Template:Featured Articles/34-2025
In Hank's entire life, those words had never been said to him. Not by a partner, a friend, a colleague ... mind you, his only real long-term colleague was Reed whose body was equally fascinating. Regardless. The words caused a visceral jolt in him as he felt himself shudder suddenly at the fact he was being spoken to and noticed. "You shouldn't be," he blurted out, his elongated toes curling under immediately in reaction. He found it uncomfortable to wear shoes, always having to rely on sizes that were ill-fitting. It was more reassuring to have his feet firmly on the ground, so to speak; however, he hadn't realized others could see them. "It is unremarkable in many ways." "That is lies." The speaker had appeared behind him in the hall with horror-movie soundlessness. A purple-haired young woman around Hank's age and height was staring not at his feet, but his right arm. "Humerus, ulna, radius," she intoned. "All of these are outsized for standard human. Ratio of arm length to height is commensurately greater. Hands and feet, these are enlarged also. This is not so?" Her gaze glided back to his face. To look into her slit-pupiled eyes was to understand the plight of a microbe on the wrong end of a microscope. As Sharon listed his anatomy, Hank couldn't help but follow along with raising his hand. His fingers spread out in front of his face while he looked at them in wonder. Were they that obvious? Perhaps he should invest in gloves. With a heavy sigh, he dropped his hand and his head followed. "You are correct; however, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that none of us in this home are 'standard' human. I prefer the term x-gene positive versus non-standard, although I appreciate it is a preferential thing." He pointedly did not say anything about her eyes, although he did feel trapped and scrutinized in a way that made him wildly uncomfortable. The girl slinked closer. Her own feet were bare and soundless against the floorboards. "Facile assumption would be that qualities are shared with great apes, but this is reductive. Supraorbital ridge lacks pronouncement. No obvious indication of sagittal crest, also. Temporal muscles are no more developed. So this is a difference. Shape of the abdomen indicates no accommodation for a longer intestinal tract required to process the fibrous diet of primates also. Another difference. Unique." She paused a few feet away from him. A long, purple tail snaked around her legs. "I am Sharon Smith. I am a feral of the ailuromorph subclass. Those of us with physical adaptations are the most interesting." "Oh." That was all he could think of to say initially. Glancing at Sharon as openly as she was looking at him, he gave a nod. "I would not presume to verbally dissect you on a genetic and cellular level upon our first meeting. I would need proper testing materials to make a truly informed decision on your abilities and skeletal features. I appreciate this is a skill of yours; however, I must note my own limitations. Although I am incredibly intelligent, I prefer a true scientific method for hypothesizing." He neither confirmed nor denied any of her speculations. It was obvious Sharon was intelligent, and he didn't wish to make her feel bad for her observations. He did make a mental note to look at the mirror when he got back to his room. He'd never thought of his face as simian. "Thank you for speaking to me, Sharon." He didn't actually know what else to say. |
