//------------------------------// // Crystal Star Ch9: Burger // Story: Crystal Star // by MaxFlames //------------------------------// {April 4th, 2015, United States of America, 8:39am} Salanda, unlike her other friends on guard duty, was excited for the possibility of real dragons! “Dragons! I can’t believe this! I could become a dragon hunter, or maybe a dragon rider!” Lawrence took his hands together and pressed them to his face, and breathed in. “Salanda, how are you so excited about this? For all we currently know, it is lying to us to freak us out. And if it’s not, then we have to fight DRAGONS!” “I have a rocket launcher. They can blow up really well.” “... have you blown up a dragon before?” “No, but I am ready to give it a try!” Salanda snickered at Lawrence’s concerned face. She hasn’t seen him like this since Jerry told them all about the giant spider monster he saw at his home, and she offered to take care of it for him. She was now just waiting for Jerry to pull something, like when he said he took care of it already! “...Don’t you need a magic sword for that?” Jerry asks with perfect timing, as Lawrence sighs. “Don’t encourage her,” Lawrence said in annoyance. “Look, you all do… whatever, I’ll let Vahlen and the Commander know about this development.” Bens said before running off. Salanda laughed and looked back at the creature, and saw it drawing something new. She stares for a moment before speaking. “I wonder…” she then walks away. “Oh no” Lawrence said, realizing that now Salanda is up to something. “You know, I’ve seen dragons before” Jerry said with a smile, as Lawrence sighed. “Your drug filled binges don't count.” “Yikes. Still, what is that thing's name? The seeming dragon on the paper? Spike or something.” “... I didn’t mention the name” Lawrence said confused, wondering if Jerry had looked over his shoulder. “Hm, lucky guess…” Jerry said as he found himself lost in thought. “... Right…” Lawrence sighed as he sat down in front of the door. He waited for a moment, and then turned around, as he saw the creature writing another message. “...I need something else to call it..” He said with a mumble, before the creature lifted the paper to show him. “Hm… can of peaches… it’s face… book… the entire english alphabet…” He mumbled to himself. hold on… ‘can I book alphabet’?... wait no, ‘alphabet book’ Wow, sounds like it is learning fast. The creature then looked at him, and was still shaking from earlier, and he could hear it’s stomach from outside of the room. “I should have known a bowl of apples wasn't enoug-” He was interrupted by the creature falling onto its front legs. “This is going to be a long day.” he said with a sigh, “You ok in there?” It looked up at him as it tried to get back up, before wincing and lowering itself to the ground. He could hear it whimpering slightly, before that is drowned out by its hunger stomach growling. He then saw the veggie burger Jerry was holding. “That’s a veggie burger, right?” Lawrence asked. “Oh! Right! Yes it is, and I took the opportunity to stuff it full of Aspirin, at Vahlens suggestion. Plus a large amount of Ketchup,” Jerry said with a smirk. “... Fine, let's give it that burger quickly…” Jerry placed the burger in front of the creature. Before either of them could react the creature had unwrapped the burger and bit into it, as a large amount of ketchup covered it’s face, causing Jerry to laugh. It stopped for a moment, before smiling and wiping its face with the burger, somehow ridding it’s face of ketchup, and finished the burger in one bite. Jerry looked weirded out by that and walked out as it licked a bit at the wrapper of the burger. “Well, I wasn’t expecting that! I was expecting a bit of confusion, not for it to use the food as a napkin SUCCESSFULLY! … I need it to teach me how to do that!” “It doesn't surprise me that you have no manners Jerry. Also, please stop screaming so much, we don’t want to frighten the creature.” Lawrence said as Jerry glared at him. He focused his attention back on the creature, and thought, If they can make plasma guns, manners should be no problem, but that seems offly human to do… Before Lawrence could think more on that, Bens and Vahlen walked in. Vahlen was carrying a set of plastic cups, and Bens had a small bag of melon balls. Jerry snickered as they arrived, and walked away, causing Lawrence to groan and rub the bridge of his nose. “So glad you could come by Dr Vahlen” “Yes, I heard of the ‘Dragon’ discovery, and decided to hurry up and do my planned experiment before one of you did. It won’t take long, just need to do about three rounds of the ball and cup game.” Vahlen said as Bens placed down the bag and reached for his Arc Thrower, and Lawrence did the same. “Um, really? We already know it can learn our language, so why another test like that? And if it will be so quick, why are you the one doing it?” “Parrots can say back what it was told, and this creature could be doing the same. I’m trying to rule out that possibility. And as for why I’m here, when I leave these things to others, they end up learning something new but don’t properly record it. I might as well be here to get the information down.” Vahlen then opened up the room door fully, and kept it open, looking to see it’s reaction as she entered. To her surprise, it just laid on the ground watching her. It watched as she placed down the cups, not moving much at all. She got a more distinctive reaction as she pulled in the bag of watermelon balls, and it licked it’s lips, though only Lawrence noticed how it rubbed it’s stomach as if trying to quiet it down. Vahlen pulled one out and placed it under a cup, and moved her hand away quickly. The creature waited for a bit, until Vahlen motioned for it to go ahead, where it then pulled the cup off and grabbed the melon ball, and ate it in one bite. Vahlen watched as it released the cup from its power, and returned it to it’s spot. At least my research concluded that whatever it uses doesn’t seem dangerous. “Interesting. Object permanence seems to be good. Now, onto basic movement” Vahlen said as she put another ball into a different cup, and moved them around slowly. When she pulled back, the creature grabbed the right cup and once more ate the melon ball. “Good, good. Now, let's go a bit faster” She said before doing the same preparation, but this time as fast as you would normally do it. This time it took a bit of time, but the creature managed to choose the right one and got another melon ball. “It very well seems to have a handle on this, which is good, so we can do some more advanced experiments later on. It also seems to be incredibly cooperative, especially with the door opened. I was sure it would have tried to escape by now…” Vahlen remarked as she got up and grabbed everything. “Wouldn't have been a wise choice, but, true.” He said, as he looked at it. It seemed that the creature was feeling the effects of the aspirin already, as it was moving more, and had a small smile on its face.