Xaviers!

Will sat on a bench in the quad, leaning back, head pointed up at an awkward angle towards the sky, the light glistening off of his plastic skin and the studs holding his upper and lower torso together.

It had been a heck of a few months, and he had things to contemplate. And contemplate he did.

((open))

"Room for another servant of the Morrigan?" Gemma asks as she walks up, bundled up in a coat, but not stamping for warmth the way she usually does.

"Benches always have room for one.

How are you doing, Gemmalara?" Will smiled.

She takes a seat next to him. "Slowly adjusting. A lot of things changed very quickly... relative to my race's concept of 'quickly'. How are you doing?"

"You know what? I'm doing alright. It's a nice day for January in England, and I'm just relaxing over here. It's been a while."

"Good to hear! I know the Morri... I mean, Sam. I know Sam was worried about you."

Will smiled a little thin-lipped smile. "I'm sorry to have worried her. You'll convey my apologies, right?"

Gemmalara seems to consider that request for several moments. Finally she responds, "No. I won't." She adopts a challenging set to her face. "Do I look like her majordomo? Besides, you already owe me." Something about those last words tug at something inside of Will.

Will grimaced at the tug. "Well, if you're not her majordomo, what are you, then? Specifically."

"One of her advisors, I believe, based on the contract. She seems pretty adamant that it doesn't mean servant."

"It seems like she should be more...specific, in her wording. If it's a contract and everything, you should really have a firm grasp on what your role is."

Gemmalara shrugs, "She has some time to figure it out. She's the Morrigan after all. I'm not about to rush her."

"If she's anything like MY Morrigan, you'll have to, unless you're comfortable waiting a decade or more.

The Morrigan may be eternal; people's patience rarely is."

"If it becomes important, I will. I'm anchored enough at the moment to not go mad, which is the thing I most care about." She rolls her shoulder slightly, "The last time I was on this side of the veil, this island was being invaded by citrus fruit which I'm told was several hundred years ago, so I do have some amount of patience."

"I hope you speak euphemistically of that invasion. Otherwise, I really have missed out on some history, here."

"I wasn't here long enough to hear more than something about an orange invading. It's not exactly like the Grey Lords were keen on really keeping up with humans."

"It's a good thing you're not hanging around with too many of them this time, then, I suppose," Will chuckled. "Enough of us weirdos here to keep you free from humanity for a while longer."

"That seems to be a very common belief around here... that the people here aren't human. It baffles me."

Will waved that off. "It's only baffling if you view that as an insult. I don't, personally."

"No, it's baffling because you are, at least from my perspective. With unusual abilities, sure, but you're still human, at least to my eyes."

"Really?" Will asked, chuckling. "The mannequin sitting next to is human, is he? You might want to look a little closer. We have great optometrists on this side of the Veil."

"The Grey Lords may not admit they're fey and think they're better than other fey, but they are still fey. The mannequin may not want to believe he's a man, but that doesn't mean he's not a man."

Will waved his hand, dismissively. "I've had that conversation quite a few times over the last few months. One of the reasons I'm in a better headspace now is that I'm beginning to accept that other people won't accept that. And I'm beginning to care less about that. I think that's, probably, healthy -- don't let other people's hangups dictate my own self image and all that."

"A luxury only humans are afforded, I'm afraid," she says with slight smile. "What we fey are is partially dictated by the whims of others. They see us as goblins, goblins we become."

"Really?" Will asked, intrigued. "Are we speaking metaphorically again, or if everyone on campus concentrated really hard, would you turn into something you're not?"

"It would take time and persistent belief. But yes, it could be done if I only stayed on campus."

"Huh."

Will mused on that for a minute. "Is that something that...bothers you?"

"Yes and no. No one likes to think that they're that mutable in their sense of being. But, it is the reality of being fey, bound to expectations and beliefs. Not unlike a god or goddess in that respect, I would imagine."

"Well, can you keep a secret?" Will said, leaning in conspiratorially.

"That depends on who I have to keep it from," she says, matter-of-factly.

"Hrm. Maybe I should just keep it to myself, then" Will nodded. "Curiosity killed the cat, don't you know."

Gemma thinks about that for the moment, "Well, I'm no cat. I suppose I could agree to keep your secret, except in the Morrigan ask me directly about it."

"If the Morrigan really wanted to know things about me, she could find me easily enough," Will laughed. "Don't worry about that."

"You say that no one likes to think they're that mutable in their sense of being. Well, the secret is -- it's that mutability that gets me up in the morning and helps me get to sleep at night. People don't like it, so I keep it under my cap. People don't like their lunch talking back to them, and they don't like to think their backpack has hopes and dreams. Lots of pressure to just be 'human', or to fit in the box they have decided they're comfortable with you in, and leave it at that.

It is what it is. You grin and get through the day, and you let people think what they think. I'm going to try to care less about that going forward, though. And if people don't like it, I can always move along. Losing things sometimes give you a sense of freedom, if you look at it from the proper point of view."

"I'm told that you're supposed to care about what the people who care about think. At least, that's the impression I've gathered so far."

Will struggled his way through the parsing of that sentence.

"There's caring what people think and then there's...giving up part of yourself to fit their plan, you know?"

"I'm intimately familiar with giving up a part of myself to fit someone else's plan."

"Do tell?"

"My turn to tell you a secret. I left my home at my mother's request to fulfill a role she had planned that required giving up a part of myself. It's cost me dearly, even though I have received some good things from it."

"What part of yourself did you have to give up?"

"For starters, my home. Even if the Lady is ultimately victorious, it's unlikely I'll ever be able to return. I gave up my order, the adopted family I'd trained with for most of my life. I may be a hero to them, but they can't accept me back."