Daily OpusEverything I write is freely rebloggable. Just keep the source and tell people about my books :D [Until I decide otherwise, my pronouns are Ze/Hir/Hirself. As in "Ze went to the shops to get hir medication hirself". Thank you for the respect.]
Challenge #03029-H106: Experiments in Friendship
The ship was doing a long-haul taking a mix of human and havenworlder colonists to one of the few mixed-colony worlds. A human child, with their havenworlder friends, had begun exploring the ship and found their way to the engine room. When the parents found them, they were being given a lesson in how the engine works, and being allowed to be helpful, as much as kids can be. – Fighting Fit
The world that Planetary Survey had found was perfect. Perfect for both Humans and the Phlupharin who wanted to live there. The recent peace between the Human Deathworlders and the Galactic Alliance Havenworlders had encouraged them to try building a settlement together. The Humans could deal effectively with any hazards and their presence tended to reassure the Havenworlders with them.
The reputation of Humans as intensely protective guardians had got around. So much so that the Phlupharin were unconcerned about their own young playing with junior Humans. Several friendships formed on the journey there. Such as Deg and Su.
They were five, and Human Deg had a knack for finding ways around the ship that ze really should not have access to. Fortunately, there were other Humans working on board and many of them were used to the less advisable habits of their young.
There were cupcakes, which immediately drew attention to the activity. There were also the ship’s humans, both of them, sitting quietly and sipping from fancifully patterned drinking vessels, despite usually becoming a shrieking maelstrom of highly active competition when interacting with one another. There was a small container with a spoon in it that, upon inspection, contained sugar.
…there were more cupcakes than two humans could reasonably eat on their own. There were extra cups. There was, it turned out, an open invitation to sit down and join them to anyone who was interested, until all the seats were taken. – Anon Guest
Humans will drink anything. Worse, they’ll make a culture out of it. Ceremonies. Rituals. Establishments. As pack creatures, they involved the sharing of food and drink as part of their bonding process. This just had to be one of the more involved rituals.
The table had been laid over with an ornate cloth. There was fine china, paper-thin and delicate. There was cutlery made out of silver. Not so extraordinary in the current age, but the craftsmanship visible told any observer that they were old. Older, perhaps, than space travel. This is a special occurrence, said the layout, but the empty places and settings said, We are waiting for people.
The fare available on tiered platters scanned as harmless to all crew. So, too, did the liquid inside the ornate teapot. Which said, You are welcome. Companion Hrik still approached with caution. As soon as the Humans noticed her approached, they looked… anticipatory. It was hard not to feel like she had decorative vegetation behind her ears.
I was sitting at my desk just a few minutes ago, drawing, and a really loud crack of thunder went off–no power surges or anything, just thunder–and my roomba fled from its dock and started spinning in circles
I currently now have an active roomba sitting quietly on my lap
Humans will pack bond with anything.
I had a teenage girl come into my tea shop with her mother the other night. She purposely grabbed a teamaker in the most crunched-up looking box on the shelf (got banged around in shipment) and carried it protectively over to the counter. “If something’s in a damaged box I have to get it because I’m afraid no one else will love it,” she laughed nervously.
Not only will humans pack bond with anything, the empathy level of adolescent girls in particular likely has puppy-saving, world hunger-solving, war-ending powers.
I once saw a really bumpy lime at the grocery store, just a real ugly fruit. Later that night my boyfriend & I were driving home from rehearsal at like 11:30pm & passed the grocery store & I stared crying & he said “is it that lime? Do you want to go back and get it?” And I nodded and pulled the car around and bought the lime.
[AN: Honestly, nothing is better for a giggle than translating badass lines into Owo.]
The fake battle involved bippy hammers[1] and amusing melodrama, much to the amusement of everyone else in the room. There was so much amusement that some were concerned about their ability to breathe. Companion Grox, perching far above melee range, was making sure this activity was recorded for posterity. This was, after all, a new Human game. So new that it didn’t have a name.
One by one, the laughing Humans in the audience tapped out. When all the audience surrendered, the melodrama ceased and all the players were allowed time to recover. Once the laughter died down, one name and one scene were drawn out of containers. “Bill,” announced a previous ‘actor’, “and the six-fingered duel.”
“I’m gonna need another player and the pool noodles,” laughed Human Bill. “This is gonna cover a little turf.” The rest of the Humans in the room rearranged the furniture as Human Bill drew another name. “And my lucky collaborator is Deen!” Cheers from the audience.
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Anonymous asked, "In terms of bonding- stuffed animals? Like, we crave affection so much that we make little fake animals to cuddle with. We use them for comfort when we're young and can even get distressed when we don't have them with us. As well as the fact that we save them and pass them on to younger generations. Even when their eyes have fallen out and all the fur is loved off, we love them, in fact, they may become even more precious at that point."
Yes, that is a mass-produced piece of cloth, stuffing and buttons. Yes, it is identical to thousands of other items. No, you can not get the human a new mass-produced piece of cloth, stuffing and buttons to fill the same function. Only this mass-produced item can fill the function.
The function is somewhat unclear.
The mass-produced piece of clothing, stuffing and buttons must always be in a place of honor in the living quarters. The mass-produced item is not allowed to be covered with other items or fall over. That is bad for the mass-produced piece of clothing, stuffing and buttons even though it is not physically harmed. Items indicating actual honors, such as certificates or medals, can be covered or fall down. That is acceptable.
If the mass-produced piece of clothing, stuffing and buttons has unacceptably fallen on the ground where it may be inadvertently nudged with one’s mobility appendages, that is very bad and disrespectful to the item. Apologies are required, but should be directed at both item and human. The item will not reply.
The human may engage the mass-produced piece of clothing, stuffing and buttons in conversation. Most mass-produced items lack the capability to make any sound, and those that were produced with the capability are limited to prerecorded generic comments not indicative of sentience. Furthermore, the mass-produced item is incapable of any other response type, including movement, radio wave transmission, or temperature manipulation. The human will not appear to notice.
Further study is being done to determine if there is another dimension of life humans are attuned to but have not recorded in the scientific literature.
Further study has revealed an arcane text that seems to reveal that the mass-produced piece of clothing, stuffing, and buttons does possess a certain level of life that can be enhanced by contact with a human. The document is suspected to be a taboo subject as every human approached on the matter burst into tears as soon as the subject was broached.
Ah little Pib. How about them sneaking back into the captain’s quarters and trying to talk the captain into playing dress-up and having snacks, having dragged a bunch of mismatched clothing with them? :-D After all, from experience, boys and girls, don’t matter, they always seem to love to play dress-up and then have snacks and juice together with their friends.
Pib had a big bag. Big enough to hold a bottle of raspberry drink, the plastic tea set, the good blankie, and a couple of other very important things. It had been a stressful handful of days for their fellow crewmates, Pib could tell by the way their parents came home. Captain Xorg had to be having a series of very bad days.
The Rennies were having a big nap, so Pib packed up their big bag and went the secret way to find Captain Xorg. Who was, when Pib got to the Captain’s Lounge, frowning at a data reader. Grownups. They didn’t know what was good for them sometimes, and stuck with what was bad for them for way too long. In fact, the Captain was so involved at frowning that they didn’t even notice that Pib was there.
Well. Looks like they’d arrived just in time. Pib carefully unpacked everything they brought with them in the big bag and laid it all out carefully. The good blankie turned the little table in the room all fancy, so did the plastic tea set. Pib filled the kettle with raspberry drink, set up a couple of soft dollies for conversation, and put on the tuutuu.
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for people who can’t watch the video: THE AMYGDALA CHANGES TRADITIONALLY FOUND IN MOTHERS SHOW UP IN ALL PRIMARY CAREGIVERS REGARDLESS OF SEX
Changes in this part of the brain were previously used to previously used to argue that women are the ideal primary caretakers of children in all cases. And apparently, it’s false. The reason they found these changes in women was that women were already the primary caretaker in almost all cases, not because there’s something inherent to women that makes them better parents.
What happens when humans are so pack-bonded that even other species start acting like them? The same willingness and madness you’d see from a human instilled into a havenworlder,
Would they really be a havenworlder anymore? – Anon Guest
Humans will pack-bond with anything. This is known. They will back bond with other intelligent life forms so hard that the pack-bonding works both ways. This has been fatal to some. This has been life-saving to many. For most, though, it just is until such a time as the Galactic in question realises that they have become, wholly and completely, a fellow member of some Human’s pack.
Some people never greet this information well.
Companion Thriq was good at their job. They were a very good Companion to Ships’ Humans and the rare Human population that was trusted to run relatively loose on stations. They had an encyclopaedic recall for faces, names, familial attachments, allergies, and all the little peculiarities that went with knowing Humans for more than a handful of consecutive minutes.
[Be sure to visit internutter (dot) org for a link to the rest of this story, and details on how to support this artist. Or visit steemit (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]
