The stink of the sewer was horse than anything you had ever imagined. You quickly began to vomit. You could barely see anything.
"Oh don't worry, we have our actual base of operations beneath the sewer system, though we also legally own some of the abandoned subway stations and other structure," Jade said politely. "So, what kind of reptilian predator do you wish to be? We have Velociraptor (feathers free version), dragonoid, naga, snake man, as you can see, gator-man, and sadly we've rather overstocked our quota on turtles, that was too popular!"
You were feeling overwhelmed and confused.
"Jade can we talk for a moment?!" Came the cultured and polite voice of the man wolf echoed.
Jade hissed. "Get lost Linus! I got this one! He already said no to you! Unless you want to follow in here and get ripe apart for trespassing!"
"You are also in severe of a breach of protocol. We do not interfere with each other's recruitment! I don't meddle with your recruitment! Now come out so we can discuss this as proper savages."
Jade rolled her lidless eyes. "Fine!"
She slithered out of the sewers, you still in her coils.
"You're crazy! Why would I join you now?! You said you were going to eat me!" She shouted.
Linus waved a paw. "Oh that was just the party line, we can't actually legally eat humans sir. I do apologize. We have to physically turn them into a man beast of a prey species first like cows or sheep or pigs or deer or the like. Then your single greatest desire would be to be eaten, but at the same time defending yourself from and man beast predator, since a hunt where the prey doesn't fight back is meaningless, and a meaningless hunt means you don't deserve to devour the flesh of the prey. If we wanted prey that didn't fight back we'd adopt farming. We were just trying to scare you into joining our side. A silly tactic but often effective."
"Yeah, pretty much." Shrugged Jade. "We do pretty much the same thing."
"But I came to inform you," Linus said, "we met with your neighbor, a beautiful lady, apparently she fancied you... Or so she says. But she's also interested in become a mammalian man, or rather, woman beast. At any rate, we are legally bound to inform you, that under the Agreement of 1999, you and her are allowed one free without backlash or reprisal chance for either for her to join the reptiles rather than become a mammal predator, or for you to become a mammal predator. This decision must be made immediately otherwise it is null and void sir."
"Wait! Didn't you guys say you were hated enemies?"
"Oh we are," Jade said politely. "It's just our thing. But just because we're savages and proud of it doesn't mean we don't have protocols. But you already turned down their offer! So I was NOT in breach of protocol!"
"You did kidnap him from his house without the intent of turning him into a prey man beast."
"Uh," you raise your hand. "Technically from my point of view she was rescuing me from you, so I wouldn't complain."
"Fair point," Linus admitted. "But seriously, given the change in circumstance, I humbly request for you to reconsider your previous answer."
"If I say no, would you assign her to hunt and kill me?"
"Oh not intentionally! You happened upon each other in a non-neutral zone or errand, you would be obliged to kill each other, but we certainly wouldn't explicitly have her do so. That would be just sadism!" Linus seems genuinely offended at the idea.