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When Cissie had first signed up for the cardio class, she had figured it would be a breeze. She had been a superhero and an Olympic athlete and up to the point she'd been sucked to the island, she had still been keeping in reasonably good shape. As she'd discovered at the very first class, she had been dead wrong

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[patration]

While Zhuge felt that he had personally done rather well in adjusting to island life, and the fact that the culture of Tabula Rasa apparently fell more in line with times thousands of years after his own, one detail he had yet to grow accustomed to was how very revealing many outfits people wore around the island were. Growing up in a small village, of course he'd seen children running around in the summer heat, stripping themselves of clothing and playing around in the mud- he'd even enjoyed doing so a great deal himself, before protocol dictated that he always wear robes fitting his position in court. But there was a difference, he had to admit, between running around as kids, and seeing relatively matured women walking around and baring so much skin

[patration]

In spite of all that he'd seen, there were a few views that Zhuge held which others would have considered naive at best. He steadfastly held to the belief, for instance, that anyone who tried hard enough would be able to contribute to the world to some degree in a field of their choosing. One could not force talent, but effort alone was enough to carry one a great distance. Most people would have thought it foolish, to encourage a farmer to pick up a book, to encourage a scholar to push a wheelbarrow, but Zhuge knew better. Encouraging people this way was dangerous, but anyone with even the slightest bit of sense knew that. The true bravery came in pushing forward anyway, against the odds.

"If you want to be superhero, you can be. This is not the question. But... slow choice is good too," he offered quietly, nodding through his thoughts.

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"No," Cissie agreed. "That's not the question. If I wanted to, really wanted to, I could be. I know that. I just don't know if I should. I don't even know how you figure that out - how anyone figures that out? It's one thing if it's, like, a legacy or part of your family or something but if you're just some ordinary person, how do you know that what you're doing is right and not just stupid or a really bad idea?"

That was the one thing no one had ever seemed to explain. It was a family thing, kind of for Kon and Bart and Cassie had always wanted to be just like Wonder Woman. Tim hadn't really ever explained why or how he got Batman to let him be Robin but she knew it was a calling he took very seriously. They all took being who they were as a matter of fact, as though it was the "Right Thing" to do but they could never say how they knew and that was something that worried her.

[patration]

"Ordinary person," Zhuge repeated, finding that expression the most curious of any that he'd heard yet from everyone on the island. Average person would have been one thing: it wasn't difficult to imagine someone of average physical strength, of average personal drive. It wasn't hard to imagine someone of average intelligence, even. Numbers helped to gauge that. But ordinary was another story altogether, and one that Zhuge could not place a finger on, because what precisely was it that made any person ordinary?

"I do not think that people can be ordinary," he pointed out quietly. "There is average, yes, but all people are... not ordinary. Special."

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Maybe it was the consequence of regularly hanging around the YJ crowd, but Cissie rarely ever thought of herself as special. Above average, sure. Able to keep up with them? Most of the time, yeah. But special? Not even.

"I hadn't really looked at it that way," she admitted. "But you're right. I mean, we've all got something that makes us who we are that's different from everyone, else? Even leaving aside powers and stuff, there's still... I don't know what word I want, but you get what I'm saying? Like... Cass is still Cass even though she can't fly anymore and even if she never did or couldn't ever do that, she would still be herself."

[patration]

Zhuge nodded, his smile widening as he reached out slightly and allowed his hand to hover near her person, moving in a large circle in the general proximity of her chest, tending more towards her left side. "Cass is Cass," he agreed, before moving his hand to his own chest, where he patted lightly over his heart. "And Liang is Liang. Something is inside. People say it is here, in the heart."

He tilted his head before moving his hand to his temple, which he tapped with an index finger. "I think that it is here. Too much think, here hurt. Too much think is Liang." His lips curved in a roguish grin.

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Cissie couldn't help but giggle at that. Too much thinking certainly sounded familiar - Tim was certainly the king of overthinking but she had to admit to having a few moments of her own. Going on impulse wasn't exactly the best thing either as she had cause to know.

"Maybe the key is to try to balance the head with the heart," she said as she touched her forehead first then her chest. "But that's really hard."

[patration]

"Balance," he repeated, his lips pulling into a grin. It was a fair suggestion, to be sure, and perhaps one that would have benefited Zhuge personally, had he decided to take it to heart. But if there was something that Zhuge knew about himself, it was that he was never the type of person made to be completely independent. He needed to support others, needed to be a working part of a whole, because progress was best achieved in groups, because man was ultimately a social being