Of Metis and Men- Ch. 4
During the next three days Olivia was poked, prodded, stared at and questioned so much she thought she was going to scream. Every time some one pulled back the curtain she knew she was in for hours of tests, even having her new toy to keep her occupied didn't help when testing began. She had had enough blood taken that she was beginning to feel dizzy and weak and soon after she started to lose her temper at the smallest infraction, and instead of the doctors getting upset with her, they seemed to be studying what happened to her and how she reacted instead. When she got super frustrated she got shaky, irritable, and nervous and began to pace a lot. Janus explained the feelings as warnings for the first stages of going into frenzy and asked her to calm herself before she had an experience she didn't really want just yet, since they weren't sure how she would react, they didn't want to push her into something that might damage her. In fact, he warned her that it might give the doctors more reasons to do tests on her. Olivia calmed herself and quiet quietly brooding, she looked up at Janus with pleading eyes. He offered her something to keep her interested. Instead of being forced to lie in bed all day and be a pin cushion, she would start having some private lessons. She quickly jumped on the opportunity, with Janus swearing her to privacy, and looked forward to the new challenge. Anything was better than what she was doing currently.
"We are about to increase your learning ten fold, we want to know what happens when you shift into your other forms so you will begin with a private tutor." He said to her quietly. "I know you are a smart girl, so do me proud and really learn to do this well Olivia."
It was the first actual request of any magnitude that he had made of her, so she buckled down her whining about being prodded and began to pay attention. Four times a day she was taught to shift, she was told repeatedly that not only would it get easier to shift the more she did it, but it would also be easier to stay shifted and learn the habits and mannerisms of the shifted form. To get back to "normal" she had to think of relaxing and just being herself. To change into "shifted" form, she had to take all of her intensity and focus it into the core of her being and think hard of being homid. The extreme ends of shifting were much easier for her, she knew what a wolf looked life and she knew what a girl looked like, but the in between forms caught her off guard. Glarbro was like a cave woman, and was a step up from homid as far as Olivia was concerned. There was at least strength, stamina and some power. Thought was a bit diminished but she could definitely fight in this form. Hispo was actually one of her favorites, but she had never really seen a picture of a cave wolf so the concept was a bit fuzzier in her head, making it harder for her to learn. Hispo was a powerful form though, jaws were almost as strong as her natural form, large legs and feet with claws gave her a new style of fighting and the howls she could sound resonated loudly. She was encouraged to shift as much as she could without exhausting herself, as well as to start building up her stamina to stay in the forms as long as she could. Soon enough shifting very much became second nature to her, taking less energy than she believed it would and she began to incorporate the skills she had when she was normal into these shifted beings she could become. Homid was still very much her least liked form, it was puny, weak and completely inefficient, but still she practiced with it. As far as Olivia was concerned, homid form was only good for skipping rope.
Gradually it dawned on Olivia that she had been in the medical rooms quite a while: the three days bled into five and then into eight. Olivia didn't think much about it because she was constantly busy, she still had lessons and shifting practice and her new PDA to keep her busy so didn't think her isolation strange until two of the newer doctors stood outside her curtain and spoke in hushed tones. She had just shifted to homid form for the third time that day, with it going quickly and smoothly, it was much faster for her to use her PDA with homid hands (she giggled when she realized it was called a handheld because it really did fit into the homid hand!) Olivia strained to hear the conversation frustrated that she might be missing good parts, when she realized that she did have a good way to eavesdrop, so she smiled conspiratorially to no one, took a breath and then relaxed back into crinos, hoping that the creaking of the bed didn't give away her actions and scare away some good gossip. Eagerly she then sat back with her perfectly good enhanced hearing to see what they had to say.
"Nothing, absolutely nothing! She has not a single deformity anywhere on her body" the shorter one said
"Not nothing, she still has that rare blood allergy. Not to mention being a strict carnivore. I have not ever seen another garou so restricted to gaining nutrition from meat only. Toss that in along with her blood allergy and she really can't even enjoy the meat she eats, it all has to be thoroughly cooked. Perhaps Gaia found that to be enough for one of her warriors to bear." The taller one said. "Face it the child is not only perfectly normal looking, she is quite attractive by any standard."
"Perhaps it is like Bergman case?" the short one asked after a long pause, sounding perplexed. "I mean can this really be the extent of her deformities?"
"The Bergman case was extremely different, that one looked normal but was as crazy as a loon, we have run every test known to Garou and man with her. All we have come up with is that the girl has a high IQ, eidetic memory, not to mention technological aptitude that rivals some of the best human minds around." The tall one said. "I think it is time that she goes back into the fray and shows she survives. There will probably still be the jealousy over her normalness as well as some problems from the Garou as well as kin, since she has dared to be nice looking. I don't envy this girl her new life or tasks, this is going to either make or break her."
"Well I still think we should run a few more tests. I mean we know that lunacy runs stronger in the metis line because of all that inbreeding. Honestly we as Garou as a dying breed, and so our gene pool is much more depleted than any one of us would admit to. Perhaps her insanity needs a trigger."
"Which other tests? If you can tell me what poking her one more time will accomplish I will order it, if not it is time for her to get back with the other children." The taller one said, earning Olivia's abject gratitude. "She is working with a handicap of magnitudes that we don't even understand. Too much blood anywhere on her body makes her react horrifically, and if it were to cover her nose and mouth she would suffocate. She is a warrior of Gaia who won't be able to fight for the cause. There is little glory to be had by this one; I think she will have enough to deal with, without you trying to prove that she is crazy as well. Let well enough alone and let her get back to her life."
Olivia sat stunned for quite a few moments and then worked on shifting back to homid before the doctors would enter the curtain around her bed. To her relief they walked on and saw to another patient. Her mind was buzzing with all the information that they had just given her. What did they mean no deformities? She had found quite a few, they seemed to pepper her homid form more clearly than the other forms, and yes they were small but she also did have the blood allergy, not to mention that she was on the all meat diet. She sighed knowing that she was going to be going back to her daily schedule- just when she was getting quite used to more free time to play with her PDA.
Janus came to her the next morning and told her that she would be returning to her room and a new schedule. Apparently the last of her dormer mates had undergone their change in the ten days that Olivia was in the med labs. Since all five of them were on the same page, their lessons now included etiquette, dining, foreign languages, posture and blending in. Training incorporated their new forms and gave them new fighting styles. Their Weapon's Master was metis himself and explained to them, that when a Garou frenzied, they turned into their crinos form- which was a benefit. They however would not have that benefit, their natural form was crinos, so when they frenzied they would shift into either homid or lupine form, and in the middle of a battle that could be deadly if they did not know how to fight in the form they were in. He explain that if they could stop and think for a moment that they could relax enough to return to their natural form and that would be best, but he was there to prepare them for the worst case scenario.
The weapon's master, Belt Clip, took Olivia aside and told her that she would only be training part time with the boys. He had a special weapon in mind for her because of her unusual allergy. She was going to need something that would make other's give her a wide berth so no one would even try to get close to her, and he had the perfect weapon in mind for her. He began the lesson with all five of them, but Olivia's mind was clearly on the weapon that she would be learning. Belt Clip made sure to partner with her, so she wouldn't be cut by one of the rowdy boys and slowly they learned how to use their smaller and more agile bodies fight for them. Blocking, feinting, and attacking were drilled into them until sweat covered their bodies and their muscle screamed with over use.
During her first night back in the recreation hall, Olivia for once in her life was surrounded by a group of children. They questioned her long stay, and she said that her deformities were on the inside and the doctors needed to make sure nothing bad would happen to her. She went into absolute gory detail about being poked, prodded and made to go through all sorts of tests didn't feel bad for lying to them, since it was only a half lie, her blood allergy was on the inside. Soon they left her alone and Olivia went over and picked up her jump rope. There was something soothing to her about jumping so she began, about ten minutes in the crazy thought went through her head to try it in homid form. Taking a breath she concentrated on squeezing her essence into the tiny form and a few seconds later she was in girl form – and quite naked. The cool air on her skin caused little bumps, and the memory of attendant rushing to cover her up made Olivia wonder if there was something wrong to not be clothes in homid form. When the attendants noticed her, one quietly and quickly excused himself from the run, embarrassed Olivia quickly shifted back to crinos, hoping no one else, especially other children, saw that blunder. She made a mental note to ask Janus about the clothing problem at their meeting the next day and went to the work tables where she began to learn her PDA all over again with her crinos adapters on it.
Each child had private counseling sessions with an adult; Olivia looked forward to these times because she felt like Janus treated her like an adult, and really understood her. He never laughed at her ideas, grew impatient with her plethora of questions nor demeaned her. When Olivia asked about clothes, he gently explained the Rite of Dedication, which she didn't understand all of- but at least he explained it. He then began to explain about Gifts and talents that the garou had and that metis also had the same abilities, and soon they would be going through their First Rite, which would prove them worthy to have these gifts and talents. Olivia was excited about the new information, confused from trying to understand it all and quite leery since all the Rites she had ever read about had involved great risk and the possibility of death. Then again she really doubted there was any sort of "Welcome to being homid form Garou" handbook and everything was conjecture.
She asked him about the deformities she had discovered on herself and waited for explanations. Olivia wasn't sure what she really wanted to hear, the truth or some soothing explanation to clam her fears. She was very careful not to tell him that she had overheard the other doctors. Despite what they had said she knew that she had deformities like the others and was beginning to feel some sort of kinship because for once she was fitting in, but Janus sat her down with a gentle smile. He asked her to point out any of the deformities she had found and he would tell her what other homid forms would think about them. True to form, Olivia had made a list and rapidly pointed out each misshapen lump on her body.
"The divots on your cheeks are called dimples, and many people would love to have them, they are considered to be a mark of beauty amongst humans. Your legs are just fine, the oval shapes to the muscles are usually found in very dainty women. Your nails are supposed to be short, and not as long as your claws, this enables you to use your fingers much easier. Your chin is not too small, that's just the way it is shaped. Your ears are supposed to lie flat against your head and yes tiny is fine and will not give you dampened hearing. Your eyes were not damaged by darkness and supposed to be light in color, in human people eyes come in a wide variety of colors. Olivia your only issue is your allergy to blood- and it is quite deadly enough that I cannot imagine Gaia giving you else to deal with. You will prove much in your service to her as you learn to fight the Wyrm and yet keeping yourself from injury." Janus said smoothly. "Enjoy the fact that you are okay. Now some will be upset that you dare to look so normal while being Metis, but enjoy what you can. You look perfectly fine and there are no deformities I can find what so ever."
She blanched upon hearing his proclamation; she had so looked forward to finally being accepted because she had something with the others to share, and in the end again she was the outcast one, lonely in her normalcy. She slid down in her seat and sighed, prompting Janus to spend more time soothing her about her situation. He finally was able to convince her that she was perfect in Gaia's eyes and that was all that mattered. At the end of Olivia's session she asked Janus if it might be possible for her to get some dedicated clothes, so that she could practice more in human form without the worry of shredding her miniscule homid clothing collection each time she reverted to natural form. He smiled but promised nothing, telling her as always to becareful around the others since they couldn't possibly understand her unique nature. She asked again playing up the angle that the attendants wouldn't like it if she were to start walking around naked and that she was only thinking of them, and for some reason that put a glimmer of something in Janus' eyes. Olivia thought she recognized it as fear, but why would Janus fear her walking around with out clothes in front of the attendants, she did so all time in her natural form. But she could have been wrong, because when she next looked up into his eyes, the look was gone and it was replaced by the calm and cool Janus she knew. He told her that he would do her this one favor and get her a few sets of dedicated clothing and that they would work on options for her to always have something when she shifted since she obviously concerned about it. She walked back to her room slightly in a daze, she knew that she was different, and somehow that was baffling to everyone around her. Even more was the fact that Janus gave in to a form of blackmail that he never had before, normally he would have laughed it off and told her not to be glib, but she had stuck a chord in him and she wanted to know why.
Olivia was beginning to think that the whole shifting and shifted form thing was not exciting but rather a pain in the behind. It became a primary focus with their teachers and lessons, everything had to do with being shifted, they were to practice it always so they could stay in shifted form, it was almost as if their teachers didn't want to see them in anything but their shifted forms and speaking human and acting human. She wanted to scream that they weren't human but it would only serve to have her get "special" attention and she wasn't sure she was brave enough to cross that frontier so she sat quietly and learned. Quietly she learned to put her gifts to use, her photographic memory came in handy as she began to focus on documents that were left around, she began to keep a small diary of thoughts and ideas and used her love for technology to make it much harder to break into, not to mention keeping with her as much as possible. Her curiosity had been aroused and she now wanted it sated.