#stranded alien au

Also, I learned that a majority of the time the human eye moves in rapid, jerky movements called saccades. If the twst humans are considered more graceful than earth humans, would their eyes only move in saccades if they were scared or angry?

Would both of these things make Yuu kinda uncanny to most twst residents?

Hello, and thanks for the ask!

Yes, twst humans do have flat teeth! I think they would kind of be able to tell that MC's teeth aren't completely flat from the beginning, since our outer incisors are slightly rounded and our canines are a bit sharp (which would be visible while talking or eating), and they're passively aware of the fact that we're omnivorous. It wouldn't really hit them though that "yes, this is a predator" until MC (or someone else) purposefully pulled back their lips to give them a better view, and they'd feel their heart drop for a second (with the exception of Silver who grew up amongst fae, and Rook who's Rook). They'd try not to let it affect them, insisting that they were still the same old MC they knew and loved, but it would secretly scare them a bit.

As for the eye thing, theirs move in a very smooth rolling motion, which is lowkey horrifying to look at from an Earth human perspective. It can speed up and get very fast, but it's never the rapid jerks we experience. This, the above, and all the other weird differences between the species make MC very uncanny to the twst folk.

Here's a very rough diagram of the differences between the twst species and Earth human's facial features as promised from my last post

Do sleep disorders like insomnia or sleep paralysis exist in twst. Considering how sleep is important for their magic and health, would something like insomnia (if it exists) be seen as more of a life or death situation compared to how it is on Earth. Or would it be like Silver, whose narcolepsy was caused by the curse he has (might be wrong on what Silver sleeping thing is), where it can be caused by magic. If so, would it be something where the caster of the curse would be punished since sleep is important to the health of the twst species? Or would they not care? since the majority of the twst cast don't care how Silver practically sleeps all the time and/or passes out a bunch.

And since nightmares are so rare in twst, would sleep paralysis even be a thing? Or would it again be a curse/magic thing rather than their body acting out? How would the twst cast react to earth's sleeping disorders if they don't have them in twst or to yuu that has those disorders?

Sorry if this is a lot! these thoughts were rotting my head, and I needed to get them out.

Lol ironically getting to this one after not being able to fall asleep for 36 hours. TW: Brief mention of drugging

While some sleep disorders like insomnia and narcolepsy do exist in twst (although extremely rare), others, like sleep paralysis, don't.

Narcolepsy isn't seen as particularly dangerous most of the time (aside from the fact that it can make a person more vulnerable) since at least the affected individual is getting sleep. In general, it's treated similarly to most types of neurodivergence: simply an unchangeable trait, and most places (especially in larger cities/ communities) will reasonably accommodate it.

Insomnia, on the other hand, is viewed as a severe illness or disability, since it can have major affects on a person's magic. While excessive medical intervention is given to those afflicted, including sleeping potions/ spells, chronic versions of the disorder are almost always fatal.

As for curses, both of the above and sleep paralysis-like states can be inflicted onto someone. They are expressly illegal, and are treated similarly to assault or murder depending on the curse; but consequences will vary depending on the individual community and it's reactiveness, and how involved the government/ law enforcement is.

How the twst folk would react to an MC with a sleep disorder would depend on which one it was. For a narcoleptic MC, they'd probably be treated similarly to Silver: receive some accommodation (like being allowed to sleep in class, and given more learning materials to take home to make up for what they missed) and generally not have others bother them too much about it. As MC gets closer to the cast, though, some might be a bit concerned for their safety, and the more protective ones may start guarding them as they slept. Honestly, I could totally see Sebek gathering both a sleepy MC and Silver into one place so he could look out for them and make sure they were safe as they slept "keep them in line", lol. Additionally, definitely expect to wake up in someone's arms after being stolen as an impromptu heated pillow.

For an insomniac MC, it would honestly scare the hell out of them. Even after learning more about homo sapiens, and how insomnia isn't as big of a deal for us, they'd still struggle to shake the concern that you were on your way to an early grave- it'd be like watching someone rarely eat and be like "oh yeah don't worry, we don't really starve like that". It wouldn't be long before they were sneaking sleeping potions into your food, and if those somehow didn't work... well, Malleus' nightly visits would start serving a different purpose.

For an MC with chronic nightmares or sleep paralysis, I think they'd all be pretty bewildered at first- because what do you mean every night you close your eyes and vividly hallucinate horrible monstrocities tormenting you and you can't move?? After the initial shock wore off, though, the reactions would be a split of those who feel bad for MC and treat them a little softer (Trein, Kalim, Silver), those who are more pragmatic and try to find a solution/ cure (Idia, Crewel), those who are curious and want to learn more about it (Jade, Rook, Lilia), and those who fall somewhere in between.

This is a fairly rough first draft, so it's still subject to change, but here's what I've got so far for the anatomy of the twst humans for the stranded alien AU! (minus reproductive organs for visibility purposes.) Further explanation on the organs' purposes below.

-The smaller magic filters on the trachea and lungs help prevent them from inhaling harmful residual magic that may be air born, which is fairly common on a battlefield/ in the aftermath of a fight.

-The large magical "core" organ is where a good portion of their magic is generated. It functions similarly to a very large mitochondria, and essentially "recycles" magical energy they consume/ absorb into useable magic.

-The larger blot filter above the stomachs helps reduce and filter out the amount of blot the human produces, both during generation of magic, and while actively casting.

-The blot filter in between the hearts works much the same as the others, but is specialized to deflect/ protect against spells cast onto the human, as apposed to their own blot or the magic in the general area..

-Their additional heart and over-sized lungs are due to a combination of the thin air/ atmosphere of Twisted Wonderland, and their hemocyanin like blood. Hemocyanin is far less efficient than hemoglobin at transporting oxygen and other necessary atoms, which their planet already contains less of, so they require the extra organ to pick up the slack.

-Since twst humans are herbivorous, they have a 3 chambered stomach to help them break down and digest plant matter, which takes longer and is a more complicated process than meat. All together, it's a bit larger than a Homo Sapien's, but is still smaller than the other twst species.

-Instead of 2 large kidneys and 1 moderately sized pancreas, that ratio is flipped, as all twst folk need to be able to process large amounts of sugar (a staple energy source to help them process magic). This does significantly reduce what they're able to eat, though (No alcohol or excessive capsaicin, for example).

-No hemoglobin = no spleen.

Does that mean that MC is better at reading body language/micro expressions than the others?

The ask about what would the cast be as yanderes spurred me on with the question, I was wondering if MC would be able to see past the mask Cater wears.

I'm sorry if this was asked before, but I was genuinely curious.

Have a great day ^^

Hello, and thanks for the ask!

Yes, MC is significantly better at reading body language and micro expressions than the twst folk, to the point that it's almost as beneficial as an additional sense (like seeing/ hearing/ etc). For most twst folk, it's extremely difficult to tell what another person is thinking/ feeling if they don't intentionally say/ exaggerate their expressions, but it's fairly intuitive to us.

Minor spoiler warnings for Cater/ MC's relationship ahead:

From the start, MC would get the vibe that Cater was kind of fake/ wasn't being genuine, but they wouldn't really think too much about it since all the twst folks are pretty weird to them. Since humans are the best at lying out of all the species, his deception is fairly subtle, but it does become more obvious as MC starts to catch on over time.

I'd say they're fairly similar in the amount/ size, maybe a little more for us, but Earth human muscles are a lot denser while Twst human muscles are a lot more flexible/ stretchy. Instead of building muscle through healing micro tears like we do, twst folk's bodies recognize the need to gain muscle mass through failure to perform a physical task; so while exercising isn't nearly as painful for them, it takes a lot longer to build strength and there's less wiggle room around their physical limits.

I know this wasn't in the ask, but for the other species:

Beastmen tend to have more muscle mass than we do, and it's a bit stronger and less flexible than Twst humans'.

Merfolk are in a similar boat to beastmen, but with the flexibility of twst humans'.

Fae vary greatly, but many are similar to merfolk.

Does it travel better, because the atmosphere is thinner?

In the game itself, people are rarely shouting, even if they are communicating from a bigger distance.

If sound does travel further here....does that mean MC is technically a Sebek style megaphone, because they had to communicate on earth, with denser air, atmosphere and everything?

I hadn't thought about this previously, but after some very brief research (big thanks to my brother who is much smarter than I am), a lighter density and thinner atmosphere would cause sounds to be both quieter and higher pitched. The difference probably wouldn't be huge, since MC is still able to breathe and walk with some effort, but it would definitely be noticeable.

Like you said, this would mean that MC probably sounds like they're nearly shouting, similarly to Sebek, to everyone else; and that they're all sort of mumbling to them. Though luckily, it's not completely hopeless! I mentioned it briefly in an ask from several months ago (that I cannot find for the LIFE of me), that Merfolk use a special kind of hearing aid when on land, as sound travels differently in the water. I don't think it'd be very difficult for someone like Idia to make a few adjustments to one of these devices so that MC could hear as well.

Also I would NEVER shake the feeling that these super pale people with blue lips and blue tear ducks and blue blush and grey skin that are walking around with me ain't just corpses. DAWG THAT IS WHAT CORPSE COLORS ARE LIKE! Uncanny valley is the whole point of this AU I know but good lord

People being "rosy" looking and being warm toned have had a bit of an iron grip on what is attractive, or at the very least "cute" here. Would that be flipped for TWST or is it still like "yeah if your blood is more green vs blue then you're seen as cuter"? Does this part even make sense?

I would imagine that Yuu would have to get custom makeup made for them, at least for the base (foundation, concealer, bronzer (does TWST use bronzer in this au?)). Probably for eye and lip makeup too cause I imagine even the warm tones in twisted wonderland here are cool tones back on earth.

YOU SAID THE COLOR RED WAS RARE IN NATURE?! Are strawberries/cherries/tomatoes/watermelons blue then? Or green? Is red and blue just swapping places as the rare colors in nature? Are roses blue? Are robins blue? Was a red historically a "rich people color" like purple was here cause purple dyes were so hard to make?

Is the world more muted in general there? Color wise? How bright is a bright color to them? Or to us, cause we can see less colors than they can?

Thank you!

Hello, and thanks for the ask! I'm just gonna do bullet points for this one starting from the top to keep it organized.

-Yep! MC will absolutely be commandeered at various points as a nice source of warmth since they have a much higher body temperature than the lads.

-Twst folk don't sunburn, so they won't assume that about the MC, but our skin tone is distinctly warmer/ pinker than theirs so it will make us stand out (alongside all the other differences in features).

-Yeah their definitely super creepy ;-; on the bright side, their eyes are pretty shallowly set on their face, and their bodies are fairly smooth/ they don't show their bones & muscles as visibly as we do, so they don't have that sunken or emaciated look corpses do. Small wins ig???

-Since Twst has multiple sapient species, beauty standards vary a lot, and the few global ones tend to focus more on grace of movement/actions and diligence/effort in grooming (more so a question of skill and wealth than natural features). As for skin tone and blood specifically, while darker blood is generally idealized due to it being a signifier of stronger magic, there really isn't a beauty standard for skin tone one way or the other. This is because the skin of twst folks is quite opaque, meaning it's extremely difficult to tell the color of one's blood on a fair skinned individual, and pretty much impossible on someone with darker skin; and blush/ flush appears as a fairly similar grayish purple on most.

-If MC wanted to wear makeup like foundation or concealer, they would probably need one made specially for them. Not only would the color be an issue, but twst folk's makeup is very heavy/ oil based since their skin isn't as absorbent as ours and they don't need to worry about acne or clogged pores. The the same goes for other makeup products, and they don't really use bronzer, but they do use contour.

-Most red things in nature appear as a slightly off version of themselves to us, and a different color we cannot see to twst folks, but it's not a completely non-existent color. Like you guessed, that increases its value, as even though all dyes are pretty easy to make with magic for a skilled mage, red dye was a pretty scarce and valuable commodity to less magically inclined human societies. This is why the Queen of Hearts was so angry that her roses were a common white when she had specially ordered and payed for the far rarer red (and why Heartslabyul's main color is now red as well).

-Twst naturally doesn't look all that much brighter or duller than Earth, since we're still seeing all their colors through the same cones we did back on our world, but some colors do seem out of place in their environment. Like, you may see a shirt where the color choice is just ugly as hell, but it's only because something that's baby snot green to us is a beautiful, unimaginable hue to them (which again plays into red's rarity, as "kinda red" things to us are completely different to them). Though, man-made things like balloons, lights, etc, look extremely saturated to us.