Fifth Floor Common Room, Monday Evening

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

There was a fruitcake in Wesley's room.

He'd never thought Alex the sort to keep uncovered fruitcakes around, but it wasn't his business, so he didn't touch it and simply moved to the common room with something to read. Just as he sat down and opened his book, he happened to spot, out of the corner of his eye, another fruitcake. Just sitting there. Right next to him.

That was worrisome.

Abandoning the couch for a moment, Wesley moved the cake over to the counter and covered it with plastic wrap, so that anyone who wanted it could feel free to help themselves.

When he sat back down? There it was again.

Oh, blast.

[[Open like a common room, yep!]]

Comments

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Oh, well, fruitcake can be quite tasty, actually," Wesley offered, brightening a little. "Though to be fair, eating anything conjured by the island is likely a bad idea."

Because sometimes it had teeth.

[walkswithcoyote]

That got a skeptical glance. "I can't say I've ever had a tasty piece of fruitcake," Mercy said. "But you have a point about not eating any island things, I suppose."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

It was the British thing, Mercy. Terrible tastes in dessert went with the package. Try not to judge too harshly.

"Just with the, ah, transformations and all of that, it seems like a wise idea," Wesley summarized.

[walkswithcoyote]

She'd go with brownies any day.

Mercy nodded. "I can see that. Has, um... anything bad ever happened to people who ate the stuff or is this more a 'better be safe than sorry' sort of thing?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"The latter," Wesley reassured her, smiling. "At least, as far as I know."

[walkswithcoyote]

She considered that thoughtfully as she got up to put water on to make hot chocolate. "Makes sense. Oh, do you want some hot chocolate? Or tea or something?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Tea would be lovely, thank you," Wesley said warmly.

Unless all the teabags had been replaced by fruitcakes.

"I'm sorry, can you remind me of your name?"

[walkswithcoyote]

Nope. Still teabags. Though she couldn't vouch for the taste of them. Fruitcake flavored tea, perhaps?

She added enough water for another person and set it on the burner before turning back. "Sorry. I'm Mercy. Mercedes Thompson."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Wesley Wyndam-Pryce," Wesley said back, abandoning the fruitcake-covered couch in favor of coming over to the kitchen area. "Pleasure to meet you."

[walkswithcoyote]

She extended her hand to shake. "Nice to meet you, Wesley. How long have you been here?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"About a year and a half, give or take," he answered, shaking her hand. "And yourself?"

[walkswithcoyote]

Since May," Mercy said. "I came in for the summer sessions this year. I didn't really think I'd like it here, but it's been great for me."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"That's how I felt as well," Wesley offered. "It's an... interesting sort of place. And I say that having come from a number of, er, equally eccentric places in the past." Watchers' Academy. Sunnydale. LA. "Where are you from?"

[walkswithcoyote]

"I'm - well, I grew up in a little town in Montana, but now... well, my mother's in Portland, so I guess technically that's where I'm from now."

Yeah, that was hard to explain. But it wasn't like she could tell him about growing up werewolf.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Actually Wes would just dork out about that. Foreeeeever.

"Must be quite a change, being here," he said thoughtfully.

[walkswithcoyote]

Let her start telling people she was a coyote first. Maybe then she'd get over the taboo about teling people about the werewolves.

"It's very different," she said. "But strangely, I feel like I fit in better here than anywhere else I've been."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Likewise," Wesley offered with a soft little smile. "People are, as a rule, a bit more welcoming here than elsewhere."

Said the guy who'd been loathed at the Watchers' Academy, loathed in Sunnydale, and (if you asked him, anyway) was only barely tolerated in LA.

[walkswithcoyote]

"Yeah," Mercy said softly. "Nobody here hates me just because of who I am. And no one's tried to kill me since I got here either."

Try being a coyote in a werewolf world.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Well..." Give it a few months, Mercy. "Even if you had been," Wesley said in his best attempt at diplomacy, "I'm sure the island would easily rectify it."

HELPFUL, WES. HELPFUL.

[walkswithcoyote]

She blinked at him. "Are you trying to say that if one of the students killed me, the island would, what? Bring me back to life?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Not killed," he said hastily. "But, er, in a situation like the one from a few weeks ago, with the, ah, Auditors and such, it seemed to be fairly impermanent. So, ah. I wouldn't be too terribly concerned!"

[walkswithcoyote]

"Oh, great." She rolled her eyes. "Well, if anyone decides to try and kill me for being a coyote, I'll keep that in -" Shit. "- mind."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Oh!" Wesley said. "I didn't realize that's what you meant. No, no, there shouldn't be any of that at all here. People are really quite, quite tolerant."

He wasn't judging, just clarifying. Really, he'd been acquainted with individuals of all different species for years now; the coyote thing didn't faze him much at all.

[walkswithcoyote]

"I shouldn't have said that," she said nervously. "I'm not really supposed to talk about it. Well... I sort of technically can, but..."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Oh, no trouble at all," Wesley said, glancing around for squirrels who might well have been attracted by the fruitcake. "I won't mention it to anyone."