◂ The worlds · Pheli

The Human

Humans cry, tire fast, and live short lives. They have no species script.

ON THE ORCHARD: Abigail Chase

Earth from orbit. Development art.

HomeworldEarth

RegionPheli

CultureLoud, sentimental, and in a hurry. The Compact's newest members, and still on probation.

ReputationCalled the Brief. Fragile, stubborn, and weirdly good at luck.

If you visitEarth smells of rain on hot pavement, and every street has an argument going.

Story hookEarth is a junior member of the Compact, and every other species has an opinion on that.

Abigail's notebookThursday. A stall on some dock. Moving.

They call us the Brief. I knew that, I've been called it since I was four, but I'd only ever heard it on First Drawer, where it gets said to you by somebody with a form to fill out. Out here folks say it fondly and take a good long look at you, the way you'd look at a really small dog in a big coat. An old Tarsk at this counter kept one eye on the corridor and bent the other one all the way round to look at my neck. It said, "How long have you got?"

I said I was twenty-eight.

"So, not long," it said, and bought me a fried dough with glum jam, and the jam glows, by the way, and I've kept the paper.

Human body study: front, side and back views — Human body study. Development art; bodies are still in review, so a picture may not match every word yet.

Six possible individuals

How different can one people look?

Every person in a people has a body of their own. These are painted studies of how far the Human can stretch: tall, tiny, wide, long-limbed, odd. Explorations, not final designs.