experiment 19 || accidental video
[at first, the camera flickers on to a dark, dark room; it adjusts to the darkness, showing a dimly lit silver pan on a gurney. the large, glowing tank only has one squitten in it, now, and it's swimming along slowly. the eagle-eyed might notice that it has more tentacles, and they're almost all different colours.
there's a clicking sound, like he's typing at a computer somewhere, and after a while, there's a pitiful mewling from somewhere in the room. the typing stops, and Stein rolls over on his chair, back to the camera, leaning over the pan.]
Oh, good. You're awake.
[he stands and kicks the chair away; it rolls out of the screen. he leans over the pan more thoroughly, pulling on gloves that snap to his wrists.]
I was afraid you wouldn't wake up after the rejection. You almost didn't make it.
[there's some clinking noises, and the mewling continues; he's still messing with whatever's in the pan. it's hard to see what he's doing, but it looks like he's flipping whatever it is over and checking it thoroughly.]
I'm sorry. I wanted to switch all your tentacles around, but two of the heads didn't make it. But you look fine. Looks like the second switch didn't have any adverse affects. At least I learned a lot about squitten anatomy.
[he gingerly lifts the thing, and holds it close to his chest, walking around the gurney to the tank and carefully putting the newly tentacle-changed squitten inside. it mewls at him from inside the tank, a weird watery sound now that it's ...well, underwater, and points one tentacle at its mouth.]
Don't worry. I'll feed you when I'm sure you can keep it down.
I'll go catch more later. You should both rest, now.
[he drops a little piece of what looks like salmon in; it swallows it whole and sluggishly swims off, mewling at the other squitten. they start rubbing on each other, reunited at last!
he turns; he's covered in some weird salmon-pink goo-like substance. he snaps off the gloves, and looks up, noticing the flashing recording light.]
...Oh. Damn.
[damn damn damn damn. he walks over and quietly turns off the camera.]
there's a clicking sound, like he's typing at a computer somewhere, and after a while, there's a pitiful mewling from somewhere in the room. the typing stops, and Stein rolls over on his chair, back to the camera, leaning over the pan.]
Oh, good. You're awake.
[he stands and kicks the chair away; it rolls out of the screen. he leans over the pan more thoroughly, pulling on gloves that snap to his wrists.]
I was afraid you wouldn't wake up after the rejection. You almost didn't make it.
[there's some clinking noises, and the mewling continues; he's still messing with whatever's in the pan. it's hard to see what he's doing, but it looks like he's flipping whatever it is over and checking it thoroughly.]
I'm sorry. I wanted to switch all your tentacles around, but two of the heads didn't make it. But you look fine. Looks like the second switch didn't have any adverse affects. At least I learned a lot about squitten anatomy.
[he gingerly lifts the thing, and holds it close to his chest, walking around the gurney to the tank and carefully putting the newly tentacle-changed squitten inside. it mewls at him from inside the tank, a weird watery sound now that it's ...well, underwater, and points one tentacle at its mouth.]
Don't worry. I'll feed you when I'm sure you can keep it down.
I'll go catch more later. You should both rest, now.
[he drops a little piece of what looks like salmon in; it swallows it whole and sluggishly swims off, mewling at the other squitten. they start rubbing on each other, reunited at last!
he turns; he's covered in some weird salmon-pink goo-like substance. he snaps off the gloves, and looks up, noticing the flashing recording light.]
...Oh. Damn.
[damn damn damn damn. he walks over and quietly turns off the camera.]