Jake
While they ate, he watched as covertly as was possible to see if he could distinguish between their eating habits and normal humans. For the most part, there were just brief nuances that would look odd if someone were really paying attention. All of them seemed to be eating in the same peculiar almost right way except Jake, who seemed better at home with his utensils and chewing. It gave Daniel a good hint that the furry wasn't a purebred like the rest of them, but more a mutt like himself.
It made perfect sense that the pegasi would recruit humans from a anthropomorhic comminuty first, given how those people would be more open to being turned and transformed into another species. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to talk to Jake in private and see what his feelings were, given that he had been in a similar boat. While he was thinking, they were already starting to finish up breakfast and Gassan was already headed out the door to go to his job and otherwise interact with the other hidden pegasi groups around the world. How he managed to do this was uncertain, but he always had news to share that the other flightful equines had offered him over their secure connections.
Pammy left shortly after ten minutes later upon drinking down her juice. Daniel remembered her routine to a degree that she was probably going to go shopping or see a movie uptown in the business district. He didn't know why she liked to watch human movies, but suspected it had something to do with learning how better to be human, herself. He didn't think there was anything she could learn from such obvious fabrications of reality, but at least it got her out of the house for a few hours.
Comparatively, David had nowhere to be, and would make things tricky if he ever managed to overhear the conversation between him and Jake. On top of that, Daniel learned very fast that talking to someone in private would be very difficult, since pegasi have no concept of secrecy. Although they hide from humans and keep their activities hidden, they don't keep any secrets from each other. So, to say that he wanted to talk to someone in private would immediately be suspicious and not normal pegasi behavior at all. His only natural recourse was to catch Jake at a moment when he was busy doing something by himself and David was off somewhere else none the wiser.
It took half the day for things to align properly to have a little chat. Pammy was taking longer than usual, and Gassan wouldn't be back home until later that night. David made things too easy by having a few beers on top of the roof so he could enjoy the clouds and bright sunlight, probably the closest he would come to flying again without actually transforming or getting a pilot license. And while he was doing that, Daniel had the perfect excuse to get Jake alone since it was time to do the laundry, and as he was stuck in this equine form, it fell onto him to do all the chores and cooking around the house.
He made sure to dump all the soiled clothing in the washer and get it running before calling Jake down. The laundry tasks would give him a good hour or so of uninterrupted freedom to get everything off his chest while he was relatively alone to do so. When the other guy came down the stairs on the pretense that Daniel needed some help getting the heavier loads down the stairs, suspicion immediately lit up on his face as he noticed there was no work for him to do, the nonhuman debating what he should do. Only when he saw the color of Night's eyes did he comprehend what was going on. "So, you're back. The human consciousness, anyway. Why have you deceived me? I will give you this opportunity to discuss it before I inform David and the others that you need to be reconditioned to our ways again." The way Jake just threw all of that out there was surprising, given that neither of them were expecting Daniel's original human personality to resurface from the false pegasi memories previously implanted.
Danny bit his lip nervously, never being the best speaker or having a particularly eloquent grasp of speech to manipulate others. This was his one chance to convince the furry that he was actually human and they should work together to escape and spread the news that Earth was secretly being colonized by pegasus aliens. "I don't think you belong with them. Your eyes are fluctuating like mine, so I know you aren't an original like they are." He finally said, hoping that it would be the right words to say to get through this. Jake only sighed to this, an unexpected human reaction to a human rationale.
It took a long pause between them before his friend managed to say anything. "You are wrong, of course. I might be human, once, but everything became so much clearer when they reconditioned me to accept their ways. And, I think that will be best for you, as well. Don't worry about it so much, it'll be fun." Jake seemed so reassuring and content. He had to wonder what kind of mind control process they put humans through to make them accept the new social order. In any case he had failed and knew what would be awaiting him. Escape was out of the question, as he was still a humanoid horse with wings and there was nowhere something like him could possibly hide. He had no background in wilderness survival, even if he could manage to fly. And that was another detail that he was unfamiliar about: did he learn to fly from one of them, or was it more keyed into instinct. Either way, he felt stuck and couldn't do anything about it. All he could do was wait and hope to convince the rest of them that whatever they had planned wasn't necessary, even though they seemed to have no hesitation doing it to Jake.
Written by FluffyPony on 05 October 2015