Rattlesnake {Nero}

[Sasha]

Sigried hadn't been out to Ramsa for a long while, and the fact that the town hadn't been completely overrun by Mayhem vampires at this point neither surprised her nor disinterested her, rather, hit her equally from both sides. She was enjoying the surplus of sudden warm weather, allowing herself a moment's leave from Lucien, Elke, Simon, and that disaster for a small vacation without whisking herself off to Italy or Beijing or wherever she suited to go. She was terribly tired of the 'same old, same old'. While Lucien had become an enjoyable sort of plaything, he did have Onyx to attend to, and Sigried would only ensure her head remain completely attached to her shoulders at all instances without having to hide behind Theron if she allowed him to tend to it.

Now after much deliberation on how to handle her free time without becoming completely destructive, she sat on a bench in the small 'downtown' sort of area Ramsa had - rustic, really, in a homey sort of Northern Exposure kind of way. It was as though New York City didn't loom ominously close, threatening to suck in the suburban lifestyle and blacken it with smog and desire. She tipped her head back, enjoying the warmth of the sun as it splayed across her cheeks. She'd finally allowed her skin to gain some colour, although it may have been an illusion, and now displayed only the lightest sun-kissed features behind bright blue eyes and ever-so-dark strands of straight hair. Her lips played in a small, mischievous smile as she enjoyed the silence, simply relaxing for the moment.

[Libby Belmont]

Things had been going decidedly well.  His methods for pressuring the animal half of shapeshifters to come to surface at will was still in the works, but so far so good, as the saying went.  He had managed to get the animal out of his subject, however the reaction had been quite strong and his subject had required sedation.    Upon awakening, they had recovered well enough, although they did show several prominent side effects.  Luckily, he knew exactly how to go about the next test and how to further perfect his methods.

He was walking through downtown Ramsa, if that was even an adequate term for such a suburban area, hands in his pockets and green eyes unfocused.  He was lost in his mind that never stopped moving, walking without a true destination, an event that was quite common with the young scientist.  As logical as he was, he was often daydreaming, lost on some other world full of experimentation and Noble Peace Prizes.

Something snapped him out of his inner musings, something in the form of an attractive young woman.  His quick paced walking slowed significantly as he raised his head, his eyes shifting to a bench.  He was overcome with a need to talk to her--he equated this with her beauty.  Something about her was completely memorizing.

"Forgive my staring," he said once he was close enough.  He was certain that she had noticed how he had been ogling her--okay, not 'ogling.'  Nero was far from a creepy perverted guy, but he was still a guy.  He could only help so much that he did.  "But I don't think I've seen you around here before.  Ramsa's not big enough to not recognize people."

[Sasha]

Sigried smiled lazily, blue eyes still unfocused at the sky above. She gradually brought back down her gaze, fluttering her eyelashes as she viewed Nero entirely. My, he was attractive - and a Serpiente, too. She almost smirked, but shifted over on the bench a little, drawing in her arms in and placing her hands in her lap. She wore a simple long black tank top with silver trim at the bottom fitted over a pair of gray wool shorts. The outfit was a bit of city couture paired with black heels, but on her slender limbs it seemed 'right'. Sigried was always in style. She had to be.

"Well, hello," she said coyly, tilting her head a little. "I'm not from Ramsa, so that's probably a good reason why you don't recognize me. Either that or I'm simply easy to forget," she said with a little pout. But Sigried, to any Serpiente, was impossible to forget. "Won't you have a seat?" she asked, gesturing to the spot she'd made. "I'm Sigried. It's lovely to meet you," she offered sweetly.

She was only getting warmed up, of course.

[Libby Belmont]

"I'm sure you're hard to forget," Nero answered automatically, smiling politely.  He was certain that he wouldn't be forgetting this beautiful young woman anytime soon.  She offered him a seat and he gladly took it, watching her through a curious green gaze.  Sigried--that was a different name.  He couldn't help but wonder its origin.

"Nero," he replied smoothly.  "It's a pleasure."  He unconsciously laid on the Garrah charm, unaware of the woman's true prowess as a vampire.  Even if he had, however, he undoubtedly would have done just the same as he was, only more cautiously.  At the present, he was entirely unassuming, completely entranced by her.  There was no charm necessary from his end.

His eyes left her, trailing along the sidewalk to find several people wandering as aimlessly as he had been.  "If you're not from Ramsa, do you mind if I inquire as to why you're here?  I'm fairly sure that there's nothing interesting out this way."  He looked back at her again, smiling that same charming smile that he often used around attractive females.  He couldn't help himself.

[Sasha]

Nero, she thought to herself. What an odd name - like the insane emperor. I wonder if he's insane? How lucky for me! She leaned towards him slightly as he spoke to her, changing her posture to accommodate her new companion. It would have been rude of her to just face straight ahead and not allow him her full attention, would it not? Of course - she smiled, a twinkle playing in her illusion-touched blue eyes.

She studied him as he looked away, observing, and spoke. "Kidding me? This place is bumping. Any minute now a fanfare is going to break out and a parade bigger than the Macy's Day is going to erupt onto the streets," she said with a laugh. She tossed her head, guiding long strands of her silky brown hair away from her face nonchalantly, and smiled again. "I'm just taking the day off. The city is busy, and it's hard to think."

She'd decided to leave Lucien alone for the time being, as addressed before, and honestly that was taking time off. Now she was bored, so she'd taken to exploring every inch of Ramsa, because she hadn't been there before - or if she had, it wasn't long enough to look around. Sigried was naturally curious about many things, so it was perhaps fortunate for her that her power laid in good reserve when she found things that perhaps didn't necessarily want to be found.

"And I'm sure you've just taken a break from your fascinating life as a... hmm.. " she tilted her head, trying to decide what he was. She wanted to actually guess, for once, and so she hazarded, "as an award winning rocket scientist to come into Ramsa for a nice Spring stroll?" she teased. She'd be pleasantly surprised when she found out he was a scientist, even if he didn't work on rockets.

[Libby Belmont]

Insanity was relative.  Nero was under the impression that he was quite sane, but then he also thought that preforming potentially harmful experiments on half-informed individuals was perfectly okay.  Perhaps he wasn't particularly "insane" but rather lacking in several key morals.  One of which just happened to be keeping aforementioned individuals completely in the know, especially where risks were concerned.

Sigried's sarcasm regarding the town of Ramsa was entirely justified.  Nero grinned.  He liked her sense of humor.

The guess about him being a rocket scientist blindsided him.  He couldn't help but laugh a little.  "Wow, you're close.  I'm a scientist, just not one involving rockets.  I work on bettering people's lives through medication, although I'm not in the pharmaceutical field.  It's more of an everyday sort of scenario versus a cure for a specific ailment."  Somehow, he seemed nonchalant about the whole 'I'm a scientist' thing.  "What about you, though?  What are you taking the day off from?"

[Sasha]

Sigried arched a brow inquisitively. She still wasn't rummaging through his brain, but this one... he'd have to explain himself more, or she'd be forced to. "Oh?" she asked brightly. She enjoyed smart Serpiente, they were so much more fun to keep around. Stupid ones generally didn't last long in her presence. The age old 'playing with your food' didn't bode well for them. "Bettering their lives? How?" Tell me....

"Oh, taking the day off from life in general." She pondered, and then spoke more. "The guy that I was seeing, well, as it turns out, he's engaged. Can you believe it? I was such a fool," she said a little woefully, turning up that snake charm just a notch as she fluttered her lashes sadly. The story was, for the most part true - except she really expressed not giving a flying fuck if Lucien had been engaged. But in the more... normal realm of things, it was an unacceptable thing to do, and Lucien was a bad, bad man for even talking to Sigried. Not that he could help it. She smiled inwardly, but managed to keep up her little sad expression long enough for her own benefit.

"Oh well, right? What can you do, but move on," she sang. See how resilient she is? Evil, evil woman.

[Libby Belmont]

Nero felt compelled to spill everything to this young woman.  His head tilted to one side while he tried to place logic into the situation.  He shouldn't discuss this sort of thing with someone he had only just met.  No.  No, no, no.

"I work with shifters.  I'm attempting to harness the animal instinct half of an individual and pressure it out on command.  It would be helpful in tight situations, when, for instance, a human might over think something while an animal would just react.  But shapeshifters in general have a tendency of being out of touch with their other half and therefore can't use their added skills to their advantage.  I'm in the earlier stages of the experiments, but things have been improving rather rapidly and I expect to have this done within the next several months."

He paused.  What was he doing?  It was as if his entire control, the brick wall of indifference that he had built up, was completely crumbling around him.  The worst part was that he didn't really care.

Sigried's explanation regarding a man that she was seeing turning out to be engaged immediately targeted his sympathy.  "What an idiot," he responded.  "You aren't to blame; you didn't know.  He should have been more honest to you and to his finacee.  But you're absolutely right, moving on is all you can do.  I'm only sorry that it happened to you at all."

[Sasha]

She nodded as he spoke, listening intently to what he was saying. Shifters? This is a gold mine! Imagine the possibilities... It intrigued her that he was interested in controlling such aspects, although she wondered if it was purely for scientific progression, or for some means of his own. She needed to know what sort of man she was dealing with here - was he neutral to the feelings of others to further his own scientific discovery, or was he truly diabolical?

"What will you do with all of this information once you've gathered it? I know the recognized scientific community doesn't really seem to be aware of shapeshifters, and I know most of them would prefer to keep it that way," she said. She wondered if he'd find it odd that she wasn't frightened by what he was talking about.

[Libby Belmont]

Diabolical?  Perhaps Nero was, to some extent, a little less neutral than he would let on.  He didn't particularly care for the feelings and needs of his guinea pigs because, after all, they were the same as lab mice.  If one were to get too involved with the mice, how could they be experimented on?  They might die and what's the use of being sad?  To Nero, the shifters that he played with were nothing more than that; nothing more than mice.  None of them had yet to make him feel otherwise.

"The underground," he explained.  "There are a lot of shifters who would benefit from my research and there are a few who are starting to realize that.  I'm relying on word of mouth more than anything.  It's a good place to start."  He smiled lazily, offering Sigried a half-hearted shrug.  "And to appease the humans watching, questioning me, I do some side work with them.  I actually brought a mouse back to life for five minutes."  He let out a soft laugh, not necessarily proud of the fact that after five minutes, the mouse had died again, but it was surely a start.  Of course, the serum that he had used hadn't been strong enough for the mouse, let alone a human or shifter.  The likelihood of being able to bring back something of that size was slim to none.  It was worth investigating a little more, but passed that, he wasn't even trying.

Again it crossed his mind that he was telling this woman, someone he didn't even know, all about his experimental research.  He was hardly an open book.  But the more he thought about it, the less he found himself really questioning what he was doing.  He trusted her for some strange reason, and he liked telling her these things.  She was hypnotizing.

[Sasha]

She smiled a little more, that charm kicking up about two more notches. Bringing things back to life? Even if it was only temporary, imagine the possibilities... She would definitely be keeping her eyes on Nero, that was certain. She drummed her fingertips lightly at her knee, tipping her head so that her long, dark hair fell just so, shielding her brightly blue and totally glamoured eyes from the annoying sun momentarily, before reaching up and clearing it away.

"I'd love to see your lab sometime. Really, I've never heard of anything like what you're describing. It's fascinating - it's almost too bad that it has to stay underground, but then again..." she trailed off. You couldn't have everything. She enjoyed the secrecy as much as the next person; it made what she did that much easier, that much more chaotic. Pulling the strings of the dear marionette from behind the stage - it was a living.

"Do you think you could take me some day?" she asked innocently. "I understand if you can't; you mustn't let just anyone around such precious research, but still, it would make me terribly happy." Her face plainly said 'Pleeeease?'.

[Libby Belmont]

That curious gaze never left Sigried as her intriguing eyes were momentarily eclipsed by her hair.  Nero may not have understood his fascination but he sure as hell knew that he was.  His face seemed softer somehow now, more focused and less thoughtful as he watched her actions, his sharp green eyes unblinking.  His lips were pulled back in a smile and the snake inside of him was baring its fangs.  He tilted his head a little, his shoulders moving with it in one fluid action as he registered her words.

She had him, there was no question.  And he was just so damn fascinated that he couldn't muster the willpower to think clearly.

Terribly happy.  "Of course," he answered without hesitation.  "I'd be honored to take you there, Sigried."  That was her name; it felt so easy to say.  "Anytime you'd like."

They were sitting so close, he suddenly realized.  Her warmth was intoxicating.  He found himself just the slightest bit closer not a moment later, his knee brushing hers lightly.  Any serpiente would have leaned farther into the warmth and any serpiente would have sought out that physical contact, even if it was brief and fleeting.  He hadn't done it on purpose, but it felt natural regardless, as if this woman was someone whom he should admire and try to impress, as if he had something to prove to her.

[Sasha]

Such pretty eyes, she thought to herself, watching him as he watched her. She wondered how it felt to be a snake and be just as caught in her gaze as birds fell to theirs. It must've been terribly frustrating when she parted ways, but she'd seen and heard that during the adventure the experience was quite... nice.

She moved her hand a little as his knee brushed her own, and placed it only two inches further, on his own knee. She laughed coyly, softly, and looked away for a moment, as though she were feeling shy. Sigried, for her natural and unnatural life, had never felt 'shy'; she didn't know what it really was, but Elke had explained it to her enough that she felt she had a good grasp on the idea of it.

"I'm not doing anything for the next few hours," she volunteered, looking back at him again, and then sweeping her gaze downward in a girlish manner. She glanced up and smiled, lips curving but not showing her teeth - she wanted a sweet, charming smile, not a cheshire grin.

"If you're not busy, anyways," she added. "I'd hate to be a bother..."

Indeed.

[Libby Belmont]

Nero wasn't generally attracted to those shy types of girls.  Their coy acts were only mildly irritating, at best.  However, what Sigried was doing seemed more endearing than annoying, as if she was something more important and so much better than the average giggling woman.

His eyes flicked down to her hand, the one on his knee, and he raised a curious eyebrow as he looked back up at her.  He had no idea, none whatsoever, that he was being toyed with.  As far as he could see, which really wasn't very far at the moment, Sigried was just a beautiful woman with a friendly disposition.  And because of this shortsightedness, he looked at her through that soft gaze and told her, "Not a bother at all."  He returned her smile, just as charming, appearing thoroughly entranced.

He paused then, searching her for a moment before he rose and nodded his head for her to follow.  "It's down at the college a couple of blocks from here.  It shouldn't take us long to get there."  And for one brief moment, Nero pulled himself together enough to wonder why exactly she wanted to see his lab.  There wasn't anything particularly fascinating in there for most people, and while she did seem interested, how much of it would she understand?  What game was she playing?

But that moment was brief indeed, for the second that he finished the thought, it was gone and she was all he was focused on.

[Sasha]

She stood only a second after he did, a smile nearly unavoidable as it crossed her glossy mouth - she did enjoy when her subject had a moment of realization, and then quickly fell back into the fog. Most of them didn't even resist her - Lucien had been as easy to wrap 'round her finger as a section of twin, but Nero seemed a little more alert and aware of the world around him. She found it hard to believe the leader of the Onyx Guild could allow himself to be so run down, but there it was.

She followed dutifully, hands in her pockets as she walked. She tossed her hair out of her face and looked upward, as though she actually enjoyed the sunshine. She did, somewhat, but she preferred moonlight better. It made everything faint and ghostly, bathing the land in a blue light that the sun just could not do. Still, she could not argue with the warmth.

"You do this sort of thing at a college? I'm surprised nobody else has found out, yet," she said thoughtfully. "Do you keep your notes encrypted? I have heard that some scientists will do that so as to deter anyone from actually gaining knowledge from their research before they want it to be known." Sort of like a magician, you could say.

She grinned pleasantly at him.