For a very long while there was just agape staring. Even the thunder and the gods eager to take their chances given by the missing protective spells forgot their doings for a moment after Hex stood there in a human body.
Ponder was the first to move.
In fact he suddenly took of his glasses, rubbed his eyes and looked at the being before him, then down at his spectacles and shook his head at them:
"This...I'm certain there's a logical explanation for this."
"Thaum-induced mass-hallucination?" Skazz tried. It certainly was a good explanation and Ponder, who had finished cleaning his glasses, was to agree to it. The thaumic magnitude had already been astonishingly high when they initially turned Hex off and since that the storm had been getting worse and worse.
He was about to speak this out when Hex stepped forward and bopped his, Ponder's, nose.
"I'm real," the blond youngster declared in a calm, but slightly pouting voice, towards the now very irritated Reader in Invisible Writings. "I channeled the energy into a line of spells I searched for a while ago, after coming across some most interesting material in the depths of the L-Space."
Ponder blinked and once more looked at the young man before him, past him at the serene buzzing machine, and back at the blond.
"The situation was dire and required fast action," Hex continued, now speaking in a far more settled and demure tone, even though he was still croaking slightly. "You saw the alternatives."
The others nodded automatically.
With a mixture of disbelief and fascination Ponder and the others (1) moved around the 'new' human, taking a very curious, closer, and to Hex likely embarrassing, look at him.
Now, one might now think that Hex went and made what some would count as perfect body. Tall, slender yet muscled, with a soft, beautiful face and, of course, extremely male.
But that would have been something a human would have made.
Even though Hex did decide on making it an anatomical correct body, he went for something...logical.
He picked the body of a human male of about twenty common years, maybe a bit less. He was, as far as the slightly too large robes allowed it to be judged, slim but tending rather to the chubby side than to the slender. His clothes were far from looking astonishing and upon closer look many things one connected with Hex were there: The ants in form of a little bracelet, the aforementioned skull, a tiny pendant in form of a moon and, and this astonishing those who saw it, a round tattoo on the side of his neck.
"That tattoo certainly is a give-away," Adrian commented, making everyone realize what they'd gotten into.
"If someone sees him and asks we can always say he's a very ambiguous...err...ambitious member of the team."
"You know the faculty, Ponder, what do you think will they ask when they see a student with such a tattoo and hear that explanation?"
Ponder frowned. Of course he knew exactly what they'd ask. Especially the Archchancellor. Luckily for his nerves another thought struck his brain. "Hex?"
"Yes?"
"Is that body human or mechanical and just human in appearance?"
"Processing." Hex' lowered his head slightly, his eyes moving as if he was reading something. "The best definition," he suddenly raised his head again, "would be semi-biological android. This body requires the action of sleeping to function. I can consume food and beverages as well as have..."
"Thank you, that's enough..."
"This body also serves as a mobile terminal."
"Ah, like a kneetop."
"Skazz!" Ponder howled, flailing his arms.
"Are you super-strong then?" Adrian joined in. "Like a golem?"
Hex shook his head. "I am not. I can withstand the elements, except lightning, longer than a human, but I can not lift weights that exceed the lifting force bound to this body's specifications."
"Why did you pick such a body then?"
"It was a matter of resources, Mr Turnipseed. There was only a short amount of time to channel them into the spells responsible for the desired properties of this body."
"But the lightning should have provided..."
"These spells required a gargantuan amount of thaumic energy, Mr Turnipseed. I had to choose between extraordinary physical traits or clothes. I prefer to be weak over being naked."
Ponder sighed inwardly upon this explanation, but then looked Hex, who upon closer inspection appeared a bit like a child in what he wore, up and down. "But, Hex, well, your clothes didn't turn out so well. I mean, someone will certainly comment on your hat..."
Hex squinted up and moved a hand over the hat as if to straighten it. "There were not enough resources to make it pointy."
"...and that your clothes are too large."
"That's why there weren't enough resources."
This was the point where the gods finally gathered their senses again and continued the storm. It was a bit surprising to see Hex twitch and wince at the sound of thunder.
"You are scared." Ponder placed a hand on Hex' shoulder and for a moment didn't care that the blond actually wasn't human.
"I am. Another lightning bolt would -" Hex paused, rocked briefly on his feet and looked up at Ponder again. "It would kill me."
"You're kidding."
"For that I would require what you named sector 22. You took it offline last week."
Ponder frowned. "And I know Tez put it back on."
"After you complained Hex is not acting like Hex," Tez nagged in defence. "Told you Sector 22 is important." He paused as another thunder rolled and then blinked. "Ponder, I think you should not hold him like that. He hasn't said if he needs to breathe."
Realizing that he was hugging Hex against his chest, Stibbons winced and let go, looking as if he'd want to bury himself somewhere.
"Err...Yes." He finally composed himself again. "We best cut the remaining connections then and put you...your master terminal that is, into sleep mode. Adrian, Tez, you know what to do."
"Ponder?" Rincewind suddenly spoke up after watching the others for a moment.
"Yes?"
"You can cut those outgoing connections form here?"
"Yes. Why?"
Rincewind didn't answer. He just smacked his lips briefly and swore that if he ever again gets so drunk that his personality inverts he'll know where he'd be heading.
(1) Again, except for Rincewind, who, due to still trying to sort these events into the right category (2) was standing motionless, his eyes fixed on his shoes.
(2) The normal categories would have been 'Dangerous', 'Extremely dangerous' and 'Dangerous but safer not to run'. Right now his brain was working at a maximum to get the old dusty and tight drawer that read 'Curiously and astonishingly no threat for at least one hour' open.
