Challenge #02503-F313: Life Echoes Art
Sometimes reality is indeed Stranger than Fiction... As far as finding strange space-faring beings, humans had a knack of seemingly finding those that somehow matched almost exactly the "creatures" of their wide and varied mythologies. From the Thumruth (whom bare an astounding resemblance to Qu-tze Bears) to the Karmorp'se, Humans had learned that pretty much anything was possible! That's when humans came upon a society that developed on the outer regions of their stars habitable zone(thus darker and colder than an Earth like environment) who's "plant life" relied more on Chemo-synthesis than on Photosynthesis.. and who's main source of sustenance was a naturally occurring Haemoglobin produced by their Flora. -- Adam in Darwin
Humans have some wide-spread imagination spaces. They have imagined technologies, civilisations, entire universes of content and they show no signs of stopping any time soon. When technology renders one such space impossible, Humans carry on imagining it anyway. They like thinking about six impossible things before breakfast.
They also have the unfortunate habit of referring to new, theoretically impossible lifeforms by the names of their imagined counterparts. The Karmorp'se got called 'zombies', the Thumruthi were called 'qu-tze' by absent-minded Humans or their minors. It could be construed as a slur if the reactions weren't generally benevolent.
Therefore, when intelligent life was discovered on a world that should have been too dim and too cold for such things, it was only a matter of time until the inevitable comparisons burst forth from rubbery Human lips. The plant life did not photosynthesise, but instead underwent a process of chemosynthesis. A system by which vast amounts of haemoglobin-like fluid worked like sap. The species that consumed those plants derived much nourishment from said haemoglobin-like fluids. They did not -and this is the important bit- devour those substances by piercing or sucking it out. They ate like any other organic being. This completely failed to prevent any Humans from making the leap.
Given that the haemivorous, cognsiscent life called themselves Drakka, lived lives in perpetual gloom and reacted adversely to strong light, ate what amounted to blood and were very pale indeed... Humans were almost destined to come to a certain conclusion. The pointy teeth were just -excuse the expression- the final nail in the coffin.
The Drakka were quickly renamed 'Vamps' by the Humans, their nicknames were commonly 'Drac', 'Vlad', or 'Ed' for reasons known only to the Humans. It should have been no surprise that the Humans themselves resembled mythological monsters from the Drakka's own stories and legends. Burning monsters of light and devourers of often-living flesh, their mythical name was Hreshaa.
Interestingly, the Humans loved it.
There's just no accounting for taste.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / iDesign]
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