Issue 1 Downtime

Will was in the sauna, still thinking.

He had actually let himself melt this time, with everything below mid-chest falling down into a pile of clay. If this bothered him, he didn't seem to show it. If he NOTICED it, he didn't seem to show it.

((open))

Cecil walked in and made his way towards the Sauna and started to get in when he noticed Will's 'condition'. "Um, Will, are you okay?"

"Yeah...it's good for the back muscles," he said, eyes closed.

He currently had no back muscles, per se.

"What I mean is, you've kinda let yourself go, quite literally."

"Oh, I'm sorry. If you're embarrassed, get me a towel, will you?"

"It not that, just wondering if you'd fallen asleep in here or something."

"Sleep? No. No, I'm wide awake. Definitely.

Good for thinking."

"The sauna?"

"And letting yourself go, but the steam and heat helps, too.

Kinda like being ironed, but in an open space," he observed.

It seemed to take a bit before that fully registered in Cecil's head.

"Wait, did you just say 'ironed'?"

"Yeah.

Of course, with the ironing, you get more pressure too, and that can be good. It's a bit more confining and a bit more restraining, which is nice. To get that here, I'd have to expand significantly."

"If you say so, wouldn't work that way for me." Or anyone else.

"Well, that's because you have flesh. It burns, it sweats, it reeks, it decays. It's covered with pores--do you know how many pores the human body has? Like, at LEAST five. Nasty stuff, when you think about it."

"As if what ever you are made from isn't gross at all."

"It's hygienic, microbe free, and soothing.

C'mover here and see, if you don't believe me."

"I... think... I'll just stay over here."

"I know what you're thinking, Cecil. You're not alone; I see it on everyone's faces when they look at me."

"What, that you're... weird?"

"That I'm a freak. That's the grapevine, right? Even the other shifters look down their nose at me. But as long as I play the part of a good little humanoid, two arms, two legs, one head, it's OK. I can pass, so I'm allowed into the club, isn't that right?"

"I think your taking this a little too hard. Just because someone thinks the things you do are weird doesn't mean... they think you're inferior to... more normal people in some way."

"Ah, yes, 'more normal'. Walking on air, stopping bullets with your mind, that sort of thing?"

"That's not what I meant."

"No, you mean normal like everyone else here, right? In this little menagerie of the strange and bizarre, I'm a standard deviation out. And that makes people uncomfortable."

"No, what I mean is, just because you can do something doesn't mean you have to. If I was doing my stage tricks like the invisible bicycle or others all the time around campus, people would think I'm weird too."

"And just because it makes you uncomfortable, doesn't mean I don't have to stop it.

You know what? I'm the captain of the fucking X-Teams. I don't need anyone to tell me what I can and can't do; I've proven myself time and again.

If people can't handle that I'm different, you know what? Tough. People are uncomfortable because I'm hanging out in plastic? They can kiss my ass--but only if I have an ass to kiss at the moment."

"Whatever." Cecil says as he gets up and walks out.

Will put his arms behind his head, and melted a bit more into a puddle of clay.