[Contains NBM/MBM elements]

Ellie came through the door of her apartment, hot, sweaty and exhausted after her gym session. She just wanted to put her feet up and relax, but she had to get cleaned up before she even thought about lying down anywhere. She was drenched in her own sweat, and smelt terrible. She thought for a moment, and then went to ask her roommate, Bella, for some help. She was in the kitchen doing some house work.

"Hey Bella, mind if I ask for your help with something?"

Bella turned to see her sweating roommate, Ellie, standing in the doorway, her clothes visibly soaked with sweat after a workout.

"Of course! What do you need, Ellie?" She asked, setting aside the dish she was washing to talk with her friend.

"Well, I'm kind of a mess after that gym session," Ellie chuckled, motioning to the floor where a puddle had formed by her feet, "I just need to get cleaned up somehow, you know?"

Bella cocked an eyebrow, "So you're going to stand there and drip all over the floor instead of getting in the shower?"

Ellie laughed, "well, that's the thing. I thought I could go in the washing machine with my gym gear instead of the shower. I get to relax and do nothing for a while, and I can wash all my clothes at the same time! I'm saving a lot of water when you think about it."

Bella had to pause for a second before replying to the weirdest request she'd ever heard. "You want to go in the washing machine? But, how will you breathe? You wouldn't fit for a start!"

"Ah, that's where you're wrong!" Ellie triumphantly explained as she pulled on her sweaty pony tail and casually yanked her head off. "I can fit almost anywhere if I'm in enough pieces! Besides, I don't need to breathe when my head's detached."

Bella nearly dropped the dish she was washing. Ellie just... decapitated herself? She'd seen a few times in public, but she hadn't seen this close... not until now. "Woah! I'll be honest, I was not expecting that..." Bella gasped as she watched her roommate casually set her head on the kitchen counter. "I never know that you had... oh, what's the word?"

"NBM? A lot of people call it MBM, or just being detachable. Some prefer modular."

Ellie began informing Bella of what she had been up to for the last couple of weeks. "You know that body shop in town? The girl who runs it goes to the same gym as me. We bump into each other often, and we end up changing together."

Ellie's body took a seat and leaned over her detached head, fiddling with the tea towel next to it and using it to pat off any excess sweat coming off her. "Of course, she can stick a fresh head on after her workouts, so I got curious. We talked for a while, and she eventually offered me a discount on the cellular therapy. Initially I was a bit hesitant, but seeing how useful it was for her, and after she gave me a tour of her shop, I thought, why not?"

There was a stunned silence from Bella as she took what Ellie had just told her. She felt like someone had spiked her dish soap with mushrooms or something, but she knew it was true, partly because Ellie's body swung its leg out and hit her by accident, but mostly because she'd been offered it before. There were a few places that offered the therapy, all with displays show casing what you could do with the acquired modularity, but it never appealed to her enough to go through with it. Besides, she thought it was a bit creepy anyway.

"So this is why you've been acting strangely these last few weeks?"

"Yeah, sorry about that. I have fallen apart a few times, but I made sure it only happened in my bedroom. I nearly lost a few toes last week when I stubbed my foot on the coffee table but I found them luckily." Ellie's body stood up again and took hold of her head. "I've been meaning to tell you about this, but our schedules haven't matched up, and it's difficult to find the right moment to, you know, yank your head off!"

Ellie had only moved in 2 months prior, and with both of them working and Bella still studying a degree on top of that, they didn't really have much time to spend together, even if they shared the same 4 walls.

Bella sniggered a bit. "Well, I guess you're right about that. Anyway, you wanted me to put you in the washing machine?"

"Yeah! I won't even need to take off any of my clothes. Just break me up and toss me in!" Ellie chirped.

It didn't seem that easy. "I suppose it will save on the water bill. Might as well try it."

Ellie stood in front of the washing machine after putting her head back in its place, her body ready to be taken apart. Bella looked at all the sweat that was still covering Ellie's body and shuddered at the thought of having to handle all of it.

"This is going to be really weird," she muttered under her breath as she reached towards Ellie's shoulder.

"It's going to be fine! All you have to do is give what ever you want to detach a gentle tug, and it should come off nice and easy. Watch!" Ellie reached up to her left shoulder, massaged it with the tips of her fingers for a couple of seconds, and then grabbed it and pulled gently. Bella watched as the whole arm came away with little to no effort from Ellie. "See? Easy as that!"

Ellie handed Bella her now detached left arm, which wriggled in her grasp. Slightly bewildered by this, she put it down on the kitchen counter.

"Ok, I'll come back to that later..." She said as she hovered her hand over Ellie's other shoulder.

Bella looked a little grossed out by the arm on the counter, but she took deep breath and placed her hand on Ellie's right shoulder.

The process was quick and easy, just like Ellie said it would be, and Bella found herself holding the detached limb in her hands.

"Uh, how many other parts are there going to be?" Bella asked, not sure if she should be grossed out, impressed or both by her friend's ability.

"As many as you can think of!" Ellie beamed.

"You've got all my fingers on my hand, and they can be broken into at least 3 bits each, then my hands, my forearms, my elbows, my upper arms..." She was stuck in thought as Bella interrupted it in confusion.

"Oh, uh, I meant how many pieces do you think can fit in the washing machine? Do you really think all of you would fit?" Bella looked back at the open drum. "We could put your, um, sweatiest parts in, first, then see if we have any more room?"

Ellie leaned her head towards Bella. "Oh don't be silly!" She exclaimed to her overly concerned looking roommate. "Just put as much of me as you can in and we'll see what we can do!"

Bella sighed, still unsure about how to feel about the whole thing, but nodded along with Ellie's suggestion. She reached for Ellie's upper torso next and started to tug at it just as she had the other body parts, with no issue getting it to come to come apart. She was amazed by how easy it was to disassemble Ellie. Limb by limb, piece by piece, she was reduced to a pile of about 2 dozen parts on the counter, still wearing her gym gear.

"So, how do I look?" Asked the head amongst its scattered body.

"Ridiculous. Kinda cute, but still ridiculous".

Ellie stuck her tongue out as Bella began loading the drum, starting with her hips at the bottom, progressing to smaller pieces after that, finishing by stacking the thighs in such a way that it gave the head a stable position to sit in and look out of the perspex door. Bella leaned her head down to look into the now Ellie-filled washing machine. "Comfy?"

A muffled voice came from the inside of the washing machine. "As comfy as I'll ever be!"

Bella was still a bit bewildered by what was going on. Maybe she thought Ellie would have had second thoughts once she was actually in the machine, but perhaps she needed to get to know her better before making assumptions

"Let's hope so, stinky!" They both giggled at her crass remark.

"Hey, I'm not not stinky! Only some parts of me smell..." Ellie managed to wriggle her disembodied foot that was poking out the top of her pile of body parts, causing Bella to laugh a lot harder than before.

"In that case, open wide." She reached into the drum and put a dissolvable laundry capsule in Ellies waiting mouth, which she gently held between her teeth.

"See you on the other side!" The door was slammed shut and Bella programmed the machine to do a delicate wash. She looked back at Ellie in the drum, who gave her a confident wink as the water began to flood into the drum.