Goorillas in the Missed: The Bellies of the Beasts

A Vintage Post, retrieved from Scrubbed Innocence

I have called these creatures "Gorillas" until now, only because their size and shape approximates the gorilla body. But they are not gorillas. I don't know what they are.

Their skin hangs from them in fatty folds, red with splotched vessels. Their fur is pale and patchy, and thin where it appears at all. Their bellies bulge asymmetrically--there could be three or four bellies in there. Certainly they eat enough to suggest this is so. When they move, their arms and shoulders swing all ways, slack, and their jaws wobble with each step (although their feet don't step so much as flop). Every part attached to them looks as if waiting for its chance to flee.

I mentioned earlier that I thought I had observed one grooming itself. This behavior is not in fact grooming, but is, I believe, an attempt at conflict avoidance. I have noticed that, except during the shit orgies, there is no evidence of emotional outburst or conflict. But there is plenty of senseless antagonism and violence. Their response to hostile acts is peculiar. If offended or upset, one will retreat to a private place, out of sight of the others. There, it will comb its fingers through a patch of its own hair, repeatedly, with both hands when possible, forcefully, and for hours, until in some cases the skin is swollen or bleeding. This is the behavior I mistook for grooming. For example, the other day one of the creatures had cut its leg somehow. The gash appeared fairly wide, and the creature was obviously in pain. In their usual fashion, the others took no notice, and they were gearing up for the next shit orgy. When the first load was dropped, the injured one received a smearing embrace, and feces was rubbed into the open wound. But the creature did not communicate its pain; it did nothing to stop the embracer from continuing to rub shit into the gash. Instead, when it had an opportunity, it retreated to a quiet corner, and with its right hand began to comb its fingers through the barely noticeable hair on its left arm, combing over and over again, until the skin was raised and raw. The shit orgy went on without it.

I noticed similar behavior when, the other morning, one of the creatures inexplicably destroyed the bed-nest of another. The victim, upon discovering its ruined bed, found a private place where it sat and combed a small patch of its leg hair, persisting even when blood ran onto the ground.

I have yet to figure out what contributes to their voluminous feces.