Humans are Weird - Repression
First Sister critically examined the edge of the spearhead and gave a dissatisfied click. She set the head down by it’s long socket and carefully loosened her work glove. She flexed her fingers to work air under the material, when her hand felt dry enough she retied the wrist of the glove and picked the whetstone back up, bracing the spearhead she continued to hone the edge. The rasping of the work was making her antenna twitch but the repetitive, productive nature of the task was soothing, and she was nicely focused when the floor of her hive-chamber began to vibrate with the approach of an agitated human. First Sister paused to tilt her head at the large ‘beanbag’ she kept on her floor for just such emergencies. She set the spearhead down, picked up one end of the shaft and used the other end to knock a stack of various digging tools in need of sharpening off the bean bag onto the floor, that done she turned back to her work.
Human Second Cousin Betty paused at the entrance to her hive-chamber to pound twice at the wall with her fist, some human tradition meant to announce their intent to enter closed rooms, and stumbled into the hive-chamber before casting her narrow focus around the space and then flinging herself full length onto the beanbag with a muffled scream of frustration. First Sister felt her antenna curl in slight amusement but kept her focus angled on the edge of the spear. Human Second Cousin Betty heaved a sigh and spent several long moments staring glumly at the pile of work blunted digging tools on the floor beside the beanbag. By the time First Sister was satisfied with the spear edges and was sliding the socket over the shaft, Human Second Cousin Betty had snatched up a three pronged tool and an extra whetstone and was honing the tines, without safety gloves, but with reasonable skill.
“Use your freakish human hand strength to fit this spearhead?” First Sister asked absently, handing over the tool to her.
Human Second Cousin Betty gave one of those explosive, and expressive outbursts of air, a ‘snort’ First Sister thought it was called and tool the shaft and socket, easily forcing them together with a flick of her wrists before tossing it back onto the table in front of the Shatar. They continued working in companionable silence as Human Second Cousin Betty’s pheromones grew steadily more intense. First Sister was in no way surprised when Human Second Cousin Betty finally growled and tossed her head.
“It is just going to be such a pain!” she burst out, giving a trowel a particularly strong stroke with the whet stone.
“I am sure it will,” First Sister observed into the expectant silence.
“It’s, like a sacred, or not really, but almost a sacred – I mean it’s not that important. It’s just fandom after all, not anything religious, except how we are supposed to take other’s needs, and like their wants, into account as a religious duty, but more than that, I mean it would be cruel to, no, not cruel exactly, unfair?” Human Second Cousin Betty scowled down at the textured surface of the whetstone, and her bare fingers holding it, for a moment before continuing. “But, yeah, see even if it’s not sacred exactly, it’s still a duty, and it is going to be such a pain!”
The human turned her eyes, glistening like opals, on First Sister and the Shatar sensed that she was required to make a reply.
“What duty exactly?” She asked, opting for the obvious question over the obvious ignorance.
Human Second Cousin Betty sat up suddenly and her face flexed with surprise, then amusement, then concentration as she set the tools aside to bring her hands into the conversation for vague emphatic context.
“Right,” she said slowly, “You don’t, but I told you, hold on...okay. So you remember that still image media that started coming in from the homeworld a few years back?”
“The one about defending your gardens from the statistically impossible megafauna?” First Sister asked, giving a few test stabs with the spear. “Or the one about the Battle Sisters with masculine features who dressed in flamboyant colors to fight miscreants?”
“The second one,” Human Second Cousin Betty said nodding eagerly. “Well they just released the animated form and Susie is really getting into it.”
“And this imposes some important social duty on you?” First Sister asked.
“I can’t say a word!” Human Second Cousin Betty nearly howled, throwing herself back on the beanbag.
First Sister clicked in concern and tilted her head.
“You are experiencing conflict with Human First Sister Susan?” She asked uneasily. An intrahive conflict sufficient to stop the gregarious Fist Sister from communicating would be a deep concern indeed.
“What, no!” Human Second Cousin Betty exclaimed, shoving her long hair back over her shoulder. “But I’ve read the still form so I know how the story goes, my hair is full of spoilers! And if I let even one slip before the animated form reaches the current story point Susie would be like, fully justified in stabbing me!”
First Sister titled her head to the side and stared for a long quiet moment at the human sprawled there, staring back at her so intently. She knew very well that the human cousins would never deliberately stab each other, not after the accidental incident had traumatized them so badly. Clearly there was some context about discussing the story in some way that would ‘spoil’ the experience for Human First Sister Susie. The verb spoil, First Sister clearly understood, that is what happened when fermentation proceeded too quickly to result in a satisfactory end product, how the coiling vine of a story could ‘spoil’ was beyond her however. She took in the earnest look Human Second Cousin Betty was fixing on her and settled for a sympathetic click in response.
“Not talking about it must be very stressful for you,” First Sister observed, setting the spear aside and picking up another tool.
“I know! Right?” Human Second Cousin Betty burst out, likewise reaching for the next item to be prepared for work.
Clearly the human was in the mood to talk and simply needed someone to listen to fulfill her social needs. If the concept of ‘spoiling’ a story was explained in the process that would be quite the bonus.
Human Second Cousin Betty paused at the entrance to her hive-chamber to pound twice at the wall with her fist, some human tradition meant to announce their intent to enter closed rooms, and stumbled into the hive-chamber before casting her narrow focus around the space and then flinging herself full length onto the beanbag with a muffled scream of frustration. First Sister felt her antenna curl in slight amusement but kept her focus angled on the edge of the spear. Human Second Cousin Betty heaved a sigh and spent several long moments staring glumly at the pile of work blunted digging tools on the floor beside the beanbag. By the time First Sister was satisfied with the spear edges and was sliding the socket over the shaft, Human Second Cousin Betty had snatched up a three pronged tool and an extra whetstone and was honing the tines, without safety gloves, but with reasonable skill.
“Use your freakish human hand strength to fit this spearhead?” First Sister asked absently, handing over the tool to her.
Human Second Cousin Betty gave one of those explosive, and expressive outbursts of air, a ‘snort’ First Sister thought it was called and tool the shaft and socket, easily forcing them together with a flick of her wrists before tossing it back onto the table in front of the Shatar. They continued working in companionable silence as Human Second Cousin Betty’s pheromones grew steadily more intense. First Sister was in no way surprised when Human Second Cousin Betty finally growled and tossed her head.
“It is just going to be such a pain!” she burst out, giving a trowel a particularly strong stroke with the whet stone.
“I am sure it will,” First Sister observed into the expectant silence.
“It’s, like a sacred, or not really, but almost a sacred – I mean it’s not that important. It’s just fandom after all, not anything religious, except how we are supposed to take other’s needs, and like their wants, into account as a religious duty, but more than that, I mean it would be cruel to, no, not cruel exactly, unfair?” Human Second Cousin Betty scowled down at the textured surface of the whetstone, and her bare fingers holding it, for a moment before continuing. “But, yeah, see even if it’s not sacred exactly, it’s still a duty, and it is going to be such a pain!”
The human turned her eyes, glistening like opals, on First Sister and the Shatar sensed that she was required to make a reply.
“What duty exactly?” She asked, opting for the obvious question over the obvious ignorance.
Human Second Cousin Betty sat up suddenly and her face flexed with surprise, then amusement, then concentration as she set the tools aside to bring her hands into the conversation for vague emphatic context.
“Right,” she said slowly, “You don’t, but I told you, hold on...okay. So you remember that still image media that started coming in from the homeworld a few years back?”
“The one about defending your gardens from the statistically impossible megafauna?” First Sister asked, giving a few test stabs with the spear. “Or the one about the Battle Sisters with masculine features who dressed in flamboyant colors to fight miscreants?”
“The second one,” Human Second Cousin Betty said nodding eagerly. “Well they just released the animated form and Susie is really getting into it.”
“And this imposes some important social duty on you?” First Sister asked.
“I can’t say a word!” Human Second Cousin Betty nearly howled, throwing herself back on the beanbag.
First Sister clicked in concern and tilted her head.
“You are experiencing conflict with Human First Sister Susan?” She asked uneasily. An intrahive conflict sufficient to stop the gregarious Fist Sister from communicating would be a deep concern indeed.
“What, no!” Human Second Cousin Betty exclaimed, shoving her long hair back over her shoulder. “But I’ve read the still form so I know how the story goes, my hair is full of spoilers! And if I let even one slip before the animated form reaches the current story point Susie would be like, fully justified in stabbing me!”
First Sister titled her head to the side and stared for a long quiet moment at the human sprawled there, staring back at her so intently. She knew very well that the human cousins would never deliberately stab each other, not after the accidental incident had traumatized them so badly. Clearly there was some context about discussing the story in some way that would ‘spoil’ the experience for Human First Sister Susie. The verb spoil, First Sister clearly understood, that is what happened when fermentation proceeded too quickly to result in a satisfactory end product, how the coiling vine of a story could ‘spoil’ was beyond her however. She took in the earnest look Human Second Cousin Betty was fixing on her and settled for a sympathetic click in response.
“Not talking about it must be very stressful for you,” First Sister observed, setting the spear aside and picking up another tool.
“I know! Right?” Human Second Cousin Betty burst out, likewise reaching for the next item to be prepared for work.
Clearly the human was in the mood to talk and simply needed someone to listen to fulfill her social needs. If the concept of ‘spoiling’ a story was explained in the process that would be quite the bonus.
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