Humans are Weird - Sentiment
Sift was gnawing thoughtfully on the last remnants of a positively delicious bread roll that Martha had given her. The immature human had been doing a ‘deep clean’ on the family extreme-refrigeration unit when she had come across a ‘Yorkshire Pudding’ that had been made for a winter festival some years before. Despite it being ‘hard as a rock’ she had been certain of its safety, due to its being stored at well below the freezing point of pure water and had offered it to Sift because ‘you got the teeth for it’. Sift clenched her molars over the wad and swallowed a tongue-full of the taste. It really was too sweet, but only just a scale and she gave a pleased gurgle as she ran a critical eye over the project she was working on.
She wouldn’t say she had collected too much information on Mary’s advancing pregnancy, one couldn’t have too many data points fermenting in a good observational study, but she freely admitted that she should have begun sorting and labeling her observations sooner. The steady thumping of Rob, Sift had quickly picked up on the fact that only Mary was allowed to call her mate Snookums, provided a background as she began typing out the section labels with her claws. She was pondering if the morning sickness observations should go in a nutrient section, or a general medical section when Mary’s familiar step came up to her door, and the room shook with the powerful blows used by the humans to indicate a polite wish to enter.
“Come in!” Sift called out, swallowing down the last big of the bread roll with a gulp.
Mary came into the room, her usual pace offset by her changing center of mass as the growing little human took up space in her center. Sift rotated her body around and blinked up curiously at her friend. There were tears sparkling in the human’s eyes, a sign of stress, her face was stretched in a wide smile, and though Sift’s reptilian nasal nerves was not nearly as acute as an Undulates similar structures she could tell that Mary was giving off waves of pheromones indicating comfort and pleasure. Mary reached the center of the room and hesitated.
“Would you like a seat?” Sift asked, indicating the extra large beanbag she kept for human use.
Mary nodded and made as if to lower herself onto the seat, but at the last moment turned suddenly and danced around the room laughing.
“Oh I can’t sit right now!” the human said. “Do you remember that conversation we had about the baby images?”
“You mean how you were confused that you did not experience more emotion when your little one reached the state of development where it was pleasant to look at?” Sift asked.
Mary nodded vigorously, breaking out in a grin.
“Mother always told me that seeing your little one for the first time was supposed to fill you with all kinds of warm, fuzzy joy!” Mary said. “But honestly I just found looking at the scans a little boring. No color, the baby wasn’t doing anything interesting most of the time, and really, you can still see the bones better than the outside of the baby, and really,” Mary paused in her swaying around the room and rested a hand on her growing belly, with a somewhat rueful look on her face. “I just haven’t been getting much sentimental feelings out of this pregnancy. Not the way that Mother and the Aunties described it at least.”
“Every sapient mind process stimuli differently,” Sift offered. “I didn’t choke once on ancestral loaf at my wedding.”
Mary stared at her blankly a bit, but nodded as she chewed over the idea.
“True that,” she admitted. “But just now! Oh come here!”
Mary darted out of the room, waving for Sift to follow and Sift scrambled after her. Four low legs were not that much slower than two high-human legs but their complete lack of balance did give the humans an advantage in sudden changes in direction. She met Mary at a large window where the human was clutching the windowsill and beaming out at something.
“Look!” Mary said, pointing out the window.
Sift stood up on her hind legs and looked. From this angle the main thing she could see was a set of brightly colored woven and formed cloths, in very small sizes for humans to use. They had been strung out on a line to catch the benefit of the local solar radiation and the fresh air of the agricultural district.
“They will smell quite nice when you bring them in,” Sift observed.
“Those are my youngest Aunties,” Mary explained, her voice catching as she started to actively cry again. “The leftovers from her last baby. She packed them up and sent them to Mother, who sorted and mended, and washed them for me, but I was too tired to go pick them up today so Snookums, without my even asking, or even thinking about it, went and picked them up and hung them out just perfectly like that, and every time I walk by all the tiny baby clothes I just get-”
Mary’s voice cut off in a little choke and she produced a very small cloth to wipe the tears away from her eyes.
Sift glanced up at the human a bit sideways, fascinated by the way that strong emotion seemed to open every fluid producing gland in a human’s face. Apparently Mary considered that the end of the explanation because she just laughed softly and began swaying towards the kitchen, which smelled of some herbal tea. Sift pulled out her pad and began frantically taking notes. Was this powerful emotional reaction to the physical sign of community care really something odd? Or was Mary simply overthinking her own reactions again, something Sift had observe the human scientist to be very prone to.
“Come and have a cup of tea!” Mary called out.
Sift gave a grunt of assent and kept writing observations as she walked upright towards the kitchen. Perhaps she should ask Martha, the other resident female human wasn’t fully mature yet, but often had remarkable insights into her older sister’s thought processes.
She wouldn’t say she had collected too much information on Mary’s advancing pregnancy, one couldn’t have too many data points fermenting in a good observational study, but she freely admitted that she should have begun sorting and labeling her observations sooner. The steady thumping of Rob, Sift had quickly picked up on the fact that only Mary was allowed to call her mate Snookums, provided a background as she began typing out the section labels with her claws. She was pondering if the morning sickness observations should go in a nutrient section, or a general medical section when Mary’s familiar step came up to her door, and the room shook with the powerful blows used by the humans to indicate a polite wish to enter.
“Come in!” Sift called out, swallowing down the last big of the bread roll with a gulp.
Mary came into the room, her usual pace offset by her changing center of mass as the growing little human took up space in her center. Sift rotated her body around and blinked up curiously at her friend. There were tears sparkling in the human’s eyes, a sign of stress, her face was stretched in a wide smile, and though Sift’s reptilian nasal nerves was not nearly as acute as an Undulates similar structures she could tell that Mary was giving off waves of pheromones indicating comfort and pleasure. Mary reached the center of the room and hesitated.
“Would you like a seat?” Sift asked, indicating the extra large beanbag she kept for human use.
Mary nodded and made as if to lower herself onto the seat, but at the last moment turned suddenly and danced around the room laughing.
“Oh I can’t sit right now!” the human said. “Do you remember that conversation we had about the baby images?”
“You mean how you were confused that you did not experience more emotion when your little one reached the state of development where it was pleasant to look at?” Sift asked.
Mary nodded vigorously, breaking out in a grin.
“Mother always told me that seeing your little one for the first time was supposed to fill you with all kinds of warm, fuzzy joy!” Mary said. “But honestly I just found looking at the scans a little boring. No color, the baby wasn’t doing anything interesting most of the time, and really, you can still see the bones better than the outside of the baby, and really,” Mary paused in her swaying around the room and rested a hand on her growing belly, with a somewhat rueful look on her face. “I just haven’t been getting much sentimental feelings out of this pregnancy. Not the way that Mother and the Aunties described it at least.”
“Every sapient mind process stimuli differently,” Sift offered. “I didn’t choke once on ancestral loaf at my wedding.”
Mary stared at her blankly a bit, but nodded as she chewed over the idea.
“True that,” she admitted. “But just now! Oh come here!”
Mary darted out of the room, waving for Sift to follow and Sift scrambled after her. Four low legs were not that much slower than two high-human legs but their complete lack of balance did give the humans an advantage in sudden changes in direction. She met Mary at a large window where the human was clutching the windowsill and beaming out at something.
“Look!” Mary said, pointing out the window.
Sift stood up on her hind legs and looked. From this angle the main thing she could see was a set of brightly colored woven and formed cloths, in very small sizes for humans to use. They had been strung out on a line to catch the benefit of the local solar radiation and the fresh air of the agricultural district.
“They will smell quite nice when you bring them in,” Sift observed.
“Those are my youngest Aunties,” Mary explained, her voice catching as she started to actively cry again. “The leftovers from her last baby. She packed them up and sent them to Mother, who sorted and mended, and washed them for me, but I was too tired to go pick them up today so Snookums, without my even asking, or even thinking about it, went and picked them up and hung them out just perfectly like that, and every time I walk by all the tiny baby clothes I just get-”
Mary’s voice cut off in a little choke and she produced a very small cloth to wipe the tears away from her eyes.
Sift glanced up at the human a bit sideways, fascinated by the way that strong emotion seemed to open every fluid producing gland in a human’s face. Apparently Mary considered that the end of the explanation because she just laughed softly and began swaying towards the kitchen, which smelled of some herbal tea. Sift pulled out her pad and began frantically taking notes. Was this powerful emotional reaction to the physical sign of community care really something odd? Or was Mary simply overthinking her own reactions again, something Sift had observe the human scientist to be very prone to.
“Come and have a cup of tea!” Mary called out.
Sift gave a grunt of assent and kept writing observations as she walked upright towards the kitchen. Perhaps she should ask Martha, the other resident female human wasn’t fully mature yet, but often had remarkable insights into her older sister’s thought processes.
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