Empyrean Iris Story Collection

Animal Planet "Vexon"

"No, give that back, drop it.... Drop it!." The human bared their teeth playfully at the camera man and tugged harder on the camera equipment.

"No, drop it! Bad human, Doctor! Doctor!" But by then it was too late, With one last tug, the human yanked the camera form the crewman's hand and scampered off with it chattering in it's strange language. The other humans gathered around grabbing for the camera, fighting for it like the pack of wild animals they were.

The doctor looked over at the crew with the shake of his head, "Dont expect to see that again any time soon ... sorry ."

Across the room, the humans were playing with it , flipping it over and pressing the buttons with gleeful chattering to each other. A single human sat in the middle while the others stood around pointing and prodding at the camera.

"Come on, that was expensive. Now I'm going to owe the studio."

The crew zooms in on the humans playing with the piece of equipment flipping it over and prodding at it with their slim, delicate fingers. They almost expected the humans to start chewing on it, though they seemed pleased enough to pass it back and forth to each other playing with the buttons and turning the screen around to stare at the lens.

The Alpha followed after them and began chirping at them and pointing just like the rest.

"Look at them, so curious." One of the crewmembers noticed.

Krill nodded, "Oh humans just love playing with things, they are very very curious, and very smart too. They are great at social learning. Humans have been observed to attempt similar behaviors after seeing them. They are excellent mimics. In fact, in certain cases, you can teach a human how to speak/"

"Oh, well that would be a fun party trick, wouldn't it."

Here, watch this."

"Adam, Adam come." The Alpha lifted his head and looked over at them before happily trotting over, leaving the other humans to look over the camera, "Adam, Sit."

The human did as requested, happily taking his seat, "Like I said, humans are smart and can understand most basic commands. However that also depends on the temperament of your human, some humans do not like to be told what to do, so are liable to do the exact opposite of what you want."

He patted the human's head, this humans is very well behaved though, so I don't tend to worry about tat with him.

The cameras turned away from where the humans were playing and back towards the doctor.

"So, is there anything else you can tell us about humans."

Krill smiled, "Oh yes, Having lived with the humans for a while, I tend to find them very mischievous. Humans just love to play games and pranks with each other. They will often behave in ways that are contrary to their instincts in order to confuse people they think are idiots."

"Oh, that is very interesting, and what does that look like."

"Well, generally the humans take a target, specifically a target for social ridicule, then they start to behave strangely, and since humans are very good socially, they are also excellent at faking along with other humans. One human can start something and an entire group of humans can pick up on the message and begin doing the same thing. In fact, humans have a habit of acting dumber than they really are to confuse victims of ridicule who aren't smart enough to tell the difference. Humans especially love irony, and often that includes behaving in a way contrary to how they feel in order to throw someone off balance. It is a very interesting tactic to watch in person." He motioned them to come after with a hand and the group of them stood up to follow him down the hall as he continued to speak, "Here, lets get you a little more acquainted with the ship."