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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Michael Cyrus Way

"Should we, like, tell Shasali sorry for terrorizing her?"

Makel Alasi

"What'd you do?"

too-early-and-too-late

"Got an explanation of the population controls and Aitim's name and location out of her when we were trying to figure out what was up. I'm not very sorry but if I'd anticipated the 'Anitam might turn on her and kill her kids' thing I'd have picked a different one."

"It's not likely," Katin says. "But she's got a lot of her safety tied up in family stuff, she married Cousin Inlad."

Minor Finis Way

"So if it came out about all the secret red shenanigans it'd be bad for everything -"

too-early-and-too-late

"Or if people didn't have 'truth drugs' as a hypothesis and thought she just gave up lots of important information, though I think Aitim doesn't suck that much."

"One time Telkam and Ladah had to run to Papa's private island because Aitim was being blackmailed," says Katin.

Michael Cyrus Way

"Hmm?"

"That's what Ladah said when I asked where he went, that's all I know."

too-early-and-too-late

"Someone figured out that Telkam had been involved in various terrorism, and asked Aitim what he'd do to keep it quiet. I offered to make the guy forget all about it but Aitim thinks he's harmless."

chanuphis

"Harmless is a funny word for that."

too-early-and-too-late

"- I mean, that part makes sense to me."

chanuphis

"It does?"

too-early-and-too-late

"It's like - hmm, if someone said that they could do something about the person who taught me the Imperius, and I knew he'd stopped that kind of thing, I wouldn't want him bothered over it. It'd be changing the rules on someone who was abiding by them, just because winning within the rules was slightly less satisfying."

chanuphis

"...uh. Okay, I guess, if you say so."

too-early-and-too-late

"Doing adversarial things by rules and containedly is really good and it shouldn't work out badly for people beyond whatever's necessary."

Rebecca Way

waylaid

"Did I miss something about who taught you the Imperius -"

too-early-and-too-late

"Oh, he's not nice about it, though on the other hand he kind of can't be because of it being the Imperius. I don't know how much nicer he could be if he cared to. The agreement he makes with people who want to learn is that he'll Imperius you for four hours at a go, and if you figure out how to throw it off good for you."

Rebecca Way

waylaid

"Oh."

too-early-and-too-late

"I'm not saying we shouldn't make him stop once we figure out a better way to protect people from the Imperius, I'm just saying - I don't dislike him, that'd be stupid, and I wouldn't want to be the kind of person who'd retaliate once I had the chance."

chanuphis

"I'm not sure everyone is as good as you are at determining whether you are that kind of person."

too-early-and-too-late