all_inclusive | Like shadows in the faded light, we're invisible.

As if not being home wasn't bad enough, Dawn has been getting sicker and sicker by the day. She'd barely even been out of bed in a week. This morning she had rolled out of bed feeling just a little bit better after having slept for twenty-four hours straight. She had shuffled her way through a shower that only added to her feeling better. Wearing a white tank top with a purple glittered star on it and some purple pajama pants, she combed through the tangles in her hair and picked up a blow dryer to start working the heat through her hair. Today would be a straight hair sort of day, no curls because she didn't have the energy for it. As her hair dried, the steam slowly filtered away from the mirror, giving her a better image of herself in the reflection.

She dropped the blow dryer. Blinked. Looked again. Blinked again. Squinted her eyes. How could she see things behind her? Through herself? She looked behind her, just to check and make sure that she was seeing what was behind her through herself. Then she looked back to the mirror. She lifted her hand, seeing the bathroom counter through it. Her heartbeat thudded loudly in her chest. So loud that she swore she could feel it throughout her entire body inside and out.

And this is what had her barreling barefoot through the hotel hallways looking for Buffy or Angel or Peter or yes, even Faith who had no idea who she was. The ghostly see-through girl calling out as she ran from one place to another until she couldn't run anymore. "Buffy?" Each time she rounded a corner or hit a new floor or corridor of the hotel she called out. "Buffy!" She might run into people and apologize before she hurried on her way to find her sister. Or she might stop to talk if anyone wanted to.

Eventually, tired and spent, she would end up plopping down on one of the couches in the lobby, a box of kleenex beside her and a book in her lap. The couch could be seen through her and every once in awhile she lifted her hand to look through it at things, trying to gauge whether it was getting better or worse. Her eyes were puffy from crying. Her nose was red from sniffling. She was generally a train wreck of a person right now. But she figured anyone would be if they were slowly disappearing.

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He rubs a hand at the back of his neck. "Fake law degree," he says half out of the edge of his mouth. Whether or not she hears isn't really relevant.

But he is listening as she goes on with the story. Now, Harvey's a lawyer and he's heard some fantastical bullshit stories before - even some fantastical non-bullshit ones - but the yarn she's spinning at him right now is downright head-spin-inducing.

There's a chair in here right? In the room? Because Harvey's going to need one really soon or he's going to be sitting on the floor. This is a bit much for even his Trek-filled brain to roll together into sense.

He blinks at her, hand pressed against the wall or a piece of large furniture for balance. "I'm sorry, what?" Because, yeah, none of that actually made any sense to him - something about keys and locks and gods - what?.

She caught that muttering and filed it away for now. Mostly because he looked like he might be getting sick. There are chairs and a couch in the room. "Key. Ancient mystical energy. Tears down walls between dimensions. Hell goddess wants. Dragon order protecting. Byzantium Knights hinting down to destroy."

She pauses, shrugging. "Cliffs notes version."

He rubs a hand over his face, mostly to avoid giving her the 'you have got to be fucking shitting me' look he can feel creeping over his features. He mumbles, "What the hell have I gotten myself into?" behind his hand.

The hand comes down and he looks at the young woman across the room. "You know this makes you sound insane, right?" At least it would in his world. "I've been here a few months and seen some wacky shit, but most of it was still in the realm of reality - at least for me. But now you're telling me that you're not a person, but some mystical energy entity?" He scratches at the back of his head. "Did I die and wake up as Captain Kirk?"

She can't refute any of that. Harvey had just gotten himself into some weird stuff. Yes, to normal people who had lived normal lives this would all sound so very insane. And she was some mystical energy entity. There was one thing though. "As far as cool military type leaders though, you strike me more as an Agent Coulson."

But Dawn had experience with this. She knew some people couldn't handle the wacky shit. The fact that Harvey was still standing here said a lot though. And that's why she continues. "So they did a spell. They as in the Order of the Dragon. Their spell took some of the Slayer's blood and used dark magic to make the key mortal. They knew that the Knights and the Hellgoddess and anyone wouldn't think to look in a person." She lifts one hand and waggles her fingers. "That would be me."

He arches an eyebrow at her. "Are you saying that I'm not cool enough to be Kirk?" Besmirching the good Captain is never a good idea in Harvey's presence. It isn't that he doesn't know who Coulson is, but that he's really more of a Trek fan.

He's not sure he's quite sold on the whole 'magic' angle, but Dawn seems to believe all of this to be true and he is seeing a translucent person in front of him, so, 'not' believing is kind of off the table at this point. His face bends into a frown. "So, because you're made of Slayer blood and mystical energy, you think you shouldn't exist and now you're disappearing?" he asks. "Have you considered that believing that you should exist would reverse this?" Belief in a thing makes it real, right?

"Sure you are, but what would you wanna be when you could be a Coulson?" She answers without missing a beat. "I mean both have the cool factor, just different brands of cool. You're definitely a Coulson."

She gives him a look, hands going to her hips. "I am not Tinker Bell."

He leaves the Kirk v. Coulson debate for later. It's not actually the most important aspect of what's going on at the moment.

Forgive him for laughing entirely out loud at both the look and her statement. He really can't help it. That wasn't the angle he was taking at all, but it's more fitting than expected.

"Does that make the suggestion wrong? Or just embarrassing?"

Like shadows in the faded light, we're invisible.

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