Humans are Weird – First
“Undulate Friend Gripsstrong!”
The human voice struck the surface of the basking pool and warped as it shifted from the air to the water, but not nearly enough to hide the stress and frustration in the mammal’s voice.
“My human friend needs me!” Gripsstrong wriggled in positive delight. “She needs me badly!”
“That is a good translation of her vocal emoting,” Rollsrollsrolls agreed with a sleepy stretch, even with the cloud filtering the afternoon sun had comfortably warmed them. “You should go see what she wants.”
Gripsstrong pushed up off the sandy bed of the pool and swam to the surface. He saw Human Friend Diane’s shape and stroked strongly in that direction. As he got nearer he saw that her stripes were flushed with frustration that stood out especially strong in the sunlight that was filtered through the dense clouds over head. From the way the light refracted around her she had already absorbed enough of the rain to push her past the usual level of acceptable comfort when wearing the thick protective layers that she was. It had taken Gripsstrong some time to figure out the connection between the mass of ‘clothing’ that a human was wearing and their comfort with getting wet but he found it to be a reliable measure.
“How may I make your day easier Human Friend Diane?” Gripsstrong asked without preamble.
Human Friend Diane grinned down at him and made a sudden abrupt gesture with her hands, very much like the ‘throwing’ gesture, but modified. Before he could calculate if the mass in her hands had actually changed something soft landed on top of him. Gripsstrong wrapped it in his appendages to examine it and identified a plant based rope of the kind that Human Friend Diane favored for securing items to the above water crystal coral like growths.
“That!” Human Friend Diane burst out, seconding the word with another gesture, “you will make my life so much easier if you can just untie that knot for me!”
Gripsstrong gave a thoughtful hum as he worked the knot through his appendages. It was the simple form the humans often used. It was deliberately designed to not bind to the point a human could not undo it when it was cinched with the force of human hands. Human Friend Diane watched him for a moment before folding her body down and pulling some metal hardware out of her pocket and beginning to patiently rearrange it.
“What force was applied to this rope?” Gripsstrong asked once he was sure he would be able to work the knot loose and had set to applying gentle pressure along the appropriate vectors.
“It’s been tied to a tree all winter,” Human Friend Diane said as she finished on the one piece of hardware and produced another to work on. “It was holding up the cover tarp over the dryish storage area.”
“If you do not mind my asking,” Gripsstrong said as he freed the rope and held it up to the human, “was your plan for today not to put up a new dryish storage area?”
“Yup,” Human Friend Diane said as she placed the hardware back in her pocket. Gripsstrongly thought they were the reusable joints for the tarp roofs.
“They why are you taking down an existing storage area?” Gripsstrong asked.
Human Friend Diane heaved a massive sigh and rocked back on her feet.
“Welp,” she said. “First I thought I’d just need to get the ladder out and put up the new tarps right? Don’t want to use the hover boards in the crystal forests where they could set up a resonance. But it turned out I’d loaned the good ladders to Bob over the way,” she indicated which way with a gesture, “and had to go get them first. He came over to help and noticed that there was a dead crystal tree right, and mercy, he was right. Not a single branch left on it, just a stump that happened to be more than tall enough to take out the new shed the first strong wind. So we had to spend half the morning finding the chainsaw and safety gear and then we saw that there was a good chance that when we took the dead tree down it might take out one of the anchor ties,” she gestured her hand holding the rope to indicate that it was the tie in question, “of the old dryish storage tarp so we had to let down one corner of that, and we got the tree down safe and when that was done Bob had to leave but when I went to put the anchor rope back up it would not fit and I needed to reposition the knots, but search me if I can even undo this on my own.” The human heaved a long sigh, and then her face brightened as she ran her hands down the now smooth rope. “Then I remembered my good buddy Gripsstrong,” she concluded.
“You have had a very busy and ultimately productive day,” Gripsstrong observed, “even if you did not quite accomplish your original goal.” He gave an inviting wriggle. “Perhaps it would sooth you if you came for a swim with me? Despite the lack of solar radiation the water is quite warm.”
From the way she angled her body Human Friend Diane was clearly considering his offer and was regretful of eventually rejecting it, but she stood with a drawn out groan and shook her head.
“I started out to get that second dryish storage tarp up,” she said, her tone turning grim, “and I am going to get that second dryish storage shed up, as soon as I fix the first one and,” she dug her hand into a pocked, “and find the rest of the hardware.”
Gripsstrong waved a sad goodbye as Human Friend Diane stalked off back towards her goals and he sank into the pool.
“I think,” he said with a little discontented wriggle, “that Human Friend Diane might be just a little too stubborn for her own good.”
The human voice struck the surface of the basking pool and warped as it shifted from the air to the water, but not nearly enough to hide the stress and frustration in the mammal’s voice.
“My human friend needs me!” Gripsstrong wriggled in positive delight. “She needs me badly!”
“That is a good translation of her vocal emoting,” Rollsrollsrolls agreed with a sleepy stretch, even with the cloud filtering the afternoon sun had comfortably warmed them. “You should go see what she wants.”
Gripsstrong pushed up off the sandy bed of the pool and swam to the surface. He saw Human Friend Diane’s shape and stroked strongly in that direction. As he got nearer he saw that her stripes were flushed with frustration that stood out especially strong in the sunlight that was filtered through the dense clouds over head. From the way the light refracted around her she had already absorbed enough of the rain to push her past the usual level of acceptable comfort when wearing the thick protective layers that she was. It had taken Gripsstrong some time to figure out the connection between the mass of ‘clothing’ that a human was wearing and their comfort with getting wet but he found it to be a reliable measure.
“How may I make your day easier Human Friend Diane?” Gripsstrong asked without preamble.
Human Friend Diane grinned down at him and made a sudden abrupt gesture with her hands, very much like the ‘throwing’ gesture, but modified. Before he could calculate if the mass in her hands had actually changed something soft landed on top of him. Gripsstrong wrapped it in his appendages to examine it and identified a plant based rope of the kind that Human Friend Diane favored for securing items to the above water crystal coral like growths.
“That!” Human Friend Diane burst out, seconding the word with another gesture, “you will make my life so much easier if you can just untie that knot for me!”
Gripsstrong gave a thoughtful hum as he worked the knot through his appendages. It was the simple form the humans often used. It was deliberately designed to not bind to the point a human could not undo it when it was cinched with the force of human hands. Human Friend Diane watched him for a moment before folding her body down and pulling some metal hardware out of her pocket and beginning to patiently rearrange it.
“What force was applied to this rope?” Gripsstrong asked once he was sure he would be able to work the knot loose and had set to applying gentle pressure along the appropriate vectors.
“It’s been tied to a tree all winter,” Human Friend Diane said as she finished on the one piece of hardware and produced another to work on. “It was holding up the cover tarp over the dryish storage area.”
“If you do not mind my asking,” Gripsstrong said as he freed the rope and held it up to the human, “was your plan for today not to put up a new dryish storage area?”
“Yup,” Human Friend Diane said as she placed the hardware back in her pocket. Gripsstrongly thought they were the reusable joints for the tarp roofs.
“They why are you taking down an existing storage area?” Gripsstrong asked.
Human Friend Diane heaved a massive sigh and rocked back on her feet.
“Welp,” she said. “First I thought I’d just need to get the ladder out and put up the new tarps right? Don’t want to use the hover boards in the crystal forests where they could set up a resonance. But it turned out I’d loaned the good ladders to Bob over the way,” she indicated which way with a gesture, “and had to go get them first. He came over to help and noticed that there was a dead crystal tree right, and mercy, he was right. Not a single branch left on it, just a stump that happened to be more than tall enough to take out the new shed the first strong wind. So we had to spend half the morning finding the chainsaw and safety gear and then we saw that there was a good chance that when we took the dead tree down it might take out one of the anchor ties,” she gestured her hand holding the rope to indicate that it was the tie in question, “of the old dryish storage tarp so we had to let down one corner of that, and we got the tree down safe and when that was done Bob had to leave but when I went to put the anchor rope back up it would not fit and I needed to reposition the knots, but search me if I can even undo this on my own.” The human heaved a long sigh, and then her face brightened as she ran her hands down the now smooth rope. “Then I remembered my good buddy Gripsstrong,” she concluded.
“You have had a very busy and ultimately productive day,” Gripsstrong observed, “even if you did not quite accomplish your original goal.” He gave an inviting wriggle. “Perhaps it would sooth you if you came for a swim with me? Despite the lack of solar radiation the water is quite warm.”
From the way she angled her body Human Friend Diane was clearly considering his offer and was regretful of eventually rejecting it, but she stood with a drawn out groan and shook her head.
“I started out to get that second dryish storage tarp up,” she said, her tone turning grim, “and I am going to get that second dryish storage shed up, as soon as I fix the first one and,” she dug her hand into a pocked, “and find the rest of the hardware.”
Gripsstrong waved a sad goodbye as Human Friend Diane stalked off back towards her goals and he sank into the pool.
“I think,” he said with a little discontented wriggle, “that Human Friend Diane might be just a little too stubborn for her own good.”
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