The Lunatic Cafe

Faith was getting old. She can admit it.

Not old physically because duh, slayer. Most girls in her 20s wished they were half as strong as she is. Heck the same could be said for men. Being chosen and all of that.

No, it's more of a state of mind. She was possessed, chosen, in a hellmouth, in a coma for eight months. Been good, evil, then good again. Traveled the world, had six boyfriends. She been a convicted murderer. And through-out her 10 year career as a vampire slayer, she killed a lot of vampires, demons, and saved the world.

Though for the last five years, she put herself on retirement. She's not the 'fighting the never-ending battle' type. Though Faith didn't completely walk away from it. She still to this day, carries a stake in case she spots a vampire or demon killing some bystander or if they try to pluck off a slayer for bragging rights.

She doesn't even like going to night clubs anymore. She tried to back in 2010, but she heard a remix to a Justin Bieber song. She thought to herself at the time that she would rather be in another coma than listen to this crappy music. It was then she knew she wasn't exactly a kid or at the very least a teenager anymore.

This night, Faith was sitting at a bar in Prague. She's currently traveling Europe. She has not been in contact much with the Slayer Brigade, Scoobies..or whatever they call each other since her retirement. She did have an argument with Buffy about it, but Buffy grown to understand, though they never speak to each other anymore. Though various news reports she watched from time to time she knew Buffy was still out there.

In fact, she was watching some report about Buffy and her friends. Though they didn't say what exactly happened, it was reported that some group was saved from some satanic cult...or something.

As she took a swig of her beer, she didn't at first noticed she vanished until she put the bottle down. The table went from being dark wooden table to a white glossy one. Faith sighed a bit. She was use to jumping dimensions unexpectedly, so it made Faith a bit jaded to it, so unlike most people, she wasn't surprised.

Faith just took another swig of her beer before asking. "If this is Red dragging me here to convince me to return to your little group, I'll say it again, not interested."

Since Xander woke up that morning he spent a majority of the day in hiding. Cut off from the world.

Turned off his phone, didnt even turn on his computer.

It was his birthday.

His 30th.

So he went into stealth mode most of the day, but with less than an hour left he decided to come out into the world and into the cafe.

After getting a drink from the bar, he heads outside to enjoy the night air for what remained of his birthday.

It had been a while since Lana had truly let herself sit down and enjoy her time in the Cafe. Her last visit had ended up being more emotional than she expected, but it was probably needed on the part of both party members involved. She had learned a lot about herself since her time away from Smallville and what could have been a curse had ended up being a blessing.

There was the beginning stages of blossoming love. And not the kind of sadistic love you can't resist but just didn't seem to be much good for you in the end. Sure, there were her shares of fears this would end up the same, but... It felt different. She felt confident that this new connection was healthy. Not just for her, but for the other involved.

Taking a seat in her favorite location (where she had met Silence and many of the others she beloved so well here), she wondered if she'd recognize any of the faces here or if all that she knew had found a new way to spend their time.

"There's a break in on the corner of 4th and-" Chloe Sullivan winced as her connection went to static. The white noise screeched into ear and she was forced to tear off her headset as she came to an instant halt, her eyes wide. Unless someone had replaced her base of operations with a dive of a restaurant then this wasn't Watchtower. Where was she and how did she get here? It could be some kind of set up by Checkmate or even Zod. Hadn't they done enough to her already?

In an attempt to escape, Chloe exited the way she came only to find herself in a parking lot. An instant curse flew from her mouth and she reentered the building. She was frustrated, angry, and she wanted to know what the hell was going on and she wanted to know now.

Through the tears and wtfery, Deina somehow managed to survive anything the Nexus put her through. And as luck would have it, the craziness and uncertainty that was her life for the last few years was mysteriously (conveniently) gone. Now she entered in the Cafe with a bill in hand, searching it over with an incredulous look, "Two-hundred and fifty dollars? Really?"

Taking a seat at the bar, she rummaged through page after page before complaining some more, "I mean, who spends that kind of money on porn?"

The asian knew her man sometimes was gone for months at a time with his duties, but that gave no excuse to run up a two-hundred and fifty dollar bill. If she didn't know any better, she would have guessed Imp 13 was behind this. Hmm. An interesting possibility. She'd have to de-wing that little freak. Was she missing a credit card?

Spinning the simple, silver wedding band on her finger, she just couldn't believe this bill. Imp 13 or no, that's a lot of freaking porn.

Dark hair, average height, average build, and grumbling in annoyance under her breath, Alana was hardly a terrifying sight. Of late though, she'd had most of the Jube Hotel in Miami ready to run for cover the moment they realized she was headed for them. "MARCY!" she bellowed, a voice meant to carry over the chatter in a crowded lobby. Only then did she look up, partly scowling, from the stack of papers in her hands.

And her jaw dropped. "Uh, sorry..." she mentioned to the eyes that had turned in her direction. This was not the lobby. She glanced behind her, then ahead, and found herself baffled. What the heck was all this?

Moving out of the way of the door to let someone passed, Alana moved into the cafe proper and plopped down on the first seat that she came to. Something was seriously screwed up here.

Walking through the doors Emily cracked her neck. Much like her mother she wore a disguise when going hunting, only she didn't see the allure of a bag lady with a baby. So she opted for a Catholic school girl uniform, that seemed to draw out the vampires just fine. However, she had the mouth of her father Hannibal as well as the attitude. Hours ago her uniform had been in perfect condition, now it was dirty with blood and ash and torn a little.

Crossing the floor she sat down in a corner and relaxed, it had only been a handful of vampires she'd faced but that proved to be a bit harder than she had thought. Her first hunt alone, at least she wasn't dead. Just a little sore, a small cut on her arm and bottom lip was swollen.

Her tongue flicked over her lip and she whimpered lightly. She didn't care about the looks she got. One guy was looking at her, his eyes traveling up her legs and she snorted, shifting the other direction.

"I need a drink.. or ten."

Her fingers started to tear apart a napkin as she stared at the table.

Xander walks into the cafe, his right arm in a cast. He could have had some healing potion or Goddess Silence heal the arm, but this was a battle scar he was pleased to have.

How many people help go against an evil alien AI and live to tell the tale.

He had spent most of the day doing next to nothing...mostly watching True Blod on HBO, his current guilty pleasure.

He orders his usual meal at the counter and finds a booth, sipping his drink as he crowd watched.

Walking into the Lunatic Cafe, it only takes a moment before a groan came from the newest, teenage patron.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me," Mikaela Banes started, her annoyance not failing to show. Her tone lowers to a mutter to herself as she adds, "I'm not sure how, but I bet this is somehow your fault Sam Witwicky."

Curiosity killed the cat they say, but for the raven-haired beauty, it instead brought wonders that most people had only fantasized about. If only she hadn't followed that strange boy she hardly knew from school, she probably wouldn't have been in this mess.

First, giant, Japanese-style robots. Now she was ending up in places she had never even dreamed of. Why couldn't she end up in nice places like Paris? She was only a teenager. Surely her mind wasn't equipped to deal with stresses of traveling to strange worlds and meeting sentient beings from a dying planet.

Was that a monster from a movie she had seen over there?

"Wherever you and your alien car are, you could show up at any second now...," she murmured quietly, obviously unnerved at the idea that she was all alone. She didn't like how that... thing over there was like... looking at her like she was a sandwich, "Go vegetarian buddy. It's better for your health or something."

Not that she had the nerve to say that within earshot. Or wait. Why was he looking at her as if he heard her? Shit.

Oh Sam was so dead. If she lived to frantically tell him about it that is.

Xander is on his laptop working dilligently. On what is anyone's guess.

They'd have to ask to find out what exactly he was doing. But one thing is for sure...he is not looking at porn.

A Chocolate Explosion appears next to him. He hadn't ordered it, but it seems one of his favorite people in the cafe brought it to him.

He looks up and gives the person a smile. "Thank you. Chocolate Explosion. My one weakness."

Xander, dressed in a dressy casual outfit, and looking slightly nervous walks into the cafe drinking a bottled water.

He puts it down and sets the table up for a game of pool.

As he's playing a solo game he hears two guys at another table complaining about being hustled by "some hot chick" the night before.

Xander chuckles knowing one of the few females who would do that.

"Lois Lane strikes again," He thinks to himself.

Abigail walks into the cafe, limping slightly, a thin trail of blood dripping from her nose and looks around. She's covered in black smudges of what might be dirt but is more likely ash and the odd odor of sulfur hung around her. Ah the life if a vampire hunter, it truly is so luxurious.

"there by chance a doctor here.. or a stiff drink?"

Everyone's favorite "porn star" (who actually was not a porn star at all) had been missing off any of the Cafe's radars for a while. It was as if she was around one day and not heard from in months the next. But now, here she was, wandering in with a confused expression on her face. She seemed as dazed as she was the first time she stepped foot in the Cafe years ago. Only this time, at least she was lacking the mech suit. Baby blue eyes that seemed unheard of for a woman of Japanese decent traveled around. She recognized the place... yet didn't. It was like the word at the tip of your tongue but you couldn't speak for some reason. Strange. Was this some weird reoccurring dream? Reaching to pinch herself, she muttered, "Ouch. That definitely hurt. So why does that guy over there still have two heads...?"

Xander enters the cafe holding a small wrapped box.

He heads to Buffy's office and places the gift on her desk with a tulip.

Xander is in the cafe and seems he has been for a while adding more decorations to the cafe.

He puts on Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a bad name" as he adds ornaments to the christmas tree.