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.

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wealth-of-nations

Nodnod.

Timothy Laurence Way

too-early-and-too-late

(Timothy is watching him amusedly).

wealth-of-nations

"Anyway how does suing work, what are we going to need to do for that."

"I have yellows for this, I don't have it memorized - you'll need to know who you're suing exactly and what their part in it was, that I know," says Isama.

wealth-of-nations

Nod. "Aitim'll know."

"Yep."

Michael Cyrus Way

"Where're you guys living now, what're you working on..."

"South America for hardwood," says Isama. "I don't technically have to be that close to the operation but it helps. Figuring out how to farm the trees. You guys have a ridiculous number of ants and beetles, did you know?"

Minor Finis Way

"Huh, really? I would expect that that kind of thing would be the same, given the way evolution works - I guess we're closer to our sun, we're an older planet, there's a lot that can go into it."

"We've got less land area, less room for things to speciate casually," says Hala.

Michael Cyrus Way

"And no continents that are totally separated, right? Australia's got all kinds of wild stuff because it doesn't have natural predators."

Timothy Laurence Way

too-early-and-too-late

"Also I think you drove most of your species extinct, didn't you. Maybe not the beetles."

Kantil

"People are not actually willing to pay the amount that it costs to save animals. I don't know if humans will be different on that front, you do seem to care about it more."

"There's zoos," says Isama.

"I had a friend in school who thought we should be doing more of it and should put animals on an artificial island," says Hala.

Timothy Laurence Way

too-early-and-too-late

"You could just designate a bunch of spaces as natural reserves and not pave them over. I bet if you did it like that and then asked everyone 'do you want a hundred ni from the proceeds of selling the reserve' most of them would say no. Obviously, if you wait until there's not much left and everyone was planning to develop it..."

Michael Cyrus Way

"This isn't gonna come up because Mars doesn't have any plants or animals anyway."

"Yes. Because it doesn't have air," says Isama.

Minor Finis Way

"We're working on it. There are chalices that pour infinite water, I think the only reason there aren't ones that pour infinite oxygen are because wizards did not know that oxygen was a thing of any interest."

wealth-of-nations