Perfect Opposites [Finished]

[Tigeress]

Besaba was unusually busy today. She had several tests to do to prepare for when a test subject- errr- Goly came back with that pretty hair she'd made. So much nicer than her own. Maybe she should do some tests on herself? No, that would be stupid. If something went wrong, then she'd be ugly or weird or something. It was safer this way, and her hair was just fine as it was. Actually now with this bipedal form, it had become much longer and nicer, and still so pleasantly pink!

Where was that...? Oh shit, she forgot the steel vials she'd picked up in her bag which was outside. Well, that was genious. Not like in the middle of freaking Corvistowne it'd get Stolen by another chemist or something. Sighing at her own stupidity, she trotted to the door and noticed she'd left it open. What was With her today? Grumbling under her breath at her absent-mindedness, she took a step forward and walked right into a... a...

OH SHIT IT WAS GODZILLA!

Well no, actually, after taking a step back, and emitting a small 'eep' of surprise and a bit of fear, she put a hand to her chest and breathed deeply. It was just a cat. a HUMONGOUS cat. Well hey, look at the muscles on him, hmmmm on closer inspection he was pretty sexy. Oh dammit, he was probably here to rob her or something. She flattened her ears and tried to look imposing, knowing that in the face of fluffy godzilla it probably wouldn't mean much.

"Who are you and what are you doing?" She asked, tapping one foot in irritation. Maybe he wanted something done? To that body? Hell no. So what else could it be then? A fellow Corvie wouldn't be anything but trouble, she'd decided, and so her hand was on the door.


The feline was grabbing for words, and trying not to grab for the tiny little thing in front of him. She was so... so... breakable. No. This was the mindset he'd come here to escape. He didn't want to be the villain anymore. So he'd come to see what people from his realm were like. He'd heard they were odd... but not odd in the way he was. Very few fit into the sexual deviant category, so cosumed by their work.

"Hello. I'm Rindal. Who are you?" Well, that was lame. But he had to get used to trying to be normal, neutral, less sexual and threatening undertones to everything he said. Hopefully she wouldn't be difficult, it would be too easy to pin her down and... This really would have worked better if he'd stumbled into someone's house who wasn't a petite and attractive woman. Maybe he needed to go out and find a right ugly heffer to set him straight. No, he just needed to try harder. Well, she was kind of a bitch. But that wasn't particularily a turn off, if anything, he liked to knock her kind down a peg or two. Maybe he needed someone like him to knock him down a peg as well? That seemed logical.


"The hell you mean, who am I? If you don't know who I am, why are you walking into my house?" The feline bristled and froze at the glances thrown her way every now and again. Whatever was in his thick fuzzy head, she wanted nothing to do with it. This she'd decided. It was too strange, he was too strange. She took a step back and tried to use the door to prod him outside like bread which was inflating over the edge of the tin it was being baked in. Heh. The mental image was quite hilarious when the two were put together.

"Well luckily for you I am exhausted and in need of a nap, so you need to go away now." She hissed, shoving and throwing herself against the door which bounced off of him uselessly. Groaning outwardly, she clenched her fists and counted to ten.

"Whatever you want, come in and make it quick. And no funny business. You're a bit of a weirdo, you know?" She was in too much of an awkward and foul mood now to bother with holding her tongue. Not that she'd ever been good at it to begin with. When she saw that the giant green feline had lumbered in, she pointed to the floor. It was that or her big scary metal table really, and that might just imply some really weird things.

[Tigeress]

Rindal blinked up at the feline with large, calculating eyes that he knew made her nervous. The intensity behind those moon yellow orbs could be rather... overwhelming, but that was the air he'd created around himself despite what mood he was actually in. He just liked to trail fear behind him like a strong perfume. But that was going to change soon. Hopefully. Otherwise... well, he just wasn't happy with himself lately and this could only go on so long before he got himself in big trouble. Either by accident or on purpose.

"I want to get to know you." He said calmly, ignoring how extremely awkward of a choice it was to walk into someone's house and demand to observe how 'normal' people acted. This one seemed a bit off from normal, but that was good too, there was no way he ever saw himself being the cookie cutter good 'ol boy, no matter how much he dedicated himself to this. He knew by the twitch of her arm that she was going to scratch her ear before she did it. She'd only done it once so far, but the matter in which she did it told him it was a nervous habit. People had a lot of those.

Her actions so far had told him a lot about her. She lived alone, she had this feeling of independence, everything she did was defiant, she thought she had something to prove, but what? He wasn't born with the driving need to experiment on anything like most of his region were, having grown up outside it for the most part, it had just never caught on. It didn't seem like the usual symptoms of the Corvistowne 'I must be the most incredible mind of this era' determination, it was related to something else. And he would find out. He wasn't here to talk about him, that wasn't part of the plan.


"Have we met somewhere before?" One ear twitched with the demand to be scratched, and she obliged absent-mindedly with one hand while she studied him. Who was he? Oh god, was he on something? Was this some crazy checkmate trip or something? She'd certainly never heard of someone just coming into someone else's house, with no prior knowledge of who they were, demanding to spend some social time together. It was just... so bizarre. Bizarre enough that she let down her guard long enough to wonder if he had hit his head or if something else similar to that was wrong.

"I'm Besaba, and I'm sure you can tell what I do for a living." She snorted, knowing she wasn't the most interesting person ever. Not on the outside at least. Day in, day out, work work and study and work. But there was a lot going on inside her head. In fact, for perfect opposites, they were alot alike below the skin. Except she wasn't a sexual abuser of people weaker than her. Mostly because there were few of them. She was very tiny, and it wasn't very fun. Light's sakes, her midsection was as big as his ARM! The only relatively large thing on her body was her chest, and that was even less fun. She was always off balance.

"So. Rindal was it? Are you alright? I mean you seem a little... off. Now I'm not a medical expert, but I do know a little bit. Kind of required in my field. Do you need help at all, hit your head...?" She was grasping for straws, trying to find some logical explanation for why this male was here, sitting there asking her who she was and acting like he'd just been dropped from space. It was going to prove to be an interesting afternoon, that was for sure. Of course, she had no idea that it would be much more than an afternoon's worth of her time that he entertained.

[Tigeress]

The large emerald cat just ran a finger through the fur on his leg absent-mindedly, obviously not knowing how to go about getting this paranoid woman to believe him. Though really, he'd expected to be thrown out of the first few places he tried, but apparently he'd gotten lucky, so he'd have to be patient with the situation. Well, best to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Maybe leaving out the parts where he preyed on those smaller and weaker than him for sexual satisfaction. That might not be a good idea to tell the petite woman.

"No, we haven't met, and I know what you do. That's why I'm here. I don't, but I want to know why you do it. Do all Corvistownes do this or am I the only one who never had the... passion?" Again something dark slipped behind his eyes, all predator and oh so raw for her to see. She seemed to visibly stiffen at the look and it gave him a sense of satisfaction, though he would have liked it much more if she'd tried to move away from him, gave him some physical indication of her fear...

"I am just fine, well, I have not injured myself." There, that was a bit more accurate. The whole reason he was trying to force this self therapy on himself was that he was starting to understand he was not 'fine'. He was exhausted in every sense of the word, he'd been so for a long time now. Every since about the first week after Seki's... 'dissapearance'. A look of pain and anger spread across his face and then the vulnerable moment was gone and his face was a blank, peaceful mask once more.


Chills crawled up and down Besaba's body, warning her that this was a bad idea. He could snap her neck with two fingers if he so wished, and the look she'd seen in his eyes said he had most certainly thought about it. She tried to swallow and found her throat was suddenly dry. But there, he'd asked about her profession right? Maybe she could just tutor him and he'd lose interest and go away. She knew her day job wasn't very intersting to those who didn't actively share it, it was too much to understand. Hopefully this Rindal wasn't an exception, she didn't know if she'd be able to get rid of him otherwise.

"Alright, well, to be honest I've never met another Corvistowne that didn't choose this as their life's dedication. I mean, we're all interested in different things for different reasons, but this-" She waved her hands around the pieces of her small lab dramatically before continuing "in general is what we do. However that doesn't mean others like you don't exist. I take it both of your parents aren't from Corvistowne?" She waited until he shook his head and nodded knowingly, a triumphant smile crossing her face. Maybe she could do this. "Ah, that makes sense then. Then surely there are others who end up living with the parent who isn't from Corvistowne and doesn't share our passion. It's not something you can really force, I'm afraid, unless you become truly inspired from watching me." Watching her do what? She hadn't even stopped to think of what she could show him.

"I ah, have some things in the back I could use to demonstrate, but without a willing test subject I'm afraid I can't do much." She shrugged and watched the gears turn in the man's head, his jaw resting on the solid line of knuckle presented. His eyes flickered up to her, watching her watch him, and she looked away. Didn't want to get him all riled up again. The look was simply calculating this time though, not intimidating as it had been before. She met his eyes and managed not to flinch, which was a step up for her. This seemed to catch him off guard by the puzzled set to his brow suddenly, that or he'd thought of something.


"I can get you someone." He said simply, watching her reaction. She was getting more comfortable, more bold before his eyes. Why was that? Just because he hadn't done anything yet to show he meant violence didn't mean it wouldn't happen later on. She wasn't so trusting, and yet she seemed perfectly relaxed now before him. Did talking about her work soothe her so? Maybe his reasoning had been too convincing, this would make it harder to explain why he had no intention of leaving until he was... better.


She blinked a few times and tilted her head at the male. It was hard to tell what the implications of his words were, he was being so careful to hide what was going on behind that fuzzy black mask. "Just... Hmm... They have to be willing. Don't force anyone into it, that can get us in big toruble." Something told her this was a wise precaution to give and she was grateful when he grudgingly gave a nod at last and stood. She had to strain her neck immensely to look up and meet his face but she did so and offered him a slight smile of encouragement. He stood in place for a few moments and then in a few long strides he dissapeared out the door. The feline let out a breath and slumped back, leaning her head against the wall. What the hell was she getting herself into?

[Tigeress]

Hours seemed to tick past, the day growing into night rather suddenly. Besaba could have sworn that she'd worn a rut into the floor from all her pacing. Clenching and unclenching her fists, she kept looking at the door, then the wall, then the floor, and back again. What in the hell was taking so long? Stupid question, she knew that having a gigantic cat going around looking for 'willing' participants wouldn't exactly land her the most success, but he should have come back. He did understand that if he didn't succeed, he should just come back and let her try, right?

"Damn it." She hissed, hanging her head in defeat as she made for the door. She grabbed a pink shawl to set about her shoulders, the evening gave her a chill and although Corvistowne wasn't the town with the worst reputation, there were still those she didn't trust. Better to cover up. The big human-y breast things she'd aquired with her form change seemed to attract a lot of unwarranted attention. How weird. The cool night air wrapped around her as the door closed silently behind her back. The shawl was pulled tighter about her upper half as she began walking along a dirt road with her back arched confidently.

Not a sound could be detected, and most lights were already off. Well, at least if she were to stumble across the general area Rindal was in, it wasn't like he'd be too hard to spot. She smirked at this and continued searching the darkness for any sign of anyone who was awake and outside. A form in the distance caught her eye, but as she came up on it, she realized it was much too small. She nodded her head politely to the Corvie rat who was passing in the opposite direction and tried not to look as dissapointed as she felt. A sharp grip on her wrist made her turn, her mouth open to yell something like 'hey!' or any other useless exclamation, when a sharp pinprick was felt in her arm and the world started to go dizzy.

She could have sworn that through the numbness, her lips actually moved and she managed to say his name.


He watched her leave, his hands fidgeting together in a way most unusual for him. He'd been screamed at and runaway from, and told to get out of town. Everyone was so frightened of him, but he looked like everyone else, didn't he? And just when he thought he'd found somewhere to belong. Maybe it was the way he looked at them, the way he spoke, the lingering intensity of his gaze. But these were all things he was working on. When Besaba made for the road he circled back around the house, observing her from across the street and just a bit behind her.

She sure had a nice- wait, was she looking for him? Why would she bother wasting her time and energy on someone she'd just barely met, especially someone like him? Puzzled, he frowned as he took smaller steps to equal her own, watching the way her ears perked when a figure in the distance came closer. Excitement. She would have been happy if it had of been him. But why? Why? It didn't make Any sense! Grumbling his frustration at the lack of understanding, he silenced himself suddenly when he noticed something familiar.

A flash of silver, something long and sharp, Rindal was through the bushes before he even put a hand on the female. But nobody saw him. She turned right into the hand with the dangerous device and the needle slid in effortlessly, obviously right on target with how immediately her body seemed to become like jelly. She fell right into the disgusting creature, and finally he spotted Rindal. A surprise look crossed his face a moment before one of the weights around Rindal's arms came slamming into his head. Anything else would have meant chancing that he could hit the feline in the rat's arms.

He went down hard, eyes rolling back into his skull, one hand releasing a vial that was probably meant to defend himself. Panting hard in the sudden silence, Rindal could feel his hands twitching, the adrenaline coming and going too quickly for his muscles to adjust to. He might have killed the rat. And for once, the thought actually concerned him. This would be her mess to clean up. Why did that concern him in the least? He grabbed the pack that was still strapped about the man's shoulders and picked up the limp form of Besaba in his arms.

The walk back was thankfully very short, he could have carried the woman all day (he probably didn't even need to use both of his arms), but his concern was growing and creating a feeling inside his skull that he hadn't felt before, and didn't enjoy. There was only the cold metal table to set the feline on, and so he unwrapped her shawl and laid it out like a blanket for her to lie on before setting her down. Now why had he thought of that? More questions with no answers. He searched through the bag and found vial after vial of unknown liquids, they could have all been remedies for whatever she had been injected with and he'd have had no idea.

Damn it all! Why couldn't he have at least gathered some small bit of knowledge from his father about all this stuff? He wished there was someone with him suddenly. Varuna, maybe. She'd know what to do, just because... she always had. He felt guilty suddenly for leaving her the way he had, and never looking back on the decision. Until now. He shook Besaba's limp and cooling form a few times, his brows furrowing as a strange sensation rocked the pit of his stomach. He was worried, genuinely worried.

It was no use trying to get help, he knew nobody would believe him, and he was too afraid to leave the woman alone. Pulling up a small metal table, he sat it beside the large one that Besaba was lying on and used it as a seat. He laid his head on the bigger table and just stared at her. He felt more helpless now than he ever had in his life. All he could do was sit here, and either watch her live or die. Fate would decide the last, he had no control over it. He closed his eyes tight and tried to shut out how sick his thoughts were making his body feel. But the excitement, if you could call it that, had made him weary, and eventually the image of the unconscious cat faded into black, his head slumping forward against the pink-coated table.

[Tigeress]

Rindal's eyes snapped open and he sat up with a start. He couldn't recall for the life of him what he'd been dreaming about, but it had been... unsettling. His glance turned down towards the serene features of Besaba, watching her empty gaze stare up at him, suddenly touched at the edged by a smile. He threw himself backwards so suddenly in surprise that the table underneat him didn't just rock and fall over, but it flipped off to the side. With nothing to catch him, he fell hard on his ass, his breathing loud and laboured.

The sound of feminine laughter filled the air and his face darkened moodily. He should have remembered her eyes had been closed before. Grumbling to himself, he didn't feel like sitting up yet to let her mock him. As if sending the male's bruised ego, Besaba leaned over the edge of the table and frowned. Apparently she had found the whole thing to be genuinely funny. Maybe he was trying to seek sanity from the wrong person, this chick was as psycho as he was, in his opinion.

"Don't laugh at me." He hissed at her, standing to full height and looking down defiantly at her tiny frame. She looked up with next to no emotion displayed for him to see, and this took away some of his hot air.

"I'm not, not really. It was kind of funny. Were you very worried? He wouldn't have poisoned or killed me, he was probably intending to use me for something later, he just needed me unconscious to take back to wherever he would have taken me." It was simple really. The only thing she'd been worried about was what would happen if he had achieved his goal. Somehow she'd had a feeling that when her eyes opened, the familiar water damaged ceiling would be in her gaze, though. Luckily she'd been right. But he had obviously thought something bad had happened to her.

"I appreciate you saving me from him, more than you know. He could have, would have done... well, suffice to say whatever it was I wouldn't have enjoyed it." She hugged her arms around herself as if cold and stared at the floor for a span of moments. When Rindal didn't have anything to add, she moved to the edge of the table and swung her legs over, wrapping the shawl around her as she did. Her legs still felt wobbly and her head was aching, and as she reached for something to steady herself, her fingers caressed the leather bag Rindal had sat near her.

"What's this?" Her hands flipped the top open quickly and began rifling through the contents.

"He was wearing it." Rindal watched her with curiosity, wondering if she could perhaps use anything that was in there. A small squeal alerted him that she just might and he smiled in spite of himself. Smiled? When did he ever do that?

"I'll have to analyze everything, maybe get some help, I know a guy. This is- oh! I've seen this, I know this. It's in my- " And she went on like this for a while, half formed sentences of mixed thoughts that all seemed to explode out at once, things she knew inside her head and making connections with them.

"I'm so glad you stole this. You should have grabbed that idiot while you were at it. Though, I suppose an eye for an eye just makes everyone blind, or something." She waved her hands in the air to demonstrate her lack of caring whether they came across as just as bad as the rat, or worse, or whatever.

"I didn't want him near you. To carry him, I would have had to carry him right beside you." He explained, not realizing that it was fairly unnecessary. The thought had crossed his mind, and he wanted the feline to know that. He had wanted the rat to hurt for what he'd done to Besaba.

"I didn't think you were so smart. Or caring." She smirked and turned around with two tubes in her hand, one which happened to glow. The look on her face kept his attention, she was watching him, judging his reaction. This was what he'd been looking for, wasn't it? So then why did it make him so angry that she got to him so easily? Made him think like everyone else for a change. He had a rather foul comeback on the tip of his tongue, but bit it back suddenly. He used his vicious words to protect himself, he wasn't that weak anymore, he kept telling himself this.

"Surprise, surprise, I guess." He managed an air of not truly caring, though his words would surely be pleasing to what she'd been poking at. Without another word, she moved into the back room, and he stayed in place, listening to the tinkering of glass and snapping of metal.

"Well? Are you coming? This should give you a taste of what you were after." The pink maned face peeked out just long enough to deliver the message before the sounds started back up again and the doorway was empty once more. Carefully Rindal made his way to the back, righting the table he'd tossed earlier and maneuvering around the larger table she had been laying on only minutes ago. That stuff sure wore off quick.

"Do you know what it was?" He asked solemly, his voice careful not to give away anything he was thinking.

"What what was?" She questioned without turning around, intent on her work which the male could hopefully see from his angle.

"Whatever he pricked you with." It wasn't a good idea for her to act like everything was fine if it wasn't, and she was still acting sluggish. One of her hands was twitching now and again and it was making him nervous just watching. What if she spilled something on herself?

"Oh yeah, I've heard of it before." The skin on the back of her neck crawled, telling her not to lie. Her head was pounding but she could still see and react just fine. Better to do something for the big feline after he'd waited so long, didn't want to look like she didn't know what she was talking about. He was probably getting tired of all this, anyway. She didn't need someone around to protect her. Something grabbed her about the waist and she managed to sit the vial down that she'd been holding without spilling it, her arms then both flailing and beating at the familiar bands of colour which wrapped about her in the form of black and green.

"You should lie down." He grunted, taking her and setting her on the table, managing to avoid the claws which soared towards his head and shoulders angrily.

"But you wanted to see what we do and I want to show you, to help you after what you did for me." Her voice sounded weak and tired suddenly as she slumped down in defeat onto the cold metal.

"That's not what I wanted. I think I need to be honest about something. And you need to sit out the effects of whatever that was. Do you have some food I can get for you? A hot drink? A blanket perhaps?" He watched as she seemed to draw back from him in sudden uncertainty, nodding her head to his questions and giving him an open question with her eyes. She didn't mean to distrust him so much, but he had basically outright admitted to lying to her.

Rindal returned in moments with a blanket, toting a tray behind him that had all manner of things he would need in a few minutes. The main room had a kitchen to the right side that she didn't seem to use often, except for the sink, which he probably wouldn't want to use for the things she'd be eating off of, not without severely cleaning it out first. The blanket was lain on top of the feline who had curled up once more on the soft pink shawl all spread out. She seemed a touch less sluggish already, but perhaps that was him being hopeful.

Silently he moved to the stove and turned it on, filling a kettle and letting that heat up as well. When the water was ready he fixed a herbal tea and set it on one of the attaching trays that the big metal examination table held. Once a soupy broth was completed in the pot he grabbed, he left it to cook on the stove and headed over to where Besaba was waiting unusually patiently.

"So, when I was young, I was the runt of the litter..." And then he began to gradually tell her everything, start to finish.