[TenSpot] Angel: Redemption

Ten Things Angel is glad Angelus hates about his own redemption.

01. Saving the puppy. The little guy was cute, and while he's not exactly eager to get a pet now, he's glad to have made up for the "other" puppy incident.

02. Barry Manilow. The first time he heard I Write the Songs, he felt a kinship to the 'Man'ilow. Lyrics like that are meant to be listened to... understood.

03. Pigs blood... even with a bit of otter, thanks to Harmony.. which sounds odd even now. It's not that bad, and really taking from blood banks when the blood supply is so low is completely wrong.

04. Not giving into every woman's whim to thank him for saving them. He's a fan of the opposite sex, he's just learned over time to place a lot more respect on them... and on sex.

05. The Gypsy Curse. It is the one thing keeping his soul in tact, and he's learned to respect it and it's boundaries.

06. Risking everything for everyone else. No matter who he saves, or what he stops from doing whatever it planned, he knows that deep inside Angelus is crying out in agony having to watch it all transpire.

07. Being friends with strong women like Buffy, Cordelia, Faith, Fred... he knows they are his equals, sometimes more than that.

08. Using his artistic skills not to creep people out. Leaving drawings of women in slumber is not artistic license as so much as it is just an invasion.

09. Brooding. He thinks about his redemption all the time. All the mistakes, all the lives he took... all the wrongs he did. All the time.

10. Not letting him win when it could have been so easy to give up when his soul had been stolen.

[TenSpot] A Starting Point to the Madness...

Funny thing about prophecies... generally you never think they are true until the day you realize you just lost every chance of it really happening. There's a moment... maybe a split second or a hair of a fraction of time where you can actually pause long enough to realize you should be kicking your own ass for what you did a few months back.

For Angel... it was signing away the Shanshu prophecy. A fine scrawl of blood across the parchment and he signed away something he always claimed never to put much faith in... until the day he realized just what doing that did.

Floodgates baby, floodgates.

The domino effect happens quickly and once that first little stroke of black connects to the next one, there is no stopping it. He signed that piece of paper and thought he was getting some insider information on the Black Thorne. In the smallest sense of the word he was. He had seen their faces... heard their names and stared into the face of what he thought was the ranks of evil lining up for some imaginary battle over the good souls and the wicked ones. He signed his buddies up for a night of rock 'em sock 'em fighting and ended up nearly dead amongst the bodies in the alley that rainy night.

See maybe someone should have come... someone other than his rag tag gang of Private Investigators. Someone other than a street thug, a washed up Goddess and a Vampire... but they didn't know did they Angel? They had no clue who you were... or even what you were in the middle of.

What a shame. Maybe if you hadn't been so wrapped up in making things write for everyone that you cared about? You might have stood a chance.

So now what? Oh this is where the signature on the line falls into place. This is where the big boys finally get to play. Because when it's down to you and Them... They're going to win. They'll be sorry that you've been fighting on the wrong side of their war, but it was still a nice effort on their part.

So they rewind the clocks. Fold over time.

You didn't think that only color shifting Deities with a hankering for old crap could do that did you? They did it for you once... remember Buffy and all that silly ice cream eating? So they do it again... for Them. Because... they don't like to lose.

So there is a slight moment of deja vu for you... and still you sign on the dotted line. You can't quite shake some odd feeling in the back of your mind that maybe... maybe this is a mistake and all I'm doing is sitting back and waiting. I know it's coming because I saw it all rewind. Protected deep down buried somewhere that you'd prefer not to recall... oh but I'm there. The little act you put up... pretending to be some slight impersonation of me is almost insulting and if I could beat you down for it I would.

Oh and there's the prize... walking into the room. Cyrus Vail says that it's an insurance policy... but really it's because he knows what's going on. He's the one you should have choked the second he wheezed wrong on you.

Shhhh... don't fight it Angel. You always were a sucker for the good fight. Still those mystical hands are reaching in and in a moment... just a little bit longer... I'll be back.


[ooc: This is a rewrite for canon of Angel/Angelus. Canon played out then when Angel was the last one standing in the alley the Partners rewound time to when Angel signed away the Shanshu. That rewritten day they also removed his soul for "safe-keeping" thus releasing Angelus. Then Angelus played the part of Angel. ALL Canon events from Season Five took place the way they did on the show, just with the guise that Angelus was pretending to be Angel pretending to be Angelus... confused yet? The big battle comes, the rain... the alley... The Partners Give Up. They tell "Angel" that he's won. They withdraw from Los Angeles and hand over the LA Branch to "Angel" to do with as he pleases. It's still Angelus, playing the part... and the Partners are still there... underneath it all. But only those that know, will ever know the truth. All of my RP and Challenge responses will be based off of THIS arc of canon.]

[TenSpot] Leather Pants

Ten Reasons Why or Why Not: Leather Pants

01. Why: No Chaffing. My skin is naturally a bit cooler on the surface, so the sweat factor... not an issue.

02. Why Not: Dry cleaning. Have you ever tried to get blood out of leather? Forget it.

03. Why: They do look good on me. It's the build I think. Stronger frame?

04. Why Not: Spike. He's worn them. The black jeans for a while, but he's done the leather pants... gold necklace... I just don't want to even go there.

05. Why: I was evil for a while. Fashion doesn't have to equate to evil.

06. Why Not: Office work. It is the professional image I guess. Leather pants and a suit jacket seem... in appropriate. I have Hugo Boss suits, they're sharp.

07. Why: Apparently Faith thinks it looks good? But I haven't really seen her in a while. I'm sure she can add to this list of why's.

08. Why Not: It's summer in LA. While I don't care about the weather, retailers do. Leather pants don't sell this season.

09. Why: I do own several pairs. Why let them go to waste just sitting in the closet.

10: Why Not: I feel more comfortable in other things. Like Faith

[note for strikethrough in entries: this is angelus using the 'delete' key. No one can see the strikethrough.]