Who: Spencer Hastings and Will Herondale When: Recently Where: UCI Campus What: Random Encounter Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete
Spencer practically lived on coffee. She headed to the cafe on campus to refill her giant travel mug, and glanced around the lobby after stepping inside. It wasn’t very crowded, a little surprising considering how early it still was in the school year, but it felt cozy. Nice. Spencer had been a bit lost when she was kicked out of Stanford, but… well, she was starting to feel a little better about her surroundings now.
Will had just gotten himself a tea to takeaway when he noticed the girl, "Bloody hell" he said, not known for his tact at the best of times, "You might be better off trying to get a drip set up straight into your arm" he grinned to show he actually meant no harm. He'd discovered American humour differed a lot to his own sometimes.
Spencer actually jumped a little at the sound of the voice. She hadn’t been expecting someone to boisterously talk to her. Even though it was in a friendly way, it was a little startling. Just for a moment, then she broke into a smile. “What this? This is just my travel mug. You should see the bucket I use at home.”
Not many people ever expected Will but he barged into their lives anyway, it was just how he was. Shyness had never been an issue for him. “Travel mug? How do you even carry that around? You must have the arms of a body builder” he winked at her.
His words brought out a little laugh from Spencer, and she nodded. “It definitely is a workout. Though, I wouldn’t go so far as to say ‘body builder’...” She lifted an arm to show off her biceps. Spencer had the body of a philosopher, not an athlete.
“Just naturally strong then” he told her as she revealed she wasn’t one of those really muscular women. “Or unnaturally it could be around here I suppose” he added thoughtfully.
“Unnaturally?” Spencer asked curiously. “What do you mean by that?”
“Has nobody told you about the dreams?” he asked her, preparing himself, he'd never done the dream talk on someone who had no idea. He was looking forward to it.
Of course, Spencer had heard about the Dreams. She thought the people on Valarnet were mostly out of their minds, and that there must be something in the water. But she hadn’t talked with anyone about it yet. Not face to face, anyway. So this was a learning opportunity.
She played uneducated. Not dumb, just ignorant. “Dreams?”
“Not your normal run of the mill dreams but much more vivid and lifelike experiences. Almost like memories of another life” he explained, “Some people receive things from them. Material things like weapons or clothing but sometimes skills and abilities. Hence unnatural”
“Sounds like something straight out of a horror flick. Or a fantasy novel.” Sometimes Spencer thought the two had more in common than the fans might want to believe. She cocked her head to the side. “Do you have these weird Dreams? Do you have presents from them?” The brunette was naturally suspicious and hard to persuade. She wasn’t sure what to think of these Dreams.
“You aren’t wrong” he said easily, it did sound pretty crazy like a film or book. “I have them and I’ve definitely gotten some skills from them” he told her, pulling aside his shirt to show the top of a rune on his chest and then pushing back his sleeves to show more. “They’re called runes and they help me with increased speed, stamina, stealth and the like. I’m a demon hunter essentially”
Spencer raised an eyebrow as he started adjusting his clothing, but her eyes went wide at the sight of the runes on his skin. She was about to ask what they were when he explained. “A… Demon hunter?” Some things were a little easier to believe than others. Demons?
“Yep, in the dreams I’m a demon hunter and I have those skills here. Though luckily there aren’t as many demons in the OC” he added with a cheeky grin.
“I can imagine there aren’t,” Spencer smirked softly herself. “Do you have friends who share the same Dreams you have?”
Will nodded, “My boyfriend and girlfriend do as well” he told her, “And we have some friends who dream in the same world but a later time. Mine are set in the Victorian time period”
Spencer thought he’d said ‘boyfriend and girlfriend,’ but she just let that go. It was too strange to be real. She glomped onto the Victorian Time Period part, though. “Really? Victorian England? That sounds absolutely fascinating. How… I mean, what do you do in your Dreams?”
His revelation about his relationship status usually drew a variety of reactions among them was ‘ignore it I must have misheard’ so he wasn’t surprised. “I’m a shadowhunter. I keep normal people safe from demons, vampires and all the things that go bump in the night”
“In your Dreams,” Spencer added to the end of his sentence. It was meant for clarification, to see if his Dreams had bled over into this world, too, like she’d heard about others doing.
“Mostly” Will agreed, “I’ve only used those skills here a handful of times”
Spencer wasn’t stupid. She had an idea as to what was going on in Orange County--the craziness, the weird snows, the suspicious attacks blamed on hallucinogens in the water? But she wasn’t about to jump to the conclusion that it was related to some funky dreams. That was just silly.
“I’m glad they’ve done you service here,” she said, giving him a smile. There had to be an alternate explanation to it all.
Will laughed, he could see her skepticism, “You’ll see soon enough when you dream yourself” he told her, “For now I can just be the crazy guy who commented on your giant coffee cup” he winked.