Physical Description

Audience members have long wormlike bodies. Their tails are strong and prehensile, able to stand up on the end of it if desired. It also assists them in climbing amongst the branches and other terrains.

Their bodies are covered in long dense fur that is double coated. The top coat is soft and smooth while the undercoat is spongy and soundproofs the audience member's body. This prevents things such as their heartbeat from being heard, this is to better hide from their predators that have extremely keen hearing.

This fur is commonly in deep near-black shades to match the plants they hide in. Though audience members possess an adaptation that causes their fur to match the surfaces they are laid on the most often when they are young. For this to occur, the audience must be under a week old before their fur grows in. The imitation of the patterns is near perfect, even able to mimic a metallic sheen. However, they cannot imitate any sort of glow. An audience member will have these patterns for the rest of their lives.

Audiences also use their fur to store small objects and carry their young as it is dense enough to hold them. They also hide their arms in their fur. These arms are long and thin with larger hands at the end, these hands possess four digits each tipped with short tough claws and possess metacarpal pads. These pads and claws usually contrast against the fur.

The most iconic part of an audience member's appearance is their eight eyes arranged in a radial pattern similar in shape to a common flower found on their home planet.

Art by Dr9com9ge

The look-me-not, it's debated if audience eyes evolved to look like them or if look-me-nots evolved to look like audience eyes. Nobody really wins this debate.

They also possess two more eyes that are atop long flexible eyestalks. These are capable of bending backward allowing the audience member to see behind them. These eyes are usually brightly colored and stand out from the rest of the audience's bodies, when they are huddled together it makes their bodies appear to be like bushes and their eyes like flowers. They are also able to focus on more at once as the pupils of different eyes will follow multiple subjects. They also have a particular way of blinking where each eye will take turns being closed and in motion, resembling a loading wheel. They also possess whiskers above their two horizontal eyes and on their cheeks.

Situated below their unique eyes is a seldom-seen mouth usually hidden by fur. This mouth is quite large and the inside is lined with sharp teeth that point back towards the throat. The front-most row is the least curved and the hind-most row near the throat is the most curved. This structure is to assist audience members in keeping prey from escaping their maws, as they tend to swallow prey whole. The jaw bone of an audience member is disconnected in the middle allowing them to stretch their mouths if whatever they were swallowing was quite large.

Young audience members are capable of making noises such as mewing, purring, and snoring, this is to alert the adults if they are hungry, distressed and or just simply alive and sleeping. These audience kits are kept in dens that are soundproofed with various kinds of bedding as their noise could attract predators. The adults on the other hand are completely mute and unable to use their vocal cords past the age of one month. They do retain their ability to purr but this is inaudible unless one would part their fur and put an ear to them.

Personality

As their namesake implies they are known for watching in groups. They enjoy observing other creatures exist and get invested in whatever they are doing. They are quite curious as well, often wanting to know what's going on around them. When an audience member hears something that piques their interest, they will most certainly investigate it. It is not uncommon to see audience members clustered together observing small animals eat or a particularly interesting person go about their day.

Similarly, they find members of other species more fascinating than their own. They will cluster to watch groups of people interact in general. When doing this they will wiggle and do certain motions at each other in an odd manner, this is believed to be their native language that is not yet well understood. Sometimes, instead of this, they will use phones to text each other. When communicating with others they may utilize text-to-speech as well as limish universal sign language. They will also designate one of their own to speak on behalf of their group, often this audience member will be conveying what their group wants to say as a whole to whomever they are talking to. It is random almost every time which audience member is chosen for this role for every conversation.

Despite a lack of vocal cords, their personalities speak volumes. They're incredibly sassy and have a tendency for pranks and mischief through language barriers. Most are well aware of their native language's obscurity and have used this knowledge to mock people right in front of them, with the person none the wiser. This is done in a lighthearted manner and solely for the audience's amusement. Each audience group has its inside jokes and those who are in on these jokes are considered friends.

Audience members usually travel and live in groups consisting of family and the occasional sole wanderer taken in. These groups tend to bunch together and move in a tightly packed wave of fluff, with the most vulnerable members being closer to the center of the group. They will do this for both their kind and members of other species. Their young are usually communally raised by the group as well and when they are old enough they are allowed to leave and join a new group if they so wish, becoming a lone wanderer until they find their new group or return to their old one. Those who travel with audiences have mentioned being carried by the group like crowd-surfing. Some have been trampled by these groups when they are rushing but these have at most toppled people over and have not caused any casualties or injuries.

Audiences have been known to obsess over various forms of media, characters, and celebrities. Often naming themselves and their groups after things relating to said media. For example, an audience group calls themselves "[insert media] fan club". They also tend to combine several names to make new ones for themselves such as "Rimby" or "Millisto". Before the space age, audience names were mainly descriptive such as "One-stalk", "Blue eyes", and "The annoying one". Occasionally these names are what their jobs are such as "The Hunter" or "The Scout".

They also have a great interest in keeping collections of trinkets that they like the look of. What most audiences look for in their favored trinkets would mainly depend on the individual, but bright colors and shininess are common among these keepsakes. Occasionally audience members will trade these trinkets for different ones should they get bored of looking at them. They will also take merchandise from their favorite media as well and are more likely to keep those.

As lax as most audiences are when they have been wronged they will remember the misdeed for a long time. Often plotting petty pranks to "get even" with whoever has vexed them. On their home-planet crimes are punished by forcing the criminal to do embarrassing and highly dangerous tasks for the particular audience group's amusement. If they find the performance funny enough the criminal is set free. Most of these punishments involve fighting the dangerous local fauna.

Those who are extremely amusing and entertaining to audiences are often beloved by them and treated with the utmost respect. Though this respect is quite difficult to get with more than just one or two groups of audiences as their opinions on what is entertaining vary among different groups and these groups tend to not be afraid to voice their opinions.

History

The audience's home planet, Auditorium was discovered not by explorers or the federation. It was found by a small yet ambitious film crew making a documentary on undiscovered planets. However, few would leave the planet alive as their ship was attacked by a massive fauna native to the planet as they looked for a place to land. This caused them to crash and according to the accounts of the sole survivor, aspiring actress Silvia B. Mauvi, most of her crew survived the initial crash. The beast that caused this crash was later identified as a massive arthropod called a "Cameraman" due to its method of stunning prey with light.

The ecosystem of the planet had been host to predators who have extremely keen eyes and sensitive ears. The crew themselves stood out on the planet's dull tones and had not been quiet enough. According to Silvia, they had endured several animal attacks and these eventually had picked them off one by one.

What had saved Silvia had been a group of audience members who had taken her in. She had been the one to give the audience their name as she noted how intently they watched things. The audience had kept her safe in their dens and would bring food for her and their young ones in there. She would live this way for several months until she was eventually rescued by a crew hired by her family to find her.

Art by Dr9com9ge

A photo taken of Silvia B. Mauvi and the audience that saved her, taken by the rescue crew's captain.

After Silvia had returned and regaled her time on Auditorium, several scientists and researchers took interest in the planet. This leads to them traveling to it, much more prepared than the film crew. They would establish facilities underground to protect themselves from the fauna. The audience groups that lived nearby would also observe these people as much as they observed them, this would also lead to the audience learning how some tools worked and how to enter the facilities.

The intrusion of the occasional curious audience member would prove a problem for the researchers as they would rummage through the lab and their findings, a file missing or perhaps a keycard even. They eventually found a way to distract the audiences from rifling through their things by playing recordings on screens or interacting with them themselves which greatly helped when studying the audience.

One particular scientist had begun trying to see if the audience were capable of learning language, starting with experiments that involved simple "yes" or "no" questions and then it evolved into teaching them limish sign language. His efforts paid off as the group he worked with had learned quite well and would hold conversations with him and others, though notably, they would only sign to the scientist and his colleagues. This breakthrough had also proven that audiences were not simply fauna but sapient lifeforms.

Another group had been testing to see how well young audience members would imitate patterns on their fur, as Silvia had mentioned during her time on the planet, the audience members would put their young on her shirt and her tentacles and a month later the babies had the same patterns. This would be proven true and the extent of it was quite extreme. However, these young audiences could not be returned above ground as they would be easily spotted and eaten by predators. They had also not disclosed how their subjects were acquired and had kept them, studying them more.

This group of researchers and the other one that had found they were sapient had clashed due to the ethics of the situation. But in the end, the two teams had an agreement that one would keep the brightly colored audiences in their facility while the other team would be sent updates on them. The team keeping the audience had converted a room into a nursery and the young audience members were similarly taught how to communicate.

This audience group also became the first of their kind to leave the planet as the scientists had agreed they'd never survive the aggressive ecosystem on Auditorium and they had grown too accustomed to living in a nursery rather than in the wild.

After many other findings and papers were made and sent, the audiences were classified as a species. More and more would find their way off their home planet. The facility that once housed the audience group that had been experimented on had become a place where audiences were taught how to understand and use limish sign language as well as understanding spoken limish before they would leave their homes for the stars.

Home Planet

The audience's home planet, Auditorium, is quite the odd sight to most as it appears quite monochromatic and dull save for a few pops of bright colors. The leaves of most plants are nearly pitch black, The sky is a hazy gray and it's eerily quiet. Despite the silence, this planet is far from barren.

The first thing one is likely to see when landing on this planet, poking its head past the forest canopies is the long-necked massive apex predator called a "cameraman" due to their unique hunting method involving them flashing a bright light to stun prey, possibly several of them standing tall like spires across the planet. They are quite dangerous to encounter and it is recommended to use a larger ship when attempting to land anytime other than the planet's equivalent of spring, this is when the adult population of cameramen die and their pupae prepare to burst out the ground. This season is colloquially known as "Lights out" to the audience and is considered a holiday to them.

This planet also hosts several florae that are exported for use in various products. Such as the look-me-not bush, the most common plant on the planet. The look-me-not's flower is an eight-petaled glossy flower that resembles bright eyes looking out from the bush itself. The audience are well adapted to blending in with these plants as their eyes look similar to their flowers. Its berries are also unique in that they are gummy on the outside and full of sweet juice on the inside. They are often sold as a popular snack outside of Auditorium and are a staple in the audience's diet.

Another plant that is often exported is the popthorn. It is prized for its thorns and seeds that when cooked, will pop similar to corn kernels. However, getting these is tedious when the plant itself has not yet popped itself, this popping happens at the height of summer on the planet. Were its flowers will quite literally explode and spread its seeds and thorns across the ground. These plants also are the homes to small bugs called thornpops which camouflages with the thorns and are toxic unless cooked. They are interestingly enough very spicy when this is done so and are often used as a seasoning.

Other than its plants, Auditorium also hosts creatures that hide in plain sight and predators that are capable of hearing a pin drop. These predators are the reason why this planet is quite dangerous to the unprepared and why most structures are built underground and often utilize remotely controlled drones to dig tunnels for them.

Subspecies

Spectator: Smaller and even more nimble than their more common cousins. A spectator is a mainly arboreal solitary variant, They are rarely seen as they prefer to remain hidden. They live most of their lives in the canopies and tend to hoard food inside the hollows of the trees they call home. The few times they have shown themselves it has been to trade with audiences. These trades have consisted of some of the spectator's food for shiny trinkets. Spectators seem to prefer round pearlescent objects over any others.

Eavesdropper: These subspecies of audiences live deep underground. Due to the low light conditions, they have adapted to rely heavily on their hearing and sense of touch rather than their eyesight. They are completely blind and have much fewer eyes if any at all compared to their surface-dwelling counterparts. Their claws are long, durable, and adapted for digging. Though if threatened these prove to be deadly weapons. Eavesdroppers are easily startled by loud noises and will choose to flee from the sound rather than attack.

Special

Inherited Camouflage: Audience members when under a week old are capable of growing fur that matches the patterns of whatever surfaces they had been on to an almost perfect degree. The most natural occurrences of these have been audiences having faint markings resembling the bedding used for them. And in more extreme cases, the patterns of clothes or a messy desk.

Trivia

• Though the audience's wiggle language remains not well understood, what is known is that two shakes of the tail and a prolonged swish is a rude gesture that roughly translates to "Silly and stupid" and is done in a usually joking manner.

• Some individuals will hire audience groups to follow them around and throw tomatoes at people who disagree with them.

• Audience member parents off planet like finding the prettiest patterns for their babies' fur to grow in. While adults who have already grown in their natural colors will wear accessories to make themselves look more interesting.

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