Betty Adams Tall Tales
  • Home
    • Book 1 "Humans are Weird: I Have the Data"
    • Book 2 "Humans are Weird: We Took a Vote"
    • Book 3 "Humans are Weird: Let's Work It Out"
    • "Flying Sparks"
    • "Dying Embers"
    • "Hidden Fires"
    • Testimonials
  • The Aliens
    • Dying Embers
    • Humans Are Weird
    • Miscellaneous
    • Fan Art
  • Betty's Blog
    • Humans Are Weird
  • Store: Betty's Booty
  • About & Contact
    • Bibliography
    • Links

Humans are Weird - Chilly

6/10/2024

Comments

 
Picture

Humans are Weird - Chilly

 The summer air was pleasantly full of mammalian chemical trails that, if one followed any one of the with one’s attention, led to a working, or even more satisfactorily, recreating mammal. The humans with the gargantuan biomass left such clear traces of their presence that one could bask in their presence even after they left the immediate area. This was a thread that was almost like the Gathering themselves.
Notes the Passing Changes let awareness drift down the main path where the taste of Sandy’s lingering effort spoke of deliberate attempts to harden muscles. The long winter, the busy spring, and the distractions attendant on coming reproduction had reduced the human to a notably smaller percentage of previously acquired mass and Notes the Passing Changes empathized with the effort of regaining lost biomass when there was so much going on. It was not like a human could simply request that the other species donate stored rotting plant matter either.
The trail – unsurprisingly – led Notes the Passing Changes to the dwelling nook Sandy and Pat were preparing for the complete budding of the little human who was already changing both their profiles so distinctly. Notes the Passing Changes idly wondered why they had not made a formal announcement of the addition to the colony yet but had been observing humans for long enough to understand that asking about such things could be probing a strand into chemically unstable soil. Awareness came first to the roots deliberately grown into the walls of the dwelling which Notes the Passing Changes rattled loudly until both humans gave a shout of welcome, then awareness could politely infuse the leafy evergreen shrubs the humans kept in the communal areas for communication.
“And how are ye doing this fine day?” Sandy asked from the couch where he was letting his limbs sprawl out.
“Quite well,” Notes the Passing Changes replied, feeling the soundness of the tendrils in the communication plant, they might need replacing soon, there was a trace of reverberation in the voice that was not pleasant, “and you?”
“Fair to middlin’, fair to middlin’,” Sandy said in a confident tone, raising a glass of water in demonstration of something.
The humans had not activated the internal lights of the room, and were relying on the light from the windows. That was enough to make the mostly bare skin of the male human glow. The thin wrap of colored plant matter that the human wore belted around his waist had let the summer sunlight turn his skin pink, and if Notes the Passing Change was any judge Sandy had pushed the limits of his ultraviolet light tolerances in his effort to build muscle mass earlier.
“Any reason for dropping in Notes?” Pat asked without looking up from the document she was writing on the screen in front of her.
“Social interaction,” Notes the Passing Changes replied studying the other human with some confusion.
While Sandy’s every fiber indicated being in warmth that threatened to be almost too much for comfort, Pat was wrapped in multiple layers of insulating cloth. A leaf of particular reflectivity was that her outermost layer was a thick winter coat that Notes the Passing Changes knew she had put away in long storage several weeks ago. It still smelled of the anti-fungal spray she had applied in the expectation that the chemical would have many more months to degrade.
“Are you comfortable Pat?” Notes the Passing Changes asked, trying to put concern into the odd tones produced by the old tendrils.
She gave a grunt of mild surprise and glanced over at the communication plant.
“Aye,” she said, and then bent over her work again.
Notes the Passing Changes mulled over the situation for several long moments while Sandy made light conversation about the compaction of the running paths.
“Only it is somewhat odd,” Notes the Passing Changes observed, in a pause in Sandy’s speech.
“What’s odd?” Sandy asked.
“That Pat seems to need to conserve heat in this ambient temperature when her mass is so much greater than yours,” Notes the Passing Changes stated.
The sudden silence in the room was the first clue that a social norm had been transgressed. Sandy had suddenly pulled his limbs into a more rigidly aligned from, was making eye contact with a storage unit on the opposite side of the room from his mate, and after a moment seemed to be restraining laughter. Pat had stiffened, shot a look of emotion unknown to Notes the Passing Changes towards the communication plant, before slamming her writing screen down on the table surface and announcing.
“I’m getting some fresh air.”
“Did I offend?” Notes the Passing Changes asked when all that was left in the room was the taste of her.
Sandy gave up on his attempts to restrain his laughter and fell back into a more relaxed position.
“Pat’s got circulation issues,” Sandy explained, clearly avoiding the concept of offense, “even it if its right balmy out she needs to wrap up sometimes. She’s been needing to do it more often than usual though.” He took a sip of his drink and gave a thoughtful hum. “Pretty common too,” he observed, “the lassies do run a bit cooler than the lads on the usual.”
Notes the Passing Changes took a moment to compare that to memory strands from the spring when the humans’ thermo-envalopes were the most noticeable. A quick comparison did show that human males tended to express more thermal energy than the females did. Pat returned in a few moments, gave the communications plant a bright smile and a cheerful word that Notes the Passing Changes took to mean that there had been no offense, but that Pat would not welcome a reintroduction of the topic. The room fell into easy silence and Notes the Passing Changes felt thankful that these humans did not feel the need to fill the air with sound. The steady ticking of Pat’s fingers on the screen, the thrum of Sandy’s cooling metabolism, and the chemical chaos of the tiny new human made a pleasant enough social interaction as it was.  
Author Betty Adams Books
Amazon! 
Barnes & Noble
Powell's Books
Google Play Books
Kobo By Rakuten
Youtube
BitChute
Odysee
Rumble
Veoh
Picture
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

      Get Updates On Latest Projects and Stories! 

    Subscribe to Newsletter
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Audible
    AMAZON
    BARNES & NOBLE
    Powell's Books
    GOOGLE BOOKS
    KOBO Books
    YouTube 
    BitChute 
    Odysee

    Rumble
    Veoh
    PictureTeespring Store Buy COOL Merch

    SubscribeSTAR

    Author

    Betty Adams is an up and coming author with a bent for science and Sci-fi.

    Archives

    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014

    RSS Feed

    blogrollcenter.com
    Picture
    Blog Directory & Business Pages - OnToplist.com
Copyright © 2015
  • Home
    • Book 1 "Humans are Weird: I Have the Data"
    • Book 2 "Humans are Weird: We Took a Vote"
    • Book 3 "Humans are Weird: Let's Work It Out"
    • "Flying Sparks"
    • "Dying Embers"
    • "Hidden Fires"
    • Testimonials
  • The Aliens
    • Dying Embers
    • Humans Are Weird
    • Miscellaneous
    • Fan Art
  • Betty's Blog
    • Humans Are Weird
  • Store: Betty's Booty
  • About & Contact
    • Bibliography
    • Links