Memory plot tidbits

[drivesadesk]

Abduction

Jonathan is sitting in some sort of storage area. Two other reptilians are there, one that's going over some paperwork with him, and other is standing toward the back, steaming his 'face', which is resting on a mannequin head. None of them are in their skin suit. Suddenly, the door opens, and they all look up to see a human child entering the room. They stare at the child for a second, while the child, terrified, stares back.

After a moment, Jonathan breaks the silence, turning toward the reptilian steaming the face of his skin suit. “Louis, I gotta say. This one's on you, first of all.”

“Oh, yeah,” 'Louis' replies, his tone sarcastic. Annoyed at the accusation, he adds, “There's a sign. It says 'Employees only'.”

The reptilian who had been going over paperwork with Jonathan pipes up. “Well, now we're going to have to kill him.”

Jonathan is quick to object. “You always want to kill them. No, no, no, no--”

“Of course I always want to kill them.”

“Listen,” Jonathan said, trying to placate the other reptilian. “Let's take him to the ship.”

The other reptilians seemed to agree, so Jonathan turns back to the child, standing up and moving towards the kid, a smile spreading across his face. “Hey...I'm Snake Man.”

He reaches out to grab the child.


Experiments

Jonathan's watching a group of humans. They're in a white, sterile room. A group of humans is sitting in a circle, solving puzzles, and interacting with various Earth objects. Jonathan is sitting in a chair, taking notes in his native reptilian language. The person receiving this memory might find might notice that he's not wearing his skin suit in this one, and has his full, natural reptilian appearance.


Frightened Child

Another sterile white room. This time, there's just the human child from the previous memory, sitting at a table. There's paper on the table and some toys in the room. Jonathan has just entered. Naturally, he has his full reptilian appearance. He's concerned.

“Are you okay?” he asks the child. “Why aren't you playing?”

The boy answers in a shaky voice. “I'm scared.”

“Of me?” Jonathan asks. The boy nods. Jonathan speaks again, his tone soft and comforting. “Hey, don't be scared. I'm not going to hurt you.”

“Promise.”

“Yeah,” Jonathan says, his tone sincere. “I promise.”

Jonathan sighs. He seems, for a moment, almost like he's having a few doubts about this while 'experimenting on humans' thing.


Jonathan Learning New Foods

Jonathan was working on his Nancy android when Officer Glimmer, a balding, middle aged man walks into the room with a few bags of carry out.

“Hey,” he says.

“Hey,” Jonathan replies.

“Got some Italian.”

Jonathan perks up at that, standing up and walking over. “Ooh! Osso buco? Chicken parmigiana?”

“No,” Glimmer answers. “Mozzarella sticks and jalapeno poppers.”

“Huh.” Jonathan pulls a mozzarella stick out of the bag. “Is this a popper?”

Glimmer seems amused, laughing a bit under his breath. “No, that's a mozzarella stick. It's cheese covered in bread crumbs, then deep fried.”

“Wait,” Jonathan said, confused, “Isn't that what we had yesterday?”

“No,” Glimmer explained as he continued unpacking the bags of food. “That was a chimichanga. That's uh...” Glimmer took a bite of a mozzarella stick before continuing, talking with his mouth full, “beans and meat and cheese wrapped in dough, and then deep fried.”

“And the day before that?”

“That was a corn dog.”

“Oh,” Jonathan said, with a slight nod.”

“That was a hot dog, dipped in batter...”

Jonathan was catching on, and so, in sync with Glimmer, they both said, “And then deep fried.”

“Right,” Jonathan said, “Got it. Everything's deep fried.” Jonathan takes a bite of the mozzarella stick, and, with a deep breath, he says, “God help me.”

“Right?”

“Mmm...”

“Heaven on Earth,” Glimmer added.


Betrayed

Jonathan's standing in a living room, finishing up some repairs on 'Nancy', a human looking android, when Officer Glimmer rushes into the room. He looks panicked.

“Hey, you know how I told you I had a lot of gambling debts?” he asked.

“Yeah?”

“Well...” the man continues. “Well, they're back. And I just wanted to say, I wouldn't have done this unless they offered a lot of money.”

Jonathan is confused. With a furrowed brow and a slight shake of his head, Jonathan asks, “What did you do?”

But the man still doesn't answer immediately. He's still more focused on explaining himself. “Friend is not a word I use lightly--”

“Glimmer!”

“I told them where you are.”

“Them?” Jonathan, beginning to panic himself, took a step toward Glimmer. “Which them?”

Officer Glimmer averted his gaze, rubbing his eyes, seeming like he couldn't quite face Jonathan at that moment. “The bad bad them. But...I'm giving you a head start.”

“How much time do I have?” Jonathan's heart was pounding.

Again, Glimmer went back to the excuses. “I have a gambling disease and it's really bad and I can't control it--”

Jonathan's jaw clenched and he took a step toward Glimmer. That seemed to be enough to spook Glimmer into giving an actual answer.

“Ten minutes!”

Jonathan didn't bother to hide his disgust. “Ten minutes.”

Quickly, he scrambled into action, grabbing papers, notes, anything he'd need. Nancy, his android, began speaking calculating his escape routes and his percent chance of escape. Eight percent she gave him. Eight percent chance of him surviving this betrayal.


Ozzie Dying for Jonathan

This is a short memory, but it's a dark one. Jonathan is out in the woods. He and Ozzie were taken out here at gunpoint, because Jonathan betrayed the invasion, tried to get word out to the humans to let them know who not to touch, and now he was going to be killed for it. And he was fine with that much, but Ozzie...Ozzie hadn't asked for any of this. Jonathan dragged Ozzie into this. Fortunately, the reptilian assassin sent to kill them was more focused on Jonathan at the moment. Maybe, he thought, this would give Ozzie the chance to slip away.

He closed his eyes, and waited for death.

He heard the energy weapon detonate. He waited for the pain to come, but he felt nothing. He heard a body hit the ground. Opening his eyes he looked, and with dawning horror he saw Ozzie on the ground. Dying. He'd taken the shot for him.

His breath weak, but still alive, Ozzie told Jonathan to run. Not wanting Ozzie's death to be in vain, Ozzie ran.


Killing Ozzie's Killer

Jonathan's holding a gun, pointed toward a man's head. Or is it a man? The figure looks human, but his eyes are yellow, his pupils slit, like Jonathan's own when he lets them revert to their natural appearance. Holding the gun, Jonathan forces him to walk deeper into the woods, and they continue on like that for a while. In silence. Then, he grabs a shovel that's leaning against a tree. He shoves it at the man.

“Dig.”

The man complies in silence for most of it, as he's forced to dig his own grave, but as the shallow grave is completed, he turns to Jonathan, and begins to speak. “All right. I dug my own grave. Now, here comes the hard part. You have to kill me. I'm calling your bluff.”

“Is that so?” Jonathan asks. He clicks off the safety, continuing to point the gun at the man.

He seems unimpressed. “That's just pointing. That's not killing. Killing's harder. Look, you've gone soft, that's all right. I mean, you're a disgrace to your own species.” The man sighs. “We're going to find all you traitors who've gone soft. You can't hide forever.” Then, seeming smug, he adds, “I'm glad I killed your human friend.”

And then Jonathan pulls the trigger, sending a bullet right through the man's skull. He falls, dead, into the grave.