Network - Text

[demaelition]

Who: Mae Borowski
Username: trashmammal
Warnings: Brutal Honesty speciesist discussion, also potential for Mae's specific content warnings

Okay, but real question:
What even are humans or human-like people?
Why don't some of you have fur at all?
Or claws?
Or tails
Or like anything else normal?
Why do you all look the same, smell drastically different, and yet humans can't apparently smell each other super well either, so how do you tell each other apart?

-Signed your resident normal person

Comments

un: supertemp; text

[thedoctorsmate]

You're a rude thing, aren't you?
We're evolved from animals.
Apes.
We don't look the same, by the way.
Pretty sure that's speciesist, or whatever.

un: Parkour; text

[heyunderoos]

I mean, every human is pretty different, like every animal or animal like person is really different. It depends on how much exposure you have to different types of people to be able to tell them apart really easy.

I'm guessing you're not strictly human?

Text, un: Chosewell

[failedpromise]

I'm pretty sure Humans don't look all the same to other Humans.
What are you, anyway?

text; un: imwithgenius

[energyfieldgood]

[Rodney is not in a good place after the whole Dogtown debacle which is why hibernating and spending his time on the network is all the jazz now.]

By skill and proximity, mostly.
There are the people you are close with. Easy to recognize.
Then there are the people who have assigned roles in your life, divided by usefulness. You get facial patterns down eventually, so sight is an important sense to use here.
And then there are the others.
ID cards help a lot.

[Please don't take human advice from him, Mae, he can't remember the names of some people he worked with for years.]

Let's not get distracted from the real issue here, though.
I KNEW there was something you weren't telling me when you mentioned the fangs.

[Clearly it wasn't the random knife fighting each other in the middle of a Thanksgiving party, that's actually high up on the normal scale. What's much more important though...]

Did you CHEAT?
Admit it.
Half of your points were your secret claws.
Which you clearly have.

[demaelition]

Not always! Besides, I prefer 'blunt'
Also what the hell does evolved mean? I've known apes way better and smarter than
A lot of people here

Follow up question, do you have:
skin (pale to dark)
Hair (pale to dark)
Tiny eyes
Patchy fur or hair
Two legs and two normal ass arms
No tail

[demaelition]

I'm Strictly not human
And there are strictly no humans back home
So I'd say my exposure is pretty nil, sorry you all look the same
Like, it's not personal, if the whole world were cats I'd expect people to get confused, but the world isn't all cats, it's not all one anything.
Which is the point.

[demaelition]

Good for them, doesn't help those of us who've never seen one before showing up here. I live with two humans who look exactly the same both named John
I'm tired
Also a mammal

[demaelition]

[Oh thank god, the only human she can recognize on sight. She feels a little better already.]

Dude
That's actually super helpful.
I mean it doesn't really solve my John problem, but for everyone else that makes perfect sense.

[She knew he was her favorite for a reason. Although, she quickly goes back to doubting it two seconds later as his next messages come in.]

UH NO?? Look you could have just ASKED about the fangs, but you were too busy being a vampire
Also my claws are not secret and you SAW me curl my hand around the knife!
If I was going to be stabbing anyone with my claws it'd be myself!
Which I didn't because only kittens stab themselves with their own claws.

[energyfieldgood]

Okay, first of all it was TEMPORARY vampirism?
Second, they clearly were a secret that day with you feigning hands. And... not-fur? And human-ness?
And third, if you're able to feign hands, you could totally hide a secret sweep at my knuckles. You could have six claws sprouting all over the place for all I know?

[It's not like he's a sore loser two months later or anything.]

Wait, what John problem?

[heyunderoos]

That's pretty cool. You must have a really diverse world to have so many species cohabitating it in the way humans at least do here.

I figured, I'm just- guessing it'll take time before you can tell people apart since you're used to something really different. If you need to, feel free to ask people their names if that helps?

[demaelition]

I don't have a choice! I step outside, I look like this

[She sends a picture of her human face sticking her tongue out at him.]

But once I'm nice and wrapped up back in my room, I look like normal.

[The next picture is of a black cat-girl with the fur at the top of her head dyed a faded red. Also sticking her tongue out at him.]

I only get to look like me at ADI
Also I have a normal number of fingers and claws and everything else.

And I live with two Johns who both have pale squishy skin and brown patchy hair and I THINK they're close in age and they're both named John.
But one of them is Doctor John and the other one is Your John
But I don't always know which one is which unless I'm in the same room with them.

[demaelition]

Oh. Thanks? I mean I guess so, yeah.
We still have a lot of the same problems this place seems to:
not enough jobs and low pay
People moving and trying to live so it makes it worse
Forces of evil trying to kill people
Capitalism
But at least I know who I'm talking to.

Yeah, that's not a bad idea, I mean I guess it's less rude to ask someone their name again than it is to just assume and be wrong.

Question: what if two of them look a lot a like and both have the same name and both live with you so it's worse?

[energyfieldgood]

Interesting. This cloaking technology has been provided to you by ADI? What is it, a shield? Some sort of device? Can I see it?

[PLEASE can he see it? The device is so much more interesting than your cat form. Which is also interesting. And revealing. And making him go through all sorts of exclamations and reactions off screen.]

Oh my God.
Seriously?!?
You know, had I known you were l i t e r a l l y a cat, I would have questioned you licking rocks from the ground a lot less than I did when we first met.

[Just saying.]

I see.
Well, I don't know that "Doctor John" you are referring to - though I think I saw him at the clinic. But I am quite familiar with "my" John. So here's how you tell him apart from anyone else:

He talks agonizingly slowly sometimes. He does this thing with his voice, it's like a drawl that moves up and down like a wave.

Sometimes he cants his head when he's listening to you and then his eyebrows move upward which causes a frown. His lips may part at that and his eyes shift to the side. It's like you can see his brain buffering while he is trying to catch up to what you are saying.

You need to pay attention to his hair. It's always sticking up, always messy, but it always looks like it's on purpose and it's infuriatingly perfect.

1/2

[demaelition]

If I could give it to you, it'd be yours, but unless they injected it into my skin, I don't have any weird technology on me.
I mean my laptop came with me, but it's not the problem.

Also what the hell?? Are you saying cats licking rocks makes more sense??
AND I thought it was a cupcake at first I can't be blamed.

2/2

[demaelition]

You gonna tell me how nice his ass looks next?

[energyfieldgood]

Yes.
Humans don't lick things from the ground unless they are severely inebriated or unwell.

[He's about to elaborate when that 2/2 comes in and naturally, all of that goes out the window. If this wasn't text there would be so much sputtering now.]

What? No?
I was merely trying to give you discernible clues to aid you!

[Can a text sound indignant because he is so indignant.]

[failedpromise]

It is a really common name. (Also the name of her favorite person, who isn't here.)

Also, I'm pretty sure tired mammal describes most humans too. You need to be a little more specific.

text; un: dontron3000

[semilethal]

Humans are the dominant species in a lot of dimensions

un: Pegasus

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

[Mae.

Rodney.

This is in public. People can see this. He can see this.

Quietly ignoring all that up there for the moment--]

Some humans can have claws. If they have superpowers or something.

[It's him. He's some humans. Do you have a scratching post he can borrow.]

[thedoctorsmate]

It means evolution happened.
Dunno where you're from, but where I'm from, apes are wild animals.
They're intelligent, but not to the level of people.

I have skin, and I'm willing to bet you do, too, even if you have hair or fur on top of it.
I have hair.
My eyes aren't tiny. What a question!
My hair isn't patchy, either.
But that's really rude to bald people.
Yes, I have the normal human number of limbs.
No tail.

You can still have WILD variations in all of those things.
Which humans do.

[demaelition]

Well that's great for their dimensions!
There aren't any humans at all in mine

[demaelition]

Uh huh you know what my best friend did wen he started crushing on this really hot guy?
Started going on about how he smiled and how nice his hands were.
That's fine, you enjoy your denial! I'll still be here.
But I'll try to remember how perfect his hair is. Obviously that's important.

[She's 100% teasing him, she's bad at this shit for herself, much less anyone else...but imagining how he might be blustering is killing her, she can't resist.]

[demaelition]

I mean yeah. True. I know a lot of Johns back home too.

I'm a Cat. But like capital 'C' Cat, not a cat.

[She sends a slightly lopsided picture of her arm with it's shirtsleeve ending a bit past the elbow and the black fur that covers the rest of her arm and onto her paw, fingers, and thumb.

[demaelition]

[Well, stop being nosy, "Rodney's John!"]

I didn't think people had powers or whatever. Or were supposed to use them, don't they have to worship the evil gods to do that?

[That's usually bad. Cult people who sacrifice innocent lives typically use powers given to them by evil gods too...]

[demaelition]

Wow ok. I mean some apes, yeah, but most of them are just people where I come from.

And sure I have skin under my fur! But it's all just fur over top and no weird breaks like I didn't have enough to go around everywhere.
Coloration and patterning is not WILD, that's like basic stuff.
But I mean if you think I'm wrong, you can tell me what you think stands out most to you.