Humans are space orcs (with magic!) *what is pain*
Drerzii was confused. He had known that humans were incredibly resilient, he had seen it when they had brought one of the females in with light had trauma that she had quickly recovered from. Even the other humans with their various minor injuries seemed to pay the dripping blood no mind. Yet now, Taurus, the distinctive leader and most warrior class-esque of the humans stood before him, clutching his finger. Drerzii had been alerted to the fact that one of the humans had needed medical attention when he heard human profanity being shouted loudly. A few seconds later Taurus had appeared in the med bay searching for a "band aid." A primitive human form of bandage. When Drerzii asked to examine the injury that was clearly causing the human vast amounts of pain and was likely life-threatening given the humans nonchalance in the face of previous wounds, he was highly surprised to find that this "cut," as the humans called an incision of the skin, was incredibly tiny.
"So where, may I ask, did you obtain this 'paper cut?'" Drerzii asked.
"Well I was turning a page in a book that my dad gave me, and as I was turning page, it sliced my finger up. Hurt like a *itch."
"I can find no blood coming out of your circulatory system, which indicates that you need absolutely no medical attention."
Taurus leaned forward, his predatorial eyes boring into Drerzii. Drerzii shifted his colors with discomfort; the intense gaze of the human was highly unnerving. "But it hurts. Do you guys even have bandaids?"
"We do, Taurus. But I must inform you that the bandaid will not relieve the pain."
Taurus leaned back, a sigh escaping his lips. "I know it won't Drerzii, but it will make me feel better."
Drerzii dipped his hue with confusion. "I do not understand. If it does not stop the nerve impulses how does it help?" He paused, then though aloud, something he often did as a telepath, "Could it be psychological?"
"Yeah I guess. Sometimes little things like that help us. It'll also help me from absentmindedly tearing it open again once it's scabbed over."
Drerzii looked at the human in horror. He knew what a scab was, and to tear one open... Did humans enjoy causing themselves pain? Why would any creature reopen it's wounds for any non-medical reason. He was beyond baffled.
* * *
Thunderous crashing, a string of curses, a storm of human howling. “Laughing,” as they called it. Always curious and ready to examine the humans, Drerzii entered the room the humans were currently frolicking about in. One human was doubled over on the floor, she seemed to be shaking, and her breath was coming out in short bursts. Another human was lathered over a chair, his head back, and mouth open, revealing his rows of predatory teeth, also letting loose a similar, but deeper, sound. The rest of the humans were similarly emitting such noises, which he knew were supposed to be sounds of amusement, though he couldn’t help but feel unease at the noise. One human though, the one he recognized as Jason, had a somewhat confused grin and a hand upon his forehead. He chuckled and headed for the door, saying something about getting an ice pack. One of the other males, Uhris called out, “Wait come back Jason, but don’t run into anymore walls on the way back.” The humans had started to return to their normal selves, but at that comment they relapsed into their fits of noise making. “Seriously bro, come back, you’re not losing...horribly. Look we’ll start going easy on you. Just suck it up and keep playing, what’s a lil’ pain to fight through?”
The other humans echoed their agreement and Jason returned to the table, still having a hand to his head. Drerzii dared not approach the humans, as he didn’t want to change the setting, and he was thoroughly enjoying observing them from afar. He pulled out his holotablet and looked up the one phrase he didn’t understand. It turned out “suck it up,” was a call to be more manly, usually by ignoring pain...fascinating.
* * *
A few weeks later Drerzii walked into the human living quarters to examine the room to make sure it was not dangerous to live in. Whether that danger came from precariously placed objects or viruses and bacteria. As he was looking through the room he noticed a large amount of brightly decorated aluminum scraps on the floor. As he began to pick them up to examine what exactly these objects were, the human female Enara exited the bathroom, hair wet and clad only in a towel that wrapped around the entirety of her torso. She started at the sight of the little alien, but quickly recovered. Almost immediately she noticed the scraps in his appendage. “Oh, I’ll clean that up sir. Apologies for leaving the room such a mess.”
“Do not be distressed.” Drerzii responded, “I have read that a mildy chaotic living space tends to lessen anxiety and boost creativity in humans. I did not pick up this, object, to organize in any fashion;” he said, placing back on its original spot on the floor before continuing, “rather, I was curious as to what it was, for I must admit, I have not seen it’s like anywhere. It has such a peculiar shape, and it shows an impressive amount of flexibility.”
“Sir, that’s just a chocolate wrapper.” Enara said with a somewhat amused expression.
“I am unfamiliar with it. Please, tell me it is.”
She shrugged. “It’s a protective wrapping for chocolate, which is a human delicacy, I guess. It’s not anything special though. I just really needed some cause my period is being a b*tch right now.”
The doctors’ colors changed as the topic changed to a subject he was familiar with, “Ahh yes. Correct me if I am in fact wrong, but that is the colloquial term for the female humans’ menstrual cycles, right?”
“Er...yeah. I’ll clean up the wrappers. I just wanted some chocolate to help with the cramps.”
“The cycle causes muscle contractions? Forgive me for my ignorance, I only saw the name in passing.”
“Sorry, can you stand on the other side of the division, I wanna change from my towel into actual clothes.” She continued as Drerzii complied, “No, it’s not muscle contractions it’s just, pain, a lot of pain. I mean I don’t have it as bad as other girls, it mostly just makes me irritable and hurts a lot, but my sister would vomit because the pain was so intense.”
Drerzii blinked rapidly. Human females had cyclical times of pain? What a horrible existence.
Slightly muffled as she put on a shirt, Enara said“You’d think that after thousands of years of evolution we wouldn’t have to deal with so much pain and just bleeding that much, but I guess not?”
Finished dressing Enara pulled back the curtain to look at the doctor, who at this point had turn a dark red with spots of yellow. He blinked multiple times before asking: “You bleed? Is that not dangerous? Is not your blood incredibly vital for your life? And where do you blood from? I see no wounds”
She shrugged, “From our, uhm, woman parts doc,” She was relieved that he seemed to understand, “but it’s not that much blood. It mostly can just be awkward in social situations. But man, cramps are the absolute worst. I mean sometimes it’s hard just to walk around cause the pain is so intense.”
Drerzii marveled at these revelations. His discussion with Enara continued on for some time as he was eager to learn more and she seemed, amused, by his questioning. After much talking with both her, and later the rest of the humans, who informed him that males did not in fact have ‘periods,’ (though there could be times of extreme and incapacitating pain for them if they were struck in their ‘nether regions’) the females were remarkably more resilient to pain. All humans could ignore a bit of pain, but the females seemed to be much better at it. Though maybe not quite as physically strong as the males, the females ability to simply push through pain that would leave the males incapacitated was no small feat. Especially seeing how much pain Drerzii had witness some human males absorb.
