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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That way up high in that building.

too-early-and-too-late

He reports this to everyone else via a whisper spell for that. "Maybe hang around and see if there's anything else worth noticing, and two people can go up? Too many in the building might be likelier to get noticed."

Ebele Miranda Swan ༐

chanuphis

"I shouldn't be assigned anything that involves sneaking around on foot."

too-early-and-too-late

"Michael and I can go."

They follow someone through the door. Apparating makes that annoying loud noise.

There is an elevator!

too-early-and-too-late

They observe until they are no longer confused. They take the elevator.

And aaaaaall the way up is an office which (if they know how to read) will tell them it belongs to Aitim Neli.

too-early-and-too-late

Read, no, but he can spin an invisible wand in his hand and notice where it's pointing.

When someone comes out of Aitim Neli's office, they go in.

Aitim Neli

Aitim Neli and two yellow-haired people have lovely desks overlooking all that wilderness.

too-early-and-too-late

...Timothy takes a step backward and softly thumps the wall.

Aitim Neli

He looks up, seems to think nothing of it, looks back at his computer.

too-early-and-too-late

Timothy squeezes Michael's hand. They watch Aitim Neli work. He flips through screens and tells the secretaries things they can't quite catch (but which Minor is presumably translating for Miranda and Karen and Theodore on the ground) and reads things and occasionally writes things.

When the next person enters the office they leave.

"Found him but there are several complications," he whisper-spells everybody.

Karen Dwimmer

planetarium

"Complications?"

too-early-and-too-late

" - so, this is going to sound completely bizarre, but - he looks like me? Like, exactly, not 'oh, that's a funny semblance', like 'Timothy why did you dye your hair blue'."

Ebele Miranda Swan ༐

chanuphis

"That's bizarre, yes."

Michael Cyrus Way

"Sounds a lot like him too."

too-early-and-too-late

"Second complication is that he has two secretaries and - well, you probably got more out of those conversations than we did, since you have Minor, but it would really surprise me if he gets to work before they do or has them go home when he wants to stay late and he got lunch delivered at his desk and ate it while reading things. We'd really better hope they sleep."

Karen Dwimmer

planetarium

"So follow him home after work and hope he lives alone or has a bit of walk?"

too-early-and-too-late

"If he has a wife that's fine, we can stun her and keep her asleep while we're talking to him. Minor, can you read back what he was saying -"

Minor Finis Way

"Sure, from the top? 'as soon as we forward this I expect we'll get a flock of international observers in Hejaz and I want to get out in front of that. If there's another incident like that I'm just going to make everyone wear body cameras. Tell Kalani Aftah that I'd like my summaries to lead with the most important information, and consider it misleading to bury it, and request a revision of this memo with that in mind. I don't think I'm going to get through the state-of-city-records writeup today, can you send me the most important ten percent? I'm removing Safadi Emle." He continues in this vein a while.

too-early-and-too-late

They descend the elevator. "Out of curiosity, does he ever say 'bring this to the attention of the director of such-and-such'."

Minor Finis Way

"Bring what to the director of who - I'm not seeing anything -"

too-early-and-too-late