There's a lot of WEIRD SHIT in the universe. It sounds really kind of trite, but it's totally true! What's really weird, though, is that, for how much different stuff there is, there's also other stuff that's surprisingly same-y. Take Yaeba, for example. She's an alien, but, aside from a few quirks, she's practically human! .... so how the hell does that work?
There's a few theories about that, as it happens. Some speculate that an older race seeded new life onto planets. Little programs that, as they develop, execute more complex programs, designed to eventually produce something like the original race! Others speculate that old races had members who crashed on different worlds, and adapted from there. Things like that.
... considering Yaeba is 13, this is all a bit over her head. Frankly, she doesn't CARE much. And why would she? As a Ilmiki, she's got two things on her mind, plain and simple: Warmth, and comfort. The two aren't always synonymous, but for Ilmiki it's rather rare that they're NOT.
Ilmiki, see, are from an icy world. Their world, at its warmest, gets up to fifty degrees, and that's just too cold for them, most of the time. They spend days, even weeks, huddled up in communal piles, warming themselves... or did, before they were discovered and uplifted. Now they're... a bit different.
You'd THINK that earth would be too warm for them, and honestly, you might be right, on most occasions. However... well. It was decided by the well-meaning but not too bright people that found them that they should be at home in a wider range of climates. Really, you'd think they could just make them better able to stand the cold, but noooo. No, Yaeba's quite comfortable within most of the temperature ranges on earth. She prefers cooler weather, naturally, but she's fairly active into the nineties to low hundreds(Fahrenheit, of course). And this... leads to other problems.
You see... Active Ilmiki are HUNGRY Ilmiki. Even if they're not actually HUNGRY, being quite easily satisfied by surprisingly small amounts of food, they have a COMPULSION to eat. And, well, with Yaeba, that's gotten crossed with a few other urges....
More on that shortly. You're probably wondering why I've not said a damned thing about her appearance, right? Right. So, here it is. Ilmiki look human, mostly. They occupy roughly the same height and shape, and about seventy-five, eighty percent of their bodies IS human. They have human faces, human torsos(mostly), human legs, human arms... the difference is in the extras.
Ears, for example. Ilmiki have long, slender, furred ears, which can swivel almost 180 degrees, and rotate thirty. As well, their hair is long, thick, and fluffy, and all members of the species have horns. Yaeba's horns are cute, dainty little things sticking out of her forehead, tiny little lightly-curved spikes, in a lovely blue-white shade. She also, like most Ilmiki, has scales, in small patches on her chest, arms, and legs, sometimes with fur in the same areas. Said scales are a lovely ice blue shade, while her hair(which comes down to just over her rump), and fur, are colored about the same shade as her horns. However, this is most obvious on the most striking difference between Ilmiki and humans: The tail.
Ilmiki, unless they're crippled, all have a tail. They all have a HELL of a tail. Ilmiki children, like Yaeba, sport tails longer than they are tall! And these tails are thick, strong, prehensile, and COVERED in fur. It's a survival adaptation, serving as a third arm, food storage, and... well, a second maw. You can't tell unless it's open, revealing a slimy, pink tongue, but Ilmiki tails ARE maws...
And Yaeba... uses hers to cuddle friends. She uses her tail to hold them close, and love and squeeze on them, but... there's that compulsion... and those crossed wires tell her that she'll keep her friends, who're pretty cute, if she eats them...
.... good thing she can spit them out safely, eh?
