Humans are weird - inter-species behavior
So I read through a lot of Humans are weird posts, but while there are a lot about our pets and stuff, there is one I have not seen yet, namely how when you raise kids with animals, the kids will adapt certain behaviors from the animals. There has been a study where a researcher tried raising an chimpanzee as human alongside his son but stopped because his son started behaving more like a chimpanzee, but the same happens with cats and dogs too! Personally, I’ve been raised alongside cats for as long as I can remember and as an introvert spend more time with her than other people. And I’m in college, but even now, when someone attacks me or does something I really don’t like (tickling and the like) my first instinct is not to tell them to stop, but to hiss, and my first instinct of defense is not hitting, though that too, but scratching and when people try to get their hand in my face also biting. My sister bit a dog once that tried to bite her because we had one when she was in her impressionable stage, which sadly died shortly before mine. And I’m really curious how aliens would react to that, like, one of their crewmates starting to tickle another and the second one is just starting to imitate aggressive sounds from one of their various pet species, or even in a more serious situation, like being attacked by a predator on another world they are currently exploring.
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Rhakesh was a little nervous. It had been only a few years since humans made first contact and they had rapidly integrated into the United Galaxies. They were brilliant engineers, had a staggering amount of cultures as a side-effect of actively preserving it and even now maintaining separate countries that just made democratic decisions in the Human Senate, and were, in general, extremely baffling to the galactic community.
Baffling, like the facts that they often did crazy stuff due to bonding. Xe had heard horror stories of humans taping knifes to cleaning units or bringing predators thrice the size of xir own species on boards as pets, though humans were easily twice the size of xir species. As such, xe was rather thankful xir own crewmember, scientist and explorer Human-Katharina merely chose one of her homeworld’s - Terra, xe remembered her calling it - animals as pet, some rather small predator proving itself useful when it caught some of the rodents that had sneaked on board on the last planet they visited to map it out, which Human-Katharina had called a cat and claimed to have had at least one at all times in her life. Human-John, their engineer human, called her a crazy cat lady as a joke, and they had multiple discussions about the superiority of either cats or dogs, which she claimed to like and have had two, most in good fun as both had either pet at some time in their lives.
However, as much as xe trusted in Human-Katharina’s abilities to handle the small predators - Human-John had coughed and laughed as he said it, reminding xir that Human-Katharina had owned both a German Shepherd and a Doberman-Hovawart mixed breed, though xe did not understand what that had to do with xir sentence - the world they were about to land on and map was known to have predators as big as one and a half of xir species, and the biggest member of the exploration crew was in fact Human-Katharina, so xe was sure that should they run into the beast, very few of xir team would come back to live the tale, and as much as Human-John claimed that Human-Katharina was far from defenseless, she did look rather frail compared to him, being about a head smaller and thus being likely a promising target for the beast. Human-John had then muttered something about compressed rage, but as Human-Katharina was a rather cheery and kind person, Rhakesh was not sure what to make of such a comment.
“Captain, are you ready?” Xe looked up at the soft, oddly melodic voice of Human-Katharina bringing xe back from xir thoughts, nodding slightly and looking over the control panels one last time, to make sure everything was in order. Then, xe too left the control room to join xir team at the exit ramp. Hopefully everything would go well and they would not run into the beast.
Xe knew of the human saying of jinxing something, but xe had not thought it to be so prophetic. At least, not before xe was frozen in fear, staring at the huge beast slowly prowling towards their team. Some of the other species were already making sounds of distress, while she just had furrowed her brows, due to the oxygen-rich atmosphere being one of the few able to forgo the helmet the others had to wear, and even the slight filters she and Human-John had to wear on the ship so as to not breathe in some of the gases they needed to breath. As such, xe had a very clear visual of her slightly calculating looks, hushing over the assembled team and back to the beast. Just as it was about to ready itself for the attack - and Rhakesh realized with horror it was aiming at xe - she quickly put herself in between them and the rest of the team, causing some startled sounds. The beast, going up to her chest, growled, a deep, absolutely unsettling sound. Xe knew no other being who could anything as threatening - at least, until Human-Katharina opened her own mouth and…
Never before had xe heard a sound like that come from either human on the ship, nor heard stories about it, so it startled xe just as much as it did the others. Xe knew the sound, the pet - cat, xe reminded xir - occasionally making the same noise when someone almost stepped on it or it generally thought anything to be dangerous, even once hissing at some from the command who tried to threaten Human-Katharina as not every species was all that accepting of humans. However, from the cat, it sounded softer, the sound coming from Human-Katharina however sounded much more threatening than that - a little deeper, but with much more fury in it. Enough so to even startle the predator, before it caught itself and instead attacked Human-Katherina, causing startled and panicked shouts from the rest of the group who had used the time to inch away from both predator and crewmate. Even Rhakesh had known better than staying so close to two fighting predators, as xe was now very unpleasantly and instinctively reminded that that was what humans were - predators who were fierce enough to domesticate their own former predators - into dogs, xe remembered with a little fear. Human-Katharina had held two domesticated highly dangerous animals as pets before, and Human-John had said that anything with Doberman mixed in it was said to be especially aggressive, and xe had disregarded it but-
The beast’s pained yowling was what tore xe from xir thoughts the second time that day. It had jumped away from Human-Katharina, with… blood coming from five deep slashes on it’s snout. Slashes caused undoubtedly from Human-Katharina’s fingernails, as those of her right hand dripped with it, and human blood was red. She had… countered it’s attack?
Xe almost whirled around, having heard Human-John’s shout. Someone had managed to connect to the ship, someone who was not as frozen in fear and entranced by the fight of the two apex predators - one native, one not but instead sentient - in front of them. Of course, the ship would have had to send Human-John, he was the only other person on board not needing a protective suit, of which there were none left. He came to a halt, slightly panting, and as such trapped their group in between predators. Xe didn’t mind all that much, especially as Human-John stared a little at the fight himself. Was this not usual for human, then?
“Damn, I forgot growing up with cats could do that.” He actually chuckled, weaving a way around the group, respectful of their fear-signals. Just as he had circled to the other side, the beast jumped at Human-Katharina again, who hissed in response, and not only slashed at it again with her nails, but when the beast tried to close it’s jaw around her neck evaded it and actually BIT the beast itself! Again, the best yowled, and once it disengaged - and xe was horrified to see the beast’s blood around Human-Katharina’s mouth, the teeth imprints around it’s snout showing clearly she actually bit down hard - yowled again, to which Human-Katharina only answered with a growl and a step towards it, arching her hands so her fingernails - which now remarkably resembled claws - looked just about enough to tear deeply into the beast’s flesh by themselves. The beast too seemed to realize this, whining and rolling on it’s back, presenting it’s throat.
Human-Katharina had just frightened one of the most deadly predators known to the United Galaxies into submission.
Human-John, suddenly laughed, the sound startling not only xe and xir team, but also the predator, who was very quick to disappear, retreating to probably never come back. Human-Katharina did not seem surprised, merely watching until it was out of sight before spitting out the black blood, wiping her mouth and scrunching her nose. “Bah.”
Again, Human-John laughed, confusing xe. “What’cha laughing at?” “Sorry, but… you just frightened a predator almost as big as yourself by imitating a cat.” Her eyebrows rose in confusion. “I mean, yeah I know it’s because you grew up with one, but… really.” “If you have nothing better to do, can you give me the water out of my backpack? I want to get that disgusting taste out of my mouth.” “What does it taste like?” “Escargo.” Xe knew that word. It was a specialty of one of the Human nations, the one named France, and Human-Katharina hated it with a passion after apparently being dragged to a restaurant specializing in things like that by her parents, with that being the least disgusting thing on the menu. She never elaborated what it was, but xe knew she said she had to throw up afterwards, from the taste alone, and barely managed to avoid her parents knowing about that. “Oh, poor thing. Here you go. By the way, you probably want to wipe your hands, you’re freaking them out.”
Now Human-Katharina’s expression grew shocked, before realization crossed it and she hurriedly cleaned her hand with the tissue Human-John gave her, before taking a few swigs of the water bottle and turning to the crew. “Are you alright?” “What… what was that? That wasn’t human standard! It was not in the manual!” One of the others of xir species managed to stammer out, and there was a brief look of embarrassment and shame on her face. “Sorry for startling you like this. And, well… no, it’s a side-effect from growing up with so many cats.” There was a short, awkward laugh. “basically, because she spend more time with her pets than her peers she adopted a few cat mannerisms, like hissing instead of shouting or growling and having no reservations about biting or scratching to defend herself and others when necessary. It happens sometimes, I think there was this scientist who tried raising his son with some… bear, I think? But he gave up when the son adopted mannerisms of the animal instead the other way round. With cats it’s… a little more socially acceptable, because cat behavior is, aside from the scratching and hissing part, not all that different from ours.” “It was a chimpanzee, not a bear, but otherwise he’s right. There’s this… stage at an early age where we are impressionable in what behavior we adopt, and well, I had multiple cats at the time and was mostly homeschooled, so I had more contact with cats than my peers.“
Well. It seems xe now had something to add to the Human guide.
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