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Mermaids IN SPACE, 2!
hohohoho.
"No, this one is poisonous." Lìadan wondered how long Arun had been on his own, that he couldn't even tell what was edible and what wasn't.
"Po... zunuss?"
"... Bad. This--" she pointed at the plant he was holding-- "is bad. Ew." She made a little grimace of disgust as emphasis. He chuckled, repeated 'bad', and tacked on another word in his gibberish that she carefully repeated. Hopefully it was two-tails for 'bad' and not for 'you look so very silly when you make faces'.
They had been gathering plants and little shrimp and crawlies for a little while now; but even though Lìadan had been pointing out anything he could eat, and even demonstrated by plopping a few pieces in her mouth, Arun still hadn't tasted anything. Perhaps he didn't like greens. Perhaps he wanted to bring back what he found to... someone; everything went into little nets at his belt.
He hadn't caught any fish either, even the slow ones; but then with the awkward way he swam, it wasn't surprising. She still couldn't look at the wriggling, out-of-synch appendages without shuddering.
A couple of times, he had directed one of the dolphins -- it turned out they came as a pair -- at a fish, but while the beasts caught the fish with an incredible ease, they only bothered to bring it back one time out of two at best. The rest of the time they wandered off in the reefs, or circled the two of them and whistled curiously. Fortunately for Lìadan, the second beast, which so far she could only identify because it was a slightly darker gray, wasn't as aggressively friendly as the first and hadn't asked to be petted yet; still, she made sure to keep them both under watch, in case they decided to check if she tasted good as well.
The creatures seemed to have no trouble at all dragging a grown man along, and if they were so easily tamable that one cripple could easily keep two, they would be an asset to any pod. She wondered why they weren't more widespread, since they seemed to like the temperature of the water just fine. Maybe they just ate too much for it to be convenient.
She wanted to ask Arun where his pod was, but she didn't know how. If he was a drifter, why wouldn't he eat at least a little? He might need to give up his food to distract a shark or something of the sort. Or perhaps she was thinking too much, and he had just finished gorging himself and wasn't hungry at all. In any case, he seemed quite happy to dive with her and pick up weird things, as she could see when they surfaced and he asked for their names.
"... That's a rock."
"Hm?"
"That. Rock." And not even a pretty rock, or one with a funny shape. It went into his belt anyway. Lìadan tilted her head; if there was anything special to the rock, it was beyond her ability to see. "Perhaps the Girl-Child did touch you." In that case, she really couldn't just leave him to fend for himself. The goddess would be displeased if Lìadan refused help to one of hers.
"What?"
It was one of the words the two-tails had learned the best, but his accent was still horrible. She smiled and shook her head. "No, nothing."
She followed as he dived again, though she kept out of reach -- even if he looked about as threatening as a seal pup. Arun never went very deep, and never stayed under long; it wasn't hard to keep up with him. Engrossed in whatever else he had found this time, he didn't listen as she tapped her shell in warning; she had to rap his knuckles with the dull end of her spear to keep him from picking up a pricklebug.
One of the dolphins clicked at her and moved quickly between the two of them; she swirled to avoid it, tensing up, waiting for a bite.
Before it could move toward her, Arun shoved at the dolphin to get its attention, and tugged on its dorsal fin. Lìadan had learned to interpret the gesture as 'tow me back up'; once again the animal obliged, clicking at her a last time before it propelled itself toward the surface, the two-tails clinging to its fin.
She kept her distances this time, only her eyes above the surface as she stared at the dolphin warily.
"Lìadan?" Arun's voice softened; there was a laugh in there as well, a tone one would take toward a child who got a scare doing something a little silly. She pouted, briefly; it was his fault for not listening to her. Was he entirely deaf underwater? She thought she had seen him react to noise under the surface, but now she wasn't sure anymore.
"Bad. You were -- you are bad, Arun. Come," she added, gesturing before diving again. It was so frustrating to be limited to a handful of words. Yes, no, you, me, this, what, good, bad, stop, rock, fish, seaweed, crab, water. Though she still wasn't sure if he had meant to ask warm-current-water or water-warmed-by-the-sun, or surfacing-current, or spraying-wavelet, or cove-water, or basin, lake, sea, ocean; or water in general.
He followed her with the dolphin, though the beast stayed between the two of them and stared at her suspiciously. Lìadan gave it a wary look, uneasy; the second dolphin, the darker, less friendly one, was circling around the three of them. She steeled herself, ignored them to dive to the bottom, and found the pricklebug again.
The second she brushed it with the end of her spear, the round, squishy little thing transformed into a mass of stingers long like her hand. She gave Arun a stern look, but he wasn't watching her. He was staring at the bug with wide, fascinated eyes. Both of the dolphins were staring along with him, chattering and whistling animatedly between them. She shoved the pricklebug into a crevice with her spear; she didn't want Arun's animals to try to eat it, or even to look at it too closely. Heck, she didn't want Arun to look at it too closely. He seemed to have all the sense of preservation of a child.
At least he seemed to understand now, if she took in his duly chastened expression -- and ignored his laughing eyes.
The less shy dolphin nosed her, and tugged playfully on a lock of her hair before swimming through the loose curve of her tail. Hopefully, it meant that she was forgiven.
They kept going along the reefs, exploring all the nooks and crannies in his reach. She still didn't understand why he was picking up half of what he picked up, especially after she told him he couldn't eat it or braid it or anything; but it wasn't like she could take it from his hand and scold him. He was old enough, really he was. Besides, he really did seem to understand that they were useless; but he wanted them anyway. Perhaps he wanted a collection of things from the sea, to bring with him as a proof of how far he'd gone. ... yes, that made sense, and perhaps she was even right, not that anyone could tell her otherwise. It wasn't like anyone knew the rituals of the two-tails, after all.
A couple of times, she was tempted to fetch plants he seemed to want, that were too deep for him; but that was way too close to feeding him, even if she knew he wouldn't eat it anyway. All the same, following him and teaching him her words in exchange for his was amusing, and she caught herself humming several times. It was a good thing he was all but deaf underwater.
Really, Arun might have been malformed, but his upper body was strong; between him and the two dolphins, patrolling and playing in the shallow waters, she felt almost as safe as she had with her old pod -- or, well, perhaps not quite, but certainly safer than when she was on her own.
She hadn't expected to circle yet another reef, still smiling at the awkward way Arun pushed and dragged his body over it, and come face to face with the Great Dragon.
+
--------------------
To: Dr. Shyam, Sunil
Exobiology department, New Ararat University
From: Zlatanec, Arun
Subject: Request for additional information
Attachments: "Report_1.fzt", "Water_ Smpl_Analysis_1.fzt", "Geo_ Smpl_Analysis_1.fzt", "Bot_ Smpl_Analysis_1.fzt", "Images_1.rch"
--------------------
Yo, Sunil. How's it hanging? As for me, great! Nice weather, funny critters to poke at, I'm happy. Oh, and Iru and Kass click hi. In between two "oh hey let's gorge ourselves on strange alien creatures that might make us sick in so many varied and interesting ways" binges. Stupid fish brains. Anyway, as the subject line says, I need more information.
Namely; WHERE THE HELL DID THE GODDAMN MERMAID COME FROM.
No, seriously. Where.
And I'll use a smiley if I want to, and you can't stop me.
D:
Oh, and here's another one: >:(
(And imagine I'm giving you a third for the road, because she's kinda cute, but I've never been sure how to type a good kissyface smiley so you'll have to insert your own. Yeah, shut up. I love you too. (I know you're just jealous. I mean, she's not quiiiite boobylicious, but she's getting there. Gotta say something for the effects of water to combat gravity.))
Sorry I'm being an ass, but it's either off-color jokes or staring in shock and swearing a lot. I'm done being grossly unprofessional now, so you can delete the first part of the message and pretend it was never typed. I'll buy you a beer?
At approximately 1400 local hour today, I made contact with a creature whose upper half bears more than a passing resemblance to the human race, leading me to believe that -- okay, you know what, I'll type a cleaner version and you can present it as my official report.
If it's a coincidence I'll let you buy me a hat just so I can eat it. Five fingers per hand, perky nose, round pupils, white teeth, similar, not to say identical, cranium, jaw, thorax -- oh, and she talks, too. No, it's not anthropomorphism. There's nothing to morph there.
It's from the hips down that things get fishy. (stop groaning, like you could have passed it up.)
The hipbones seem somewhat similar to a human's, though I don't want to think about how not easy it must be to get babies out through there.
Proportionally speaking, the tail is longer by a foot or two (this is where I say something lame and you groan, but I can't think of anything lame enough, so let's not and pretend we did?) than human legs would be. I haven't bee able to determine whether the tail was part of the spinal column or a mutated fusion of the legs. The flukes are supported by what might be metatarsi and phalanges, but the lack of a major, knee-like articulation in the tail and the capability for front-back and right-left torsion seems to indicate it is a prolongation of the spine. But humans just don't have enough vertebras -- unless she's doing a giraffe on us. She can't be a Chimera, they're sterile, and transplants don't pass down to the kiddies anyway. If someone reverse-engineered that tail back from the sacral vertebras and coccyx -- well. Damn. I mean, they've only been fused since before Homo Habilis.
Not a clue whether the little spines along the back of her tail are cartilage or bone spurs or what, but she can flatten or lift them well enough, and they don't look all that nice.
I'll include reference pictures when I can take them; don't want to scare her off with the flash. I kind of already scared her to death with the ship. She saw it and zipped off so fast I thought she'd crash into a rock. I waited almost two hours, but I didn't see her resurface even once. That's some lungs she's got.
She's hiding in the reefs now. Still shows up on the infrared scanner, so I doubt she'll leave anytime soon. She seems curious enough to come back and see me eventually... Hopefully... We'll see. I just hope she won't slip away while I'm catching a nap and come back with a flock of angry guys hell-bent on killing the huge sea monster.
Her name is Leedan. Lyadan. Ley-adan. Something like that. Unless that's mermese for 'woman' or 'mer-person' or 'union representative' or whatever. She possesses an articulated language -- I'll bring out my recorder next time, wasn't able to identify it. Hey, I'm a marine biologist, not an anthropologist. Seafood isn't supposed to talk back. (though you could make a case for those Earth cephalopods, I guess. I bet you the second someone figures out a common alphabet, they'll be asking for the best place to buy a nice Chianti. Brr.)
She carries a few things in a small net tied to her waist by a braided belt of some sort. Couldn't get close enough to see more. She has a spear, which she almost skewered me with when I startled her. Drawing included. Her hair -- waist length, I'd say -- well, I don't know how long it takes her to tie it back; it's all full of intricate knots and tiny braids and bits of shells and... things. Shiny things. Ah, girls.
Oh yeah, her hair's gray, same as her tail. And since "gray" is not a natural pigmentation in humans who look barely out of adolescence, I think I'll take a wild leap of faith and go down the "escaped scientific experiment" route. (Though how they escaped the mad scientist's labs, I do not want to know. She's just so -- so dignified, the thought of her flopping around à la walrus just cracks me up so. Damn. Hard.)
So. Seriously. I know there isn't much easily accessible info on those colonists, it was ages and ages ago blahblahblah different social order blahblah terrible wars blah, but if you can find anything -- I mean it, anything -- I want to see it. I also need a report -- three pages, three lines, a whole book (as long as it's a small book) -- on genetic engineering back in the days of the Blue Reign, and if you can cross-reference that with their ethics, I'll love you forever and perhaps marry you. (just let me divorce the cafeteria girl and Miss Rukmini the sexy librarian first.)
I'll take a wild guess and assume that the current language the mermaids are speaking is a variant of the one the colonists used back then, but I'll be damned if I know which one it is. Like I said, not a linguist.
...The whole Anthropology wing is going to fall on me like a ton of bricks for making a mess of the all-sacred First Contact with the aborigines, aren't they.
Alright, whatever. Writing you the real report now, all prettified for our patrons' viewing convenience. You'll have to sort out the mess with the government's commissions and whatever, I don't have a clue how it's supposed to work. As for the indigenes, I'll be doing my best. Me and my ... tact. And my dolphins.
If the mermaids don't eat 'em first.
I hate flying blind.
~Your friend (but only if you get me those docs I need),
~Arun.
+++
And here's a pic of Lìadan's dolphins. The flippers are supposed to be parallel, but oh well. Isn't it the cutest little dolphin-headed chubby-chibi spider-thing ever? XD Just. Adorable.
And also tasty. u.u
"No, this one is poisonous." Lìadan wondered how long Arun had been on his own, that he couldn't even tell what was edible and what wasn't.
"Po... zunuss?"
"... Bad. This--" she pointed at the plant he was holding-- "is bad. Ew." She made a little grimace of disgust as emphasis. He chuckled, repeated 'bad', and tacked on another word in his gibberish that she carefully repeated. Hopefully it was two-tails for 'bad' and not for 'you look so very silly when you make faces'.
They had been gathering plants and little shrimp and crawlies for a little while now; but even though Lìadan had been pointing out anything he could eat, and even demonstrated by plopping a few pieces in her mouth, Arun still hadn't tasted anything. Perhaps he didn't like greens. Perhaps he wanted to bring back what he found to... someone; everything went into little nets at his belt.
He hadn't caught any fish either, even the slow ones; but then with the awkward way he swam, it wasn't surprising. She still couldn't look at the wriggling, out-of-synch appendages without shuddering.
A couple of times, he had directed one of the dolphins -- it turned out they came as a pair -- at a fish, but while the beasts caught the fish with an incredible ease, they only bothered to bring it back one time out of two at best. The rest of the time they wandered off in the reefs, or circled the two of them and whistled curiously. Fortunately for Lìadan, the second beast, which so far she could only identify because it was a slightly darker gray, wasn't as aggressively friendly as the first and hadn't asked to be petted yet; still, she made sure to keep them both under watch, in case they decided to check if she tasted good as well.
The creatures seemed to have no trouble at all dragging a grown man along, and if they were so easily tamable that one cripple could easily keep two, they would be an asset to any pod. She wondered why they weren't more widespread, since they seemed to like the temperature of the water just fine. Maybe they just ate too much for it to be convenient.
She wanted to ask Arun where his pod was, but she didn't know how. If he was a drifter, why wouldn't he eat at least a little? He might need to give up his food to distract a shark or something of the sort. Or perhaps she was thinking too much, and he had just finished gorging himself and wasn't hungry at all. In any case, he seemed quite happy to dive with her and pick up weird things, as she could see when they surfaced and he asked for their names.
"... That's a rock."
"Hm?"
"That. Rock." And not even a pretty rock, or one with a funny shape. It went into his belt anyway. Lìadan tilted her head; if there was anything special to the rock, it was beyond her ability to see. "Perhaps the Girl-Child did touch you." In that case, she really couldn't just leave him to fend for himself. The goddess would be displeased if Lìadan refused help to one of hers.
"What?"
It was one of the words the two-tails had learned the best, but his accent was still horrible. She smiled and shook her head. "No, nothing."
She followed as he dived again, though she kept out of reach -- even if he looked about as threatening as a seal pup. Arun never went very deep, and never stayed under long; it wasn't hard to keep up with him. Engrossed in whatever else he had found this time, he didn't listen as she tapped her shell in warning; she had to rap his knuckles with the dull end of her spear to keep him from picking up a pricklebug.
One of the dolphins clicked at her and moved quickly between the two of them; she swirled to avoid it, tensing up, waiting for a bite.
Before it could move toward her, Arun shoved at the dolphin to get its attention, and tugged on its dorsal fin. Lìadan had learned to interpret the gesture as 'tow me back up'; once again the animal obliged, clicking at her a last time before it propelled itself toward the surface, the two-tails clinging to its fin.
She kept her distances this time, only her eyes above the surface as she stared at the dolphin warily.
"Lìadan?" Arun's voice softened; there was a laugh in there as well, a tone one would take toward a child who got a scare doing something a little silly. She pouted, briefly; it was his fault for not listening to her. Was he entirely deaf underwater? She thought she had seen him react to noise under the surface, but now she wasn't sure anymore.
"Bad. You were -- you are bad, Arun. Come," she added, gesturing before diving again. It was so frustrating to be limited to a handful of words. Yes, no, you, me, this, what, good, bad, stop, rock, fish, seaweed, crab, water. Though she still wasn't sure if he had meant to ask warm-current-water or water-warmed-by-the-sun, or surfacing-current, or spraying-wavelet, or cove-water, or basin, lake, sea, ocean; or water in general.
He followed her with the dolphin, though the beast stayed between the two of them and stared at her suspiciously. Lìadan gave it a wary look, uneasy; the second dolphin, the darker, less friendly one, was circling around the three of them. She steeled herself, ignored them to dive to the bottom, and found the pricklebug again.
The second she brushed it with the end of her spear, the round, squishy little thing transformed into a mass of stingers long like her hand. She gave Arun a stern look, but he wasn't watching her. He was staring at the bug with wide, fascinated eyes. Both of the dolphins were staring along with him, chattering and whistling animatedly between them. She shoved the pricklebug into a crevice with her spear; she didn't want Arun's animals to try to eat it, or even to look at it too closely. Heck, she didn't want Arun to look at it too closely. He seemed to have all the sense of preservation of a child.
At least he seemed to understand now, if she took in his duly chastened expression -- and ignored his laughing eyes.
The less shy dolphin nosed her, and tugged playfully on a lock of her hair before swimming through the loose curve of her tail. Hopefully, it meant that she was forgiven.
They kept going along the reefs, exploring all the nooks and crannies in his reach. She still didn't understand why he was picking up half of what he picked up, especially after she told him he couldn't eat it or braid it or anything; but it wasn't like she could take it from his hand and scold him. He was old enough, really he was. Besides, he really did seem to understand that they were useless; but he wanted them anyway. Perhaps he wanted a collection of things from the sea, to bring with him as a proof of how far he'd gone. ... yes, that made sense, and perhaps she was even right, not that anyone could tell her otherwise. It wasn't like anyone knew the rituals of the two-tails, after all.
A couple of times, she was tempted to fetch plants he seemed to want, that were too deep for him; but that was way too close to feeding him, even if she knew he wouldn't eat it anyway. All the same, following him and teaching him her words in exchange for his was amusing, and she caught herself humming several times. It was a good thing he was all but deaf underwater.
Really, Arun might have been malformed, but his upper body was strong; between him and the two dolphins, patrolling and playing in the shallow waters, she felt almost as safe as she had with her old pod -- or, well, perhaps not quite, but certainly safer than when she was on her own.
She hadn't expected to circle yet another reef, still smiling at the awkward way Arun pushed and dragged his body over it, and come face to face with the Great Dragon.
+
--------------------
To: Dr. Shyam, Sunil
Exobiology department, New Ararat University
From: Zlatanec, Arun
Subject: Request for additional information
Attachments: "Report_1.fzt", "Water_ Smpl_Analysis_1.fzt", "Geo_ Smpl_Analysis_1.fzt", "Bot_ Smpl_Analysis_1.fzt", "Images_1.rch"
--------------------
Yo, Sunil. How's it hanging? As for me, great! Nice weather, funny critters to poke at, I'm happy. Oh, and Iru and Kass click hi. In between two "oh hey let's gorge ourselves on strange alien creatures that might make us sick in so many varied and interesting ways" binges. Stupid fish brains. Anyway, as the subject line says, I need more information.
Namely; WHERE THE HELL DID THE GODDAMN MERMAID COME FROM.
No, seriously. Where.
And I'll use a smiley if I want to, and you can't stop me.
D:
Oh, and here's another one: >:(
(And imagine I'm giving you a third for the road, because she's kinda cute, but I've never been sure how to type a good kissyface smiley so you'll have to insert your own. Yeah, shut up. I love you too. (I know you're just jealous. I mean, she's not quiiiite boobylicious, but she's getting there. Gotta say something for the effects of water to combat gravity.))
Sorry I'm being an ass, but it's either off-color jokes or staring in shock and swearing a lot. I'm done being grossly unprofessional now, so you can delete the first part of the message and pretend it was never typed. I'll buy you a beer?
At approximately 1400 local hour today, I made contact with a creature whose upper half bears more than a passing resemblance to the human race, leading me to believe that -- okay, you know what, I'll type a cleaner version and you can present it as my official report.
If it's a coincidence I'll let you buy me a hat just so I can eat it. Five fingers per hand, perky nose, round pupils, white teeth, similar, not to say identical, cranium, jaw, thorax -- oh, and she talks, too. No, it's not anthropomorphism. There's nothing to morph there.
It's from the hips down that things get fishy. (stop groaning, like you could have passed it up.)
The hipbones seem somewhat similar to a human's, though I don't want to think about how not easy it must be to get babies out through there.
Proportionally speaking, the tail is longer by a foot or two (this is where I say something lame and you groan, but I can't think of anything lame enough, so let's not and pretend we did?) than human legs would be. I haven't bee able to determine whether the tail was part of the spinal column or a mutated fusion of the legs. The flukes are supported by what might be metatarsi and phalanges, but the lack of a major, knee-like articulation in the tail and the capability for front-back and right-left torsion seems to indicate it is a prolongation of the spine. But humans just don't have enough vertebras -- unless she's doing a giraffe on us. She can't be a Chimera, they're sterile, and transplants don't pass down to the kiddies anyway. If someone reverse-engineered that tail back from the sacral vertebras and coccyx -- well. Damn. I mean, they've only been fused since before Homo Habilis.
Not a clue whether the little spines along the back of her tail are cartilage or bone spurs or what, but she can flatten or lift them well enough, and they don't look all that nice.
I'll include reference pictures when I can take them; don't want to scare her off with the flash. I kind of already scared her to death with the ship. She saw it and zipped off so fast I thought she'd crash into a rock. I waited almost two hours, but I didn't see her resurface even once. That's some lungs she's got.
She's hiding in the reefs now. Still shows up on the infrared scanner, so I doubt she'll leave anytime soon. She seems curious enough to come back and see me eventually... Hopefully... We'll see. I just hope she won't slip away while I'm catching a nap and come back with a flock of angry guys hell-bent on killing the huge sea monster.
Her name is Leedan. Lyadan. Ley-adan. Something like that. Unless that's mermese for 'woman' or 'mer-person' or 'union representative' or whatever. She possesses an articulated language -- I'll bring out my recorder next time, wasn't able to identify it. Hey, I'm a marine biologist, not an anthropologist. Seafood isn't supposed to talk back. (though you could make a case for those Earth cephalopods, I guess. I bet you the second someone figures out a common alphabet, they'll be asking for the best place to buy a nice Chianti. Brr.)
She carries a few things in a small net tied to her waist by a braided belt of some sort. Couldn't get close enough to see more. She has a spear, which she almost skewered me with when I startled her. Drawing included. Her hair -- waist length, I'd say -- well, I don't know how long it takes her to tie it back; it's all full of intricate knots and tiny braids and bits of shells and... things. Shiny things. Ah, girls.
Oh yeah, her hair's gray, same as her tail. And since "gray" is not a natural pigmentation in humans who look barely out of adolescence, I think I'll take a wild leap of faith and go down the "escaped scientific experiment" route. (Though how they escaped the mad scientist's labs, I do not want to know. She's just so -- so dignified, the thought of her flopping around à la walrus just cracks me up so. Damn. Hard.)
So. Seriously. I know there isn't much easily accessible info on those colonists, it was ages and ages ago blahblahblah different social order blahblah terrible wars blah, but if you can find anything -- I mean it, anything -- I want to see it. I also need a report -- three pages, three lines, a whole book (as long as it's a small book) -- on genetic engineering back in the days of the Blue Reign, and if you can cross-reference that with their ethics, I'll love you forever and perhaps marry you. (just let me divorce the cafeteria girl and Miss Rukmini the sexy librarian first.)
I'll take a wild guess and assume that the current language the mermaids are speaking is a variant of the one the colonists used back then, but I'll be damned if I know which one it is. Like I said, not a linguist.
...The whole Anthropology wing is going to fall on me like a ton of bricks for making a mess of the all-sacred First Contact with the aborigines, aren't they.
Alright, whatever. Writing you the real report now, all prettified for our patrons' viewing convenience. You'll have to sort out the mess with the government's commissions and whatever, I don't have a clue how it's supposed to work. As for the indigenes, I'll be doing my best. Me and my ... tact. And my dolphins.
If the mermaids don't eat 'em first.
I hate flying blind.
~Your friend (but only if you get me those docs I need),
~Arun.
+++
And here's a pic of Lìadan's dolphins. The flippers are supposed to be parallel, but oh well. Isn't it the cutest little dolphin-headed chubby-chibi spider-thing ever? XD Just. Adorable.
And also tasty. u.u
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(and you already know Arun rulez)Hm... on that note:
Do you really mean Exobiology? Because if it's about aliens and such, shouldn't it be Xenobiology? :D
Re: Hm... on that note:
Exobiology: the study of life beyond the earth's atmosphere, as on other planets.
Yep, that's what I meant. Xeno(bio)logy is the scientific or medical study of aliens, specifically, and not only does it mostly hint at "sentient" aliens, which so far Arun's society hasn't even seen traces of, but it doesn't cover alien botany. XD
Re: Hm... on that note:
Re: Hm... on that note:
Re: Hm... on that note:
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... I mean.
...yeah.
I need to draw that.
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Love the bit with the 'just let me divorce the cafeteria girl and Miss Rukmini the sexy librarian first'. Hitting up the important people I see.
I'll go out on a limb and say that a 'colon' is a colonist. New light. (yay) Blue Reign, different social order..."terrible wars"? (very respectful, isn't he?) Wars stopped expansion/ cut off colonies, just now re-establishing contact? "Ages ago" is... 2-300 years? Plenty of time for colonies to go native.
There is already a bipedal species on the planet, descendants of the colonists? If he wanted (and knew) he could go ask them for info, unless they reverted back into barbarism, (i.e., adolescent males in the locker room) and are just now on a tribal social organization.
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huhuhu. He has his priorities straight.
... godDAMNit. *edit edit* rrrgh. *add auto-correct to Word* è.é i always translate it wrong. hnnn.
Fufufufufu. You shall see. è________é-v
♥
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Damn straight he's got his priorities straight! Food for sustenance and food for thought. And a good dollop of eye-candy it sounds like.
Saki-chan!
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/flops around, thoroughly entranced.
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I'm really interested in hearing about Liadan's pod and social ethics. she brings it up often in comparison to Arun that it makes one very curious.
The switch in POV was very good, IMHO. It contrasted in a good way with Liadan's way of thinking, made it seem very real and very amusing. I love the way he thinks. His way of speaking coupled with his obvious awe is funny in a good way.
EEK, and the plot thickens!!! ohh I'm excited to see more of this world. its so original; i can imagine it being published one day! I'm eager to read more of it leik whoa! ^_^ Great job Asuka!
+J+
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The social ethics should come out gradually, it's a lot shinier like that
and it gives me some time to fine-tune it, too. I'm glad you find them interesting, because imagining them was the most fun I had in ages. *^^*woohoo! ^____^ I'm so tempted to skip along and add a scene from his point of view because he's so funny to write, but it's so much better to see him through liadan's eyes than the other way around; like that we can discover her thoughts, and see hints at the way he is. The other way around, he wouldn't understand much about liadan
and also i would totally have to figure out a ton of scientific-sounding bullshit and i'm way too lazy. u.u♥ more is posted now~
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... oh man, now I can see the eskimos giving the scientists long, tired "were you dropped on the head as a child or something" looks. XD
ooh. shiny!
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That line had me laguh out loud as I have had the same mental image in my head since the last chapter.
I'm seconding everybody else when I say that I'm really loving Arun's personality. Can't for when those two can communicate better just to see how Lìadan reacts to Arun's sense of humor.
That said, I'll finish by squeeing how awesome this story is turning out.
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Yeah, i'm tempted to speed it up too, but it always bugs me a little when people just happen to have the right spell or the right scientific process for magically learning another person's language, so I'm trying to take it at a semi-believable speed. (it's a good thing their grammars aren't too horribly different and that they're both rather sharp people. XD)
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(Anonymous) 2006-11-04 06:32 am (UTC)(link)Not that it really matters, but I'm told 'Homo habilis' (and all the rest) is supposed to be written like that: capitalized first word, lower-case second.
-- Guile
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Ooh, didn't know ^^ alright. *edit edit*
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Arun's report rocks. I like how Liadan is afraid the dolphins would eat her while Arun is worried they'll be eaten by the mermaids.
Also, Liadan's dolphins are the cute.
In between two "oh hey let's gorge ourselves on strange alien creatures that might make us sick in so many varied and interesting ways" binges.
Do you mean two binges or just between binges?
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fufufu. score! ♥
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Huzzah on another great job!
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thankee! (and eeee twinness)
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Twins are hardcore. :D
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muahahahahahaha.
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You mean genetic engineering, not generic engineering.
I like Liadan; she's very sensible (within the constraints of her knowledge), and Arun's right that she seems dignified. Or maybe not dignified, as such, but confident in her knowledge and skills? Anyway, I like her.
Arun is so cute! (Dunno about physically, but his personality is definitely cute. He's so flabbergasted, and dealing surprisingly well with the completely unexpected, even if he flails about it more than Liadan does.)
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Hm, you're right that I haven't described them all that much physically, apart from their hair colors... Fanfic ruined me. XD;; I'll have to see if I can insert more descriptions in the next bit...
... I can so totally see Liadan checking him over worriedly. XD hmmmm.
As for Arun, if he couldn't roll with the punches, he wouldn't be an explorator, right? XD
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I like your scientist's snarky e-mail; dealing with his stress by passing it along :-) Especially the bit about the anthro dept. LOL! Reminds me of that great myth that 'kangaroo' really means "I don't understand" in aboriginal australian, from when some daft explorer pointed at one and babbled at a local to get the creature's supposed name, then carefully noted down the response.
PS - I agree with Lìadan, biologists are odd that way. They pick up & save stuff so apparently wierd and worthless you'd take it away from your kid. I can say this because my father is one, and I grew up with odd bits of owl upchuck around the place, bones & feathers, & bad eagle & osprey eggs in the fridge for study - you really had to be careful in there. :-P
You've really nailed that characterization in my opinion. took me back years and made me laugh hard!
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Okay, coherency time. I LOVE that Dolphin. so cute! All i can see for its motion is "stingray". The flippers move and ripple up and down in a wave pattern, I'm sure you've seen it on tv. it's like the way birds fly.(they actually move their wings up and down in a wave pattern. yaaaay weird things you learn at the zoo.) and so teeny in comparison to our native dolphins! I wanna squishhug it.
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Yes, that's pretty much how it moves ^_____^ though sometimes it uses its middle flippers to hold its babies on its back eee. erm, i mean. yeah. >_>;;;
4 finned dolphin captured off Japan
Interesting, no? Yours is much cuter :-)
Re: 4 finned dolphin captured off Japan