“I’m trying to understand how any civilization that’s managed to traverse interstellar space to get here would see any reason to stay...”
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And why would they play Hide n’ Seek with us?
They’re farming us to eat later on keeping their big eyes on the big fat dumbass herds morooning about the place.
We’re pretty ripe.
“And why would they play Hide n’ Seek with us?”
Possibly for the same reasons we do so when studying certain animals.
By letting the animals know you are watching, it changes their behavior and may ruin the study