7/12 Instance: Think Big

[Starfish]

Timeline: Current.


Santo: THe giant walking piece of rock stood at the open door, peeking in on the silver teacher. He knocked and even cleared his throat. "Ms Kincaid, Ma'am, you uh, you available?" he asked.


Cessily: "Why yes, come on in, please!" Cessily replied and glanced up from her desk with a friendly smile on her face. She had to continue tilting her head back until she was finally looking up at the huge stony guy's face. "How are you today, Santo?"


Santo: "Doing okay. Getting straight D's and stuff." he answered while he stood at the opposite of Kincaid's desk. "I was wondering... if it's not too much to ask, but I was wondering if you'd be able to help me."

Cessily: "Well, that's what I'm here for, aren't I?" The young teacher grinned at the big student, hoping to break the ice. Or rock, in this case. "So you won't ever have to hesitate asking me for help."


Cessily: The silver mutant looked around her office, before turning back towards Santo. "I'd offer you a seat, but I'm not sure if any of my chairs are big enough to handle you..." she admitted, biting her lip in a sheepish gesture.


Santo: Santo shook his head a little and even waved his hand, "No thanks, don't worry about it, I've broken more than enough chairs. Plus I'm fine standing like a pillar." he said, smiling. "Anyway, reason I'm here... well I was sort of wondering... how do you change shape?"


Cessily: Her job as the school's counsellor had prepared Cessily for all kinds of unexpected, awkward questions from the students, but this one was new even for her. "Uhm, I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean," she replied, smiling insecurely. "Are you asking how I'm doing it?"

Santo: Santo nodded. "Yeah... see I kind of got shot at while adventuring with Melati, and I sort of noticed that I don't bleed anymore.. and was wondering maybe I can change shape seeing that I'm apparently made out of rocks and dirt."

Cessily: "Someone shot you!?" Cessily gave the boy a worried look for a second, before she processed the rest of what he had said and shook her head. "Wait, why am I even surprised? All of Melati's adventures eventually end up with someone shooting at her."

Cessily: She stood up from her chair and stepped around her desk. "I'm sorry for that, but am glad you are alright. Did Dr. McCoy give you an exam yet?"

Santo: Santo's eyebrows furrowed. "Uhh... no? Why, should he? Oh geeze, you don't think I got a bullet or somethin' stuck in me and is slowly killin' me?" A sudden look of panic washed over the large guy.

Cessily: "Huh? Oh, no no no, nothing like that!" Cessily threw up her hands and rushed to calm Santo down. "It's simply a standard procedure that we offer to new students, who often don't even know themselves how the x-gene affects them."

Cessily: "And in order to help them understand their powers, we have to understand them ourselves first." The young woman smiled again. "But don't worry, there's no rush to go through with that as long as you're feeling fine."

Santo: "....oh thank goodness. Listen, Ms K, you really gotta work on your way of wording. So, you think I should first go visit the Doc Blue before coming here?" he asked.

Cessily: "Yes, I get that often." Cessily chuckled and patted Santo's arm. "And no, I think that can wait. It's good you came to me, because now that you're here already, maybe you'd like to talk a little."

Cessily: "You know, one reason I became student counsellor is because I wanted to help others like me. Those of us who have obvious mutations, I mean. I know how hard that can be, especially on a teenager."

Santo: "Yeah, especially when there aren't any damned handbooks like 'You and your Mutant Body' or 'Dick and Jane has tentacles.'" he joked. He cleared his throat. "Actually... I uhm.. sort of wished mutations came with a warning. Rock hard body, inches to your height. Side effects may include loss of external organs."

Cessily: Cessily laughed. "Yes, I wished mine came with its own handbook. And you're right, it's a shame no such books exist, especially with more and more mutant children being born."

Cessily: Tilting back her head, she looked up at Santo's face and smiled. "So, is that why you wanted to know about shape-shifting?" the young teacher asked, raising a hand to tap her shiny silver nose. "Because you miss your nose?"

Santo: "Ehhh... sure, nose, yeah. I miss my nose a lot. And I haven't... uhm... smelled some things. So, just curious... can you smell stuff if you haven't smelled before?" he asked, trying his best to insinuate something entirely else.

Cessily: "Of course, I smell, see, hear, taste, and feel new things all the time." Cessily grinned before turning away. She stopped by her small kitchen corner to put on the kettle. "And I can tell you're at least able to see and hear me, so why shouldn't you be able to use your other senses?"

Cessily: "I'm sorry, but would you like some tea, perhaps?" she asked, holding up the box with teabags.

Santo: "Yeah, sure, thanks." he said, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah, but what if you haven't actually done somethin', or experienced somethin' before you turned... and now with the new body... and the missing bits, you won't be able to experience it."

Cessily: Cessily looked back at Santo while she prepared the teacups for both of them. "Ah, that's what you're worried about," she replied, giving the rocky boy a comforting smile. "I know what you mean. In fact, I know that fear very well."

Cessily: After some reconsideration, she exchanged Santo's cup for her thermal mug made of robust metal. "You're afraid your body may have been locked in the state it was in when you first changed, or that it's merely an imitation of your previous human form, is that it?"

Santo: "Basically yeah." he said, "I mean, sure I'll experience some stuff that nobody else would ever... like being shot and just brushing bullets off. But there's some stuff that a normal guy my age just gotta experience." he watched her finish the tea.

Cessily: "See? Told you I'm very familiar with that kind of fear." She poured the boiling water and let the tea rest. "Also, am I right to assume this is more about your sense of touch than your sense of smell?"

Santo: "Uh, heh, yeah, definitely part of that. Or all of that." He admitted. "See I'm kinda worried that I'm missin' out on stuff." he added, "Especially seein' that I don't have parts... like.. ehm... my nose anymore."

Santo: He was quiet for a second before he added, "With nose I mean mio pene e testicoli."

Santo: "Genitals." he finally said, just to make one hundred percent sure she knows what he means.

Santo: "Penis. Balls." pointing to his groin.

Cessily: The jar of sugar slipped from Cessily's grip and caused a sweet spill all over her hands. "Okay, I think I get what you mean now," she said, inwardly panicking as she tried to come up with any response that would have been appropriate after hearing that.

Santo: "You okay, Ms K?" he asked. "Look, if it's too weird me asking you about this, I don't mind just leaving. Trust me, if I still had blood me, I would be completely red with embarrassment right now."

Cessily: "No no no, please, I'm sorry!" Cessily threw up her hands, too late to see the error in that move, and showered herself in sugar. "It's perfectly okay, I promise. It's just..." That it was kinda funny in a mean way, and she felt bad for it, but didn't say so. "I didn't exactly expect that."

Santo: "Riiight." he said, then stayed quiet as the teacher cleaned herself. "Two sugars." Santo added. "Please. So, you think you can help me then?"

Cessily: "Why yes, of course I can," Cessily was quick to assure the massive mutant. "Mind you, I'm not even remotely sure how, but I promise I'll do my best to find a way to help you with your little problem."

Santo: He frowned, deeply. "Well I wouldn't say little... was thinking that someone my size, it wouldn't actually be small at all." he said, then quickly shut up.

Cessily: Cessily responded with a wry grin and dropped two cubes of sugar into Santo's mug before offering him his tea. "No worries, once we've figured out how, we'll make your pillar as tall as you want it."

Santo: Taking the mug, his face cracked a grin. A huge one. "You mean like..." he held the mug and a finger apart, then slowly widened the space between it.

Cessily: Sipping on her tea, Cessily slowly tilted her head. "Well, as your student counsellor, I can only advise you to always set your aims as high as possible."

Santo: He widened the space a few more inches, his grin somehow getting bigger as well.

Cessily: "Just make sure you don't accidentally overshoot," Cessily remarked when the space between Santo's hands reached potentially harmful dimensions. "Keep in mind not everyone is as malleable as us."

Santo: "Ah, gotcha." The space got less than a fraction of an inch smaller. "Better?" he asked, then took a sip from the cup. He made a mental note to add more sugar. Clearly his tastebuds were dulling as well. Frowning again, he asked, "Do you still have tastebuds? Then again, doesn't taste got to do with smellin' as well?" he was getting slightly off track from his initial enquiry.

Cessily: "No, I don't think so," Cessily replied, sounding legitimately clueless. "Not in the traditional sense, anyway. I can make different parts of my body sense different things, however."

Santo: "Yeah, see, that's where I'm also needing help. I still don't understand how I can feel hot and cold and things, and even taste some stuff, but I'm made of frikken rock."

Cessily: "I vaguely understand how it works for me, but as you can see, I'm made of liquid metal. I figure it might be different for someone made of solid rock." She gave Santo an encouraging smile. "Fortunately, our science department is specialised in fringe cases."

Santo: "Hmm... yeah, guess I'll just pretend is magical or maybe comic science that's all in caps and ending in an exclamation mark. But the whole shape changing thing, gotta any tips on that, or tutorial on how it's done?"

Cessily: Cessily put on a thoughtful expression. "Yes, I think there's one thing that helped me a lot in the beginning once I finally got that lesson," she told Santo. "Shape-shifting has much more to do with the mind than it has with the body."

Cessily: She tapped her silver brow. "This is where any change begins."

Santo: "So I gotta be some kind of psychic to change shape?" he asked. "Oh that's just great, I barely made it out of highschool and now I gotta end up using my brain just to get some tail." his mouth went on without his head thinking that far.

Cessily: Cessily cracked a grin. "Yeah, who would have thought that you had to use your head in school."