Chapter Text
I have learned much ever since I met and joined the Winx. I’ve learned so much about magic and the wider galaxy and myself. I’ve learned that I’m not as weird as I once thought and that there are others like me somewhere in the world. Learning about my mother’s culture and people hasn’t been an easy process, with few reputable sources of information and a lot of reading in between the lines of the Great book of fairies. Even though I’ve been learning that I’m not so weird, I’ve also learned that Earth and humans as a whole are really weird. Some in the wider galaxy even refer to us as “Death Worlders”.
To start, Earth is deceptively dangerous. With her vast oceans and lush foliage, she looks like a paradise world at first, until you start looking deeper, literally in one case. All planets in the galaxy are given classifications, based on the galactic average, to help visitors figure out what environmental spells, spells that protect the user from conditions they don’t favor, they’ll need. For example, Andros is an Infrequent-Dangerous-Storm, Water World, Solaria is an Infrequent-Dangerous-Storm and Dangerous-Wildlife World, Domino is a Seismically-Active, Extreme-Heat, High-Gravity World, and Linphea is a High-Winds, Dangerous-Wildlife, Dangerous-Plantlife, Low-Gravity World. Earth’s classifications are: Frequent-Dangerous-Storm, High-Winds, Seismically-Active, Water, Extreme-Heat, Extreme-Cold, Dangerous-Wildlife, Dangerous-Plantlife, High-Toxicity, and High-Gravity. That “High-Toxicity” classification is unique to us because the sheer amount of diseases and toxic crap we have is unlike anything else in the galaxy. And all that’s just the planet. Humans are even weirder.
So, what makes humans weird is a lot of things. The two wholly unique to us, and only the females of the species, are our breasts and menstrual cycle. Now, don’t get me wrong, we’re not the only species that give milk. Live birth and lactation is the majority in the galaxy. It’s the fact we have breasts when we’re not pregnant or nursing that’s the weird part, but the simple explanation that it’s ornamentation makes it make sense. Now, periods, those are another story. We’re the only planet that has species that go through menstruation, and even then, humans are one of only a handful of animals that do. Everyone else in the galaxy goes through estrus or some other form of breeding season. I even had to explain this to Bloom the first time I went through my period around them. Her parents never gave her that talk, which I’d normally say was a failing on them, but in their case, Bloom never getting her period likely would’ve only caused her more undo stress growing up, so they get a pass.
Another thing that makes us weird is our symbiotic relationship with bacteria and our exceptionally acidic stomach acid. Remember that “High-Toxicity” classification? Most species only need to use enzymes and a mild acid to digest their food. Our digestive system is truly something unique. There’s only one other species that has anything like it, and their gut bacteria is to help them with their specialized diet. We just have them to better break down normal but hardy food, and our stomach acid is considered a bioweapon by the rest of the galaxy. The rest of the Winx can digest Earth food, just not as well, until they earned their Believix, but they didn’t need to digest their food as well until then as they didn’t need nearly as much nutrition as humans until their bodies became more like human bodies. That brings me to the next thing that makes humans special, our physical abilities.
Earth is not only “High-Gravity” but the highest gravity inhabited world on record. Bloom grew up here, and Domino’s gravity is similar, so she can handle it, but the rest of the girls required spells to lessen the effects of the gravity around them so they could move, until they gained superhuman strength from their Believix powers. Humans are the only species known to get such a physical boost from having magic, but even without it, humans are one of the most physically capable species. Earth’s gravity makes us quite dense and stocky, so we’re quite strong and durable, and our ability to sweat gives us endurance unseen anywhere else. We’re one of only two species that sweat, the other being the land Androsians, and they do it to keep their skin moist. We’re by no means the fastest, that title is held by Solarians, but we aren’t slow. We’re also skilled swimmers, not as skilled as either species of Androsians or Zenithians, but compared to Melodians, who can’t swim at all without magic, we’re excellent swimmers. We can also climb well, not as well as the Melodians, but well enough to be an arboreal threat. Our ability to run, swim, climb, and never stop has resulted in Stella nicknaming humans as “the scariest hunters”.
And that’s the next thing that makes us weird, we’re predators. Out of the over 40 known sapient species in the galaxy, only a small handful are predators. Even omnivores are uncommon, and true omnivores are extremely rare. Most species are herbivores. There are species, like the land Androsians, that will eat eggs or the occasional fish, and there are a couple opportunistic omnivores out there, but being a predator is firmly in the minority. Flora even once mentioned that the existence of a sapient persistence predator species would be quite disturbing to many in the galaxy and is the basis of a few horror legends.
Another thing that makes us scary hunters and is almost unique to us is our ability to use projectile weapons. We aren’t the only ones that can, but we’re definitely the best. Species like the Solarians need to undergo special training in order to aim properly. Species with forward facing eyes have an advantage in this area, but our brains are just built for it. The non-Earthling Winx (I count Bloom as an Earthling since she has American citizenship) and Specialists were completely blown away by baseball. We’re also one of only two species that have invented guns, and we have the most advanced long range weaponry.
The last, and what I believe is the greatest, weird thing about us is how diverse our species is. Due to our stamina and need to find more prey, our ancient ancestors spread to pretty much every part of our planet long before we even invented writing. Most other species only fully colonized their planet after the invention of steam power, some even later. This led to most planets having a fairly homogeneous culture and people, but Earth has cultures as different as if they were from different planets. It took a while and a lot of Googling for me to convince Tecna that humans really did invent writing and agriculture at least three separate times. I’m also pretty sure that this diversity, in combination with the challenges of our world, is why we’ve advanced so quickly. Most planets haven’t had any or as many mass extinction events, so most sapient species have been around for at least 600,000 years, but humans have only been around for half that time, and we’re about as advanced as most other cultures.
After learning how weird we are as a species, I was so curious to learn about the rest of the species in the galaxy. I’m still learning Galactic Common, the pictographic language used in interplanetary trade and education, so I’m currently relying on the rest of the Winx and the Specialists to tell me about their species and homeworlds. Even with the two groups only having eight species, aside from human, between them, I’m still able to learn a lot.
Out of all the eight species, Dominoins are close to being the most human looking, especially as prepubescent children, and are one of the few predatory races. As a child, Bloom was able to pass as a normal human, with the exception of her rough and thick skin and lack of nipples, which her parents were able to pass off as a genetic mutation, and her third eyelids, which people just never seemed to have noticed. Her alien traits only became apparent when she hit puberty, which happens around 16-18 for her species. Once puberty hits, her people start growing a pair of horns from the top of their forehead. These horns help with temperature regulation and are a form of ornamentation for her species. Their rough skin also fully develops into scales. Those scales, along with their hair, were used to protect their ancestors from the blazing sun of their homeworld and the searing sands of the deserts they originally called home. Domino is kind of like Australia crossed with California, lots of mountains and deserts with volcanoes and more tropic and temperate areas near the coast. Her species is reptile-like, but as with all sapient species, they are warm-blooded. They are an egg laying species and don’t give milk to their young, so Bloom will never develop breasts, which was something Mitzi and her cronies would ridicule her over in high school. (I don’t like that woman. She’s a crappy tipper.)
Solarians are a satyr-like race but with plantigrade feet. Their hooves are separated into four sections, inner heel hoof, outer heel hoof, inner claw, and outer claw, kind of like a cow’s hoof. Their legs are covered in thick, dark fur up to their hips to protect them from the tall grass and foliage of the planes and forests they call home as they run. They are the fastest race in the Magic Dimension, able to run over 15 mph to escape from their predators. They also evolved their upright posture to make spotting predators easier, and if they can’t run, they can use their powerful legs to kick at their attackers. They are one of the most herbivorous races in the Magic Dimension, but mostly because of cultural restrictions. They can eat meat, in moderation, and even receive some benefits from the practice. Stella has gained a liking for sushi, and the oils from the fish have done wonders for her skin and hair. But there’s a powerful cult on Solaria that’s anti-predator. They’re so anti-predator that they eradicated their primary predator, which was also the primary predator of a giant sloth-like creature called the cohabuc, and now, there’s a massive overpopulation of them, and they have to advertise cohabuc hunting to the predatory races to deal with the issue. (I’m gonna take Dad cohabuc hunting for his birthday… whenever we’re done with the wizards.) Solarians also have side-facing eyes, which took some time for me to get used to, and the same goes for Stella getting used to my binocular vision. She said my eyes make her feel like I’m looking straight at her blood, which isn’t hard with how her species cools themselves. Their faces, chests, arms, and lower backs are all furless to allow for cooling. The blood vessels in those areas can dilate to disperse heat, giving their skin an orange hue thanks to their orange blood. They keep some fur on the back of their necks, shoulders, ears, and upper backs and extra long fur on the top of their heads to protect themselves from the bright sun of their homeworld. They also have cute, little sheep ears and deer tails. They are live-birthers and give milk.
I’ve nicknamed Flora and Helia’s species “tree cats” because they are both a cat-like race and a dryad-like race. The line between animal and plant is a lot blurrier on Linphea. Linpheans are definitely animals, as they breathe oxygen, but they can and need to perform photosynthesis to live. Their skin is also kind of bark-like, and their hair and fur is kind of vine and grass-like. During their mating season, flowers bloom in their hair and release pheromones, and the stronger the smell, the better. (If I ever go to Linphea, I’m getting all the girls.) They’re also not from a true planet. They’re from a Mars-sized moon. They’re weird. They’re also skilled hunters thanks to their cat-like features. Their cat-like features are more vague, but they do have cat-like noses, tails, fangs, and claws and are cat-like in their movement. They have hair and fur that runs down the back of their neck and spine and covers their tail, but that’s it as their skin is what performs the photosynthesis, and it needs to be exposed to sunlight to do its job. Despite coming from a Low-Gravity World, they’re very strong. They have to be strong to climb and leap through the trees they call home and hunt their prey. They also have pretty good low-light vision as it can get pretty dark in some places under the canopy. They are live-birthers and give milk.
I’ve nicknamed Tecna’s species the “tech-savvy penguins” because of their similarities to penguins. Zenith is an Extreme-Cold, Frequent-Benign-Storm, Water World. It’s pretty much impossible to grow crops on the planet’s surface without greenhouses, so for much of their history, Zenithians had to dive down into their planet’s oceans to find food, but unlike penguins, they eat aquatic plants. Their bodies are covered in swimming feathers that can range from a light gray to a dark, purplish gray, and they have crest, hair-like feathers that range in color from greens, oranges, and purples to pinks, and reds. They have side-facing eyes, like penguins, but Tecna was easier for me to get used to because she looks less human. They have long, powerful legs that end in penguin-like feet and itty-bitty penguin tails. They have short, hardy beaks for chomping through the vegetation they eat. Their arms are paddle-like, breaking off into four fingers with short claws. Her ancestors used to have massive, dagger-like claws to fend off predators, but as they evolved to be smarter, their claws became shorter and fingers more dexterous. They also use their claws to traverse the ice and, up until relatively recently, climb up the cliffs they make their nests in. Yes, they are also an egg laying species. They have lost some of their swimming ability since they’ve developed hydroponic greenhouses, but they’re still skilled swimmers and divers. Their blood is hemocyanin based and a blue-teal color.
I’ve nicknamed Melodians the “bat-eared monkeys”. They are monkey-like with bat-like ears. They are a short species. Musa, the shortest of their group by far, is pretty tall by Melodian standards. She would sometimes be mistaken for a noblewoman because of her height. (Quick aside, it baffles me to no end that several space faring civilizations still have monarchies that hold any sort of real power. It’s 100% because I’m an American, but that is just so backwards to me.) Anyway, their body structure is very monkey-like, with a tail almost as long as they are tall, but upright and with a flat face, like a humans, and no body hair. They have hair on top of their head, at the tip of their tail, and in sensitive regions, but that’s it. In their ancient past, they used to be covered in hair, with a minority of them having a genetic mutation that caused them to be born without body hair, but a few thousand years ago, they became plagued by a pandemic level space lice outbreak. (They aren’t actually called “space lice”, but it’s funny.) Anyway, everyone was all itchy and dying of diseases, but those with less hair weren’t nearly as badly affected, leading to them breeding more, and now, body hair is seen as unhygienic and undesirable. (Dad and I definitely aren’t getting any Melodian ladies.) They mostly eat fruits, some vegetables, and will occasionally snack on some bugs. Their bat-like ears provide them with excellent hearing, which they need to detect their predator, what I called the chameleon-wolf, an arboreal, canine-like creature, with a prehensile tail and the ability to perfectly blend into its surroundings. The only way to detect it is to hear it breathe. Oh, and you’re probably thinking that, because I used two mammals to describe them, Melodians are a live birthing species. Well, your logic is sound, but they aren’t. They’re egg laying. They used to lay their eggs in burrows under the trees to keep them safe from the chameleon-wolf before they invented houses. Even though they lay eggs, they also give milk, like the platypus. Even with the lice and the chameleon-wolf, Melody is a Temperate World, not abnormally hot or cold or otherwise dangerous.
Land Androsians are an interesting species. Like humans, they can run, swim, climb, and sweat, but they’re only opportunistic omnivores and only eat eggs and fish. They’re like scavengers. I guess there wasn’t really any significant evolutionary push for them to become true omnivores or hunters. Maybe the mermaids and tritons, the sapient, predatory, true omnivores they share their planet with, have something to do with it? Anyway, they’re an amphibious species. They can’t breathe underwater, but they’re some of the best swimmers among the races. Their toes are completely webbed, and their fingers are webbed up to the first joint. Their ears also have a webbed look to them, which somehow helps keep them from getting swimmer’s ear. I don’t really understand that, but I do understand third eyelids. They have third eyelids to keep water and debris out of their eyes as they swim. They’re the species giving Dominoins the run for their money as the most human looking species in the Winx. Their ancestors would climb the mountains and trees of Andros to collect fruits and vegetables, but if they came across a nest of eggs or a fish they could grab, they would grab those too. They would also drive into the shallows of Andros to collect marine plants, where they would sometimes encounter mermaids and tritons, who they didn’t always get along with. This was actually talked about in the Tir Nan Og portion of the Book of Fairies. The mermaids were the first extraterrestrial species the terrestrial fairies made contact with, coming to Earth through their Ocean Gate. They were at war with the land Androsians, at the time, and asked Queen Titania to join them in the war. Queen Titania basically told them to get lost and that the terrestrial fairies weren’t going to get involved with their planet’s petty squabbles, they already had their own squabbles to deal with. The two Androsian species did eventually make peace on their own, solidifying the peace by ceremonially joining the two royal families together into one. (The two species are genetically incompatible, so they were never joined that way.) Both species are ovoviviparous.
Now, onto the specialists. I call Sky, Brandon, and Riven the “bug boys”. Eraklyonites are an insectoid race that are very humanoid, with the exception of the compound eyes, antennae, lack of a nose, only having four fingers, and the chitin covering their entire bodies. I’m not the best judge of male beauty, but at least Bloom, Stella, and Musa find them attractive, despite them being bugs, and from a xenobiology standpoint, they’re fascinating. The fact their eyes don’t bulge out of their heads probably helps with their attractiveness. I know big, bulging eyes would be a turn off for me. Their eyes sit firmly within their heads, about where other animal’s eyes are, as bulging eyes would be a massive weak spot. That does mean they only have a 200 degree field of vision, but a more limited field of view is better than not having an eye, and that’s 200 degrees that all have the same clarity as a human’s central vision, and their antennae help make up the difference. Their hair serves to help protect their antennae, by acting as cover when they lay them down flat, and just like with humans, serves as ornamentation. They’re a remarkably hardy race due to their chitin and can easily lift twice their own body weight on their homeworld. That equates to about ⅓ their body weight in Earth’s gravity, so that’s not bad. They also have some of the quickest reflexes in the galaxy to go along with their excellent vision, and their running speed isn’t half bad either. There’s a reason they make some of the greatest warriors in the galaxy. They eat fruits and vegetables, but they’ll also eat the trees the fruits grow on. They’re the only other species with gut bacteria, and it’s to help them break down the wood pulp they like to consume. Females lay their eggs in special hatchery facilities.
Timmy is from the planet Callisto, not to be confused with the moon of Jupiter. Callistoins remind me of the monsters from Where the Wild Things Are . They’re furry, have small horns on the sides of their head, and clawed hands and feet. Due to the raging storms their planet is regularly subjected to, their society is mainly underground. Their ancestors used their claws to dig into the mountains to create the tunnels they still live in. They also have excellent night vision and vision in general, along with a good sense of smell and hearing. They’re a predatory race, and meat is their primary food source. It’s hard to grow crops when tornadoes keep ripping them up, so vegetables and moss that can grow underground make up the bulk of their crops. From what Timmy described their culture as, I’d sum it up as “space Texans”. He’s a bit of an outcast for not being your typical space Texan. He’s more of a space Californian, and anyone familiar with our two states will understand why that makes him an outcast. Callisto is also the only other planet to invent guns, which are completely banned across the rest of the galaxy. His little peashooter is about all that’s allowed. They had to invent plasma based guns, which are currently not as effective as solid projectile weapons, in order to use them off world. (Granted, the recoil alone can severely injure most species, but my American brain still isn’t happy.) So, yeah, Callistoins are strong enough to wield guns. They are live-birthers and give milk.
Now, you may be wondering how they’re all able to be on Earth without everyone knowing they’re aliens, and those of you more versed in languages and how humans speak may be wondering how they’re able to speak English. Well, the answer to the first question is glamour charms. They all wear jewelry, mainly necklaces, enchanted to make the wearer look human. Bloom even specifically programmed hers to give her a quite respectable rack, just to show off to Ms. A-cup Mitzi. Is it immature? Yes. Is it deserved? Totally. Now, the answer to the second question is that they aren’t. There’s a standardized galactic writing, time, and measurement system, but there is no standardized galactic spoken language because many races are physically unable to speak each other’s language. Instead, translation spells are commonly used. Modern translation spells are psionic in nature, so they’re able to read the speaker’s mind to determine the essence of what they’re trying to communicate in order to properly translate both their spoken word and body language. The best example of this is the English word ‘fuck’. Older, non-psionic translation spells would’ve only given its literal meaning ‘fornicate’. As funny as the scenarios I can imagine would be, it wouldn’t be very helpful in actual communication. Modern translation spells would give the proper translation of ‘I am strongly displeased with your actions’ or a suitable swear word in the listener’s language.
That’s just what I learned from the eight species I have access to. I’m excited for when I learn Galactic Standard and can learn about the rest of the creatures of the cosmos.