16324/The Secret of the Secret Sauce

The Secret of the Secret Sauce
Date of Scene:	13 November 2023
Location:	Labs - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	Caitlin and Damian team up to find the antidote for Pyg's serum. Now if they could find a cure for their crippling social awkwardness.
Cast of Characters:	Damian Wayne, Caitlin Fairchild

---

Damian Wayne has posed:
While it's true that Rook could have just used the Batcave to do his research, sometimes, he wants to have a change of venue to give him a different focal to work on. Arriving in the labs, he's carrying a sealed 'to-go' container, and is dressed down, as far as the costume goes.

A sweatshirt, blue jeans, wrap around sunglasses to hide his eyes, but he's at least practicing PPE as he sets down the container to get a lab coat, gloves and a set of goggles that will fit over his sunglasses. A mask is found as well to slip on, held in his hand as he starts to look for a table where he can go to set up.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Good thing he is; Caitlin's a stickler for safety in her lab. Just as he starts to set up at the table, Caitlin enters the lab wearing her own lab coat and with safety spectacles resting atop her red hair. Much like Damian she's dressed down, in pink scrubs and boringly safe rubber safety shoes.

"Oh hey, Rook," she greets the other Titan, and flashes a friendly smile at him. It falters while she quickly glances around for any other Bats in the lab, then returns full force once she relaxes her shoulders. In the clear!

"I'm just checking on some petri dishes," she assures him. "I don't be long. What are you working on?" The redhead's unable to suppress her scientific curiousity, and peers over Damian's shoulder at the experiment in his hands.

Damian Wayne has posed:
Nope, he's the only Bat in the lab. "Caitlin." he greets back, though short, there's a hint of warmth in his voice. "I didn't mean to interrupt your studies, was hoping you'd have a free table I could use. Batman has all of his projects, and the others... I may need to invest in my own lab." he muses.

Once he knows it's just him and Caitlin for the moment, he takes off the sunglasses and slips on the goggles. "I brought a gyro. Wouldn't suggest eating it." he explains. "There was an attack back at Homecoming, just found the fifteen students that were kidnapped." Figuring he should brief Cait on the situation before he just goes using her stuff, he continues. "Perp's name is Lazlo Valentine, going by Professor Pyg. He was a scientist, came up with a mind-erosion formula and hid it in the taztizki sauce of a Greeked theme food truck. I was hoping I could use the lab to work up an antidote." A pause.

"While I have a lot of knowledge in chemistry, I could use another set of eyes?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Mind... erosion?" Caitlin's nose wrinkles in distaste and she gives the goods a baleful look. Damian is one of the few Titans who is well-informed on how mental manipulation affects Caitlin. Just to be safe, she pulls on a pair of heavy-duty rubber gloves before helping him crack it open.

"Well, typically we're looking at just a few known drugs," Caitlin tells Damian. She starts setting out sterile sample dishes and on each one, applies white tape and a numerical label to it. "Tetrodotoxin is pretty common. Scopalomine in high enough doses, mescaline, oxytocin... it could also be lisurgic acid dymethelide," she suggests to him. "We can rule all of those out pretty easily with some basic chemical tests. Load these up with some samples, then we'll get going with the lab equipment and do some chromatography and run 'em through the centrifuge and distiller. That should help us figure this out. Do you know what's actually in tzatziki sauce?" she inquires, curiously. "I mean... the normal recipe," she amends.

Damian Wayne has posed:
"You're a step ahead of me then, I was thinking that it might have been a modified ketamine." Damian picks up on Caitlin's reaction. "You don't have to assist if you don't feel comfortable, but you should face your fears at some point. But I would not fault you for bowing out."

"Lazlo was working on a mind-altering formula. It is what was used on him when he was betrayed, and I assume that what we may find will be a modification of the original formula -- which has been exceedingly frustrating to access." Beauracratic red tape as it is. "We could even be dealing with a version of lysergic acid diethylamide."

Opening the container, he reaches for the small container of sauce to open it. "You still have to ingest his serum for it to work. That's why it's in with the sauce. I hope that he doesn't come up with an airborne version."

Scraping some of the sauce onto a slide, he moves it to set under the microscope while he passes the container to Caitlin. "I do. I actually make a good tzatziki." he admits. "Greek yougart, lemon, garlic, cucumber - I use the Spanish one, less water, salt and sugar. Grandfather wanted to make sure I had culinary skills, so that I could better detect poisons in food."

As he bends over to look into the microscope, he asks, "I was told that I should work on my intimate conversations. That it would make me more approachable."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Yeah I'll face my fears when I'm in Asgardian-forged chains and we've got at least three Kryptonians handy to hold me if it goes bad," Caitlin tells Damian with a dry, humorless voice. "There's therapy, and then there's recklessness."

She helps him start sorting out the samples and begins the process of chemically isolating the active ingredient. The organic molecules are a complicating factor; pureed and blended, they contain extremely complex molecule chains that will take the two of them a while to sort and isolate.

Science is cool, but it's often /very/ boring.

"It does help," Caitlin admits to Damian's remark as she sets the centrifuges up. "It's basic human psychology. We're conditioned to help each other, as a rule. Pack-minded. Opening yourself up with a little perceived vulnerability, it encourages people to trust you and creates like..." She purses her lips, thinking. "It's not actually a 'weakness', but we respond to vulnerability all the same?" she tries. "I'm glad you're trying something new, though."

Damian Wayne has posed:
Damian looks up from the slide and considers Caitlin for a long moment. "Hnh." he mentions after a thoughtful pause. Maybe he was considering ways that he could handle her should the need arise.

While she's working on the scientific stuff, he frowns, looking more thoughtful. "Batman has his own way of handling it. Being approachable, without being... close?" he asks, reaching for the right word as he considers his thoughts.

"But if I am to be his heir to become the next Batman, should I not see it as a weakness to allow more people close to me? I have a small group of friends and those I consider family." A twist of his lips and he folds his hands in front of him.

"I should be trusted by my actions, not because I'm nice." That's a bridge he is not ready to cross yet. He doesn't touch the vulnerabilities thing, but does offer a small smile. "If you are wondering, I do consider you a confidant. That is why I do not wear a mask around you."

But since it's going to be a while before chemical results start to spit out of the machine, he closes up the container to store it, but before that, he gets out a sharpie of red and writes:

'WALLY! DO NOT EAT! DANGEROUS. NOT GOOD. ::skull and crossbones::'

"Just in case we need to keep the sample on hand if we do not get an answer today."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin looks around uneasily when 'Batman' is mentioned. "He's... I'm not sure 'approachable' is the word I'd use," Caitlin admits in a low mutter. "But I get what you're saying. It's like--" she purses her lips and stares in the middle distance, absently turning on the centrifuge and setting it spinning with a near-inaudible whir inside the plastic enclosure.

"It's the difference between professional and personal trust," she ventures. "I totally trust that you would look out and watch my back because you know I'll reciprocate. But that only goes so far, right?" she asks, and goes to help Damian with his samples.

"Because it's fundamentally self-serving. 'I'll help you, so you'll help me'. That's why personal connections are so important. There's no trust like someone making themselves emotionally vulnerable when they're hurt or scared. Because that help, you can only give altruistically, if you want it to be... sincere," she ventures. "It's really hard to fake sincere empathy."

Damian Wayne has posed:
Damian nods as Caitlin understands. "You get it. My most personal connections are few. Jon, to a smaller extent, the other Robins. There is a girl that I have started to see?" Getting out his phone, he pulls up the twitter picture of him and Gabby as Cat Noir and Ladybug for the Hellfire Halloween and shows it to Caitlin.

"I want the Titans to know that when they need me, I will be available and more than willing to assist in any way that I can." His fingers reach and touch the counter in thought.

"But I am not sure if I am ready for the hijinks and pizza parties? I didn't have those when I was growing up and I know I have been exposed to the Titans for a few years now." A sigh and a glance down. "I would not mind having a few more personal connections. That are not my brothers and sisters."

A chirp of the machinery has announced that the tzatziki ingredients have been isolated and broken out of the chemical concoction and working directly on the serum itself. "I'm not like the other Robins. They aren't like me. It's weird being the odd one out sometimes."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin looks at the picture and coos, nodding at Damian approvingly. "She looks really nice," she tells him. After all, couple costumes are a sure sign of niceness. Right?

"Look, you can ask Richard how bad I was when we were coming up," Caitlin assures Damian. "I didn't even have my first drink until 2017. Donna bullied me into it," she says, and smiles fondly at the memory. "Meanwhile, Richard, Kori, Garfield, they all had crazy active social lives. I'd stay home with Vic and Rae and play games to hide from the masses. Once I... I don't know, once I relaxed and leaned into it, I realized it wasn't so bad," she admits. "Socializing, I mean. Going out to parties and events and things."

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm not like any of the other Amazons," she admits. "It's... 'weird' isn't the right word, I've been there too many years, but there's still things about their-- my-- culture I don't completely embrace. Donna says, it'll take time."

Damian Wayne has posed:
As he puts the phone away, Damian smiles slightly. "We have had some good times together. I hope it'll become a relationship." He chuckles. "Not that I have much luck with those."

"Garfield and Wally are a bit /much/." he confesses. "I assume their intentions are pure and that they're just trying to make me feel welcome. But at the same time, it's overwhelming to see their enthusiasm on full display." Damian chews on the inside of his cheek in thought.

"I'm going to try, it's all I can do. Though for a little bit longer, if may be for missions?" A chuckle. "Maybe I will bring a dish for the potluck for Thanksgiving, if we decide to host one."

"I was raised by tutors, I never had playmates growing up. So, I can understand the lack of comraderie that you feel." They do have more in common than he realized. Maybe if he had talked to her sooner, he'd grasped that.

Then randomly. "Did I ever tell you about Goliath?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Goliath? No," Caitlin tells Damian. "But yes, Wally and Gar are a little much sometimes, but that's part of their charm. You should see those two and Vic in the same room. It's like concentrated chaos. They used to be a *lot* worse, too. Trust me on that," she assures him.

A sample is fed into the mass spectrometer and Caitlin starts notating the results from the machine as it identifies the chemical compounds in the sample. She can look through the microscope and talk, apparently. "And for what it's worth, if she's your first girlfriend, you are officially +1 relationships up on me," she tells Damian. "Dating's too messy. I stick to science."

She writes some more notes down then looks over her shoulder at the other Titan. "Anyway-- Goliath?" she prompts him.

Damian Wayne has posed:
"I don't think it's something I want to imagine." Damian offers with a smirk on the idea of the Terrible Trio in full chaos mode. "So I'll trust you on that and some of the stories that Dick's offered to me when he was first trying to ease me into meeting the others."

As she's doing her research, he almost falls quiet to let her concentrate, then she prompts him again. "You shouldn't be forced to date, or made to feel like you had to. I had a connection with Gabby a year and change ago, but I panicked because I realized it was a relationship. She is allowing me another shot, after the last one ended up... weirdly." He can't really talk about the Damian Wayne fangirls and that whole disaster.

Then there's the mention of Goliath and he perks, a visible straightening, a hint of zeal. "When I was twelve, Ra's set me on the trials to prove myself a member of the League of Assassins." he explains. "In those trials, I came across a race of creatures. A pup of one of them..." Out comes the phone, and he scrolls, before pulling up the photo.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0e/f9/9e/0ef99e9e5794c1340c8d1ac71bb4aeea.png

"...became part of my family because it was the only one and lost and alone." Damian glosses over the fact that it's /his/ fault he's alone. He scrolls to another picture. "I made this as my phone wallpaper once."

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5b/8e/48/5b8e48802a78d2d57bd4e2547c370cff.png

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin walks over to Damian obligingly to look at the creature. Her eyes widen behind her safety glasses, and she reaches out a stabilizing fingertip to keep the phone oriented in her direction.

"I have never-- what even /is/ that?" she asks of Damian. "It looks like a cross between a bat and a monkey."

One of the machine chimes and Caitlin heads over to examine the results. She makes a satisfied noise, writes down the data, and then starts a new sample going in the same machine. They're definitely closing in on the variable they're chasing, eliminating things one at a time. "We're close to done. Once we've had it validated experimentally, we'll know for sure what the active compounds are. I have to admit; it never occurred to me to use yogurt for this kind of delivery system. I wonder if it's just a gag or if there's some... biological element in play," she muses.

Damian Wayne has posed:
"It is a Bat Dragon. Not a monkey." Damian straightens up in pride. "He stays near where I am. I thought about introducing him sometime, but he is a cowardly thing." A soft tt at that, though there's no real heat to it. "If it is the last of it's kind - I would like to know how to save him."

When the machine chimes, his attention turns and he looks towards the data, eyes narrowing as he studies it. "Pyg, in his mind, is living in the myth of Pygmalion. He believes that those he captures are his attempts to make perfection, his Galatea, and uses a combonation of drugs and surgical procedures to try to warp his victim into what can only be called a Kewpie Doll. Red hair, featureless, chubby face, gender reassignment if neccessary..." he sighs. "He had converted seven of the students when we found them and was working on an eighth. We were able to save the other seven. Those that were converted are in recovery to try to revert the damage done -- and are detoxifying from the effects of the drugs on them." he explains.

"Pyg is very dangerous. Perhaps more than many of those in Batman's rogues gallery." he admits. "I hope that the Titans never have to face him - but I'd rather have an antidote prepared should it occur."

"That said, I assume that it was delusion that had him use the tzatziki for the delivery - after all, he could pick and choose who recieved it and college students at a tailgate would think a man in a pig mask would only be humorous, not dangerous."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Boy, he has got that myth read wrong," Caitlin mutters a little sourly. "He should read the original version of that in the Royal Archives. It's... different," she concludes. Her face darkens in sympathetic anger at the idea of what's being done to Pyg's victims, though she carefully refrains from expressing it physically.

Caitlin is sensitive about unwanted transformations.

"Okay, let's look at the data..." she peers into a microscope, examines the data sprawling across the screen, and isolates several molecular compounds of interest. "....Got it. Looks like it's a neural seratogenic agonist, and it shows positive chemical binding to the 5-HT-1A receptor. Combine that with ... yep, tetrodotoxin, and a mitigating agent that increases sensitivity but slows down uptake, and you've got--" Caitlin picks up the container of special sauce and wiggles it at Damian. "Highly suggestible state, interference with motor functions, and minor hallucinations. I can work up an antidote for the tetrodotoxin, but they'll need therapy and psychiatric care to shake off the mescaline and the programming. Fortunately, that suggestible state goes both ways. The sooner you can get them in a regressive therapy program, the better they'll be."

Damian Wayne has posed:
"I don't think he can be reasoned with on that front. I'd rather he read the imprint of my booth." Damian murmurs, apparently showing his own distaste in the whole thing.

As she reads off the results, he comes over to look them over and he nods his agreement. "I concur." he offers, not that she needs him to do that, but it shows that he's keeping up with what she's saying. "How long will it take to get the first batch prepared? Have one to keep here if needed, make me a second that can be taken to the Batcave so that I can enter it in the system so we have it on hand in Gotham."

"And I'll make sure that I get the instructions to those at Gotham University Hospital, so they can get those that were afflicted in treatment immediately."

He was about to head out when he pauses and looks to Caitlin. "Thank you for your assistance, I really appreciated it." he offers to her, before he lifts his hand and curls it into a fist for a little fistbump. He's trying.

And later, when she comes back to the lab for the antidote, she will find a Tupperware container of Alfred's famous cookies and a note. 'Appreciate the team up. - D.'