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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He gets another message. He reads it.

He puts his phone away again. "Do you think that your boss could reschedule so I don't miss the birth of my son?"

"Kuai's already fetching him. Are you aware everything you come up with to say sounds made up?"

"I was concerned it might take a few iterations of erasing all our memories and realizing that we had all the same information the next day before it seemed plausible that we were really storing so much externally. Or has it taken a few such iterations? For whatever it's worth, you are just as unbelievable to us."

"Wasn't here yesterday. Took a while for someone to notice the rabbit missing and get him."

"Is it illegal under your law to forcefeed people drugs and rape them, or just to get noticed at it?"

"We don't bother legislating Muggle rights."

"That seems hard on wizards."

"How d'you figure?"

"We execute people for that kind of thing. Now, most people don't run into any trouble with that, because they're used to not getting away with any such thing. But wherever there's a population whose government didn't do much law enforcement, they don't even think much of it, they might not even realize that their targets will be inclined to prosecute them, and so it's an unpleasant surprise when they find themselves in front of a court for it."

"Doesn't come up much."

"It seems like it might come up more and more as enforcement gets more comprehensive. But perhaps word will spread as quickly as enforcement capacity."

"Rabbit guy made a stir."

"I am glad to hear it, though I hope we haven't just incentivized rapists to go after humans instead."

"They don't cause this much trouble and they don't remember it anyway."

"They are Anitami citizens entitled to the protection of our justice system and as soon as it is feasible the law will be enforced for them also."

"Wow."

"I don't think wizards will have much trouble finding consenting partners, if that's not objectionable for some reason."

"This isn't my hobby personally, I don't know what the deal is."

Aitim contemplatively drinks his raspberry lemonade. "I think wizards are mistaken that it's less traumatic if you don't remember it. The last woman to be kidnapped by a wizard was substantially more distressed by the mysterious pregnancy and months of amnesia than I think she would have been by the same events if she remembered them."

"Well, getting them pregnant is a terrible idea."

"Raping people and then causing them brain damage so they don't remember it seems like a bad idea whether or not they're on birth control, really, but there are certainly more pragmatic considerations in cases resulting in a child. Is that child going to have the abilities you people have?"

"Half-bloods mostly do."

"How confusing for the child. Maybe she will be a teacher and keep the children's attention with magic tricks."

Eyeroll.