Room 504, Tuesday Evening

[wesleynotponcy]

As it turned out, shadowing someone was tiring. Wesley found that out the hard way today, in between trips to the hallway where the Ethics classroom was and trips to the vending machines for bottles of water, when he found himself exhausted all of a sudden. Thinking back on what Kenzi had said at the picnic, he reluctantly decided that at some point, a nap had to happen, and that point was now.

So that brought him to his dorm on Tuesday evening, where he quietly slipped into bed, feeling guilty about it all the while. He did, however, leave the door cracked and his phone on. Just in case.

It would only be a quick nap anyway...

[[Airport lounge WiFi = obligatory room post for the only non-animal I have! I'll be around for like two hours before I haveta get on a plane, but Wes is botherable!]]

Comments

[godofxbox]

When Alex returned to the room, he was kind of surprised to find his roommate--well. In their room. He'd been gone a lot lately, Alex was pretty sure. Also, Wesley was in bed already. So those stealth skills of his were definitely going to be called into use. If only he could see in the dark so he wouldn't have had to turn on a light. Glowing eyes were not really a substitute, and they only did that when he used his powers, anyway. And he wasn't about to do that around Wesley. The guy was sensitive enough to his divine aspect as it was.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

And thaaat would be Wes' eyes snapping open. To be fair, it wasn't entirely Alex's fault -- a nap wherein he dreamed about a friend's sister being murdered was no nap at all.

"Katniss?"

No, sweetie.

[godofxbox]

"...definitely not Katniss," Alex said. "Just me. Sorry."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley sat up, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. "Yes. Of course. My apologies."

[godofxbox]

"Sorry!" Alex said again. "...are you okay?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Nope. "Yes, yes, I was just, ah, taking a bit of a nap. Nothing to worry about."

He was so troubled.

"Did you, ah, need something?"

Besides the lights on?

[godofxbox]

He'd had ambitious plans to mess around on his guitar for a while, and maybe check his e-mail (he had almost got his dad trained) and read some comic books, but, "I can leave," he offered. "So you can sleep without the, ah." Nightmares. Or maybe he would have those anyway. "Me bothering you?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Honestly, Wesley was going to chalk this up to his own issues rather than pin this on Alex. Even if he was creepy.

"You're welcome to stay," he offered in return. "I apologize. I've been a bit, er, jumpy lately."

[godofxbox]

"I thought that was just when I was around," Alex admitted.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Waaaait.

"I'm sorry?"

[godofxbox]

"No, no, it's not your fault!" Alex assured him. "I try to keep a lid on it but some people are more sensitive than others?"

And oh wait Wesley didn't actually have any clue what Alex was talking about, did he? Oops.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Okay, the lamp was officially going on.

"Er," Wesley said. Excuse him for being a little hazy right now, Alex -- it was the whole nightmare thing at work. "What are we talking about, exactly?"

[godofxbox]

"...okay so I just realized I never told you," Alex admitted. "But I was a puppy and then I think you were gone for a while and, uh. I have another name. You may have heard of it. Phobos?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Oh, Wes had heard of it. He wasn't an (ex-)Watcher for nothing, and this had been one of his areas of expertise, after all.

"The Greek god of fear," he said, in a tone that indicated that he had no idea where Alex was going with this.

And then it clicked. "You --?"

[[Going SP now!]]

[godofxbox]

Alex was going to give Wesley a pass on it taking him a second. He had just woken up, after all. "Sorry! I didn't mean to spring it on you like this. But, yeah. I am the god of fear. I can leave," he offered again.

((Have a great flight and a great trip!))

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Actually? Alex had just gotten a lot more interesting.

"Oh, no, no, please," he said, waving a hand to what was technically Alex's side of the room anyway. "I suppose... that clarifies some things!"

[godofxbox]

"Yeah," Alex said, his shoulders hunching a little before he remembered himself and got his posture back in order. "Sorry about...all that. I'm still pretty new at this."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"No, no, it's quite all right," Wesley assured him. Again. "Honestly, I -- I had no idea!" And it was quite an affront to his Watcher skills, he could tell you that. "Is there anything specific I should know about your, ah -- anything?"

Like would the nightmares keep happening? Because AWFUL.

[godofxbox]

"I don't mean to be creepy? Sometimes I just am. I try to tone it down, though," Alex said quickly.

Maybe if he would stop jumping into trauma they would? Alex could not take full responsibility here.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"I suppose it's understandable," Wesley granted. And yes, his trauma-jumping tendencies were totally to blame here. "I can hardly hold it against you."

He was a god, after all.

" -- Hang about," he said thoughtfully. "Are you capable of relieving fear, by any chance?"

[godofxbox]

"...um, I don't know," Alex admitted. "It's never come up in canon I've never done it. I could try?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Oh, no, it was just a thought," he said. And then went back to pondering.

Because he knew one seriously fear-filled person who could probably use the help. Not that he would go through with it if it hadn't come up in canon omg.

[godofxbox]

"I probably wouldn't want to try it unless I had to," Alex said after thinking about it for a second. "Because if it backfires I could drive someone gibbering insane, you know?"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Ah. Fair point." Insane was something he did not want to inflict on this particular person, thank you very much.

"Well, ah... I appreciate your telling me?" Somewhere he'd heard that that was the appropriate response to someone coming out.

[godofxbox]

Alex didn't really want to drive anyone insane, either. Well. Most people. And Norman Osborn was already crazy so he didn't count. "I just thought you needed to know." Since it was negatively impacting your sleep patterns and all.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Thank you," Wesley said again, sincerely.

A beat. Then the dorkiness set in.

"So what does being the fear god entail, precisely?"

[godofxbox]

"Um, well, it's not like anybody worships us any more," Alex said, "so I don't know about all that, but I know what people are afraid of." Yes. Including you, Wesley. "And I can make people scared." Or sometimes he could make them live their fears or hallucinate them, but he didn't want to bring that up just yet. "And sometimes I know what's going to happen, but that's just a general god thing, not a fear thing."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Huh.

That was... pleasant. And pretty much what he'd been worried about. Or, to risk abusing a word, what he'd been afraid of.

"I suppose the past few days since I've been back have probably been a bit -- overwhelming, then," Wesley ventured. What with the whole CRAZY AMOUNTS OF FEAR. "Er. My apologies."

[godofxbox]

"It's not your fault," Alex assured him. It wasn't like he even disliked fear, except for how it made people not like him. It was complicated in his head, and not something he wanted to try to explain to people because it made him sound creepier. "Fear is normal, or I wouldn't be Fear, I'd be something else." He remembered another thing. "Oh! And I think I might be immortal now. I don't know. I haven't done anything that should have killed me since I came back." He'd had a serious dearth of adventures. He should fix that.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley just stared. But only for a second, because hello, rude.

"Right," he said after a moment.

Hang on. This Greek god thing was starting to seem a little... theme-y.

"You don't know Percy by any chance, do you?" He wasn't gonna out the other guy's secret, but maybe they knew each other. Or maybe they didn't, Wes. Come on.

[godofxbox]

Look, Alex had just sprung godhood on him, a little staring was totally to be expected. "We met," Alex said. "And that other guy. Luke. I keep meaning to follow up with them; I don't know many of my relatives, even if I think they're from some other universe or something."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Well, Wesley was just pleased that he knew an actual god. That had to outrank Percy's demigod status by, like, a lot.

Not that he had anything against Percy. It was just a reflex.

"I see," Wesley said thoughtfully. And forgive him for smirking just a bit upon asking, "I suppose you'd technically be their superiors, wouldn't you?"

[godofxbox]

"I never really thought about it that way," Alex said slowly, "but I guess I sort of do." He thought Percy would have sort of outranked him before, when he was a demigod, though. If Alex's dad cared about things like 'rank' which so not.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Yeaaaah, that was just Wes and his bizarre fascination with showing Percy up. It was a thing.

"Then again," he conceded, "you probably outrank a good majority of the school. So I suppose that's not terribly interesting."

Sound less like a creeper, Wes. Seriously.

[godofxbox]

Yeah Alex was a little concerned. "But then again I'm a freshman, so you could also say I'm at the bottom of the totem pole," he pointed out.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Ah. True enough, I suppose!"

It was a mixed bag of rank!

"So, er. Forgive me if this is a bit personal, but do you, ah... fear?"

Way to get to the hard-hitting questions.

[[heading to sleeeep, back to SP. :(]]

[godofxbox]

"No," Alex said. "What would be the point?" Way to be insensitive to the mortal, Alex.

((Night!))

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

...Lucky.

"Right," Wesley said, somewhat awkwardly. "I suppose that's true."

[godofxbox]

"What's that quote? The only thing to fear is fear itself?" Alex shrugged. "I'm Fear. But I'm just me. I'm not scared of me."