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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thesignalandthenoise

"It's like... maybe a touch more defensible than 'reds aren't people because, you know, ick'?"

"I guess it does feature an actual distinguishing trait? Good job, wizards."

thesignalandthenoise

"Ghosts are capable of carrying on conversations and of storing some medium-term memories but they're absolutely uncreative and sort of disconnected and apathetic compared to the wizards of whom they are imprints, says Miranda, she thinks they're probably not really people. Same with magical portraits, of which there are a handful in the house if you want to talk to one."

"Maybe." He looks down at baby, who is far more interesting. "I guess getting up on wizard politics at minimum is probably worthwhile. Oh, our co-parents are also here, they have been told that you are seeing Kefin and technically the girls' bodyguard and possibly report to Aitim. Not by me, by Michael. Also the house-elves have been told that one of them is a man trapped by a curse, because apparently house-elves take issue with gay people?"

thesignalandthenoise

"House-elves care about the families they serve being respectable in somewhat conservative terms, they weren't thrilled about Michael marrying a Muggle either."

"I see. Poor Timothy. If hypothetically he were gay which I take it he's not."

thesignalandthenoise

"His girlfriend Karen comes around sometimes. Miranda's best friend from school, but I don't seem to know one."

"Maybe she is out there somewhere. Nothing about the matching thing makes any sense anyway."

thesignalandthenoise

"Miranda tried to find me - she went all the way to Amenta and took a luck potion to do it - but it took Kefin recognizing my voice on a shuttle. I mean, I wan't on planet at the time, which could explain in perfectly ordinary terms why she couldn't find me, but..."

"But it's suggestive of something else at work? Yeah."

thesignalandthenoise

"He was very annoyed with the something else for a while."

" - I think being annoyed would involve assuming the something else to have characteristics it wouldn't necessarily have to have? But yeah, if someone did this they're the worst, sure."

thesignalandthenoise

"Not necessarily, it's sort of dependent on what they can do."

"I guess if the only thing you could do is make people variants of specific other people, most worlds could probably do with more of us."

thesignalandthenoise

"I like to think so! Not that I was put to best advantage till recently."

"I should suggest to Isel that she figure out how to advertise 'will hire security who can't walk but otherwise give the impression of being a good use of my money', I feel like as long as they have a gun and sit at the gate no one'll be able to challenge that as out-of-caste."

thesignalandthenoise

"I mean, there are grey jobs I can do. Greys are in fact not bad at making sure those exist. They just aren't - anything other than a paycheck if you don't happen to have the right turn of mind."

Nod. "I think everyone working on caste flexibility is pinning their hopes on a planet. Maybe they should stop that."

thesignalandthenoise

"Because there aren't enough planets?"

"There might be, we might get better at finding them, but the initial batch of results sure isn't encouraging."

thesignalandthenoise

"The wizards are working on terraforming and reseasoning."