Tyler, no longer content to watch his chosen initiate pal around, eagerly planning the rest of a pleasant, but ostensibly pleasantly mundane existence, had allowed himself to separate from the coalesced mass of his friends to bring Jon into the fold.
In the form of a tendril of mist, barely distinguishable from the slowly disippating bank that shrouded much of the showers already, he moved to where Jon stood over his gym bag, pulling one leg, than another, into his sweats and, drawing on some element of knowledge he possessed without knowing how he possessed it, went coiling slowly up Jon's body, starting at his ankles.
The feeling for Jon, at first, was a kind of tingling warmth, like the feeling of suddenly plunging into a hot bath at the end of a long day.
He exhaled deeply, stopping where he stood. It felt like every muscle in his body was relaxing, unwinding, even moreso than the shower had provided.
"You know, they've got Pre-pre-pre Black Friday at GameStop, man," Vinny was saying, sliding a pair of athletic wristbands one by one off his wrists, "Pretty good shit, we could go and..." he turned around, "Jon?"
Jon was by now swaying a bit unsteadily on his feet, feeling the mist run up him, through him, caressing his body in a way that made every blood vessel quicken in his veins, caused his pulse to throb against his flesh with a rapid, yet somehow tranquil cadence, got synapses and chemicals sparking in his brain that he had never even known he had.
"Jon...you okay, bro?"
"I...I'm..." Jon tried to speak, only to find that his voice sounded faint and whispery in his throat, "Argh!"
The feeling of barely-lucid pleasure coursing through him turned, at that moment, into a sharp stab of pain, deep within him. Jon felt his legs give way beneath him, forcing him to grab onto the rim of the nearby bench to keep from hitting his head.
'What's going on?' Mike imparted to the other three as the scene unfolded before them, 'It didn't hurt for us!'
'Maybe some kinda side-effect?' wondered Brett, 'It works different if we cause the change?'
'It looks like it's really hurting him...' Mike, always somewhat more sensitive than the rest of them, apparently even now, seemed genuinely concerned.
'No pain no gain,' Carl insisted.
'Maybe,' said Antonio, 'but we were kinda just saying that that didn't really apply to...'
But, again, he was cut short.
"Jon!" Vinny cried out, crossing the wet floor in his socks to come to his friend's aid, "Jon, dude, are you okay?"
"S-something's...ugh..." Jon's face was twisted into an expression of agony, one hand clutching his stomach just over his abs. A new coat of sweat was beading on his brow, "Something's...wrong with me... Can't..." he tried to lean up, but only fell forward, though this time Vinny was well placed to catch him.
"...stand."