The Roof, Wednesday Afternoon

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley hadn't handwavily gotten back to Fandom until late last night, and he was still in something of a funk about everything that had happened.

Fired. Again.

The last time he'd been fired, he'd been sent here as punishment. Now he'd been fired from the job he'd intended to take on after graduation, and he... hadn't applied to university. Hadn't even thought of it very much, to be honest; the idea of going away to university now after having worked on the Hellmouth and gone to school at Fandom and worked for Angel for two years, dealing with all the crises that emerged along the way (the mayor's Ascension, Panem, the rock, the disappearances and memory alterations, Faith...) was... a bit preposterous, really. But now he had nothing to do but possibly see if his father might take him back in, and, well. Wesley didn't really much want to do that at all.

So. Here he stood. Brooding. Because that would solve the problem.

At least he wasn't drinking?

[[open roof of broodiness, la.]]

Comments

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

No, Wesley. No. The brooding would END THE WORLD.

. . . the leather would be kind of hot, though.

"You can't blame yourself for that," Gabrielle told him. "You only tried because you were concerned."

See how she automatically assumed the best intentions there? It was a thing she did.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Xena and Angelus, then?

"Yes, but not very well," Wesley reminded her lightly. "It was my responsibility to -- help guide him, and I failed."

Wes, let's bring the issues down to about a two, okay?

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Bring the issues, Wes. BRING THEM.

"You can't shoulder all the blame for his choices, though," Gabrielle pointed out gently. "We do what we can, but people --" vampires, whatever, not like she could judge on that point after her brief stint with the Bacchae -- "have free will for a reason. To take that away from them would diminish both us and them."

Sure, there had been that time she'd hit Xena over the head with a rake for going into "KILL 'EM ALL!" mode, but that was before she went nonviolent.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

...Pre-nonviolent Gabs, that was KINDA BADASS.

"I suppose," Wesley granted. "But -- that is to say -- he's had experiences being, ah, less than entirely philanthropic in the past. And whatever's happened, I worry I may be partially responsible for another... regression to his prior self."

See the unnecessary guilt, Gabs? See it?

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

And this was why she was due to get eyerolled at by the world's most annoying scrappy wannabe Amazon who would also go on to help eat Principal Flutie in a future life for her peacenik ways, Wesley.

"Why do you think that?" Gabrielle asked him, her voice dropping a pitch or two because this was how you knew she was serious.

Speaking of those peacenik ways, be glad she's sticking to them now, Wes, or she might have smacked you if you kept up the unnecessary guilting.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Entirely too susceptible to girls with logic and serious eyes, Wesley glanced away. "He has two modes, really," he said, shrugging a bit helplessly. "The, ah. Rampaging and torturing of innocents, and the helping the helpless. This certainly isn't the latter, so..."

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle winced in the way of someone who was entirely too familiar with the former mode.

"He might be getting tempted back toward the former." She rolled her eyes. "Ares never quits trying that with Xena."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Ever with any success?" Wesley asked, looking wary of the response.

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

"He's come close a few times." Gabrielle rolled her eyes again. NOT THAT SHE WAS JEALOUS BECAUSE ARES'S METHODS TENDED TOWARD THE 'SEDUCTION' END OF THE SCALE OR ANYTHING. "It's never really stuck, though."

She bit her lip. "It isn't always because of him, though. Sometimes there are other things that tempt her."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Things Wesley had never needed to know about his roommate's dad for $1000!

Wesley paused, pondering the similarities that had come up in this conversation so far.

"...you don't know of any particular 'perfect happiness' clause, do you?" he asked. JUST TO BE SURE!

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

DIFFERENT ARES, WESLEY. GOD.

. . . appropriate narrative exclamation, that.

"Only if she decided she's never allowed to have it," Gabrielle decided. "Which sometimes I wonder if she has, but . . . no. Nothing like that."

A beat.

"Unless there's something she's not telling me, which wouldn't be a shock."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Ah." Wesley nodded, digesting that. "Angel -- he was, ah, cursed by gypsies, actually. He has a soul -- a sort of conscience -- but if he ever experiences perfect happiness, he's to lose it and revert to the, ah. Killing and torturing."

So, you know, it was a fun kind of life.

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle took all that in, then winced visibly.

"And I thought the punishments Hades came up with were cruel -- that's the worst thing I've ever heard. I'm so sorry for him . . ."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley wondered briefly if he'd become too accustomed to Angel's... condition, to no longer have that sort of reaction. That was probably a bad thing.

"It's not easy for him, to be sure," he agreed after a moment. "And that particular, ah, caviat wasn't even made clear to him until long after he'd been cursed, and he'd already experienced that."

So... oops.

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Well, Gabrielle was also empathetic to a fault, so there was that. Nearly four years of traveling with Xena, and she still cried a little bit for the casualties of every major battle they dealt with.

"I can't imagine that it is," she murmured. "Especially finding out afterward -- that had to be the worst of all."

She wouldn't be Gabrielle if she didn't seize on a glimmer of hope, though, and she brightened.

"You say it's happened to him before -- that means there's a way back from it, doesn't it?" Theoretically you could ask Kennedy, but that wasn't so much happening right now.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"There is," Wesley agreed. "It's a very complicated spell -- only one person that I know is able to do it." Even though, you know, she'd been seventeen and badly injured at the time. Because that made sense. "But the ingredients are difficult to come by, and... when he's soulless, he tends to take the necessary measures to try to avoid being re-ensouled." Yes, Angelus was crafty that way.

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

By the logic (such as it was) of Gabrielle's world that made perfect sense. What this said about either of their worlds was probably best left inconclusive.

"Also unsurprising," she noted. "But we're getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we? Assuming that's going to happen again this time?"

That was more pessimism than she cared to indulge, thank you.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"I suppose," Wesley admitted, some of the tension going out of his posture. "But it's difficult not to be concerned, considering the sorts of things he's gotten up to in the past."

He sighed, and paced along the ledge, then said a bit apologetically, "I don't mean to trouble you with this. It's just... stressful."

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

"I already told you it isn't any trouble," Gabrielle reminded him with a smile. "How are you going to help him if you're going to be too stressed to think clearly, anyway?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"You've got a point there," he admitted, cracking a smile. "Thank you. For, ah. Listening, and everything."

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle all but beamed at him. "Thank you. It's nice to know people recognize that I have a point sometimes."

Xena.

"If it's the least I can do to help, I'm happy to do it."