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svarri · 1 year ago

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Notes From the Deathworld Earth: 35. Deathworld

Report on the Planet Known as Earth

Summary:

Research and analysis indicate that the planet named “Earth” is uninhabitable in its natural state by most life, carbon-based or otherwise. Climate and temperatures vary wildly over the surface of the planet, and none are hospitable to life. The exception is the tropical region around the equator of the planet, which provides easy access to plentiful food and comfortable temperatures. However, even in tropical climates, species evolved on other planets will not be able to live comfortably.

The dominant species on Earth, humans, terraforms their environment to meet their needs. This includes behavior we would expect to see from any highly-advanced species, such as constructing homes for themselves and temperature control. However, humans also construct artificial land, divert the paths of rivers, and genetically engineer plants and animals. Most humans in the modern times live in entirely artificial environments and will never have to interact with Earth in its natural state unless a disaster befalls them.

Humans are generalists that have evolved not to suit their environment, but to be able to survive despite it. They thrive on Earth due to their highly-adaptable minds and bodies, and because they have evolved keen senses to detect common dangers in their environment. Their senses have evolved to detect the smallest intruder on their person or in their homes, to distinguish between friend and foe, and to track their prey while hunting.

Humans are highly dangerous predators, but their methods of hunting vary from the normal behavior we would expect from apex predators. They have no fangs or claws, nor any means of stabbing their prey. Their species learned to hunt using weapons, tools, and traps. And they still rely on these methods today to kill wild game, though most animals they eat now are raised in captivity.

Humans are dangerous because Earth has shaped them to survive on its surface. It has gifted them with violent instincts, uncontrollable emotions, and hearty, sturdy bodies. Their species evolved slowly, facing a thousand small setbacks in their long, strange path to sapience.

In fact, it is estimated that Earth has had many different iterations of "dominant species" over the three and a half billion years life has existed on the planet. And many human scholars believe that their time on the planet is drawing to a close as well. This is one of the many reasons that humans want to leave Earth for the stars.

Proposed Planet Classification Level: 1

Analysis: Level 1 worlds are generally characterized by eight factors:

Multiple deadly diseases endemic to the population

High child mortality rates

Natural predators to dominant species common

Chemical weapons common in native flora and fauna

Limited food supply

Natural instinct for violence in the population

Common-sense paranoia in the population

Multiple/regular extinction events in the history of the planet.

Earth meets four of the eight criteria outright and the other four humans have either mitigated in some way or may be true for some of the planet but not all of it. We shall proceed to examine each criteria here.

1. Multiple deadly diseases endemic to the population.

Humans suffer from many diseases regularly. More than most species ever have to deal with. Some of the most infectious and most deadly are Coronavirus-2019, a respiratory illness that causes humans to slowly suffocate to death; measles, a virus that can cause swelling in the brain and death; polio, a disease which can paralyze humans to the point they cannot breathe; Ebola, a virus which has an extremely high death rate and causes humans to bleed through every hole on their body including pores on their skin; smallpox, a thankfully extinct disease that caused massive death; and cholera, a disease which causes a human to lose water do rapidly they will die within hours if it is left untreated.

That is not to mention all the countless bacteria and fungi that attack humans on a daily basis. Many of which have evolved so much that they can no longer be treated with antibiotics.

It is the belief of the galactic library that the number of diseases present on Earth is related to criteria 8. Near-total extinction events in Earth's recent history mean that all of the species on the planet are closely genetically related because only a select few species survived each disaster. Human genetic code is shockingly similar to other species. Their closest living relative, the chimpanzee, has a 99.9% identical genetic code, while a common farm animal, the pig, shares 98%. Diseases on Earth can jump species much more easily than on other planets because of these similarities.

2. High Child Mortality Rates

As little as 150 Earth-years ago, up to half of human children died in childhood. Almost a third died within their first year of life. However, in recent times, humans have curbed child mortality from 50% to 4% worldwide. Unsurprisingly, this led to a massive population explosion.

3. Natural Predators to dominant species common.

Humans have hunted most large predators on Earth to extinction or near-extinction, but when they were alive, they did eat humans. Some species, like polar bears, still hunt humans, but for the most part they are remote from population centers.

4. Chemical weapons common in native flora and fauna.

Earth is covered in animals and plants welding chemical weapons. Spiders, small eight-legged creatures, are venomous. Some are dangerous enough to kill animals as large as humans. The same is true of snakes, which are reptiles without legs that crawl on the ground and are found on almost every continent. Meanwhile, many plants are poisonous to eat or dangerous to even touch because they are coated on rash-inducing toxins. Fungi can be fatal to ingest or cause vivid hallucinations that last hours.

These adaptations are meant to help evade predators or protect the species, but sometimes humans actually enjoy these toxins. Capsaicin, which causes a sensation like pain when ingested, is considered delicious by most humans. And they have genetically modified the plants that produce it in order to produce more.

Similarly, nicotine, which is a poison so strong that a single drop of it placed on the skin could kill the average human, is ingested for pleasure. It is highly addictive for humans, and also highly dangerous even in smaller doses.

5. Limited food supply.

Humans have, in some places at least, completely negated the food shortages typical on Earth through farming. However, in other places, humans still struggle to feed themselves. Food distribution is a challenge, especially since humans are one of those species that assigns monetary value to resources, and it can be very difficult to convince them to provide goods to others out of the goodness of their hearts.

In natural environments, famines occur regularly, and much of the native fauna starves every year. Mostly these animals are low on the food chain and are often hunted and eaten by predators before they die of starvation.

6. Natural instinct for violence in the population.

The exact definition of violence is up for debate here. Humans do possess some violent instincts and can react unpredictably when threatened. However, they do not often attack without provocation.

Provocation, however, can be as small as looking at each other for longer than is absolutely necessary.

So this criteria may be up for debate.

7. Common-sense paranoia in the population.

This criteria is also up for debate. Humans are intensely aware of their surroundings and environments. To the point that some humans in the modern age find their surroundings overwhelming and will deaden themselves to it using earplugs or dark glasses. Even the hint of a threat puts them on edge, and they will remain alert for danger for hours or more after the disturbance seemingly passes. However, they do not believe themselves to be paranoid, only taking the necessary precautions.

Human definitions of paranoia relate to irrationality of the belief of danger. So for a human, thinking one may be being hunted while in the forest is not paranoia, because that may be happening. However, believing one is being followed by a ghost or spirit is paranoia because most humans don’t believe in ghosts. Similarly, a human may be called paranoid if they believe they are being listened to in their own house, but not if they think they are being followed in a large city.

Sometimes, humans will hunt and kill each other. They treat this as an ever-constant and very serious threat.

8. Regular extinction events in the history of the planet.

Earth has experienced at least five mass extinction events. Humans label this occurrence as times when 75% or more of species on Earth go extinct within 2 million Earth-years. Smaller scale extinctions happen much more frequently.

In the last 500 million Earth years, a mass extinction has occurred roughly every 100 million years. Two of these events are theorized to have been caused by changes in life on Earth causing large-scale cooling. Two were caused by massive volcanic activity. And the final event was caused by a meteor strike on the planet.

Humans also believe that they may be experiencing another mass extinction event in present times. They believe that humans are the cause because rapid industrialization and fuel burning has raised global temperatures in the past three hundred years.

Mass extinction events force extreme adaptations from species in order to survive. This alone can explain much of Earth's hostility. Along with the other factors above, this pattern of regular, rapid extinction solidifies Earth’s position as a Deathworld.

Discussion:

This planetary surveyor anticipates confusion and anger from humans when they receive the news of their planet’s classification. They are often very offended by judgements, whether good or bad. Regardless of the logic and long history of the Galactic Library’s classification system, there will be protests from the humans. It is best to ignore their complaints. They will try to convince the galactic community to reclassify or reconsider their planet’s classification, and the galactic library should send other surveyors to give their opinion on Earth, but they should not be influenced by humans’ opinions of their planet.

We must always remember that from the perspective of a young species — Deathworlder, paradise-child, or otherwise — they are the average inhabitant of the universe. They are limited by their perception of normalness.

If you ask a human to tell you about Earth, they will tell you how beautiful their planet is. The skies and seas are blue, the trees are green, the flowers are blooming. They have no idea that when asked the same question, most species will not talk about visual images.

Humans do not know that Chintian’s describe their planet as “Soft, Warm, and scuttling.” They do not know that Udomach call their planet, “The great giver.” They do not know that the Frid describe their planet as “tasting of mushrooms.” They do not know that the Canteron would, once, have described their planet as, “Soaked in the perfume of fruits.”

So humans will protest that Earth is beautiful. They will say it is unmatched in its wonder except by the vast nebulas light years away, giving birth to stars. And they will not understand when we tell them that sight is the least important of all the senses, that beauty is hollow and terrible. Humans will point to the toxic flowers or the stinging insects and say, “See? Have you ever seen something as wondrous as that?” And the only way to teach them that will be to take them to another world, put the bloom of a plant on their tongues, and show them that not every world is covered in bitterness.

The Galactic Library and the many ambassadors to other species in the galaxy have a huge task before them: we must teach humans that they are not average as quickly as possible. Deathworlds are very rare, perhaps rarer than paradises. And both produce peoples who can be very dangerous to others.

Humans are not dangerous unless they believe themselves to be in danger. However, given the state of their home world, humans often think they are in danger. Their threshold for danger is much lower than other peoples'.

There is a real possibility that humans will react violently to the galactic library if we do not approach them carefully. They can be territorial and very protective, and after their war with the Canteron, they will be on high alert.

They also will be claiming ownership of the Canteron war ships. If they have not already declared them their territory, they will have by the time this report is published.

It is critical that we do not steal the Canteron war ships from humans. It is even more critical that we do not allow them to use them without first cleaning and disinfecting them.

Otherwise what happened to the Canteron may happen to others. And then the whole galaxy may come to resemble Earth, and we cannot allow that.

Attached Correspondence:

Dear Librarian:

This is Sandra writing from Acharya's notebook. Please forgive me for using it. Acharya asked me to write this letter for them while they rest.

Acharya asked me to pass this message along: call the Galactic Health and Wellness Coalition, there is a plague. Tell them not to arrest humans, but that all humans should be asked what measures they have taken against parasites and infections.

And as a human, I will tell you this should be done in complete privacy and secrecy, and that some humans will not want to be honest about their health. Some may not even know what the questions are about.

All or almost all of the Canteron are dead. Something killed them before they even reached Earth. It's probably a disease from Earth. All of the Canteron's war ships will have to be quarantined and disinfected. And all of the humans who have come into contact with them will need to be treated for whatever disease this is.

Acharya believes the source of the infection is a human woman named Carrie, a crew member of the Quick Sliver. She spoke to Canteron prisoners for a prolonged period of time after their first battle.

Carrie also believes she is the source of the infection and is distraught about it. Please make sure that whatever medical staff you send, that they know humans may try to kill themselves when they are extremely upset like she is. She may need to be sedated or restrained.

Also, Acharya’s leg is broken. They won’t tell you themselves, and they didn’t ask me to write that down. But we’re going to need someone who can actually work with the type of implants they have and possibly give them a replacement.

We don’t know what’s going to happen next. Especially since there’s a disease running rampant here. I’m afraid that I or Acharya have been exposed. I think I’d be okay, but I can’t stand the thought of Acharya dying like that.

Please, send help as fast as you can.

Sincerely,

Sandra Wright

I'm collecting these narratives on AO3 at this link, so if you're interested in reading more, consider following this piece there. And let me know if there are any other sites I should post to

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svarri · 1 year ago

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reminder to:

straighten your back

go pee goddAMN IT STOP HOLDING IT

go take your meds if you need to

drink some water

go get a snack if you havent eaten in a while

maybe wander around the house/stretch a little if you’ve been sat at the computer a while (artists especially: sTRETCH THOSE WRISTS)

reply to that text/message from earlier you’d forgotten about

maybe send a nice lil message to someone having a bad day?

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svarri · 1 year ago

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Welcome twitter users fleeing the absolute cesspool that twitter is going to become as Musk gets his way with his awful ideas! Things are better here, and hey, if you're an old user coming back, they've actually improved shit!

Here's a list of important notes for tumblr usage:

Don't censor words, particularly trigger warnings. Tumblr has a very functional blacklist (found in your settings) that can filter by post content and/or tags. But the word needs to actually be present for the filter to work. Censoring words like r*pe is actively harmful to people attempting to avoid those topics.

Use tags liberally, you have as many as you want, but don't tag unrelated shit. You'll get reported for spam really fast if you do.

Set an avatar and reblog things, otherwise you look like a bot.

You are not obligated to have your real name anywhere in your blog/bio/etc. Most people here use handles.

You can turn your ask box & anons on or off if you are experiencing any kind of harassment. You can also turn off replies on your posts, and turn off reblogs if you need to.

Tumblr has keyboard shortcuts on desktop. You can find them listed under the blog/account menu. Go learn them, they make life so much easier.

Reblog things. Seriously. Also set your dash in chronological order. You can maintain several blogs if need be, but reblogging things is normal, expected, and how you pass along stuff you enjoy.

The majority of people aren't reading your card/dni/blog bio before they reblog stuff. Posts get passed around and the OP often isn't the focal point of the post. Learn to live with it.

Fic writers: you have unlimited words, do not post fics as images.

Reblogs with comments/tags are encouraged. It's not like twitter's QRTs. The OP will see everything there. Know that before you comment.

You have a queue. This means you can set posts up ahead of time to run while you're busy. You can also completely ignore this and just spam your follows whenever you're online. Both are very commonplace

It's not weird to go through someone's blog and reblog old posts. That's actually very normal. If you add /chrono to the end of a tumblr tab then you can view an

"Spam" liking and reblogging isn't a thing that is a problem. This is invented by people I do not understand. If someone claims this is a problem, they can learn how to turn off or manage their notifications.

The only form of promotional posts that tumblr has is "blaze". There is no ad targeting or any kind of invasions of privacy with blaze. You just get subjected to w/e someone wants to show you. If you want to give tumblr some money to help the company keep going and provided an alternative to twitter, it's not a bad way to do it. You can make people look at cat photos.

Also, we have fun colors here. Plus actual formatting ability. Use it!

People lie on here for fun. Don't accept everything you see at face value, check the reblogs/replies or google something if you're skeptical! Critical thinking is good!

Above all else, be chill, use your block button if you need to, and have fun.

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svarri · 1 year ago

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A Mystery Easily Solved

I’ve got to say, one of the best things about working on a courier spaceship is the downtime. Sure, some deliveries need constant monitoring, and some days we all need to multitask on other moneymaking ventures to make ends meet. But other times we’re doing fine moneywise, and there’s a nice long span of time until we reach our destination.

Today I was spending that time reading in the crew lounge, lying sideways on the couch so I didn’t fall through the tail gap, with Telly the ship’s cat purring against me.

Originally she was The Human’s Animal, restricted to my quarters, but that didn’t last long. Her adorable nature and pestcatching abilities won over everybody, even those of the crew who had exoskeletons that couldn’t properly appreciate how soft her fur was.

I was stroking that mismatched fur with one hand and holding up my reading tablet with the other when Mur walked quietly through.

(I say walk, though really there should be a different word entirely for movement that involves that many tentacles slapping against the floor.)

Anyways, I didn’t really pay attention. I was busy reading, and the lounge was open to anyone. Apparently the rest of the crew had other things to do, which was really their loss.

I didn’t notice when he walked by the first time, but when he came back, he was moving weirdly slowly. I peered around the tablet.

Is he trying to sneak up on somebody out in the hall? I wondered. He wasn’t looking at me, and the expression on his blue-black squid face was one of frowning concentration. I didn’t interrupt.

He moved into the hall, and did indeed have a conversation with someone there, but it was a hushed one that made me even more curious. I lowered the tablet as Mur came back in the company of Paint.

She also looked serious — a mottled orange lizardy person who was colored like the Painted Sunset she was named for, and who was rarely quiet or still. She seemed to be looking for something.

“What’s up?” I whispered. Telly flicked an ear, but only settled in deeper, still purring in a way that said she wasn’t going to give up her comfy spot any time soon. I kept stroking her while I set the tablet on the end table.

“There’s a mystery sound,” Paint whispered back. “Mur said it sounded like an engine problem.”

“We shouldn’t be able to hear any engines in this room, at least not that loud,” Mur said. “Did somebody leave a bit of machinery under a table?”

He seemed honestly baffled, and I hid a smile as it dawned on me what they might be hearing. “Which direction is it coming from?” I asked. “Is it over here?”

They did some careful listening and moved closer.

Mur climbed up on a chair. “Are you doing it??”

I shook my head, grinning and still petting the cat. “No, but you’re close.”

Paint moved in with her head turned sideways for listening. “Oh!”

“Oh what?” Mur demanded.

I shifted position just enough to disturb Telly, who stopped purring and raised her head with a meow of objection.

Paint laughed. “It’s the cat!”

Mur pressed tentacles against his own face. “I can’t believe I forgot they make engine noises.”

“They do,” I said with immense satisfaction, petting Telly again. “And I believe that serves you right for the tentacle-pop noise I couldn’t figure out awhile ago.”

He sighed like a deflating balloon. “Yeah okay, that’s fair.”

“How does she do that?” Paint asked, joining me in running a hand across Telly’s fur. “Oh, she’s so warm!”

Paint’s people are called Heatseekers for a reason. I told her, “She might sit on your lap if you’re still.”

Paint was of course delighted by this idea. Mur threw several tentacles in the air and declared he was off to do something productive with his time.

“Have fun!” I said. “We’ll be here petting the engine noises.”

He grumbled as he left. Telly made more sleepy meows when she was moved from one spot to another, but with two pairs of hands giving her ear scritches and attention, she settled down again.

Her purrs were loud, and Paint’s grin was full of joy.

~~~

The ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book. More to come! And I am currently drafting a sequel!

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