not/average

1. borrowing misery from future

2. carrying grief of the past

okay

the mental image of that is hilarious

you can never get a clear listen to him. his primary sense node is covered in "hair" and the part that isn't is hidden by two crystals that refract sound waves in a pleasing but disorienting way. he covers his body in billowy cloth at all times. not snug and sensible and unobstructive like eridian coverings, but loose and layered, draped and flowing.

the most clear part of him are his internal organs. because yes, the alien's carapace isn't sound-proof. his single heart beats insistingly in his core, his lungs exchanging gas constantly, his long digestive tract always bubbling and contracting. his thorax is packed impossibly tight and it's all moving and singing.

and it shouldn't be possible, with how fragile he is, for that internal pressure to maintain. how does the thin membrane of his external organ (another horror that sends eridians reeling) keep it all contained? his "skin" is so easily pierced, cut, bruised, burnt, how does he not split open under his own mass?

when savior rocky first arrived home and described the environmental needs of his alien, the scientists thought he'd made a mistake in his frantic panic to get everything out. it isn't possible this being lives at such low atmospheric pressure, at half the gravity, and in a gas that's nearly double the weight of ammonia. in a gas so dangerous, so caustic. and if it does then how is it obligately terrestrial like rocky claims? shouldn't it fly or float instead? (and then to see it in the water, learning that it can float or sink at will.)

and this alien has come bearing gifts that will not only save your species but launch it into impossible heights of technological and intellectual advancement. he has discovered the solution to astrophage and bred it to thrive on threeworld and translated his instructions into eridian. he has given your people the complete sum of his people's knowledge, advanced in ways the eridians can't believe and behind in ways that seem ludicrous. and he has given his life for your people to have these things.

he knows how your solar system was formed. he knows how the universe started.

his name means beautiful and generous and relieving.

the eridians experiencing cosmic bliss.

This is a form of backdoor bigotry from both normative facts (there are more straight than gay relationships) and well represented bigoted beliefs (men are superior to women).

Here's just a sample of what they're dealing with:

1) maggots. So many maggots. You have no idea. And where there are maggots there are flies, and a decent number of flies bite.

2) feces and vomit in dumpster areas.

3) unhoused people in dumpster areas, which is a big problem for sanitation workers because the machinery that lifts the dumpster can absolutely kill people who are in the way. That means having to move unhoused people, who may be both on the defensive and armed. Is it always dangerous? No, of course not. Is there always a risk? Yes.

4) that thing about the machinery? Yeah, that goes for sanitation workers themselves, too. Sanitation workers can and have died on that machinery.

5) bees. Angry bees.

6) the smell. THE SMELL.

7) broken, unsecured glass.

8) unsecured needles. Drug paraphernalia is the most likely culprit, but some folks who take injection meds are incredibly stupid.

9) rabid animals. Coyotes and raccoons love dumpsters and trash cans.

10) other miscellaneous stuff that we don't normally think of as dangerous, but absolutely can be. Rusty nails can cause tetanus, old paint can contain lead, a pile of dead clothes can contain black mold, trash that sat outside for awhile may contain biting insects or spiders.

I have also heard at least one story from a fellow worker about a guy who ODed in their dumpster enclosure and died there. Imagine being the person who finds that body. You don't know anything is wrong, you're just doing an enclosure check before you lower the loader, and suddenly you very literally trip over a corpse. This is a thing that happens. A few years ago here the cops went looking for a body in the landfill. They found half a dozen bodies or partial bodies, none of which were the person they were looking for.

And that's just stuff that I know transfers from my old jobs to sanitation workers and stuff I've learned from the news! There's plenty I'm sure I don't know! This is not a safe, easy, or fun job!

I really just have to summarize Thomas's entire life:

He was in a committed relationship with a male swan named Henry for 18-24 years before a female swan named Henrietta showed up and mated with Henry.

Thomas was initially jealous of the pair and attacked them, breaking 2 of the 5 eggs Henrietta had laid. However, once the remaining eggs hatched, Thomas warmed up to them and helped raise them.

Henry couldn't fly because of an injured wing, so Thomas taught the cygnets how to fly.

When they needed to reduce the goose population in the pond where Thomas and the swans lived, they dyed Thomas's feathers red so he wouldn't be separated from Henry.

Henry, Henrietta, and Thomas remained in their happy throuple for years and raised 68 cygnets before Henry died in 2009. After Henry's death, Henrietta found another swan and flew away, leaving Thomas alone.

Thomas finally met and mated with a female goose in 2011 and had his own babies. However, another goose named George stole them and raised them himself.

As Thomas grew elderly and blind, he was relocated to a wildlife center where he raised orphaned cygnets.

His caretaker at the center described him as "pretty high maintenance."

Thomas died in 2018 at the age of around 40. He had a funeral that included a small coffin and a procession that was led by a bagpiper. He was buried under the stone where Henry was buried, the two finally reunited in death.

—

This is really stupid, but also really terrifying.