05th anomaly ; video ; open

[dinosize]

Have you ever wondered what comes next? Evolutionarily. After humans.

[ Stephen is in his own cabin, a light and airy space that doesn't really seem to suit him. The camera is propped up on the edge of a sink, where he's washing out blood and dirt from the clothes he wore while out in the port.

He's not really looking at the camera. ]

Do you think humans could ever be a food source for another animal?

Comments

[visetvires]

Absolutely.

[dinosize]

[ A brief glance up to the screen. ] Really.

[ An invitation to explain more. ]

[visetvires]

Really.

There's no reason other than rapidly-advancing weaponry that humanity should be exempt from predation, and that's not enough. Although if I was going to nitpick I'd say we already are a food source to scavengers. That's never not been the case.

[dinosize]

Not a main food source, not for scavengers.

[ He's said before, on the network, that he would rather fight a predator than a scavenger. It remains true. ]

Rapidly-advancing weaponry isn't enough of a reason? Why not?

[visetvires]

[She wouldn't disagree. Scavengers have a level of desperation about them that doesn't appeal to her at all.]

Because it's just a bigger version of the same old thing. Sharper teeth, thicker hides. No matter what any animal cooks up, there will be another one that develops something meaner.

[dinosize]

We work a bit faster than evolution.

[visetvires]

That's the argument that people use to make themselves feel better, yes. But evolution is really just a series of flukes, one after the other. Eventually, I do believe something out there is going to find a shortcut and catch us off-guard.

[Something curious about the way she says believe. It's not a figure of speech. She has faith that evolution has not become obsolete, because it's, in its particular way, a creation of God. How could a creation of God become obsolete.]

Some places - lots of places - it probably already has.

And you believe what I believe, too. You said what comes next, not does something come next.

[americasdirtiest]

The fuck, Hart?

[dinosize]

[ She has him there. He did say what comes next - he's run into at least two anomalies that lead into the future. There never was a shark with a grasping tongue in any era of natural history he knows. ]

I think on the time scale I mean - even if humans survived, they wouldn't look or sound human anymore.

[ But there was no sign of bipedal primate mammals.

Granted, there's not much sign of bipedal primate mammals if you step out into, say, the middle of a forbidding mountain range. It would be hard to completely cover the globe. ]

[dinosize]

Nothing.

Did you try the, um, lobster?

[americasdirtiest]

The spider.

[dinosize]

Had too many legs to be a spider.

[americasdirtiest]

It was a spider, Hart. You ate a fucking spider.

[dinosize]

So that's a no, then.

[americasdirtiest]

Fuck no. Iris told me you were there. [Not that he asked he totally asked.] Not that I didn't figure that much, anyway.

What the fuck is it with you and weird food stuff?

[dinosize]

Something about knowing the widest the world has to offer.

[americasdirtiest]

Like fucking fish eyes and human meat? You're a sick son of a bitch.

[dinosize]

[ His tone grows abruptly sharp. ]

I've never eaten human meat and I never will.

[americasdirtiest]

No, dumbass. I mean this next evolution bullshit here. Think about something that isn't what you're gonna eat or what's gonna eat you for a fucking change, how about that.

[dinosize]

I think about a lot of things.

[americasdirtiest]

Name one thing.

[dinosize]

I've been fixing walls all over the ship.

[americasdirtiest]

My ass that requires any thinking.

[dinosize]

I found out what gives the shrub-turkeys their coloring.

[americasdirtiest]

That's a fucking food thing!