Tuesday, January 3, 2051
The following reports a conversation between Lancers Hurricane and Aura after action in Shard 19701, taking place within the Lancer Cafeteria.
AURA (gently): You okay?
HURRICANE: Sure. Of course. That was fun! Those spider things were crazy!
AURA (worried): You sure?
HURRICANE: Sure I’m sure. Why wouldn’t I be?
AURA: I felt like you were...
HURRICANE (baffled): hyped…?
AURA: Angry? Hungry.
HURRICANE (joking): Nothing a little seal meat can’t cure. Ha ha.
AURA: No, not like that. This was…savage.
HURRICANE (embarrassed): Ohhhhhh. Uhhh…that was the “Old Bear.”
AURA: Old Bear?
HURRICANE: We’re carnivores. My people. Obviously. For millions of years, we ate what we killed. There’s no berries up North. Can’t dig for roots, the ground is frozen. If it bleeds, it’s food.
AURA: But you’re not like that now.
HURRICANE: No no no, of course not! But, uh…also, yeah. Um. Well. We all have an Old Bear inside us. Like, the primal, original bear. The bear we would have been if we hadn’t evolved. It doesn’t use words. Or tools. It lives to kill and eat. And make little bears. It wants what it wants.
AURA: But you don’t go around killing and eating things…
HURRICANE: We all learn to control our Old Bear. To keep him sleeping. But, uh, he keeps one eye open, sort of. And if I feel really weak or I’m in a lot of pain…he struggles with me. He wants to take over. That’s what you felt. Him trying to wake up.
AURA: Oh. Has he ever actually taken over?
HURRICANE: Not…not since… Not for a long time.
AURA: Would he ever wake up now?
HURRICANE: Oh! No! No. You don’t have to worry about that!
AURA: Oh. Good! Okay, that makes sense. Well, I’m gonna go get a dessert. You want anything?
HURRICANE: No. I’m good. Thanks though!
After she left, Hurricane was observed to say to himself:
HURRICANE: You don’t have to worry about it. I do.
DIRECTOR’S ANNOTATION:
Further psychiatric evaluation of subject Hurricane may be called for. Also, find out what we can about his people’s “Old Bear” syndrome.
