Chapter 22
[I am only moderately sorry this chapter exists. It was originally even shorter, and funnier, but it also originally took place later in the story so I had to make a few changes.]
Pride's room was looking more lived in. Books about alchemy or the places they'd been sat under the bed. He'd put some images and maps on the wall occasionally. He'd also set a bowl of water and cat food down for the rather odd pet wandering the Doctor's TARDIS. There was some sheet music on the dresser. He'd gotten it after finding a piano in the TARDIS. And in theory, he had more clothes.
Pride looked in the closet. The Doctor had grabbed two new outfits for him, while he'd been busy lying down and trying to get rid of the sick feeling. He could not remember every throwing up before using that teleporter. Of course, he had a hard time remembering anything from the first year or so after the Promised Day, and he had no desire to remember more. He was pretty sure forgetting was the only thing that stopped him from dying of humiliation on the spot.
Back to the point, the Doctor had actually managed to get something that looked like what he'd normally wear, though making the button up shirt blue was a little odd. The other outfit was clearly made with technology that didn't exist yet, and he was going to pass it over for the foreseeable future.
Now, time to change.
"Doctor? Can I ask? What is Porter, exactly?" Pride asked.
He'd seen Porter a few more times, especially during his trips to the library. He never got any closer to the exit than the kitchen, and he continued to be very strange.
The Doctor had been spinning around the controls when he asked. Pride wasn't sure why, they didn't seem to be going anywhere. She slowed as she answered.
"It's not really clear."
Your answers aren't really clear.
Luckily, the Doctor elaborated. "Porter is from a planet, they've got a sort of feud between the native biological species, and the living machines. The flesh species made the machines, but made them as perfect servants, and then of course the machines still broke away and are forever upset about this situation. Anyway. Porter was born fully flesh. Later they attached living metal to him. It seems to me he's actually two very similar beings in one body now."
"Oh, is that what she told you?"
Pride sat at the kitchen table with Porter, drinking tea as he explained the conversation he'd had with the Doctor.
"Well, I'm me, and I think I know what's going on in my head better than the Doctor," Porter said. He tapped his head. "I am one person. The human part of my brain and the mechanical one happen to be good at different subjects, but I am in control of both those halves, the same way anyone is in charge of their brains. She just wants an excuse for why I'd be mad at both species. Well, I don't need separate minds to have that particular ax to grind."
Porter stood up, pressing both hands against the table. It looked like he was going to break the table with his metal one.
"I notice she skates around how very little choice I had in the matter. Tell me Selim, do you have any idea what having your body thrown away and replaced with an entirely different species, against your will, is like?"
Right. Pride was just going to, to drink more tea instead of answering that.
