text; local human doesn't know what a human is.

[andstill]

Type: Text
Sender ID: andstill (Ardbert Hylfyst)
To: Public Post
Subject: 🧍‍♂️?
Warnings: None

Figure it's normal that someone would come here and see people the likes of which they've never seen before. Makes sense, that. New place, new people.

Thing that's confusing me is, more folk here look like me than ever did back home. All skin, ears the shape of seashells, two eyes, somewhere on the short side of of the mean. We call people like me hume, back home. Or hyur? I think it was hyur. Something like that. We cluster together sometimes, big families and all. But most cities, you'd see all kinds of folk. And they'd be built to be used by all kinds of folk, too. Everything made for people of all sorts of sizes.

Here it feels like every other person is my size. And I don't know I've seen more than a couple doors that a zun could get through comfortably.

That's not normal, is it? For there to be so many hume and so few of everyone else?

Comments

id: ramuhs; text

[ramuhs]

Hume? Like human?

Been of an even mix in my experience. I often see various "animal folk" when out and about, especially running businesses and such. Walruses, bears, otters, pelicans — had a squid serve me fish balls once, that was interesting. But maybe since I'm from a human only world I notice them more.

For some reason I attract a lot of bird folk.

[andstill]

Suppose so. Other folk seem to be calling us that, too. I know different places have different names for the same thing, that's why I've heard people call us hyur before. 'Human' must just be another word for it.

It's peculiar. There's a lot of different types of folk here, maybe even more than back home. But more hume overall. It's not a bad thing, it's just odd. Even more odd to hear that so many people are from places where there are even more.

[ramuhs]

Were humans that much of a rarity?

[andstill]

Not rare as such. You wouldn't be surprised to run into one. But my grandpa and I were the only hume on the island I grew up on.

Small island, mind. Most cities, you'd find maybe one hyur in every ten people. Not rare, but not so many of them as there are here.

[ramuhs]

[Huh.]

And what were the other people like?

[andstill]

There were all kinds. Some kept to themselves. The dwarves - they're smaller folk, about up to your thigh, with pointed ears - stick to their own big family groups. The ondo, too. They're about the size of a hume, but hairless and scaled with a long fin up their back. They can breathe air fine as adults, but their little ones have trouble with it. So mostly they live in their own groups under the sea. Then you have the fae folk. There are a couple different types, but I leave them be and they leave me be, as a rule.

When it comes to the folk who live in cities, you have hume. Folk like me or you. Then the mystel. They're smaller than a hume, as a rule. Quicker on their feet, but they need to use a tail to keep their balance. Ears on top of their head, and they can swivel them around to pinpoint sound. Elves're tall with long limbs and leaf-shaped ears. Galdjent are big fellows. They look close enough to a hume, just twice as tall and three times as wide, but they'd have trouble using most doors that weren't built with their size in mind. And ronso are big, too, but they have fur. Horns, too sometimes. Zun are the other really big fellows. Scaled. They have horns, too. As do the drahn - two horns, one on each side of the head. They have skin and scales both. Then you have viis. The women are taller than a hume, and the men smaller. They're old as anything, most of them, and they have long ears on the top of their heads. And the mord. Little furred men.

Thing is, they'd all need different things out of a city. So you needed to build something that'd be comfortable for a dwarf or a mord, all the way up to someone the size of a zun. Different medicines for some of them, too. Can't always use the same ointments on scales that you would on skin.

I suppose that's what I was getting at. What was worrying me. I'm not familiar enough with things here yet to know whether someone who wasn't a hume'd be comfortable. I suppose it mustn't be that much of an issue, if all the locals are well enough.

[ramuhs]

[...

All right, he's getting some coffee for this— But it's an interesting read all the same, and if it weren't for living in this world for several months now, he'd be hard pressed to believe it. While some of the monsters of his world had some level of intelligence, it wasn't up to a human's level.]

That's quite the world you have, and if it weren't for being here I'd have a hard time believing in it. But I think I have a better understanding of what you mean. If it helps, I've seen specialty shops and things tailored to the non-human denizens, but there are a lot of different kinds that would certainly need unique treatments. I haven't really thought of that, either, now that you mention it. I'll have to keep that in mind whenever I have non-humans in the crew.

But I think you don't have to worry so much. These people have been around for quite a while, and it seems the rifts have been happening long enough that they've already adjusted to readily accommodate us.

That is a thought, however. I don't know the full history, but if more humans came in due to the rifts, it's quite possible what we see now is a result of that accommodation.