Attraction is very subjective human-to-human, and so obviously things get even more subjective when different species weigh in.
This is kind of an insane question to pull on a xeno, because most of them do not think of humans in that way at all. But if made to think about it, you could get some results. These are just random examples from random people, but the general idea is that they focus on stuff that we don’t immediately view as an instant appeal/something worth looking at.
The wider consensus is that it’s a little weird (or gross and unnatural, depending on who you’re talking to) to find another species attractive, but relationships do happen. They’re just fraught with a few more problems than the average couple.
Some other misc info:
Prectikar are by far the least interested in humans attraction-wise. We’re too unnerving for most of them.
Kixeli ears are a lot like frog ears (aka smooth and flat. The earrings they have are attached to the loose ring of skin around them.)
The Sundyne guy is speaking using an implant, which is why the speech bubble is coming from his neck in the second image. You can also tell he’s with egg from the bright yellow sash covering his back(where they are contained). Compared to the other guys, humans are kind of “hard to tell apart” since there’s no particular color or exposed body part that immediately signals if they’re male or female (Kixeli have their skin markings, rossetians have their horns, Dorest and Rox look drastically different, Prectikar are close but they tend to wear clear gendered jewlery for identification purposes). A human with things like thick clothing or body fat can make it less obvious “what they are”, something that a Sundyne would find unnerving.
As you can imagine, GEIA’s thoughts on humans are uhh complicated. She’s very normal about them.
“Met arch” is a Drecu term for addressing your lead Rox (sort of like“my leader” ), and their up-tilted heads+ little antenna tap is an affectionate gesture.
Rossetians have hair that’s similar to an earth mammal, but it’s Only on their privates and in Tha Pouch. So they have a very strong sexy connotation for it. rossetians and humans are pretty similar, and Rossetian/human relationships are also the second most common inter-species pair!
The most common inter-species pair is humans and muttreazik (because most muttreazik are raised by humans and look like humans with a few quirks.) Things get really complicated really fast, though, when we start talking about the low-congruency guys who don’t have a human body plan.
Thestral's Wreck Hounds related active psychosis continues
@b1asho'S SPECIES OCS BLAST
probably long ass post so uhhh buckle up reader beweader you're in for a sceader. just rambling on about their basic info. yeah i like Cerest how could you tell. oh also i may make a Kel just because they look fun to draw if i can whip up something for them
Survia is a defect Sundyne ostracized for being a trans sight. that's about all on xer seperately. oh also i will inevitably slip and call any of them the human equivalent of their pronouns so you can do it too Survia and Rhettukt can be called she/her, Reynz they/them and i forgot to include it on Ruth's ref but Ruth's xe/xey (she/they)
Rhettukt's clan kicked them out after many long years of serving as a fighter/soldier of some sort due to a spine injury that left xer unable to stand and walk without aid, basically leaving xer to fend for xerself with a makeshift stick and some unkind comments. Rhett, ofcourse, did not take it well, hid around in uninhabited spaces for a while, just about stood alive, eventually getting really hammered by the side effects on Cerest about being alone. i've regarded xer as a hallucinator since i've had her in mind but idk idk really
eventually xe's somehow taken in by Survia (living only with Reynz at that time) and proceeded to completely leech onto xer, insisting to xer to not be weird about it as if xe's not the one head over heels for the first Sundyne xe's seen in like half a year and the one making it weird. xe's not really good at maintaining xerself and is mostly propped up by Survia, and xe still holds some vague trad views but xe's getting better at/about both of these things. oh also both of these guys work at the same place Ata and Lep do, i don't know what exactly they work as its up to interpretation idk i've never fleshed it out i don't even know where they live. maybe in the SEZ or something sixty question marks
Korcs (cs pronounced with a ch sound like core-ch - fun fact it means mutt/mongrel in my language) is a Sundyne-host muttreazik who grew up essentially entirely in a youth home and only aged out of it a while ago, moved to the same shabby apartment as the weird polycule tm. it has a particular fascination with/are drawn to Kixeli as it got along best with the more accepting Kixeli kids at its home. this does mean it stops and stares at Ata and Lep sometimes. they are gravely creeped out.
Reynz is a former grunt Rox with chronic fatigue who's unit eventually stopped supporting xeir weight. i've been thinking about xem being sort of like those concealists shown in the body mods post in public, as they do get assumptions about them and being a lone Cerest out on the streets is sort of just a societal hassle in general, no xey're not a draft dodger, xey're just tired all the time and apparently attracted to huge gorilla birds.
Gha'h krujr is a hokar who works at a hardware store, going by the more pronounceable nickname Ruth. yes, xe sprouted from the prectikar at Praktiker joke. xey are Reynz's long distance partner.
plus barbie doll nude refs i guess idk
i forgot Survia's gonopods here screams,,, maybe xe had bottom surgery or something,,,, up to interpretation idk
To the surprise of no one, I'm obsessed with the raptor bugs. Still struggling a lot with their head/face anatomy, but that hasn't stopped me from making More.
Really long under the cut
First up is Sunless, a melanistic Sundyne who used to be the favorite novelty of a particular clan until some jealous members beat the everloving shit out of xer and they kicked xer out because xe wasn't the strange beauty anymore. Went through a huge period of depression and existential terror before finding a group of other "Defective Cerest" and settling in with them. Due to her overpigmentation and missing antenna and Anxiety, she has trouble communicating with most people, but Sign and speech implants help. She now makes a living doing freelance translation work, since xenolinguistics was her passion during the time she had nothing to do except be pretty.
Next are the Gay Boys. Rudo was an engineer who had a pretty charmed life as Dorest go--until he started being Weird/acting too much like a Rox: protective and aggressive where he should have been quiet and submissive. He's a tech guy and a Dorest; why should he be so loud about protecting other adult Dorest and even Rox? Inappropriate. Banished
Fridu was a farmer, content with xis quiet life. Not sure yet what got xim banished beyond maybe getting caught smooching another Dorest? Xe's the most calm and level-headed of the group, and also the most buff (Farm Lyfe ftw).
Prax was a decorated soldier until their autoimmune disorder made itself known, and they were kicked out. Small for a Rox and sickly-looking, with sunken eyes and pale flesh and scales, they didn't know what to do with themself for a while, but now they help take care of their group and also try very hard to befriend birds.
Sohrab is the only one of the group who was born outside the Empire, a Muttreazik with a very bright and lively personality. She was thrilled to meet another Rox who didn't fit the ideal image, unaware that that was a very sore spot for Prax. She is naive about a lot of Empire-flavored things, but she means well, and is very open to learning and correction.
Jora was a respected religious leader with years of experience who had begun to question the doctrine. They're outwardly a shine, but seem to be intersex, or at least have some kind of hormonal abnormality that causes their horns to split. It was easy enough to hide everything before, but things seem to have fallen apart all at once: their religious doubts strengthening, their horns outing them as Different, and them getting caught being cozy with a Drecu (arguably very innocent, but far too close than any Sundyne "should be" to any Drecu). Xe feels lucky to have just been banished; xe doesn't know what became of the other person.
ANYWAY THEY ALL FIND EACH OTHER AND MAKE A VERY WEIRD FOUND FAMILY UNIT AND I'LL PROBABLY MAKE MORE LMAO
I tried my best to make it make sense here because the “blank space” in my mind of what their insides look like has been bugging me since I finished their refs (where this stuff was just a vague doodle). But as always I’m just winging it by mashing together real-world biology+having fun+handwaving with my limited understanding of how things work (<- bro has imposter syndrome. And is also actually stupid).
The amount of time xeno biology comes up in conversation in-canon is actually quite a bit (meeting an alien is a novel concept to humans, and humans are a novel concept to them) . The questions can get weird and annoying but most of the time it’s just curiosity.
I’m doing Rox separately because they do things slightly differently (and I didn’t want to make the canvas too crowded by doing them both in one lol), and then Sundyne after that because they do things very differently.
The different ways they tend to emote is yet another factor that reinforces their bioessentialist view of the divide between Dorest and Rox and between Drecu and Sundyne. Dorest emoting is considered more subdued, with less mouth movement, quieter vocalizations, and less body movement to accompany their facial/antenna expression (seemingly fitting with their ‘ submissive’ station where they aren’t supposed to speak out much or draw attention to their own emotions/anything besides their role/value). It is also often pointed out that their pheremone signals trend towards ‘help/caution/fear’ rather than aggression when faced with stress, which is seen as reinforcing the Rox’s role in leading and protecting them. It’s unclear whether their expressions are “natural” or more culturally influenced since not a lot of Dorest live outside of this structure.
That being said, these are pretty dramatic examples of expressions, a lot of the time they don’t move the antennae at all. For all Cerest, emotional scale colorations are involuntary and can affect how they ‘speak’, similar to how it’s hard to talk when crying (fun fact, though, the scales intentionally used in language to show tone are the same ones that are uncontrollably triggered by the same emotion, so for example the mouth and cheek scales are often involved for angry speech). Humans can only really see the scale expressions when they’re using their lightest and darkest pigments ( white and dark blue) and when those are very concentrated. There’s a lot of other colors and patterns going on that they can see much more clearly, shown generally shown I n those lil diagrams next to each expression.
Rox use more body language with these facial expressions, and it’s seen as more normal/acceptable for them to move their face like this. These are still examples of heightened expression, though.
Their darker scales make even concentrated pigmentation harder to see for humans. Many of their emotional responses are colored by their “intended role” in society, where they are in leadership/protective roles and expected to act aggressively. Facial/body movements are taken more seriously/focused on as equally as scales/scent in their case since the movements are much more deliberate and the implications for others could involve physical altercation (especially in the case of anger/posturing). Raising the neck without an open mouth is a more common way to show respect (like a bow), but in heightened situations it’s a way to submit to the threat/show that you aren’t challenging anything and making yourself vulnerable. The mouth being open during this motion is a more complete way of admitting defeat, an exaggerated expression to show that you’re able to bite but won’t because you’re acknowledging their position over you. Mouth open head up can hold more of a warning/aggression connotation, but that depends greatly on context.
Stress coping mechanism strikes again: I’m drawing made up aliens instead of studying!!!!
Anyway, I’ll have to do a real (updated?) post about Drecu unit structure because those Are Not the words they use (but saying the “matriarch” is the Chad Rox (obviously the one with the most wives) is way funnier)
2nd to last, the big nasty bug lizards!! (Aka sundyne, if you dont want to get kicked across the room)
Here's the evil exposition dump:
Sundyne are under the Cerest label umbrella with Dorest and Rox, but are genetically distinct enough that they aren’t really the same thing.
It’s a commonly held theory among other species that they’re some kind of artificially created Cerest offshoot that went wrong and overtook their creators, but that’s crazy talk and bringing that up around a trad Sundyne is a great way to get snapped at.
They share some things with their Drecu cousins and I would suggest reading their stuff to get the general vibe, but the gist is that Sundyne also have serviceable but poor temperature regulation, their eyes aren’t spherical and are housed in bony cones in their heads, they can see colors that we can’t, they lay eggs and have a similar life stage development cycle,they have extremely sensitive antennas, and they have a mix of endo and exoskeleton/shell.
Their differences are a lot more distinct (obviously) Sundyne are obligate carnivores, for one, and have a lot harder time processing plant matter than Drecu. Their lower mandibles and beak are very sharp and are used to both tear into and hold prey.
When their mouth is closed, these two are pressed together tightly by internal muscles. Along with their little bit of lip and their other mouthparts that fold closely along their face, it gives the impression of their jaw being more like ours (especially when I stylize it and remove all detail >: ) ).
Those internal grabbies are about as strong as a human thumb, and are used to make speaking noises by vibrating them together along with the apparatus in their throat. Those also help to hold/maneuver food without opening the mouth too much (which they see as a threat)
Another difference in their mouth is their tongue, which is housed in a hole along their lower jaw, and its length retracts down their throat.
They use it to strip meat from bone and lick yummy goop out of shell and bone holes.
Their huge eyes function much better at night, and they usually keep them lidded to avoid sensory overload or looking like theyre upset (again, their eyes aren't full spheres in there, and instead are more like weird cylinders that taper as they go back in the skull.)
Like Dorest, all 6 of their fingers on their main hands are separated, though now they are all much larger and longer (at least on this top pair of arms).
Only the claws on their larger top arms are retractable, operating by sliding in and out of a pocket of endoskeleton in their end knuckle.
The smaller bottom arms have a thumb claw like Rox, and none of the shorter and duller on the other fingers are retractable.
Also like Rox, they have a special claw on their foot for kicking stuff, though theirs is much more pronounced and mobile (their other toes are relatively short and also have retractable claws.)
Male Sundyne also have a third pair of 'limbs' that are actually gonopods that fold on their back that they use to carry eggs, another indicator that their genus as a whole may have once had 8 limbs that have since fused or retracted.
Speaking of male, sundyne are not hermaphroditic, with *adults* being distinctly male or female. It's impossible to tell until the first molt after pupation, though.
Sundyne dimorphism is based on this sex difference and it decides their service role in their familial/ societal clans (rather than with Drecu, whose role in the colony decides their sexual role)
Their family units tend to be single dominant reproductive male and female pair, their children, and nonreproductive members.
Traditionally, that dominant pair is decided by whichever is the strongest female and whichever male catches her attention, but modernly and in higher classes there is a lot more linking of clans and inter/extra political and legislative to consider.
The dominant male and female are monogamously bonded, but often switch their single partners a lot for politics etc (though long-held bonds are seen as better) nonreproductive members can have multiple partners and do, but the privilege of eggs is only for that special pair bond.
The closest thing from earth i can say is they're structured a bit like a lion pride or meerkats, though females are the ones who defend the territory while males hunt and rear children once the eggs have been laid/hatched (which is where Rox and Dorest got their child raising roles from)
In any clan, females outnumber males because at a certain age most males are meant to leave and go join another clan. Because of this, the nonreproductive females often assist with resource gathering/some ither male roles (though they're given their own pronoun for this since males are their own special thing)
Males are smaller in height and sleeker, and have more markings on their face/ body (while they look very flashy to us, it helps break up their shape to their colorblind prey).
They also retain one more set of limbs than females: gonopods like Drecu on their back that also help hold their females eggs in place (once the female is ready to lay them, they give them to the male with an ovipositor) .
Females are much larger and more muscular, with fewer markings but often more impressuve crowns of horns. They also don’t have the same external genitalia structure.
The horn things on a female will drop and regrow more based on hormone signals from their social status and/or their environment. On a male, they will not (but they do keep growing constantly)
I keep saying "things" on their head because they're structured sort of like horns but not quite.
Theyre more or less hollow/spongy bone on the inside with a thin sheath covering , more or less permanent, and sort of vascularized and growing for the whole year. BUT they can branch, don’t have a single living core, and they can drop and regrow if damaged enough by the root (kind of just a spongy thing growing out of a bone shoot idk).
Horn damage on a male is seen as extremely unattractive and disgraceful (the long continually grown unbranched ones are the beauty standard since it exemplifies how precious they are)
Females use them a lot more for combat, territoriality, and social status (whereas males use them for defense and social status) so they get cracked more often. If this happens, theyll regrow with some deformation around the sheath. If they get access to a better food source, they’ll also drop and then regrow better and stronger (but smooth and with no tines). For the few reproductive females, they will shed and regrow bigger/stronger horn things with more branches yearly the longer they’re the dominant female as a status symbol. Any horn branches are looked at very favorably on females, but the crooked/unnatural spurs and bumps caused by damage is looked at as a low status symbol since the only reason they’d still have it is if they aren’t dominant enough to get the signals to drop and regrow them the right way.
As for their life cycle, its a lot like Drecu. Egg, little gloopy grub thing, bigger goopy grub thing, prepupa, chrysalis, juvenile adult stage.
However, during pupation adults can’t ‘choose’ the final form of their offspring like Dorest and Rox can. Males are considerably more favored because they leave their home clan to build ties and status in other clans, ultimately expanding the influence of the family and more freely rising in the ranks (they leave, marry in with a female of equal or greater status, and can move up by taking out other males there. a female doesn’t typically leave their birth clan, and could never become the dominant female of their own clan because incest and patricide taboo, and the only way they’d be able to in another clan is if they enter as a nonreproductive and maybe get lucky enough that the dominant female falls out of favor so you can yake her place)
If they had the chance most clans would cull many of the females in their clutches, but since they can’t tell the difference until the age where their kids are legally considered people, it’s harder to do that.
Succession rites for females follow a matriline from the dominant female, but they have their own internal pecking order established through literal and social pecking. If you’re a better fighter or just smarter/more useful, you’ll have a higher status. But if you were born in that clan, you'll never be the dominant female unless the male gets taken out of the equation too, making an opening for a new leader.
Males get their initial status from their pair with a female upon entry to a new clan, but they can actually move up to the dominant position by killing or otherwise removing the previous male. After this, they can choose a new female.
Their biological roles of hunter/nurturer for male and protector/fighter for female translates to their modern sociopolitical roles pretty literally. Males hold power as lawmakers, media makers, educators, and leaders due to their more 'intellectual' domestic role and ability to bridge clans in alliances.
. Though they are physically superior, females become the males protection once they are paired. They hold power within a clan and often in the military or as lower government officials, but outside of the clan their reach is pretty much carrying out and enforcing the orders of their male.
Their dynamic is like a sword and its wielder, or a speaker and their voice, though it is also referenced in their own culture as a male/female pair being “the sun and its moon.” They also take great pride in this binary, seeing it as something that sets them apart/ male and female completing each other to form the perfect whole.
Straying from this is a one way ticket to being either kicked out of the clan, jailed, or killed depending on where you are and who you’re dealing with.
They will enforce it onto any other species they meet (which is part of why Dorest and Rox are rigidly separated by a gender role along with their biological role in the colony, even though they are both sexes)
Sundyne clans are at the tippy top of Cerest society’s order (wirh Seru being the tippy top of the Sundyne exclusive caste, represented by a circle). They oversee their Drecu colonies and use their resources and manpower to expand their territory. This hierarchy is deeply entrenched, with any Drecu within a trad Sundyne structure believing that the Seru are immaculate and powerful beings.
Another conspiracy theory is that back in the early days of Sundyne development they probably preyed on Drecu and infiltrated their colonies through pheromone manipulation, overtaking that territory for their clan. The pheromone thing allows them to influence the general emotions of Cerest around them and give loose instructions, and to stop the instinctive swarm swarm swarm kill kill kill responses Drecu get when they see them (To Drecu, Sundyne look like creepy elongated nightmare versions of themselves, and though this response has largely been bred out most Dorest and Rox still feel an uncanny effect from looking at them. ) again, that's crazy talk though and never happened.
One more to go, and its the funny parasite worm ones
