[Text]

[hagrides]

Hello, fellow Moonblessed. If you'll oblige me with some of your time, I have a few questions about humans. That species is nonexistent where I hail from, so please forgive my curiosity, and I apologize in advance if any of these are rude.

1. Humans have no shells or carapace, and their clothing seems more decorative than protective. Am I correct in assuming that they use magic to defend themselves?

2. Do humans go through metamorphosis? I don't believe I have seen a human larva or grub here, though I admit I do not know how I would distinguish human young from an adult other than size.

3. Most humans that I have seen have hair primarily on their heads, rather than their whole body like, for example, a spider. Does that not make regulating their temperature more complicated?

That will be all for now. Once again, I thank you for your assistance.

[...Grimm is doing his best.]

Comments

un: otacon

[codecmoment]

Hi! I'm curious as to what species you are, or what you look like. Do you have a pic of yourself?

Now for your questions.

1. It can be both! It depends on the situation. We use them to keep warm, cover ourselves for modesty, to decorate ourselves for events, to express ourselves... sometimes we wear uniforms, which is part of a job. Sometimes we wear costumes, for different reasons. Armor isn't really worn any more, but it used to be, for war. Nowadays, bulletproof vests are a thing. I built a type of stealth camouflage before, that made the person go invisible.

I went on a tangent, sorry. No, where I come from, magic isn't real. We use physical combat techniques or weapons. Firearms are the most efficient and powerful, but blunt or sharp objects can also be used.

2. In a sense. Humans are a mammal, so we don't go from, say, a caterpillar to a cocoon to a butterfly. We just get bigger over time. We go through "puberty" once we reach a certain age range, wherein we stop being children and grow into teenagers, and then after that stage, young adulthood. Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in females, the testes in males.

A lot of human maturity has to do with emotional and mental development. We have big brains, after all, which is what put us as the top of the food chain. The brain finishes developing once we reach the age of 21. Some people never seem to mature emotionally or mentally.

3. Humans are mammals, and plenty of other types of mammals have fur and hair all over! We just don't. A theory of why we aren't furry any more is when we evolved to live and hunt on hot grasslands and plains, we needed to thermoregulate differently. Another theory is that when humans started living near water, hair is a poor insulator in water, so we developed a layer of fat. We use sweat to keep cool, as someone already mentioned!

This is very general, since humans vary from person to person. Biology with us is complex! For example, I'm a man, but I have very little body hair compared to a friend of mine, who has plenty of fluffy chest hair. I just cannot grow that, based on my genetics.

[hagrides]

Thank you for your detailed answer! To begin with, I have a 'selfie'.

[Attached: that sure is a bug.]

1. Camoflage I'm familiar with, though nothing that can make someone completely invisible. I imagine armor fell out of favor with changes in weaponry?

2. A series of smaller physical changes over time is something I'm also familiar with. You see that sort of thing in dragonflies or cicadas, for example.

3. Fascinating! It seems there's much about your own evolutionary history that you aren't aware of yourselves. That does make my questions a bit more frustrating to answer, I imagine.

You are somewhat easier to tell apart than some species I know, even if I may not yet have words for all the differences.

[codecmoment]

You're very striking! Do you have a name for your race?

1. Yes. As gunpowder came into use, arrows, swords and spears fell out. People could do more damage with less effort with cannons and firearms.

We're a strange and complex species. I imagine it's weird to you. I'll try to answer anything else, but I am just a man, and mechanical engineering is my field - nothing to do with people, biology, psychology, or anything like that.

[hagrides]

I am a moth, though I am told that I am much larger than the moths humans are most familiar with.

A remarkable field. I was acquainted with an enginer once who would have had just as much difficulty explaining bugs.

[That comes from a significant dose of 'divine lack of understanding of mortals', though.]

[codecmoment]

Yeah, moths where I come from are... small. Like, no bigger than my hand.

[hagrides]

They sound adorable. So tiny!

[codecmoment]

They can be. Sometimes they come in lots of different colors, too. The ones I normally see are brown or white, and usually smaller than the palm of my human hand.

[hagrides]

I've also been told they don't speak. Does that hold true where you hail from as well?

[codecmoment]

Yes. Moths are not sentient nor highly intelligent. So it looks like you're from a place where insects and arachnids and other "bugs" are the evolved, dominant species.

[hagrides]

You're correct. Insects and arachnids. We also have the occasional jellyfish, but those were never sentient.

[They also explode.]

[codecmoment]

Jellyfish? Huh. Are they aquatic and poisonous?

[hagrides]

Some carry an electrical charge. Some explode on contact. None of them seem particularly fond of the standing acid of their habitat.

We do not have much in the way of non-acidic water for creatures to reside in.