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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"I don't think we're worse than humans. Maybe wizards in particular are perfect."

too-early-and-too-late

"I think if humans were nearly as rich as you we'd be much, much nicer. Anyway, what kind of aliens are you imagining where conquering them would be justified and just helping them wouldn't work -"

"There's a lot of fiction examples you won't recognize..."

Minor Finis Way

"The best thing would probably be just telling Amentans to cut it the fuck out once we have the force to back that, no conquering required."

"There's lots of that internationally," says Ana.

too-early-and-too-late

"And it's probably a delicate balance and complicated to get into and we don't have a lot of tools in between 'asking nicely' and 'mind control'. But someday, yeah."

"It's going to really make a lot of people miserable to hear that we can't have the thing we've all known we needed since before anybody alive was born," says Katin.

too-early-and-too-late

"You can have Mars. We don't need Mars. You just can't take planets people are living on by imposing your stupid beliefs on them."

"Mars doesn't have air."

too-early-and-too-late

"Father, could we do something that produces endless air -"

"We talked about this and I'm looking into it! There are other considerations but I do think we can get it working eventually."

Michael Cyrus Way

"It's still not a reason to steal other peoples' planets! It's like - it's like if a homeless person broke into my house and threatened my family at gunpoint, and I said 'look, there's land down by the river, you could build a house there', and they say 'but it doesn't have running water! and I've wanted a house so badly for so long!' That's fine! It just does not give you any claim to mine, and it does not excuse the things done to steal mine!"

Katin sighs.

Minor Finis Way

"It is good it's you and not Tapa or Met or Rivik or whatever."

"Thanks, I guess."

greengreengreen

Afen and Finis are now talking rapidly in several different languages about terraforming Mars.

Schools open across Britain (and, when they check, many other places, though not the whole world yet). They teach Anitami and literacy and basic mathematics and Anitami history and British history. Students start the day with a shower, and get free clean uniforms.

The conquerors offer girls' schools, boys' schools, and mixed schools but the English do not send their children to the mixed schools and after a while they relent on that and designate them one way or the other.

Ana successfully poaches her cousin from her internship and Hala joins her at the Way estate. She perches unobtrusively in corners and takes notes longhand while peering at humans and house-elves.

too-early-and-too-late

Humans practice their Anitami and do spell research and let off steam by dueling or turning teapots into mice. Timothy entertains visitors often and shoos the skypeople when he does that. He sees his girlfriend once a week and takes her to concerts or out flying.

Minor Finis Way

Minor spends most of his time under a pile of books about wards, poking a voltaic pile and grumbling.

Michael Cyrus Way

Michael and Rebecca record music and post it on the internet!! They don't do video, because people will notice the similarities to Makel.

Theodore Thowegood Way

Theodore and Telkam drop by occasionally with potion supplies. Telkam looks altogether happier than anyone has ever seen him.

House-elves prepare food for everybody and fret over when Timothy's going to marry and whether there'll be enough elves for more proper wizarding households.

An orange from one of the schools in Switzerland abandons her post with a vague note and no notice. Her wife is frantically emailing everyone whose email address she can get ahold of.