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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"No?"

insistence

" - would I? I mean, I have certainly never tried to check someone's references and been told 'oh, them, I don't want them to be able to get a job', but if someone were willing to lie and say 'they missed work without notice and occasionally made confidential phone calls on the train' then I probably wouldn't hire them..."

"Ah, I see. Someone might probe about it, trying to find out if you had reservations they could defuse."

insistence

"I have never, in fact, checked anyone's references and heard tales of terrible irresponsibility, but if I do I'll try to tell them the reason we're not moving forward. I really wouldn't expect it, here, it seems petty and childish and I can't help but imagine that if it were common I would have been raised to consider it reasonable."

She nods.

insistence

"We're not discriminating by country presently except on security clearances."

"Who gets preference there?"

insistence

"No permissions systems. - sorry."

Sigh.

insistence

"It just - seems unwise and kind of cruel to have incentives misaligned so badly with the stakes so high."

"I suppose that explains why most of my applications were turned down."

insistence

"If you think there's a more useful criterion I could try to take it somewhere."

"It's... probably not a bad first pass."

insistence

"Mmhmm. With money we can say 'feel free to accept payment and turn them in, you can keep the payment', but there are things we can't offer. Or, well, aren't offering yet, and not through this program."

"I understand. There's a very different - aura, here, than back home or even in Oahk which gets less flak than Calado does."

insistence

"Oh? I haven't been to either, I spent the last two years in Alavet - it turns out if you don't use family connections to get good diplomatic assignments you get very boring ones -"

"I don't know anything about Alavet, is it that bad?"

insistence

"No, it's lovely, just I could probably have been replaced with a smiling and nodding bobblehead for all the accomplishing-anything I did. We like them fine, they like us fine, Lina has more people than the whole country."

She nods.

insistence

"What's the, uh, difference in aura?"

"Well - people aren't exactly comfortable here, they want money very badly, but they're not as - socially anxious about it."

insistence

"I think it is much rarer on an auction system that an interaction could be life-ruining."

"Or that not having it instead could be - it's not impossible you could offend someone here and they'd go after you, but if you're not sure you can navigate that, you can mostly avoid those people."

insistence

"Instead of having to figure out how to do it anyway?"