of her lesser-loved shoes.

"My guess? The Source," Angel said. "It's got him all wound up about what he should and shouldn't do. That's why he's so loyal to Angelus in spite of all evidence pointing to that being a dumb idea."

"He can't afford to be wrong?" Parker guessed, then frowned. "Damnit, don't make me pity him. I'm still pissed off at him on multiple counts. How dead can the Source make him, anyway? He's here, not in his home dimension."

"According to Bel, pretty dead," Angel said. "But it can be more than that. My minions never feared me killing them. For some of them a good day was when all I asked was for them to kill themselves by delivering a message in broad daylight."

"It's things like *that* which make me never regret what we did, whatever the hell the morality of that curse was." Parker shook her head. "And what is this Source the Source of, anyway? All presents? Lycra? The River Nile? Can't Bel defect, the defective?"

"~~Emo~~ Evil, supposedly," Angel said. "Mind you I've met the First on my dimension and wasn't really impressed."

"Frak. This is the kind of thing that makes me wish for a philosophy course, or a religious degree. Evil made tangible, the Fall from Eden made comic book, next thing I know I'll be meeting Mephistopheles at Jeff, God of Biscuits. And probably the only thing we'd do is discuss Prada and Sartre." Parker shook her head. "Is Callisto feeling better? Are you? No one's called you or Aeryn on the carpet yet?"

"Callisto's doing better," Angel said. "She's up for going to the common rooms and, uh, you know. I'm doing okay too. Not saying I like getting stabbed with a sword, but it's livable. And no, nobody's said anything yet. Not sure if that makes me happy or scared."

"Maybe no one will. Maybe we'll get a pass on this, and..." Parker grimaced. "Yeah, I don't buy that either. I think our illustrious substitute-principal will have no idea, but someone's going to bust us eventually. Too many people know now." She sighed. "But we all lived to get detention. That's what counts."

Angel nodded. "We got 15 vampires out of town. That's huge. Plus whatever Darla and Dru planned we had to have shaken up. We did good."

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