Ghost :)

Even after Clara returned to the crew, they decided to keep the other human- Rhett- around. They decided it would be good to have more than one human on the ship. It seemed to be beneficial too, as Rhett and Clara got along very well. A few weeks after her return, Indigo approached the two with a question. “Ah.. human-Clara and human-Rhett, I require assistance.”

Clara and Rhett both paused, looking up at xem. Clara spoke first, smiling warmly, “What’s up?”

Xe presented a broken piece of machinery to the two. Rhett happily took it, producing a few tools from his belt and tinkering with it for a couple minutes before returning it to Indigo, who seemed shocked. Clara also looked surprised, “Dude, how’d you do that?”

Rhett laughed softly, “Ah, it’s just some stuff about engineering my ma taught me.”

Indigo took the machine, xir quills changing to a light yellow with xir gratitude. “Thank you, human-Rhett!”

Clara admired the piece for a few seconds, “Jeez, you’re really talented with that.”

Indigo tilted xir head to the side, “Human-Clara, what is this ‘talent’ you mentioned?”

“Oh!” Rhett answered first, grinning, “Basically, a talent is somethin’ you’re real good at naturally. For example,” he looked at Clara, “she’s a whiz with languages- that girl barely wears her translator nowadays!”

Clara smiled at the compliment. “Rhett, you’re good at mechanical stuff. And Indigo, you’re super good at handling emotions.”

Xe seemed happy at the compliment from Clara. It was nice to hear that she thought xe was talented, even if it mostly came from innate abilities xir species shared.

Clara had known the mission was a bad idea. That guess was reinforced when the ship crashed. The other members of her little crew had died on impact, but she’d only been injured. From her guess it was just a few broken or otherwise messed up bones- annoying, yes, but not irreparable. She’d tried communicating with her crew, sending out transmissions and mentally screaming for Indigo, but nothing came to her rescue.

By some miracle, the air was breathable. The climate was on the warmer side, reminding her of the Caribbeans. It was quite nice, and if it weren’t for the three moons, binary star system, and the lavender sky, she would’ve been able to believe this was in a familiar system.

She stumbled out of the ship, swearing to herself when she saw what a wreck it was; there was no way she’d be getting back into the air with that.

Instead, she looked around. It appeared that she’d landed in a field of sorts- on the horizon she saw what appeared to be a civilization, maybe a town, and around her were tall trees that had pear-like fruits on them. A quick scan said they were edible, so she grabbed one. It was perfectly at her shoulder level, which she appreciated. The fruit was tasty, reminding her of earth’s apples or the kalrin-fruits Indigo had introduced to her.

It took a few minutes, but soon Clara had made herself a splint for her broken arm and gathered what she could from the ship’s remains.

She was about to make her way towards the town when she heard a strange chittering noise behind her. The translator didn’t pick it up, which either meant this was an undiscovered language or it was broken- it was really a 50/50 chance. Turning around, she saw a small creature, maybe reaching up to her knees, chittering at her. It seemed to be a bit scared, but still interested. It gestured for her to follow it, which she did, being led to another small town. All around her were the little creatures, rushing about, some coming up to her. They were cute, in a way, with mint-green skin, four arms, fur down their backs, six large eyes- well, she assumed they were eyes- and a bipedal walking pattern. They led her to a building with what appeared to be a collapsed roof, which only reached up to her head. Easily enough she fixed it, and the creatures seemed happy, surrounding her and making those same chittering noises, much more happy-sounding this time.

The Chiri, as Clara called them, were a fascinating civilization. They had a complex language of clicks, chirps, and assorted chittering sounds that took Clara a while to learn properly. Their planet was far faster than earth, one of earth’s weeks was the equivalent of a month for them, and an earth month was the equivalent of a year. Most Chiri only lived for a few of their years, but their lives were filled with celebration. It felt like every week Clara got invited to a new celebration- either a wedding, a coming of age, a new harvest, or even a funeral. Even though Clara took only around six months to fully recover, by that point she had become known as a Chiri guardian. She’d been on the planet for a number of their years, becoming a guardian figure. Where her ship had crashed was turned into a shrine of sorts, new towns being built around it. In exchange, Clara protected them, guided them, and shared her knowledge with them. She’d even learned their language to the point where it was as fluent as any other, even without her translator, which she was fairly certain had broken.

The Chiri had given Clara a new name that they called her, Xi-Rai’du. Most of the children knew her as Xixi.

Clara trusted her friends, they’d taken her in and healed her. They felt like family just as much as her crew on the ship did. Despite their short lives, the Chiri were a people who valued learning. They passed down stories from generation to generation, and Clara would help to remember them as well. She taught them to write, transcribing their stories.

One of the young rushed towards Clara, a little girl who had only recently become old enough to talk. “Xixi! Xixi! There you are!” The little one, her name Si’ra, reached out her four arms for Clara to lift her up, making a high-pitched noise that was roughly the same as a laugh. “The celebration was about to start without you, come! Dari and Lixai want you there!”

Clara nodded, smiling. Dari and Lixai were getting married, and Clara didn’t want to miss out. Still carrying Si’ra, Clara made her way towards the town.

All around the town were banners decorated in vibrant colors, flowers in every windowsill and a clear trail of petals leading to where the wedding would take place. Clara had always loved the Chiri’s celebrations, they were all filled with laugher, music, dancing and festivities that could go for days. As soon as Clara showed up, she was surrounded by lively music, cheers from the Chiri who’d arrived for the celebration, and the greeting of Dari and Lixai, both wearing gorgeous formal attire. Clara bowed to them, smiling as she let Si’ra down, watching her rush towards the other children to join in there game.

“Lady Xi-Rai’du, welcome.” Lixai spoke first, joy clear in all six of her eyes.

Clara shook her head, “Today isn’t a day for celebrating me, it’s for you two.” She gestured to the crowd, “They’re all here for you- so go, celebrate! You’ve earned it.”

Lixai and Dari smiled, taking Clara’s hand and leading her into the crowd.

The wedding was a joyous one, and Clara couldn’t help but feel incredibly proud of Lixai and Dari. Weddings were a major event for both humans and chiri, although the chiri certainly had a more lively celebration all the way through.

The next day, Clara went to the cave where the Chiri kept murals of all their major events. She smiled as she looked, seeing paintings of herself defending the town from wild beasts, celebrating amongst them, and even when she’d first arrived, now over a year ago.

Deep down though, she knew couldn’t stay. Her crew still needed her, and she knew the Chiri had to grow into a full civilization on their own. She was torn out of her mind though when she heard what sounded like screams outside. Sa’ri rushed in, panicked. “Xixi! Help! There are- there’s something outside!”

Clara, admittedly, panicked. She picked Sa’ri up again, letting the girl lead her out. As soon as she left she saw the cause of the panic. In the sky above was a ship. Her ship.

As soon as it landed, Clara put herself between the ship and the Chiri. She faced the panicked crowd, trying to keep order. “All of you! Please, calm down. These newcomers mean no harm.”

The Chiri trusted her, more or less calming down. Clara sighed in relief, facing the ship as the bridge lowered. What she saw surprised her- another human.

It took a moment for Clara to realize they were speaking English- she’d become so used to hearing the chiri’s language of chirps and squeaks- but when she registered what they were saying she almost laughed. It was a declaration of peace, saying they were only doing a recovery mission. Apparently they’d finally gotten the distress signal Clara had sent when she first was crashing, tracing it back to her.

Clara approached the ship, Sa’ri in her arms, and faced the stranger.

“If you’re looking for the recon group that was sent out here a little over a year ago..” she sighed, “I’m all that’s left. I’ve been living on this planet for the past year, and the civilization you see have helped me. They nursed me back to health, gave me a place to stay, and trusted me.” Behind her were the people who she’d protected for what were generations to them. “My name is Clara.. but it is also Xi-Rai’du, and these are the chiri.”

The human seemed shocked, but they didn’t do anything agressive.

“The crew thought you’d died..” they muttered, “they hired me as a replacement. How are you even alive?!”

She couldn’t help but laugh, “I told you. The chiri took me in, and the planet’s atmosphere is breathable.” she put Sa’ri down, and she hugged my leg before running back to her family, as though sensing that this would be the last time she saw her. “I assume you’re here to bring me back now that you know I’m alive?”

They nodded, gesturing for Clara to follow them.

“Just give me a second,” Clara turned to face the Chiri, bowing to them and switching back to their language. “Thank you, all of you. Now I must leave.. but I will return. Reach for the stars, and perhaps we will meet in the cosmos one day.”

The chiri seemed to understand, solemnly accepting that their guardian was leaving.

“Xixi!” Sa’ri called up from the crowd, “I’ll find you again, I promise!”

She turned, nodding to the fellow human. “Bring me back onto the ship.”

Ok so y’all seemed to like the one about intrusive thoughts, so I figured I’d do one about music too because it’s a super interesting topic to me!

The “Guide to Handling Humans” was ever-increasing, but one particular article seemed to confuse many. Spacefaring civilizations had dealt with adrenaline, extroverts, introverts, those who had a compulsive need to pat everything they saw and those who wrote stories of worlds that never existed (called “fantasy”). But one thing they never thought of was music.

Sure, other species had music. But none had focused so much of their civilization around it.

Clara was chatting with Indigo one day, and the topic of celebrations came up. The woman smiled, a gesture Indigo had learned meant that she was either about to do something utterly wild or share an entirely insane story, and started- “Oh! That reminds me, a few years ago I went to this one music festival, right? And there I saw the most amazing bands! I mean, I did lose my voice for a week after but it was totally worth it.”

Indigo was shocked; “Human-Clara what do you mean you ‘lost your voice’? How does one do that?”

“Well basically when someone yells- or does some other stuff- too much for too long, your voice can get messed up. Sometimes you can’t speak, sometimes it’s just super quiet, but it goes away after a bit,” she grinned as she spoke as if this horrifying experience was a positive one. “Have you got music on your home planet?”

Xe thought for a few moments before responding, “Well, yes… but it does not result in losing one’s ability to speak!”

Clara laughed, another positive expression that Indigo had learned about, “Eh, that’s just sometimes. And it just happened because I was singing along really loudly.”

The more Clara explained, the more confused Indigo was. Humans gathered together in crowds that could rival the sizes of some armies in order to celebrate the music of one individual? And sometimes they would be too loud that they would lose their speech? It was shocking to xem.

“Plus,” Clara continued, “some people use music to help them focus or deal with sensory overload. I know a few people on other ships that do it- if you ever go to the Sarina-XI crew, you’ll see a few other humans walking around listening to music, it helps them keep their focus.”

“So.. who creates this music?” Indigo was now more curious than ever, xir quills raising somewhat in curiosity.

“Oh, loads of people! It really depends on what genre it is. But some of the most popular are musicians like Taylor Swift.. her fans are a little scary,” Clara laughed again, “you diss her in front of them and they’ll actually tear you apart.” Indigo’s quills raised more, changing to a color of concern, so Clara clarified- “No, they won’t actually hurt you. They’re just really dedicated.”

To Indigo, this culture was.. odd. Humanity confused xem once again with their obsession with music. Treating ‘idols’ like practically gods, worshipping them and their songs.

So I’ve been very sort of interested in whole “humans are weird” thing, but one topic I never really saw was intrusive thoughts, so I figured I’d throw in my two cents!

The Qu’ral were a well-known telepathic species. Of course, there were some others, but these were the most common. So it wasn’t a surprise for one to end up on a ship with a human, and most didn’t think it would be that bad. Sure, humans at this point were somewhat known for their odd tendencies, but nobody expected that the telepathic people would be too bothered by them. After all- most knew humans to be a species that wore their thoughts out in the open.

Clara, the ship’s resident human, was relaxing in the main atrium when the newest crew member, a Qu’ral whose name roughly translated to Indigo, approached her. She waved to xem, but xe didn’t reciprocate. Instead, xe seemed nervous.

“You okay?” Clara asked, startling Indigo somewhat.

The translator buzzed for a few seconds before it properly registered the language Indigo was speaking, starting near the end of the sentence: “-thoughts that are concerning.”

“Huh? Sorry, translator wasn’t on- could you repeat that?”

Indigo’s quills changed to a yellowish color, showing xir concern, “Human-Clara, recently you’ve been having some.. concerning thoughts regarding your crewmates, is something happening?”

After a few seconds of confusion, Clara seemed to realize what xe meant, “Oh! You mean the stuff about uh.. killing them?”

Xir three eyes widened, quills changing to a bright green-yellow color in xir alarm. “Yes. I wanted to ask you if you are a threat to the crew- you do not display behaviors that would indicate that, but..”

The woman laughed, shaking her head, “No, I’m no more of a threat than you are. Those thoughts are called intrusive thoughts.. basically they’re thoughts you don’t want to have, and I have no plans on actually acting them out.”

Xe sighed (or, whatever the closest to sighing that xe could do was) in relief, xir quills fading back to a more neutral shade. Xe sat beside Clara, now curious. “Human-Clara, do you think that you could tell me more about this? Your mind seems.. fascinating.”

Ah yes, the Definitely Normal Thing of going up to someone and asking “Do you know who Insane Clown Posse is?”