Betty Adams's Blog, page 14

Large Print Surprise

glow....
So I have several books on various retailers, you know what they are if you've been around for more than 24 hrs. When I first uploaded them I only used the basic 6"x9" paperback format as that was the standard. Even learning how to format that was a bear of a job, and spatial reasoning *hurts* so I was pretty proud of myself.
While doing that I saw that hardcovers were a preset option so I formatted a hardcover too. It was also 6"x9" so the difference in formatting wasn't great, but the process was still painful for me. I was pleasantly surprised that the hardcovers sold so well, not often, but consistently and I was happy for the money from the sales.
Large print was also an option and is defined as a book with font from 16 to 20. Now my Grandma needs large print now so I understand the need, but to be frank I only decided to put myself through the mental stress of making a large print format of my books for the prospect of more money.
However then I noticed my first large print sale, and when I thought about it, it felt good. Someone spent the extra six bucks to purchase the large print version over the regular version. They probably needed it. So someone was made more comfortable, someone's enjoyment of life was enhanced the smallest bit, because I sat down and formatted a print version of a large font book.
It felt good.
That is all.


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Humans are Weird – The Stick

 Humans are Weird – The Stick




Grabsforyou slipped out of the transport channel and through the flexible iris into the human sleeping pods. He paused and shook his appendages vigorously to get rid of any excess water and shuffled eagerly out of the mudroom and into the common socialization area. A warm rush of now familiar scents washed over him, though thinned by air he could still identify the traces of the friend he had come to visit. Though it was getting trickier now that Human Friend Tom (previously Tommy) had reproduced. The new Human Friend Tommy (apparently the extra syllable was an indicator of youth dropped with successful reproduction) had a very similar chemical profile to his father.
“Human Friend Tom!” Grabsforyou called out as he spotted the human examining something his offspring was grasping. “What flows in the current?”
“I found a good stick!” Human Friend Tommy interjected, waving the thing in his appendages.
Human Friend Tom nodded with a set to his face that Grabsforyou had come to understand as serious consideration.
“Tommy here was just showing me the stick he found,” Human Friend Tom agreed. “It’s a nice stick. Good and sturdy.”
“See?” Human Friend Tommy called out, wriggling his arms and shoulders in a delight filled invitation for Grabsforyou to climb up his back.
Grabsforyou gladly accepted. Human Friend Tommy had only just achieved the mass to balance easily with the weight of a full grown Undulate on his shoulders and still took great pride in providing a perch for any Undulate friend who wanted one. Grabsforyou still kept a thread of attention on Human Friend Tom’s body language for any warnings and scrambled up the short distance. Human Friend Tommy grinned as he held the stick close for Grabsforyou to feel. The Undulate obediently felt the stick. It was a detached branch from a species of tree native to the world. From it’s chemical profile it had been dead some time. It might have been one that Grabsforyou himself had tossed out of the cultivated reefs during cleaning season.
“It is sturdy,” he observed cautiously.
That word he understood. He probably could break the thing if he tried, but it would require all of his effort. Human Friend Tommy seemed satisfied with his response and began waving the stick around in a rather martial accent. Human Friend Tom indicated the table and Grabsforyou accepted the suggestion. A few more of the humans offspring, older than Tommy with more mass, came in carrying baskets of harvested berries and the younger human darted up to show them the stick as they unloaded their bounty. Grabsforyou noted with growing bemusement that the other humans were equally impressed with the stick. It was ‘straight’ (it was), it was sturdy (again), it had haft (he wasn’t sure that was a real human word).
Human Friend Mi Cha entered behind her offspring and took a moment to direct their cleaning efforts before greeting Grabsforyou. Human Friend Tommy took this as his cue to join his offspring in their work after giving his mate a kiss.
“Human Friend Mi Cha,” Grabsforyou asked when she had poured them both a cup of tea. “What precisely is so special about that stick?”
The human’s body rippled with what he had come to understand was suppressed laughter and her eye sparkled with human love light as she watched her mate and offspring.
“I think I once knew,” she said in soft tones, her body showing a touch of perplexity and regret mixed with the humor, “but if so I have forgotten. See if you can figure it out Undulate Friend Grabsforyou, then please tell me.”


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Humans are Weird - Thermoclines

 Humans are Weird – Thermoclines


Rynd, mill technician third-class, specialty fermentation microecology, was trotting along, enjoying the warmth of the heated floor against his scutes when a deep gurgle of amusement pulled his nose to the side. Sprawled over a battered leather bean bag in a recreation nook, the base’s chief medical officer was blinking lazily at him while gnawing away on what had probably been the hard bun from dinner.
“Doctor Drawing,” Rynd called out with a cheerful bob of his head. “What has you sifting humor?”
“You!” the old doctor grunted out around the pulpy wad of well chewed bread he held in his teeth. “Bouncing along like a hatchling, with your tail in the air!”
Rynd might have been offended, would probably have been offended if it was any other person on the base to call him out like that, but there was only good natured humor in the doctor’s voice and his tail thumped in lazy approval against the bean bag in a way that was somehow endearing in the scuffed old officer. Besides, Rynd’s tail was pretty high in the air tonight.
“I finally got permission to share sleep warmth with Grimes!” Rynd called out, letting his paws give way to a happy shuffle.
The doctor positively grinned at that and Rynd couldn’t resent it. The old scute snout gave a few more leisurely chews on his pulpy bun wad before speaking.
“Hope you don’t mind a cold snout,” he said, before turning with a dismissive wave of his tail.
Rynd gave a perplexed grunt in reply but no further details came out of the old doctor so he turned back down the corridor towards Grimes’s sleeping chamber. He scratched at the door and a sleep slurred human voice responded. The door opened and Rynd scampered in, only to stiffen in shock as he was engulfed in a smothering blanket of cold. For a stunned moment he dropped down to the warmth of the floor and glanced around frantically for the source of the problem. There, one of the higher windows was open, letting a steady draft of cold air drift down.
“Rynd buddy!” Grimes called out, in sleep slurred tones. “Get under here. S’cold out there.”
Rynd glanced over and saw that the human was already bundled under the many insulating covers the mammal used. One massive arm was holding up a corner of the covers and letting precious mammal heat escape into the room and out the window. Rynd darted across the floor and scrambled up the side of the human’s thick sleeping pad. Grimes shifted with him, rolling to the side and dropping the heavy covers over them before grunting and near instantly dipping as deep back into dormancy as a mammal ever went.
Rynd snuggled up to the toasty mass of heat that Grimes put off and wriggled deeper into the covers. Belatedly he was recalling something about most humans preferring a fairly low ambient temperature in their sleeping spaces and a cocoon to trap their own heat. Rynd shivered at the memory of the cold draft from the window and was resolving not to leave this nice comfortable warmth cocoon until morning forced him to. That resolution held until he realized it was getting a touch difficult to breathe. He wriggled forward until just his snout was poking out of the covers. The cold air slid in and tickled his lungs. Grimes gave a soft grunt and one of his arms wrapped around Rynd, pulling them close.
Rynd balanced the positive delight of all that mammal heat against the chilly sting at this nostrils and heaved a sigh. Why couldn’t human sleep like normal people?

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Humans are Weird – Social Brawling

 Humans are Weird – Social Brawling


“The small containers are perfectly acceptable for free-range bio-degradation, but this is hardly the most efficient use of you waste water,” Notes the Passing Changes said. “I am sure that as mammals, reclaiming it for your own use is a far more efficient use of both energy and mass. Even if you wish to simply disperse it this system seems highly labor intensive for such a task.”
The human thus addressed threw back his head and laughed. The human (male, approximately half way through his life cycle, near optimum weight for his height, off-gassing chemicals indicating robust mammalian health if higher than average chronic flight or fight responses) leaned easily against the container of water he was balancing on a hover-transport.
The male was neither a newcomer nor one of the local population. He had worked in the Survey Ranger Core as a research biologist and after retiring had collaborated with various University staff to organize a temporary cultural growth. The short term human community bloomed in the driest of the summer months by summoning the juvenile humans from the surrounding continents of the colony world, along with various experts in science and the craft of time sensitive environmental adaptation. To the best of Notes the Passing Changes’s understanding the goal was to teach the juvenile mammals those skills in observation and adaptation that they would not otherwise have access to in the limited social connectivity of a newly planted colony, as well as to kindle that sense of the wonder that was the shared note of sapience.
“Yeah, sorry,” the human was saying, waving his hands and arms in wide gestures. “I didn’t explain that just right. The point isn’t to use the exercise to distribute the water for your use. The exercise itself is the point.”
Notes the Passing Changes wondered if some other level to the human’s communication not carried in sound waves. The words did string together in a mostly understandable fashion but the thick mammalian appendages were weaving around in such seemingly complex movements that it seemed that there must be some Undulate like language form involved.
“It’s about the fun,” the human was explaining, “the play, specifically the group play. We want the kids to take home not just memories of good times, but memories of having good times with the other kids. Way to easy to get insular and touch starved out here in the colonies. Nothing like a good brawl to initiate human touch and form those social bonds!”
Notes the Passing Changes shifted the current communication node, a pile of detritus formed to match the average height of a human chest, in a way that most humans translated as a thoughtful shrug.
“If that is the goal I touch on no objections,” Notes the Passing Changes stated. “If the pirmary object is to use the dedicated shared recreational space for recreation, why then are you consulting me?”
“Well,” the human glanced around with a speculative look in his eyes. “We need a soft, fairly level space of ground for safety’s sake, and it’s gonna get soaked which makes the surface more vulnerable to disruption, and the kids are going to tear it up running around. So we don’t want to bruise up a bunch of your memories. Don’t want to cost you last summer for this summer if you get what I’m saying.”
Notes the Passing Changes caused the communication node to ‘nod’ at the human and generated a thoughtful hum as those thought threads processed.
“There is little chance serious damage to myself,” Notes the Passing Changes finally said. “As a matter of safety I will pull my tendrils deep and observe from the edges of the area. Any damage to the surface layer will be easily healed and I will make sure to pull any trip hazards deeper.”
“Many thanks!” the human called out as he began pushing the first of two water containers into place.
Notes the Passing Changes observed the position of the barrels and kept a thread on them while redistributing both personal mass and the larger sticks and branches in the field. The Gathering indulged in a slow pace as the exercise was not scheduled until just after the hottest part of the next day and even so it was complete long before sunrise. Various humans crossed the field, in the interim, some staring curiously at the containers of water but most ignoring them. The heat reached its peak, and then started to decline as cool breezes began to stir. Soon the soft thudding of little feet began echoing through the top layer of the soil as the mature humans herded the immature ones onto the field.
Notes the Passing Changes both watched from the leaves of a few trees selected for the sharpness of vision the species allowed, and extended more precise photosensitive appendages to gather details. The mature humans were carrying the small paper containers, and handing stacks of them to certain of the significantly smaller immature humans. These in turn passed the containers out to the rest of the immature humans until all the humans had at least one of the containers. There was shouting then, the purpose of which seemed to be to herd the humans into two groups of roughly the same numbers. The groups formed with the two large water containers in between them. One mature human than stood halfway between the two containers and began chanting, causing the groups of immature humans to still. When the chant reached it peak the two groups of humans immediately started screaming and rushed towards the large water containers waving their smaller containers around.
It was to say the least chaotic. Several of the immature humans, and most of the mature ones, fell over once the rush started. These were either helped to their feet by other humans, or simply left to lay in the headlong rush for the water sources. All of the humans were emitting sound in decibel ranges that reached what Notes the Passing Changes understood the be maximum human capacity for sound generation. Several of them were exceeding what Notes the Passing Changes understood to be the maximum human capacity for sound generation. Several of the smaller humans were reaching a pitch that was usually only associated with Winged echolocation, and throughout all of the chaotic sound ran a tone of joy that was unmistakable.
Notes the Passing Changes watched in fascination as the fastest humans reached the water, filled their containers and promptly hurled the contents as whatever human was standing next to them. More humans arrived and there was a tangle of limbs and bodies at the sides of the water containers. Soon a portion of the humans began darting away with their full smaller containers, to seemingly randomly then toss the water on another human, inspiring rolling waves of shrieks and shouts.
Notes the Passing Changes shifted more attention away from the detailed photo receptors to the broader range pattern recognition of the foliage. The trees recognized these patterns. The humans were moving as predators, the kinds of predators that the tree might want to summon to defend it from voracious herbivores and the forest stirred with interest. Some humans showed ambush tactics, hiding behind larger humans or the main water containers. Others chose the more optimized endurance pursuit they were so well adapted for. Choosing one particular other human and chasing them, sometimes far from the water barrels before flinging the water on their target with a laugh.
Notes the Passing Changes began to see other patterns as well. One tactic was for the slower humans to shield their container of water and wait until they had absorbed their opponent's attack and then fling their own at the now vulnerable opponent. As the game went on too, Notes the Passing Changes observed that the more water a human absorbed on clothes and skin the less they valued avoiding more water. This was utterly fascinating, it was the behavior of colony insects, of schools of fish, of flights of birds, a scattering of tactics used seemingly randomly, resulting in larger patterns.
However even as this idea began to form the paper containers began to fall apart and fragments fell to the ground. Some humans ceased engaging in the game to stoop and pick the fragments up, only to be assured that, - “Notes said he’d like to eat them. Don’t worry.” Several of the most determined immature humans were gathered around the larger containers splashing water at each other with their hands but soon the source had run dry and the now very wet humans began to troop down towards their temporary sleeping quarters where they would soak themselves in hot water and then dry themselves.
As the mature human had predicted the ground surface had taken more damage than Notes the Passing Changes had expected, but such a consideration was hardly worth counting.
‘A good brawl,’ the mature human had described the group play as. Notes the Passing Changes began growing a research thread and activated more specific awareness inside the local library. The reference librarian in the dimly lit room glanced up as the leaves on the vine at the window began to rustled and smiled.
“What can I help you with today Notes?”
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Humans are Weird - Sunbeams

 Humans are Weird – Sunbeams


Fourteenth Trill swooped through the branches of the wild under-canopy with as much dignity as he could muster. The golden afternoon sun caught and reflected off of the far to many round scars where the colonists had been forced to actually cut established branches rather than growing the paths correctly in the first place as was done in civilized forests. A glimmering emerald epiphyte moved in defiance of all wind currents only a wing’s width from his sensory horns and he juttered sideways frantically. Something with far too many eyes peered out at him and Fourteenth Trill tossed dignity out of his mental satchel without a flick, darting the final few clicks to the Ranger station and arriving panting with what he hoped was more exertion than panic. The members of the local Wing were darting around carrying tools or piloting hover transports, all intent of important missions by the set of their faces.
The local safety data packet had been rather less than perfectly helpful when describing the native fauna. “Hardly dangerous if proper precautions were taken,” was a quote that didn’t exactly inspire confidence in the Ranger Core’s domestication efforts on the planet. Even more worrying was the line, “of far more danger are the various carnivorous plants-” None of the Wing stationed here looked concerned of course, but he did notice that they went about in pairs.
Fourteenth Trill wrapped his talons around the comforting sturdiness of the perch outside the main entrance to the Ranger station and let his breath catch up to him as he examined the fantastically rough woodwork of the brutalist human structure. Rather than growing their habitations the humans simply took massive dead logs and carved and nailed them into frames for their dwellings. The remnants of logs not needed were stacked haphazardly behind the building, drying out and warping to uselessness in the sunlight.
The upper layers of this building were clearly built of the local wood, formed into a tall peak and reinforced with steel lacing on the top to prevent damage from falling canopy branches. Though an odd scent drew Fourteenth Trill’s attention down and he saw that most of the lower half of the building was made of local stone. Surprised, and feeling a breeze of inspiration he shoved a winghook into his satchel and pulled out his sketch pad. He was twitching his nostril tips for a nice breeze to follow up to a good view of the structure when the door he was sitting by swung open.
“Get in here before you get yourself eaten!” Snapped a balding old Winged with time thinned teeth who could never have been anything but a Sargent.
Fourteenth Trill’s digits quite literally ached to draw the image of the old Winged in the new door in the slanting sunbeams, but the old one disappeared into the relative darkness beyond that the light wind sounded full of corridors and storage containers and smelled of fresh cut wood. Fourteenth Trill darted after him and scuttled down the corridor clutching his sketch pad under one wing and attempting to arrange his undone satchel with the other.
By the time his eyes adjusted to the dimmer light of the building the old Winged, one Twenty-five Clicks if Fourteenth Trill remembered the name on the communication form correctly, had scuttled down through a slot in the floor that did not look like it would meet code regulations for a proper passage. Fourteenth Trill flicked his nostril frills in delight as he hopped down and onto a ledge, with no safety rail, that ran around a smaller human room. Meaning of course that it was massive and only slightly less intimidating than the alien forest outside. There were two windows that might have been the view ports on a space station for their size. They had been made up of dozens of standard sized windows set into a frame. The westward window was letting in the slanting golden sunlight and the alternating bars of brilliance and dimness reflected off of countless dust motes before coming to rest on a lumpy pile of something tossed on the floor. The pile was something like the discarded logs outside.
“The crew lead will brief you after he finishes his solar recharge,” the old Winged was saying.
Something in that statement was wrong enough to prod Fourteenth Trill to respond before the old Winged dissipated.
“Why would this base use solar powered tech this deep in a forest?” He asked. “You only get direct sun light for less than an hour in the afternoon.”
The old Winged tossed him a look that sounded of mild annoyance and more amusement.
“Not for the tech,” the old Winged said, jerking his head in the direction of the pile on the floor before hopping off the ledge and disappearing in a flutter of wings and a faint smell of medicated powder.
Fourteenth Trill stared at the pile on the floor curiously. He chirped and tilted his head to the side as he felt the return. Not logs he realized. They mass was far too soft and there was a Ranger Core standard solar shield tossed on one end of the mass in the golden light. Fourteenth Trill squinted at one corner of the pile that had just been relieved of the golden light by the movement of the sunbeam. With a sudden snort like a volcanic vent the pile shook itself, one massive hand appeared and came up to steady the solar shield as the pile, the human, it was a human Fourteenth Trill suddenly understood, the crew lead for the local Ranger Station, adjusted his mass so that he was centered in the sunbeam, gave two more mighty snorts, and then fell still.
Fourteenth Trill stared down in fascination. He needed to get settled into his place in the local wing. He needed to hydrate. He needed…
He pulled a hook cap out of his satchel and slipped it on. Below him the giant breathed quietly in the sunbeam. Fourteenth Trill was vaguely dissatisfied with the concept that the human actually needed to recharge in the solar rays to gather energy, but in the face of the contentment that radiated off the mammal in waves as it basked in the golden light the Winged artist couldn’t really bring himself to care. 


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Humans are Weird - Emergency Cuddles

 Humans are Weird – Emergency Cuddles


Prodsuneasily was half an appendage deep in his xeno-comparitive hypothermia research and happily engrossed in prodding at the differences in reaction time between humans and Winged when the cold trill of an alarm filled the office. He reluctantly extended a few of his lagging appendages in half an effort to locate the strange sound. The surface to volume ratio was so critical to mammalian species. He had just never quite sounded why. It had something to do with all their organs he was sure. The alarm trilled again and he reluctantly stopped prodding the human liver and pushed himself away from his data pad. He had never heard that exact alert before but the tone indicated something serious and a full facility reaction.
His appendages bobbed up, past the surface of his cozy little work poll and into the chilly air of the base. Steam drifted up from the water, and the moisture and temperature gradient caused the sound of the alarm to dance gently around him in the thin atmosphere, stealing something from the urgency of its tones. The datanode producing the alarm was on the far side of the room and the space separating his nice, warm pool from it was filled with the silvery-violet light that was all that could filter through the clouds from the local star.
With a slump of acceptance Prodsuneasily eased his mass out of the pool and over the counter before sliding down the cabinet side to the floor of the medical offices. Of course the floor was not dangerously cold, the base was better engineered than that, however the knowledge that outside the ground was covered in frozen precipitation deeper than a human could float vertically somehow made his appendages tingle with imagined cold as he shuffled towards the datanode. He scrambled up the wall and touched the node to receive the sounding.
“Main recreational area,” he hummed to himself as he translated the alert. “Human Friend Freddy. Full signals given. Base wide participation suggested.”
Satisfied that he had understood the semi-critical alert the data-node fell mercifully silent, though it continued to give off a glow to indicate a continuing situation. Prodsuneasily pondered the information. The alert level did not exactly demand a response. Though he did not sound ever having seen a semi-critical alert before. Still, it looked like Human Friend Freddy was in need of some sort of assistance.
One of his appendages reached longing back for his datapad full of fascinating information about organ function. Then he felt his stance perk up as a thought occurred to him. He scrambled the long distance back to his pool and grabbed his datapad. There was no reason not to take it with him after all. He, in a very mature manner he thought, resisted the urge to read just one more fiber of the information, and scrambled out into the corridor. He dearly missed the underground flowways from his last base, but the geology of this world had not been conductive to them and they made do with well reinforced pools.
He had nearly shuffled his way to the main junction when Twistsfirmly came scrambling out of the medical storage room, where he had apparently been experimenting with the medical benefits of coating himself in dust and grime from the look of his outer membrane.
“Wonderful!” Twistsfirmly waved delighted at him. “I wasn’t sure you would respond to the alert in the office and now we will be in time for the best positions!”
“The best positions for what?” Prodsuneasily asked. “And would it be permissible for me to continue my research?”
“Yes, yes, good idea to bring that,” Twistsfirmly said with a dismissive wave, his exact meaning obscured as he produced a small rag and attempted to clean himself a bit as they moved towards the recreation room.
“This is your firs SAD response isn’t it?” Twistsfirmly asked.
“I did not even know that is what it was called,” Prodsuneasily admitted.
“Well you are aware that humans can sometimes grow depressed if they are not exposed to sufficient starlight?” Twistsfirmly asked.
“Yes,” Prodsuneasily replied. “Oh dear, I begin to catch the drift of the current. Is Human Friend Freddy depressed?”
“Not quite,” Twistsfirmly said. “The artificial lighting here is very good, but this is the dangerous part of the year and it is good to counter potential depression with plentiful social physical contact.”
“Humans are rather strict about social contact,” Prodsuneasily said, a warning gesture rippling up his dorsal side.
“Yes, yes,” Twistsfirmly said with a dismissive wave. “That is why we have a dedicated cuddle couch and a dedicated indicator pillow.”
“Wait,” Prodsuneasily said as two coral branches met in his mind. “Is this indicator pillow that strange lump of insulation material that the humans decorated to look like one of us?”
“Exactly!” Twistsfirmly declared. “I would describe the signal phrase, but you will see it soon enough. I was so tired of being the last to respond and having to make due with an outer layer position, because of how far the medical offices are from the recreation room that I installed a little program in the base security system. If a human gives the indicator phrase it instantly alerts me.”
They came to the door of the recreation room and quickly shuffled through the flaps on the bottom that allowed for easy access to Undulates. The room, that slopped gently downward to a central heated pool system and ended in large view windows, housed several human sized pieces of furniture. However only one was occupied. Human Friend Freddy was wearing her lounging layers. Soft, algae fiber weave cloths that fell loosely over her body. She had flung herself stiffly onto the couch and was clutching the indicator pillow to her head. As he watched she drew in a long breath and gave a loud sigh. Alien though she was every angle spoke of a need for close companionship.
“Hurry now,” Twistsfirmly said gleefully, “Touchesquickly must have already been in the room but there is still pleasantly of excellent space on her back and shoulders where we can get at the heat coming out of her head and neck.”
Prodsuneasily noted that there was already one Undulate curled up comfortably in what his research told him was the small of the human’s back, as he followed Twistsfirmly towards her. He wondered if his coworker’s dusty state would be a problem but Human Friend Freddy peeled open one eye and only gave them a tired smile as they came into her line of sight. They scrambled up the couch and Prodsuneasily took the position that Twistsfirmly indicated and arranged his datapad. Beneath his appendages Human Friend Freddy gave another sigh, but she was already relaxing. More Undulates were arriving, some greeting Human Friend Freddy and some simply shoving into a spot on her mass with visible delight in the set of their appendages. Prodsuneasily had to admit, even with the water/air difference this somehow felt warmer than studying alone. Though he would have to extend an ethics question to the University. Was it really quite all right to blatantly take advantage of a seasonal pattern in human depression?


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Humans are Weird – Excessive Cuddles

Humans are Weird – Excessive Cuddles

Rollsalong was humming happily as he pushed up through the stream door and into the work room. Settlescomfortably gestured to her assistant absently as she filtered through the base personnel files. She was reasonably certain that she had missed at least a small tangle of the local farmers in the yearly physicals that were so necessary on a colony world but she had so far only managed to touch one profile that she had not thoroughly inspected. 
“We really do need a better search engine in our file system,” she said to the room in general. 
“Well,” Rollsalong said cheerfully as he sanitized himself at the full body station, taking time to soak out some dehydration that had not fully resolved itself on the swim over. “I think you mean that we need a search engine. The entire system was grown from a bud and really has no formal structure at all.”
“Yes, the infamous ion storms that took out the presets on the founding colony ship,” she said, rubbing the familiar excuse absently.
“You are very perky this morning,” she observed because Rollsalong was clearly bouncing with a need for at least one appendage of her attention. 
“Human Friend Bryant was very affectionate last night!” Rollsalong declared. 
“Ah yes,” Settlescomfortably murmured, as she found another farmer with a blank physical profile for the year. “You spent the human’s sleep cycle cuddling. That would explain your dehydration.”
“I am within tolerances!”  Rollsalong declared quickly. “As I was saying, Human Friend Bryant is usually very unresponsive during his sleep cycle! He just lays there with his eyes covered by their flesh caps and doesn’t interact at all.”
A vague sense of unease tingled at Settlescomfortably’s appendage tips and she lifted several more appendages to focus on what her assistant was saying. 
“But tonight he actively cuddled me several times!” Rollsalong went on. “Why, once he even pulled me under his main center of mass and rested his full weight on me so all my appendages were compressed at once. This of course trapped all of his excess moisture, at least the portion on his ventral side, anyway it made for a very high humidity and I only got a little dehydrated.”
“Rollsalong,” Settlescomfortably interjected. “Was Human Friend Bryant awake during these movments?”
Rollsalong hesitated as he pulled himself up to the work station beside her. 
“I don’t think so,” he said. “He never opened the flesh caps and none of his vocalizations achieved any coherence that I could determine.”
“Were the vocalizations coming from his nasal passage or his mouth?” Settlescomfortably demanded. 
Rollsalong visibly thought that one over as he sorted the human anatomy terms he knew. 
“His nasal passage,” he said slowly. “That is the pointed one correct?”
Settlescomfortably pulled up Human Friend Bryant’s medical file. He had attended a full physical and nothing medically relevant had been noted. 
“Have him come in for an examination,” she said. 
“Why?” Rollsalong said in confusion. “Just because he was a little friendly last night?”
“What you are describing,” Settlecomfortably explained, trying to keep mild irritation out of her appendages, yes, Rollsalong was medical track but he was very young, “ Random limb movement, shifting of center of mass, laying over restmates, and non-speech vocalizations, is affectionate rest behavior in an Undulate. In a human that behavior indicates that they are struggling to exchange enough gas to keep their body functional.”
Rollsalong stiffened in horror as his xeno-medical training floated to the top of his memory.
“So the reason that Human Friend Bryant was more active last night?” He asked. 
“Was most likely that he repeatedly nearly suffocated and his survival instincts were interrupting his sleep cycle to prevent death,” Settlescomfortably informed him. “Now, I suspect inflation of the inner-tube membranes, they are very sensitive in humans, and it shouldn’t be a medical issue so long as he is awake, but please request that he come in before nightfall  so we can identify the cause of the irritation.”
Rollsalong gave a near panicked gesture of agreement before scrambling for his communicator. Settlescomfortably probably shouldn’t have laid on the danger so thickly, she mused, but better too strong an anchor than too weak. 


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Transfomers: EarthSpark What Dwells Within – Review & Analysis – Bad Writing-Cool Monsters Part 1

 Transfomers: EarthSpark What Dwells Within – Review & Analysis – Bad Writing-Cool Monsters Part 1
https://youtu.be/lP1B3ytyV58?si=83vMocAg0nw3bMCp
#TFES #Starscream #Maltos #DeepDweller #Monster

Author Betty Adams Books
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Friday Livestream 09/01/2023 Kaiu No. 8 Hiatus - Transformers EarthSpark - Flying Sparks Editor

 Friday Livestream 09/01/2023 Kaiu No. 8 Hiatus - Transformers EarthSpark - Flying Sparks Editor
https://www.youtube.com/live/6mtObKn7If8?si=CXwwg66FrmzZc9jI
#TransformersEarthSpark #KaijuNo8 #DyingEmbers #FlyingSparks #Editing



Author Betty Adams Books
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​ Humans are Weird – Coming Out

​ Humans are Weird – Coming Out


With a frill tingling crack the massive tree snapped and began its loud fall through several layers of canopy to the ground. Human Father stood at what he considered to be a safe distance from the base, holding the chainsaw away from his body, round head tilted to observe the tree, thick legs poised to run. Swathed in the protective layers required for this task the normally large mammal looked massive, and glowed in colors that were natural on no planet and offensive on most. The added crush trauma shell the humans wore to protect their already nearly invulnerable skulls was at least a soothing blue. The massive trunk of the tree settled to the forest floor with a final thump that shook the ground around them.
Second Father watched the human’s posture relax and felt his own joints loosen as the forest around them erupted in the protesting chattering of the various creatures that responded to sound and other vibrations. The human walked around the base of the trunk, the trauma shell magnifying his consideration as he tipped his head this way and that as he looked for mysterious signs of danger. Finally satisfied he pulled off the trauma shell, shook out his hair, and removed both the ear and eye protection before waving towards the Shatar.
“She’s good to go!” the human roared out into the now relatively silent forest. “Don’t you spindly little sister try to take out anything larger than my wrist and you’ll be fine! Mind the tension on the lower branches!”
“We are aunts!” snapped on particularly wide frilled Second Aunt who had quite readily responded to Seventh Sister only a few weeks ago.
The human took the snappish response with a laugh and gave a wave that probably meant something in human body language, but the majority of the hive’s able bodied females were now swarming the tree with a mix of collection baskets, saws, and winches.
Second Father felt his psudo-frill swell with pride as they descended on their various tasks with not a word of coordination needed. Their outer membranes gleamed with radiation shielding salve where it peaked out from their own protective layers and still they moved with grace and precision. His sisters and cousins did honor to the ancestors who had left their home hive. Human Father wandered back to the main staging area for the tasks of the day, slowly peeling off the many layers of trauma and piercing protection needed to wield a took capable of bringing down such a large tree.
“That’s the last of the sick trees?” The human asked as he dropped the preposterously heavy ‘chaps’ from his legs and tossed them with casual power onto his transport.
“The last of the ones that we require you aid to bring down,” Second Father said, “and they are not quite sick, the fungal load just makes them a danger to our gardens.”
The human bobbed his head in a human gesture of politeness as he pulled off the final layer of gloves and reached over for his bottle of water. Second Father took the chance to cast an eye over the bandage count on the human’s hands. Human Mother had extracted a promise from him that he would report any new injuries, especially if it appeared that Human Father had forgotten to report or treat them. To Second Father’s relief there were actually fewer of the thin bandages that humans used like some sort of second membrane to keep damaged areas clean. Human Father noted his attention and grinned.
“Nothing new to snitch about today!” the human said cheerfully. “In fact-”
The human cut off as he reached over with the hand holding the water bottle, shifted it to his three smallest digits in another impressive show of strength, and grabbed the edge of the adhesive bandages between two fingers.
“I think this one is just about ready to come out,” the human muttered, ripping off the bandage and then poising his fingers as if to rip again.
“Out?” Second Father asked, “I thought that ‘off’ was the applicable prepo- what are you doing?”
Second Father’s voice broke into hissing clicks of the Mother language as Human father used his cracked and stubby nails to peel off a layer of healing membrane with a satisfied grunt from those giant mammalian lungs.
“Just a scab,” the human said, tossing him a reassuring grin. “Now a little squeeze..”
The human used his two free fingers to pinch on either side of the now hole in the membrane of his arm and ‘out’ popped what some reasonable part of Second Father’s mind was able to identify as a broken off fragment of one of the local thorns. The human’s two free fingers plucked the thorn from his flesh and brought it up to examine Second Father presumed. He was much to fixated on the millimeter wide, centimeter deep hole in his friends membrane that was leaking some light colored puss.
“Took its own good time working it’s way out,” the human commented, setting the thorn down on his chaps and reapplying the adhesive bandage.
Second Father was aware that he was probably a sickly color but his attention was suddenly gripped by a realization as he identified the species that particular thorn must have come from.
“We haven’t been in the blackvine section of the forest for five days,” he managed to click out in human range after some effort to uncurl his antenna.
“Yup,” the human agreed tossing back a swallow of water.
“That thorn was,” Second Father caught on the concept and tried again. “Was inside your membrane for five days?”
“Yeah,” the human replied. “I tried to dig it out at first but it was too deep in and too small, but you really just have to let it fester a bit and the skin pushes it out, no harm, no foul.”
Second Father jumped up on the transport and grabbed the human’s ears to force a direct communication.
“There is a hole in your arm!” He managed to click out.
Human Father finally seemed to notice his horrified pallor, blinked, and burst into laughter.
“It’s not a problem Second Father buddy,” Human Father said, gently lifting him off the transport and setting him on the ground again with the arm with the hole in it. “But I can see that you are not going to take that as an answer from me. So you just to snitch to my better half and let her explain it.”
With that the human tossed his water bottle back onto the transport and turned to begin maintenance on his tools.
Second Father stood, opening and closing his mandibles for several long moments before darting over to where he had left his datapad with the good radio built in. From his confidence Human Father clearly thought that Human Mother was going to approve of this behavior and while Second Father didn’t doubt that they had a good understanding of each other and Human Father was probably correct...he had a hole in his arm!


Author Betty Adams Books
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