Chapter 7 - Creating Trust

The scout was confused but also hungry, she didn't know why that being was putting the meat in bubbling water, but it looked so tasty when he ate it..., she needed to try it!.

She saw the hatch open and cautiously emerged from the pool. She saw the being at the other side of the door, but her attention was on the food, she was more hungry than curious after all. The meat smelled good, so she ate it using the shiny thing (fork) like the being in the image. It tasted good! it was a taste she had never had before, and the texture was way different from raw meat!.

She quickly finished it, 'hmm so he will make me more if I bring him meat? what about my spear?' she walked to the door and looked at the being in the face, its eyes were smaller than hers, and his teeth looked duller, 'hmm oh, it's showing me that weird moving things box... hmm a drawing of me and him, touching hands? why? does he want to attack me? I don't wanna get too close..., better get a bit farther from the door... also... didn't he promise me a spear? I would feel safer with a spear... I want my spear...'.

Rose: [Erik, she's backing up, seems like she doesn't wanna touch you... ¯\_( ͡° ᴗ ͡°)_/¯ ]

Erik: "... Well, I'm scared too dammit, so I get it"

Erik observed her and thought: 'Hmm, she doesn't have hair, her eyes are at least 2 times bigger than mine, she has no nose and has 2 tubes out of her neck, she has a small pair of boobs, and 2 other nipples below on her belly too, tentacles instead of legs..., the similarities to earth's organisms are probably due to convergent evolution...'.

( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution )

Erik: "By the way, how long can she stay out of the water?"

Rose: [Well... no data, never observed one going out of the water it seems]

Erik: "Okay, make her a steel harpoon, and maybe later a diving suit, but a breathing water version if she seems to be choking or something, normal octopuses have a sack with water inside but I can't assume her body works in the same way..."

Rose: [Sure, synthesizing harpoon with a tracking device]

Erik: "wow, you are always one step ahead right?"

Rose: [ ¯\_( ͡◡ ᴗ ͡◡)_/¯]

Erik: "Okay, open the door"

The scout receded a bit seeing the door open, but Erik just stood with his hands up, and the scout imitated him, he almost chuckled at that.

Erik: "Okay..., what now?"

Rose: [🤦🏻‍♂️(facepalm emoji)sigh..., step aside and appear friendly, no sudden movements no matter what, even for helping her, she doesn't understand what things are, and even if she hurts herself it will be your fault in her head okay?]

Erik: "Got it... reminds me of a donkey I saw as a kid when entering an abandoned house, you had to look at it in the eyes, if you ran it bit you"

Rose: [Yeah, that's a funny memory ( ͡◡ ᴗ ͡◡)]

Erik stepped aside, while keeping eye contact, and slowly started stepping back, with her following him in also slowly, and looking around, they went to the living room, and he indicated her to sit in front of him.

Erik: "Now... a quick test to see if she can hear sound out of the water properly..." he picked a relaxing song at a low volume and with a video of a man dancing,

(Hold my hand duet Michael Jackson ft Akon https://youtu.be/-oCCnxBos10 )

He then also played some piano music ( https://youtu.be/WJ3-F02-F_Y ) and she seemed to like both a lot.

'what's this?' the scout thought, she didn't understand the sounds as a language, but it sounded... 'nice! she liked it! and the man in the video holding hands... maybe it has a meaning for their race?' hmm she would think about it, 'oh it ended…, a new one!, those are hands, what's this?, it sounds really relaxing...' (piano).

When it was over, she was totally relaxed and sitting comfortably on the sofa, even her skin tone seemed paler. She was a bit slimy though, but Erik didn't care at that point, nothing can smell worse than the sludge on his first days, he had made Rose make him a flute while he waited.

She then looked at him as he came back with the flute, and started playing the flute averagely, as he did it at school more than 40 years ago, but it was still something new for her, so when he finished, she extended a hand looking very eager and Erik just gave it to her, from all this time observing her, she seemed to be able to breathe air. He would need to dissect a corpse to know more than that though. She tried playing the flute, but only strident whistles came out of it, she seemed frustrated and startled, so Erik approached her slowly and sat close to her. she looked at him attentively, as Erik placed his hand above hers and moved her fingers closing the holes on the flute, she then tried again and now it sounded good!

She was really happy at being able to use that instrument, so Erik gifted the flute to her, and a small case (Rose's idea).

He then gave her a pencil and a notebook, to see what she will do, and she tried drawing his face, with somewhat good results, then animals and algae, she turned out to be really good at drawing. He showed her his backpack, and they make one with two hidden cameras and some intelligent tissue like his diving suit for her, he indicated how and let her put it on. It adjusted perfectly to her body, and she liked it a lot, being able to store things there, like the flute. The suit was adjusted to her shape, and connected to her nervous system now, so she didn't feel uncomfortable at all.

Erik: "By the way..., can't you connect to her mind?"

Rose: [No, I can't connect to the minds of beings developing here, it's to stop me from influencing their evolution in any way]

Erik: "It looks like an octopus to me, humanoid... but an octopus nonetheless..."