Scholar By M0AI Watch

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A young Carisapiens, lost in a book. We encountered this fellow in the Ring library. He was shy at first, but we had never had the chance to speak with a Carisapiens before, so I confess that we pressed him until he overcame his reticence.

From the rather smooth texture of his cephalocarapace we can tell that he is fairly young, perhaps between thirty and forty eyears (Earth-years) old, and from the developing roles of fat on his waist we can tell that he is male. Mature males need plenty of extra body fat to provide nourishment for their parasitic young. As with all Carisapiens, one of his arms is shorter than the other, a relic of their evolutionary past, in which one of their arms was oversized and used for dominance battles. He wears a brace on this arm, we learned, due to a sports-related injury. He cradles a human-style book in his hands, and with both eyes fixed on opposite pages, he reads both pages simultaneously. He told us that Carisapiens find human-language books irritating, as they are designed to be read only one page at a time. We questioned him about his cap, and he told us that it designated him as a member of the scholarly caste of his race. This of course interested us greatly, but he had difficulty explaining the nature of his studies in our language, so our curiosity went mostly unsatisfied in that subject, I'm afraid. Despite this, we greatly enjoyed meeting him, and promptly invited him to dinner. Luckily, his eating cycles coincided with ours, as did his taste. We had a delicious meal of pineapple juice, seaweed, and guinea pig at the Ring cafe. Before we parted ways, he allowed us to take this holoprint of him.

Charming lad, once we got to know him. I hope we meet him again sometime, but considering the size and layout of the Ring, it is quite unlikely. Shame, but M'Sshaila and I always meet someone new and interesting when we go out. Why, about a quarter-revolution ago we even met an old-style human! Now that's an interesting story! I'll pour us some pineapple juice and tell you about it.



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A fairly quick and loose sketch, done in pencil then colorized and rendered in Photoshop. It was quite fun to do. I'm making a conscious effort to include more artifacts and accessories when I draw intelligent creatures, rather than just having them be naked animals.

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Published : Feb 6, 2009