Prehistory 101 [TWS]

Make sure there is a floor to step onto!

Oh. That is a good idea. You know this somehow, even though before this you hadn’t much in the way of ideas. Squinting into the dimness beyond, you try and catch a glimpse of the floor. You confirm that there is indeed a floor to step into, if you don’t mind dropping a meter or two. A crude ladder of sorts, comprised of improvised metal braces, has been welded under the door. Something about this strikes you as odd…

What happened here, do you know?

You turn your attention down the passageway. The floor seems to have collapsed most of the way down the corridor on your right, beyond your range of vision. On your left, there is a sharp cleft and a jagged edge, indicating the place where the collapsed floor broke off from a sturdier section which leads out of sight on the left. Amongst the debris that has filled in the gap between the edges is something your eyes can’t seem to quite catch; it’s only by squinting that you get the idea there’s anything there at all.

You’ve never seen anything like it. New knowledge or no new knowledge, there is no replacement for experience. Your brain is giving you words like floors and titanium and building, but the closest analog you manage to draw is that of a really, really large, complex underground cave. Which isn’t that far off.

It is time to engage in the most civilized and educated of pursuits: introspection. Delve, delve deep into your mind, and take a look at what this niggling feeling is.

Your mind is firing off idea after idea! It’s as if your introduction to sentience is making it connect information and concept like it never could before! You catch this idea as it crosses your brain. It’s pretty metaphorical, but you get the idea. Or ideas, as it were.

In the unconscious, systematic way that the brain is so fond of utilizing, you try and sort your thoughts…

before:
dark and day reigned,
the tribe was life, everything
the fire; safety

but:
That axiomatic form of thought precludes the further development of other cognitive skills – by simplifying the neural routes of information transmission, survival taking a primary priority over other forms of intelligent advancement, the development of non-essential skills becomes a liability.

…Your head hurts now. Whatever insight you got from that didn’t particularly help – if it was even an insight and not some mad protocol implanted by some ancient malfunctioning…

As an alternative, or possibly at the same time, give a shot at speaking (assuming you didn't have much of a language before). You've got all these words for things now; can you voice them aloud?

You drop that thread of thought. Too many foreign concepts. The niggling feeling seems to have gone away, anyway. In any case, this other idea seems a little more concrete, closer to home.

Vaguely, you remember the people of your tribe. There were words, and signals, and pictures and concepts…but nothing strikes you as having had a particular form of language – at least not one compatible with what you now know is – was – language. Back then, something inside you says, when these walls were whole and many, uncountably many strode its halls, all spoke language – words, signals, pictures, concepts rolled up in a complex machine that spoke and spoke and spoke.

Standing there, you try and see if you can speak.

“…aeeaa…”

But your voicebox just doesn’t seem to want to move that way. It could be just a lack of muscle memory, or just the fact that you’ve, quite honestly, got nothing of consequence to say.

Can you say your name?

“J…jehhh…”

Yup, that’s going to need work.

>It's probably nothing. Carry on down the passageway.

You clamber down the ladder, and carefully place your bare feet on the slanted floor. To your left, there’s a loose wall of debris blocking the space in between the lowered floor and the original level. In places you can see a faint light shining through gaps in the metal and rubble. To your right, the collapsed flooring seems to slope back upwards, presumably back to the original floor’s height, but you can’t see that far down in this light.

Any ideas?