Participants:
| Scene Title | Carriers |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Yana sets Magnes on a quest to find hosts for H5N10 after coming to find that her initial idea to infect him was not the best course of action. |
| Date | March 8, 2011 |
Yana's Apartment
It has been several days since Yana has even stepped out of her apartment. She called in sick for the past few days, and had Christopher answer her phone, explaining her illness. Sick with the flu she would say, which is rather impossible given her ability, which could only mean one thing, she is doing her study. Using her ability to go over the H5N10 virus she now contains inside of her with a fine tooth comb. Trying to learn everything there is to know about it, even the things that aren't known by anyone else, save for the virus itself.
Eventually she resurfaced to contact Magnes and make mention that she of course need his assistance with something. There was really no hint as to what that would be, she is quite confident that it doesn't matter. She is of the utmost certainty that he'll come running regardless.
That he does, in a little under twenty minutes, suggesting that he did not come by car. Magnes' long black coat is draped over his arm, having removed it on his way up to her door when he knocks. He's in a simple white buttoned up shirt, black suit jacket, blue jeans and black suede shoes. "It's me, Magnes."
He is let in by Christopher, into the apartment that has the atmosphere more like a boudoir rather than it's normal setting. In fact, Yana is sitting in almost the dead center of the room in an elegant chair, looking off into space like she were contemplating something. The look on her face is rather serious and quite real. Without the usual appearance of a proper and somewhat nice lady, Yana nearly appears sinister. This is the face of Dr. Blite, the mad scientist that hides deep in her psyche.
Magnes offers Christopher a polite nod, walking over to Yana and waiting a moment before saying anything. She seems rather intensely focused, so when he says something it's in a fairly soft tone, "Um, Elvira?"
Ontop of her pose upon the chair, there is that eerie green glow in her eyes. Like looking at a feline's eyes reflecting light back. An effect of the use of her ability, which disappears when he calls her name. A single blink and she snaps back into the realm of the living. Her eyes moving to the source of her called name. "Ah, Magnes. I didn't hear you come in. I was a little preoccupied." she rises from her seat. "Glad you could make it. I apologize for my unavailability as of late, as you probably could have guessed, I had some research to do."
"I figured. I've been trying to leave you alone since all of the reasons I've wanted to meet you were personal, and I know how much your work means to you." Magnes offers his hand in case she wants the help standing, but doesn't take her hand unless she accepts the offer. "So, how can I help you?"
"Well," she begins, with a dip of her head to one side. Her body language indicating that her request is probably something big. "I procured the H5N10 virus as you might know, and I have had a little time to take a look at it on the basic level. I'm almost ready to begin my experiments, however one thing I am lacking is availability of the agent. Viruses don't make themselves—" she pauses and reconsider her words, "Well, they do but not without help." she corrects, "I could sacrifice a few of my cells to produce more particles, though it wouldn't produce as many as I might need, nor would it make them as fast as I would like. The same goes for doing it through tissue culture. I'm afraid the only acceptable method is a host. I need a gestation device, someone reliable that can carry the virus so that I can harvest particles from. Someone reliable and accessible when I need more."
"You want me?" Magnes outright asks, not as an offer, but as a guess at what her request is. He places a hand over his stomach, looking down for just a brief few seconds of thought, then he's looking back up at her. "If it's for you, Elvira, I'll do it."
At least there is a few moments of hesitation from her, rather than jumping directly at his acceptance. "Are you sure about this, Magnes. I need you to realize that I'll be infecting you with the unaltered H5N10 virus, which means it would be as if you caught it yourself. So I won't be lessening any of the effects or anything so that I can have the stock of the natural copies. On the plus side, I won't be accelerating it either. I'll need you infected for about two weeks before I'll be able to remove them, so there is a risk that you could lose your ability permanently, depending on your immune system." she says this, with it in mind that she could very well prevent those things from happening, but to achieve what she needs right now, there can't be any alteration.
"Permanently?" Magnes crosses his arms, looking down over himself. That does cause some hesitatin, unaware that she wouldn't be altering it at all. "As much as I want to prove my dedication, I… risking my ability permanently would be a lot for someone I'm not actually dating. I mean, I have to have some sort of priorities, if I say yes now it would just be due to some blind faith that it'll make you like me more…"
"Which is why I really need you to think about it, Magnes. Carefully." Yana shakes her head slowly, showing just a bit of hesitation in her thought process with the look on her face. "Normally, I'd take this up with Christopher. He has carried many a virus for me in the past, though H5N10 'currently' doesn't affect Non-Evolved, and Keagan has no idea about my ability." She says currently as if there is intent for future host range extension to Non-Evolved. It is very likely that such a thing is within her ability.
There is another moment of reconsideration which leads her to more reluctance, "Perhaps it is too dangerous." she shakes her head, "It's too risky, I'll just have to take the slower route in this case. It is safer." If it is her being serious or spinning a web of manipulation, it is difficult to tell.
"I don't want you to have to take a slower route, but I just feel as if I say yes, it'll be out of some sort of desperation on my part, like making some grand sacrifice that I know won't lead to anything but hope will." Magnes reaches out, touching the side of her arm with a conflicted but apologetic look on his face. "I don't know what the right choice is, Elvira…"
She shakes her head, "The right choice is 'no', Magnes. The more I think about it, the more it becomes a bad idea. If it were anyone off of the street, I certainly wouldn't care. And if the risk wasn't so bad, I'd say yes. However, we're talking about the possibility of you losing your ability forever. And I can't even give you a percentile of how likely it would be right now." She gets to thinking again, reconfiguring the design. "I'll have to sacrifice stable and easily accessible, and find a target that I can monitor. That's what you can do for me." Yes, that'll work, "Find me someone to infect. Someone that I can get to easy enough when I need more of the virus, and that I can monitor easily."
"I will, I promise. I'm sorry if I let you down." Magnes takes his hand back, looking down in disappointment, unable to look her in the eye. "I promise I'll make this up to you."
"I'm not disappointed, really. Not in you. Disappointed that it isn't going to be as easy as I initially planned, but not in you." she shrugs it off casually, "These things happen in science all the time. You have to revise and sacrifice and sometimes take the longer path. You'll learn this as you go along." she raises a finger to tap at the side of her head, "But I'll need more candidates than just one too. For later." Yana starts to move, pacing while she thinks and unfolds her plan. "I'll start altering the virus soon, and I'll need bodies to test my alterations on. Expendables, when I go to human trials. I'll try to alter the host range to affect rats first, then we'll move to the other things."
"I'm sorry that it won't be as easy. I…" Magnes' look of disappointment never quite fades, looking around the room as he slides his hands into his jacket pockets. "I'll do what you want, but maybe I should leave you alone now." He already starts to back up a bit, intending to turn for the door. His mood's a bit weirder than normal, awkward even.
Yana is in think mode. She is mapping out her new course of action which has her a bit distracted. Too distracted to bother with Magnes' weird behavior. "Alright. You probably have things to do I should get back to studying. You can contact me through Christopher, he'll get a message to me if I'm preoccupied." she waves a hand, "He'll see you out. Thank you for coming by so promptly."
"Yeah, alright. Good luck." Magnes lets out a long sigh, turning around as he's seen to the door. He looks back at her a few times, but otherwise just leaves, closing the door behind him.