Benti and Skylar sat in the office, their desks facing each other. Each of them had a tablet. They had divvied up the administrative duties for their juice bar before opening. Usually once they were finished they said goodnight and goodbye.
As they finished up the last of it, Benti held out a tentacle before Skylar could leave. “Do you need to head straight to bed?” Benti asked. “Or can we talk some more about your time on Earth?”
“I have time to talk.” Skylar shifted on the stool, pulling most of their tentacles inside their body. “Is there anything specific you want to know?” The lamp swung above their heads as Benti took a moment to pick their first question.
“Can you show me a human?”
Skylar nodded. With the flash of light Skylar used as a flourish, they returned to their human form, the mash up of their two friends Emily and John.
While clothes weren’t a thing in Qwortar, returning to their human form it felt weird to not have any. In fact, while Benti stretched their eye stalk towards them, Skylar put one arm across their chest and used the other hand to cover their privates.
“Woah.” Benti reached out a tentacle and poked Skylar’s arm. “Human’s are so solid.” They poked a few more times, the arm, a leg, and last poking the stomach. “Yet they have squishy parts too.” Benti whistled. “So… how does nutrient spreading work?”
“Well,” Skylar shifted and sat back down on their stool. They held out the arm which had been over their privates. “Under their skin, they have these vessels where their blood moves throughout the body. Blood carries all the nutrients they use.” With their tongue poking out the corner of their mouth, Skylar focused on a rectangular patch of skin on their forearm. The skin became clear, showing the muscle fibers, even taking a moment to show off the contraction and stretch they could do. Then, they made a smaller patch of muscle become translucent, showing the lines of veins, arteries and capillaries pulsing with each heart beat.
“The heart and these vessels make up what they call the vascular system.”
Benti twisted their beak. “Is it efficient?”
“It actually works fairly well. They have become the dominant species on Earth, able to adapt to many things and changes on their planet. And a scratch or a puncture isn’t nearly as dangerous to them as it is to us. Well, depending on how big, how deep, and if any of their internal organs get damaged.”
“Okay, that sounds nice.” Benti folded their tentacles on their desk, retracting their eye stalk. “So, what-”
“Can we finish this talk with me in Qwortarian form? Being naked as a human is really uncomfortable.”
Benti chuckled. “Go ahead. But you got to explain why it’s weird for humans to be naked.”
“Deal.”
While the two new business owners were tired, they talked long into the night about Skylar’s experiences on Earth.
Word count: 500
