KY321B | voice | day 012

[backsassin]

Just want to clarify something I said when I first got here:

Whatever brought me to this place didn’t just get me stuck in human form. It actually made me human.

Case in point: sweat glands. Clawdites don’t have them. Humans do.

On a related note: how do you all deal with being so wet all the time? I know it’s how you thermoregulate, but it feels so gross. I feel like I need to be carrying around a towel…

[ It’s one of many, many complaints Zam has about her new human physiology, but in the interest of not offending her majority-human fellow islanders, she’ll keep them to herself. For now. ]

Anyone else get their species swapped upon waking up here? And more importantly: what are the chances we'll be able to be turned back?

Comments

[sharktrash]

Rearranging bones. Like, on a whim. Okay.

[ He's been hearing some wild bullshit here but this has to be the closest to body horror he's gotten so far. He doesn't necessarily disbelieve it at this point, but it's certainly... something. ]

Can't say I relate.

[ Being six feet tall with long limbs probably helps with that though. ]

Breathpack? You allergic to oxygen or something?

[backsassin]

[ You could hear the dubiousness in his tone a mile off. Whatever. Humans—and other single-formed species—can never relate. It feels good to get those complaints off her chest anyway. ]

Nah. Just got a different kind of respiratory system than humans. There's lots of boring biology behind it I won't get into. Basically: you all are natural persistence hunters. You can run and run without stopping in a way not everyone in the galaxy can. So we make tech to close the gap.

Same way other species have to use surgery and holoshrouds to mimic what Clawdites can do naturally. Interspecies interactions are all a big imitation game like that. [ A wry huff of laughter. ] Though we changelings are the only ones who get called out on it.

[ An imitation game—or an arm's race in Zam's line of work. Of course, she doesn't mind it. Life wouldn't be nearly as interesting without her galaxy's variety of people and the challenges hunting them—or befriending them—can present. ]

So it's really just humans on Earth? No convergent sentient species or genetic offshoots to make things more interesting?

[sharktrash]

We do need to stop eventually.

[ He thinks himself in a pretty good shape -- his job demands it -- but he never even considered that humans' ability to keep moving might be intimidating to anyone else. It's not a big deal, right? Everyone needs rest and to pace themselves and then they would be able to do it? ]

Huh. So what's your favorite imitation?

[ Surely she has a favorite if it's as easy as she says! Squalo thinks whether it would be cool to have an ability like that, then decides that it's not possible to look any better than he already does. ]

Uh. [ What the fuck was Jaeger and his company? They didn't seem human, that's for sure, and there was... something about Uni, too, but as far as he knows, there's nothing about outer space civilizations in their databanks so far. ] We've run into some nasty guys that looked like zombies corrupted by Flames. I'm not sure what exactly was going on there. [ The explanation came after his canon point! ] So technically it's not just humans. But nothing, like, Star Wars -esque. [ heh ]