Pellistair

I'm going to be posting parts of stories I've written. All of these stories take place on Pellistair, which is a planet I came up with last summer. This is an introduction to Pellistair, which was written by my brother, Moose.

"In a galaxy far, far away (no, not that one. A different one), there is a planet called Pellistair. It's a small and obscure planet, a peaceful little place most people in the galaxy haven't heard of. A quiet, unassuming planet. However, Pellistair's inhabitants - and any visitors that stay for long - know that it is different from any other planet in the galaxy. Pellistair... changes people.

All different kinds of people visit Pellistair. It's a small planet, but the galaxy is a large one. Humans visit, drawn by the quiet peace and beauty of the small world, and so do many other kinds of creatures. Those that only stay for a day or two don't notice the changes. Anyone who stays longer, though, can't help but notice.

For instance, say a human or other creature visited Pellistair. It would seem normal enough at first, a peaceful place inhabited by a wide variety of different species. Over time, though, the visitor would start to change. If they headed in a reptilian direction, scales and a tail might grow, if the alien didn't have them already. Warm sunlight would seem much more comfortable than before.

The changes vary from person to person. Some visitors would start spending more time in the water, perhaps become better at holding their breaths. Others would grow furrier and start resembling cats, dogs, armadillos, et cetera. Some grow wings and become more like birds or bats, though that takes longer than more minor changes. People can end up resembling any animal in existence - or out of it.

The speed of the changes also varies depending on the person. Some people take years to develop claws or proper fur. Others only stay a few days before they're flying through the trees or learning how to use extra limbs. No one can tell until the changes start.

No one on Pellistair ever completely changes. There are no birds or fish that used to be human. The inhabitants generally look like humanoid animals who can fly, or swim, or breathe underwater. They live fairly normal lives otherwise. The world is a happy, peaceful one. That's what all the inhabitants say, at least. Any visitors to Pellistair will be assured by everyone they ask that it is a peaceful world, that all the people on it love each other equally, regardless of species. Nevertheless, there are subtle tensions here and there. Dog-like and cat-like inhabitants of Pellistair are polite to each other, but rarely do much together.

The deer can never completely relax around the pumas. Some of the horses might - very discreetly - look down their long noses at the donkeys. The tensions between species are never mentioned, never acknowledged, but they exist deep under the surface. The inhabitants all agree on one thing, though - no outsiders are EVER going to find anything but peace and happiness on Pellistair.

There is also another tension, this one much less subtle. Every so often, two people of different species will marry each other. ("Species" is a looser term on Pellistair than it is on Earth, so that's possible here.) Their children are almost always unusual, more so if the parents are dramatically different from each other. A mouse and an alligator are bound to have interesting children. These hybrids are not treated with the same equality as everyone else. To the inhabitants of Pellistair, there is just... something WRONG with a creature that can't seem to decide what species it is. The hybrids are outcasts from the rest of society.

If discovered, they are almost always insulted, beaten up, arrested, banished, or worse. This is the one part of Pellistair's society that is NOT so peaceful. Because of this, the hybrids often try to hide the fact that they are hybrids, keeping their scales or gills or long ears carefully covered.

Not many people leave Pellistair, as it is (for the most part) so peaceful and happy. Those who do, though, change in the other direction. They lose their scales, or fur, or tails, reverting to the forms they - or their ancestors - had before they arrived.

The animal traits only stay if they seem to be needed. For instance, dedicated swimmers might manage to keep their gills - but only if they spent a lot of time underwater every day. It's possible to keep the changes Pellistair gives them, but it's hard work."