Day 39: Intercom, Evening

[damned-intercom.livejournal.com]

The Head Doctor seemed a little rushed as he spoke on the intercom, not taking as much pleasure as he usually did in describing the delicious food that would soon be served.

"Hello, everyone! Tonight is turkey night, which means turkey breast in a great turkey gravy with some nice turkey sides: peas, herb potatoes, a small garden salad, and for dessert, a slice of pumpkin pie. We of course have vegetarian substitutes available, as well as our usual assortment of drinks.

"...I believe that's it! I'll talk to you soon!"

The intercom clicked off abruptly.

[ If you are introducing your character during this shift, you may either choose for them character to wake up before their roommate gets back, or after.

All room threads go in response to this post; please post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. Thank you! ]

Comments

[oober-tracker.livejournal.com]

Still surprised by the unexpected way the arm had suddenly reacted to the hammer, Diego was just lifting it up to try swinging it when the human's comment about running cut a swathe through his pride. He tried to force the anger under control again, but he couldn't help a soft growl at the words. "I don't run from danger," he replied. Which wasn't altogether true; he ran from lava rivers, and avalanches, and other events out of his control that he couldn't fight. But he never had, and never would, run from a proper fight. Especially if humans were behind it.

The human's next question caught him completely off guard. "Name?" he asked, dumbfounded. "You know what - you... you have a name?" He'd never, ever thought about humans having names. Even after everything with the baby, he... he just couldn't picture it. Humans couldn't even talk.

[piggy-king.livejournal.com]

"Well, if you don't want to have to run, you'd better learn how to walk properly soon! You won't always have a bed to lean on, you know," Porky said cheerfully. Ha ha ha! Porky could read this guy like a book! It would be so easy to manipulate him.

That bit about the name confused Porky, though.

"Of course we have names," Porky replied, furrowing his eyebrows, "What, are you from so far back that humans couldn't even talk or something? No wonder you were so confused by all the things I said earlier! Anyway, my name is Porky Minch. And yours is...?"

[oober-tracker.livejournal.com]

Diego became acutely aware of the - of his right hand steadying him on the bed, and of the fact that he'd taken a grand total of one step so far. He did need to lean on something to stand up properly right now, but not for long. Especially not if Porky Minch kept goading him like this. He was going to teach himself, and he was going to be able to run on two legs very soon.

Diego glanced up sharply at the answer. Humans evolved to be able to talk? Why? Why did humans get all the evolution, and the mammoths and the sabers get all the extinction? Come on, humans were the lowest on the food chain!

"Diego," he answered after a moment, ignoring the persistent strange feeling of telling this to a human.

[piggy-king.livejournal.com]

"Nice to finally know your name, Diego!" Porky said cheerfully, "Anyway, we might as well start your learning how to write as soon as possible, so let's start with your name!"

Porky picked up the journal and pen he had put down earlier and wrote "Diego" in big block letters on another one of the pages. Diego seemed to think that humans were stupid, so Porky felt it necessary to show him his place. After all, Diego was just an uncivilized animal, right? Porky held up the journal so Diego could see what Porky had written.

"That's how you write Diego, see?" Porky said as if he were talking to a child, "First there's 'D,' then 'i,' then 'e,' and then 'g' and 'o.' 'Diego.' Do you think you could try writing it yourself? If you can come over here and away from that bed, I mean. And no problem if you can't. I understand that it's difficult for you."

[oober-tracker.livejournal.com]

Diego stared at the pictures on the paper, then at Porky Minch, grudgingly impressed. That was the one thing he always thought humans had going for them, their idea of communicating through pictures scratched on the wall. While he was still annoyed at the whole evolution thing, it was also impressive that they'd taken the next step and turned sounds into pictures.

Maybe that was the only reason they'd evolved. They certainly didn't have anything else going for them.

But writing it himself? That was just a little bit too human for Diego. He'd teach himself how to walk because he needed to be able to move by himself, but learning how to write? How to scribble pictures humans made up so he could communicate with humans? Besides which, he'd never be able to wrap a hand around the tiny rock, much less keep it that steady. "No thanks," he answered with a slight smile. "I think I should focus on moving." He paused to look around. "How do you get out of here?"

[piggy-king.livejournal.com]

Heh. Looked like Diego wasn't quite confident enough to try his hand at writing. No matter. After all, there were other ways for Porky to assert his superiority.

"Ah!" Porky said, "Excellent question! Well, we humans invented something called a 'door' to keep all those pesky animals out. Couldn't have saber-tooth tigers and whatnot always barging in, you know? Anyway, you see this big different-colored rock, right?"

Porky pointed to the door out of M80. Oh, this was going to blow Diego's mind. Porky pushed on the door to emphasize how sturdy it was. Then, Porky reached for the handle and turned it, but didn't open it just yet.

"Well," Porky began, "You see this smaller, metallic rock? You give it a little turn and then a push, and voila!"

Porky opened the door.

"It's very effective at keeping animals out," Porky said cheerfully, "Most of them aren't smart enough to figure out how they work, so they have no choice but to go away. Anyway, now that exiting the room is taken care of, why don't we head out? I believe that it's already nightshift."