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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too-early-and-too-late

"And that did work out for you, since this would have gone much worse if you'd been committing more mass murder."

"It worked out for me because it meant that lots of humans would not die, long before you came into the picture."

chanuphis

"It's still a proof of concept even if you have other reasons too."

"I suppose. And I am very grateful that the wizards who disapprove of hunting us for sport found us first."

too-early-and-too-late

"I'm not sure it'll help but I can get you a long supply list - Karen's dad'll know more - and Aaron can probably tell various people he supplies with various things that this is the place to come for them."

chanuphis

"Where has Aaron been, anyway -"

too-early-and-too-late

"He is arbitraging! Anitami currency has really different going rates in different places. He's very rich now."

chanuphis

Snort.

"Is that the socially useful kind of getting very rich, though?"

too-early-and-too-late

"Something something price signals propagating is good, something something it's worth least in places where you're not selling things people want, and in that case they also get the least from trading it for real money, and that sucks for them, and this evens it out, something something we might need a ton of Anitami money to accomplish things soon."

chanuphis

Giggle.

"What are you expecting to need money for?"

too-early-and-too-late

"Well, if you get as far as imposing your population controls, apparently a thing we'd need it for is helping rape victims who you'd otherwise sterilize."

"People report falsely if they get a free kid from it."

chanuphis

"If that becomes an issue, well, apparently we're bulk producing Veratiserum anyhow."

" - good point. Okay. We won't do that, then, that's straightforward."

chanuphis

"Great."

too-early-and-too-late

Sigh. "Anyway, we still might want money to mitigate other appallingly evil activities of yours, can't just talk you out of all of them."

"Far be it from me to tell Aaron he should not go around arbitraging inefficiencies out of the currency market but I have a lot of money and you're welcome to it for horribleness mitigation."

chanuphis

"Seems to be defeating the purpose somehow."

too-early-and-too-late

"What do you make money off, do you get to keep all the taxes?"