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.

Total: 9381

Posts Per Page:

‹ Previous 1 2 … 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 … 375 376 Next ›

« First ‹ Previous 274 of 376 Next › Last »

"Miolee's nice." The toddler is wiggling; she sets him down and he runs behind her.

chanuphis

"I'm not sure we're going to have time to leave the country but maybe we'll find an occasion."

"Aitim said you are magic teleporting humans and he did not say it like he was kidding."

chanuphis

"Yes, but it's hard to do over really long distances, especially if you don't know the area."

"Ah, okay. Niho, the humans are here!"

chanuphis

Niho, hair dyed a lovely sapphire color, comes down the stairs. "Humans! Hello, it's lovely to meet you. Niho Kesna."

"Miranda Way, she's Karen Dwimmer."

"How's Earth, is Aitim behaving himself?" She balances toddler on her shoulders and walks towards the dining room; she grabs her husband's hand when she passes him.

chanuphis

"As possible conquerors of our planet go he's great! We're a little displeased with the planetary conquest but the infrastructure's marvelous."

(Niho kisses Isel's cheek and play-bites at little Almin's arm.)

There is dinner. "Aitim says there is a magic human of me."

chanuphis

"There is but I'm afraid neither of us know her well, she's a couple years younger and in a different House than either of ours - our school magically sorts children by personality into four groups."

"Magically sorts?"

chanuphis

"There is a hat. You wear it and it inspects you and announces which of the four things you should be. I was in the same one as the magic Aitim and magic Makel, Karen was in the same one as magic Kefin - my husband - and magic Kantil, magic you is in the same one as magic Kan and magic Telkam." Miranda consults a chart more than once in the course of announcing these correspondences.

"Huh. I'm trying to think what categories - uh, nerd green, attention to appearances, and stupid priorities? Are those large enough categories to contain three-fourths of humans?"

chanuphis

"The traditional descriptions are 'ambition and cunning and resourcefulness', 'wit and knowledge and talent', 'courage and chivalry and daring', and the other one's 'diligence and loyalty and fairness'."

"Huh." She frowns thoughtfully at her husband.

"...I have no idea," Niho says. "Why, do you think there might be one of me too?"

"There is apparently a pronounced tendency for people to have corresponding spouses but no one knows why or how far to expect it to persist."

chanuphis

"It's disturbingly pronounced. Aaron met the human version of Isama while she was pretending to be a man, offered to marry her anyway so it would be legal to tell her about magic, and only discovered who she was when he brought her home and Hala said 'hi Mom'."

"Uh. That's creepy."

chanuphis

"We're aware. Although Kefin is carrying on with my alt in spite of being annoyed at the supposed orchestrating force 'cause we're just that great. No sign of a Karen yet though."

"Huh. And you don't recognize Niho?"

chanuphis

"...no, not really. Although it could be a skin tone thing, since humans don't change in that respect much."

"Is this a good system to sort humans by, should more humans be offered the chance to get sorted by it..."

chanuphis

"It's useful in some ways in a school context because it allows authority figures to specialize and I guess it might be interesting but I don't think you'd see much gain from spreading it around."

Karen Dwimmer

planetarium