A strong part of Simon wanted to assert his dominance, show Ben that he was the boss, yet the human part of him screamed for peace. And there was something else too. A part of him the knew that Ben was more of a gorilla that he would ever be, and that he should therefore submit to him. He hesitated, watched by the Dr. Hershel who was looking at him curiously, and then decided to be peaceful. He tried to convinced himself that it was because of his human part, but he wasn’t quite sure. The gorilla part of him, his instinctual part, was telling him Ben was better because he was bigger, hairier, stronger, and that therefore he should submit to him.
He approached Ben, trying the walk on all four, waddling a bit. It already felt more natural, and Simon wasn’t sure if he should be happy about it or not. When he got close to Ben, he hesitated, not sure what to do.
“Ben fren?” he said, hesitating a bit. Ben looked at him and stopped whimpering. On instinct, Simon smiled big, showing all of his teeth.
Ben observed for a while, and then got back up to his two legs, beating his chest and roaring. Simon felt a wave of... he didn’t quite know how to call this feeling. Acceptation maybe ? Submissiveness? It was just a general feeling that something had been decided at that moment, between Simon and him, and that it was right. The human part of him just shrugged, thinking it was silly. They were not really gorillas, it didn’t meant much right?
Dr. Hershel came close to him and patted him on the back.
“Good good, it seems you found your place on the hierarchy. You know, I expected you to be at least higher than Ben, but oh well. For once he’ll get a break from the others I guess.”
“The others?” Simon mumbled. He felt a bit disoriented, and made a turn upon himself, trying to understand what was going on.
“Yes, didn’t I mention it? I thought I did. We wanted to introduce you to Ben first, but there’s a bunch of other people like you out there, including a vibrant pack of gorilla. Or a band, I should say. Correct words are oh so important.”
Simon was slowly understanding why he felt weird. Everything smelled so strong here. He could smell the grass and the perfumed used by Dr Hershel, and most of all, he could smell Ben. He smelled... Simon wasn’t quite sure what he smelled. Like a man, but also like nature. Strong. Homely, maybe. Simon wasn’t sure how he felt about this. Or rather, he wasn’t sure how he felt about the fact that he liked it. Because he did, as much as he tried to persuade himself otherwise.
“Well, I see you’re not really listening anymore, that’s fine. Just mean you’re accommodating, I think. Maybe it’s your IQ lowering already, or you’re just taking your new life in. Anyway, please follow me, I’ll show you to the others now.”