Snake Eyes

Chapter 3

His heart slid into his stomach, why was that? It was the spider from the other day, but he'd approached today. He watched the facial expressions that subtly changed the man's face as he thought; the slight squinting of his eyes, the way his lips twitched down a miniscule amount, the tightening of his jaw. They were strong features that were incredibly distinctive in comparison to others. Features he knew he wouldn't get tired of even if he tried. The spider released his arm, which they both realized he'd still been holding. The silence between them stretched on for another minute or two before Pentious decided he'd had enough. On a huff, he turned away and started moving again. He'd already wasted enough time out and he had something in the lab he could tinker with while he thought. He'd like to get back to that now.

"Your little experiment," He stopped and looked back at the spider. The man had his top arms crossed and his bottom ones resting on his hips. "What would you need from me for it anyways?" Turning his body to the man, Pentious told himself not to get excited, but he knew his hood lifted a bit. "I never gave you a chance to actually talk about it."

Where the hell did he start? He fought the urge to pull out his notebook and ramble about the experiment, especially since he knew he'd drawn pictures of this man from memory on those pages. "Well, it's a genetic experiment. The end goal is to create an artificial life form that can easily be duplicated, used and thrown away as needed. Something that could be manipulated to already retain the knowledge needed to be useful so that you don't have to constantly teach them, while also being obedient." He watched the man run through what he'd said quickly, a slight expressional change, before he shifted slightly.

"And you think I can help you with this how?" The tone was flat with a hint of insult. Oh God no, that wasn't what he'd intended to do. He didn't mean to insult him, he just told him the base intent.

"Well, they would need to be tough to be able to actually work with some of the things that I work with. I'm also looking for a gene type that allows for the informational retention and the physical duplication. I can easily provide the actual coding for the information itself, but I need a secondary party to solidify not only the intelligence but remembering it all as needed. And of course, I need a secondary party that has the same reproductive type that I would have as a basis." He was rambling again, wasn't he. Damnit! When the spider merely lifted a brow and slightly nodded his head, he could feel the nerves rising through his tail and into his stomach. "So I wouldn't be able to do this with a wolf demon, or a cat or something. They wouldn't have a matching reproductive type, since their mammals. My options are narrowed to avians, bugs and reptiles. Since avians are..." He stopped to think of a good word for it.

"Stuck up?" There it was. He nodded in agreement before looking back at the man to take in any minute changes. There was the slightest curve at the corner of the spiders lips.

"And we reptiles generally don't get along with each other, as silly as it sounds." He couldn't help the scowl on his face as he thought about every other reptile, snake, croc, lizard, he'd ever met in Hell. "I'd rather be stabbed or shot than dealing with them. They're needy most times and much too sassy to get anything done. Besides, the reproductive rate isn't right." The small little scoff made him jump and focus on the man before him again. The spider clearly thought about everything for a moment before extending a hand.

"The name's Arackniss." He reached out and took the man's hand to shake it and smiled.

"I go by Sir Pentious." The man smiled now without holding back.

"Sir? What, were you knighted before you died." There was a laugh in his tone but Pentious didn't understand the joke.

"No, I wasn't Knighted. I was a professor and held research status' that gave me the title." Not that it had helped him much once Martha Tabram had been found. Not that he'd done it, which was more than a little frustrating, but his degrees in engineering and a few in medical sciences had made him an easy target for crowds. The more women that had been found, the more anxious people had gotten and they started blaming just about anyone who fit their mold. He forced himself to focus on the man again and saw him nod slowly and another honest smile. The sharpened fangs he could see Arackniss had did nothing but intrigue him. It was a common spider trait, but he was curious as to why, whether it was based on a true physicality or if it was based on what they had done before death.