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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chanuphis

Sigh.

"I'm sorry."

chanuphis

"What should we expect tomorrow?"

"Planning for a pretend magical government, probably. Introductions to people who can go home and plan things with you. I will tell them not to imply that humans are less intelligent on average and they will stop implying it, once they're less shellshocked people will probably be excited about the options for terraforming."

chanuphis

"I don't actually think it's a problem if they believe humans are less intelligent on average, but I think it's a problem if they assume that this continues to apply to selected individuals, because it means no human can ever expect to command their respect. Pelape is maybe smarter than me, we're not sure, too many confounders, but then she's also smarter than the average Amentan - she took a test, apparently."

"I think it's a real drawback of our system that smart purples and greys do not command nearly as much respect as an equally smart yellow or green or blue."

chanuphis

"And humans are set up to fall right into the same hole and that's bad."

"Yes."

chanuphis

"Like - where did they think you got us, out of the bargain bin?"

Sigh.

chanuphis

Yep.

"My society is changing, but not as quickly as I would like."

chanuphis

"Pelape gives you a lot of credit for the reds thing but that was mostly over with years ago."

"Only slightly more than half of countries had transitioned by the time we developed warp, though everyone else shaped up at that point. There was substantial doubt about whether Miolee was going to survive pretty much right up to the point where we did our first starship test."

chanuphis

Nod.

"The, uh, analogy you chose isn't wrong but it's horrifying, I don't know if that's what you're going for."

chanuphis

"I didn't really have another one to hand and you started it."

"Like I said, it's not wrong, it's just - you may be underestimating the extent to which it parses as 'wizards will mostly leave you alone if they get everything they want but if you happen to be in their way you will die'."

chanuphis

"Parsing wizards as a group that's not far wrong."

"I noticed. I just don't want Aleva to notice, because the correct response to that is compliance if you don't have a choice, and war if you do."

Karen Dwimmer

planetarium

"You threaded the needle with the reds."

"I think I can do it here. Maybe if both sides pretend for long enough that they think the other people are their equals they'll get so used to pretending they'll believe it. Maybe their children will."

chanuphis

"I don't personally think it matters that Muggles can't leave ghosts, should I lean on that more, I thought it would be a bit - 'I don't care that you don't have souls, pay attention to my charitability' or whatever."

"My instinct is that the thing that'll really work is agreeing on terms, and that everything else'll be fairly superficial - that was true with reds, too, telling them that you thought it was nonsense never helped, saying you'd do a hard thing and then doing it did..."

chanuphis