M'beauteous lady! Dost thou have some sort of opinion on the fact that small animals/beings perceive life slower than, say, humans, and may then very well be applied to some species of shifter faes? *is thinking moth fae in this instance* it is apparently linked to metabolic rate (fast metabolism = slow world). I was thus thinking, could that slow-mo effect still be effective for the shifter currently humanoid? I would hazard that yes, since it feeds the whole inhuman vibe fae sometimes project?
There’s a lot of pop science around fast metabolism / slow world theory. The critical fusion flicker frequency study on flies certainly proved that flies likely perceived the world four times faster than humans do - but it wasn’t a study done on all small animals or all animals with fast metabolism, and a lot of ‘it’s a fact that small animals / animals with fast metabolism perceive the world as thus’ is something that even the scientists of the study themselves didn’t state. (There are other studies, but the benchmark is the one by Healy, McNally, Ruxton, Cooper & Jackson).
I would say that it doesn’t apply really to the fae world in terms of shifters, because most aren’t living in their animal form; and their lifespans are already extended, therefore their metabolisms have to be slower than their human world counterparts. If a hummingbird shifter in ‘human form’ had to eat as much as a hummingbird because of metabolism preservation, it would make no sense for the human form itself. The hummingbird has such a high metabolism to deal with a few critical things, namely - the ability to beat its wings in such a fast and agile manner. A hummingbird shifter in human or even hybrid form isn’t using their metabolism for this - and is also dealing with a fae lifespan (still shorter than other fae, like common fae, but still looking at hundreds of years).
If a moth shifter fae was spending most of their lives as a moth, then yeah, the perception of the world would likely be slower - because it syncs with size and metabolism (in theory). But as soon as the switch to hybrid or human form comes, and the size changes, the metabolism must change too to fit with a different biology. Even though animal shifters preserve aspects of their animal form, they still essentially gain human organs and functions even if they keep say horns or antlers or compound eyes or the ability to digest bone. Once the metabolism and size alters - the perception of the world alters too.
This is often the same with other shifters as well. Dog shifters cannot scent as well in human form as they can in dog form - even if they can scent better than the average fae. Most shifters cannot fly without the assistance of magic, essentially, because their wings can never be proportionately large enough (at least conveniently) to help them fly. Gulvi flies not because her swan wings are big enough to support her body weight, but because she can use fae ability to defy physics.
Again, it doesn’t mean that fae don’t perceive the world in ways that aren’t human. A stomatopod fae, even in human form, is going to see the world better and more completely than almost any other kind. But the specific ‘slow motion’ perception is considered linked strongly to metabolism and size, and those are the two things that disappear in hybrid and human forms when it comes to most insect shifters (and small bird and mammal shifters).
And it’s a really cool theory - like, it’d be really cool to have a world where fae or creatures preserved their metabolic speed even in human form - though it would mean that many would need to basically spend all their lives trying to eat their bodyweight equivalent each day just to function (which is a tough ask once you're 'human' sized). The biology of fae is something I find really fascinating, and even though my thoughts are ‘no, there might be some slower perception for a moth fae in hybrid or human form - more than average, but not distinctively so once the shift occurs’ - that doesn’t mean that a) you can’t have that happen in your own characterisation, or that b) it wouldn’t work. It’s just what I’ve decided on for the world itself, based on my thoughts on the biological shifts that occur from true -> hybrid -> human form.
