The problems with hominid physiology
WHO: Gates (socialistinsect) and Jill (deeplyunnormal)
WHERE: Somewhere not that far from Stark Tower and the 'Porter labs.
WHEN: Earlier this afternoon.
WARNINGS: Not as far as I know.
SUMMARY: Gates arrives. He is not pleased. Or upright.
FORMAT: Prose to start with.
( Where did these vertebrae come from? )
WHERE: Somewhere not that far from Stark Tower and the 'Porter labs.
WHEN: Earlier this afternoon.
WARNINGS: Not as far as I know.
SUMMARY: Gates arrives. He is not pleased. Or upright.
FORMAT: Prose to start with.
( Where did these vertebrae come from? )
Anyway, Jill was used to some weird things. The guy flailing and falling through green discs wasn't the weirdest thing she had seen, but it was pretty out there and something was obviously wrong so when he finally stopped and just clung to a lamp post Jill hurried over, ignoring Jack's comments about rapists and pod people.
"Hey," Jill said softly, "you okay? It looked like you were having some trouble."
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He turned the most pitiful expression on Jill, his eyes still wide. "How did this happen? I wish I'd never been hatched!"
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Be quiet, you deeply freaked out when we were Ported in.
Jill had gotten better at bitching out Jack without actually being distracted from the situation at hand so while she chided Jack, she also listened to the guy in front of her and blinked when he finished. Hatched. The only thing Jill could think of that hatched were chickens and dinosaurs but she was pretty sure he wasn't a chicken somehow so that left her with dinosaur.
"Hatched? Were you a dinosaur or something before being Ported in?"
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Here he hesitated, as his observations started to catch up with his righteous wrath. "This is Earth, isn't it? It certainly looks the part. But it's awfully primitive...it would figure! I must be back in the twentieth century again, and just after I escaped it, too."
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God, you are such a goodie two-shoes.
Do you have anything useful to say or are you just going to snark?
Jack fell quiet so Jill assumed he was giving her space to breathe and work things out - which was always appreciated. They were actually starting to work together and not against each other. For the moment, though, Jill needed to focus on trying to help this guy.
"It's Earth," Jill said with a smile, "but you're in twenty-first century New York. Or what passes as New York, it's actually just called the City. Sorry for thinking you were a dinosaur, it's just that most people turned human here were robots and I didn't think robots hatched."
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"So that machine violates the morphological rights of robots too? I shouldn't be surprised," he said. At least he'd stopped snapping at Jill herself. "The twenty-first century doesn't seem very different than the twentieth," he added. "What year is it? I was just in 2998, and before that, I was in 1998. Where have I been unjustly tossed now?"
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And okay, maybe she gathered part of that from the frantic thoughts she assumed were coming from him but she wasn't actually reading them. Mostly she was getting a long string of exclamation points with an occasional question mark when he asked her a question. It wasn't a particularly useful string of information, but it let her know that she was dealing with someone a little upset and not very calm which made her a little wary and hyperaware that she was probably overstepping boundaries.
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He looked at the hand being held out to him, then cautiously unwound one of his own hands from the lamp post and reached out to take hers. His mouth tugged into a frown. "My hand is so fleshy," he said in a small voice. "It's unnatural." He slowly shifted weight back onto his feet. "I can walk if I have to," he said. "But not on two feet!"
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He's asking if anyone has gotten upset over the fact that they've been turned human, Jill.
Oh. Should I explain about how mal it would be if he were still a bug?
Up to you. Something tells me he won't care either way.
Jill thought about it for a moment before deciding that he should at least know a human form was a little useful in the City - even if he didn't agree with it.
"The Porter does it because she's worried about our well-being at least a little bit. You'd have a lot of problems in the City without a vaguely human form - the locals don't take too kindly to mutants. Do you want me to help you get some land legs or are you just going to teleport everywhere?"
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But he did, at least, answer her question. "I...I could use a little help," he said hesitantly. "I won't be reduced to walking everywhere, but I should at least learn how to stand up on my own."
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Jill offered her other arm, knowing exactly how awkward it was to shift into different forms and have to learn how to walk all over again. She did it every month like clockwork and it was hard to forget the floundering that happened every time she changed.
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There was a grudging pause, and then he said, "Thank you. Perhaps there's hope for the people of this century yet."
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She left off the "and I have a split personality male counterpart named Jack" part off for the moment. He was having a hard enough time without he confusing him even further.
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"Hmph," he muttered. "I'm--" He hesitated. "I can't say my real name with this mouth. But no one else here would be able to pronounce it anyway. You can call me Gates."
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Slowly, Jill let go of Gates' hands, leaving them hovering just under where they were so she could steady him again if she needed to. He seemed to spend a lot of time panicking and that really wouldn't improve the situation.
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