Xaviers!

"I'm sensing a point at the end of all this."

"How many objects or animals can be anything other than an object or an animal?"

"Very few, I would imagine."

"And ability means responsibility."

"If I bite, I am not just an animal. I have a choice, not just a reaction."

"And if I choose to bite, perhaps I am cruel."

"So, what you're saying is, by choosing not to be a human being, I'm choosing to be cruel. That I have a responsibility to eat in the dining hall, to sleep in a bed, to age, to sneeze, to hiccup. And that, in someway, I'm being negligent by not doing all that.

Is that the gist of your argument?"

"I'm saying that choosing to do, or not do something is still a choice. Being an animal, being an object, it's all arbitrary for you and I. We can let ourselves sink into it, but it's an affectation."

"I understand that we've both gotten very clever at it in our times, and there is certainly a time for it."

"But I think you and I both know that we can stop."

"And that's the riddle, isn't it? I'm always a wolf when I'm a woman. I'm always a woman when I'm a wolf. The responsibility clings to me no matter which face I show you."

"So, I'm shirking my responsibilities. I suppose I'll have to add that to the list of sins I've committed, that I'll have to answer to when I meet my maker once more."

"I'm saying no matter how simple you want it to be, it isn't."

"Look, I get that you're trying to help -- heaven knows why, but you are. But you're acting like this is a... spur of the moment thing I haven't thought through. I'm aware life isn't simple -- you have no idea just how aware I am. If looking for a little bit of simplicity can improve life, not just for myself, but for the people I care about most? It's going to take more than some donuts to convince me otherwise."

"Oh, the donuts aren't a bribe."

"Then I don't get it. What are they?" he asked, poking one dubiously.

"You're pack. Pack gets fed."

She hops from the sink, landing with her feet firmly planted.

"Even if they're stubborn."

"My...'pack'...is looking for me. I can wait. I have to wait."

"...how long have you waited?"

"Consciously? About three months.

Subconsciously? Longer than I can remember."

"Waiting is easy when you think you have the time, isn't it?"

"Oh, no. Not at all. Waiting is the hardest thing in the universe. It's eschewing happiness and fulfillment today for the mere promise of a better tomorrow.

It's a test of character."

"...how very Calvinist of you."

"I'm actually Neo-Pagan Anglican, but your point is taken."

"I've never been much on waiting for the Kingdom of Heaven, but perhaps that's because it closed its doors to me without much warning."

"When one door closes, a window opens.

...Or some other pithy sentiment."

"Since one deserves another, I'll leave you with one."

"The movement you need is on your shoulder."

She starts down the hallway, leaving the donuts behind.

Will actually glanced at his shoulder for a moment, then sighed.

He picked up the box of donuts, and, unhinging his jaw in a very disturbing fashion, shoved the entire pink box into his maw.

"A waste of perfectly good donuts," he muttered, as he swallowed the cardboard down.

He then turned and started crawling back into the cabinet once more.

"Chew!" She calls out as she departs.

((He didn't))