Betty Adams's Blog, page 13

Humans are Weird – Layers

 Humans are Weird – Layers Hek’tck stared out the window into the soft darkness of the forest and sipped his warming broth slowly. He could not discern the branches of the great trees that surrounded the base, the few that there were this far below the canopy, but there was a strange sense of movement in the darkness of the early morning. Behind him, in the blurry distance of the main communal room of the base the stillness was broken by a door sliding open and the stumbling tread of a human who had not quite shaken off the clumsiness of sleep.
Hek’tck felt his chelicerae twitch in amusement as he let one paw idly tap out a warning on his comm alerting the smaller inhabitants of the base to stay off the floor and on the spiderwalks until the humans had full control of their limbs. He lifted his drinking bowl to his lips, still staring out into the darkness that was slowly softening with morning light, but more and more of his attention was shifting to the large form swaying around the kettle and morning fluids station. There was something a bit different about the human this morning, he couldn’t quite touch a thread to it, and the difference was just interesting enough to pull his attention away from his solitary musings. However not interesting enough to do so before he had finished his warming broth.
Hek’tck gave his drinking bowl a swirl to mix any undissolved broth particulates in the final few sips and smacked his chelicerae in satisfaction as he gave a slow leisurely stretch. In the process his paw brushed the window and he took a moment to marvel at the insulation that managed to keep the temperatures so well defined. He could not feel either a hint of cold, nor a drop of condensations on the clear surface. A far cry from the primitive materials sciences integrated into many bases he had been stationed on. He swung his body around, bringing the human into full view of his primary eyes and set out over the spiderwalks towards the sink.
The early riser was Human Friend Maria as he had half expected. She was usually the first of the giant mammals to shake off the deep torpor of the night and stumble into the communal area for her stimulant. She preferred a fragrant chocolate that was just a mild enough toxin that it didn’t require special handling in a shared kitchen. The scent was pleasant enough, if you didn’t mind a little burning in your eyes, and she was now clutching a mug of the dark fluid as she carefully moved to one of the massive chairs in the middle of the room.
What had first caught the attention of Hek’tck’s hindeyes was a dramatic change in shape. Even with his primary eyes now fixed on her it was still a bit of a web to untangle but she had apparently, in addition to her usual clothing, wrapped herself in at least one blanket, and then put her ‘bathrobe’ on over that, tying the mass with a cloth band around her waist. Hek’tck wondered what could have inspired her to sacrifice that much movement as he rinsed out his drinking bowl and set it to dry.
He walked over the spiderwalk network and paused over her head. He crossed his paws over the safety rail and let his attention drift back to the slowly lightening darkness outside the window while Human Friend Maria carefully drank off the top layer of her chocolate. When Hek’tck judged that the mug was safely emptied to an acceptable level he gave several loud clicks. Human Friend Maria blinked and yawned, shifting her bifocal eyes from the window to the spiderwalks in search of the sound.
“Good morning Human Friend Maria,” Hek’tck called out. “I trust you slept well?”
“Like a log,” Human Friend Maria said, the words slurring at the end as her mouth gaped in a yawn. “’sup little bud?”
“I was wondering why you are wearing so many layers,” Hek’tck observed.
Human Friend Maria’s hand reached down and grasped the mass of cloth, shifting it over her lap. Her face went thoughtful and then she smiled and shrugged.
“It’s cold,” she said, before taking another sip of her chocolate.
Hek’tck let that stick for several seconds longer than was strictly polite before moistening his chelicerae and tasting the air.
“The communal room is at the standard daytime temperature,” he observed.
Human Friend Maria blinked up at him slowly with a puzzled look on her face and then she gave a rueful smile.
“It’s cold out there Heck buddy,” she said, gesturing at the window with enough energy to make the chocolate slosh dangerously close to the rim.
Hek’tck taped the guardrail thoughtfully as he stared down at her.
“But we are in here,” he pointed out.
“But I know that it is cold out there,” Human Friend Maria said, nodding her giant head towards the window, where the morning frostfall was just beginning to sparkle in the morning light.
Hek’tck would have pursued that particularly odd thought thread, what did a mammal’s knowledge of the external temperature have to do with it’s experienced temperature, when the door swished open letting in Human Friend Maria’s mate and offspring in a tumble of legs and noise. Hek’tck watched them as they came into his range of focus. Not one of the other humans, even the smallest ones, were wearing more than a single thin insulating layer, on the other hand none of them questioned their mother’s layers of insulation.
Hek’tck shook out his limbs, waved at the smallest human who had noticed him, and trotted off to begin his workday.  
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Transformers: EarthSpark Season 1 The Battle of Witwicky – Warped Black and White Morality

Transformers: EarthSpark Season 1 The Battle of Witwicky – Warped Black and White Morality
https://youtu.be/JaSJir66no4?si=kOZZHnNveK-NW7ES
#TFES #OptimusPrime #Megatron #MaltoFamily #Ghost Author Betty Adams Books
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Humans are Weird - Watching

Humans are Weird - Watching ​Commander Pulp felt his lunch loaf shift in his satchel and tempting steam drifted out from the top flap making his mouth water. It had been a long morning dealing with dozens of minor cascade failures in the machinery and he was more than ready to dig his teeth into this world’s most famous product. However even the best bread never tasted quite right without companionship.
Commander Pulp lifted himself upright on his hind legs and let his gaze wander over the recreational area that and been built into the forest. Most of the day shift had eaten over an hour ago and the only sapient being currently out in the fresh air was Grimes. With a contented grunt Commander Pulp dropped to all fours and trotted along the path that would lead him to where he had seen the human sitting on a lichen covered boulder. Of course the boulder itself would be much too cold for a proper lunch spot, and Commander Pulp didn’t think that their relationship was quite advanced to the point where he could just casually request a seat on the human’s lap, even if the boulder had provided a correct lap angle to take advantage of the mammal’s warmth, but not too far from the boulder was a fallen tree trunk that had been collecting solar radiation for some time. It would warm his belly nicely as he ate.
Grimes nodded his head towards Commander Pulp and gave a vague grunt of greeting. Slightly disappointing at the lack of real communication but accepting his friend’s preoccupation with his own meal, a mix of leafy greens, proteins, and oils that probably did require some concentration to get into the tiny human mouth, Commander Pulp returned the grunt and took his place on the stump. It was not only pleasantly warm, but it off gassed a delightful bouquet of plants growing, plants dying, and lichens quietly existing. The lizard pulled his loaf of steaming bread out of his satchel and sunk his teeth into it with a rumble of pleasure.
It was a good loaf. The grains produced on this world were excellent, only the homeworld grains produced better bread and even the old rock-scales at the home-mills admitted that that might just be psychological at this point. Commander Pulp rolled it between his grinding molars and let his eyes close with delight. When he opened them he happened to glance at Grimes and was surprised to see that the human had raised his datapad to his eyes and was clearly using the camera function to examine something distant. Commander Pulp continued chewing but watched Grimes with growing interest as the human focused in on one of the flighted species of the world, a common enough avian, egg laying, too small to be useful as prey items for the humans or to pose a threat to any visiting Winged. They did aid the lizard folk by stripping granivorous insects from the fields. Grimes considered the little avian until he had matched its species exactly and then set his datapad down with a satisfied smile and took a bite from his meal.
Commander Pulp slowed his own chewing and watched Grimes more intently. That bite had been almost absent minded. The human had dropped several leafs from his eating utensil and as soon as the majority of the mass was in his mouth the human had turned his attention, down to a physical notebook by his side, made an entry, then turned his eyes back to the canopy overhead, clearly looking for another avian, and just as clearly not in any rush. Commander Pulp swallowed his first bite and cleared his throat for attention.
Grimes glanced at him and smiled as he chewed his fibrous meal. Commander Pulp waited until the human swallowed before asking the question that was on his mind.
“Grimes,” he said carefully attempting to modulate his voice into what a human would consider a non-judgmental tone. “Are you attempting to preform a scientific survey while you are eating your lunch?”
Grimes’s face actually contorted in confusion and then surprise as he shook his head.
“No!” Grimes responded. “I am on strict rest orders.”
“So I thought,” Commander Pulp agreed. “So what are you doing?”
“This?” the human asked waving his hand over the datapad and the notebook. “Just bird watching. It’s my hobby. I have documentation…”
“That won’t be necessary,” Commander Pulp said with a dismissive flick of his tail, relaxing a bit but still perplexed. “Is there some time constraint that has forced you to combine these two activities?”
Grimes blinked at him and tilted his head to the side. The humans face wrinkled like the surface of a fermenting vat as he pondered the question.
“No,” the human finally said. “I just like doing them together.”
Commander Pulp flicked his tongue out thoughtfully.
“Doesn’t the attention required to identify the avian species interfere with the enjoyment of your meal?” he asked gesturing at the mass of greens and oil with his tail.
“No,” Grimes said shaking his head. “It’s just a salad anyway, and besides, bird watching is an all the time thing. You never know when you are going to see something interesting so you have to be ready. I can’t give them that much attention when I am working so I’ve been having a great time with it in this forced rest time.”
“How do you report your observations?” Commander Pulp asked as he mulled that over.
Grimes tapped the notebook beside him but gave a shrug of his shoulder that indicated that the answer was not going to be particularly useful.
“It’s just a hobby,” he said. “I never really got into reporting what I saw. I just like spotting the birds and knowing what they were.”
“And this gives you enough pleasure that you will preferentially watch the birds rather than get the full gastronomic value out of your meal?” Commander Pulp asked.
Grimes flashed all of his teeth at him in a grin.
“Pretty much,” the human agreed taking another absent bite of his salad and then snatching up his datapad to focus in on a small flitting form in a tree on the other side of the clearing.
Commander Pulp shrugged and took another bite of his bread. That was the way humans fermented he supposed, but he thought he would look deeper into this hobby of bird watching, and how ubiquitous it really was among humans. He was beginning to suspect that Grimes’s behavior might not be strictly indicative of the species in general  
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Humans are Weird - Just Pink

Humans are Weird - Just Pink First Sister paused and took a moment to consider her movements before she grabbed the fountain. The wide base was full of water and she would need to tilt the entire ornamental fountain over into the soil of the interior vine before she could comfortably carry it. Fortunately Third Aunt had designed the fountain to be gifted and registered as sister aged out of needing comforting soundscapes in their sleeping rooms. The sides were textures to be not only pleasing to the touch, but easy to grip and once the reservoir was emptied it was light enough for even a very small Sister to carry, let alone a big Strong First Sister.
First Sister carefully tilted the fountain over and let the water wash over into the soil. Then she gave the fountain a quick shake before clutching it to her chest and ducking out of her sleeping chamber. Second Cousin and Fourth Cousin didn’t even stir and the tunnels of the hive were muted with the presence of the resting day shifts and the cautiously active night shifts. It gave First Sister, far more used to the day shift an odd feeling as she clutched the damp fountain to her and skittered over the soothing coolness of the packed floor.
The feeling was heightened as the deep resonant voice of Human First Father drifted to her as she approached the outer chamber. The soft lights of the nightshift, a dim red for the comfort of their human guests’ mammalian eyes, cast odd shadows around the towering mass of the human and First Sister felt her antenna prickle with fear. When she had darted off to her room to fetch the fountain for Second Cousin Betty Second Father and Second Mother had been merely politely bemused at the appearance of their unexpected guest. Now Second Mother’s frill was taught with some suppressed emotion and Second Father’s antenna were set with frank horror.
“Not really a serious medical issue,” Human First Father was saying, his face as tight as Second Mother’s frill. “Happens all the time. We wouldn’t be bothering you except our water system is down for repairs and flowing water really is best for drawing out the heat-”
The human’s bifocal eyes darted from Second Father to First Sister and he very deliberately smoothed his face and altered his posture, greeting her with a smile that radiated calm and ease. The ruse would have been far more effective if humans had any control over their pheromones First Sister suddenly realized as fear prickled over her frill for the first time that night.
“Why does Second Cousin Betty need my fountain?” She suddenly demanded.
Second Father gave her a scandalized look and Second Mother gave a tired click of reproach.
“I’ll explain later,” Human First Father said reaching out for the fountain. “Thank you so much for lending-”
“Clip that!” First Sister snapped out, vaguely aware that Second Father had gone from scandalized to horrified and Second Mother looked like she was suppressing an amused chuckle. “Your soft fleshy hands would drop this before you got home and I can’t send a father out alone at night in a half civilized forest!”
She drew herself up to her full height. What with her most recent molting, and if you counted leg length she was taller than Second Father now.
“I will escort you back to the human hive and I will give Second Cousin Betty the fountain myself,” she said firmly.
Human Second Father stared down at her for a long moment with a chaotic mix of pheromones filling the room and an unreadable expression on his face. Then his entire body gave a small contortion that she knew well. A laugh was trying to escape and he was throttling it down out of respect. Good, a determined First Sister deserved respect, even if you were three times her mass.
“I would appreciate the escort,” he finally managed to say.
In her side vision she could see Second Mother actually physically restraining Second Father from interfering and she stoutly ignored the interaction. She slipped out through the curtain of vines into the front garden and the ground vibrated with the footsteps of the human following her. The path lit up from behind her with the wash of the red head mounted lamp the humans used at night. She pushed her newly long legs to keep ahead of the humans loping pace and by the time they reached the human front garden she had to paused to collect breath as he opened the massive door that guarded the house they lived in. Calming herself First Sister stepped into the bright yellow light of the interior. Her vision whited out a bit and she had to lick her eyes to clear them.
The place was chaos. The humans were expanding their hive as Human First Mother produced more tiny humans. Even now Human First Mother was expanded with the act of creation, it visibly altered her balance as she knelt beside Human Second Cousin Betty.
“Tendrils!” First Sister snapped out. “What is wrong with your hand?”
Second Cousin Betty shot her a glare and her face was a truly horrible sight. She had been crying for some time and her skin had puffed up like it was infected, as well as being covered in the dust from the construction. Still, that was within First Sister’s experience, she knew it was just how this particular mammal species vented excess stress hormones. Second Cousin Betty’s larger, dominant hand was curled as if it was grasping something, but where it would have been a pale tan it was now bright pink and on one finger was turgid fluid blister.
“I did something stupid!” Second Cousin Betty snapped.
Human First Mother made soothing sounds and used a cup to dip water out of the basin below Second Cousin Betty’s hand. Second Cousin Betty visibly relaxed and with a start First Sister realized why the fountain was needed. She darted forward and set the fountain in the basin. The reservoir quickly filled and the chaotic room was soon filled with the soothing sound of flowing water. Second Cousin Betty shoved her hand under the flow and visibly relaxed. Human First Mother waved to her mate and he assisted her to stand, she murmured something about getting a bit of ice for the reservoir. First Sister sidled closer to Second Cousin Betty and slipped a hand into the human’s good hand. Second Cousin Betty gave her hand a careful squeeze and gave her a week grin.
“What happened?” First Sister demanded.
“It’s a long story,” Second Cousin Betty said.  
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New SCAM Dropped For Authors - Be Very, Very Wary of Adaptation Offers - Bad Grammar, Vauge Emails

 New SCAM Dropped For Authors - Be Very, Very Wary of Adaptation Offers - Bad Grammar, Vauge Emails https://youtu.be/7lvsML7iQT0?si=jx4LvEftGTiHaAv0
#scam #fakeoffer #moviestudios #manuscripts #authors



 Hello! My wonderful viewers! Guess who just got sent what is almost certianly a scam email! This one preys on author pride, a plentiful resource to be sure.


I can't find the exact scam online, but the concept, a fake email account claiming to be from some movie company or anther offering to option one of yourbooks for a movie is a well known scam. Usually they make you pay fees to have your movie supposedly produced and when you try to get your money back the company dissapears and of course the real studio never heard of you.
However there is a new scam where people are stealing manscripts themselves so don't be sending random email accounts your unprotected manuscript.


Anyway here is the email I got.





Dear, Betty!


Where talent meets success!


Equity, diversity, inclusion, and social responsibility are both moral and business imperatives. A good organization understands that addressing fundamental concerns of equity and justice is not only the rational thing to do, but also the rational thing to do. We consider advocacy and inclusion to be fundamental components of our success, and our approach to these critical topics is built in how we address our employees, programs, content, suppliers, and community.


We'd like to notify your agency that your book has been chosen as one of the Content Titles that we'd want to adapt into a film. As a result of our collaboration with Netflix, we'd like to tell your office that we are offering you a contract for film rights acquisition as one of our Pioneering Projects.


The budget and production team are now prepared for the project to begin. The film's production budget has been approximated by the promoter. Please keep in mind that the author will be under contract with our organization, Icon Productions. Any information concerning this project will be subject to the contract's non-disclosure provision.


To get a quick transition, you will be necessary to handle all licenses, permissions, registrations, and signing of papers only with Icon Productions as the Author representing the rights owner and Icon Productions as the acquirer. A separate contract will be completed and agreed upon both your agency and Icon Productions. Upon your confirmation, we will deliver the papers together with the film agreement to your office.


We would be requiring you to send the following materials:
Soft Copy or PDF format of your manuscript
Cinematic Trailer


We need your confirmation as soon as possible.


NOTE: Any communication as regards this endorsement should only be between your office and Icon Productions. Any unsolicited emails or calls from the writer/author will not be entertained by Icon Productions. The Writer shall not, at any time, directly or Indirectly, disseminate, duplicate or in any other manner disclose any Information of any kind dealing with or in any way relating to the development, production, or exploitation of the film as stipulated in the Acquisition Agreement signed by our legal representative. That you acknowledge and agree that the Confidential Information derives independent economic value from not being generally known to the public or to other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use. You acknowledge that any breach by either your Agency or the Writer with respect to the Confidential Information will cause Irreparable Injury to the Producer, not readily measurable in money, and for which Producer, without waiving any other rights or remedies, shall be entitled to


They put the real name of the CEO here but I removed it.
CEO of Icon Productions


They put the real physical address of the company here so I removed that.


The content of this email is confidential and intended for the recipient specified in the message only. It is strictly forbidden to share any part of this message with any third party, without the written consent of the sender. If you received this message by mistake, please reply to this message and follow with its deletion, so that we can ensure such a mistake does not occur in the future.






Now, the grammar alone is a clue. This looks like a Chat GPT script, but the fact that it doesn't mention any specific book of mine is another clue that something is fishy.




In addition the nature of my stories means that they would be effects heavy scifi movies so any interest would be more involved than this.




But anyway, don't click on suspicious links, don't send your manuscript to anyone, and don't foot the bill to turn your book into a movie.
If a legitimate studio wants your book they will be paying you, not having you drop money on liscenses and such.


Peace out my wonderful viewers.   Author Betty Adams Books
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What Makes Elves So Special?

 What Makes Elves So Special

“...Wonderful folk, Elves, sir! Wonderful!'
'They are,' said Frodo. 'Do you like them still, now you have had a closer view?'
'They seem a bit above my likes and dislikes, so to speak,' answered Sam slowly. 'It don't seem to matter what I think about them. They are quite different from what I expected – so old and young, and so gay and sad, as it were.'


Hello! My wonderful viewers and welcome to another episode of Betty Adams Overanalyzes! Today we are going to take a special look at storytelling and symbology!


So I was browsing my internet feed the other day when I came across a fascinating question. The poster was asking what was so special about elves anyway? Weren’t they just humans with pointy ears? Why were they so popular?
That is a very good question, for a species that is not terribly different from humans, why is the concept of elves so alluring, so enduring, with elves, or elf like creatures showing up in the very oldest of the Scandinavian myths to elves populating most of the modern fantasy books.


The first, most obvious caveat is that you have to define which elves you are talking about. The Keebler elves in their tree with their cookies don’t count (sorry Lord of the Beans). The elves in Santa’s workshop don’t count.
While there are countless iterations of elves from the dark Drow to the Maidens of the Record of the Lodus war manga most modern elves share similar features (the ones that make them special and answer the question) inherited from their ancestral megafauna progenitors.
The elves of Valinor, or middle Earth, the Elves that Samwise Gamgee saw passing through the forests of the Shire.


So what makes these elves so special?


The classic Tolkinian elves were functionally immortal, highly intelligent, the average elf being as smart as or smarter than the average human, and they had a much closer connection to the spiritual. To the point that elves could willingly just leave their body.
(also there is a lot of debate if Tolkien's elves even had pointed ears, as it was said that it was difficult to tell elf and human babies. apart)
But to answer your question, what is "special" about elves. The human fascination with elves was mostly based in the specific element of that greater connection to the spiritual. Not always the ‘good’ the devine spiritual either. The higher the intelligence, the higher the spiritual plane, the greater the capacity for evil. A shark, with all of its brain cells firing has no capacity for evil, a dolphin, with their tendencies to kill for pleasure and not food gets much closer to evil, a human with free will is fully capable of it, an elf with the free will of humanity and greater intellect and spiritual connection is likewise capable of greater evil, as well as greater good.
Elves are more, elves are dangerous, and not simply on the physical level.
Elves (in the vast majority of interpretations) invoke an experience of the numinous. That is that feeling a human gets of awe when faced with the divine supernatural. Something like fear, something like terrible joy.


CS Lewis described this is great detail and if you think for one hot second that I am passing up the chance to quote Lewis in detail in a video about elves, hello! You must be very, very new to the channel, please like and subscribe.


In all developed religion we find three strands or elements, and in Christianity one more. The first of these is what Professor Otto calls the experience of the Numinous. Those who have not met this term may be introduced to it by the following device. Suppose you were told there was a tiger in the next room: you would know that you were in danger and would probably feel fear. But if you were told “There is a ghost in the next room”, and believed it, you would feel, indeed, what is often called fear, but of a different kind. It would not be based on the knowledge of danger, for no one is primarily afraid of what a ghost may do to him; but of the mere fact that it is a ghost. It is “uncanny” rather than dangerous, and the special kind of fear it excites may be called Dread. With the Uncanny one has reached the fringes of the Numinous. Now suppose that you were told simply “There is a mighty spirit in the room”, and believed it. Your feelings would then be even less like the mere fear of danger: but the disturbance would be profound. You would feel wonder and a certain shrinking — a sense of inadequacy to cope with such a visitant and of prostration before it — an emotion which might be expressed in Shakespeare’s words “Under it my genius is rebuked”. This feeling may be described as awe, and the object which excites it as the Numinous. Now nothing is more certain than that man, from a very early period, began to believe that the universe was haunted by spirits. Professor Otto perhaps assumes too easily that from the very first such spirits were regarded with numinous awe. This is impossible to prove for the very good reason that utterances expressing awe of the Numinous and utterances expressing mere fear of danger may use identical language — as we can still say that we are “afraid” of a ghost or “afraid” of a rise in prices. It is therefore theoretically possible that there was a time when men regarded these spirits simply as dangerous and felt towards them just as they felt towards tigers. What is certain is that now, at any rate, the numinous experience exists and that if we start from ourselves we can trace it a long way back. A modern example may be found (if we are not too proud to seek it there) in The Wind in the Willows where Rat and Mole approach Pan on the island. “Rat,’ he found breath to whisper, shaking, `Are you afraid?’ `Afraid?’ murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. `Afraid? of Him? O, never, never. And yet — and yet — O Mole, I am afraid.’” Going back about a century we find copious examples in Wordsworth — perhaps the finest being that passage in the first book of the Prelude where he describes his experience while rowing on the lake in the stolen boat. Going back further we get a very pure and strong example in Malory2 , when Galahad “began to tremble right hard when the deadly (= mortal) flesh began to behold the spiritual things”. At the beginning of our era it finds expression in the Apocalypse where the writer fell at the feet of the risen Christ “as one dead”. In Pagan literature we find Ovid’s picture of the dark grove on the Aventine of which you would say the place is haunted, or there is a Presence here; and Virgil gives us the palace of Latinus “awful (horrendum) with woods and sanctity (religione) of elder days”4 A Greek fragment attributed, but improbably, to Aeschylus, tells us of earth, sea, and mountain shaking beneath the “dread eye of their Master”.5 And far further back Ezekiel tells us of the “rings” in his Theophany that “they were so high that they were dreadful”:6 and Jacob, rising from sleep, says “How dreadful is this place!”.7 We do not know how far back in human history this feeling goes. The earliest men almost certainly believed in things which would excite the feeling in us if we believed in them, and it seems therefore probable that numinous awe is as old as humanity itself. But our main concern is not with its dates. The important thing is that somehow or other it has come into existence, and is widespread, and does not disappear from the mind with the growth of knowledge and civilization.




Sure they look human, or they can, but they are so much more. When you interact with an elf you get the same sensation as when you stare into a perfectly clear sky and get dizzy with a sense of the infinite. When you stand on the shore and feel the waves pounding the earth and for one moment get a sense of the raw power of the ocean as a whole.
There is something about elves that touches the divine of the infinite in a way that (most) humans do not.
However (again in most tales) elves also seek for this divine taste of the infinite and there are some humans, very rare but there are, who touch the infinite in ways that elves cannot.
So there is a double allure to elves, if you hang out with an elf, if you can insert yourself into that story as a reader you might be able to experience that feeling of having interacted with something above/beyond the merely mortal human, you might be able to touch that sense of numinous in a very real physical form, and maybe just maybe you are that one special human who the elves will see the divine in. Perhaps you the reader are one the elves will seek out to find their own sense of numinous. Perhaps you are special, and we all love feeling special.


So that my wonderful viewers, is my explanation for what makes elves different from simply pointy eared humans. They are a connection to the divine that humans naturally seek. They fulfill a more than simply physical yearning, but what do you think my wonderful viewers? Did I miss any Elvish lore? Please leave a comment below telling me why you think that elves are special, and more than just humans with pointy ears.
Hit that like and subscribe button and peace out my wonderful viewers!   Author Betty Adams Books
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Vice Captain Hoshina Base Jumping With Mina and Bakko Kaiju No. 8 France Anime Key Visual

Vice Captain Hoshina Base Jumping With Mina and Bakko Kaiju No. 8 France Anime Key Visual
https://youtube.com/shorts/9dZt9b_M2eY?si=Pyoh_zxw2NMZcTsy
#ShonenJump #Anime #KN8 #KaijuNo8 #Liger

Bas jumping I guess and Mina

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Humans are Weird - Crow

Humans are Weird - Crow Commander Eighth Click saw the shadow that fell across the entrance to his office and finally glanced up with what he mostly hoped was not a threatening glare on his face. It had been a long day. The newly arrived humans had done far more damage since their arrival than even the most pessimistic engineers had predicted. It was almost as if you imported a giant bipedal species and set them loose in Winged architecture they would put stress on foundations and platforms not built for them and only hastily remodeled. Having to deal with the fourth report of a buckling undergirder this week had not put the commander in the best mood to deal with whatever was making Private Twenty-fourth Click’s footsteps drag so slowly.
As Commander Eighth Click suspected the private’s ears were drooping, his eyes were wide with some hurt, and his fur lay slack against his body. The faint hope that the private was just popping in for a moral boosting glance at his wing commander puffed out of existence.
“What is it Private Twenty-fourth Click?” Commander Eighth Click tried not to demand harshly.
The private cowered a little but started talking fast enough to show that his tongue was working fine at least, even if his wings were drooping.
“I think one of the humans is offended at me,” Private Twenty-fourth Click burst out. “I just showed him the math. I even used human calculation methods in base ten! I don’t know why that made hims so angry but now he won’t even look at me and-”
“What math?” Commander Eighth Click cut swiftly across the current of conversation, not that he expected that to be the relevant thermal, but math at least an engineering wing understood.
“He was wrong!” Private Twenty-fourth Click burst out puffing up. “It came up on the non-feedback stress tolerances discussion. It was a simple linear equation on the load-bearing side. A hornless, flightless knows that, but the human was so confident that I checked the math. I wrote it out and everything-”
The private waved the paper on his winghook vigorously.
“In base ten, yes, yes,” Commander Eighth Click redirected the drift of the conversation now that he felt he had a decent lead under his wings. “So you wrote out in detail how the human was wrong and showed him-”
“And he didn’t even make a pretense of thanking me!” Private Twenty-fourth Click sputtered out.
His nose, frilless enough to mark his genes as coming from the far north or south, positively rippled with indignation.
Commander Eighth Click heaved a massive sigh as he stared at the seething bundle of offended propriety. He found himself wondering if a human engineer would understand why that interaction might have been a touch offensive without having his horns guided into it.






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Humans are Weird - Just Happy To Be There

 Humans are Weird – Just Happy to Be There
The silence in the meeting room had stretched long past the Trisk requirement of six seconds for polite consideration and Quilx’tch was beginning to shift his paws uneasily on the floor before the chief ethical advisor final inclined one of her age shortened antenna towards him and angled her good eye down at the data pad. The movement seemed to set off a rustle of response in the vaguely bipedal form of their current motile visiting Gathering. Quilx’tch had not managed to get the name of the Gathering but was vaguely aware that he was in the presence of one of the leading experts on human ethics.
“Your complaint is that the humans are being too accommodating?” Second Grandmother asked in slow careful tones.
Quilx’tch squirmed and for the first time in his life wished it was polite to interject before she had finished her thought, or at least before the room had processed the false thread.
“No, no,” he said quickly. “It is not, not really a complaint at all. Just an observation of behavior that might raise some ethical concerns. Or perhaps not ethical, but experimentally relevant concerns about using humans as test subjects.”
The Shatar gave a thoughtful click and the bipedal shape of leaves and sticks prodded meaningfully at the display shared with the Shatar.
“Perhaps if you told us in a more natural flow than this report,” the Shatar suggested.
Quilx’tch settled back on his hind paws and waved a gripping paw in agreement as he gathered his threads.
“I have been running several active experiments on human cooking behavior,” he said. “I have mostly focused on the use of tools to mitigate the dangers of burns during daily meal preparation. This necessitated, in order to control for variables you know, having the humans come to the same communal area to prepare one meal a day rather than preparing it in their own habitations. As the study progressed I noticed that the humans were quite enjoying the study, something I naturally attributed to the social gathering aspect of a shared goal-”
The Gathering rustled up to what Quilx’tch assumed was a postural request for attention and Quilx’tch fell silent and turned his body towards the Gathering’s center of mass, stamping down a bit of irritation at the interruption.
“Social make happy sure?” the Gathering slurred out.
The Shatar cocked her antenna towards Quilx’tch in what he knew to be an offer to explain and he waved a paw at her gratefully.
“Every species except the Gathering finds social action more pleasant than solitary action,” she explained.
“As a general rule,” Quilx’tch supplied when she had indicated she was done. “Humans especially do have a desire for periods of solitude but as a whole are more cheerful in social situations.”
The Gathering hummed in what Quilx’tch took to be understanding and settled back down to a listening posture.
“It came to my attention,” Quilx’tch continued, “that the communal space camera recordings were available for perusal and thinking I might get some good data on dietary habits between planned meals and spontaneous meals I took a look at the recordings.”
“This was when you noted that the humans were happier when they were helping you with your experiment than when simply preparing meals in a social area?” The Shatar asked.
Quilx’tch gave a click of confirmation.
“I noted intensity and frequency of smiles,” Quilx’tch said, “general energy of movements, and emotive vocalizations. All increased, especially the vocalizations in the group that knew they were assisting with my study.”
The Gathering gave a gurgling attempt at speech and the Shatar translated.
“What were these emotive vocalizations you observed?” she asked.
“I have organized them into clusters of, um, huh, and mammal lung sounds one through six with decimal subset,” Quilx’tch said. “They appear to be closest in nature to fragments of attempted song. I have heard other humans refer to them as ‘happy little noises’ and they are generally treated as indicators of well being. They are less likely to manifest when humans are together, occurring mostly when an individual human is alone.”
Quilx’tch could tell when the oddity finally struck the Shatar. Her antennae curled down with interest and internalized thought as she pondered his words. The Gathering gave an opinionated shuffle and the Shatar tilted her head in cautious agreement.
“Fragments Every Argument has a point,” she said. “Individuals of every social species experiences some pleasure response when helping another individual.”
“Yes!” Quilx’tch said, perhaps a little quicker than was quite polite. “I am quite accustomed to that response. It is strongest when a human is able to feed a friend. I have tasted that pleasure response more frequently than I can record. This is different. More abstract.”
The Gathering, (Fragments Every Argument Quilx’tch reminded himself) managed to gurgle out a word with enough tone to indicate a question.
“Ask?”
“I have asked them what the source of their enjoyment was,” Quilx’tch admitted. “Most simply stated that they did not know, two claimed that they were happy to be helpful, one, and this is what concerns me, said that he was just excited to be part of a real science experiment.”
That stuck the thought thread home Quilx’tch could see. The Shatar’s frills stiffened with attention, the Gathering gave up any pretense of maintaining a bipedal form and dropped into a pile.
“This might be a manifestation of that odd, nearly religious reverence they reportedly have for perceived scientific endeavor,” the Shatar murmured, “the one noted by the early first contact general anthropologists.”
Fragments Every Argument gave a series of rapid clicks and the Shatar responded more slowly.
“Yes, it might be some combination of the natural delight in being useful, social participation, and the reverence towards perceived science.”
Quilx’tch started quickly taking notes. There was more than a web of good ideas in what they were saying. If humans did have some base quirk of personality that made them pleased with being the subject of scientific observation it could have long term repercussions on all the scientific fields, the scientist to first describe it properly would certainly have woven his place in the web.    Author Betty Adams Books
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Humans are Weird – Recreational Use

  Humans are Weird – Recreational Use 

“How long before First Father contacts us?” First Cousin asked as she arranged her favorite cushions in her sleeping nook.
Second Sister gave an amused click but didn’t bother angling her head at First Cousin. Her hands and antenna were busy arranging the positively absurd number of pharmaceutical herbal decoctions Third Father had insisted they take with them. Her fingers brushed over a textured label and she wondered what in Grandfather’s Garden he expected them to experience that would require feral lich-mould extract to treat. She put it up with the other class two toxins and reached down for a wad of dried Formica moss.
“That was a serious question,” First Cousin stated, moving over to begin pulling her datapads out of the moving container.
“He will not contact us,” Second Sister stated with an amused flick of her frill.
First Cousin gave an incredulous click as she rearranged the height of a shelf set into the wall. The base was all human right angles and corners; uot exactly unpleasant, but startlingly unnatural.
“Ultimately this is your assignment,” Second Sister reminded her, “I am just here to prevent you from doing something stupid.”
First Cousin gave a half-hearted click of protest as she began arranging her biological samples.
“It’s true,” Second Sister said. “I might be trained as a medic but we both know that I would have just hung around Fathers’ hives until First Grandmother found me a mate if you hadn’t decided that your community service requirement had to be on a death world.”
“This hardly qualifies as a death world,” First Cousin corrected her, with an irritated flare of her frill. “What happened to Second Sister Aue Tarn was an unfortunate accident and preventable-”
“With proper sanitation let alone medical care,” Second Sister said with a mildly irritated flush to her frill. “I heard the first five times you laid that argument line out for the Fathers. My point is that this is your station, not mine, and therefore First Father will not be contacting us to check in.”
Just then the comm chirped with the information that it was relaying one of the ridiculously expensive intersystem messages.
“Second Father will be,” Second Sister stated.
She was well aware that her pheromone profile was filling the air with a cloying smug fog so she gave First Cousin a cheerful wave and left her to answer the endless line of questions Second Father would no doubt have for her. This would be Second Father’s call of course. Politeness demanded that First Father not interfere, but Second Sister was aware that, just beyond the range of the home hologram projector, First Father would be hovering, waiting for her to step into frame to jump in and take his own bite of the conversation. It was only polite to leave the entire call time to First Cousin, the responsibility and therefore the stress of this assignment was hers after all. So all the fussing and soothing should be as well.
Outside of the door Second Sister flexed her legs one after the other, curling the flex all the way down to her toes. Her frill picked up the line of worried questions Second Father was stringing around First Cousin and she clicked with rueful amusement before trotting down the corridor.
The air in the common areas was surprisingly comfortable. She supposed that the base was going to be extra careful about the humidity levels after Second Sister Aue Tarn’s accident. The medical reports said she had fully regrown the amputated leg but the accompanying images of the initial infection had been rather horrific.
Second Sister followed the recently applied artificial pheromone indicators to the main observation lounge and felt her antenna stir in wonder at the sight as she stepped through the doors. The dense forest had been cleared from around the base to make the most efficient use of the local solar radiation and the light in the observation room was just on the safe side of blinding. She paused to curl and uncurl her antenna a few times as she adapted to the unnaturally bright light. Everything outside was so utterly alien. From the trees that towered like buildings to the foliage that was more yellow than green nothing was quite familiar, except for the perfectly regulation rectangular patch of local transport landing pad in front of the base.
Second Sister found her cone of attention drawn to the small symbol of civilization and control of nature. Everything else was wild, overwhelming. It seemed oddly small under the giant alien trees. Between the brilliant sunlight, the strangeness of the environment, and the relative distance it took her several minutes to discover figures moving on the landing pad. With a start she realized that the pad it self was in fact a rather large one and the figures moving around it were the base humans. She marveled at the fact that they were outside in the humidity and direct solar radiation with only the flimsiest of cloth shielding on their bodies. She flicked out her proboscis and liked at her eyes in amazement as she processed that they were not wearing protective booties on their feet, running back and forth over the rough surface of the landing pad. Something jumped in the center of the pad and generated an oddly dark cloud. The humans began to dance with delight and Second Sister licked at her eyes again as she puzzled that out.
She focused her attention on the item that had jumped. It was a large cylinder that she recognized from her safety research as one of the physical filters, meant to catch mid-sized airborne particles. They were quite advanced and one of the many items she had used to soothe her Fathers’ fears. From the color of this one it had long since reached capacity and was probably set to be set out for decomposition. Which did raise the question of what the humans were doing with it on the landing pad.
The humans had stopped their delighted dancing and one had darted over to a container and pulled something out of it. Second Sister felt a prickle of unease run over her frill as she recognized one of the symbols on the container as ‘explosive’ the other was familiar, but she had never seen this iteration of it. She was sure she had never seen it in combination with the explosive symbol.
She realized that the human had scrambled over to the filter with something from the container. The human placed the item under the filter, that was at least as tall as the human, and then scampered back. The humans were still, expectant, and then the filter jumped again, releasing a cloud of spores and dust back into the air from which it had come. The human danced with delight.
‘Recreation’ Second Sister suddenly realized. The second symbol on the container indicated something only rated for recreational use, as opposed to industrial or medical uses.
“Recreational explosives,” Second Sister murmured to herself, stepping back uneasily from the observation window.
Perhaps, perhaps she would just go have a quick, soothing word with Second Father after all.

Author Betty Adams Books
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