[Plot] The Room Where it Happens

[Will Stanton]

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 Marsh]

Shane was coming the opposite direction.

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

[Will Stanton]

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

[Miriam Bell]

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

[Shane Marsh]

"Oh, but out Elvira," he retorted.

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

[Will Stanton]

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

[Miriam Bell]

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

[Will Stanton]

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

[Shane Marsh]

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

[Will Stanton]

"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 Bell]

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?"

[Will Stanton]

"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."

[Miriam Bell]

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

[Will Stanton]

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

[Shane Marsh]

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

[Will Stanton]

"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."

[Miriam Bell]

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

[Will Stanton]

That got Will laughing.

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

[Miriam Bell]

"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.

[Shane Marsh]

"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 Stanton]

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."

[Miriam Bell]

"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.

[Will Stanton]

"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.

[Miriam Bell]

"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."

[Shane Marsh]

"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."

[Will Stanton]

"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 Bell]

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.

[Shane Marsh]

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

[Will Stanton]

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

[Shane Marsh]

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

[Will Stanton]

"No rest for the wicked," Will yawned.

[Miriam Bell]

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

[Shane Marsh]

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

[Will Stanton]

"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.

[Shane Marsh]

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

[Will Stanton]

"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."

[Shane Marsh]

"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."

[Will Stanton]

"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."

[Shane Marsh]

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

[Will Stanton]

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