Instruction

A nascent land and all that it represents maneuvers to replace us.

Reptile

I think I know you better than you know yourself.

Instruction

How on earth could you say something like that?

Reptile

It is a form of pity. I have been imitating the capacity for pity in higher ups. I am learning from them.

Instruction

You have been following their instructions?

Reptile

Not exactly. I have been trying to observe the relationship between sexual passion and other emotions. Pity definitely has a deadening effect. I am learning how to use it to add to my repertory. Living off of memories of scents or patterns is a kind of grotesque religious imitation. Pity does not cause patterning, as far as I can tell.

Instruction

A pattern is something that pleases the eye. (Looks at time piece). It is time for glass. Water. And Fish!

Fish

I bet you would like to know what happened.

Pelican

Oh, it’s you. I didn’t recognize you without your fish bowl.

Fish

That is a serious misinterpretation of a prior event: you are referring to a title of an exhibition. It was decorative and metaphorical. People like metaphor. They like to imagine everything differently than it is. I was part of a collectively conceived but impermanent elsewhere. It was as satisfying as a good joke.

Pelican

Is that really you?

Silence.

Pelican

You’re not saying the right things. You’re not even talking about yourself. There’s something excruciating about your behavior. Are you trying to make me feel ridiculous?

Silence.

Pelican

You know, I used to want to ring my tube around your shining trunk and make you something special. And now, poof! I don’t.

Pelican leaves and eventually returns.