Fourth Floor Common Room, Saturday Afternoon

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley was hiding in the common room.

It was, in all honesty, not the best hiding place, but that's where he was hiding. Mainly because he was afraid if he went to his room, his roommate might be entertaining visitors, and he was kind of afraid to know what her friends and family were like.

So. Common room. Hiding from his father and doing homework. Should go well.

Comments

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

Someone didn't have any visitors, so that left a lot of free time this weekend. Free time that involved returning one shiny, shiny jacket.

"Thank you," Maladicta said, offering over the article of clothing like a peace offering.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Yay shiny jacket! His closet full of dorky clothes had missed its company.

Looking up from his homework, Wes accepted the peace offering. "Thank you," he said. Yeah, he was going to want to wash this, probably. Not that vampire dust on his clothes wasn't a trendy fashion statement or anything. "I take it there haven't been any side effects from your - de-staking?"

Hey, he couldn't help the incredibly dorky things he was curious about.

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

It was a magical closet with magical clothing. And we can only pray the island would not that that seriously.

God help us all if it did.

"Other than mud caked onto my scalp, no. It's all very mundane after the first few times."

Which told you a lot about where she was from, really.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

The first... few times. He took a moment to absorb that.

"So that was a regular occurence for you?" he inquired, leaning forward. "Do all vampires in your home dimension have that ability?"

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

"When you've been alive for a certain amount of time, it tends to happen," She replied dismissively. "And of course." There was a pause. "...they don't here?"

What kind of horrible world was this?

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Huh. He mulled it over.

"I'm not certain about here, but in my dimension, vampires that have been killed do not reconstitute themselves, no," he said.

Except for sometimes.

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Do they... sparkle?" Damn you, Alexander.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"No," he said cautiously.

Well, he'd known a woman at the Watchers' Academy who'd done her thesis paper on a vampire who'd been known to wear sparkly black nail polish all the time. But he was a weirdo anyway.

"No," he said again, more emphatically. "Er. Have you met some that do?"

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Alexander mentioned that in regards to vampires once." It had killed a something inside her. Vampires were cool, not dazzling!

...Dazzling would be elves, after all.

"The few others I've met here have been very different."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wes would probably be quicker to say that vampires were evil, not dazzling, but the contrast was there. Anyway, wrong crowd.

"Yes, the, ah, the vampires I knew back home were not sparkly at all," he said, feeling like something of an authority on the subject. "And I haven't had much of a chance to interact with those here. Although you seem quite different from the ones that I'm familiar with," he added.

Totally a compliment.

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

"I gather that's a good thing." Since she wasn't a pile of ash again. Not that she really thought he could, but it would be interesting to see the attempt!

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Oh, the attempt would be hilarious. Unsuccessful, but very enthusiastic. And it would probably feature a great deal of tripping over things. Including his own feet.

"Yes, yes, it's - it's a good thing," he said, amused.

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

"You seem less disturbed by this than most people," Maladicta said, taking a seat.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"I'm - accustomed to vampires," he said vaguely.

Accustomed in that he'd been trained for seventeen years to help teenage girls kill them, hence his being on that patrol the other night. But still. He was used to them.

"In fact, I worked with one this past spring," he added, going for a politically-correct interpretation of events.

Suddenly self-conscious, he asked, "Why? How do most people act?"

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Generally that I'm plotting to suck their blood," Maladicta replied, proud that she managed to say the b word without a twitch. "I haven't done that in over two years now, you know."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

He felt like he was supposed to give a compliment there, so he offered, "That's very impressive."

"Er - and you're able to survive that way?"

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Oh, yes. It's all a matter of self control." A beat. "And I have my coffee instead."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"I've always read that vampires deprived of blood for an extended period of time begin to go mad," he said thoughtfully. "I suppose it could be a myth, or a trait unique to vampires from my dimension..."

Thus a week-long research session is born.

[nohaircutsplz]

"Excuse me," Medusa said, leaning in the doorway but not quite coming in, "but have you seen my sister? Is she making out with someone on one of these couches?" If she sounded a bit frantic, well: see above.

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Where I'm from, as long as we have something else to focus on, it's possible."

Just god help you if you get between her and a pot of coffee.

"Can they turn into bats as well? Or mist? Or cross running water?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wes, being too British for coffee, was probably not going to be a threat in that department, no.

"There are some glamours that certain vampires assume that allow them to turn into different animals, yes," Wesley said, thinking of the accounts some of the Watchers back at the Academy had given about Dracula. "And mist as well. I'm not certain about the running water, however; I'd have to consult a book."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Er."

Wes looked around the room, not really expecting to make any huge discoveries, then turned back to face her. "No, not to my knowledge. Why?"

[inneedofcoffee.livejournal.com]

"Glamours?" Maladicta asked. "I thought only wizards and witches did those."

[nohaircutsplz]

"Because she's here and they didn't tell me she was coming and I can't find her and she's going to steal all of my shoes!" Medusalith wailed complained.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah. But thousand-year-old been-around-the-block vamps like Drac tended to pick up a few of those tricks.

"For the most part, yes," he conceded. "Hoewver, some particularly old vampires - one well-known one in particular - have a tendency to acquaint themselves with those types of abilities. Mainly to show off, really."

Dude, it was ridiculous how much he'd missed giving informational lectures.