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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Sigh. "They're not going to suspect magic, it's just too far outside our - space of possible theories."

too-early-and-too-late

"I'm sorry."

"Are they likely to feel less negatively about Muggles if Muggles don't smell and are doing impressive things wizards can't do, or is it more fundamental than that -"

chanuphis

"Those are the popular ostensible justifications."

Sigh. "Okay, I need more cultural stuff. How much do wizards travel internationally, and for what kinds of things? What's a thing that lots of wizards would visit if it existed? Who in the magical world considers this place their jurisdiction -"

too-early-and-too-late

"What're you trying to do -"

"Not thinking people are people because they smell disgusting and have terrible prenatal nutrition is an easy mistake to make, if it's really about that then maybe they just need exposure to clean people who aren't disadvantaged with respect to them."

chanuphis

"We travel internationally to see tourist stuff and get potion ingredients and stuff..."

"Are there any nonmagical potions ingredients that are expensive or difficult to acquire?"

chanuphis

"Some. Karen'd know more about those, her dad's in experimental potions and she picked up a lot of stuff past the normal curriculum that way. Wand-quality wood is also a thing, if there's anything at all wrong with a tree it's probably unusable."

"If you get me a list of nonmagical things you buy and care about the quality of - the longer the better - we could easily supply it. Should we - are there any respects in which wizards are constrained by not having those supplies -"

chanuphis

"Not qualitatively. Are you going to be all 'hey wizards of the world we noticed you' -?"

"Not if it further deteriorates the Statute, which I think I want in place. Just set up stores here selling those things, Timothy can presumably manage to spread the word that it's a great place to source them. Stores that sell eccentric collections of things aren't very unusual, and it can also sell lots of unrelated things. Are Anitami plants likely to have magical properties?"

too-early-and-too-late

"That's really hard to evaluate. I could probably tip people off that there's a good place to source materials, but unsuspiciously tip them off... only in Britain."

chanuphis

"Has that Italian guy come out of wherever yet?"

too-early-and-too-late

"He hasn't. I have no idea what happened there -"

"Hmmm?"

too-early-and-too-late

"I was working with a very capable Italian politician on stitching together a coalition in favor of statute repeal, before the planet got invaded by aliens. In the middle of everything he suddenly collapsed, declared it all on hold, and fled. His inner circle is very protective of him, I've only been able to get updates by guessing off their faces when they tell me they're not doing updates...it'd be really useful to have him back. He collapsed right during the invasion, I thought it might've been you before we realized you didn't know about wizards at all."

"And also wouldn't want to be rid of that person, as described."

too-early-and-too-late

"He's very talented and dedicated."

chanuphis

"And strangely mysterious."