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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Ebele Miranda Swan ༐

chanuphis

"And the self-replicating trick can be done by one person. Distribution might be an issue, you might want it done a few times over different parts of the planet."

Afen Kisantami

greengreengreen

Afen cackles gleefully. "And Aitim could stop worrying that wizards'll panic his colleagues, they'll adore you."

thesignalandthenoise

"He's concerned about casually threatening them."

Afen Kisantami

greengreengreen

" - is anyone considering casually threatening them?"

too-early-and-too-late

"I mean, being a Wizard Who Does Not Like You at someone is kind of casually threatening and the only context in which we'd be meeting would be to inform them they are not imposing population controls. Aitim thinks he could finesse it but it's definitely not, like, trivially finessable by smiling and saying 'it's nice to meet you'."

Ebele Miranda Swan ༐

chanuphis

"I don't really think of myself as threatening."

too-early-and-too-late

"Me neither, in most contexts, but Aitim finds us so. Cultural thing."

thesignalandthenoise

"You haven't threatened me, he says you only do it to blues."

too-early-and-too-late

"I think blues might be likelier to parse 'here's what is going to happen' as 'you should be scrambling for your life' but I haven't actually met enough blues to guess why."

thesignalandthenoise

"...I have only low confidence guesses."

too-early-and-too-late

"I'd be interested anyway. - I have also, directly, threatened Aitim, but he's referring to something broader than that."

thesignalandthenoise

"Blues tend to die a lot when there are strenuous disagreements about governance."

too-early-and-too-late

"More than, like, soldiers?"

thesignalandthenoise

"If they lose. It's easier to incorporate the other side's soldiers than their blues."

too-early-and-too-late

Nod.

Michael Cyrus Way

"So if we're like 'this isn't your planet and we're going to make you leave' you lot are like 'well that would suck if it happened' and the blues are figuring -"

thesignalandthenoise

"They're thinking 'and will my children be dead, or just penniless and trying to marry money in the middle of a catastrophe with tainted family connections'."

Michael Cyrus Way

"Is Aitim scared, Timothy, he really didn't act it."

too-early-and-too-late

"He's got a lot on his plate and he was scared on Veritaserum but if he's still scared he's hiding it for some reason."

thesignalandthenoise

"He seemed overall optimistic to me honestly but I understand why he'd find the situation threatening."

Minor Finis Way

"Because he's worried about the kids? We'd take his kids, if they were going to be in danger or something, we're not mad at kids and they're family."

thesignalandthenoise

"I didn't personally conquer your planet and if Miranda happened to be tragically dead or something I definitely wouldn't expect on the basis of our acquaintance that I would have a safe place to go, you seem really hostile to my species. And you have confessed to an irrational hatred of the kids' other dad. And I'm not sure you'd be very good at raising Amentans."

Minor Finis Way

"You would definitely have a safe place to go."

too-early-and-too-late

"We object to the behavior, not the people, it's just that we have restricted options at any kind of scale for making the people cut out the behavior."

thesignalandthenoise