Wherewolf (Cassius/Sara)

[jarahamee]

Captain Lucidus was more than familiar with the location of this office. Sometimes, he dropped by just to be friendly, or deliver treats, goods, or interesting nicknacks. Other times, he surveyed the hall to ensure that all was well, and there was no sign of any convalescent schemes. Today, he was here for business, and to tell Dr. Summers about his plan.

While it seemed odd to visit her while she was at work, he felt it was more appropriate to approach her in a work environment. When she was home, she was not a scientist and she deserved her peace, and privacy. Even when he was at her house, for added security, it was he who was working, and not Dr. Summers. Here at the WDSA, however, she had office hours. She was a scientist, and she was working. And today he had work for her. Perhaps, if he was lucky, she would understand his predicament today, rather than raise the alarm with his superiors. Putting him in a mental institution might cause undesirable delays.

The scarred man raised his fist, and then knocked neatly on the door, trying to decide how best to compose himself. His shoulders were tense, he realized. It was rare that he felt nervous these days, but he also rarely had to expose anything close to his heart. Nothing was personal to him, and the past was often as not a distant memory, too remote to truly be painful ( with a few exceptions). The old soldier took a deep breath and waited for Dr. Summers.

[tsukikoko]

Lucidus had, by all accounts, caught Sara at the perfect time; there were none of Decker's entourage breathing down her neck, no important or potentially dangerous experiments on the go that she couldn't take a break from. In fact, the shifter was in one of her rare moments of simple stock updating and note taking, where she wasn't in the laboratory proper, but instead the office space attached to it.

The office space upon which door Cassius had just knocked.

Within a few moments, a fiery-haired, familiar face threw open the door with far more enthusiasm than she reserved for a great many of her recent visitors. For the scarred face was a familiar and friendly one, a person she would have made time for even if she weren't in a position of relative free time herself.

"Eeee, Cass luv, y'alreet like? Need a 'and with owt?"
Her smile, broad and ever-welcoming, did wonders to obfuscate the lines of stress and fatigue that were so often present in Sara's expression.

[jarahamee]

Cassius bowed slightly, took her hand and squeezed it gently. His dark eyes were as fathomless and harsh as always, his angular face caught the lighting unkindly, exaggerating his ugly, grimace-like scar, but his smile was genuine. He did not comment on her exhaustion. That was rude, but he wanted to express some care for Doctor Summers. He, generally speaking, did not mesh well with civilians, being someone who was more or less all military business, but she was a friend and he did care for her. It was unfortunate he would have to burden her with this business, but after his consideration, she was the best suited for the job he had for her.

“Doctor Summers…” He paused, and then stepped into the office. “I do have a matter I wanted to… discuss with you. It will take a few minutes. Do you have the time to spare?”

He turned around to close the door behind him carefully, releasing her hand as he moved into the space. While he knew a great deal about bodies, and in his own way, about science, most of her work was beyond him. And that was why she was important. She would be able to understand the fruits of his labors better than any he had consulted with before. And perhaps, that meant, this time he would be successful. He could only hope.

"O'course luv!" Doctor Summers quickly shut both the doors to the corridor and lab, sealing them in the relative privacy of the office. "Would ya like tah sit down, like?" One hand gestured to a few empty chairs at other desks.

“I prefer to stand.”

He shifted a folder in his arm, placing it down in front of him on the desk. It would take some time to explain his predicament. The scarred man rubbed his cheek, and then leaned his weight against the chair with the same hand. Sara noted that his gloves did an excellent job hiding his missing fingertips.

“Now, I have a particular issue that I think you may be able to help in. I need you to do some cognitive, physical and behavioral tests on a novel being."

[tsukikoko]

As Sara regarded her companion, her gaze and attentiveness gave off the impression that whatever he had to say, in that moment, was the most important thing in the world. It was clear, too, that she was aware of the minutiae of his expressions and body language. Concern flickered across her features, for she wasn't used to seeing the Captain nervous. But the shifter didn't comment on it.

She did take a seat after a moment, in a move likely borne of necessity given how tired she was. Yet the spark of fierce intellect was ever-present, alighting more strongly as Cassius spoke of a 'novel being.'

Sara tilted her head, just slightly,
"Eeee now luv, sounds reet interestin' like, but I 'ave a feelin' there's somethin' abowt this testin' ya divvint want many tah be privy to. Tah 'ave approached me the way ya 'ave." There was no judgement in her tone, if anything the shifter was understanding. Which, given her studies of Rhys, likely wasn't surprising. "Is ya novel bein' dangerous, like? Or needs tah be kept secret?"

[jarahamee]

“A little bit of both, because the novel being is me.”

He spoke matter-of-factly. He was glad that Dr. Summers was so smart. It made things easier for him. While these matters were not strictly illegal, they were likely going to raise more than a few eyebrows all around. Even if he explained himself, it was possible that people in the department would try to stop him. He supposed that it was a sort of human experimentation experience, even if that human just happened to be him. And now, he’d have to explain himself.

“This is going to sound strange, but, I am in something of a personal bind, and I may have finally found a resolution.”

Captain Lucidus averted his eyes away from Doctor Summer’s. Was it shame he felt? He supposed, it was unlike him to feel weak, feeble in the face of forces outside of his control. It was a kind of vulnerability he was not used to. He frowned, and then continued;

“I am…very old. Almost two thousand years old. That is older than any human should ever be.”

He paused, before continuing;

“When I was young, I came in contact with an ancient entity, and we made a promise. I promised that I would allow them to live on, through me, and I would share their magic power. This allowed the entity, who we call Beast, to grow within me. We are two separate beings, but we share this body, and when Beast is fully formed, it will take over this body, and push me out. Unfortunately, Beast is already fully formed, and ready.”

The scarred man seemed rather matter-of-fact about these matters. He had twenty lifetimes to come to terms with it. It was no longer a source of anxiety or fear for him. It simply was, and he could accept that was truth. He looked down at his gloved hands, considering.

“I have been thinking. I originally planned to allow this to happen, but I realize, while Beast is not innately cruel or evil, it is not moral like a human might be. When it was alive, it was treated as a God, and it lives by different rules than us mortal men. It feels attachment to people I am attached to, like yourself, or Telmore, or Director Hemming, but it has no such feelings towards anything else I care for, like rules, regulations or morality. When I am gone, I am afraid that it will abuse my ability and its own power and cause problems.”

He stood up straight, entwining his fingers together. His face was tense.

“However, I believe I have found a solution. A long time ago, I performed experiments, which allowed me to change the physical properties of people and instill them with magic. I applied the same ideas to create a new solution, which I believe can make me into a creature that is both Beast and myself, combined flawlessly. This is of course, the place in which I will need your help. There is a good chance I will become something dangerous and physically aberrant. I will need you to help me evaluate this creature, and that will allow me to see if this is a viable solution.”

[tsukikoko]

Something changed in the redhead's expression as Cassius explained the situation; it was stubborn, fixated... a protective desire to save her friend intertwined with a problem solving mentality, in which a series of rapid-fire options she laid out before herself. A small work of her jaw, a downward turn of her lips, signalled when one of these ideas was thrown away.

She was silent for a long while. Processing what he had told her took longer than it might have done were she fully rested and it was clear the shifter didn't wish to miss anything important in her fatigued state. When she did speak, Sara's voice was soft as silk yet fierce as a tiger; she wished to help her friend, save him if only she could, that much was evident. Equally, she hadn't dismissed his request outright.
"An' Beast wouldn't be satisfied with a new body? An empty vessel, like? Or would their leavin' you cause harm?" A moment's pause. She tapped her bottom lip with one finger. "An' durin' these tests, like, where ya change yaself, could we change ya back if somethin' started goin' wrong, like?"

[jarahamee]

Cassius studied Sara’s features and worked through the problem-list mentally. He had thought about that in the past, but it was something like separating him from himself. There were a lot of problems, beginning with;

“I am not sure how we could be separated. Beyond that, I am also concerned about what Beast would do if it had any amount of power at its disposal. As I have said, it is not, as we consider it, evil, but it has few compulsions about killing or death. They are simply natural faucets of life to a creature like that.”

While he was much the same way, he at least understood how and why not to act this way. He was not sure that Beast would ever understand, or want to understand these sorts of rules and laws as they applied to humanity. And there was no real way to block it from interacting with humanity to begin with. Perhaps give it the body of a mortal wolf? But would that be any kind of handicap to the soul of a God? He supposed that would be an important point to bring up.

“Well. I cannot make them reversible, but I can make them wear off after a certain amount of time. And I have experience; I have performed something similar successfully in the past, but the behavioral results were…undesirable. Still, I think this kind of magical and physical blending may be the best way to resolve my concerns. The bodies I made in the past were compatible with life, at the very least. And I know how to make appropriate containment for anything that may be dangerous.”

Agent Lucidus' mouth became an uneven line as he considered the third, and likely most unwise possibility;

"I have also considered... making myself into what Beast was...directly, but I think...that carries the greatest risk of catastrophe. For while my mind would be preserved, I imagine, so will its, and then, it will have the body it desires."

[tsukikoko]

Leaning forward onto her desk, Sara steepled her fingers together and rested them upon her chin and mouth, brow furrowed just slightly as she mulled over Cassius' words. Entities such as he described Beast to be would ordinarily have been something she'd have picked Tsu's brain over. Now, however, such a thought sent only a pang of distress through her chest, a feeling that made her visibly wince, since the old werewolf still hadn't returned after Rhys' disappearance.

After a moment, she exhaled, ran a hand through her hair and laid out her side of the discussion,
"Alreet luv, I defer tah ya knowledge of what Beast is like, given ya share a body an' 'ave known them so long, like. But we 'ave other supers who similarly don't live by human ideals, or think of life an' death the same way, ya know? Do ya reckon the WDSA wouldn't be able to do owt tah 'elp mitigate their tendencies, like?"

The shifter paused a moment. The gaze now watching Cassius held a blend of concern, apprehension, but undeniable curiosity, too.

"If I agree tah this, like, would ya consent-" she stopped mid-sentence, tapping a finger against her chin, "-well, an' Beast too if they're fully formed an' conscious, like... Reet, would ya both consent tah me runnin' a few preliminary tests before any transformations? I'd like tah git a feel for what we're workin' with before the dangerous parts, ya know, like? After me work with our Rhys, an' some other studies I've been doin' with our Bruse, I now 'ave a reet canny few ways tah take readin's of various entities."

Though Cassius seemed to think there wasn't another way, Sara felt she had to at least try. Perhaps, with a more solid understanding of Beast they could find another solution. One that worked both in the Captain's favour and that of the entity that also had every right to a life of its own.

There was something else, though, niggling at the shifter from the back of her skull. Something she needed to ask about in case they did have to go down the route of a 'novel being'.
"An' these bodies... Did they break down quickly, or were they of a human lifespan... more, less?" She swallowed, hesitating for just a second as the question she wished to ask landed upon her tongue. "Are they still abowt, like?"

[jarahamee]

Cassius’ cocked his head slightly, following her train of thought as she considered each option. The shadows seeped into his scars and the hollows of his eyes as the lighting changed. His fathomless dark eyes followed her features as she had an emotional journey of sorts. She wanted to help, and she would put her all into helping, even if he was not sure her solution was feasible.

And Dr. Summers was not wrong; the WDSA did deal with similar beings, some even more morally ambiguous than Beast happened to be. He supposed, if this creature was not tainted by his penchant for violence, it might be able to exist…somewhere. Especially if it had little contact with humanity once it was free. He could not see it existing well and peacefully within a city, but perhaps, perhaps, somewhere large and wild enough might make it happy. If it would be content with leaving others well enough alone.

“I do not know. It is intelligent, but very animal-like. I would not say it is unreasonable, but it has very strong impulses to end conflicts with violence. It is not passive. It wants to..fix everything. It knows what I know, it… feels what I feel, but it is not me.”

He rubbed the back of his head. There were not many good ways to explain the nature of Beast. It simply was and existed separate from himself.

As if summoned, Beast rose to the surface, unsure of his machinations, though her questions created thoughts of its own in turn. Sara was a friend. That was something that the creature recognized. It would do as she wished, for now. She was trying to help. It would let her help.

“Well, for what it is worth, we both would consent to your testing, Dr. Summers.”

And with her last question, he paused. A complex question, but at the very least, he could answer her here;

“The bodies I have made…last until they are destroyed. One is still operational now. It is almost two-thousand years old, like me.”

[tsukikoko]

A soft, genuine smile graced the shifter's features for a moment.
"I'm reet glad ya alreet me request, like." The tip of her tail tapped the floor, akin to fingers drumming atop a table, as she spoke half to herself. "We'd 'ave tah 'ave a think abowt 'ow we best 'andle Beast if we did separate ya, like. We 'ave other violent or roaming types so... Ah-" She shook her head a little, snapping her attention back to Cassius, "-but I'm gittin' a'ead of meself. Cross each bridge as they come, ya know?"

At his other statement, she nodded slowly, trying not to think too hard on the moral ambiguity of words such as 'destroyed' and 'operational', or even just these alchemical bodies themselves. Events from two thousand years ago couldn't be held to the same ideals as modern day, after all. There were many things Sara didn't judge on, without knowing all the details. At least their longevity meant if they went down this path of creating one, Beast wouldn't be left with a decrepit shell in only a short span of time. That simplified certain things...

Still, the revelation that one remained begged the question,
"Is there owt we should know abowt ya remainin'... body, like? Ya know, if somethin' does 'appen an' ya ain't..." She couldn't quite bring herself to say it. The shifter never had been good at dealing with the mortality of those around her. She cleared her throat. "Do they need lookin' after? Is what I mean."

[jarahamee]

Cassius appeared visibly relieved at her response. His crooked lips formed a true and genuine smile for the first time during this meeting, and he leaned forward, pressing his weight down on his arms. This woman, this woman was truly kind and generous. Perhaps, to a foolish degree.

Why she would want to help a creature so wild and dangerous, he did not know. Most humans would have chosen their own safety over its survival. Indeed, that was the situation that lead to Beast’s death two-thousand years ago. And the death of his Goddess herself.

“I have ways to restore their original body, but as I said, I am not sure if that would be desirable for… humanity.”

He studied her change in expression. Troubled. She knew he had done something immoral. And how could she not feel that way? Even if he had worked on only willing persons, human experimentation was the stuff of nightmares for most living today. And his sons, well. Even now, what he had done to his boys made him feel nothing but bitter regret.

“The last remaining alchemical body is my son, Alessio Caro. He works with me in my Fireteam in the department. The others… were also my children.”

The scarred man tilted his head downwards. The shades of shame were easy enough to see.

“I tried to make them immortal. I wanted them to live forever. We perfected the method of creating powerful physical bodies that are magical conduits. They never age and never die… But over time, the transformation affects their minds. Only Alessio stayed with me, out of loyalty, my child.”

Cassius looked down at the floor, avoiding Sara’s eyes.

“He…he was changed too, but he kept his attachment to me. He… I worry about him if I am to go.”

[tsukikoko]

"Alessio?"
The shock was plain to hear in Sara's voice, not because she was judgemental, but more she honestly hadn't expected someone within the WDSA itself. Still, she'd come across stranger things here, so perhaps she shouldn't have been so surprised. A myriad of questions came and went like waves on the ocean, crashing against her tongue and breaking before she could utter them.

Now wasn't the time or place, save a few pertinent queries.

"Ya worry 'e could turn on us withowt ya, is that it?" That was the conclusion the shifter came to, at least, judging by Cassius' demeanour and...

Sara's hand came to rest over her mouth, eyes widening as she sluggishly (curse her overtiredness) realised the implications of the Captain's words; he'd changed his children, but all his other creations had been... Destroyed.

She swallowed thickly.

But then, as her gaze slid back to Cassius and she saw the shame reflected in his body, how he couldn't meet her gaze, the shifter exhaled a slow breath. She wasn't sure she agreed with what he did, heavens knew she was still trying to sort out the maelstrom of feelings regarding what he'd told her, a great many of them negative. Yet... she understood, too, the fear of losing those closest. To one as long-lived as Cassius, the idea of watching his children grow old and die around him couldn't have been pleasant.

After a few moments of silence, Sara reached out, her soft, delicate fingers gently taking hold of the Captain's scarred ones.
"Eeee luv, there's a sayin', abowt roads tah 'ell an' good intentions, ya know like? Ya divvint want ya children tah die, an' ya thought ya 'ad a way tah stop that." She gave his fingers a light squeeze. "Now we do what's best for Alessio, an our Beast, like, so the past's mistakes ain't repeated."

[jarahamee]

“Alessio, He… He is bound now, by his duty, and his love. He has good in him still, my son.”

Cassius’ expression was distant and somber. He seemed to believe what he had said wholeheartedly. Perhaps, there was still good in Alessio. That small part of him that still loved, and wished to be loved in return, the feelings of duty and honor that resided within him. And what was left of his restraint. The only thing that separated him from the fate of his other sons was the thinnest shreds of what remained of his humanity.

His hands were calloused, scarred, the fingers as strong as if they had been made of steel instead of flesh and sinew, but he held her gently and deftly. Of all things, age had taught him control over his body, which was both so strong and so frustratingly fragile at once. The fingers shook a little with the weight of his efforts.

“The nature of those bodies was… aggressive. Predatory. Paranoid. My sons, they changed over time, they could not help themselves. They could not handle that kind of raw power and the desires that came with them. They could not control being creatures of near pure magic.”

Cassius’ voice reflected uncharacteristically raw emotion, dropping into a harsh whisper, as if he might cry, but never did. His mouth drew into an unpleasant, toothy grimace as he squeezed his eyes shut, as if he could force the memories away again. After a moment, he gathered his thoughts, and continued, opening his eyes, which were as dark and emotionless as ever.

“Yes…Yes, I am not opposed to another way. I have made preparations for all routes thus far. How to… cause temporary changes whose effects can be measured. Perhaps, that could be a way to grant Beast a body, if its soul can be separated from mine.”

[tsukikoko]

Sara watched the scarred man as he travelled through his emotions, never rushing or pushing him, only providing what gentle comfort she could with her touch and presence. When he came back to himself, the shifter held his dark eyes with the bright, glittering green of her gaze. Eyes that shone with determination and the weight of the promise she uttered,
"Whatever 'appens Cassius, I promise I'll do what I can, for Alessio."

With that said, she withdrew her hand, brows again furrowing in thought.
"'Ow long do we 'ave tah work with, luv? Days, weeks, months? If ya know, like. I know ya said Beast were ready but-" She exhaled slowly and left the statement hanging. One hand travelled to the back of her head, fingers scraping her scalp in a nervous tic. "'Cause I ain't gannin' te lie, like, I'm gannin' te need time tah think this all ower, but I divvint want tah leave ya in the lurch."

She didn't want to think about the extra time her sleep-deprived brain would take to think through the situation, or potential solutions. She'd just have to try harder.

[jarahamee]

Cassius opened his mouth, deciding how to answer Dr. Summers, looking uncharacteristically unsure of how to phrase his answer. Where his imperturbable smug smirk would usually sit was a slight frown, a knit brow. These were matters he had to address precisely and carefully. One person knowing about Alessio would likely be enough. She and Director Hemming. He would keep the list as short as he could manage while protecting others where they needed to be protected.

“Thank you. For your help in these matters.”

The scarred man finally settled. A simple thanks would be enough. His shoulders relaxed and he sat back in his chair, his expression as inscrutable as ever. Cassius considered, appearing to look at a distant point behind the child as he worked through all possible ways to answer her. How much time /did/ he have? Reasonably? How much longer could he count on staying himself?

“I honestly am not sure how much time I have left, but I can tell you that you should rest before working on it. You look like you need it, and I do not think this will happen between today and tomorrow.”

He leaned forward towards Sara;

“If you have any spare time, I would like to test my transformation potions, since they are not permanent, and it may give us a better sense of whether my side of this matter will work or not.”

A thought seemed to cross his mind as he considered her weariness. She might need help, and he had something that might do the trick.

“Do… you need assistance in the laboratory?”