Bent Out of Shape

[Miriam Bell]

"I'll say. Are they a problem? The holes? Are here Wills out there struggling like you did before the mirror?"

[Will Stanton]

The cyclops stopped to think, blinking his eye a couple times.

"Prob'ly not exactly the same. Remember, the Stanton bits of me started overflowing in part because of all the nonsense we were exposed to at the university -- both the people and experiences, and also a big load of MGH, remember? Same thing didn't happen to Wyldclay; I was just fine in my own little niche. Maybe a little wanderlust here and there, some wondering of what else might be, but not the same overflowing sensation. If there are other Wills out there, they're probably not experiencing the same big, dramatic struggles.

But yeah, there might be a sense of something missing, some unfulfillment. And, of course, they're not here, so we don't get the benefit of whatever part of us they were. Or the problems of whatever they were, I guess, some apples being bad and all that."

[Miriam Bell]

"You think that's what's causing the holes? A kind of reaching out?"

[Will Stanton]

"Not on any sort of conscious level. Heck, we didn't know about your part of Will until the deva came back with info. Maybe it's less reaching out and more the last bits still connected. A connection that hasn't yet broken off, for good or bad."

[Miriam Bell]

"And you'd rather patch them than see if there's a wayward Will on the other side who might want to come home?"

[Will Stanton]

"Well, it's not..." the Cyclops stopped, trying to explain things.

"It's difficult to go through them, for us," he settled on. "The Paragons could maybe -- emphasis on maybe -- do it, but we're shaped by our environment, right? And when we go through these holes, it's like squeezing dough through a mold. It's going to come out the other end changed. And since we're so malleable, we might end up fitting in on the other side and not remembering to come back. It's a real problem with these unsecured thingamajigs. It's only because you and Sam did such a good job setting up the cauldron that we can come in and out as we please there."

[Miriam Bell]

"Wait, hold on. Does that mean this place existed before the mirror? We just... made a doorway?"

[Will Stanton]

"You know, that's a good question," the cyclops said. "It was here when we arrived, but then, that was post-mirror. That was post-cauldron. But I suppose we could ask around and find out," he added, fully rising to his feet and rising out of the bath, fairly towering over the still-lounging Miriam.

"Hand me a towel, would you?"

[Miriam Bell]

"I prefer the other model but that is impressive." she snarks as she reaches over to throw a towel at the cyclops crotch before wrapping herself up in one.

[Will Stanton]

"'The other model'," the cyclops scoffed. "As if there were just the two."

"See, and that's a little bit of the point," the cyclops said, wrapping the towel around his waist, and bending down to scoop Miriam up. "At least this would fall into the broad category of 'things you're not interested in', rather than 'things that repulse you', and that's just fine by me. You don't want everything, and this place lets us do the things you don't want. Or we could slip out of the cauldron without needing to be babysat

"You think you know what you like, and you pull that out of the cauldron. And you think you know what you don't like, and so you don't pull that out of the cauldron. And that's OK; we can do all sorts of things in here and don't need babysitting, and we can slip out there and do things without you having to ask for it, too. Might have been a less disturbing visual than a garbage bag bursting at the seams, right?" the cyclops grinned. "You don't have to jive with everything we want to do if you can accept that it exists. And a willingness to both let that be, and to occasionally try something new, because you never know..."


"A...and a little bit of occasional a...advice and shepherding isn't unwelcome, either. We listen..." Miriam's towel spoke up, quietly.

[Miriam Bell]

"Alright big guy, you know what I meant. Excuse me for trying to be coy about having your dick waved in my face." she rolls her eyes a little. Not that she's all that upset, especially since being carried just seems to put her in a good mood. "And my stomach might not be that sturdy, especially with a bunch of cocktails in me, but I don't mean to judge you. Aggravated, inconvenienced, annoyed, perplexed, sure. But never truly disgusted. Not in that way."

"And how do you know about the garbage and still have to go to someone else to ask a question?"

[Will Stanton]

"I do read the paper," the Cyclops smirked. "And you make quite an impression."

One wouldn't have thought that there was nearly enough time for a paper to be published since Miriam's shouting match, but time seemed to be at least a little fucky in here.

"But it's not like 'what was the world like before you showed up' is a common talking point. What was the University like the month before you enrolled? You'd have to go ask someone, too. So we need to find a Stanton who was here when all this started to melt together."

"And don't count your disgusts before they hatch; there are dark things down some of those alleyways. But yeah, I think I fall in the 'not interested' category, right alongside working a shift at the register at the bakery or futzing with a mannequin version of us all day in the front window of a shop. You wouldn't think the dreams of a zillion-year-old would involve so much customer service, but there you have it."

[Miriam Bell]

"You're a people pleaser at heart. Speaking of, would you mind being something a little more suited for being out and about?" she asks the towel she's wearing.

[Will Stanton]

"Well...yes, kind of," the towel-Will quietly admitted. "This is how I like to spend my time. But...but if you need me to..."

The towel warped around her, gradually expanding and stretching out into a green terrycloth dress. It wasn't precisely Miriam's style, nor was it on the cutting edge of fashion; she generally expected better quality and taste from Will. Then again, this was just part of him; concentrated and condensed, so perhaps she should feel lucky he was willing to do anything at all.

[Miriam Bell]

"I appreciate it. Thank you." She bites back on commenting on the fashion choice because it'd be unfair to expect a towel to be a master tailor. At least she thinks that's kind of how it works in here.

[Will Stanton]

"D...don't mention it."

"The holes. They started...well, it took a bit. They weren't here from day one. But we thought they were just tears. When you shoved everything into the cauldron, we assumed that there was just some...some damage. As if we didn't quite fit. They were small, and fewer in number. Th...there's more of them than they used to be, but...but the rate has sl...slown down," Will continued to say, quietly. "A...at least we think they have."

[Miriam Bell]

"Well, that doesn't really tell us much. Except that maybe it's not something catastrophically running out of control. But I don't like the idea of bits of you getting lost..."

[Will Stanton]

"Which is w...why we rope them off or patch them up when we find them, and try to go on with our days..." the towel-Will confirmed. "Better to be safe than sorry?"

[Miriam Bell]

"As an expert on ignoring problems, that sounds an awful lot like covering up a potential problem and walking away."

[Will Stanton]

"C....covering things up is kind of what I do best," towel-Will joked. "It's re...relaxing."

[Miriam Bell]

"Orrr, you could ask your friends to help you find those wayward Wills?" she asks as if Will's an idiot for not doing so in the first place. Which is rich considering neither being altruistic nor going out into strange worlds are things Miriam is particularly good at.

[Will Stanton]

"Oh, gosh, I couldn't do that. That could be very dangerous. And what if it was a mean Will who wouldn't like us? You don't want something nasty going in here and making us, like, a jerk..."

[Miriam Bell]

"Yeah I don't think we'd bring back ones that are in their villain era."

[Will Stanton]

"I couldn't ask someone to do that. You'd come out the other side all clay-y and mush-y. If they were a villain, you'd be in trouble..."

[Miriam Bell]

"Well then we ask Sam, she's an expert at shifting and throwing herself into dangerous situations."

[Will Stanton]

"And is currently stuck in half-ogre form from being stuck in here," the cyclops-Will pointed out.

[Miriam Bell]

"Well I'm not saying right now. Just... in general."

[Will Stanton]

"I just don't know if you lot could handle it. Maybe we should ask Robin, instead, she kind of gets it. Sort of...though she's got too much of her mother in her," the Cyclops mused.

[Miriam Bell]

"Could it really be any worse than a siren and a person-shaped knife having their relationship drama out all over Los Angeles in a mandatory musical?"

[Will Stanton]

"What, you didn't like the musical? Some of us liked the musical," the Cyclops protested.

"I m...mean, yes? It's a great big universe out there an...and some of it is obje...objectively not good. The Evilverse is just o...one of dozens, probably. Maybe e...even more.

[Miriam Bell]

"The singing was... fine!" she admits. "Point is I'm not a helpless idiot just because I don't regularly throw myself into danger and start punching."

[Will Stanton]

"T...that I get. We all have d...different skillsets. We've j....just had longer to collect them, that's all."

[Miriam Bell]

"And a lot of them were spend perfecting the texture of bath towels. Look, I get the paragons weren't happy with me being here and maybe I snapped at them a bit much. Twice. But you're telling me those holes are dangerous to you and to me that sounds like you could use the help. I don't need to be 'of the clay' to see that."

[Will Stanton]

"I...I mean, as long as you're careful....both b...because we don't want you to get h...hurt or st...stuck, but also because we don't w...want to let anything n...nasty in here..."

[Miriam Bell]

"Trust me, I definitely don't want anything... malignant getting in here either."

[Will Stanton]

"What DO you want?" the Cyclops asked. "I mean, there are...so many holes to choose from."

[Miriam Bell]

"How the bloody hell am I supposed to know? It's not like you've got some kind of tourist guide. There's gotta be somewhere that's not a war-zone or horrible dystopia, right? Somewhere with good vibes?"

[Will Stanton]

"Oh, yeah, plenty. It can be hard to keep track of 'em, 'cause they move around 'cause they're not *locked in place*, but we're pretty good at pickin' out the vibes. Like, we can't give you a complete history of everythin', and there might be stuff we don't know or can't predict, and it might take a while for one of us to track down just what yer' looking for -- might need to ask around, send out some feelers, put out an ad or three, but I think the towel's just a little wimp 'bout these things.

I mean, you could just start randomly, walk in a hole and see what's on the other side. But you've only begun to see how different we are up there, now that there's two of us all mushed together. Might want to consider being at least a little selective, you know?"

[Miriam Bell]

"Sure, but that's still very vague. I'm not sure what exactly you can tell me about the other side of these holes. Is it just 'This Will likes to party' and then I get there and he's a sleazy nightclub owner? I don't even know what I'm working with. The one we stumbled through was some kind of medieval place?"

[Will Stanton]

"It's more of a...vibe, I suppose, because we can't go through on our own," the Cyclops mused. "It's a scent in the air, ground under our feet, salt on the wind sort of thing. If you're looking for a complete universal history, you're out of luck.

And it depends on which one of us you're asking. Each of us template-types have a better feel for stuff we're close to. Like, the towel-thing here might be able to give you an idea of how, I don't know, comfortable a world is. I could probably lead you towards lands with monsters and heroes and things of that nature. But even then, we're just going off of broad feelings and sensations. It's not like ordering off of an a-la-carte menu; you can ask us to search for something in particular and we'll do the best we can, but the only way to truly know is to cross the threshold."