Human Art is Built Different (Patreon)

Human Art is Built Different

In a busy human space port on the edge of their claimed space Zopop stood in abject confusion as he stared at an incredibly lifelike statue of a human male. Plenty of humans strode past the display, while visiting xenos like Zopop stopped to stare at the baffling statue. It was the image of a short and somewhat ugly human male with impossibly life like skin and sculpted muscles.

It was nude except for the pair of metal tags dangling from a leather cord around its neck. And in its proud display of skin everyone could see the scars and burns marring its deceptively real looking flesh. Bullet scars, ugly melted flesh, and mutilated genitals that prevented the statue from seeming pornographic. The nose had clearly been broken multiple times, and the hands were missing several fingers. It stood on single foot with several gangrenous toes, and its other leg was clearly a simple prosthetic.

Zopop had heard that human art was as baffling as it was beautiful, but he was having trouble seeing the beauty in this piece. There was certainly a technical challenge to making such a life like piece, but his Zoban sensibilities couldn’t see the aesthetic value in it. most of the humans just glanced at it before going about their business, but the few who stopped to better observe it soon became misty eyed or angry for reasons that were beyond Zopop’s imagination.

After several minutes of watching  Zopop stopped a passing human. “Excuse me, I was hoping you could help me with something.”

The human, who had rich brown skin and fastidious braided hair, looked at Zopop with confusion. “What seems to be troubling you my friend.” He said with a grin.

“I was hoping you could lend me a human perspective. I’ve been this display for a while and can’t see the point.”

The man smiled “Its art.” He said simply.

“I can’t see what you find so artistic about this. My people define art as something with pleasing aesthetics. Do your people find this, this, brutality pleasing.” Zopop said in a huff while pointing at the disfigured statue.

“Of course not, but art doesn’t need to look nice to be art. Sometimes its about the message.”

“And what message is this supposed to send?” Zopop asked with a snarl. “That the human body can take punishment? That your people will do cruel things to each other?”

The human held up a hand “Please hold you tongues before you embarrass yourself even more.”

Zopop held his tongues, but his glare smoldered with anger. He wasn’t sure why the statue invoked such rage in him. But it did. And this human before him was the only person he could direct his anger at.

The human gave Zopop a sympathetic look. “If you’d like I could read the plaque for you my friend.” He stepped past Zopop without another word and glanced to a small pedestal with a sign written in some human lettering Zopop couldn’t read. “It says that Sergeant Bitters here was a prisoner of war during the Servin war. I’m sure you’ve heard of it.”

Zopop searched his brain. “It was a brief conflict on the third world of Qarest, your kind got themselves involved and escalated the conflict into a full blown war.”

The human snorted “It was a one-sided genocide. The Quens would have been eradicated in a matter of weeks if we hadn’t intervened. But of course that never made its way to the galactic media. No cared about the genocide, or the war in general until we stuck our noses in it. The Sergeant here was a drop trooper in the first wave. He crawled through the mud and brush of Qarest-3 until he was captured by Servin forces.”

Zopop looked at the statue again, he saw the grievous wounds in a different light. “So these are battle scars, and this is art piece is here to honor the soldier’s bravery.” He said, his tone softer. His people were pacifistic by nature, but even they respected the sacrifice of soldiers.

“Not battle scars, or at least not most of them.” The human interjected. “I think the bullet wounds are from battle, but the rest are something else.”

“What?” Zopop asked. How else could a person, even a fictional one like this statue, receive wounds like that if not in battle?

“Torture.” The human said gravely. He pointed to the statues hand “See those missing fingers, see how one is only halfway cut. Its pretty apparent that the Servin were cutting them off joint by joint. Same with the burns and whip scars. The broken bones were likely from beatings.” The human looked down at the missing foot. “I think that one was from some sort of explosive. It likely took his whole foot and slowed him down enough for capture. I remember reading somewhere that the Servin had trouble keeping up with our pace unless the soldier was wounded or crippled.”

Each of Zopop’s five eyes blinked in succession. “I never heard anything about torture.”

“Hence Sergeant Bitters here. The war stalled out and the Galactic Federation intervened, the end result was a stalemate with no repercussions against the Servin. I believe Bitters is here to raise awareness for the injustices left unanswered.”

Zopop looked at the sad smile on the human’s face. This human had nothing but helpful, and Zopop had only been rude. “I apologize for my behavior, I don’t know what came over me.”

“It is fine, powerful art has a habit of invoking some very raw emotions.”

Zopop nodded, “yes, the artist did a good job. It’s a very life-like statue.”

The human glanced at Zopop in sad amusement. “I think the better term is Statuesque.”

“Hrm?”

“You said life-like, the more appropriate term is statuesque.” He explained.

“A statuesque statue?”

“A statuesque person.” The human corrected.

Zopop looked back towards the statue, the perfectly still and unmoving statue. He stared for a whole minute before he saw the statue blink it’s eyes. “That’s a person!” Zopop said in alarm.

“It is, Sergeant Bitters to be precise.”

“Its just a man, standing naked!”

“Its an artist standing naked, there’s a difference.” The human said matter of factly.

“He’s been standing here for hours, on one leg. Without moving or eating. I can barely see his chest rise! You people are insane!”

“Don’t lump me in with him.” The human said in offense. “He’s an artist, they’re built differently.” He said with a chuckle before wandering away, off to finish whatever business he had on this station. His conversation with Zopop little more than an interesting diversion.

Zopop on the other tentacle couldn’t find it with himself to leave. He stood there for the rest of that cycle just watching the unflinching man as he stood there naked in a crowded plaza. Zopop found himself explaining the art piece to any other confused alien visitor who didn’t understand the artistic value in Sergeant Bitters display. One Servin male had spit its acidic saliva on Sergeant Bitters, but even as the spit hissed on his skin Bitters didn’t move an inch.

Eventually the hour grew late and Zopop had to return to his hotel. It was with great reluctance that he left the Sergeant. But unlike the human Zopop couldn’t stand in one place all day and night. When he returned the next day Sergeant Bitters was gone, and Zopop had to go about his business with the haunting image of Sergeant Bitters burned into his mind.

It was nearly a hundred cycles later that Zopop saw Sergeant Bitters again. This time he was Zopop’s news feed having made galactic news by installing himself before the Servin embassy on Federation capital during the latest round of trade negotiations. Videos and pictures of his marred flesh told the story of Servin cruelty for all the galaxy to see. And while the spineless politicians of the Federation did their best to ignore Sergeant Bitters, the reputation of the Servin took a big hit in the minds of many ordinary citizens.

Servin stock dropped over night as hundreds of companies began to pull their affairs out of Servin space. Foreign factories closed down, the cost of imports rose dramatically, and no new foreign businesses opened locations in Servin controlled space. The Servin found themselves spit upon outside of their borders, much like how that Servin had spit on Bitters.

The cascading consequences of Bitters display eventually spiraled into another Human/Servin war. And this time the galactic federation did not intervene.

When war broke out Zopop made a risky business venture and sold half his assets to purchase a fleet of blockade runners to begin ferrying first aid and emergency rations to the human worlds. It was during his harrowing days running Servin blockades that Zopop once more met Bitters, now a captain in the Human Marine corps and standing up right on a brand new cybernetic foot. Bitters had remembered Zopop, and the grizzled marine thanked Zopop for hearing his message with an open heart.