Xaviers!

"Really, a job well done by everyone." Miriam golf-claps. She seems to actually be enjoying herself a bit though she's hiding it well.

"Leave him alone," Leo said irritably before sighing. This wasn't going to get better unless he 'fessed up.

"This is all my fault. So if you're gonna be pissed at somebody, be pissed at me."

"I'm just wondering why there's a bloody three-ring circus in our suite," she says, still in the darkness of her room.

Leo gave Ainsley a look that said, "well we tried."

Turning back to Sam, he said, "I needed to make sure Will... the bird one... was okay and to apologize. But he was so far birdy that I couldn't. So we brought him back here to reintegrate. That... obviously didn't work so well."

It didn't take either of the present telepaths to sense a guilty reluctance to say what it was that he was wanting to apologize for.

Ainsley more or less saw the boot coming, so when he got tossed out he rolled into it like a champ, popping back up to his feet to continue the one man dance party out in the hallway.

He certainly didn't seem to feel like he was being picked on. He would smile at Leo when looked at, but unless someone directly addressed him to explain himself, he was content to idle dance

If anyone probed his brain, they'd hear him running 'Pump Up The Jam' through his memory.

Miriam knows self-loathing and the insidious web it tunnels through one's thoughts. Of course it also reminds her of her own feelings and she's already not in the greatest of moods. A background radiation of obnoxious music doesn't help especially when it's, she assumes, aimed specifically to bother her.

"I get it. Will was being Will, you were being... this." she says, waving her hand up and down at Leo in a gesture that's as tactless as her words. "This isn't really about Will, is it?" she asks, trying her best to ignore Ainsley having a seizure in her peripheral vision.

"Reintegration is going fine, I assure you," Butler!Will said. "At least, I assume so. I assure you that everything you've seen so far is quite normal. I just do not understand the urgency."

Miriam's bluntly accurate assessment made him wince.

"He was a deer and I... I got carried away and..." he said, guilt and self-loathing growing in voice and thought, "I lost control of myself and attacked him and I thought if I could at least apologize maybe I wouldn't feel so... monstrous."

Well, that was a conversation stopper.

"Erm," the Butler said. "Well, then. Err..

...No harm, no foul, I suppose. Everything right as rain in the end, quite. I suppose you were fortunate it happened to one of the more resilient members of campus, although I do not believe there are particularly many non-predator shifters around to worry about.

Err...you say you got...carried away, and whatnot. Are you, erm, alright now, then?"

"...Will, don't you think there's something you ought to tell Leo?" Sam asks pointedly.

"Yes, of course," Will nodded.

"Your friend is a terrible dancer."

"I mean about the... predilections of the one Leo chased down."

Miriam almost lets out a barking laugh but manages to stifle it into a mere snort.

Samantha McManus wrote:"I mean about the... predilections of the one Leo chased down."

"Ah. Sam, you're implying that that version of myself wanted to get hunted, and I simply do not know if that is true. In fact, considering it's response to being caged, I would go out on a limb to say it was not true."

He turned back to Leo. "Sam is quite correct, of course, in that there is a part of me that enjoys the chase; the hunter and the hunted. And until recently, that last part of me held significant...sway over myself as a whole. If you ask me, I'd say it was a reflection of massive self-esteem issues and an inferiority complex the size of Montana, but then, I am not that part of me. And I suspect the one you encountered simply wanted to enjoy themselves in a more naturalistic setting, rather than as part of a Hunt. I rather suspect that to get that one out would require an active hand on the part of the Hunter.

He sighed. "I understand that this is very confusing. It is new to us, as well. For what it is worth, no harm was done. And even if you had...gone further than you intended, our core self would remain undamaged.

If you are looking for forgiveness, I give it to you. This is a place for making mistakes, is it not? Best to make them safely here than unsafely elsewhere."

"I appreciate that but... don't I need to apologize to the Will I hurt?" he asked, not knowing if one version of Will could speak for others. He was definitely confused about the whole thing.

"I mean, didn't you? You were right there with him; you dragged him back here," the butler asked, confused. "You could have apologized to him at any point therein."

"If you were looking for a more...well, human, I suppose take, I'm happy to provide. But...that bird was me, just as I am me. And if you pulled out someone to play basketball with, or a 1947 Chevy, or a roll of paper towels, they would all still be me. Just...variations on a theme. If you apologize to part of me, then I can take it back to the rest of me when I return to the mirror.

Different parts of me will respond differently to different things, of course. And different parts of me would want different levels of apology for different actions. But it all comes back to the same place in the end.

...This is terrible confusing, I'm afraid. I am still trying to understand it all myself."

"If Ainsley couldn't successfully communicate with him, you, whoever as a bird, then what hope did I have? But I think I get what you mean. It is good that this happened with someone I couldn't permanently harm, but I'm still deeply, deeply sorry it happened. You have no idea how much your forgiveness means to me."

Will nodded, and put a hand tentatively on Leo's shoulder.

"I can see how torn up you are about this, and it's definitely something you need to work on; things could have gone much worse. But there are plenty of people here who can help you get a grip on your wilder instincts, and I would be a massive hypocrite if I were to hold a grudge over one brief lapse in judgment.

Next time, though, wait until the morning to stop by, would you?"

"Yeah," he said with an awkward chuckle, "Sorry about that too."

"I'm not going to give you Kafka dreams or anything."

"This time."

"Kafka dreams?" he asked, having never been much of a literature buff. He only knew roaches were involved.

"... nevermind. All the more reason not to let it happen again, I'm sure."

"If you were looking for something to attack without consequence, I'm certain the mirror could provide, but considering the actual situation, I'd suggest your next stop be someone with experience with feral shifting in general. That's quite new to me as well, actually. Rather terrifying and exciting at the same time."

"I don't want to go all beast on anyone. Definitely should talk to someone about how to keep that part of me in check. I thought I was until this... lapse."

"I should probably let you all get back to sleep," he said, preparing to leave.

---

After entering the hall, he looked to Ainsley and exhaled. "That... went better than expected."

"Great! Cuz i'm spent love." He replied, breathing a bit heavier than normal from all the exercise.

"Sorry about being so high maintenance."

He didn't have the decency to be remotely winded.

"Get some more sleep," Leo added, leaning down to give his significant other a kiss on the forehead.

Ainsley beamed, as if the job was well done. He happily bopped back to his own room for the night.