There was more snow. It came. And then it went. Someday spring will arrive. Possibly when we leave the Canadian Rockies to go to the Southwest US. Just guessing.
There was more snow. It came. And then it went. Someday spring will arrive. Possibly when we leave the Canadian Rockies to go to the Southwest US. Just guessing.
Ah, it’s good to know the value of one’s place in the team.
Every good story needs at least one professional eye roller. Make a list of your favorite comics (or movies) and see if you can point them out.
In fantasies, it’s usually one of the dwarfs. Expert eye rollers can do it without actually moving their eyes at all, like Jeeves in the Wodehouse stories.
P.S. Note to all agents in the field: select a communications method that doesn’t make you talk out loud. Of course, I suppose it helps if you don’t have to type with your tongue.
I wouldn’t have considered either Joyce or Hwan as more susceptible to the treacherous Laufian slinten pod in any fashion. Joyce is very adept at sussing out power politics and determining the motives of their agents and how to manipulate them in turn. And Hwan simply is too concerned with becoming the all-powerful fighter he’s been mistaken for being to consider such mundane questions as ‘motives’ and ‘ends.’ She’s simply too connected and he, too disconnected to be manipulable.
But they have new powers Jibbz is not properly familiar with, and possess sensibilities not tuned to galactic norms. Joyce loose in Galactic government’s center with Hwan watching her back is a combination the G.O.B. should fear, if they only knew what was coming.
I expect dislocation, astonishment and a new kind of horror arriving too late to do the G.O.B. and their Laufian catspaws any good. No, no good at all.
Peter, in these two strips Joyce, and then Hwan are slightly clouded/confused by the slinten pod asserting that is it Mauricio.
https://www.baldwinpage.com/spacetrawler/2018/01/08/010818-snake-skin/
https://www.baldwinpage.com/spacetrawler/2018/03/12/031218-hwan-reflects/
‘Confused’ is not the same as ‘susceptible.’ Neither Joyce nor Hwan seem remotely likely to confuse this lumpen Laufian with an actual human. At worst, they might not notice their confusion is due to his presence. Which doesn’t seem to be the case with Hwan and his single-minded drive, and Joyce may entirely grieve what happened to Mauricio on her own. I wouldn’t worry about Hwan despite his , and I have faith Joyce is self-stabilizing enough to come to an understanding of whether she is being manipulated or not. And what she needs to do to rectify that situation.
Not to tell you more about your characters than you already know, but the impression I’ve received is that the Laufian slinten pod thinks a good deal more of his/its/their powers of mimicry than others let on — including Nogg, never a top intellect on any sentient’s scale:
https://www.baldwinpage.com/spacetrawler/2017/10/30/103017-hard-being-a-bag-o-snakes/
On the basis of this, I think the Laufian no match for Joyce and Hwan together, particularly in the politics-soaked environment of the G.O.B. Hwan’s dereistic conversation with ‘Mooreeseo’ you cite is a conversation with a ghost, not a misapprehension. If this is a distortion of perception, then it’s one mutually shared but not about the same thing; a dual misunderstanding of what is being talked about, to who, about what. Hwan speaks to the dead Mauricio; the Laufian believes it/he/they are approaching a same-species rapprochement. Equally deluded, they share no common frame of reference, which, frankly, I thought a pretty good joke, actually.
Correction: Fourth line first paragraph should say, ‘I wouldn’t worry about Hwan despite his dissociation…’
@ Peter Rogan
Perhaps they have mind powers like Empathic Transmission or hypnotic pheromones that work better with some creatures while others are immune to the effects……
There are a lot of possible explanations.
Can you think of 5 more?
Yang:
Yes I can.
I am curious what the distribution of translation devices to all of earth’s various species might do to earth’s political environment. I mean if a Kangaroo can communicate and understand everyone around himself, then what would it be like with Cats, dogs, Squid, octopuses, dolphins, Apes, Cows, Crows, Raccoons, etc etc.
Would a Koala be like the animal kingdom stoner; or perhaps they exist partially in another dimension? They could have Godlike multidimensional perceptions augmented by their diet.
What about creatures who it has already been confirmed that can see, hear and smell things that human kind is simply to insensitive to perceive. How do you explain the colour Red to a person who has never seen? well same Idea…there are creatures sharing the planet who simply have no understanding of each other because the way they experience the world in such drastically different ways.
What if the translation devices were weaponized nanites that were airborne.
Ha even better what if there already WERE weaponized ANTI-TRANSLATION nanite in the air a long time ago that are now passed down from generation to generation…and that’s why all the different species on earth are unable to communicate with each other! What a Babylonian hyperbole!
Of course then you have to ask….. Who put them there….
Just don’t ask me!
Ha!
Sticking that in my pipe to smoke!
exerpt from script for T.V. series Stardust, by Yang_Tomoe
….”Having made the 4th planet from the sun inhospitable due to the development of environmentally harmful technology, the species was faced with a decision; either move to the 3rd planet or to move into space”……
…….”The various species split onto two main factions with one deciding to move to the 3rd planet with a vow to preserve it and their future generations while the rest moved into space with the agreement that all technological development would be eschewed on planet thus preventing the same fate as with their home planet”……
….”and so having made contact with their Luddinistic subspecies (dirtians), the grey, blue and thinmen decided that the only way to safeguard the earth from technological advancement was to inject a weaponized version of translation nanites into the atmosphere. These nanaites were programed to disrupt the language centers of the brain in random ways dependent on various factors including but not limited to environment, species, and reproductive systems. The idea was to interject a randomizing effect on the linguistic capabilities of each species that would impede the development of any technology and cross species co-operation”……
……”As time progressed those dirt bound managed to stumble across the truth from time to time and so a series of events that can be classified as external interference”…..
…..”when there was a purge of all knowledge that had been accumulated up till that point. it is worthwhile to note the aggressiveness with which the information was destroyed in an effort to hide the truth. These events have been noted by the “native” population as”……
…..”however up till this point the nanites have remained undisclosed to the general population despite the fact that several governmental”……
[insert Rick & Morty Squirrel Conspiracy joke here]
Heh, “bustin’ my skin.”
You know, Chris, when you first announced that you were going mobile, I advised you to come visit Florida in late winter. You’ve chosen the Canadian Rockies…
I’ve seen at least one April Fools bit on a new means to translate dog sounds tino their English equivalents.
In the L.Neil Smith Libertarian universe they translate sign used by apes into English, the same with Dolphins. Both showing human level mentalities.
I would throw in octopus more than squid. Raccoons, crows, parrots even horses. But there is the problem of if there is something to translate in the first place. One has to not let any bias interfere in the study to see if there is anything one can translate in the first place!
It would be interesting is a two way dictionary could be created from the research if it finds animals having a language enough to make one.
Do not worry. Devyat is a proficient eye roller.
@clacke, agreed. With a father like Dimitri, perfecting an eye roll is a survival trait.