#hivesight

[hive-sight]

Concerns 1

Sentients. This one has news. Upon encountering Raxor in the halls of the ship, this one inquired into their change in disposition. What could crush the spirit of this one’s companion so?

Raxor’s response… It is worrying.

--- TRANSCIPTION BEGINNING ---

RAXOR:        The Terrans… they do not enjoy war.

ELYSIA:        That is good, yes? Too many of the new races seem to revel-

RAXOR:        No.

ELYSIA:        No?

RAXOR:        They are a war race. Their history and evolution are paved in the ashes and blood of their enemies. Yet they do not revel. The Skellesian Bloodmites revel. Their weapons are made to draw out battle and prolong suffering. Barbed rods for the rending of flesh. Heated blades to ensure the enemy stays standing no matter how much is chopped off.

                      The Stol’oon of Grumha revel. Their cowardly tactics involve slowly terraforming the planets of surface-bound races while they are defenseless to stop them. Slowly cooking as the atmosphere of the only home they have known becomes their crematorium.

                      The Terrans? They do not revel in war. They hate war.

ELYSIA:       This one does not understand. The race was molded by war, yet hates it? Do they hate what it has made them? Are they a drink that hates the shape its container has forced upon it?

RAXOR:       They hate the acts. This one asks Elysia to consider, if one despised an action but the action was needed, what would they do?

ELYSIA:       This one does have experience with this. This one dislikes having to configure variables in simulations. This one wrote a script to automatically program variables if given a planetary identification code.

RAXOR:        Why?

ELYSIA:        To get it done as quickly… and…

RAXOR:        Yes.

ELYSIA:        By the Queen. Have the Terrans… streamlined… war?

--- TRANSCRIPTION ENDING ---

This was not the end of the discussion, Raxor proceeded to request a cancellation of the mission. They claim that the Queen would not have allowed the mission had she known.

Unfortunately for Raxor, after more than the expected number of delays, the ship has already entered the Sol System.

On this, the Terran Date of May 21st of 2030, or XD 4682C 4A 2L, and with an uncertain future, this is Elysia of Xyloptha, signing off.

[voidpower]

zavala is bullying me because i'm ugly :/

i’ll throw him off the tower dw :/

[hive-sight]

Changes 2 and Domestication

Greetings Sentients. With the passing of a few Lums, the changes presented in Lumina have become more… pronounced. This one can hardly be in the research deck without encountering Lumina examining the social culture of Terrans of many different varieties. They truly appear to have taken to this role in ways that none of this crew could have predicted!

Raxor has taken to research of their own. They have begun studying the various fauna of Sol-3. One phenomenon Raxor has discovered is the concept of “domestication.” This is the process through which a wild creature interacts with a sentient race in such a way that, over generations, changes to the creatures DNA are shown to make interaction with the sentient easier.

One common change presented in most examples of domestication, is that the creature will become smaller. Raxor has taken an interest in the creature from Sol-3 known as a wolf. Quadrapedal, furred apex predators that exist in a pack structure. Perhaps the creature’s existing pack structure made for an easy victim of the domestication process, as the domestication of the wolf was the first recorded instance of this phenomenon.

Initially, wolves and early Terrans competed for food. This would become especially egregious during the harsher cold periods known as “winter.” The wolves would invade Terran settlements to search for the stores of food the Terrans had built up to sustain themselves. Sometimes these invasions would be successful. Sometimes the invading wolf or wolves would be killed. Sometimes the invaders would kill a Terran.

Records seem to be unreliable, but one theory is that a settlement discovered that, if they left some amount of game away from the stores, the wolves would take that and leave the rest of the settlement be. Over time, the settlement became the default feeding area of the wolves.

The next part is mostly speculation. Perhaps another predator had invaded the settlement. This predator had been found by the Terrans and a battle had ensued. The wolves, hearing the struggle and realizing that their new providers had been in danger, ran through the barriers into the settlement and, to the surprise of the Terrans, began fighting alongside them against this shared threat.

This one knows that may be a dramatized view of what happened, but the important part to realize is that some event happened which forced the two species to work alongside each other. Then calmer wolves, more willing to work with Terrans, were welcomed into the settlements permanently, while more aggressive wolves were sent back out into the wild. This selective breeding of the calmer individuals eventually begot evolutionary changes in the wolf to the point it could only be a new species. A species that Terrans have colloquially named “dogs.” Raxor found this entire idea to be utterly fascinating and is now hoping that the Terrans will allow them to have a dog of their own.

While this one had never heard of the process of domestication before, this could purely be due to other species having never considered this. Xylokthians, for example, keep and breed the Xylo-palm flies as they produce the staple crop of Xylopthia that is roughly akin to Terran honey. But never had this one considered that, prior to Xylokthian interference, that the palm flies could have been an entirely different species. Perhaps some event in the past meant that the ancient palm flies could not survive in the wild while the protected individuals could thrive. Or perhaps, regrettably, the ancient Xylokthians did not allow any temperamental individuals back into the wild as the Terrans did with the wolves.

The Terrans history is beginning to make this one believe that there is more to this one’s own history than they are familiar with. It is unsettling…

But, nevertheless, on this, TD 10th of June, 2030, XD 4682C 3A 30L, awaiting the next revelation, this is Elysia of Xylopthia, signing off.

[hive-sight]

Travel 1

Many apologies Sentients. This one has meant to communicate sooner, but this one's queen ordered an immediate launch of the ship commissioned for this quest. The Vexyrian Solathor, or the Astral Horizon, and its crew of four individuals has been traveling since this one's last posting.

As the current date is Xylokthian Date: 4682 Cycle, 3rd Azuran, 18th Luminalis, the quest has been underway for six Luminalis (or Lums.)

In this time, this one has been able to read more of the data captured by the un-piloted Xylokthian astral drone.

This race of Terrans is most perplexing. According to captured electronic transmissions (language decryption only being partially complete,) it appears that Sol-3 does not have a single leader.

This alone is not unusual, many planets have multiple races present with each having its own leadership. However, there is but one sentient race on Sol-3. The Terrans have placed down arbitrary borders and divided themselves on the basis of everything from population to which side they fall on of a natural waterway.

It is most confusing. Never before has this been seen in a space-faring race. Then again, space-faring normally comes about at the same time as interstellar travel, due to the large distance between locations on the stellar scale.

The Terrans have only recently traveled halfway across their own stellar system. This next part is found most fascinating by this one! Could any of those among you sentients imagine stellar travel without Quantum Vacuum Thrusters? This technology, so familiar and comfortable in the mind of Sentients across the galaxy, has only recently been conceptualized by Terrans!

That's correct, this one said "conceptualized!" As in the Terrans only recently even imagined the technology!

So how do the Terrans navigate their system then? They primarily achieve this feat through chemical propulsion! They ride fire to their destination!

With that exhilarating and terrifying factoid, this one must resume research. The next time this one posts, the language decryption should be complete so that this one may begin practicing both speaking, and working the language into this one's posts.

Until next we meet Sentients. This is Elysia of Xyloptha, signing off.

[hive-sight]

Delay 1

Sentients, Terran media is fascinating. By this one’s observations, it can be largely broken into two separate areas. This one would label them as: 

Fiction - A uniquely Terran phenomena, fiction encompasses stories and tales that are known to be untrue but are made purely to entertain. Media under this category often, but not always, imbues a select Terran with abilities that are extraordinary. This Terran, known as ‘the protagonist,’ is then placed in situations and conflicts that require their unique abilities to surpass. When the protagonists themselves are not extraordinary, the situations often are.

Non-Fiction - By conventional linguistic dynamics, non-fiction, meaning ‘not fiction,’ should encompass any media that does not fall under fiction. Non-Fiction media will be either reports on events that happened, or recreations of events that happened earlier in history.

Further than that the Terrans have a form of media that, to this one's knowledge, is also unique to Terra. Animation. Thousands upon thousands of images with only minute differences are played sequentially and at various speeds to create the illusion of motion.

The effect is too slow for the perception speed of this one unfortunately. More fortunately, the ship’s AI was able to artificially increase the rate and number of frames in the downloaded media for this one’s race.

The effect is quite astonishing.

---

This one observed Raxor moving through the halls of the ship this Lum. They appear… forlorn. Are they perhaps disappointed with the level of warfare shown by Sol-3?

---

Additionally, a delay has thrown our course off track. A large grouping of space debris was on a collision course with this one’s ship. A delay of approximately three Lums is expected.

As this post seems a bit short, this one will ponder on some aspects of Terran physiology.

At first glance, a Terran is relatively hairless aside from patches of hair covering the top of the cranium, under the manual limbs, covering the groin, and, on male specimens particularly, spatterings across the torso. As this one said, this is merely at first glance. Upon closer inspection of the data from their internet, the entire body of a Terran is covered in an extremely fine layer of hair. Function is unknown at this point.

Unlike many sentients in the Greater Galaxy, the Terrans have somewhat significant sexual dimorphism. Meaning the male and female specimens can vary greatly in physical characteristics. This dimorphism starts as largely insignificant in the Terran’s larval years, and stays insignificant for 1.1 to 1.5 Terran decades before a process called ‘puberty’ begins.

During puberty, the Terran’s brain begins to secrete various levels of hormones and the dimorphism progresses based on the levels of these hormones. The end results appear to vary among individuals, so this one will wait until the opportunity to interview a Terran becomes available.

The date is XD: 4682C 3A 24L, or the 13th of May in the Terran year of 2030. This is Elysia of Xyloptha, looking forward to learning more about Terran culture, and signing off!

[hive-sight]

Changes and Diets 1

Greetings Sentients. Since settling among the debris, Lumina, this one’s assigned Thalorix ambassador, has started venturing out of their designated chambers. From the time of leaving Xylopthia, Lumina has only been seen out of their chambers for mealtimes.

More surprisingly, Lumina has begun to enter the research deck. They appear to have a passing interest in the culture of the Terrans. This one will attach a transcript of one of Lumina’s inquiries with physical descriptors.

--Transcript Start—

Elysia:        Fascinating…

Lumina:      *Walks up from behind Elysia* What is?

Elysia:        *Startles* Oh! Lumina… This one was just analyzing the small groups the Terran’s divide themselves into. It appears that many Terrans will group together in order to raise their young!

Lumina:      *Leans forward, focusing intently upon the view screen. One of the digits from their primary limb indicates toward the image* This is one of their young?

Elysia:        *Dips their antennae* It is, yes.

Lumina:      It is so… small. *Moves their digit to a different individual* What of this one? They look different from the other three.

Elysia:        *Dips their antennae once more* That is one of their females. Terrans appear to be highly sexually dimorphic.

Lumina:      This one, what are their roles?

Elysia:        Her.

Lumina:      *Looks towards Elysia* Apologies?

Elysia:        While some Terrans use the terms, “They/Them/Their,” it is not typical. Those are regularly known as plural pronouns to Terrans. This one, *Elysia gestures to the Terran* uses the singular female pronouns “She/Her,” as an expression of identity.

Lumina:      She/Her...

--Transcript End--

Since this interaction, Lumina has become a staple of the research deck. Regularly they will read page after page of Terran culture. This has been a relief, as this has freed some of this one’s time to begin looking into other aspects of Terra.

This one has begun looking into the dietary habits of the Terrans. It is important to know what sustenance is available on Terra prior to attempting first contact. One could only imagine the devastation if none of the foodstuffs were compatible with our digestive tracks.

There was a surprising revelation to come from this. Terrans were omnivores. A Terran can, with little preparation, just as easily consume and digest meat as they can plants. This is in stark contrast to the diets of the Xylokthians. We subsist, largely, on glucose and water.

This one had a moment of disappointment, thinking that Terran foods would be incompatible with this one’s species. At least, this one was worried, until the discovery that Terrans are absolutely addicted to sugars.

Terrans add sugar to just about every item in their diet. They add sugar into their drinks. Terrans have crafted a drink that contains, in 12 ounces, more than the amount of sugar needed per day for a human to survive.

They have named this drink “Coca-Cola,” and this one truly wishes to try it.

Considering starting first contact early on this, TD 7th of June, 2030, XD 4682C 4A 19L, this is Elysia of Xylopthia, signing off.

[hive-sight]

Travel 2

Hello again Sentients! This one had to rush to post once again!

The decryption of the Terran language is done! This one had wondered why the decryption had taken so much longer with Sol-3 when compared to many other known planets… Now that it is done, this one can tell you why.

Sol-3 does not house a language. It houses over six thousand separate languages! Magnitudes more than any other known planets. The previous largest number of languages to a single planet was three.

Epsilonia-4 houses three individual races, each with its own language. But Sol-3… Sol-3 houses only one sentient race. They have been so divided that language has spread out in a fractal. The closer two of the points on this fractal are, the more syntax they share but at either end of the fractal… the languages may as well be in different Stellar Systems.

Moving on! The decryption has informed the crew that the most spoken of these languages is called, English [Een-gah-lee-sh]. This one has begun calibrating our translator chips to place English as the priority and storing audio of any other languages for review later.

The Terrans, who refer to themselves as “Humans”, also seem to have a vast repository of media stored on a network of interconnected servers referred to as the “internet”. As there is likely a wait of seven Lums before arriving in the Sol System, this one has decided to review some portion of this media labeled as “movies” or “film.”

This one has asked Raxor, the bodyguard of this one’s crew and a member of the Valkorin or Soldier Caste, to review the saved history of Terran Warfare. The Queen will want to be aware of any threat these Terrans can present if she decides that we are to be Sol-3’s introduction to the greater galaxy.

Before signing off, if any among you have questions this one can answer to better inform yourselves about the galaxy at large. Please do not hesitate. This one would not have begun posting if this one were afraid of interaction.

With that, on XD: 4682 C, 3 A, 19 L, or the 8th of May  in the Terran Year of 2030, this is Elysia of Xyloptha, signing off.

[hive-sight]

Introduction

Sentients of the Stars, both known and unknown, this one welcomes you. Greetings and salutations.

This one is named Elysia and, for those sentients unfamiliar, belongs to the Xylokthian race. A full description of this one's race would drift this post and delay the purpose of this editorial, so will be held off for the moment.

On Xyloptha, this one's home planet, this one is a scholar, researcher and diplomat. For the talents this one holds in these areas, this one's Queen chose to send this one, of all xyloke possible, on an expedition to discover and catalogue a race that was recently discovered at the edge of known space!

This one could not have been more excited! That was what thought tore through this one's mind. A new species! New cultures and sciences! And so many questions!

What is their life based on? Is it carbon-based like this one's own? Silicon-based like the noble Luminari? Perhaps rarer still, boron-based like the stalwart Xalorian?

Upon receiving the geologic survey data, this one's questions grew more numerous...

The planet, at the first and barest of glances, appeared to be a garden world, but some of the information discredited this.

Rather than a solid outer layer, the planet almost appeared to have a segmented exoskeleton! The separate plates moved and shifted, albeit slowly, and had the potential to not only change the landscape, but trigger chain-reactions that could (and often do) vibrate the outer layer and even spill the planet's molten life-blood across its own surface!

This one's conclusion is that this planet, dubbed Sol-3 or Terra based on intercepted transmissions being radiated from the planet, can be categorized as a Deathworld.

A more specific classification will have to wait until this one can observe conditions on the planet's surface.

The current date is XD (Xylokthian Date): 4682 Cycle, 3rd Azuran, 12th Luminalis

When this one has learned the dating system of these... Terrans, this one will display the converted date.

Elysia of Xyloptha, signing off.