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 Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 1:41 pm
Damien sighed and ran his fingers through his messy black hair. He was standing in front of a door to a laboratory. He had, in fact, been standing there for a while, trying to gather what some might call courage to knock on the door. "Dr. Flo Mizuno" it said on the door - he had read it about a hundred times already. It was definitely the door he was supposed to be knocking on.
The reason why Damien wouldn't call it courage was because he would then have to admit to being "courage-lacking" - or in other words: scared - to knock on the door. And that was ridiculous. Damien was certainly not scared of knocking on a damn door.
It was more what was going to meet him on the other side of the door he wasn't too comfortable with. One emerald eye twitched with some annoyance. He didn't even know why he got dragged into this whole mess. One minute he is minding his own business on a nice sunny branch in the jungle, the next he has been dragged into some weird scheme for some ridiculous class that somehow involved the study of large feline anatomy? Seriously? What kind of classes did this academy teach?! He let out an annoyed huff. The most random, insane and often extremely non-usable classes, that's what! The Captain, while one of the most amazing people he had ever had the fortune of knowing, had no school-managing abilities. Damien should know, he had been a student here himself.
There was nothing to it, this was one of those band-aid moments. Just rip it off and get it overwith. He hadn't met this Dr. Flo before, and he wasn't particularly keen to meet her either. The only thing that spoke in her advantage, so far, was that she apparently didn't get on very well with Hack, and she liked cats. Well, in all honesty, that made her sound like a pretty brilliant in his books. He took one final exasperated breath, curled his hand into a fist, and landed three heavy knock on the door.
Into infinity and something.
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Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:35 am
~~~
The sounds of soft meows and quiet breathing filled the lab as Flo stared at the blank sheets of paper on her desk, wishing a lesson plan would magically write itself up. She'd known from the start teaching wouldn't be easy, but by god it was so, hard. If given a choice, she'd simply study animals all day, no teaching at all.
But... she couldn't do that, not after Phoenix had been kind enough to offer her a lab to work in.
So here she was, having a staring contest with blank pieces of paper.
Picking up her pencil, Flo began sketching idly. She hadn't been too sure of what would make a good class, but basic anatomy and human physiology was important right? It was the only topic she could teach somewhat more confidently, other than, say, the hydrological cycle. Binary had looked rather skeptical when she first proposed the topic, but Cap was very supportive of the idea, even offering to get one of the current resident heroes to help.
"Damien's a were-pard, so you can teach human AND feline physiology while you're at it. I assure you he'll be more than happy to help."
Somehow, Flo doubted ANY hero would be be happy to help her out. Being an anatomy model probably meant a lot of being prodded and poked at, not the most comfortable of experiences. Binary had simply rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like "right" before stalking off, and then Cap was giving her a flood of what he thought would be helpful suggestions.
And that was how Flo wound up trying to plan a class for human AND feline anatomy. Whether or not it was a useful class, well...
Someone knocking on the door broke her out of her reverie. She glanced briefly at the paper she had been sketching on; an abstract cat looking thing that would've made Picasso proud stared back. Flo flipped the paper over hurriedly.
"Come in! The door isn't locked!" she called out. It'd better not be Hack trying to do something funny again.
~~~
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 2:52 am
Although he wouldn't admit it, his heart hammered slightly faster in his chest at the sound of the female voice coming from behind the oddly threatening door. At her prompting, however, he cautiously opened the door. The first thing that hit him was the overwhelming smell of cats. A LOT of cats. He relaxed slightly at the familiar smell - the presence of cats always soothed him slightly. They never judged him on anything, never asked any questions, and were quiet content to just enjoy his company in silence.
Stepping fully into the room, he let his green eyes quickly scan the area, subconsciously creating a mental image of the build-up of the laboratory - things to take cover behind (the table over there), objects that could be used as weapons (there seemed to be a few scalpel-looking objects lying around, and that chair might prove usable, too... oh, and the cats would always be helpful), possible escape routes (Hmm... limited escape route, a window or two, and a single door that he didn't know where led), and so on. Lastly, his eyes fell on the petite woman in a labcoat. 'Dr. Flo' he reminded himself. Well, he supposed she was rather tall for a woman.
Had he been in his feline form, his tail would be flicking silently behind him. He was definitely not comfortable with this situation, room filled with cats or not. Not that the woman seemed particularly threatening or anything... like he had first noticed, she was rather petite. He had heard somewhere (probably from Hack running his mouth again) that she was a retired superhero, though, so he was sure she packed a bit of a punch. But he still couldn't find anything threatening about her. He unconsciously sniffed the air. She smelled like... newly fallen rain... or a freshwater stream. He found himself rather liking it.
Blinking, he realised that he hadn't really introduced himself. "Damien" he said and nodded at her "Damien Durand". She knew he was coming, and why he was here. He didn't feel the need to waste time or words on explanations.
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Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 2:16 pm
~~~
Flo got up from her chair and went forward to greet her guest. He was a rather typical looking hero; tall, tan, lean and muscled, and fairly good looking in a rugged sort of way. And she noticed his distinct discomfort the moment he stepped into the lab. The man was tense, edgy, and very subtly giving her lab (and herself?) a once-over.... It was like watching a cat survey its new environment for the first time. He was even sniffing at the air! How interesting.
"Damien, Damien Durand."
And very to-the-point as well.
"Dr Florence Mizuno, but just Dr Flo is fine," she said with what she hoped was a reassuring smile, trying to get her guest to feel less uncomfortable. She held out a hand for him to shake.
"Thank you for taking the time to come here today, Damien. The Captain has told me a lot of good things about you."
Up closer now, she unconciously started studying the man's body - which wasn't too hard considering it was on a fine display through tightly fitting material - and pondering how to go about planning this lesson...
~~~
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Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 4:57 am
Damien nodded at the woman, and grabbed her outstretched hand, taking care to not squeeze it too hard. Ex-superhero or not, he did not want to accidentally hurt her. "Pleasure" he monotonously said, as a reply to her greeting "and it is no problem. The Captain asked..." he shrugged and let the sentence hang there, assuming that she would understand what he meant. It was hard to refuse the Captain anything for most people, and even harder for Damien - he owed him everything.
He subconsciously took a step back to maintain some form of person space. He glanced around the room again, but saw nothing that could give him a clue about how the Doctor wanted to go about this. Instead, he gave a little cough and looked back down at the woman, completely missing the fact that she had already started studying him.
"How do you intend to go about this?" he asked, figuring that they might as well get started.
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Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 11:40 pm
~~~
"Pleasure, and it is no problem. The Captain asked..."
Flo smiled dryly as she nodded in understanding. Really, Cap was a ditz but when he requested something...
"How do you intend to go about this?"
She paused in the middle of studying his left arm. Oh right, she had a class to plan.
And she had no idea how to go about it.
And her guest was already here.
Great. Good timing Flo, let's have him stand around while you figure what to do.
"Ah... I'll, be honest with you," she said a little tiredly as she walked back to her desk, one hand running through her bangs. "I'm supposed to plan a class but I'm not too sure how to go about it. I'm a researcher by training, not really a teacher..."
She turned around to face the man, about to invite him to take a seat first and offer some coffee or tea when a black, furry, moving object caught her eye.
It was one of her cats - well more of a kitten really - standing on a table full of sharp pointy tools that she had been cleaning halfway...
and pawing at the damn tools with nary a care that they were sharp and pointy and possibly painful if impaled upon.
"Oh god no," she muttered, Damien and drinks temporarily forgotten, and immediately headed for the tool table in long strides. Outside she was all cool and calm. Inside, she was screaming in horror- oh heavens please don't touch the scalpel -
Flo nearly sighed in relief as she grabbed the protesting kitten with one hand and plucked him swiftly from the table top of death. It meowed at her plaintively.
"No," she denied the kitten with the stern air of a mother berating a naughty child. "Those are dangerous and you are not going anywhere near them."
~~~
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:25 am
Damien shifted a little as she admitted that she didn't know what to do. Great, he was obviously wasting his time here. He had to admit, though, a small part of him pitied the woman, too. She was obviously just as much a victim of the captain as he was.
"Well, you know the saying" he murmured "Those who can, do, those can't, teach" he trailed off, not entirely sure what his point was. He didn't quite know why, but there was something about the woman that just screamed that she was way to smart to just teach. Not that she wouldn't be a good teacher. She was one of those people that would excel at anything she tried to do. A small twinge of resentment shot through his body. Some people had it easy.
Suddenly, the entire focus shifted. To a kitten, nonetheless. At first, Damien tensed and narrowed his eyes. Was this some sort of trick? A way to try to make her seem kind-hearted - to break down his defenses?
But no, he felt no underlying motives in the doctor, just genuine concern. For the first time since he entered the lab, the young hero relaxed. This was a genuinly kind-hearted woman he was dealing with. Anyone who treated cats so preciously was accepted in his books. "Quite a feisty little thing, isn't he?" he noted, giving a rare wry smile and subconsciously stepping closer to Flo and the cat.
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 2:08 pm
~~~
"Quite a feisty little thing, isn't he?"
She snapped her attention back to her forgotten guest. Oh god one of these days, her cats would be the death of her.
"I -" she started to apologize awkwardly until she noticed him approaching, a small smile on his previously stoic face.
"... Yes, yes he is," she brightened up a little. Did he like cats too? Well he was a were-pard, perhaps he had some kind of... affinity, with felines.
The kitten in her hands was meowing again, and also pawing in the younger man's direction. Flo glanced from the cat to Damien and back to the cat, then held out the kitten to the young man carefully like a peace offering.
"Would you like to hold him?" she asked with a smile, amusement alight in her eyes. "He seems to have taken a liking you."
~~~
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 2:26 pm
Damien blinked at Flo in barely visible surprise. The Doctor was trying to hand him the cat, without even questioning his ability to handle it. People didn't normally just... trust him with things. Aside from hero-business, of course, but that was a different matter.
"I... uh... yeah" he finally answered, and reached to relieve the woman of the small burden "yeah, he does, doesn't he". Damien nuzzled his nose into the fur of the kitten for a few seconds, allowing himself a tender moment to familiarise himself with the scent of the kitten, and vice versa. The kitten meowled and took a tentative swipe at him, to which he grabbed it by it's scruff, barred his teeth at it and hissed softly.
Suddenly remembering that he had an audience he glanced up, a slight coloration to his cheeks "Uhm, you need to show them who is in charge, you know?" he tried to explain as he scratched the back of his head, the cat tucked neatly in his other arm. His eyes darted around the room for a few seconds before they finally settled on the amused woman. Great.
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Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 8:39 am
~~~
For a second, as she held out the black ball of fur, Flo thought Damien might reject it. But a second later, his surprise melted away and he accepted the kitten.
"Yeah, he does, doesn't he."
A generous smile spread across the woman's face as she watched him nuzzle the kitten affectionately, a gesture that softened his hard exterior considerably. No matter the subject, kittens always had this uncanny ability of making anyone appear kinder. She had to fight an inexplicable urge to go "aww".
Then what happened next took her by surprise. The man bared his teeth like a... an angry cat - it was almost uncanny, the resemblance - right after the kitten tried to take a swipe at him. She almost snatched it back until she realized Damien wasn't actually harming it. Rather, it seemed like he was trying to... discipline the kitten? The way an older cat would to a younger one...
She had to fight back a laugh at his expression when he finally noticed her presence.
"Uhm, you need to show them who is in charge, you know?"
"... Yes, indeed," she said after she felt ready to talk without bursting into unsightly giggles; that'd be rather rude. Her amusemement was still evident though.
"I found this one wandering on the streets on its own," she found herself elaborating. "It followed me back here after one of my trips to the fish shop and - goodness it must've been about two months since then. I haven't named him yet... but I can't keep him here forever either..." she mused to herself, all thoughts about preparing a lesson cleanly forgotten in the wake of her favourite subject: cats.
~~~
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 5:26 am
Damien eyed Flo slightly suspiciously, his ears still feeling slightly hot. He was sure he would have been bright red if his tan wasn't rather anti-blush-prone. What was this woman doing to him? He would never normally have shown that sort of behaviour around another person - least of all an almost stranger. Granted, she was supposed to be studying his feline anatomy, but that didn't include a private show of humanoid feline behaviour.
He shifted again as Flo told him how she had obtained the little trouble maker (or how it had obtained her, really), trying to adjust the weight of the now wriggling kitten slightly. He glanced down, only to see two big yellow eyes stare back at him. Uncanny. He sighed, and gave up. "I think I just solved your problem for you" he said "Or rather, I think Black Jack just solved the problem for you... I think he just decided that he owns me, now". Damien shook his shaggy black hair in a mix of annoyance and amusement, and placed the furball on his shoulder, where it quickly settled down. Really, cats were so predictable sometimes. Place them somewhere high and wobbly, and they're perfectly content.
Damien blinked and his green eyes shot back to the Doctor "Unless you had something else in mind, of course" he hastened to add "I'm not sure he'll agree with you, but it isn't my place to decide if you had other plans". He honestly couldn't see what the problem could be, but... women... you just never knew.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 10:57 am
~~~
Flo watched with unabashed interest as Damien wrestled with the kitten in his hands. The way he was handling the feline, it was like a silent conversation in a different language she couldn't understand...
"I think I just solved your problem for you. Or rather, I think Black Jack just solved the problem for you... I think he just decided that he owns me, now. "
Flo's eyes widened. Did he just -- oh. But he WAS a were-pard. Conversing in cat probably came with the whole package. Well this fellow... was certainly very fascinating... if only she could find some way to convince him to... perhaps...
"Unless you had something else in mind, of course. I'm not sure he'll agree with you, but it isn't my place to decide if you had other plans."
She was jolted out of her thoughts.
"Oh. No, not at all!" she said hurriedly. "In fact, I'd be delighted if you could keep him. You seem to, well you probably understand cats better than any person would."
She beamed up at Black Jack, who was currently resting contentedly on the crook of Damien's shoulder. The restless little thing who'd been wriggling all over the place was actually being quiet for once. Astounding.
"So Black Jack owns you huh... I've always wondered what they thought about us."
And speaking of us...
"Oh I'm - I'm terribly sorry," she said apologetically as her initial objective for today's meeting came back: lesson planning. "I was going to offer you a drink, until Black Jack happened. Please, take a seat," she waved towards her desk and headed for the cupboards.
"Would you prefer tea or coffee...?"
~~~
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 10:01 am
Damien blinked at the black-haired woman and graced her with a rare half-smile. "Don't worry about it" he said, and made a motion to wave her off "I know how, hm.. distracting kittens can be when they set their mind to it"
Spotting the chair Flo had gestured to, he took a few, long steps and gracefully plopped down in the chair. Now that he thought about it, Black Jack had been a bit of a blessing. When he had first come here, he had been tense and had not been looking forward to being keenly studied by a stranger. Not that he was jumping over the moon about it, but the kitten had helped him relax. This woman, no, she had a name. Flo. Flo was a good person, and there was something that made him take to her.
"Neither, I'm afraid" he admitted as he shook his hair lightly, his hair swishing slightly side-to-side. "I don't do very well with caffeine, so..." he trailed off for a moment, before picking back up "Just a glass of water would be fine" he smiled softly at the Doctor. Again with the smiling! Why was he constantly smiling at this woman?
Damien coughed slightly, momentarily unsettling the cat on his shoulder, and realised that he had never answered he earlier comments "Well, it's just common cat-logic, really. To them, the world is theirs. We belong in the world, hence, we're theirs too. I have a feeling they might not take too kindly to the new alien students," he admitted "but I'm not sure yet".
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Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 2:21 am
~~~
"I don't do very well with caffeine, so... Just a glass of water would be fine"
"Ah. I'm sorry I don't have other drinks here, I need caffeine to keep me awake in the mornings."
Flo returned his smile in kind and searched about for some glasses, feeling much more relieved. She'd been rather anxious about his obvious discomfort when he first came in, but the man looked considerably more relaxed now, smiling every so often with a cute kitten perched on his shoulder. Perhaps it was the fact that he was among something familiar, that something being cats. As she filled up two glasses with water, she privately wondered to herself if Damien would like milk... the image made her chuckle.
She smacked herself mentally. No, stop being so amused. He is a guest.
A man who turns into a large cat that she was VERY interested in studying, yes, but still a guest.
When she felt ready to face him without grinning like a cheschire, Flo walked back, handed Damien a glass of water and took a seat across him.
"Well, it's just common cat-logic, really. To them, the world is theirs. We belong in the world, hence, we're theirs too. I have a feeling they might not take too kindly to the new alien students, but I'm not sure yet"
Concerned laced her features. That... wasn't very good news, for the cats and the Nova students, that is.
"There haven't been any, ah, incidents yet as far as I know." She cocked her head to the side, wondering if he, being half cat, would feel the same. "What do you think of them?"
~~~
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Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 12:41 am
Damien furrowed his brow slightly as he accepted the glass of water and took a small sip, before placing it on the table in front of him. He wasn't really thirsty, but politeness had made him accept. He didn't normally care about politeness acts.
"You... need caffeine?" he questioned "But, as a doctor, surely you know that there are better things than caffeine such as... well, apples, for example?".
As a half-cat, Damien had observed, the hard way, that his system was not tolerant of caffeine. Cats got sick from caffeine, and he had a theory that he had gotten that part of the genetics as well. It was definitely possible that a big enough dose could be lethal to him - he had never cared to test that theory. If he needed a wake-up call, he took an ice-cold shower. Problem fixed.
He blinked at the sudden change of topic, and took a second to re-wire his brain to answer this question of opinion. He didn't normally voice opinions - unless on how to tackle a battle-situation - to anyone but close confidantes. It made him slightly wary to be asked his opinion on someone by an almost stranger. No matter how much he liked her. Maybe especially because he liked her, he didn't want her to think his opinions were... wrong.
"Uh" he stalled momentarily "I have to admit that I haven't really met any of them yet. I haven't had the chance to form an opinion. I don't like them, I don't dislike them. I'm ambivalent, I suppose".
He shrugged, intending to end the conversation there. But then he remembered that someone once told him that women liked to talked and liked to be asked questions. Perhaps he should ask he something. Uhh...
"You?" the feline man asked quickly, before realising how nonsensical that must sound, and tried again "I mean, what about you?" he asked, and clarified "Have you met them? Do you like them?"
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