Xaviers!

Will was bored.

He wouldn't admit it -- never. He never got bored down at the base. Even when days -- months, even -- would go by, unnoticed and unattended, he could stand it. Enjoyed it even.

That damn box, with all it's human needs and wants and desires, was wrecking him. No matter. He was resourceful. And clever. And, well, downright brilliant at times. It just required a bit of...re-ka-jiggering. Nothing he couldn't handle.


With that in mind, he crept out of the cabinet, looking to make sure no one was watching. People were afraid to get their hands dirty because of the arms and legs, right? Even plasticy and artificial looking, he reminded them to much of a person. I mean, Isolde had chosen an actual mop over him. A mop! He was worth less than just a regular, storebought mop. That hurt. That hurt right to the core. Instead, she used him as a glorified garbage can -- and not even intentionally, at that, but in some misguided attempt to feed him. Some 'pack' that was.

Headed for one of the communal showers, he spied someone's tube of toothpaste lying in a pile of bathing supplies. Perfect. Just what he needed.

Quickly unscrewing the cap, he squeezed the tube -- all of it -- straight into his own mouth, swishing it around. Baking soda. Peroxide. Flouride, he swallowed. A sub-par toothpaste for a sub-par mind.

He could do better.

Making sure the tube was empty -- or, well, mostly empty, he wasn't going to wash it out or anything -- he squeezed himself, headfirst, into the tube, squashing, squishing and shrinking to fit. There was a lot of Will and not a lot of tube, so even though he shrunk, he ended up filling to nearly overstuffed.

The tube sat on the bathing supplies, the only obvious sign that something was amiss being the cap. You can't put a cap back on from the inside!

((open))

The sound of a flushing toilet was followed shorty by the sound of a running sink, and then, from around the corner came a towering mass of werewolf walking comically across the shower floor wearing a pair of woefully inadequately-sized shower flip-flops and nothing else. Steph didn't seem to notice the missing cap to her toothpaste as she turned on the water and waited for it to warm up before stepping inside and closing the curtain. After a moment her clawed hand reached out from behind the curtain and plucked the toothpaste and toothbrush from their resting place and brought them into the shower with her.

Brushing her teeth in here was a bit wasteful, but she got self-conscious trying to do it at the sinks as it looked awkward to brush the fearsome fangs in her muzzle while looking like....well, a wet dog.

She set up her little fogless mirror and squeezed out a line of toothpaste onto the brush and got to work.

The color and texture of the toothpaste wouldn't have tripped any red flags -- immediately or otherwise. I mean, toothpaste is toothpaste, right? It spreads, it foams up, it's all good.

It would be rather immediately apparent, however, that this was not her toothpaste. The taste was wrong -- mintier and with more of a sharp taste than normal. These aren't necessarily bad qualities, mind you, just not what she would expect.

In addition, her highly developed werewolfy nose would detect that something, somewhere, was off. Perhaps it had expired?

Steph's face screwed up into a grimace of surprise and near-revulsion and she spat out the toothpaste, trying to stick her head under the water (somewhat awkwardly since she was much taller than the showerhead) to rinse out her mouth.

After several messy attempts at rinsing, which worked but also made her regret not putting on a shower cap, since the longer hair on her head was now soaked and she probably needed to just shampoo it too, Steph finally noticed that little extra...something with the shampoo.

She growled in curiosity, looking at the tube before hesitantly bringing it to her nose and sniffing.

The tube looked like any other normal tube of toothpaste -- in fact, it looked exactly like the tube of toothpaste she had bought from the store when she was a little less hairy. A bit mangled, from having been squeezed by a werewolf, but otherwise normal.

The toothpaste still in the tube smelled...well, minty first and foremost. But it also smelled familiar, in an odd way -- like something she had encountered in the danger room at some point, maybe? It was ringing faint bells in the back of her head.

Stephanie recoiled in confusion at the familiarity of the scent. Was that...Will? Had she somehow grabbed her toothpaste and used it? Or had they gotten their toiletries mixed up?

She poked her head out of the stall, looking down at her basket of toiletries.

Nope, that was her basket of toiletries, alright -- unless someone was playing a goof on her and had, uh, bought an identical basket of toiletries? For...some reason?

That would be dedication to a prank alright: there was probably something like a gallon of shampoo in that basket.

Alright she thought to herself, maybe it's just wolf senses going crazy...

She once again set up her toothpaste and tried to brush her fangs, grudgingly preparing herself for toothpaste that just sort of tasted off.

To her human brain, it was just fine -- perhaps not the flavor she would have chosen (and, indeed, not the flavor she chose when she bought the damn toothpaste originally), but toothpaste was toothpaste, and this would surely get those fang-like pearly-whites a-shinin'.


Her wolf brain, however, had all sorts of problems. This wasn't hers. And not just, like, it was something new or a communal tube or something of that nature -- no, it was too familiar for all that. Not, like, in an unpleasant way or anything like that -- she wasn't about to wretch or something -- but it was just...off. And that would likely make her feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Steph brushed for a moment, getting maybe one side of her mouth before the growing aggravation boiled over and she let out a snarl as she again spit out this WRONG toothpaste, flung the curtain open, and started practically stomping in her shower shoes towards the garbage can, dripping wet, foam at her mouth, and offending toothpaste in hand.

"Oh oh oh wait hold on please wait!" a voice called from behind. "Don't throw that out just yet!"

Steph whipped around, looking either comically pitiful or like a rabid animal, looking for the source of the voice.

A golden woman, with a towel wrapped around her, was the source of the voice.

"Oh! Oh my!" she said, getting her first real look at the wolf.

“You need toothpaste?” the wolf asked, a bit hard to understand—it wasn’t clear if it was from having a mouthful of crappy toothpaste or from trying to form words with a wolf muzzle, or a bit of both.

Steph shuffled over to the sink and spit, putting down the toothpaste and cupping her hands underneath the faucet to try and rinse out her mouth.

“It’s not very good. Think it went bad or something.”

"Does toothpaste even go bad?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. "That's too bad; I can't seem to find mine. Normally, someone places it in my bag, but..." she said, looking more than a little frazzled -- and a little frightened of the massive, wet-rat-looking wolf.

Steph noticed the fear, and she sighed a bit, “Sorry. Probably fine. Just have sensitive smell and taste like this...probably look scary too....I'm Steph."

Awkward pause.

"I'm going to go finish showering...you can use that toothpaste if you like."

"I can...I can imagine," she said, trying to summon up her courage to walk over there and take the tube. "You have...enhanced senses, yes? Very...strong?

Oh, I am Katarina."

Steph tried to move slowly back towards the shower, shuffling in her flip flops, trying to look as unthreatening as possible. "Nice to meet you Katerina....Yeah...handy. Hard to shower though...need a lot of shampoo. Be much easier to change back...can't control it yet."

"Oh dear! That's terrible," she said, taking a few steps closer as her breathing slowed down. "Is there something I can do to help, perhaps?"

"Maybe if you knock me out I'll shift back to human," she joked.

"Kidding. I'll figure it out some day...didn't know was a mutant until a few months ago."

"...It wasn't obvious?" she said, looking up and down at Steph as she took the tube.

Steph stepped back into her shower stall and closed the curtain. “...didn’t look like this,” she replied from within the stall. “Was normal. My ex got drunk, shoved me in a bar....I changed into this and nearly ripped out his intestines.”

"Oh, dear," Katarina said, not quite sure how to respond to that immediately.

"Was...was he alright?" she finally asked, squeezing some toothpaste onto her brush.

There was a pregnant pause before she responded, "...He was in the hospital for quite a while, and rehab for longer. I...think he's about back to school now."

"And, were YOU alright?" she asked.

Well, technically, it was more "Awnd, werer youwu awright?", as she started brushing her own teeth.

“...shifting hurts a lot, but I heal fast. Police shot me after I ran away...but I heal fast.”

"Thass tewwible," she said, spitting some of the paste out so she could talk more clearly.

"I am very sorry to hear that your mutant powers developing was such an...unpleasant experience for you."

“...probably just karma,” she replied after another pregnant pause.

“...wasn’t a great person before. Probably a sign from God that I needed to change.”

“...what about you?” the voice from behind the curtain called out.

"Oh, it's been clear for some time that I was a mutant. I'm afraid my power is probably a bit more...publicly acceptable than yours, though, so I can't really compare horror stories of that nature," she said, somewhat apologetically.

Steph was quiet for a moment, busying herself with shampooing...well...like everything.

"Can't place your accent. Where are you from?"

"Symkaria, out in Eastern Europe. Not many of us make it out this far, so I'm not surprised you can't quite place it."

"Near Latveria, right?"

"Right next door. An...interesting experience, to say the least."

“I’ll bet,” she replied. “Living next to a maniac like Doom can’t be easy.”

"Oh, we don't call him a maniac in Symkaria.

That may be because his spies are bound to pick up on that, but still," she smiled.

"Looking to just experience new things studying abroad?"

"Something like that, yes. Something a bit more nnnnnn...

.....orthern European. You know, a different style of life?"

"Sure," she nodded, though not all of her head was visible above the walls of the shower stall and the curtain.

"I wanted to study abroad but could never afford it. So in a way this worked out well for me, I guess, even though I can't ever go home now."

"Reawwy? Not ewwar?" she said, going back to brushing her teeth.

"...yeah. My parents shipped me almost every family photo with me in it and told me never to contact them after they found out I was a mutant."