Issue 1 Downtime

Sara is in the Mutant Studies Lab, setting up an experiment as she waits for Will.

"What's on the docket today?"

"Alright, so... I got some voltage clamps and a potentiometer to get a proper read-out." she points at a row of small chamber with small electrodes. In one of them is part of the frozen arm though it mostly looks like a pink piece of ice and in another an old piece of Will-Clay. The third and fourth ones are empty and in a fourth is a rat that doesn't look particularly happy to be there but not all that annoyed by the electrodes taped to it.

"That way we have a negative control and can also monitor the effect of different states on your tissue."

"Ah, I see!" Will said.

He didn't see.

"To see what the difference is between old tissue, separated tissue and, well, unrelated tissue. And the empty ones are for your finger and the other for a fresh piece of clay that you touch but that's not directly connected."

"Oh! That makes total sense. I get it now.

Poor rat."

"I borrowed him from Izzy so... he's probably better off. But yeah, just touch each one, say what you feel if anything and then try to shift it into, I dunno, pick a material."

"What will YOU be doing?"

"Taking notes and checking the readings."

"Right, OK," he said, going over and touching the arm.

"So, just into anything, then?"

"Yeah. Well let's keep it simple for now. Just wood or plastic or something." she says, stepping behind the computer monitor.

"Right," Will said, concentrating...

The arm wasn't doing squat, apparently...

"Okay, that was expected. Do you feel anything like the other day? Cold?"

"No, nothing really. Well, my fingers are cold, but that's 'cause it's frozen."

"Okay, that makes sense cause I'm not really picking up anything."

"Righto. The clay, next? How, uh, "fresh" is it?"

"About a week old."

"...where'd you get this?"

"That's the bit I took after the last tests."

"Oh! Right. So, about a week, gotcha..."

Will held on and focused.

And THIS time...something was happening. Well, not obviously so, but the readings Sara was getting were showing the cells slowly, slowly shifting

Well she was getting something though with no data to compare it to yet that's all she has.

"Hey, it's working! I'm reading electrical patterns!"

"But I'm not doing electricity?"

"No but somehow you're telling it to shift, no? And you do that by thinking. Nerve signals."

"Oh! Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm doing. You're saying you're getting something?"

"Yeah..." she says, quirking an eyebrow. "Something the matter?"

"Well, it's not...I mean, it doesn't take this long when I'm shifting me. Why?"

"Well it's old. Maybe that makes it sluggish? I'm surprised it's reacting at all!"

"Yeah...that's....that's interesting.

Kinda...kinda weird, isn't it?"

"Why is that weird?"

"Well, it's...well, it WAS me, but it's not now..."

"It's not? What do you mean?" she asks, taking notes.

"I mean, I'm a person. That's a lump of clay.

...no, that's taking it too far. I guess...maybe it's like an artificial limb or something? Like, it's not PART of me, so I shouldn't be able to move it? Or something?"

Will was clearly trying to explain this, himself.

"But it used to be part of you, the person. In theory it's like... reattaching a severed finger. Only much less complicated."

"That...that makes sense, actually..."

"But hey, this is why we're here. To find out what works how you'd think it does and what doesn't!"

"Exactly! So, that...sorta works.

Was...I think the OTHER...well, you know...was doing this, so maybe we're different?

Or maybe I"m just bad at it."

"Doing what?"

"Making this..lump shift."

"You mean that there were so many of him that were shifting?"

"Yeah! That. THat's...I dunno what the hell that was."