So It Begins

[Darren Liten]

Well, as long as Nero promised...this didn't look so bad.  Right?  Right.  He'd be HELPING other shifters, and he could tweak the information so that it wasn't too weird, and make it work for his paper.  See?  Everyone benefited.

He still hoped he didn't do anything embarrassing.

Of course, the 'only so much I could do' bit didn't escape his attention, but part of this would be Darren's requirement to trust Nero not to let anything like that happen.  The snake HAD said that he'd be careful, so everything should be fine.  Under control.  Yep.  Fortunately, Darren didn't have enough personal experience with snakes to feel at all strange about Nero's seeming detachment, nor did he realize that Nero was definitely in the minority where that particular trait was concerned in the serpiente.  That ignorance on his part kept him from being at all concerned about the man in front of him. 

"I don't have anywhere to be," he told the snake with a shrug, not seeing any reason to put it off.  If he did, it'd just be because of his own nerves, not any prior engagements.  "Now is fine."

[Libby Belmont]

"Excellent," Nero responded as he stood.  "Then let's get this underway.  You can stay seated, I'll get you some water."  This is precisely what he did.  He popped a cardboard cup out of a dispenser and flicked on the sink at the far end of his lab.  Then, when he deemed it at the proper amount, he walked back to the table and placed the water in front of Darren.

"I want you to only take one of these pills at first.  I'm not sure if it will be strong enough for what I'm looking for, but it will help me determine the dosage I should give you."  He placed one of the liquid capsules beside the cup of water, his sharp eyes watching Darren in anticipation.  "Once you take it, give it five minutes to take effect.  That should be all that's necessary."

The way that Nero had placed himself resembled a snake entirely.  He was leaned forward ever so slightly, his unblinking eyes locked on Darren's face.  He seemed calm enough, completely at ease, knowing that the leopard would do this without him.  It was as if he was waiting for an opportunity to strike.  Once he realized that he may have seemed unnerving, he took a step away from the table and busied himself with the sorting of papers.

It was good for Darren's psyche that he didn't realize that Nero wasn't acting like a normal serpiente.  That would concern him, and at the moment, Nero was focusing on keeping Darren's trust.  And why not?  He was trustworthy.  He wasn't going to do anything to his subject.  He needed him alive and sane in order for this to work as he wanted.

[Darren Liten]

It felt weird sitting there.  Not because of anything big, but maybe because of the whole 'doctor' and 'hospital' vibes, not to mention the pill.  Being a shifter, Darren hadn't ever had to go to a hospital for himself, but he'd been in them for other people.  They didn't really make him feel comfortable, and his nerves over the situation might have contributed to it, though he made an effort at calming them.

It wasn't going to be a big deal.  Just a little pill.

He took that little pill, trying to ignore Nero's slightly creepy hovering, and mostly just sat there waiting for something to happen afterwards.  When it actually did he didn't even notice, it was so subtle.  He just suddenly found himself absolutely fascinated by the way Nero was shuffling his paperwork around, to the point that he just WATCHED it.  If there would have been anything else moving in the room, it might have been just as interesting, but those papers...they were moving.

Yeah, because papers didn't budge.  Ever.  REEEEAL interesting.

[Libby Belmont]

Nero hadn't noticed, not at first, that he was being watched.  He wasn't initially organizing, but after the first few seconds of 'busying himself', he became suddenly inclined to actually place the papers where they belonged.  Nero wasn't necessarily a messy person, but his method of organization wasn't entirely organized.  His mess was his mess though, touching it was suicide.  Just because it looked chaotic didn't mean that it was, or something to that effect.

His eyes slid suddenly, shifting back to look at Darren curiously only to find him staring back, or rather, staring at the papers.  He found himself tilting his head to one side, giving him an odd sort of look.  "Is everything okay, Darren?  Has the medication taken affect?"

Maybe this was something directly related to the medication.  But how?  Watching papers?  He frowned.  His sister's cat watched things that moved, even if it was something unimportant.  Did even big cats do that?  It was possible.

[Darren Liten]

Darren didn't care about the mess or the organization.  He cared about the papers.  Moving. 

Moving.

Wait.  They weren't moving anymore, but Nero was looking at him.  He jerked his bright green eyes up to the other man, a little startled, and blinked for a second.  It wasn't that he didn't understand, but that it took a second to pull out of the tunnel vision.  Fortunately, his eyes were already that bright green, so that didn't look all that odd, but if Nero looked, he might have noticed that they weren't entirely human anymore.  It was subtle, but Darren's eyes were the surefire way to figure out what was going on with him in this department.

"What?  I'm fine!" he said, actually before he really had a clue what he'd been asked, and then he sort of shook his head and considered.  Was the medication taking effect?  "I don't...I don't think so.  Maybe?"

It really was subtle, because it wasn't like he couldn't think, or anything.  He just felt...distracted.  By the littlest things.  Or maybe it was just that he was noticing more?  The clock's ticking was now the only thing really moving in the room, and his attention turned to it, watching the arms tick, tick, tick around the face.  Usually, he could hear a clock ticking, but he didn't really take notice of it. 

[Libby Belmont]

Nero couldn't tell the difference between Darren's eye shift.  His eyes were already cat like, and considering how Nero's own eyes always seemed slitted like a snakes, he wasn't sure how to tell the difference on someone else.  Even beyond that, he was not that observant.  That was a different sort of observation, something a girl or like-minded individual would notice, not a scientist on the prowl for a breakthrough.

His mind was focused on logic.  Complex thought.  So very often, he didn't see the obvious.

"It probably wasn't enough then.  It should have done something by now."  Nero watched as Darren stared at the second hand on the clock, his own mind turning.  Often times, a cat that observed the tiniest movement did not continue to watch it.  They turned to see the cause of the movement, but they always turned away.  Darren's apparent fascination was not quite making sense to Nero.

"Unless you always make a habit of watching papers shuffle and clock's tick?  Otherwise, I think all this medication's done to you was make you hyper aware."  Now Nero seemed disappointed, his mouth opening slightly to release a soft breath of air.  Were the pills that weak?  Surely he hadn't expected anything big, but he had hoped for at least a bit more of a reaction.

Fine.  If he needed to make this better, he would.  Darren was going to have to take another pill.

[Darren Liten]

Hyper aware made sense.  Really, it seemed as though the medication made him more inclined to notice the movements, but the human part of his mind clung to each one in absolute fascination.  He hadn't ever stopped to notice things like that before.  It was a strange mix, but it wasn't anything that he could see as a really huge difference.  Definitely not useful for Nero's purposes.

Now that Nero mentioned it, he stopped and actually FOCUSED to see if that was what it was.  Maybe his senses were just more active, and it was making him notice things. 

Lo and behold, when he actually took a second to focus on his sense of smell, hearing, and sight, he noticed different things.  Some of them, he'd noticed before, but not like this.  Nero made a good point.  Smart guy, that scientist.  Imagine that.

Another pill?  Right then, he was interested in what was going on, and not scared at all.  It wasn't bad, or anything to be nervous about right then, so he'd take another.