So It Begins

[Libby Belmont]

Interviews were horrendously boring, but completely and utterly necessary for this process.  Nero smiled politely as the female stood from her seat, the snake doing the same.  He walked her to the door of the university's lab before he offered his hand to her.

"Thank you for your time.  I'll call you back in if you're compatible for this experiment."

She released his hand, smiling back at him in a friendly, mildly motherly sort of way.  "Thanks," she said in that breathy, high-pitched tone that was grating on Nero's nerves.  He kept the smile on his face despite himself, nodding as he shut the door behind her retreating figure.

"She's a no," he told himself, walking over to the desk he was using.  He sighed softly and sat in the chair, picking up a pen and pursing his lips as he jotted down several notes.

No, she wouldn't work.  He doubted that she was a shapeshifter, however there were at least two who had come in that seemed as though they could have been.  To be sure, he had been taking blood samples.  His ruse: He was creating a non-narcotic calming agent through the college and he needed students to participate.

There was truth in it.  He was both doing his experiments through the school and was in need of student participants, however he was not creating a calming agent.  No, he was creating an escape route for the animal within shapeshifters.  It would be something to use in case of emergencies, a way in which the shifters could defend themselves from say, vampires.  His selling point was that it would, in the end, be a positive investment for all shapeshifters.  The animal half of them, the part that the human overpowered, was a much better decision maker in dealings of life and death.  Their instinct ran them, not their fears.  They could think under pressure, their only need being to survive.

It was a potentially amazing breakthrough.  All he needed was some help, someone he could watch and learn from.

His pen continued to move, scrawling elegant letters that attempted to evaluate all of the students whom he had interviewed.  Someone else was bound to come in in the meantime, which was really what Nero was hoping for.  Sooner or later, he would be able to pick out someone who would work.

[Darren Liten]

He didn't know if he was regretting this decision yet, but Darren Liten showed up at Dr. Garrah's office with a little slip of paper that stated the room number and the man's name on it, as well as his own backpack slung over one shoulder.  He'd opted to volunteer for this as a form of research for a midterm paper he had to write, but he was somewhat wondering if such active research was really a good idea.

Would it be allowed to occur through the college itself if it were dangerous?

No, that wasn't REALLY his concern.  He was a little worried about the fact that he was a shifter, and most drugs wouldn't work on him.  That would technically affect the man's results, but he was interested in the procedures and chemicals used for his own paper.  He'd have to decide what he would do when he got there.  It all depended on Garrah at this point.

When he knocked and stepped into the room, he realized that it wasn't so much an office as it was a full lab.  He assumed there was another room to it, off of this main one, but he was a bit surprised to be thrust right into the man's laboratory immediately.  He didn't show it.  

"Dr. Garrah?  I heard you were looking for help?" he asked, looking the man over with his bright green kitty cat eyes as he took in his surroundings.  There was a strange smell, one he'd never associated with a lab before, but he couldn't place it.  He would almost venture to guess that it was the dry, musky smell of a snake, given that he'd had a friend when he was younger who had a pet snake, but that didn't make sense.  Why would a snake be in a lab?  For this kind of a situation, researchers didn't often have pets around, and snakes weren't common test subjects.  He didn't see any cages.

[Libby Belmont]

The door opening did not rouse Nero from his concentration, but the voice surely did.  His pen stopped abruptly as he slowly raised his eyes, glancing over the newcomer with mild interest.  He then placed the pen down and pushed his chair back, standing up to greet the man.

"I am," he told him, leaning over his table to hold out his hand.  "Nero Garrah," he introduced himself with a flash of a smile.  His clear, almost slitted olive eyes took in the bright green ones and he smiled just the slightest bit wider.  That color was extremely uncommon in humans, however it was found in several types of feline.  Perhaps he had found what he was looking for after all.

"Please, have a seat."  Offering a chair to him, Nero picked up his clipboard and scrawled something across the paper as he slid back into his seat.  "In case you're unaware, this experiment is to create a calming agent.  It won't take place until all of the details with the subjects are worked out, but the basis is that it'll happen over the course of a month and I'll record the responses.  Nothing excruciating on either end.

"I need just the slightest sample of your blood, if you'd be willing.  It's protocol, just so that I can be sure you aren't at any risks for bad reactions."  I wonder what kind of shifter you are...

His mind absently ran through the feline shifters.  Lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards, cougars; he could be any of them.  Nero doubted that he was on the wrong track considering, although he supposed that he couldn't rule out that the man was just a human with oddly colored eyes.  Somehow though, that seemed highly unlikely.

[Darren Liten]

Darren took the offered seat and shook the man's hand, but it was Nero Garrah's eyes that had his attention.  They were like nothing he'd ever seen in a human, but there were shifters with eyes like that.  Maybe Garrah was the snake he'd smelled upon entering?  There was no way to tell, not without asking outright or getting close enough to get a proper scent.  He didn't see either happening anytime soon, considering the table between them.

He hesitated at the mention of the blood the man would need to take, and offered up a sheepish sort of a smile, as though what he were about to say was somewhat embarrassing.  "Uh, what kind of reactions are we talking about?  Can't I just sign an agreement that I won't hold you accountable for any reactions like that, instead of the blood test?"

He couldn't have a blood test, considering what the man would find in his blood, and he knew that the reactions a drug would cause in a human would be nothing to him.  He wasn't worried.

[Libby Belmont]

Nero looked to be considering something, dropping his pen once again on the table.  It rolled several inches away before he grabbed it in one quick, fluid motion to keep it from falling to the floor.  He then set it aside more carefully this time, bringing his eyes back up to the younger man.  The smile that he had worn previously returned and he leaned in his chair, balancing on the hind metal legs.

"There are lots of possible reactions.  Allergies can become a problem, and certainly not everyone knows all of their allergies unless they've been tested for everything."  His tone was calm, patient, with just a hint of 'I know what you're hiding.'  "Why?  Are you afraid of needles or do you have another excuse, Mister...?"

He needed a name.  A name and a breed, preferably.  Nero would work with all he could gather, it was what he did best.  So far he could only assume that he was in the presence of a large cat.  Just say it and we can continue this without too much delay.

[Darren Liten]

The leopard's eyes followed Nero's pen as the item started its roll to the floor and was rather suddenly caught by the doctor.  He was...quick, to say the least.  Not exactly human quick, either.  Darren was pretty sure that it was Nero Garrah that smelled of snake, and it seemed pretty likely that Garrah suspected him of being a shifter as well, if only from the way he asked his question.  Once again, Darren hesitated, not sure how to proceed here initially, since he didn't have a solid answer that didn't sound far too risky.

"What other excuse could I have?" he asked, watching Nero carefully.  Did the guy know?  He had to, otherwise why would he ask it like that?  Darren didn't give the other man his name yet, just in case he was wrong and Nero wasn't really a shapeshifter himself.  He couldn't afford to screw this up.

[Libby Belmont]

Nero laughed.  "Do you always dodge giving out your name or don't you trust me?"  He looked amused, however he did not look like he was mocking him, rather that the unanswered question was the work of comedic genius.  He leaned forward then, allowing his chair to hit the tiles beneath him with a soft thump.

"My theory on your blood giving fear--" he looked calm as he evaluated the other man with raised eyebrows, "--would have to be that you're hiding something from me.  Is there something wrong with your blood by any chance?  Something you wouldn't want an ordinary person to see?"  He didn't wait for an answer as he carefully ran his thumb over his fingernails, his gaze flickering to watch the action.  "Lucky for you, I'm not an ordinary person."

Once again he looked to be considering something.  Then, with a soft sigh, he raised his eyes, once again, to the man before him.  "I guess I should be frank, hm?  What kind of cat are you?"  He paused, gesturing to the bright green eyes looking at him as he added, "Your eyes give you away."

So, he was taking a blindfolded shot into the darkness and hoping he hit his mark?  Nero was willing to bet money on it, though.  The worst case scenario: the man thought that he was a lunatic and ran away screaming.  No big deal.

[Darren Liten]

"Actually, I usually only dodge questions with potentially mad scientists," he quipped, but he certainly hadn't missed any of the rest of what the man had said.  The joke was a poor cover for the rest of his reaction, but it was an attempt to veil his surprise at just how blunt Nero had been.  Did he have anything to lose by answering?  No.

He sighed, diverting the gaze that had blown his cover, yet again, and gave in.  "You're not the first person to say that," he told Nero, as just about anyone who knew about the Nyeusi world was able to determine that he was a feline shifter.  Nero was just one in a long line.  "I'm a leopard.  Darren Liten.  You're a snake, aren't you?"

[Libby Belmont]

Mad scientists?  Quite possibly Nero was one, although 'mad' could be replaced with 'rad.'  A rad scientist...  Ha ha.

"I am," he confessed easily.  "A green mamba, for what it's worth.  But a leopard, huh?  Well, I won't lie to you, that's good news for me.  Now I don't have to take your blood."  He smiled ironically.  "That's my least favorite part."

Tilting his head to one side, he decided to spill the information about the experiment.  "While we're being honest, I have another confession to make.  I'm not looking to make a calming agent.  I needed a shapeshifter, which, thank God, I finally found.  What I'm planning, though, is to create a sort of enhancement for the animal half of our people, if you will."  He sighed.  "Animals have a quicker reaction time than we do.  They're instinctual.  They don't have to stop and analyze anything.  Sometimes that's the better method, especially in potentially dangerous situations.

"What I hope to do is to save a few shifters from getting stuck as a vampire's play-thing.  If the animal could have more control, although not total control, it should be able to avoid getting caught a lot better than you or I could alone.  While it can't be a guaranteed reaction, it should work with some planning, especially in cases where the shifter in question happens to know that they're meeting with a vampire.

"All I'm asking of you is to just be willing to allow me to give you a few test drugs so that I can perfect it.  I have the basics and I can tell you the potential side effects, although I can assure you that none are deadly or even really that harmful at all.  The worst possibility is that I put too much of one chemical in it, which would really only either wake up your leopard too much or do exactly the opposite."  He looked at Darren curiously.  "You'll be paid for your participation, of course.  Through the school, you can get compensation for whatever it is you need, like if I keep you during lunch or something."  Waving his hand dismissively at the trivial matters, he smiled.  "Does that seem fair?"

[Darren Liten]

So, in a way, Darren had been right in worrying about a blood test.  This man had wanted to test his blood so that he could find out if he was a shapeshifter or not.  It didn't really matter, since they'd just established that they both were, but he'd still been right to worry.  But a green mamba?  Weren't those really poisonous?

What the other shifter was proposing was far more interesting than his breed, though.  He wanted to grant the animal half of a shifter's mind more control in order to deal with danger?  Theoretically, he could see that as being a good move, if it would save himself and others from being stolen by vampires, but there was a problem with it as well.  He personally thought he ended up looking like an idiot when the cat was in charge, but Nero might be right.  Darren usually only lost control when catnip was involved, such as what happened with Persephone.  Any cat looked like an idiot when that happened.

"None of this should be dangerous?" he repeated, though he'd noticed what the man had said about waking the leopard up too much or getting the opposite effect.  He wasn't so sure about all that, but it wasn't like he was required to stay if anything crazy happened, and it really could be highly useful to shifters...

"Uh, yeah, I guess it sounds fair," he agreed.

[Libby Belmont]

"Well," Nero started, gesturing a bit, "If you have any questions at all, you can feel free to ask them.  I promise I won't try to dodge."  He smiled slightly and stood, walking towards the back of the laboratory.  His movements were soft and fluid as he pulled a key from his pocket, opening a cabinet with the click of a lock.  As the door swung open, he began to file through it.  Glass rang as they touched, perhaps slightly rougher than Nero had intended.  If it bothered him though, he showed no signs of it.

"We don't have to start today," he called back as he pulled out a vile.  "But I thought you might like to see exactly what it is we're going to be doing."  He pivoted on his heel, striding back to the table with his eyes locked on the glass tube.  Upon reaching his destination, he placed the vile down.  Inside of the glass were little liquid tablets, not unlike several over the counter pain killers.  "No injections at all, just some pill swallowing."  He popped open the container and placed a tablet on the table.  The liquid inside sloshed around, glistening an eerie sky blue under the florescent lights, a small, nearly invisible number laying on the surface.  "The liquid contains several hormones that animals respond to.  All of the ingredients are natural and are things you can find in most living creatures; some plant extracts, proteins, things of that caliber."  He looked back to Darren, giving him a slow, mildly meaningful nod and a calm sort of smirk.  "The only reason I kept it in liquid form was so that we don't have to sit around for an hour for the medication to work.  I don't know about you, but I don't have that kind of patience."

[Darren Liten]

No, Darren wouldn't have had the kind of patience required to wait around for an hour for the pill to work, but he wasn't so confident about this.  The idea of testing something when its sole purpose was to draw his cat closer to the surface was a little intimidating.  Interesting, but intimidating.  He definitely couldn't have sat and waited for it to kick in, though.  That would have just made him nervous.

It was good that Nero wasn't going to dodge, and Darren smiled for him in return, so he asked a question.  "So, these hippie natural pills are going to make my animal instincts stronger, or actually draw the leopard mind to the surface?"  There was a difference, believe it or not.  Instincts could be fought and ignored, if he tried, because the human mind was in charge.  Drawing the cat mind to the front meant the cat was in charge.

[Libby Belmont]

"Hippie pills?" he parroted, looking genuinely amused.  In a sense, he supposed that they were hippie pills.  The problem with man made chemicals was that they had the potential to do some serious damage, and while Nero trusted that most shapeshifters could handle any damage and heal it accordingly, he wasn't willing to take the chance.  The natural chemicals were a much safer route.

"Well, these hippie pills actually do a little of both.  I can't entirely put your leopard in charge, of course, so it's more of the instincts that I want to take control of, however I don't want to give you or anyone else the chance ignore it.  That just gets back to over thinking things like a human, which really won't do much for my little enhancer.  I'm sure you can see the reason I need someone to test drive it.  I have to have just the right amount of both in order to make this work.  They have to balance each other out.  Also, it'll only last for a little while so there really isn't too much to worry about, like, for example, your leopard deciding to have a snack on a nearby two year old."

Nero was careful.  He wouldn't allow Darren's leopard half to do all of the thinking.  He wasn't so keen on the idea of becoming cat food himself, after all.  Definitely not--he was much better than some sawdust and artificial flavorings.

[Darren Liten]

Well, what the snake had to say made sense, in its own way.  If it was all natural ingredients, he couldn't see how it could really hurt him, so he didn't mind.  There weren't many natural substances that could do all that much damage to a shifter's system just by ingesting them, and from the sounds of things, Nero really had a goal that he wanted to hit.  He'd also said it was temporary, so Darren was sure it'd be fine.

"Alright, I'm in.  As long as you don't let me do anything stupid," he agreed, hoping that Nero would understand that he didn't just mean 'dangerous' when he said stupid.  Oh no, not at all.  He knew what catnip did to him, though that particular 'natural substance' definitely wouldn't accomplish what Nero wanted.

This would be interesting, at least.  "So, when do you want to start?"

[Libby Belmont]

Nero grinned lazily, his chair collapsing on its front legs again with a metallic clang.  He seemed pleased with Darren's acceptance, and of course, he was.  This was Nero's big opportunity right here, sitting before him.  A leopard was just the sort of animal he had been hoping for.  A predator with strong instincts.  This would prove to be a wonderful event.

"Nothing stupid, you have my word.  I'll keep you under close observation so nothing bad will happen to you or to anyone else.  I assure you, I wouldn't want a wild leopard loose either.  There would only be so much I could do."  He chuckled at the thought, although it was a morbid one.  The options would be few and he might be pressed to use deadly force.  "But I'll prevent that from even happening."

As he spoke, he made small gestures, his pen in his hand as if he was conducting a symphony.  Everything about him was nonchalant, detached.  Most snakes were much more feeling than he was.  Separation between work and play, one might say, could be an excuse, but for Nero, where was the separation?  It was a blurred line, to be sure.

"We can start whenever you're ready.  If you're ready now, now would be more than satisfactory.  If you have somewhere to be, we can make it a day that wouldn't inconvenience you.  Your choice, Mr. Leopard."