#slomen

Unlike mammals, slomen have a less refined feeding system, and the chicks have to puncture the pouch to get to the "soup". The holes are very small, much like the tips of the drinking teeth of the babies. The teeth aren't very visible in the image, but they form a triangle from the bottom jaw that directs flow into the mouth. They also help with breaking the megg, these chicks have no other teeth. The younglings generally start walking on their feet no later than two months. This is when they are fully covered in fuzz and may start growing new teeth. Though that walking isn't exactly competent. Much like baby birds, they wobble around and fall at every step, especially if they try to run. Before their famous good-enough-walk they often crawl around on their ankles, with a few just ignoring that they have legs, instead dragging themselves by their arms everywhere (a behavior important to correct early).

Slims start getting their stripe-fluff latest by half a year. These feathers are more solid than the cottony covering and all show a unique stripe pattern. While they may walk just fine, they aren't yet good speakers, and even among their age, they use signs a lot more than speech. Complex words and signs come with a better understanding of concepts. Before any of that, they can't be trusted running in the fields without an older sibling. It can sometimes take over a year before a running child can be trusted with running. By this point, some children will also slowly gain new coloration that, in some cultures, will decide their gender early. This isn't always a good idea, with how long the coat takes to develop and how much assuming has to be made based on older siblings and parent colors. So most slomen until a certain age are not gendered. The new colors always start higher on the body. So most often, the face is the first to become fully covered in "adult" feathers. But yes, this transition takes their whole childhood and only becomes faster at puberty, where other changes come.

Also, slomen actually have "plushes" in use, which has, in rare cases, evolved into toy plush making. But the original use is for workers, primarily travelers. They are called 'sailor bags' in simple, and serve as company for isolated slomen who are either too sick to be with others or their job has them away from their unit for a longer period of time. They are very simplified and don't actually look like specific people unless one draws a bit on them. It's really about the base shape; many won't even have limbs.

A bigger ships might just have a room with a bunch, filling them with resources that may be used in an emergency or just having them single purpose. Ships on long trips can't always afford large squads, and having the feeling of a familiar embrace can help with the stress of a long voyage. Slomen tend to sleep all grouped up.

Approximately 23 years ago, a young man of uniimic biology is taken in by the court to serve in the coven. As he is taught the high ways, he is told about an event of the recent past, described as old.

Not even 6 years earlier, the nation of Ciwa had a stable relationship with a sky uniima collective from the southern islands, giving them an open gateway to the ueema and the rest of the central land.

This relationship was greatly weakened after one of many intercontinental trips taken by the two species, when one of the uniima envoys was lost in Kuiqua, the political and religious capital of Upli'ta-kaw (Ciwa).

Death is not considered a rarity for those traveling to alien lands, where one can easily get poisoned by local sources or badly kept rations. It was automatically assumed the uniima would have died. However, it would be quite unlikely for an alien body to come unnoticed.

After long conversations, messages, and threats, the ciwans had failed to give the collective information about their lost envoy. It's unclear how the parley ended, but the uniima withdrew from Ciwa in relative peace and with a lot of gifts.

Only a few know the whole scale of what happened to the delegation member. But most had heard the old complaints about lack of knowledge, the lack of an upper hand on alien biology. How unreliable aliens are with information. Or how they must have been vivisecting slomen for years. Be it an accident, an intent, or a misstep, nowadays every court member would be against it.

Neal has grown to think in similar ways. But it's not as effortless for him.

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