I've got a list of names | Glowfic Constellation

Afen is disappointed in the universe. He bounds back and forth across his room explaining why to his wife, his infant granddaughter, the end table, and a reporter flabbergasted by her good luck and cringing silently against the wall in the hopes he won't remember she's there.

"There is no reason to suppose that a species evolving independently of Amentans, with their own evolutionary history and living mammalian species likely related to theirs, would end up looking like us. None. Every explanation every scientist has ventured to the press has been unimaginative and unconvincing retroactive refitting of bad models to baffling data. Aliens shouldn't look like us but with different hair colors. Aliens that are not made out of carbon at all would be unsurprising; aliens with only as much physiological dissimilarity as exists between us and animal species on our planet would be mildly surprising; aliens with opposable thumbs would be truly remarkable. This is not remarkable and biologically enlightening; this is just inconsistent with everything we understand about the universe. It doesn't teach us new things about evolution; it should make us rethink evolution. - don't quote that part, they'll take it out of context."

Reporter nods rapidly.

"All of that said, I've picked up three of the languages and I'm working on building a good machine translator, it's a challenge with as little as they've produced in the way of electronic records. I'm absolutely going there to meet them as soon as the politicians figure out what to do with themselves."

"Do you have any predictions about that?"

"About politics? Why would I have predictions about politics? They deliberately obscure relevant information, for one thing, and for another it's deathly boring."

"- I mean, sir, surely you hear from your son about -"

"I have seven children and some of them are very dense indeed but not quite dense enough to try to interest me in politics."

"I was referring to -"

"I know who you were referring to. If you want a statement from Aitim go bother Aitim."

"Thank you for your time."

"I did not alter my activities in response to your presence and therefore you can't yet be said to have wasted any of my time though you should go before you do."

...out skitters the reporter.

Total: 9381

Posts Per Page:

‹ Previous 1 2 … 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 … 375 376 Next ›

« First ‹ Previous 110 of 376 Next › Last »

Rebecca Way

waylaid

"My father thrashes the boys if they go far enough wrong, that doesn't mean all my brothers and sisters ought to be kidnapped!"

too-early-and-too-late

"I don't think they should! Aitim didn't mention he was planning this!"

Rebecca Way

waylaid

"Well tell him to cut it out!"

too-early-and-too-late

"I wish he'd mentioned before he did it, he's going to whine about how expensive it is to backtrack and confuse people - ugh."

Minor Finis Way

"What's wrong," he says, walking in with Miranda.

Michael Cyrus Way

"The Amentans are Amentan-ing all over everything again."

too-early-and-too-late

"They announced they'll take your kids if you beat them."

Minor Finis Way

"I mean, I've never found it built any character, but..."

chanuphis

"It should plausibly be illegal but escalating straight to taking all the kids is insane."

too-early-and-too-late

"I'm going to go talk with him. Anyone want to come -"

chanuphis

"How much diminished authority is associated with having no children -"

too-early-and-too-late

" - I mean, I'm not sure whether to expect he'd freak out at Michael or my parents and go 'you child abuser' - I'm not sure what he was thinking, actually, of all the things to make illegal -"

chanuphis

"It should plausibly be illegal but like 'take parenting classes' illegal!"

too-early-and-too-late

"And 'don't harshly discipline your kids' is fine and well when the worst thing that can happen to them is...whatever happens in Amenta to wandering kids, probably the neighbors hug them, but people here are often tough on their kids because if the kids are careless in the real world they will just die. - I didn't hand out very many detentions at Hogwarts but when I did it was for kinds of misconduct that are scarier than Amentans are capable of..."

chanuphis

"He didn't telegraph this to you at all?"

too-early-and-too-late

"Nope. I'm mad about that too. If he thinks it's better to ask forgiveness than permission he needs to be wrong about that."

chanuphis

"Before we go storming into his office are you positive he would have had to sign off on it and he doesn't have any subordinates who could have done it on their own recognizance?"

too-early-and-too-late