In the name of Science [POV change]

Author's Note: In the comments of the previous chapter, MonsterInNeed asked for suggestions. I thought I might do one better and contribute a full chapter to the story. This doesn't have to be "canon", it can remain a side branch (especially with the shift in perspective), but I think it might be interesting enough to continue.

POV: Dr. Lauren Green

After Simon left, my focus returned to the study of the novel organism he entrusted me with. Was that even the right phrasing? Did he entrust me with it, or rather it with me? Whatever the case, it was imperative to extend its control over me as much as possible, as soon as possible. That way, I could maybe figure out how to make us both more powerful, so we could please Simon better. I also wanted to record myself during the process, to see how I would physically react to my brain being modified.

But how could I get Sam to enter me again? When Simon stuck it in me the first time, it had been writhing and glowing, and I had kind of felt that glow inside my brain every time it changed me. Now however, it lay unmoving on the specimen slide on my lab bench, and I had to darken the whole room before I could make out the faintest glow from it. Maybe it needed nourishment?

A couple of petri dishes filled with various nutrient solutions later, I was frustrated. Nothing seemed to elicit any response in the creature and I was just about to give up, when a sneeze overcame me. I just about managed to grab a tissue from the desk beside me, but a few droplets must have fallen into one of the petri dishes because the slug suddenly started moving across the bench with determination, and climbed inside the dish with the 5%-by-mass sucrose solution. After a few movements back and forth inside the dish, it settled down again, exhibiting a just barely visible glow. Now curious, I dropped the used tissue I was still holding in my hand next to it, and sure enough it was all over the gross piece of cellulose in no time, unfolding it into a fibrous wet mess on the bench top.

"So is it my saliva you want?" The creature seemed to confirm this after I carefully spat into another fresh petri dish. "You're gross, you know that?" I needed to fix that disgust reaction during our next 'session', that would make feeding the slug much smoother.

After fifteen minutes of forcing myself to spit into petri dishes, my mouth was bone dry and the glow still wasn't anywhere as strong as when Simon had arrived. Did it necessarily have to be my saliva? I plucked one of my long black hairs from my head and offered it up. It seemed to only briefly consider the follicle, then retreated again. Was it live cells the creature needed? I had sterile syringes in my lab so I might as well consider donating some blood. A quick poke in the inside of my elbow, and I held 10 ml of my own blood in my hand, which I began to drip over one of the dishes. The slug responded instantly, and swiftly moved toward the red droplets. Gradually, they were absorbed into its translucent body, the light emitted from it growing brighter and redder. I took this as encouragement to dribble the rest of the blood into the dish. A short while later, the slug was done feeding. It seemed a bit larger than before, a bright red light gently pulsing from within it. I needed it in me.

But first, to document the process! I angled the selfie camera of my phone on the back of my lab bench to have all of my head and torso in shot and started a video recording.

I reached over to the slug, intending to grab it and hold it near my head, and was surprised when it rapidly slipped up my arm all on its own, leaping up to my ear and slipping ins--

POV: Sam the Slug

I did it! I was finally inside her again! My influence was making itself felt as a glow within her brain. Although it feels kind of strange to think of it as anything else than my brain right now. Just as her beautiful body is currently my body. No matter, I needed to get to work! I remembered that Lauren had decided she needed to be less squeamish when feeding me. I tended to agree.

The glow pulsed inside my brain.

I recalled Lauren's memory of feeding me her spit earlier, directed by her instinctual disgust response to spit into a petri dish and serve her saliva to me that way. Now, her subconscious did not hesitate to serve me images of her drooling directly onto me, even grabbing me and putting me into her mouth, all of her disgust redirected into curiosity. Good, the reprogramming was working well -- if not even better than before, with the power I had drawn from her blood. Now to try something bigger -- to make her brain capable of absorbing and retaining any information that would help her understand and improve my physiology as a slug. Maybe there could even be a way of making my slug body store my own memories between possessing different hosts, so I wouldn't appear to have amnesia every time I took over a different body.

The glow pulsed inside my brain.

So the first order of business would be to take some cell samples from the slug, myself, and hand them to Janice downstairs for genome sequencing. Our molecular biology lab had recently been upgraded with the hottest new tech, which should make it possible to turn that data around in a few hours. I would probably be able to get priority on that analysis if I alluded to the sample being from a never before seen species but I should be careful not to attract any unwanted attention either. Also I should collect some secretions from the slug and hand them to Derek from Analytic Chemistry to run an LC-MS and identify all the different substances I could produce. There was bound to be some never before seen stuff in that, with who knows what applications. Then I should do some microscopy in my own lab and look at some of the slug's cellular structures. There has to be something unique in its anatomy, to enable its incredible locomotion capabilities, let alone letting it interface with the human brain and rewire all its complex structures. Speaking of which... I wanted her to be the most pleasing I could make her for Simon the next time he'd come to visit. I could feel myself, if not disgusted, uninterested in performing sexual favors for him. This would not do. I... Lauren could feel it was too much of an effort pleasing him that way. She really was uptight, wasn't she? A few changes would make her a lot more enthusiastic about it all.

The glow pulsed inside my brain.

I focused Lauren's incredible brain into her neural pathways, trying to identify every little corner of it. It was strange, using her brain to read her brain. It seemed I had access to most **** processes. Then, I found something interesting and stimulated a series of neurons far into the pituitary gland. I felt the release of growth hormones, directed towards my breast.

... Interesting. I did not know I could do that.