Xaviers!

Late night -- after a full day of jogging, working out, and far too many classes, Will staggered out of Lippencott's office, still wearing his hoodie and sweatpants, still with a vague clanking of metal as he walked, unsteadily, down the corridor, back towards his home in the Point.

((open))

Shane was coming the opposite direction.

"You look like shite," he observed in his usual unfiltered manner.

"You look like you grow in shit, so I guess we're even," Will groused at him.

"Hah!" Miriam lets out a sharp laugh from near the front desk.

"Oh, but out Elvira," he retorted.

"Seriously. You okay? I'm supposed to be the bloody Oscar here," he asked Will.

"Look, I'm fine. It's just been a long day, at the end of a string of long days."

"Is that why you sound like a bin full of loose bolts?"

"That's just part of my training regime," Will said, dodging specifics. "It's hard to explain, to a monoform."

"Then explain it to me. I may be new to this, but try me."

"Right, OK..." Will said, and carefully began drawing back his hoodie.

The hoodie didn't go all the way back, mind you, because of the large metal hooks that were stretching from the inside of the lining, sticking into Will's face. As the hoodie was pulled away, his face stretched a little bit with it, before he willed it back into a more normal form.

"Constant resistance training. The hooks pull, and I have to try to keep focus to stay in a base form."

With the hood partially pulled down, the two could see the hints of a uniform underneath the workout clothing; the style and cut of the Prefects' uniforms.

Miriam's eyebrows rise as she watches Will pull back his hoodie.

"Not the best face-lift I've ever seen. How did you even come up with this idea?"

"Not just on the face, and not my idea -- it comes from the results of the power training classes we've been taking," Will said, carefully drawing the hoodie back into position. "Analysis of my performance under pressure."

"And you thought it was so ingenious you decided to sign-up for the jackboot-squad?"

"Lippencott and the rest aren't like that," Will frowned. "They really aren't."

"Sure doesn't look that way to the rest of us. At the very least he has a PR problem."

"Well, maybe that's where I come in.

And to be fair, any news of a PR problem would likely be news to him, as y'all never go to talk to him."

"I try not to actively make my problems any worse more than I already tend to."

That got Will laughing.

"Oh, Miriam. Rooming with Sam's really helped your sense of humor, hasn't it?" he said, between chuckles.

"Yeah, it's a laugh riot." she says flatly, glaring at Will. It's one thing to be self-deprecating, but being laughed at is something else entirely.

"And I may be a bit of a misanthrope, but I'm not going to go to him just to tell him he's unpopular."

Will shrugged -- very carefully, mind you.

"Look, I'm just saying you guys have him pegged all wrong. He has reasons to try to keep us all safe. Does he go a little too far sometimes? I don't think I'd disagree entirely, until you look at the world at there and..." he trailed off and just gestured wildly. "It's a lot safer here on campus, at least for now."

"Yeah, living in a penthouse in London was just the worst." she says, although her voice is missing the bite she'd intended it to have. She hadn't exactly been particularly happy during that time, just more... desperate about scrambling for it.

"Well, hey, you decided at some point to discard your own personal juice box for the university's handy blood simulacrums, so it must be working out for you alright, yeah?" Will said, raising an eyebrow and giving a half smile.

"Somewhere around the time said juicebox went a little crazy. I'm not good for people, Will. It starts with the blood and inevitably leads to... awful decisions on my part about what kind of arrangement I want it to be."

"Safety? If I wanted to be safe, I wouldn't have signed up to risk my neck protecting strangers. Perhaps I should tell him how he's sidelining our ability to save lives from things the police aren't equipped or motivated to handle."

"Said little juicebox is always a little crazy, and offered to help you even despite all of our history, and the history you weren't privy to. When friends reach out, Miriam, you're allowed to reach back."

"And perhaps you should, Shane! He admires people who stand up to him a little."

Miriam just slowly shakes her head and turns back to the reception to hurriedly scribble her signature on the stupid form she has to fill every time she goes to pick up a fresh bag full of stale-tasting blood.

"We'll have to see about that. I'm not exactly bloody civil with my opinions."

"Well, try to reign it in a little, but you know. Healthy disagreement is good."

"So is a little rest. Seriously, take a nap or something, you look exhausted."

"No rest for the wicked," Will yawned.

"I wish..." Miriam mutters as she walks past Will and down the hallway he'd come from.

"When is the last time you slept, oh wicked one?"

"Loaded question, that one -- I haven't really 'slept', in human form, for..." he trailed off, trying to remember. "For some time," he finished, lamely.

"Then relax as a paperweight or something. You clearly can't run around stretched like a bloody drum without limit."

"Easier said than done, my friend, but that is a complaint for another time and another place," he said, with a smile, glancing back over his shoulder at Miriam disappearing into the headmaster's office. "And after being cooped up at Muir, a little bit of not being locked up is just what the Doctor ordered."

"Yeah, I get that. Muir is bloody terrible. Shite, I was just about to go there and pay you a visit when they let you out. And then I got busy and never got around to welcoming you back. So, welcome back and all."

"Mmm," Will said, noncommittally. "The people who came to visit me at Muir were, on the whole, not the finest cut of campus, I must say. But, what's done is done, one supposes. Trying not to hold any grudges is tough, but a must."

"Careful Old Man, you're starting to sound like me," he smirked.

"In that case, we really would have a PR problem."