Hypothetically Speaking 2

[BlackMagic528]

Welcome, once again, to Hypothetically Speaking.

Situation:

You're a single female, late twenties. Even though you've been trying to hide it, of late you haven't really been feeling well. You're not entirely sure you've completely recovered from a serious head injury, but your opinion is that a month in critical care and four more in intensive care was quite enough time in the hospital. You're home and you'd like to stay there.

Technically, you live alone, but you've seen evidence that you have an uninvited houseguest - there's a mouse somewhere in your apartment. You're not overly concerned by that; as long as the mouse leaves you alone, you'll leave it alone. That's the plan you decided on.

So, it's 2:17 am and your not-so-sound sleep has been interrupted by a faint sqeaking coming from the living room. You decide it's worth investigating, so you make your way out of the bed. Balance is unexpectedly an issue, so you proceed on your hands and knees all the way to the living room.

Once there, you see the mouse - a relatively big one - nibbling at a half of a salami sandwich next to the laundry pile on the floor. You stay where you are, for the moment, being as silent as you can be. Once you're sure it doesn't know you're there, you very slowly and softly proceed toward it. After waiting for the right moment, you jump on the mouse and just barely manage to catch it in your hands.

Now that you've got it, you sit back on your legs (still on your knees) and hold the mouse by its tail in front of your face where you can see it. It's wiggling, fighting, and squeaking desperately, but not making any progress. After studying it for a minute or so, it occurs to you how inviting the mouse smells, so you drop it in your mouth, chew, and swallow. Afterward, you curl up on the laundry pile and go back to sleep.

An hour or so later, you wake up and realize what you did.

So: 1. What's your immediate reaction? 2. What are your subsequent actions?

Feel free to add anything else you like to your comments.

As usual and always, thanks in advance.

[MAP]

I'd throw up, cry, and call a friend.

[Olga]

Throw up, cry, then research, keeping it quiet.

[Ruv Draba]

Vomit.. wonder if it was real. If I vomited up mouse bits, I'd vomit again. Then I'd think about why I did it and vomit again. Then I'd pass it off as a weird kind of sleepwalking, probably only tell a close friend and worry that I might do it again. A little while later I'd wonder if I'd accidentally eaten or drunk something psychotropic before I'd slept. I'd view my pre-mouse meal with suspicion. I'd probably not want to eat much the next day.

[defcon6000]

But would just thinking about it really make you vomit? I mean if it tasted nasty or you could feel it clawing at you throat then I could see it, but just the thought...

I guess my reaction would be to question myself on why the hell I'd do such a thing. Probably wouldn't tell anyone though.

[E. S. Lark]

Fantasy: I think when I woke up, I possibly could have been a cat. I do not recall making a salami sandwich and I know I'd never leave it out uneaten. The mouse and myself are shape shifters

Reality: On a more realistic note, I like would do much like anyone else. I would throw up, wash my mouth out and likely not eat for the next few days.

[10trackers]

I would totally vomit. Then I would be scared that I was turning into an animal (seriously), or going crazy, or that my head injury was more serious than I thought, or a whole slew of other thoughts that would jumble over each other in my mind. Then I would try to calm myself and settle on a plan of action that would probably involve calling a doctor to get an appointment (under false pretenses) to see about my head injury. No way I'm telling anyone about me eating a mouse!

[BlackMagic528]

Originally Posted by MAP

I'd throw up, cry, and call a friend.

And tell them what, exactly?

[Adam]

I'd throw up repeatedly, but not tell a soul, in fear that I'd be dragged off to an asylum.

[MAP]

Originally Posted by BlackMagic528

And tell them what, exactly?

Well, the friend would be a really good friend that I know I can trust, and I would tell her to come over that I really needed to talk to her. Then when she came I would tell her everything. I could not go through something this insane without help.

[BlackMagic528]

Okay.

[Clovia]

Research Hanta Virus and freak out for awhile, making anoymous calls to all sorts of healthcare facilities.

[Art_Sempai]

Someone with a head injury...hmm...doing that might seem perfectly normal at the time.
People have done worse.

If you relies what you've done is not normal, time to see a psychiatrist.

[BigWords]

I guess the consensus is that vomiting is definitely the way to go. So... Yeah. And alcohol would probably come into play right after gargling with a couple of bottles worth of mouthwash. Then maybe some hard drugs.

[BlackMagic528]

Originally Posted by BigWords

Then maybe some hard drugs.

I understand it's a revolting thought, but is it really that bad?

[Etola]

Originally Posted by BlackMagic528

I understand it's a revolting thought, but is it really that bad?

Depends on the person. People who might already be drug addicts/alcoholics might immediately turn to their comfort of choice. If this person is on any medication for their head injury, they might make sure to take their medication right away, or even take an extra dose to make sure it's working (again, depending on the person). And on the other hand, the person might decide it's the medication that caused this, and immediately swear it off.

If this is for a story you're writing, then your character's actions will depend largely on who this person is and how she normally reacts to strangeness, trauma or a combination of both in this case--and nobody knows that better than you do.

So...what would your character do?

[BlackMagic528]

She completely ignored it, but Jenny Garrett is anything but normal.

These hypotheticals aren't really about me having trouble deciding what to do. They're more about just having interesting discussion. This novel's already done.

[Canotila]

I might think I'd imagined it. If there was strong evidence it really happened (like I harfed up tiny bones and organs) I'd probably head down to Walgreens and pick up some over the counter wormer.

[TMA-1]

If the head injury was serious enough, I might find it normal. But, if the head injury wasn't that bad, I might be able to write it off as a bad dream, or a consequence of the injury. I might call a psychiatrist or something and tell him or her that I thought about eating the mouse but then didn't, and hear what he would say to that. Or I would freak out, who knows?

I wonder, wouldn't the stomach have a devil of a time digesting all that, especially the bones?

[Ardent Kat]

If the mouse was live, I'd worry about disease. You never mention a killing blow--just a live, thrashing mouse, then consumption. Pretty sure that little rascal would bite, scratch, and crap itself all the way down to my gullet.

Yeah. Disease would be my greatest concern.

[shaldna]

I'd probably think I imagined it.

[Etola]

Originally Posted by BlackMagic528

She completely ignored it, but Jenny Garrett is anything but normal.

These hypotheticals aren't really about me having trouble deciding what to do. They're more about just having interesting discussion. This novel's already done.

Ah! Carry on with the hypotheticals, then!

[small axe]

Seriously, I wonder how common actually vomiting it up would be? It's a disgusting thought ... but the mouse is already down. I know that in some military survival training programs, they teach you to eat all sorts of disgusting things ... so maybe a mouse already devoured wouldn't cause the 'vomit' reaction necessarily. (I can't dispute anyone's personal reaction, obviously, you'd know if you'd hurl or not, and such reaction is intensely personal: I still want to hurl when I approach the Wal-Mart deli from smelling their chicken tenders ... because literally three years ago I ate some Wal-Mart chicken tenders (which I loved) then had the flu = just the smell makes me nauseous now. No problem with any other sort of chicken or brand ... but there's something that hits me at the wal-mart kind)

I'd worry about the disease (though that might be rare) but worse about the BONES. People aren't designed to handle bones passing through us. That would be my medical concern, the bones.

Psychologically, I might be able to write it off once as a weird sleepwalking experience (I have stranger dreams than that) ...

Thinking about slaughterhouses made me stop eating any meat but poultry about twenty years ago out of pity for the victims. If you're asking a personal reaction, my immediate fear would be bones, and then disease, but then I'd be really distressed to think I'd murdered and eaten another mammal. I've caught numerous mice before, and always take them out into the woods if the weather allows (whether that spares them, I don't know, but we get a lot of field looking mice, more than your average house mouse, I think. But I have stared into the eyes of captive mice ... they're heartbreaking little creatures)

[frimble3]

What's her background? The set-up 'apartment' and all, sounds urban, the medical care sounds modern. But if she was raised somewhere out on a farm, where they killed and ate their own livestock, saw wildlife killing prey, went fishing where they caught, cooked and ate their catch right there by the side of the river, she might not be as squeamish. Maybe her first thought on waking is "Wow, is this how a barn owl feels?"

[BlackMagic528]

Originally Posted by frimble3

What's her background? The set-up 'apartment' and all, sounds urban, the medical care sounds modern. But if she was raised somewhere out on a farm, where they killed and ate their own livestock, saw wildlife killing prey, went fishing where they caught, cooked and ate their catch right there by the side of the river, she might not be as squeamish. Maybe her first thought on waking is "Wow, is this how a barn owl feels?"

She was, in her words, a "bathtub baby" born and partially raised in the Chicago projects. When she was 14, she was ejected from her mothers home, and she basically lived on the streets from then to adulthood. Along the way, she managed to forge some relationships that got her employed and such, and she's doing alright now.

That's pretty much it for her background.