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Blast from the past
(Stop. No fly,) Ua'sha repeated.
Shawmus landed on top of a nearby boulder, his massive wings folding around him.
(No hurt Fiona/Mother,) UaSha sent.
Fiona, sprawled amongst the rocks, tried to scramble to her feet, but her shaking arms slipped from underneath her. The little boy threw himself over her, growling deep in his throat. In another time and place she would have been shocked to hear that noise coming from a four year old child.
(Ua'sha - run - get away!) Fiona sent.
It wasn't a little boy then, but a wolf-cub, his paws braced awkwardly on the rock. A shadow fell over them both as Shawmus opened his beak to seize UaSha by the scruff.
Instead, a panicked streak of fur launched itself at him. His head arching back, Shawmus shrieked into the sky.
- The Water Song
Shawmus landed on top of a nearby boulder, his massive wings folding around him.
(No hurt Fiona/Mother,) UaSha sent.
Fiona, sprawled amongst the rocks, tried to scramble to her feet, but her shaking arms slipped from underneath her. The little boy threw himself over her, growling deep in his throat. In another time and place she would have been shocked to hear that noise coming from a four year old child.
(Ua'sha - run - get away!) Fiona sent.
It wasn't a little boy then, but a wolf-cub, his paws braced awkwardly on the rock. A shadow fell over them both as Shawmus opened his beak to seize UaSha by the scruff.
Instead, a panicked streak of fur launched itself at him. His head arching back, Shawmus shrieked into the sky.
- The Water Song
no subject
I am the one who is honored to meet you. Interworld diplomat? That's... What you're saying is... I have no words.
It is not that I have no familiarity with contacting alien life. I am unfamiliar and all too familiar. My life's work has centered around contact with Earth. It is the only other sentient life we have found. As I said, I was mission control. The mission failed, and in failing it succeeded, and in succeeding it failed again. I have spent the last ten years sitting on my ass while politicians from our two planets talk. It wasn't supposed to be this way.
And now you are saying you have found other worlds and met others. Actually met others. Not just politics from afar.
Margaret was right to leave. I no longer think there is any hope in our universe of achieving what we wanted to achieve. Not for many, many years. But you two... you have found it.
When I say I am not used to this way of thinking... Here, an example. You say you have met other sentient life. And I marvel that I have been contacted by a race so further advanced than my own, wonder about the scope of the technology you must have... Then I remind myself that things work differently here. On some level, I understand, and I have always understood. But I am used to only dealing with technology. I am far out of my league.
Me: It's weird hearing you talk like this. You were always the one far ahead of me.
Sh-San: You grew up.
no subject
Does "come" mean that you are going to make the journey despite the politicians? Do we need to prepare a landing field for you? What conditions do you need in order to be comfortable when you get here?
I have indeed met others. What was it you'd wanted to achieve? A true first contact, face to face?
I think you're right that things work differently there, even though I don't yet understand the scope of your technology. Your spaceships, did they have the range to reach Earth? How far away are you? How did you first come into contact with Margaret?
I'm actually not used to dealing with a race advanced enough to build starships. Most of the ones I've dealt with see no distinction between technology and magic. There's a man on Earth who once said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," and when it comes to dealing with sentients from other worlds, I've found it's so. There are cultures that haven't even figured out how to forge steel, or know that worlds are round, but they are capable of things that are only dreams from Earth. Most of the time I operate without really knowing how the things around me work, and rely on the nuances of others' reactions to them to guide my behavior. So I may also stumble here until I've seen how things are where you come from.
no subject
I thought I needed to stay here, but now that I see there is a place for me, I'd like to... jump ship, so to speak. If I am welcome to join all of you wherever you are.
No, Margaret, you shouldn't worry. As I said, I was glad when you left this world, and for many reasons. But you didn't abandon us. You kept trying while I didn't. After things went so badly for you and Jeff, you passed the ball to Tom, but he was too frightened and alone to do anything with it. Then you took a break to explore space for a while, see and learn new things, as you should. And now you're working on the same problem, elsewhere, in many places. That new child took the ball and he is running with it. You never really left.
Pyraxis, what we wanted to achieve... We did manage the first contact, face to face, but it was not what we thought it would be.
Me: I'll explain. The Ra-Has world is basically... they're like a planet full of cheerful mad-scientist types. They're really into building cool stuff and learning as much as they can just for the heck of it. And they like diversity. So when they discovered Earth, everybody was super excited, thinking everybody on Earth would be super excited as well. They weren't thinking about the complexity of dealing with politics between two planets, they weren't expecting anyone on Earth to not be completely comfortable with aliens visiting, they thought it was simply going to be a chance to mess around with cool technology and go get to meet and learn about new people.
Sh-San. Yes. It was supposed to be cool. We do have ships that can reach Earth, but we thought it would be a good idea to gather more information first to see how we should best go about making contact. Learn the language. Learn things from the inside. That's where Margaret came in. *flattens his ears back, wide grimace* I built her.
Me: *grin* He looks kinda scary when he does that, but he's smiling.
Sh-San: But now with this no-fourth wall stuff- and I must get used to thinking this way- she built me. Chicken and egg. Margaret. You know that mystery you were always bugging me to solve? ...I think I just solved it.
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHA! Um, wow. That's really not what I had in mind. (Man, I need to finish typing up the events that happened so I can explain what he's talking about.)
Sh-San: *flattened ears* See? Thinking outside the box is good. We are solving things already.
no subject
I am from a world other than Earth. I am not genetically human.
I am glad to meet you.
I am well aware that my universe is... It's a story written by a child. It has no future. The mission failed. What happens to a story if the heroes fail?
Our world lived. Despite being written by a child. Shapeshifting is a painful trope. But we have no choice but to layer believability on it. Because our lives and stories are intertwined with the place. And because shapeshifting is a metaphor for DID switching.
Once upon a time nethik were unicorns. Now they are of deer and their horns are warped and brown. Once upon a time rsakk were dragons, and spelled "Rasakk". The child's world has been resurrected and fleshed out by two intelligent adult minds because the essence it contains must not die.
My mission also failed. The result was massacre. Not that the reader sees it. It is only loosely implied. Shapechangers the novel is a tragedy.
I admire you for jumping ship. I also at one point chose to live.
no subject
Later on in the story with Sh-San, things got way less focused on aliens and way more focused on robots. I would up back on Earth with a small group of experimental sentient robots created by humans. And... it turned out to be a situation we couldn't win. We ended up beaten down so badly the aliens had to come rescue us (and that's where the story ended for me). Meanwhile, in "real life", I actually had yet another robot story going on. I had a small group of goofy characters in middle school that I publicly wrote about, and I threw in an android as a way to let some of my other story out of my head, without actually letting it out of my head. But that robot also ended up in a situation he couldn't win, and I abandoned that story in high school because the universe was too nonsensical. Then I took a break to learn more about the "real" world, wrote Space Explorer (purposefully not letting any of the main characters be robots), learned a lot about people and autism and self-advocacy, and now I'm back and trying it again. I started off with Joseph as the main character, he started getting beaten down and I was worried this was going to be another failure, then Jim shows up out of nowhere and all of a sudden things pick up energy and start looking up.
That's sort of what Sh-San was trying to explain in his previous post. But I think he's allergic to talking in a straightforward manner. :P
Sh-San: It is nice to meet you, Daria. And I am glad to hear that your world lived. But I do not want my world to live. If someone handed me a book, the story of how Sh-San and Margaret tried to get two planets to work together, failed because of politics, then Margaret got chased off the planet twice while Sh-San had to sit on his ass and deal with more politicians, I would say "What is this shit?" and throw it in the trash. That is not a story I want to hear. That is not in our spirit.
I want to hear the story of how the robots and humans on Earth start to get along. I know it can be done. I have seen it. I want to watch from the sidelines and cheer and maybe give advice. And I do have a personal investment in this story, beyond just knowing Margaret. I am also a robot.
Me: Where he's from, being a robot is a complete non-issue. If anything, they think it's cool.
Sh-San: But nobody wants to hear the story of how the Ra-Has built robots and thought they were cool, then they all went on together to build more things. Well, nobody on Earth. I very much like hearing that story.
no subject
You know it can be done? Robots and humans getting along? What have you seen?
Your story of the Ra-Has. What else did they build?