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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Betty-Adams on 2025-09-05 21:07:11+00:00.

Humans are Weird – Family

Original Post: https://www.authorbettyadams.com/bettys-blog/humans-are-weird-family

Carbon rich particulate matter drifted down through the hot summer air and came to rest on the decaying leaves of last year’s autumn. Most of the organic matter had long since decomposed into the soil but here, deep withing the local wild-wood Notes the Passing Changes had piled up native composting heap. This allowed for thought processes untainted by the microfauna inevitably shed by the sapient alien species that visited or lived on this world. Notes the Passing Changes idly tasted the falling particles for traces of harmful metals. The humans had been very mindful of their celebratory atmospheric explosives ever since Notes the Passing Changes had requested the local Shatar address the matter. This summer there had been no toxic metals in the mix as yet, but it still behooved one to be watchful. Outside of the thickets protecting this place the ground vibrated with humans herding to and from the local streams to splash in the cool waters and set off ground based incendiary devices in the safety of the liquid covered areas.

Suddenly the pattern changed as the disturbance caused by one human broke from the designated path and began thrashing its way through the undergrowth directly towards Notes the Passing Changes’s decomposition pile. Notes the Passing Changes eased awareness from the trees’ vision to the forefront and examined the situational memory. This particular human, a male just having passed from childhood into a legal state of adulthood, had just been swimming in a deeper section of a stream with a cohort of humans of similar or lesser age. He had been by all appearances engaging in cheerful social interaction with them until just moments ago when he had climbed out of the water and began walking back towards the main human settlement along one of the forest paths. It appeared that a group of senior humans had been coming down that path in the opposite direction and the lone human youth had paused and leapt sideways into the woods. Now he was writhing his way through the tangle of protective branches Notes the Passing Changes had carefully ringed this composting area with, resulting in no few tears to his mammalian outer membrane.

Notes the Passing Changes stimulated the immune defenses of the composting heap to immediately destroy any blood and micorbiome the human shed. Shortly the human burst through the protective layer, no small feat Notes the Passing Changes mused. The weave of woody branches should have been too dense for a mature human to get through suggesting greater than species standard flexibility and strength in this individual. The human staggered into the clearing, glanced around, his bifocal vision lighting on the marks Notes the Passing Changes had left to mark the place. The human gave a relieved laugh, staggered forward into the piled leaves and very deliberately let his mass tumble backwards into them.

“Gathering! Hide me!” the human called out.

Somewhat bemused Notes the Passing Changes lifted up a portion of the dead leaves and dropped it over the reclined human. Covered with the dry biomatter the human instantly fell very still. His heart-rate and breathing slowed and his stress pheromones dispersed into the hot air. Notes the Passing Changes carefully directed the decomposition mites too small to be observed by the human to defend the micro-ecosystem around him. Eventually Notes the Passing Changes realized the human was beginning to fall asleep and spoke to the noise of the human’s biorhythms.

“The humans you were trying to avoid have reached the swimming hole and no more are currently coming,” Notes the Passing Changes observed.

The human started, disturbing the defensive line of mites and gave a startled grunt.

“Wh-oh yeah,” the human said. “Thanks, but if you don’t mind. I’ll just hang out here. Nap time and all that.”

“It would be more convenient for my micro-fauna if you sought nap time elsewhere in the forest,” Notes the Passing Changes said. “I can direct you along paths that will not cross vectors with other humans if that is what you wish.”

“Seriously?” The human responded. “Can’t I just chill here? I got torn right up getting in here.”

Notes the Passing Changes deliberately pulled the covering leaves off of the human and bent back the tangle of protective branches forming a path out of the composting area. The human groaned and heaved his mass onto his two legs before lumbering off down the path Notes the Passing Changes had made. Notes the Passing Changes followed him with voice.

“Did you have an altercation with someone in the group of elder humans?”

The human glanced over at the tree that was the source of sound and gave a wry smile.

“Nah, it’s just I’ve already had too much of kin today, you ken’ how it is,” the human said with a shrug.

“I do not,” Notes the Passing Changes assured him.

The human rubbed his hands through his hair the color of autumn leaves and gave a soft laugh.

“When you get round all the cousins and aunties and uncles you got to talk, and that’s fun at first, and smile at the aunties, and tell them how tall you are, and you got to look the uncles in the eye and shake their hands so they can see how much a man you are, and you got to remember which cousin’s dog just died and whose girl just left him for some spacer with a fancy ship and its all fine at first but then the noise and the eyes and the smiles just-” the human staggered to a stop and his eyes visibly unfocused before he shuddered, wiped his hands on his bare thighs and kept walking.

“It just gets to be too much,” the human went on, “and if you have to smile at one more Aunty who remember you when you weren’t have so high as a thistle you are gonna just scream, and it’s best to hide before that happens. You ken.”

“I understand you wish isolation and a place to mentally compost,” Notes the Passing Changes agreed. “While you cannot do that in my composting place I do think I know a more comfortable place for you.”

“That’s grand,” the human replied.

Notes the Passing Changes led the human through the forest, bending back undergrowth to provide an isolated path. At the edge of one of the mixed orchards several humans had spread a layer of fine dried grass to both dispose of the biomatter and feed the trees that would be providing nutrients much later in the season. At the moment no sapients came to the area and the atmosphere was warm and still. The human made an appreciative sound as he entered the space and dropped to the soft surface.

“You’re a grand one Gathering,” the human said as he snuggled down into the fine grass. “Mind covering me up like before?”

Notes the Passing Changes did not have nearly as many motile tendrils in this mass but managed to toss some matter over the now sleeping humans. The question of if this human remembered names well occurred to the Gathering, and if that deficiency added to the human’s obvious unease in prolonged social situations, but that seemed a matter for another time.

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