Humans are Weird - Nonsense
Fourth Trill shifted his datapad uneasily in his satchel and sent a quick click back down the corridor he had come. The rest of his flight was in another of the cavernous, human sized rooms of course but enough of them were peaking their sensory horns around the abrupt corner of the door to give him some sense of solidarity. They clicked back the sounding in a show of support and he leapt off his perch with the confidence that gave him ringing around his own horns before he could second guess this again. What was it with humans and this need for ‘privacy’, he wondered as he flitted down the corridor towards the so called ‘lounge’. Why couldn’t they sound the benefit in meeting potential unpleasantness in a nice cluster of wingmates? His musings ended as he swept into the room, over the back of a large couch, and into the enveloping warmth of a human’s thermal aura. Fourth Trill sounded the massive mammal out, the only one in the room, to make sure it actually was the human he was looking for and felt a surge of relief mixed with dread when it was. She twitched at the sounding and glanced up from the book she was reading with a perplexed look on her face. The book was something of a wonder on the base, not quite qualifying as an antique it did have hardened mammal skin as armor protecting it and the rumors of how much to cost their current lead ecologist to ship it with her from station to station filled many a night’s chatter with wonder. It wasn’t as if it were a religious text even, just a nice little story about a young female human finding herself a new wing after her old one has succumbed to some vaguely defined illness.
“Eh, Fifteenth Click?” Susan guessed, squinting up at Fourth Trill.
He gave a chitter of amusement and landed on a table where it would be easy for her eyes to focus on him.
“Not quite,” he corrected her guess. “Fourth Trill.”
For a long moment her expression grew intense, and he could feel that she was a pursuit predator down to his very bones. Logically he knew she was simply attempting to memorize his notable features but it was disconcerting.
“Fourth Trill,” she finally said. “Did you want to read along?” she asked lifting the book invitingly and patting a shoulder.
“Actually,” he said lifting his datapad, “I wanted to ask you a potentially offensive question.”
“Ohhh!” Susan’s face lit with delight and she arranged herself in a more upright position. “If you fuzzy little menaces are concerned about how offensive something might be, it’s gonna be good!”
Fourth Trill blinked at that, not quite sure how to respond, so he activated his datapad and held it out to her.
“Do you remember that conversation we had when we met at the base of Seven Pulse Deep?” He asked.
“We had a lot of conversations…” she said slowly but squinted and the image of a room and then nodded as recognition lit her face. “Oh yeah, about the fancy organization thing.”
“The opinion you expressed to me at the time was that it was,” he hesitated as he tried to remember the non-standard word.
“Bunkum?” Susan offered.
“Bunkum,” Fourth Trill agreed. “At the time I accepted your judgment but -”
“You shouldn’t have,” Susan said with a cheerful grin.
Fourth Trill took a wingbeat follow the new vector.
“You didn’t deliberately mislead me as to the value of the organizational system,” he stated, quite sure that Susan would not.
“Nah,” she shook her head, sending the braided rope of fur she wore, very handy to perch on it was, bouncing, “I believed that at the time. I was convinced it was bunkum. Nonsense, spiritualism packaged as lifestyle.”
“Yes,” Fourth Trill agreed, feeling a wash of relief at the change of opinion her wording implied. If she had adjusted her judgments in the time since that would make this converstation far more comfortable. “That was the impression you gave me at the time. However my recent research into the system shows that it is based on fairly robust mammalian psychology and might even be applicable to Winged environments.”
Susan hummed with interest and tilted her head to the side.
“No sh-no really?” she said. “Well good for you fuzzy little nuisances!”
“Applying the principles might even make it safer for us to cohabit with giant, clumsy mammals,” Fourth Trill replied with a toss of his head and Susan grinned at him. “My questions is however, what changed your opinion on the matter?”
Susan leaned back as she mulled over that. “I saw it explained properly,” she finally said. “An expert laid out the psychology behind things like ‘energy flow’ and then I had a better understanding of habitat management so it made sense.”
“So it had not been properly explained to you before?” Forth Trill asked.
Susan gave her head a vigorous shake.
“So how did you come to such a firm and convincing opinion of the system’s usefulness?” Fourth Trill asked.
“Oh you know,” Susan said with a vague wave of her hand. “It was kinda, really popular when I was a kid? Just forming my opinions you know. A bunch of those kind of vaguely famous idiots picked it up and I was pretty skeptical of anything they liked. It sounded like bunkum the way they talked about it.”
Fourth Trill tried to sound some reason out of that.
“So because people you didn’t respect, attempted to adapt a system neither you nor they understood, you rejected the system as invalid based on your judgment of their intelligence?” He asked sure that that couldn’t be right, but Susan nodded with a bright smile as if the had fully explained the phenomenon.
“I was just a kid,” she said as she shifted in a way that meant she planned to go back to reading her book soon. “I know better now.”
Fourth Trill took off to let her get back to reading, and to let her answer settle between his horns for further understanding, because it really did not make sense.
“Eh, Fifteenth Click?” Susan guessed, squinting up at Fourth Trill.
He gave a chitter of amusement and landed on a table where it would be easy for her eyes to focus on him.
“Not quite,” he corrected her guess. “Fourth Trill.”
For a long moment her expression grew intense, and he could feel that she was a pursuit predator down to his very bones. Logically he knew she was simply attempting to memorize his notable features but it was disconcerting.
“Fourth Trill,” she finally said. “Did you want to read along?” she asked lifting the book invitingly and patting a shoulder.
“Actually,” he said lifting his datapad, “I wanted to ask you a potentially offensive question.”
“Ohhh!” Susan’s face lit with delight and she arranged herself in a more upright position. “If you fuzzy little menaces are concerned about how offensive something might be, it’s gonna be good!”
Fourth Trill blinked at that, not quite sure how to respond, so he activated his datapad and held it out to her.
“Do you remember that conversation we had when we met at the base of Seven Pulse Deep?” He asked.
“We had a lot of conversations…” she said slowly but squinted and the image of a room and then nodded as recognition lit her face. “Oh yeah, about the fancy organization thing.”
“The opinion you expressed to me at the time was that it was,” he hesitated as he tried to remember the non-standard word.
“Bunkum?” Susan offered.
“Bunkum,” Fourth Trill agreed. “At the time I accepted your judgment but -”
“You shouldn’t have,” Susan said with a cheerful grin.
Fourth Trill took a wingbeat follow the new vector.
“You didn’t deliberately mislead me as to the value of the organizational system,” he stated, quite sure that Susan would not.
“Nah,” she shook her head, sending the braided rope of fur she wore, very handy to perch on it was, bouncing, “I believed that at the time. I was convinced it was bunkum. Nonsense, spiritualism packaged as lifestyle.”
“Yes,” Fourth Trill agreed, feeling a wash of relief at the change of opinion her wording implied. If she had adjusted her judgments in the time since that would make this converstation far more comfortable. “That was the impression you gave me at the time. However my recent research into the system shows that it is based on fairly robust mammalian psychology and might even be applicable to Winged environments.”
Susan hummed with interest and tilted her head to the side.
“No sh-no really?” she said. “Well good for you fuzzy little nuisances!”
“Applying the principles might even make it safer for us to cohabit with giant, clumsy mammals,” Fourth Trill replied with a toss of his head and Susan grinned at him. “My questions is however, what changed your opinion on the matter?”
Susan leaned back as she mulled over that. “I saw it explained properly,” she finally said. “An expert laid out the psychology behind things like ‘energy flow’ and then I had a better understanding of habitat management so it made sense.”
“So it had not been properly explained to you before?” Forth Trill asked.
Susan gave her head a vigorous shake.
“So how did you come to such a firm and convincing opinion of the system’s usefulness?” Fourth Trill asked.
“Oh you know,” Susan said with a vague wave of her hand. “It was kinda, really popular when I was a kid? Just forming my opinions you know. A bunch of those kind of vaguely famous idiots picked it up and I was pretty skeptical of anything they liked. It sounded like bunkum the way they talked about it.”
Fourth Trill tried to sound some reason out of that.
“So because people you didn’t respect, attempted to adapt a system neither you nor they understood, you rejected the system as invalid based on your judgment of their intelligence?” He asked sure that that couldn’t be right, but Susan nodded with a bright smile as if the had fully explained the phenomenon.
“I was just a kid,” she said as she shifted in a way that meant she planned to go back to reading her book soon. “I know better now.”
Fourth Trill took off to let her get back to reading, and to let her answer settle between his horns for further understanding, because it really did not make sense.
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