On the months my research team and I were allowed to live on Earth and observe their habitat I noted the following about human young:
- human young will turn anything into a weapon to mock battle their peers, broom sticks, straws, even their food
- when in large groups human young will display games of mock hunts against each other. The two most common being “tag” where one young will try to catch the other young acting as prey, and “mob” where all of the young will try to catch a single young who acts as the prey. This suggests an instinctive ability for both pack and solo hunting
- human young will often hone their stalking and hunting skills by hiding or attempting to sneak up on others and pouncing with loud sounds meant to intimidate and frighten. This is considered amusing for the attacker and victim
- adult humans will often mock attack their young with their hands or objects to train the young to protect their vital areas and avoid injury. The young find this amusing and will quickly learn to train each other in this manner
- young humans will often attack and attach themselves to an older human’s legs, arms, or back, hanging on despite being dragged or carried while the adult human walks away. Both humans seems to find the experience entertaining
- young humans are extremely territorial and will attempt to drive off others from food, toys, and areas they have claimed as theirs with physical and verbal attacks. Fortunately, most adult humans actively try to train this behavior out, insisting the young come to an agreement or share resources and territory.
- young humans constantly search for new territory, dens, and resources. They will climb trees, shelving, anything they can reach. They will climb under and behind things. If there are no suitable hiding areas they will construct them out of blankets and cushions or any other available item.
- young humans display a strong pack instinct, quickly forming social groups and defending their group against other groups. Often they will split their own group in order to mock battle each other in contests
- HUMAN YOUNG WILL BITE IF DISTRESSED OR ANGRY AND EMIT LOUD NOISES THAT CALL MATURE HUMANS TO AID THEM
- human young will beg for domesticated carnivores as companions, and if gifted with one will pack bond with it to an extreme point.
- human young will carry a toy and try to protect and nurture it as if the toy was their own young
- human young require constant stimulation in the form of games or information. They will constantly question things and can spend extraordinary amounts of time asking “why”, often while poking the subject in question
- human young will try to eat anything at least once. Anything. If it will fit into their mouth they will attempt to eat it. If it will not fit into their mouth they will lick it.
-human young will voluntarily deprive themselves of oxygen to the point of unconsciousness in an attempt to trigger protective instincts in older humans so they get their way
- human young display great interest in mimicry, often dressing up as different professions, species, and objects. They also display great skill in mimicking the calls and body language of other species. *Example: one human young had me quite concerned there was another Treawalbil in distress and I searched for quite some time before I discovered that the young was mimicking a Treawalbil distress trill with complete accuracy. *Second Example: Human young have begun to wear wear “hats” with artificial crests similar to a Treawalbil and some have begun painting colorful patterns to their arms in imitation of our camouflage.
- human young communicate constantly and spread information quickly not only among their own social group but other social groups as well. *Example: The human young who mimicked a Treawalbil distress trill taught their social group and soon I was surrounded by human young calling out in distress. This caused the Treawalbil researchers much anxiety so the adult humans suggested teaching the young other calls. The human young learned enough for basic communication at an astonishing rate, but then other social groups we had not taught began using the same calls as well. Even adult humans began using the calls to communicate with us without translators.
- Young humans will gift beings and creatures they believe to be in their social group with handmade objects, interesting specimens they have collected, or food. Strangely enough, a being does not have to be human in order to belong to a human’s social group.
I saw that last point and the touched bewilderment of the aliens shone through, and I had to write something. :)
It was one of the proudest days of our research group when we were the ones selected to be allowed to observe a group of human young. Over all the time since we had first made contact with the humans, we had learned that they were, as a species, very protective of their young. We had clearly been selected for a great honor, and we knew that this could lay the groundwork for remarkably better understanding of the human psyche.
We were informed that we would be allowed to watch a group of young at a “pivotal developmental stage”, in a “normal setting”. We were taken to “Darmen Elementary School’s First Grade Class”. This is a group of young aged around five or six Earth-cycles [years]. They are taught how to express themselves through written symbols, and how to mimic the speech patterns of adults. They also learn how to better interact with other humans, through what appears to mostly be a trial-and-error process.
We learned a great deal about how human young interact, and it was mostly new to us, but there was one event that shocked us all - in the best of ways.
It was the final day of research, we were packing up our notes to analyze back with the rest of our team.
The research group of human young [*henceforth referred to as “class”. This was their chosen moniker, unrelated to their task in the human hierarchy] were excited, we had noticed it earlier that day, but as such bouts of strong group-moods were fairly common as a phenomenon (they appear to help the young sympathize with and relate to one another, useful for encouraging pack-bonding) we simply noted the mood and moved on.
It was only when we were letting one of the adult humans know we planned to depart that it happened.
The children, excitement reaching the peak that always made Xlix’an agitated, swarmed us.
At first we were concerned that they were mock-attacking our researchers. We had been assured early on that all attacks were mock, and not intended to hurt us, and even so the adult humans had been trying to discourage them since we had informed them that we felt it violated our ability to research objectively. (It was more to do with the anxiety-inducing effects of such attacks on several of our researchers, including Xlix’an and Daa, but we did not wish to offend the humans.)
After a few moments, however, it was clear the swarm was not an attack formation. Instead, each young was holding out their hands, and resting on top of the open hands was a small clay object.
Each child had a different object, and they were baring their teeth in the human gesture of excitement and friendship.
I personally looked down to see the small young named “Sidney” jumping up and down in front of me, holding out a small object that passingly resembled a flower.
I shook my head, a gesture we had learned in order to refuse the requests of the young.
It worked remarkably well usually, as they had been instructed to respect our authority and relative objectivity.
When I performed the gesture to refuse Sidney whatever it was xe was requesting, xe stopped jumping.
Seeing my results, my fellow researchers performed the same gesture at the young around them.
But Sidney did not leave. Instead, xe stopped baring xir teeth, and xe stared at me for a long moment, before water started to overflow from xir eyes.
I had seen this reaction before, when a small young had fallen and injured themselves earlier in our research period.
The adults had informed us it was a response to pain that was common in young.
Immediately my spinal feelers began to vibrate with the stress I was feeling, unsure of how I had injured the young in front of me.
I hadn’t wanted to injure them! For a moment I was terrified that I had ruined all Quarlian-Human relations for millions of years to come.
Luckily, that was not the case.
The adults quickly hastened around to soothe the injured young, and one of the adults, displaying a human expression we were mostly unfamiliar with, gestured for us to follow xir into a hallway.
“I’m so sorry,” xe said with xir portable translator, “we didn’t explain. They just want to give you a going-away gift.”
We were confused. Finally I spoke up, not even really needing my portable translator to communicate a message I heard plenty of times from the young. “Why?”
Xe bared xir teeth in the friendly gesture. “It’s something our [human young] do.” Xe explained. “It means they like you.”
I exchanged a look with Hurvii, the one on our team who had been most interested in this particular phenomenon. Neither of us quite believed what we were hearing.
“They are pack-bonding? With US?” I asked. “We are not even of your species!”
We’d seen the young pack-bond with other terrestrial species than their own, but with US??
The human’s mouth opened, baring xir teeth even more, and xe made the barking noise that humans use to indicate amusement.
“They’re [human young].” Xe explained. “They’ll ‘bond’ with anything.”
We accepted the gifts.
And, on the way back to our research base, we all quietly decided that, though humans were terrifying at times, we would give anything to go back and see “our” pack-bonded group again.
Ahh! I love it!
Reblogging again for the new additions!
