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Haven’t really seen it yet so here we go, *Humans* have THREAT DISPLAYS! Sure, we seems small in comparison to other creatures both on or off our planet, but when we’re actively trying to make friends with everything we see that’s a good thing. But what if we don’t wanna seem small and friendly, say the vibes are real bad and getting worse, so instincts kick in and we gotta be *dangerous*

Take bears for example, those famous Terran predators. Big furry tanks capable of tearing into cars. We’re supposed to make ourselves look BIGGER to scare them off! Insane, but it works!

Other humans! We’re not *all* super nice, so what do we do when another deathworlder seems sketchy? Crack our knuckles, our necks, even flash our teeth a little for some flare, the literal post up or get done up pose where you invade their space and just in general look threatening. Our second natural language being body language, saying “back off or I’ll mess you up”, of course we have threat displays, and I’ll be the first to say I don’t always consciously know I’m doing them.

So when we finally have outer space friends, they’re gonna lose their shit seeing stuff like this.

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okay so this is off topic of threat displays, but i was thinking, we know cracking our knuckles and popping our joints is a common trope in HASO works, but I thought, hey, do animals also do this?

the answer is yes!! some do! and it's called pandiculation. but at the very least, lots of animals stretch like we do, which is accompanied by yawning; like lions, elephants, cats, and dogs.

here's what I've seen from McTimony Animal Therapy and this section from The Conversation (i couldn't find many scholarly articles or news sources about animals popping their joints)

imagine aliens thinking how it's just a freaky human thing, but no, other species on Earth also do this. this is a Freaky Earth Thing™

Haven’t really seen it yet so here we go, *Humans* have THREAT DISPLAYS! Sure, we seems small in comparison to other creatures both on or off our planet, but when we’re actively trying to make friends with everything we see that’s a good thing. But what if we don’t wanna seem small and friendly, say the vibes are real bad and getting worse, so instincts kick in and we gotta be *dangerous*

Take bears for example, those famous Terran predators. Big furry tanks capable of tearing into cars. We’re supposed to make ourselves look BIGGER to scare them off! Insane, but it works!

Other humans! We’re not *all* super nice, so what do we do when another deathworlder seems sketchy? Crack our knuckles, our necks, even flash our teeth a little for some flare, the literal post up or get done up pose where you invade their space and just in general look threatening. Our second natural language being body language, saying “back off or I’ll mess you up”, of course we have threat displays, and I’ll be the first to say I don’t always consciously know I’m doing them.

So when we finally have outer space friends, they’re gonna lose their shit seeing stuff like this.

[chem-echols]

im sure this has been answered already, but why hasn't ao3 made Humans are Weird/Humans are Space Orcs one of those searchable/filtered tags?

we know this is what comes up when clicking on that tag:

yet the oldest fic using it dates back to 2012, and fics are still actively uploading to this tag! I love reading in any fandom that touches upon this topic, but why hasn't this tag worked like other Additional Tags? (like Crack Treated Seriously, Missing Scene, No Beta we die like [character] are searchable tags across fandoms, why not HASO?)

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sometimes you need dialogue tags and don't want to use the same four

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For any writers: http://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/SFTerms.html

For more facts, follow Ultrafacts

[chem-echols]

So I was thinking about music earlier in a Earth is Space Austraila/Humans Are Space Orcs kind of way

Humans have a way of singing that if you are not careful can permanently damage your vocal cords 

Humans are incredible mimics 

Whenever we hear “This song can’t be sung by humans” we Immediately go “lol” and do it anyway

Humans have a wide variety in which they can pitch their voices naturally, Freddie Mercury being a shining example of this (even though he is an outlier)

Likewise some people’s voices are naturally super high pitched or super fucking deep, there’s a lot of factors in human vocals 

Which got me thinking about how varied music would be in some Galactic Federation type of thing. How interpersonal relationships may be affected by a human hearing a song that is from a species that maybe descended from birds and a human is dancing and singing in the breakroom to some Avian Boy Band just nailing the lyrics. 

A alien crewmate walking in to find that one of their human crewmates are trying extremely hard to sing this song that, as far as anyone could tell, isn’t possible for them to do but What would you Know they’re getting better and better and might just be able to Do It

People who are singers have to have amazing breath control because of famously long notes in various songs and are able hold them and keep on going where as a human who doesn’t have that same kind of practice or an alien that just might not be able to do it it would be really impressed at this. 

idk man just, intergalactic music 

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I love the "humans are weird" posts, but I haven't seen anything about how weird music is, and what if aliens don't have it? They can hear, they just never developed this strange art that can communicate with or without words and is intensely emotional and yet also mathematical and it permeates so much of our life. Without music, they have no opera or musicals, no movie or tv soundtracks, no dance. Just the different kinds of dance we have is staggering. Do you have any thoughts on this?

That’s a great idea! Music is an amazing thing, I’m disappointed in myself for not thinking of it sooner.

The concept of music existed even in prehistoric times, thought to have been used to represent animals in religious ceremonies. How strange is it that one of the things humans did when they were still struggling to survive was spend time and energy making instruments that didn’t really help them survive?

In addition, music, which humans think of as a universal language, is incredibly diverse across the globe. Some songs that sound really depressing in the US may be catchy pop beats in Europe. Songs that sound happy in some places may actually be funeral songs in another. How strange is it that the same tune can elicit completely different responses depending on the human you present it to? Even more, music can reflect language. If a language alternates between long and short vowels, music may alternate between long and short notes to accompany them.

Even more amazing is the incredible diversity in the use of music. Sea shanties, for example, were used to keep the beat as sailors did labor that required coordination, such as hoisting sails. Music isn't just for work, though. how weird is it that humans pay to sit in a room and listen to a large group of people playing several instruments as a form of entertainment? Sometimes they’re used not to entertain but to enhance a movie scene or a story. Sometimes they’re used to gain mates. Sometimes they’re used to convey a story rather than accompany it. Nowadays they’re used as alarms, as reminders, even just as background noise.

And you’re right, music is mathematical. People use math to figure out intervals between notes, or what pitches go well together. Classical music used to follow a formula. Heck, music today follows a formula (intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, end) that uses a careful use of certain notes to attract the most people.

On the topic of pop music, isn't it amazing, too, that there are so many types of music? Isn’t it amazing that these types can be so different? Classical music is nothing like rock or screamo. Rap is nothing like pop. 

It’s also strange that different humans have such radically different music tastes. Some people love pop. Some think pop is trash. Some only listen to death metal. Some don't care as long as it’s music of some sort. (I was once listening to some of my favorite artists shuffled. One minute there was soft piano, the next there was screamo, followed by K-pop.)

How strange would music be to aliens who consider sound a thing used only to convey information? How shocked would they be to find out that humans put so much time and effort into making music? What would they think of music being such a large parts of our lives?

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horrible news: you have to practice to level up your skills because it's unrealistic to think you'll be good at everything first try

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Hey btw, if you're doing worldbuilding on something, and you're scared of writing ~unrealistic~ things into it out of fear that it'll sound lazy and ripped-out-of-your-ass, but you also don't want to do all the back-breaking research on coming up with depressingly boring, but practical and ~realistic~ solutions, have a rule:

Just give the thing two layers of explanation. One to explain the specific problem, and another one explaining the explanation. Have an example:

Plot hole 1: If the vampires can't stand daylight, why couldn't they just move around underground?

Solution 1: They can't go underground, the sewer system of the city is full of giant alligators who would eat them.

Well, that's a very quick and simple explanation, which sure opens up additional questions.

Plot hole 2: How and why the fuck are there alligators in the sewers? How do they survive, what do they eat down there when there's no vampires?

Solution 2: The nuns of the Underground Monastery feed and take care of them as a part of their sacred duties.

It takes exactly two layers to create an illusion that every question has an answer - that it's just turtles all the way down. And if you're lucky, you might even find that the second question's answer loops right back into the first one, filling up the plot hole entirely:

Plot hole 3: Who the fuck are the sewer nuns and what's their point and purpose?

Solution 3: The sewer nuns live underground in order to feed the alligators, in order to make sure that the vampires don't try to move around via the sewer system.

When you're just making things up, you don't need to have an answer for everything - just two layers is enough to create the illusion of infinite depth. Answer the question that looms behind the answer of the first question, and a normal reader won't bother to dig around for a 3rd question.

[chem-echols]

complete out of the blue brain thought, but what if static electricity was an Earth-only thing.

what if in space, only our ships are affected by static electricity as well because it's Earth materials, but Alien planets and materials just... Don't have that.

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I finally revisited my old bnha aus and holy FUCK there's so many, atp I'll just post revised versions of what I wrote bc I don't think I'll work on them 😭

the world may see my cringe

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genuinely one of the saddest parts of this new era of the internet is how hard it is to rick roll someone now. with people's attention spans shortening so much, they wouldn't even get through the first few bait seconds before clicking off the video. like i saw a comment that ended with "btw i made all of this up" and the replies kept treating it so seriously because none of them finished the entire 4 sentence comment. and We're no strangers to love You know the rules and so do I (do I) A full commitment's what I'm thinking of You wouldn't get this from any other guy I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling Gotta make you understand Never gonna give you up Never gonna let you down Never gonna run around and desert you Never gonna make you cry Never gonna say goodbye Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

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Everyone should read their own fanfics recreationally tbh this shit fucking rules. It's like the author knows exactly what I like.

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Found on twitter, going to adopt this now

Writer friends, tell me how many WIPs and how many UFOs you have. I have 2 WIPs and [redacted] UFOs (jk it’s around 16 across my three main fandoms)