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.
perhaps this is a sign i've started to mentally deteriorate but as i was wearily boiling alive in a listless geography classroom today "prectikars at Praktiker" happened to pop into my head and i thought it was vaguely funny enough to visualize. i sincerely apologize if you are not european and feel like i've just thrown your avian gorillas into Night Vale Praktiker is a german hardware store
I think Tui and Merad were the first ones I designed?
Tui is an Arasit Muttreazik who grew up in a multi-species orphanage with a lot of hexapods and hexapod media, so its brain worm decided that it also needed to be a hexapod. It has many other friends, including other Kixeli, but its BFF since early childhood is Merad, a Prectikar. It loves to climb on Merad, and Merad loves to be climbed on. They play a lot of video games, and maybe make a career of it? Idk
Tui can't really glide and I'll never draw its patterns the same but it paints itself all the time so w/e
Tiger is here again, alongside their siblings, Metrodora and Berossus (their parents probably also named Tiger after an ancient scientist but they like the silly nickname better). Fun fact: their stripes aren't from the Muttreazik changes but from residual splice genes.
Tiger uses their Mancer abilities and big cat muscles to do building/demo work. Dora doesn't use her Conduit abilities much, focusing instead on legal work to improve treatment of and accessibility for Muttreazik, especially those with less congruent bioplans. Bero does something I'm sure but I dunno what yet lmao
Some simple human face expressions and how they’re commonly (mis) interpreted by the other guys. I haven’t drawn in a while so the faces are ehhh imo but it’s fine.
This human is a splice, featuring some broken skin pattern and ear hair mods.
Obviously, the aliens can use other context clues to figure out what the expression means, but the original misinterpretations can lead to lasting confusion/mistakes (such as wondering why that human is so mad at you when they’ve just been smiling.)
I’m working on the expression sheets for the other species, so we’ll be able to see what I’m taking about with their equivalents.
Just for some preview/fun facts about the most common things that humans misinterpret about the alien expressions : Sundyne crying is read as snarling, Rossetian laughter is typically not noticed at all because it’s not vocal, the Prectikar scared face is seen as a threat, Kixeli aren’t fully paying attention to you if they’re facing forward, and Drecu/Sundyne are read as being pissed off all the time because of the eyes.
It's blurry because Small Image is trying to silence me, a pixcel canvassizemaxxer. Maybe downloading it will let you zoom in a little more? If not just try looking at it here instead, it's a little better.
Pictured, left to right:
Up in the corner there: Everyone's favorite AI, the Geomorphic, Educational, Interspecies Arbiter (or GEIA!!) All "living" AI are copies of her made for specific purposes (er, when theyre copied on purpose, at least.), and while they technically have their own unique experiences, memories, and personalities, they're all stuck pretending they're one overarching AI who's in control of a bunch of different stuff (the government has decided it's better to say "look, this is our Friend GEIA with a different hat on" rather than say "this is a copy of a person that we made so that the original doesnt go insane from the vast workload we have her under. It became it's own person and we don't actually know of it'll act like her and it might kill people"). She is showing off the latest iteration of her avatar, a winking three-armed humanoid with a "hat" that resembles the rings of Nea Arxi, the planet she helps manage to keep the other sophonts alive.
Rossetians: A scaulos jack (green and black outfit) and a bict roe (yellow dress). They're giving each other a friendly greeting with their tongues (the jack a little more enthusiastically) and politely avoiding direct eye contact with anyone in particular. Both have their fore-torsos lifted from the ground, front pair of arms folded. Unlike the prectikar next to them, they can lower their front half to use these forelimbs to carry them in a hexapedal gait (which neither is likely to do at the moment, they arent wearing gloves). The modesty divide between the two genders and cultures is portrayed here; the roe is clothed to xer neck with most of xer horn covered, while the jack shows some of xis arms, tail, and horn.
Prectikar: An older drah hokar (lip piercing and tusk caps) and a younger jell kar (the shorter, paler-furred one with a nose ring) stand next to each other, the kar looking to the hokar while xe places a reassuring hand on xis shoulder. The two expose their bottom incisors with pursed lips. Combined with their lidded eyes and dilated pupils, they're giving the audience a calm expression. Both have piercings on their vocal nostrils to help them pronounce tooth and tongue consonants. It is the off-season, so the two do not show any dimorphic traits and are wearing standard clothing for warm weather, with their fore-chest wattles covered.
Muttreazik: Two human-host individuals, their outward appearance a protective shell over the inorganic worm-like intelligence that pilots the body. The muttreazik themself, pictured in the circle by the species label, looks out at the viewer and flexes their graspers, showing off the many fine roots that anchor them in place in the flesh and allow them to transmit signals to their meat suit in place of nerves. They couldn't do this in reality, being outside of their body would kill them shortly and they aren't able to actually move these graspers much (it would likely kill their body anyway, so this is a good thing). This is who replaced a human brain and modified a human body in-embryo to produce the black-furred person standing before you, but them and the body are widely considered one entity. The only hint of the inner workings (outside the bits that obviously dont look like a human) is a slit in their forehead, where a closed lid feathered with lashes protcts a third eye organ that the muttreazik uses to interact with the world around them. The sitting one shows a more noticable difference in body plan, being a quadruped with a snout (far removed from the flat-faced bipeds to their right). They are also like most muttreazik, a Null, with completely grey eyes. The other retains a bipedal resemblance to their host species, albeit with some differences. This one is also a mancer in the process of developing from a Red to an Orange, seen in their vibrant, mismatched eye color. The sitting one wears a completely custom wardrobe, since nothing human-made would fit them very well. They look to the side and sign something with their hand, parting their lips slightly without actually trying to speak (they can't mimic human language very well due to their mouth shape). The mancer, requiring special pants and shoes to accomodate their tail and digitigrade feet, rubs the back of their neck apprehensivly, staring directly out at the viewer.
Humans: A Splice woman stretches, showing off her inherited stripe and ear mod. The other human is an Av man, having fewer to no mods present or presenting. Genetic modifications to change human features are a relic of the past, now only hanging around if they could be passed down naturally (slowly excluding some of the more drastic modifications that required lab intervention. Now, the most complex modding is done by the muttreazik standing behind them!!) The splice woman wears brightly colored polyester pants, a modern novelty now that technology has been built back up enough to put plastic back on shelves. The av man wears clothing that exposes his legs, long, straight, and plantigrade, a key feature that supports his species' unique bipedal stance alongside his near-vertical hips and spine. He gives a thumbs-up gesture and pulls his lips back to the molars, a human expression of ease or enjoyment.
Kixeli: Two 'nomadic' Kel (below) and an Arasit (gliding down from above). One kel, a Stripe, stands while the Spot to xer right sits. They hold arms on instinct, unconsciously aware that there are only two of them posing here (a frighteningly low number). The stripe angles xer eyes, mounted on the side of xer head, too look curiously at xer surroundings. The Spot raises xis head fin in tandem with opening and closing xis mouth, colorful tongue held up to convey excitement and interest. They wear matching colors and symbols representing their shared community. The dark bands on both their arms (and unseen around their chests) are heating pads, often necessary for their ectothermic bodies that evolved on a much warmer planet. Otherwise, they are wearing little other clothing to allow their skin to breathe (literally). The Arasit above them has xis colorful gliding membranes extended, held open by a derived pinky finger and a cartilaginous elbow hinge. Alongside that obvious difference, xe is also differentiated from Kel adults by xis large cartilage head crest and slightly elongated limbs. A small hole is pierced into the membrane to thread clothing through, though like the Kel xe is only wearing enough to cover xis cloacal opening. Xe isn't built for true flight, but can get pretty far by gliding like this. Some of the colors on xis head scarf match those of the kel, so their community may be along the circuit that this wanderer travels.
Cerest (Drecu): The two Drecu biotypes, a Dorest (the smaller blue one) and a Rox (the larger red one), stand next to each other. Both bear Ret class tattoos, the two rectangles denoting Secondary rank (a step above the lowest Tertiary class). The Dorest has xeir arms unfolded, one two-fingered hand bent in towards xenself, perhaps ready to sign. Xie wear the Dorest-appropriate light grays and whites, most of xeir scales covered aside for their face, neck, and a sliver of xeir tail. Xeir eyes are not fully open, but xeir antenna are up and alert behind xeir head, angled towards the Rox, who in turn bends one of xeir own antenna inwards. The pheremone signals they exchange are unknowable to other sophonts. Having a completely different facial and body structure, the Rox hardly looks like the individual beside them. Yet, the two are the same species, their appearance polarized by "role" in the colony. The Rox's powerful quilled arms are folded, xeir back and tail quills at ease. Xie wear darker grays and a longer skirt, which works with xeir prominent cheek disks and dark coloration to signal xeir status as an Arch. Xei raise one leg to adjust their standing position to move further in front of the Dorest, unintentionally baring a sharp toe claw that is pointedly unenclosed by xeir shoes, another natural weapon that defines xen as the "soldier" biotype.
Cerest (Sundyne): A sight (larger, no dress) stands in front of a shine (smaller, dress). They share the same genus as the Drecu but bear little resemblance. The sight turns to look around xer, eyes still lidded but arms unfolded from their resting position, antenna held high in a vigilant stance. Xe wears no jewlery and xer hair-scales are cut short, tied close to the back of xer head. Xer clothing is dark, and like the Drecu most of xer scales are covered. Xer arm sleeves have a hole to expose the sharp end of xer forearm spikes, one of the key dimorphic features aside from xer size that sets xer apart from the shine behind xer. While xe does not wear any cloak or skirt that shows a higher status than Worker, xe is still a league above the Drecu to xer left simply thanks being a Sundyne, and wears three small circular Sun class crescents down xer forehead to show it. The shine beside xer angles xis head upwards, acknowledging the other species to xis left. Xe has three full circles on xis forehead, a small difference but one that represents xis greater status than the sight (a sun rather than a moon). Xe wears flashy jewlery on xis ears, horns, and antenna intended to frame xis face, where xe also sports eye makeup and a painted beak. The tips of the three-pronged retractable claws on xis hands are also painted, as is the 6-inch curved toe claw that peeks out from under xis dress. All these adornments and the cumbersome dress all convey that xe is not a laborer or a fighter like a sight, instead likely being a larva caretaker/teacher or a skilled worker in xis clan.
