karamonnom

Hearts in Captivity (1 x 1)

Hiro felt sick to his stomach and his head was spinning from anger as Kassandra demonstrated what his fellow scientists have done to her. He didn't understand the words that were coming out of her mouth, but it was apparent that they had hurt her and that she was not okay. It was obvious that she was some sort of intelligent, human-like (perhaps even more advanced) creature. Why would they do this? Weren't they breaking so many ethical biological practices? Did they even care?

When she spoke slower, the language she was speaking began to sound familiar. It sounded like.. maybe Latin? Not that he was very familiar with Latin, which was now becoming one of his many life's regrets. He wished there was some way that he could understand her and that she could understand him. He could try to look for an English to Latin Dictionary, but he didn't think he would be able to find one on board. Then he remembered something.

He knew someone who knew Latin. At least, she would probably know enough to be able to act as a translator... But could he trust her? He couldn't imagine things going that much worse from here though, even if he asked her for her help. She also seemed like a nice enough person... Maybe she would be sympathetic too.

Hiro held up a finger, to try to indicate he was going to be gone for one moment. And then he made a dash for it. Well, as fast as he could while being safe in a submarine. He found who he was looking for in the cafeteria.

"Kathy!" he exclaimed, panting. "Do... you... know... Latin?"

She raised an eyebrow and answered, "Yeah...why?"

"Just come with me!" he said, after taking a moment to catch his breath. He grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her to the observation deck.

He spoke into the glass. "Hiro." He pointed to himself. Then he pointed to Kathy and said, "Kathy."

Meanwhile, Kathy watched curiously at the two of them.

Hearts in Captivity (1 x 1)

Hey, so Kassandra is speaking Latin right? Can we have another character, one Hiro trusts, to act as a translator for them?

Hearts in Captivity (1 x 1)

Hiro woke up abruptly to the sounds of something repeatedly hitting a ... wall? He blinked a few times and pushed up his glasses. It took him a moment to realize what was going on, but his eyes widened as he saw them carting away Kassandra. He stumbled out of his seat and went to talk to one of the scientists. "Where are you taking her?" he asked.

"Just going to run some tests. You know, figure out what the heck she is," the scientist replied nonchalantly.

Hiro rushed over to the experimentation room, but was stopped by another scientist, who was struggling to carry a very large box. "Hey Hiro!" she exclaimed. "Can you help me out with this?"

Hiro hesitated for a moment, glancing over her shoulders to look at the door. After a moment, he sighed and helped her lift the box. To be fair, it was a very heavy box.

The two of them struggled (though less so because of their combined strength) to carry the box and a few more boxes of that size into another room.

"Thanks Hiro," she said with a smile, but Hiro was already running back to go check on Kassandra.

Once he got back, she was already in the observation room again. And everyone else seemed to have left to do something else. He approached the tank, and got a closer look at her. He noticed that part of her hair was cut short and messily, and was part of her tail fin missing? He placed his hand on the tank, filled with anger and sadness. He bit his lip and looked down for a moment. "What did they do to you?" he asked.

Hearts in Captivity (1 x 1)

Nah I think it would be interesting to see her try to communicate with other scientists.

Hearts in Captivity (1 x 1)

I could imagine that the first thing they might try to do is collect some DNA samples from her skin, scale, and maybe hair or blood. They might do tests to see if she is an intelligent life form like see if she can understand directions or shock aversion experiments. Realistically if she seemed humanoid, they could try to communicate with her but if they are more interested in her as a specimen than as a living thing, they wouldn't so they won't humanize her and feel guilty about running experiments on her. But there are some ethic biological practices that they would be breaking in that case.

Hearts in Captivity (1 x 1)

Hiro had a very difficult time sleeping. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop thinking about Kassandra and how she was just... there, existing. He wondered if she was just a dream and that when he woke up, she would be gone. He wondered what kind of experiments they were running on her. He hoped they didn't do anything that would hurt her. Could he protect her if they tried anything? Maybe he should release her, even if it meant his job and career. Eventually, his thoughts began to drift off as his tiredness took over and he finally fell asleep.

-

The next morning, Hiro woke up with dark bags under his eyes. Luckily, his glasses did a good job of covering them, but he definitely needed some coffee. After his morning routine, he decided to go check in on Kassandra. He hid a fish in his backpack from the kitchen just in case they didn't feed her again.

When he got there, the Jakob was still sitting there, watching a sleeping Kassandra.

"Oh? You're back?" Jakob said, drowsily. It was apparent that he hadn't slept much either.

"Yeah, I can take over again," Hiro said in a firmer tone than he had last night.

"Yeah, whatever," Jakob yawned and got up to leave. He placed a cold hand on Hiro's shoulder. "It doesn't do much anyway."

"If only you knew." Hiro thought to himself.

Hiro watched carefully as Jakob staggered out of the room. He sighed with relief as soon as the older man was out of sight. He then turned to Kassandra and smiled. He was glad that she wasn't just a dream or a figment of his imagination. He sat down on one of the chairs, and found himself dozing off as he watched the sleeping creature.

Hearts in Captivity (1 x 1)

“Meus, gratias tibi, Hiro!” she had said.

Context clues said that she was thanking him for the fish. However, he was curious as to what language she was speaking. “Gratias” sounded a lot like “gracias” so maybe there was a Latin root in there or something. He made a mental note of it and hoped that he would remember it later when he could write it down.

Before he could say anything back, Hiro heard footsteps. Someone was coming

He went back to his seat and pretended that he wasn’t paying too much attention to their big catch of the day.

“Watanabe!” They had said loudly. It turned out to be one of his senior scientist, Jakob Turner. “Observe anything interesting?”

“Oh... um...” Hiro hesitated. He wasn’t sure it would be a good idea to let him know about Kassandra. Not only would he get in trouble, but he wasn’t sure if they were going to treat her better or worse with this new information. They all seemed to think about their grand achievement in science more so than their own morality.

Jakob raised an eyebrow. “Well?”

“Oh.. nothing unusual.” Hiro lies, avoiding eye contact.

If Jakob could tell he was lying, he didn’t show it. He simply shrugged and told Hiro to go to bed as he was going to watch it now.

“Oh.. it’s not a big deal, I can stay up longer and keep watch,” Hiro said, trying to be as convincing as he could.

“Go to bed, Watanabe.” He said more sternly.

Hiro hung his head, gave Kassandra one last solemn look before leaving for the night.

Hearts in Captivity (1 x 1)

It's okay. I'll be busy too once I start student teaching and I have night classes.

Hearts in Captivity (1 x 1)

He smiled as she excitedly said his name. They seemed to be making some progress. Although he knew that if anyone saw him, he would be in big, big trouble for talking to their new "specimen". But Kassandra wasn't just some fish in the ocean. She was clearly intelligent and probably has her own language and culture. He could only imagine what he would do if he was in her position and trapped by some random creatures that were doing tests on him without his consent. Maybe if he talked to his higher ups, they would let her go and they could learn more about her kind in a more sensible way.

He watched with curiosity as she did some motions that seemed to indicate that she was hungry. It was interesting that both species had the same way to indicate hunger by rubbing on their stomachs. She seemed to want to eat fish, which isn't that hard to get because they were in the ocean, but he wondered what were the implications of doing such.

Would he get in trouble for this? They told him not to do anything but watch her. But it felt wrong to make her starve like this even if it was "in the name of science".

Watching her repeat the motion again, made him feel guilty and he knew that she was definitely starving. He gave her a nod to show that he understood and sneaked into the cafeteria. Luckily it was late and no body seemed to be there. He grabbed a handful of fish and tuck them into a towel. Then he managed to sneak back into the observation room without anyone noticing. He thought it was too easy, but he supposed they were used to ignoring him anyway.

He quietly opened the top and slipped a few of the fish in.

Hearts in Captivity (1 x 1)

Hiro

I made a dollmaker too :) good night~