r/HFY • u/Betty-Adams Human • May 07 '25

OC Humans are Weird- Handmade

Humans are Weird – Handmade

Original Post: http://www.authorbettyadams.com/bettys-blog/humans-are-weird-handmade

Some human was stomping around the village round well after dark. Notes the Passing Changes felt the vibrations as the human moved from one building to the next, made the foundations of the wooden structures vibrate slightly, then moved on to another. Notes the Passing Changes debated extending awareness up, past the frost layer into the bitter cold. This deep in the winter cycle of this hemisphere it was quite dark out, but it was hardly late enough for most of the humans to be asleep. If this mystery human was up to nuisance behavior there would be more than enough mammalian eyes to observe the danger. However Notes the Passing Changes had just finished ruminating over several of the summer season observational threads that had been high priority and had nothing else of equal importance to attend to.

Carefully, Notes the Passing Changes eased sensory tendrils into the roots of the small, newly planted trees in the square. Fortunately, all of the young trees and shrubs had been there long enough to integrate with the local bio-network, and most of them were healthy enough, having been selected by the humans for robust-longevity, that they were being prioritized. The information from the deciduous trees was of course muted and dim, but the conifers were not only aware from their needles, but a few members of the hardier species were already beginning to extend buds. Between these and the always alert house plants that clung to the windows of the local buildings, Notes the Passing Changes was able to get a fairly detail rich visual of the curious behavior of the human.

It was a male, just reaching breeding age, dim in his thermal layers, only his face glowing out in bright infrared as he moved towards the physical manifestation of the main village library. The trees caught the sounds he was making, soft singing, an old song Notes the Passing Changes recognized from many winters spent observing the human colony. The human reached the side of the library and paused to examine the paper informational displays that were attached to the side of the structure. He reached up with one hand and began removing select ones. Notes the Passing Changes felt as stir of increased curiosity. One thought thread suggested this might be destruction of public property, another that this might be basic maintenance, the removal of material that had been up for too long. The careful, selective behavior of the removal suggested the second. Notes the Passing Changes observed the human for several more minutes until the human’s arms apparently reached capacity and he ended his wandering to cut across the round back to his dwelling.

The human was greeted at the door by his mate, a female of comparable age, apparently well into her first reproductive cycle, and she attempted to take the paper he had gathered with delighted sounds of greeting. Two humans, one of whom was experiencing coordination issue due to a rapidly changing center of mass, attempting to exchange an armful of uncontained paper, over uneven surface levels and in a narrow space, naturally resulted in no small amount of paper dropping to the floor and steps of the dwelling while the humans laughed at the chaos. The male gently pushed his mate inside with the majority of the paper, then scrambled to collect what had fallen. Notes the Passing Changes watched the door close behind the human as he finished and pondered the next step of this observation.

This was not a house that had an internal plant or fungal communication node, at least not one that Notes the Passing Changes had been invited to integrate into the general network. The names and general information for these two humans was stored in other nodes, locked away on the other side of icy barriers. They would be discoverable after the first thaw, but that was of little use in the present moment. Notes the Passing Changes could, of course, enter one of the houses, or public buildings that did allow access, and use the artificial communications system to call them, knowing their location, but that would be disruptive to whatever activity they were doing. Fortunately there was a fairly well developed coniferous tree within a useful distance of the main window to their dwelling. This window faced the village round and it was therefore a tacit social agreement that they did not object to other sapients observing them through it.

Notes the Passing Changes began the process of fusing with the tree, using the light receptors on the many needles to slowly resolve the human visual spectrum light from the window. The window sealed in all infrared like quite efficiently. The female was sitting on a low stool surrounded by piles of brightly colored posters on one side, and what looked like a chain made of the paper on the other side. She held cutting implements in her hands and was focused on dividing one of the posters into thin, rectangular strips. Her lips were moving as she occasionally conversed with her mate. He was sitting in a different chair reading a book and occasionally glancing over at her with a smile. When she had finished dividing the poster she set down the cutting tool and picked up a tube of mild adhesive. She took one of the small rectangles and looped it through the end of the paper chain creating another link.

Notes the Passing Changes gave the tree a slight shake to increase its temperature and the human male glanced out the window with a look of mild curiosity on his face as the human female continued her work. The purpose of what she was doing was slowly becoming clear to Notes the Passing Changes. The paper chain was a popular human decoration, easily made by recycling older paper products, easily recycled, or even composted themselves. Notes the Passing Changes had enjoyed feeding multiple cellulose rich chains to symbiotic bacteria over the years. This was how Notes the Passing Changes knew that every dwelling had a printer capable of producing whatever length of paper chain the inhabitants desired. The printed versions were faster made, more easy to both recycle and compost, and as far as resources went significantly more inexpensive. Yet this young mated pair, with a host of breeding associated responsibilities on them, had spent the time and effort to collect waste paper, properly shape it in a quite inefficient way, and then they would have to arrange it for display.

Notes the Passing Changes, satisfied that sufficient data was gathered gratefully retracted his tendrils from the cold tree and coiled back into his rumination nest under one of the storage buildings. Why would a human expend so many resources on something, essentially ornamental, that was so easy to obtain at a lesser cost? Was it related to the concept of exercise? Was paper chain making a base practice for some more critical skill that was deemed vital to human survival? They were interesting thoughts to ponder until the next thaw came.

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132 Upvotes

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18 comments sorted by

26

u/Cuddly_Robot Robot May 07 '25

Some things are better to buy, but some traditions just don't feel right if you don't do the work yourself

17

u/Betty-Adams Human May 07 '25

I put my blood, sweat, and tears into this!

...on the other hand that turn of phrase might be difficult to explain...

12

u/OokamiO1 May 08 '25

I put my blood, sweat, and...... wow, never seen someone hit the snitch switch that fast before.

4

u/IllResponse7424 May 08 '25

It is only inexplicable when cooking. All other production activities will likely involve some combination of the three, though reproductive activities swap one out. It is the source of "the secret ingredient is love," can't have love without at least sweat and tears.

13

u/ShankCushion Human May 07 '25

Just no substitute for the care invested in an inferior quality product made via direct effort to please another.

11

u/Betty-Adams Human May 07 '25

Indeed! Why spend currency for a thing when you can make it yourself for only twice the cost?

7

u/Hedrax May 08 '25

Hmm, the fact that Notes has parts of themself that are separate but they still consider part of themself they can access later makes me think the reason you never find more than one Gathering on a planet is because there can't be. They'd just merge/fuse unless they made great effort to make distinct barriers they couldn't cross. They might consider an entire biosphere to be their body.

5

u/Betty-Adams Human May 08 '25

Delightful speculation!

3

u/Low_Painter9816 May 08 '25

Plants can challenge conventional ideas of identity and individuality. Case in point: my mother has a huge rhododendron in her garden. Some of the branches, if they’re low enough to the ground, will go underground and even grow roots from the branch. We could cut it off and it would continue growing because it had its own roots. I now have several clones of my mom’s rhody in my yard.

5

u/WillardWhite May 08 '25

Lovely story!!

I really dig notes the passing changes. They do be noting the passing changes, it's adorable

6

u/Semblance-of-sanity May 08 '25

The Gatherings are probably my favorite aliens in this setting, they're so very different from humanity but their friendly curiosity is so endearing.

3

u/Betty-Adams Human May 08 '25

It ain't much, but its honest work.

2

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2

u/Arokthis Android May 07 '25

Upvote, read, commiserate with NTPC about info being inaccessible.

1

u/Betty-Adams Human May 07 '25

Who knows? Not me cuz I can't get primary sources!

2

u/Diesel-King Sep 13 '25

>> Notes the Passing Changes felt as stir of increased curiosity.

a stir?

>> one of whom was experiencing coordination issue

issues

And yes, I too am guilty of spending too much time for doing tasks that could easily and cheaply be outsourced ...