Warmth

[A couple of months ago, a human was added to our ship as its newest member. As you know, humanity joined the galactic stage only 124 cycles ago. So we were curious to see what they would be like. It’s been pretty interesting so far.

At first, Sam had quite some trouble adapting to the layout of the ship. The ship wasn’t really built with bipeds in mind, and the crew didn’t have many bipedal members, especially not ones as tall as humans. As such, the ship wasn’t outfitted with many accommodations favoring bipedal species. It was amusing at first, watching Sam bump into door frames or other furniture.

Eventually, the novelty wore off, and so more arrangements were made for Sam. This also had the benefit of helping the other bipedal crew members. From there, we learned a lot about human culture from Sam. Some of our knowledge came from asking, and some….was discovered through experience.

We found out what humans call “pranking” when the floor in the dining room became slippery and someone fell onto the floor after an admittedly funny-looking attempt to remain upright. We quickly found out who was behind the incident when we found Sam laughing their behind off nearby. After forcing an answer from them on why they did what they did, we looked up the practice of pranking that humans do and did some research. It was a little concerning at first, finding out that humans derived pleasure and entertainment from the misfortune of others. We looked into the topic and we realized that it was ultimately harmless, if not a little annoying. 

Sam also gave most of us quite a fright when they drank alcohol in the dining room. Not many on the ship can safely consume ethanol, so we thought they were trying to end themselves in the dining room. It was stressful, to say the least, trying to wrestle the glass out of their hand. Thankfully, no one got hurt, and no “alcohol” spilled on the ground. I have to say, Sam has strong arms.

Sam also has this weird habit of flipping a “coin” randomly when they’re bored. Apparently it’s a recreation of a currency type humans used to use before they went fully digital. It’s kind of annoying sometimes when the coin hits the floor because Sam misses the catch. Although it’s much harder than it looks to do, I have terrible limb-eye coordination.

The topic of how humans sleep was also eventually brought up when a couple of the engineers noticed that Sam wasn’t present around the ship for an extended period of time consistently. After a couple of days of this happening, we eventually decided to ask Sam about it, and they proceeded to go on a mini tangent about human sleep, dreams, something referred to as a “paralysis demon”, and the chair with clothes on it at 3 am for some reason. It was a little bit concerning to hear that humans went into a state of unconsciousness for a significant portion of a day, as many species have states of semi-consciousness or don’t remain unconscious for as long, but they didn’t seem very concerned and reassured us that it was fine. 

Of course, you should already know about those kinds of behaviors. As I would imagine, you would’ve invested a lot of time studying the newest species of the galaxy. It’s your job, after all, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to share my experiences, give you more data. Although I’m not writing you this message just for that. There's just a bit of an issue that I’ve been facing recently. You know how we Sylvarn are, absolutely biological excrement in terms of anything emotionally related. It’s a long-running joke, a bit annoying if you ask me but I can’t argue that there’s some merit.

A couple days ago, I was just minding my business in my room, work was done and I didn’t feel like resting at the time. It was pretty quiet because most of the crew were sleeping when I heard something from Sam’s room. Sam’s room is next to mine, so I can hear some of what goes on in there, the walls aren’t the thickest in this ship. I heard this weird noise, like a stuttering and irregular rhythm, inhaling and exhaling. Something unsteady and broken. I don’t know why but it made me feel…..sad for some reason.

It’s been happening every day since it started. I don’t know why it’s happening or what it is but I can tell it’s coming from Sam. I’m contacting you because you know more than me, so I’m hoping you can tell me what sounds Sam is making and what they mean. I’ve been trying to copy them, just to see why someone would make such a sound and all I feel trying to copy them is just…sad.

Sam is so full of warmth, a fun addition to the team. So why do they make sounds that make you feel so…cold? And is there anything I could do to give them some warmth?]

- Vryxol