After relieving the intern, Clarissa made up her mind. It wasn't a good idea for her to just go into the room, even if she took the necessary precautions.
She paused for a moment as she noticed 055 in humanoid form. It was always a bit of a surprise to see it that way. She would admit that the form was… passable for human even though 055 was most certainly not.
There was a slight whine as she turned on the microphone and speakers. ”Good morning, 055.” she started the conversation in a professional tone.
Bosa almost seemed to ignore the words. It was that, or he hadn’t heard her. But that turned out to be false as Bosa sat up, planting both shoes onto the ground and looking towards the observation station of which he couldn’t see into.
Voices. Another thing Bosa struggled with, voices. It was well known that Bosa didn’t stick with too many voices, but this time might be different. Maybe he’d found his voice.
“Greetings..!” Bosa called out, standing up. Would he get to do something today? He hoped so.
Clarissa couldn't help but smile a little as 055 responded. Taking 055’s actions as a good sign when it looked at the one-way mirror, she continued.
”My name is Dr. Clarissa Jones and I’ve been assigned as your trainer.” she explained, calmly though it was hard to hide the note of pride completely out of her voice. ”Do you understand what that means?”
Trainer?
Upon tilting his head, that was the first cue that Bosa didn’t understand what that meant. Still, his tone gave away nothing and he still remained to be curious as he spoke. “No, what does it mean?”
She nodded a little, not fully expecting him to have understood. ”It means that you qualify for special privileges and are my personal responsibility. We’ll be interacting like this more often.” she informed. She didn't quite want to say that it had to only with the level of intelligence, there were other factors of course but she didn't see the point of bringing it up.
“Oh,” Bosa hummed, nodding. “Thank you for the explanation.” He fidgets with his hands. It’s weird having individual limbs, sometimes. Especially since he hadn’t accessed this form in some time. “What will you be doing today?”
”You’re welcome.” she nodded a little, even though he couldn't see her. ”I thought we might just talk for right now. Get to understand each other a bit more. I already know a fair bit about you and your abilities but if we're going to work together then we should know more.” she explained.
Bosa looked around. Getting to know each other? Sounded..fun! Anything was considered fun to the creature at this point, though. "Ah! So what would you like to know about me? Or do you want me to ask you something?" Bosa eagerly asked.
Clarissa was unprepared for 055’s enthusiasm but found it reassuring. She’d heard of a few subjects that had a… less than pleasant reaction to having a handler. ”Why don't you just tell me a few things about yourself.” she suggested, not really having any questions yet but deciding to use this as practice for 055 regarding any future conversations.
"Oh..I.." Bosa paused, raising a hand to his chin in thought. Things about himself, things about himself, he thought. What could he say..
"Well, my name is Bosa," Bosa began, well aware that up until now the lab only knew him as 055, since they were unaware that Bosa had coined a name for himself. "I like learning things..travel, I like to travel. I've traveled quite far." What else, what else?
Ah, yes! "I like being under the stars, I like to look at the sky." Bosa seemed to be implying that he had some interest in astronomy, or maybe it was something else.
Clarissa raised a brow in surprise at the name but made quick notes of the mentioned interests. Travel most likely wouldn't be possible until further along with the training… but the rest was not out of reach. ”I see. ”Bossa”, where did you get that name from?” she asked, intrigued. The use of a name actually suggested a sense of individuality that the lab hadn't anticipated.
"Mm..Not sure! Bosa has different meanings, I think. Depends on wherever you're coming from. I think Bosa means 'victory', and even if it doesn't, I have no intentions on changing it since it's easy to remember and say. I heard..no, read it somewhere. Read it in a book," but Bosa didn't elaborate any further.
Clarissa nodded again, understanding why 055 had been picked to have a handler. ”Do you like to read?” she asked, still wondering about the name but not pushing for information. She needed to know more about this subject so training could go smoothly.
"Yes, I do!" Bosa lightly clasped his hands together. There was no clarification whether or not where a creature like him would've learned to read. Maybe by observing humans at some point.
This was certainly an interesting development. ”How long have you been able to read?” she asked, very interested in the potential 055’s answer would give her. Clarissa was already planning to use this information to help her earn 055’s favor as well as… something of a bribe or reward for the training. Positive reinforcement tended to work better than punishment in her opinion.
"Uhm.." He most definitely didn't understand those signs in Russia, that's for sure. He was only relying on his other senses at the time to give him direction. "Not..sure," he started. "A while?" Bosa had to estimate.
"Before I got here." He decided.
Clarissa gave a small hum of acknowledgment. That was a fair answer. ”Alright… What kinds of things do you like to read?” she asked next, trying to get a better understanding of 055’s reading level. Maybe she could get some books on Astronomy to start with.
“Knowledge.” He begins, thinking. “Stuff that gives knowledge..non fiction? I’m also fine with fiction as well!” Bosa begins to pace around the room, only for a few seconds though, before going to lean against a wall.
”Educational or informational, then.” she said, more to herself as she jotted down another note. Glancing back up, she gave a small smile and decided to be relatable. ”Fiction is my favorite recreational genre too.” she said honestly. ”Not that I dislike reading an educational book but it's not that often.”
Bosa nodded, taking in the information. Even if he didn’t visibly react too much, all of this new information was quite interesting to him. Which was quite a stark contrast to the creature running rampant many weeks before. It was almost as if Bosa didn’t quite remember what he’d done.
“Anything is good to me, either way. I’m always eager in learning! Especially about..” he paused, falling silent for a bit longer than he intended. “Humans,” he finished. “Humans are interesting.” He added.
”Oh? Really? Because we think you are very interesting as well.” Clarissa said though she raised a brow at the lengthy hesitation. ”What about humans do you interesting?” she asked.
She may not have been involved when 055 was brought in, but she had heard a few stories about what had happened…
“Ah..their differences to me, of course!” He explained, his tone of voice almost seeming as though he were excited to explain. “Everything..me compared to a human is so, so different.” He gestured to himself. “The physical differences are quite easy to tell, but there’s a lot of other differences, too!”
Bosa seemed to nod, content with his own answer to the question.
Clarissa couldn’t help it as a small chuckled escaped at the answer. ”Ironically enough, that is the same thing that fascinates us about you.” she said, smiling a little. ”What you are capable of is extraordinary to us and we would like to know more about that. How you actually can do the things you do… Most of it doesn't seem scientifically possible.” she explained.
“Oh?” Bosa’s interest seemed to be perked at the statement. “How does it seem to be..not scientifically possible?”
”Well…” she started, ”for one thing, your body is composed entirely of something that resembles black sand. An inanimate material.” she pointed out. ”I’m sure there's more to it but that's just from a cursory glance when you are in your… natural form. Though your human form is quite convincing.”
