Tyler jumped back as Blorb came screeching, panicked, out of the mess hall, wings flapping uselessly.
Blorb wasnât her real name, just a nickname the humans had given the four foot avian alien. You needed a beak and hollow skull bones to resonate sound in just the right way to pronounce her true name. But Blorb was the closest human approximation.
She leapt up, her clawed feet (which also served as hands for her race, since her wings were only good for gliding on the strong wind currents of her home world) dug into his arms. Luckily, Blorb only weighed as much as a small child or the two of them would have taken a hard tumble. âHuman-Tyler, save yourself! Human-Cathy has turned FERAL! SHEâLL EAT US ALL!â Blorb was so panicked she was losing feathers from her madly flapping wings. She jumped off Tylerâs shoulders, managing to glide all of four feet before landing on the ground. She took off running, hitting her top speed before she even reached the first intersection. She was gone, but the echoes of her panicked screeching continued to echo.
Tyler cocked an eyebrow and looked back at the mess hall door. Cathy, turning feral? What on earth Could that mean?
The door slid open to reveal an empty cafeteria, there was no one but Cathy eating what looked like a salad, and an abandoned bowl of fried grubs (probably Blorbâs meal).
Cathy waved to him, âHey, Ty.â
Tyler looked at her, then around the room and back to Cathy. Certainly no feral behaviour was going on. âSo, Blorb tells me youâve, and I quote, âturned feralâ. You finally come back to the meat eaters?â
Cathy smirked, âVegetarian for life,â as if to illustrate the point she took a big lettuce leaf and tore into it. âFunny thing,â she said between bites, âI was just telling Blorb about how my mom sent a care package from home. Usual stuff; vids, some new entertainment disks and a load of stuff we canât get here. She sent my favourite,â she paused to stab her fork into the salad. When she pulled it up she had impaled a small greenish white vegetable of many layers. âA jar of roast Artichoke hearts. Theyâre better fresh, but I take what I can get.â
Puzzle pieces were starting to falling into place for Tyler. âYou told Blorb this and then she freaked out?â
Cathyâs grin grew a little wider, âI donât think she knows what an artichoke is. She might have focussed a little on the âroasted heartâ part of the description.â
Tyler helped himself to a cup of coffee. The puzzle was coming together. âAnd you didnât tell her?â
Cathy shrugged, âI meant to, but she ran off screaming before I had chance.â
Tyler sat opposite Cathy, âYou didnât think to go after her and explain before she finds a panic button to press?â
Cathy gave a non-commital shrug, â Iâm eating, besides-â she cupped a hand to her ear, Tyler listed too. From somewhere in the facility they could hear Blorbâs warning cries. It was difficult to make out but it sounded something like âSheâll eat us all!â
Cathy leaned back in her chair, satisfied, âItâs hilarious.â
*********
Cathy, Tyler, Blorb, and other colourful characters will becoming part of my own little literary universe for my short humans are weird stories.
Itâs why I stuck in otherwise unnecessary details about Blorb, itâs world building.
I think Iâll call it the Station J-12 series. No reason, I just like the sound of it. Whether itâs a space station, or planetary station, I havenât decided yet.
Robbie practically worships Anti. Smiling as he tackle hugs him to the ground. Nuzzling up to him like any excited child would â âAnti! Anti! Letâs do fun stuff!â
âHey! Heeey!â Anti whines, giggling as he messes up Robbieâs purple hair. Chuckling as the undead ego tries to get back at him, âhell yeah, bud, we can do cool stuff. Ever shoplift?â
âIs it cool?â
Anti finally lets up, Robbie looking at him with total adoration in his eyes. A smile painted on his face as he waits for Antiâs answer. Schneeplestein nearby and shaking his head; what was it with those two? Anti, actually happy, and Robbie, excited beyond belief?
âSee this?â Anti tugs at his leather jacket, âshoplifted it, I tried it on, got rid of the boring barcodes, and walked away with it for free.â
Oh no.
âCool! Itâs like trick or treat!â
âYou got it, as long as you donât get caught.â He snickers, âletâs try somewhere small for you. How aboutâŚthe candy shop downtown?â
âOh no,â Schneeplestein finally steps in, âabsolutely not.â
âWhy?!â The two whine in unison. Robbieâs puppy dog eyes in full effect.
âFirst of all, its way past your bedtime. Second of all, itâs /illegal/.â
âBut!â
Anti sighs, standing up with Robbie, âhey, Doctor Fun Killerâs right bud. You should be getting some rest soon â you know how gross ya feel when you donât get your 8 hours of sleep.â
âAnti! Really?!â
The slow nod Anti gave was enough to make Robbie tear up. Hugging him close as he whispered, âcandy shop tomorrow?â
âHell yeah, bud.â
âAnti! Donât curse around Robbie, heâs easy to pick it up if you doââ
âPssh, okay, Dad.â
Schneeplestein stops in his tracks.
Dad.
/Dad./
The word making him shiver. The word reminding him of Victor. The pouting heâd give when heâd pick him up from whatever high school party he had run off to. The rolling of blue eyes when Schneeplestein made him promise not to drink and drive. A typical teenager, know it all and sassy as can be.
Victor had a full ride scholarship to a university back home. One heâd never go to after that flight. His young life being cut short as the plane nosedived into the cool blue of the sea.
âWhat did you sayâŚ?â Schneeplestein huffs. HeâŚsurely heard wrong. He had to!
âI said âpssh, okay, doc.â What? Going deaf like old 1920s Jack?â Anti teases. Ruffling Robbieâs hair as he leaves.
Sometimes, Schneeplestein can just see Victor in Anti. Other times, he just wants to sit and mourn for Victor.
But times like this?
Well, its enough to make a man of science believe in reincarnation.
A lot of âhumans are weirdâ posts play with the idea that humans are one of the few species that actually evolved as a predator and, as such, we are unusually strong and fastâ but what if weâre not.
What if weâre tiny?
What if, to the majority of species in the galaxy, ten feet tall is unusually shortâ it basically only happens due to rare genetic conditionsâ and the average human is basically cat sized or smaller?
Instead of being terrified by our strength, the aliensâ most pressing concern is how exactly theyâre going to communicate with us when weâre all the way down on the ground.
There are experiments, with aliens crouching low or humans standing on high platformsâ but it usually ends up being either uncomfortable for the alien or dangerous for the human, or both, and just generally impractical for everyone.
But, while the diplomats and politicians are trying to figure out a dignified and simple solution, the ordinary people who actually have to work with the aliens have found one. Humans are, generally, pretty good climbers, and most species have conveniently places scales, feathers, fur or clothing that can act as a hand or foothold. Sure, some humans have a fear of heights, but those arenât typically the ones going into space. Besides, climbing on a living alien often feels safer than climbing up a rock or somethingâ at least you know youâve got somebody to catch you.
Soon it becomes accepted that thatâs the way humans travel with aliensâ up high, easy to see and hard to tread on (there were quite a few⌠near misses, in the first few meetings between humans and aliens), balanced on somebodyâs shoulder like the overgrown monkeys that we are.
Many humans see this as kind of an insult and absolutely refuse to go along with it, but they arenât the ones who end up spending a lot of time with aliensâ itâs just too inconvenient to talk to somebody all the way down on the ground. The ones that do best are the ones who just treat it like itâs normal, allowing themselves to be carried (at least, itâs âcarryingâ when the aliens are within earshot. Among themselves, most humans jokingly refer to it as ‘ridingâ), and passing on tips to their friends about the best ways to ride on different species without damaging feathers, or stepping on sensitive spots (or, in at least one case, ending up with a foot full of poisonous spinesâŚ).
The reason they donât feel patronised by this is that they know, and they know that nearly everyone else in the galaxy knows, that humans are not just pets.
After all, youâd be surprised when a small size comes in handy.
Need somebody to look at the wiring in a small and fairly inaccessible area of the ship? Ask a human.
Need somebody to fix this fairly small and very detailed piece of machinery? Ask a human, theyâre so small that their eyes naturally pick up smaller details.
Trapped under rubble and need somebody to crawl through a small gap and get help? Ask a humanâ most can wriggle through any gap that they can fit their head and shoulders through.
If youâre a friend, humans can be very useful. If, on the other hand, youâre an enemyâŚ
Rumours spread all around the galaxy, of ships that threatened humans or human allies and started experiencing technical problems. Lights going off, wires being cutâ in some cases, the cases where the threats were more than just words and humans or friends of humans were killed, life support lines have been severed, or airlocks have mysteriously malfunctioned and whole crews have been sucked out into space.
If the subject comes up, most humans will blame it on âgremlinsâ and exchange grim smiles when theyâre other species friends arenât looking.
By this point, most ships have a crew of humans, whether they like it or not. Lots of humans, young ones generally, the ones who want to see a bit of the universe but donât have the money or connections to make it happen any other way, like to stowaway on ships. Theyâll hang around the space ports, wait for a shipâs door to open and dart on in. The average human can have quite a nice time scurrying around in the walls of an alien ship, so long as theyâre careful not to dislodge anything important.
Normally nobody notices them, and the ones that do tend not  to say anythingâ itâs generally recognised that having humans on your ship is good luck.
If there are humans on your ship, they say, then anything you lose will be found within a matter of days, sometimes even in your quarters; any minor task you leave outâ some dishes that need to be cleaned, a report that needs to be spellchecked, some calculations that need to be doneâ will be quickly and quietly completed during the night; any small children on the ship, who are still young enough to start to cry in the night, will be soothed almost before their parents even wake, sometimes even by words in their own tongue, spoken clumsily through human vocal chords. If any of the human are engineers (and a lot of them are, and still more of them arenât, but have picked up quite a few tricks on their travels from humans who are) then minor malfunctions will be fixed before you even notice them, and your ship is significantly less likely to experience any major problems.
The humans are eager to earn their keep, especially when the more grateful aliens start leaving out dishes of human-safe foods for them.
This, again, is considered good luckâ especially since the aliens who arenât kind to the humans often end up losing things, or waking up to find that their fur has been cut, or the report they spent hours on yesterday has mysteriously been deleted.
To human crew members, who work on alien ships out in the open, and have their names on the crew manifest and everything, these small groups of humans are colloquially referred to as ‘shipâs ratsâ. Thereâs a sort of uneasy relationship between the two groups. On the one hand, the crew members regard the shipâs rats as spongers and potential nuisancesâ on the other hand, most human crew members started out as shipâs rats themselves, and now benefit from the respect (and more than a little awe) that the shipâs rats have made most aliens feel for humans. The general arrangement is that shipâs rats try to avoid ships with human crew members and, when they canât, then they make sure to stay out of the crew membersâ way, and the crew members who do see one make sure not to mention them to any alien crew members.
The aliens who know, on the other hand, have gotten into the habit of not calling them by nameâ mainly because theyâre shaky as the legality of this arrangement, and donât want to admit that anythingâs going on. Instead they talk about âthe little peopleâ or âthe ones in the wallsâ or, more vaguely, âThemâ.
Their human friendsâ balancing on their shoulders, occasionally scurrying down and arm so as to get to a table, or jumping from one personâs shoulder to another, in order to better follow the conversationâ laugh quietly to themselves when they hear this.
Back before the first first contact, lot of people on Earth thought that humans would become space orcs. Little did they know, theyâd actually end up as space fae.
His mind screamed at him â no, this isnât possible, Schneep! No way could this make sense! HeâŚJakob was 6 when he got on that flight. He was young, small, innocent â so full of life.
RobbieâŚRobbie had the body of a young man. A John Doe who was found washed up on some deserted beach. A man with no identity.
These tests have to be wrong.
The red letters stare back at Schneeplestein, as if trying to make themselves more prominent. As if screaming at him, âitâs true! Itâs all true!â
The test results and samples he had taken from Robbie that day were positive. A positive ID to Jakob and Victor Schneeplestein. Two children who were suppose to be in a watery grave, yetâŚa piece of them just in the next room. A link between them and Schneeplestein alive /in the next room/.
/Jakob was in the next room, alive in the body of a poor man, left to die alone in the cold clutches of the ocean/.
Itâs too much for him to handle. Schneeplestein throwing the papers and curling up. Sobbing. The sobbing of a broken and relieved man. The sobbing of a parent reuniting with their child.
Robbie shuffles awkwardly to the door. Opening it gently as he holds the teddy bear â Andy â to his chest. Something inside him â inside this rotting body of his, beckoned him closer. Slow movements reaching the doctor as the zombie dropped the plushie to the floor.
Embracing the doctor in a hug from behind. Tightly gripping, a warm rush of emotions bursting inside Robbie.
ââŚI love you, DoctorâŚâ
Schneeplestein holds his arm, and clings. Clings on as tightly as he could.
I have had enough. For the first time in my years online I am dissapointed of what has become of this community. I canât believe that youâve allowed yourself to be torn apart by the scheming rumors of a few. I canât believe that youâd ignore the greater cause of why we are here for your own personal satisfaction. I canât believe that youâd think that I am worth squabbling over.
If you think that this community is about any one individualâs standing over anyone else, including myself, then you are in the wrong place. If you have ever belittled, threatened, insulted, or berated anyone else in the community FOR ANY REASON then you are in the wrong. I donât even care if you think Iâm missing the point of why youâre waging your own personal war. IT ENDS TONIGHT. And more to the point let me ask you one question that you really need to reflect on:
Are you making the world a better place?
If you want to squabble and bicker about gossip and problems, take it somewhere else. Here. Right here. We build each other up. We never bring each other down. We NEVER threaten each other. We never attack those whose opinions may differ from our own. In this community we hold ourselves to a higher standard to show an EXAMPLE of what a true community should be to the rest of the world. I will not stand for this pointless arguing. I WILL NOT STAND FOR IT.Â
And if you think for even one second that Iâll allow this to continue then you are dead wrong. I may want to make the world smile but you can be DAMN sure that Iâll protect what this community represents with my life. We are better than this. We are stronger than this. Itâs time to change. And it starts tonight.
-Mark
this was posted who knows how long ago, but it still stands. especially now.