by Will Stanton » Tue Feb 06, 2024 6:06 pm
Eventually, Will had to stop playing possum -- no sense of insulting the intelligence of whoever had brought him here. And, whoever it was was...humming? Something high and familiar...
"No product, even simulated. You do come from a strange and wonderous land, don't you?"
The Wyldclay was running their hands through Will's hair, digging in and letting the green locks fall through their fingers. Every now and again, they would take a firmer grip and tug, moving Will's head left to right as they observed him.
"Wh...Legion?" Will asked, trying to hold in a sudden gasp of air as his head was yanked back and to one side, staring up at the long-haired...creature who shared his jawline. "...Null?"
"Oh, good, you're familiar. That will save us some time," Wyll said, grinning as they rested their hand on Will's cheekbone. "I am the Wyldclay. Willyam Wyldclay. And it's my understanding that we have much to talk about. You can just relax, and take some deep breaths. I have no intent to harm you. After all, you are me. Or I am you. Or something close to those lines, yes?" Wyll grinned, their mouth full of far too many teeth.
"Wyldclay? Cute," Will responded, deadpan. He swallowed, trying to retain his composure, and watched as Wyldclay's eyes followed his bobbing adam's apple. "I suppose you're the one who sent Ryn after me?"
"Mmm," Wyldclay hummed, agreeably, as they moved their hand across Will's face, propping his eye open to look inside.. "I thought it was high past time to introduce myself to a sibling.
Or, at least, part of one..." they grinned, looking at their own reflection in Will's pupil.
"That jar...it did something to me. That's your doing?" Will said, trying to squint against the Wyldclay's examination.
"In a manner of speaking, but do not worry. The Deva was not interested enough to understand the power of what she wielded," Wyldclay grinned, reaching over to run one finger down Will's nose. "The rim was coated in a fine powder, mostly moly and amaranth," they explained. "'Moly and spite a woman make, may every man his true form take.' Your clay is interesting, did you know?
I'm not sure anyone but you or I could really tell, but yours is...sweeter. Not in taste, of course, but in...essence. It really is peculiar. And, of course, the label is another matter entirely. With control over your true form missing, you would have shifted to match the properly labeled contents. Always so willing to please, the Wild Clay, is it not? It is a good thing the Deva has the curiosity and fascination of a particularly dull dishrag, or you may have been in real danger," Wyldclay said, giggling as Will once more tested the resiliency of his chains.
"Some magical nonsense. Understood," Will sighed, steeling himself against the Wyldclay's touch. "I suppose that's why I can't shift, yes? The herbs locking me in a 'true form'?"
To that, the Wyldclay giggled more, swinging one leg over Will to sit down on his bare chest, ignoring Will's grunt as he was now supporting an extra 150-odd pounds on his manacled ankles and wrists. "Your true form? Oh, tamed clay, you ARE so silly," they grinned, placing one hand on both of Will's cheeks. "This may be the form you were born with, but this isn't your true self, and you know it. At least, I assume you know it. You are the looking glass, after all; the One who is Many, the Bouba itself. Your true self is wonderful, and malleable, and comforting," Wyll continued, slipping their thumbs into Will's mouth and running them over his teeth. "And what you are to anyone else is just their version of you, not your version of you. Perhaps I can find your version of you; I'm the closest thing you have to a reflection of your own, am I not?" they grinned, leaning in closer, so Will could feel the Wyldclay's breath on their face. "And as for why you can't shift..."
The Wyldclay slid their index fingers into Will's mouth, pinching his tongue. And then they pulled, tugging and leaning back as Will's tongue slid out, longer and longer, stretching two, three, four feet in length as the Wildclay wrapped it around their arm like collecting a loose hose. Will's eyes widened, feeling his body stretching and pulling beyond his control, the taste of the Wyldclay's earthy fingers still filling his senses. He tried to protest, tried to exclaim, but it turns out it's very hard to form coherent sentences when...
"Fae's got your tongue?" Wyldclay grinned, lifting one foot up to grab Will's tongue between their toes and free up a hand. "Well, let me see if I can't explain a little more. See, I said your clay was different, but it's still ours, is it not? Yours and mine, just a little different. And you can control our clay. And I can control our clay. So we should be on equal footing here. Two Wild Clays, two bodies, two minds and two souls. Except that's not the case, is it? I am the Wyldclay. All of me is him, and I am all of it. But you? You're not all of the Stanton. That's back in your room, back in your mirror, snug as a bug in a rug.
You're not even half of you. You're not even a part of you. In the grand and total scheme of things, you're a lemma; an epsilon. You are unique and wonderful and special and about as significant as the dirt under one of my toenails," the Wyldclay grinned. "So what we actually have here, then, is not two Wild Clays, both alike in lack of dignity. We have one and a little itty bitty tiny bit. And so, in a battle of Wyllpower, I'm afraid you might find yourself coming up a wee bit lacking," Wyldclay grinned, releasing Will's tongue and letting it rapidly retract back into his mouth, the recoil causing it to slap into his own face before fully retracting.
Will sputtered, in a strange mixture of shock and surprise and anger and...well, let's just stick with those three, he thought, trying to keep his own mind straight and in place. This was worse than his shifting being taken away. This was...this was...
"This is an opportunity...Wyldclay? Wyll," Will said, using the creature's first name. "Nothing's been done so far that can't be undone; nothing that can't be forgiven as a misunderstanding and a price for interdimensional meetups. You can let me go; you can undo these restraints, and it will be like this never happened. No one is going to blame you for being...overexcited," he continued, a bead of sweat appearing on his forehead. "And we can talk about whatever it is you want to talk about like two adult, civilized beings. No one will hold anything that's happened so far against you...
"And you can LIE!" Wyll said, boucing up and down on Will's bare chest with glee. "You can hang there, look me straight in the eye, and tell me things you know to be untrue! That's amazing.
Do it again!" Wyll grinned, resting their head in their hands and beaming down at Will. "Lie to me. I want to know what it's like."
"W...what?" Will blinked, startled by this sudden change in tact from Wyll. "What do you mean l...
"I mean LIE," Wyll grinned, running their hands up and down Will's forearms, and pressing into his chest. "I can't do it. I can twist, and I can hedge, and I can omit and mislead, but my oath means I can not, and will not, ever tell an outright falsehood. For I am an honest Puck, afterall. Your court doesn't seem to mind, however. So lie to me, Will Stanton," they grinned, sliding their hands down Will's side and scooting themselves further back on Will's bare torso.
"You have a very firm grip on your sanity," Will deadpanned. "I definitely feel like you know what your are doing, and that things are going well for both of us."
The Wyldclay squealed with glee, and lay their head to rest on Will's chest, listening to his pounding heart. "You have powers I do not, Will Stanton," the Wyldclay grinned. "You can lie, and you can disobey commands, and you can be your own creature, and not just what everyone commands of you," they said, pressing their hands on Will's chest and propping themselves back up. "You are freer than the poor Wyldclay. You have much to teach me, and I have much to learn. And yet, you are bleeding all over the place. Without structure, you threaten to explode. That's why you had the witches bind you in the looking glass, is it not?"
"How do you kn...
"I know much which you have tried to keep hidden, and much that you have kept hidden from yourself. I am you, after all, and you are me, and we are all together," Wyll grinned. "And I believe that I may be able to fix your problems as well, once I know more about them. And the closer we become, the less there's I and I and the more there's we, the more I'll know," they added, running their hands further down Will's side and grabbing him by his hips.