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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Peka Atan

touchme

"I'm moving in," says Ana, "I don't know about everybody else -"

"I suppose we'll stay," says Katin.

"Sure, why not," says Peka.

too-early-and-too-late

"Ravenclaw," says Timothy, looking at tiny Joanna.

Michael Cyrus Way

" - oh, yeah, you're right."

"What?" says Ana.

too-early-and-too-late

"Hogwarts has Houses. You get sorted by - personality, aptitudes, fit. You'd be a Ravenclaw so I guess she will be."

"Is this like castes? Is Ravenclaw green?"

too-early-and-too-late

" - I don't think it's very like castes, you can still do any jobs you want. Ravenclaw is - my father's thing and Aaron's thing and Minor's thing and your thing, it's not Michael's thing."

"Is Ravenclaw nerd-green?"

too-early-and-too-late

" - maybe? Knowledge for its own sake, the pursuit of other goals by way of knowledge... there's a magic hat, you put it on when you start school and it tells you."

"Huh."

Michael Cyrus Way

"The other ones are Hufflepuff, which is...wow, these are hard to explain if you don't just know... hard work and diligence and reliability, and a sort of communal cultural thing...Gryffindor is honor and courage and daring - Theodore's Gryffindor, Fredrick is Gryffindor, Iris is Gryffindor, I don't know who else you'd know who fits. And Slytherin is...ambition, ruthlessness, carefulness, willingness to do things whatever way best gets them done..."

"And everybody has one? Why?"

too-early-and-too-late

"The founders of Hogwarts wanted it that way. So you'd have a community away from home, I guess, mostly."

"One of the colleges I was looking at before deciding I would live here and do secret magic research had themed dormitories but the themes were birds and plants and the sky and rocks and calligraphy and stuff like that, and you could pick unless the one you wanted was full."

too-early-and-too-late

"I think there's a case for sorting by personality given that you have a magic hat that can do it. I thrived in Slytherin particularly, and Ravenclaw was able to tolerate Aaron and Minor."