#human-paski relations

[wyrd66]

I've been wondering about pre-contact paski: Did they think about space aliens? If they did, how would they have imagined space aliens being and looking like, and what could've worked as the influence?

Ooh this is a fantastic question! I think that since a lot of human imaginings of aliens definitely resemble humans in some way (bilateral symmetry, bipedal, clear cephalus, endoskeleton, etc.), paski aliens must resemble paski a lot as well. Probably lots of tails, horns/ossicones, fur, etc. This doesn’t preclude much more creative interpretations, of course.

I can say that none of them would have predicted humans exactly though. Mostly hairless bipedal flat-faced mammals with reverse sexual dimorphism and a strong reliance on metal-based technology? Weird!

Thanks for asking!

[wyrd66]

A Very Important question that has been on my mind for a while: do paski in the Unity colony understand the universal ‘up’ gesture that human kids make? I don’t know why I want to know this so bad but I do ^^’ also I would love to know more about Mongke!!

Paski can probably figure it out.

And is there anything in particular you want to know about Mongke?

[wyrd66]

On “Muunda”

Han asked about the muunda slur and why it’s so bad, so here we go:

-- Muunda literally means “hairless”. It was originally used by paski against each other before humans came on the scene and it was repurposed.

-- Paski (well, specifically Raatasira paski) have an obsession with physical homogenity and genetic purity, which is why paski that are born looking different-- whether that is from a different hair pattern, or dilute coloration, or cleft lip, or dwarfism, or whatever-- are so looked down upon. It really sucks to be Different in Raatasira society.

-- So if a paski has patchy hair, maybe due to hormonal problem, or poor health, or whatever reason, they would be considered a) diseased, b) possibly genetically corrupted, and c) super ugly, so they would be regarded with derision and disgust.

-- I really cannot overstate how the idea of genetic corruption is a big thing to Raatasira. It’s a kind of overpowering idea/fear in their society. It’s also where khakhaara (trash) paski-- aka those with genetic corruption, the most prominent of which are the spotties-- come from.

-- Muunda specifically means “hairless”; there are other equally charming words for other physical differences.

-- I’m pretty sure that there have been instances of Pilasira (the biggest fluffiest ones) calling Raatasira (the smooth-coated desert ones) muunda. There is some tension between the subspecies.

-- However, the use of the word on paski has pretty much vanished now that the word has been repurposed to almost exclusively refer to humans. If someone says muunda in casual conversation with no context clues, it’s understood to be referring to a human.

-- A paski who calls a human muunda does not like humans.

[wyrd66]

In response to this post: 

@solrika said: I love the familiar words for kids. Are there other paski pet names? 

Oh I’m sure. XD  There are also pet names in Pilasingh, Caandisingh, and Binasingh, but I’m mostly focusing on Raatasingh a) because it’s the main language spoken by all paski, and b) so I don’t lose my mind. xD

solrika said: Would a paski call an in-group human child “Kiki” or would they use a different word based off human baby noises?

So kiki, aori, and oo are pretty much solely used for your own children, or children within your family group. Geet would call his son Banjaree, and his nephew Upta and niece Sheear, by those pet names, but he wouldn’t call, say, Ana eBatu any of those. Ana isn’t part of the Awir/Keroor family, so it would be inappropriate. If Ana was hypothetically adopted by Geet, then he would call her those things.

Weirdly, I have not actually made up the Raatasingh word for “fluffy” yet. XD  But adult paski totally chirp and purr at other peoples’ babies because babies are adorable. If you like babies. Also, “fluffy” itself is a term of endearment, so an adult could call any child “fluffy” as a pet name.

Human children are just called “human children”. Occasionally you might call one “humanchalay” which just means “small human”. If a human child is being particularly annoying, you might call it “muundachalay”, but that’s not a kind term. “Muunda” means “hairless” and has derogatory connotations.

Thank you for asking!

[wyrd66]

Paski and pets

So I like dogs*, and 85% of the reason that I made it so paski don’t have any domesticated animals that can be thought of as pets is so I can have them react to humans. They have a couple of production animals that serve as sources of food/hide/etc. and they have koter, which double as guards and hunters, but they don’t have anything like lapdogs or the family retriever. To them, animals are tools.

So just imagine:

“So that fluffy... thing... is a ‘pomeranian’? What do you do with it? It seems too small to be a full meal...”

“Do you harvest its fur? No? It warms your lap? Wouldn’t a blanket cover more?”

“Does it keep your house free of pests? No? It’s afraid of mice?”

“It seems to make a lot of noise. Does it alert you to danger? It barks at everything? What is that good for?”

“You have so many toys on the floor. Do the neighborhood children come by to visit? Wait, they’re for your dog?”

“But what does it do?”

---

*News at 11.

[wyrd66]

Chatting with Han about paski biology, and it came up that paski have reinforced foreheads because they occasionally smash heads when angry. 

This makes paski more likely to survive a headshot from a gun than a human. (This is not to say they always survive (because they usually don’t), it just means they are more likely to survive. Sometimes real-life humans survive headshots!)

Pilasira paski are especially prone to butting heads, so they have thick skulls even by paski standards. This has led to the joke that Pilasira skulls are so thick that they have no room for brains.

Which leads to an idiom that works across species: A “thick-head” is someone who isn’t too bright.

[wyrd66]

I'm curious about paski athletic prowess. How fast can they run, can they swim, climb or jump high?

So the fastest recorded running speed of a human 27.8 mph, which was set by Usain Bolt in 2009. My quick, non-exhaustive google search did not land me any articles that I would feel comfortable quoting, but the average running speed of a human appears to be around 10-15 mph.

Another google search tells me that the average vertical jump for a human is 12-20 inches (1 - 1.6 feet). I get differing results on who sets the world record, and don’t feel like poking around more, so uh, oh well!

When compared to humans, paski can run faster on a straight stretch. It’s difficult to come up with a good running speed for them, since they have a different leg anatomy than humans,and other bipeds (like ostriches) have a different leg setup than both humans and paski. Horses, who provided the leg model for paski, gallop at an average speed of 25-30 mph, so I think it is reasonable to say that the average paski can run around 20 mph.

Humans are endurance hunters rather than sprint hunters, and paski are similar in that regard. Humans are able to handle unforgiving terrain better, as we have more lateral range of motion in our ankles and are less prone to snapping them than paski are. I think that the two species are similar in terms of turning radius and general agility.

Paski can be excellent climbers, but in general humans are better (we are, after all, primates). Humans and paski are comparable in terms of swimming.

Guinness World Records tells me that the highest recorded jump by a horse was 8 feet 1.25 inches by Huaso ex-Faithful in 1949. USEF competitions start out with fences 2.5 feet in height and go up to around 6 feet high. Paski are set up more like humans than horses (being bipedal and all), so we’ll say that the average paski can pull off a vertical jump of around 2 feet.

In terms of physical strength, such as the ability to lift or pull weight, a human would beat a similarly-sized paski. Humans have denser muscles and can lift a larger percent of their body weight. Alas, most paski are bigger than most humans, so that kind of cancels out.

Tldr: Paski are faster and can jump higher, humans are stronger and tougher.

Thank you for asking!

[wyrd66]

You've shown several examples of human/Earth things paski can't eat/tolerate (alcohol ect), but do you have anything Duniyaa-native that humans are deathly or dangerously intolerant of? Like, some weirdly specific kind of fungus that's delicious but indigestible by human stomach acids and just accumulates in the digestive system until blockage? or....?

Oh, there are several things that paski eat that humans can’t tolerate. I don’t have anything specific at the moment (I’m so bad about making up food xD) but we can go ahead and say that there is a whole plant genus that would cause massive anaphylactic shock in any human who ingests it. Popular to use in paski soups.

And let’s say there’s another that causes heart arrhythmia in small quantities, and heart failure in larger ones. Maybe a popular finger-food? Like baby carrots or celery? Something like that.

And paski can happily eat either benzene or toluene, both of which cause cancer in humans.

Basically, in joint human/paski eating establishments, the staff is very familiar with ingredients that are harmful to the other species. Super deadly foods would be left out of the menu in totum.

Actually, in general, it’s safer/healthier to stick to your own species’ foodstuffs. There are a lot of foods that both species can eat, but just because a paski can eat, say, broccoli, doesn’t mean that they receive the exact same nutrients and benefits from it that we do. A paski could survive on an Earth-foods-only diet (or vice versa), but they would have to eat a whole different menu than we would. And take supplements. A paski adhering to the classic Food Pyramid would die from nutrient imbalance. A human eating a healthy paski diet would suffer the same problems.

Eating from your alien buddy’s plate can be fun, but isn’t something you should be doing for every meal.

Thank you for the question!