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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"Mm-hm."

"I did check, it being the obvious thing to check. We have electronic records of the whereabouts of all our citizens and in particular make it impossible to keep children a secret, since everyone would try to do that."

"I knew I shouldn't have worn the robes that say 'please, Muggles, make small talk with me'."

"You could go get yourself a biscuit from the place down the street and come find me when your supervisor arrives."

"Nope."

"In some countries it's now impossible to make purchases without a legal identity, because the public key associated with your national identification is one of the ones used to verify transactions. Anitam has that system but we still have cash and loose credit - that is, credit not tied to your identity - so it is possible to make purchases in Anitam without being on our records. If there were very very careful wizards who got things delivered in lieu of ever being in a public space in any context they could make do until someone happened to audit them."

She doesn't answer.

The wizard apparates back outside of the range of the jinx with another wizard in tow.

"Who's this?"

"Du Xiaomeng," says the new arrival.

"He wants to meet in his office," says the witch.

"It's just across the way." He starts walking.

Du Xiaomeng falls into step. The Obliviators leave.

It's late at night; the building still has security, which lets them in. There's a janitor sweeping. Aitim calls the elevator. "Thank you for coming on such short notice."

"It seems to have been called for."

"One of the things I'm hoping to arrange are channels of communication so crises can rise to appropriate attention immediately instead of days later."

"The wizarding community does normally have that with Muggle leaders, but it has seemed prudent until now to leave you unawares."

"I can imagine." Elevator opens. Aitim points them to his office.

Minister Du follows him in and takes a seat.

"What I was attempting to explain to your colleagues is that our society keeps records in a manner that makes your usual containment tactics ineffective. In particular, we have cameras everywhere." He pulls some up on his monitor; they show the two of them walking into the building and into the elevator. "Destroying the cameras does not do anything; they're just collecting information, which is stored elsewhere. Destroying the places that display the information also does not do anything; they're just letting me read information from the place where it's stored."

"I see."

"The people whose memories you erased can look at their devices and check their calender for the previous day and reconstruct the whole thing. The posters that I assume you've taken down from the walls of our stores still exist in an electronic format and someone will read them tomorrow and then try to piece together why they don't remember them. The prison employees who have been charged with making airtight prison cells still have the work directive which probably notes the reason that such a directive was issued."

"Perhaps you could stop doing these things."

"I'd much rather no one know about wizards. But it's also a priority of mine that wizards not assault and rape my citizens with impunity, so we're making the changes necessary to ensure that we can arrest and execute them when they try it."

"It is a priority of mine that my citizens are not imprisoned or killed by Muggles."

"I would be delighted to work with you to make your citizens aware of our laws, or if necessary to restrict contact such that persons who will find it difficult to comply with the laws aren't in a position to break them."