Two Communities Become One

At first, this arrangement was contentious and full of mistrust, confusion, and hostility among some within both communities. While living peacefully from a distance was fairly straightforward and came easy to most, in-close contact took some time for everyone to get used to. At first, the communities largely kept within their own boundaries, partly due to fear and partly due to misunderstandings between the groups. While language issues were largely a thing of the past, most within Slick City had never interacted with each other in person before. Both groups had different mannerisms, customs, and cultural norms, which led to some issues in the beginning — despite both groups best efforts to explain these differences and meet in the middle.

As time went on, people seemed to travel between communities more frequently. Both groups started sharing meals, working together, and establishing a diverse but cohesive city state. Neighborhood boundaries slowly became less rigid, and neighborhoods were now becoming divided by the area, not by the species. Districts were established. There was the fashion district, city hall, the entertainment district, the manufacturing district, and several other areas that would remind you of an Earthly city with a Glieseian twist.

As time went on, the visual differences were almost forgotten by the inhabitants. While both groups looked noticeably different, no one seemed to care. Then, the final piece of the puzzle that would interlock these communities transpired: interspecies romance. And springing from interspecies romances, came the genesis of a new group that was both familiar and entirely new.

This group was given a placeholder term by both communities: “half them, half us.” Technically speaking, this was a new species entirely: Homo Glieseus. But most on the street just called them “Hybrids.”

The Hybrids looked similar to both existing populations, but with a unique combination of traits that didn’t exist previously. From a Glieseian perspective, they looked more human. From an Earthly perspective, they looked more alien.

From a human’s perspective, the Hybrid had elongated limbs that matched a narrower torso and head. The eyes looked human but were much larger — nearly as large as Glieseian eyes. The face also had noticeably concave cheekbones which were narrowest at the front of the face and gradually got wider as their cheeks approached their ears. For both communities, these cheekbones were perhaps the most “alien” feature as this facial feature was unique to Hybrids.

This cross-species intermingling led to a substantial population of Hybrids, with each group composing about a third of the city’s population within the first two decades of Slick City. This further cemented the cordial relationships and cohesiveness between what had now become three distinct groups. As word of the Slick City’s peacefulness and prosperity traveled to other cities, many Glieseans and humans moved to become part of this exciting and novel new city. Still, there was much progress to be made. Slick City was the first city to house this new population, and they initially weren’t allowed to visit other Glieseian cities.

When the population of Hybrids reached 4,444, these citizens — along with the humans and Glieseians — officially chartered Slick City as a Glieseian city state with the same rights and powers as any other city state on Gliese 667 Cc. The year was 2111.

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