Deciding on starting with Dean, Mark turned towards him first. “Say, Dean, Chris told me you are a fast runner, right?” Mark opened, planning exactly where to start.
Dean still looked coldly towards him, showing his distance. “Chris said so, huh? Okay, ye…”
Mark stomped at the yes; it was just the point he wanted. “No, Dean, you are slower than all your classmates, right? You take your time, even to simply talk, being so cold blooded as you are. Normally, you walk on all fours, but with your arms and legs pointed out sidewards. It’s more like crawling then walking, right? You hate haste, right?”
Dean slowly, really slowly, shook his head at that. “Yeah, I like being slow, more time to enjoy everything. Haste is unhealthy, I hate it.” Even his speech, while still sounding cold, was slower, as if he was overthinking every word before saying it.
Mark continued with Dean, already eager to go further. “Say, Dean, aren´t you too warm?”
Dean answered slowly again: “Your room is a nice temperature, so, n…”
Again, Mark stomped the answer away. With a quick look towards Theo, who was studying Mark´s bookshelf, he said: “No, Dean, it is far too warm for you. As you are cold-blooded, normal room-temperature feels like a sauna while you wear clothes. You don´t need clothes for keeping warm, right? Maybe underwear to hide your shame, but nothing else. You keep warm in simple light, right?”
Dean nodded slowly. “Yeah, your room is too warm, need to get out of the clothes.” As Mark watched, Dean slowly raised his arms, then pulled at his shirt to remove it. It was like a really slow striptease. After the shirt, he bowed forward, removing his left sock in slow motion before doing the same with the right one. Afterwards, Dean rose up and stood, fumbling with his belt, before letting his jeans slowly slip down. One slow step aside before kicking the jeans away. Nothing was that far away from him, as the slow motions didn´t have the strength to distance them that far away.
Theo looked at his friend when Dean sat down again, not even bothered by him being naked. It was normal to him. “It took you some time to think about getting them off, right?” Theo teased friendly.
Dean blinked at that, but not commenting on it. He knew he was slow, and he also knew that Theo hadn´t meant him harm with his teasing. With a bit of a wait, a smile showed on his lips, showing his friend that he wasn´t angry at that comment.
While Mark was amused by their behavior towards each other right now, he wanted to get their first changes finished. He had already decided that they would get to the same point as his brother, and then will be included from there. That meant, while Chris and the others had a day with their first changes, these two would get only an hour or so before the second set.
So, to finish the first set on Dean, he again faced him. “Dean, how are your fingers? I think Chris mentioned you had one of them squashed a bit, right?”
Dean turned to Mark, looking confused at that. “What do you mean? I haven´t squashed anything. My fingers are fi…”
With a predatory grin, Mark stomped again. Time to fix Dean´s hands for now. “Sorry, I confused something. As if something could squash them, right? As hard and stiff as they are, that is nearly impossible, right? And with only three fingers, how would that work? I mean your little and your ring finger are only one combined finger, right? The same goes to your middle and index finger, only your thumbs are separate from them, right? Unmovable, claw-like fingers, with no real flexibility for you. And your feet are just the same as well, right?”
Dean slowly nodded with Mark´s explanation, letting it sink into his very being. Without a thought, his fingers snapped together, and it looked somewhat similar to Justin´s hooves. Only, the thumbs were still separate, pointing away from the others. “Yeah, my claw-like fingers are too hard to squash, too stiff to move. All of them, whatever they are on my hands or feet.” His toes had done the same thing as his fingers, even if it looked uncomfortable for Dean to hold them that way. But to him, they belonged that way, so he wouldn´t complain about them. As he looked down at his hands, he only saw three fingers, not even noticing the gap between the pairs.
With a last, quiet sentence, Mark finished Dean´s changes for now. “Dean, whenever I say “Reset to lizard” to you, you will return to your current mindset.” Dean didn´t hear him, but as Mark turned towards the computer, his file had been updated already. A small addition of not getting hurt was inserted by Mark manually as well.
Name: Dean Jones
“Reset to lizard” – Dean returns back into lizard-mode
Ignorant to changes of Chris, Justin, Rick and Theo
Walks/crawls normally on all fours, limbs sidewards
Fingers seem combined in pairs, little/ring and middle/index
Thumbs spread apart, as a third finger
Toes are the same
All fingers and toes are hard and stiff, inflexible “claws”
Won´t get hurt by walking on all fours his way
Won´t get hurt by falling forward onto all fours
Movements and speech slower than normal
Hates haste
Cold-blooded, therefore temperature sensitive
Normal room-temperature is too warm
Naked beside underwear when inside
Keeps warm in the light