Pylo was so tired of being corrected. She had been working at the finicky nomenclature of the terran physio-lingual network for Firk Time! That had been enough time for Tunie to fill herself completely on grist, load all of the refugees, settle them into position, and have all of their environmental needs checked over several times by ▙◀ and then begin the slow departure away from Redweed!

Thinking of ▙◀ Pylo was particularly frustrated and tired of them of late because they had been ‘assisting’ Pylo in diagnosing and correcting her ‘linguistic confusion’ with Terrans. The heaping clump of canner tech had been working her over again and again on how to transmit meaning to the terrans until Pylo felt like she was an infant again! In fact to make matters worse Pylo was pretty sure she should have already known how to do this! Which honestly just made her feel dumber and dumber as the sessions continued.

The sting of deja vu was the most infuriating and terrifying frustration. Pylo was constantly stumbling when she expected to effortless reach and understand. She remembered not being this bad at these kinds of problems. She remembered her sisters making games of how easy this was. Why was it so hard this time?

Pylo and her tormentor/assistant ▙◀ were both unsure on that front. Which honestly made it worse.

Which was why Pylo was taking a break from her language study to spend some time ‘camping’ with Aleph, Quarti, Omega and “Von-Squidgie-Worth”.

Without any sign of ▙◀ whatsoever to remind her of the stinging and painful ‘investigations’ into her Terran communications.

The clerk aleph had inadvertently adopted/employed had taken to the maintenance work of the terran’s various strange canner machinery as one would expect a near larval clerk to take to any environment.

With unending delight and enthusiasm. Which apparently had a more positive effect then Pylo generally saw because Aleph proceeded to declare her new friend ‘adorable’ and on learning they did not have a proper name and would gladly take one dubbed them with the title “von-squidgie-worth” that ultimately ended well despite Pylo’s concerns.

Things had however gotten a little bit more complicated when Aleph had attempted to return the favor herself and do some of the maintenance that the other juvenile clerks and ▙◀ performed on the adults.

“They were really curt and rude at first, then they got snappy and angry over something to do with who was going to pay me. Then when I said I was doing it as a favor because of how helpful von-squidgie was they got really loud and argued a lot over whose kid they were. And then finally one of them who I guess is Squidgie’s mum or aunt or something got super creepy about asking me to do things. Like Pylo talking about Tunie levels of squick sounding stuff!”

Pylo made a face at the Aleph but didn't feel like disentangling the squirmy nest of idiosyncrasies to more clearly show her displeasure. Quarti gave her a look of friendly camaraderie and an eye roll towards aleph which helped the sting of the comparison. Aleph was young and seemed to have only a vague idea of how hurtful some of the things she said really were.

Omega huffed across the bubble from the others.

“But it wasn't actually anything like that right? Your not like married to a can of tumors or anything? ... No really please tell me you didn't manage to marry one of-”

Aleph laughed.

“No totally not! It was just um... plumbing stuff... That happened to feed directly into their internal organs... And brains”

For some reason that made the fluids in Aleph’s face drain away. It was one of the stranger reactions. Like an opposite of the ‘not quite honor-breaking’ face fluid rush. But at least this one was more recognizable as a combination of somatic sickness response and discomforted fear.

Omega smirked and raised a brow before speaking with barely restrained mirth.

“Are you SURE it wasn't a marriage? I mean you got elbow deep into their guts and everything... and just what went over those feedlines? Aliens and all that... maybe some of it actually was-”

Quarti was laughing now, she had such a broad sense of humor. Pylo was generally mystified by it most times but the honesty made it delightful nonetheless.

“Oh you two your jests of infidelity and raunchy indiscretion are delights to behold! But do not be so callous to the trials and struggle of our beautiful host Pylo! She is still sore and tender to the implications of her failings and yearns to relax and let her troubles fall away with us who she considers friends”

Everyone turned to look at Pylo at that. Even Von Squidgie.

Aleph’s face contorted through several shapes of realization, displeasure, sadness, and then a warm but somewhat brittle smile.

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“Ah! Right! Sorry Pylo. I don’t mean you’re bad at stuff, um it’s just kind of an impression we’ve gotten of you? Honestly I thought it’s really sweet and Tunie is super supportive and great but you do sort of go on a lot about her and that’s fine but anyway um I’m babbling so uh... yeah”

Everyone was quiet then.

Uncomfortably so.

Omega looked at Aleph, then Pylo.

Pylo huffed some heat exchange vapor through cavities and finally mustered the will to shape the fragile filigree of impulses that was the least catastrophic of ▙◀’s current suggestions.

“-~ I.T~- -~I.S~- -~O.K.A.Y~-”

Omega tried for a weak smile, Aleph and quarti did too. But Pylo could tell that the meaning and expression while precisely and cleanly clear and ringing soundly in their heads had none of the nuance and was grating and uncomfortable. Not injuriously so, but it seemed like it was unpleasant all around and felt extremely stilted for them.

She scowled and huffed heat exchange gas again through her body, wreathing herself in sterile mist.

At least she could do body language fine. And after the last time no one suggested she transmit anything through the stupid squawker box.

Although when they thought she wouldn't notice they sometimes asked ▙◀ to clarify things still.

That stung honestly.

Omega finally broke the stillness, which Pylo’s clumsy attempt had failed to ease them out of.

“So! Quarti! I just remembered, you said you’d explain about what was going on with the resonance networks in Redweed! Can you finally explain that? I mean we are literally hundreds of thousands of miles away from it, you can’t use the whole ‘things will hear’ anymore right?”

Quarti blinked a few times then tilted her head and frowned before finally nodding. The normally bright expression turned stormy and serious. It was a bit disconcerting for Pylo.

"It is simple really; the place was greatly haunted by spirits vaster than anything on terra, vaster even than terra herself I suspect."

Aleph made a face of confusion.

“What? Uh I think I follow what you said? Redweed had more spirits than Terra? But how’s that work I mean aren't spirits like... leftover reflection kinda stuff from living things? Like our souls are made out of our bodies and then there are tree and animal and bacteria spirits? Redweed was pretty uh, not very alive right? It looked like it was mostly machinery even if it was really huge”

"You are thinking of Ghosts. And only Humans have those, in the true sense. No, spirits are a far wider menagerie of eldritch terrors. Diverse and baroque in form and even founding principles, their geometries woven and interlocking abstractly and associatively across all of matter. Some might dwell within trees and bacteria most intimately, but they are not truly *of* them. They inhabit the wefts of reality drifting into and out of alignments with our own narrow perspectives. Some with bodies that reach out into truly rarified essences and near fictions of association that even my skilled words are strained to convey and your feeble lexicon buckles to contain."

Aleph looked deeply and overwhelmingly confused and turned to Omega.

“Uh she just started gibbering after the part about humans... uh can you explain any of that at all?”

Omega opened and closed her mouth a few times before just holding up her hands helplessly.

“I could only follow a third of those words”

Pylo shared a ‘look’ with a quirk of lips and slight flash of grinning teeth that was returned in kind. The suffering of one who was struggling to be understood even when speaking perfectly clearly and even beautifully.

Reassuringly Quarti nodded with a deep understanding after mirroring the shared expression. Then the eldest terran shifted and hopped across the bubble to ‘stick’ to a far surface across from Aleph and Omega. Aleph hugging Von Squidgie Worth to her chest in a manner the clerk had grown to delight in.

“Okay then we will tell you so in the old and slow and deep way then.

Gather dear childer and young so I may tell my tale!

Be you souls fresh or so slightly aged, listen to I who have turned til stone dies.

Let me gather you round to hear my wail and I shall speak to you.

Of my early deaths and the deep knowings they brought of truth”

She took up a lyrical rhythm of saying. Alike and yet different from the last time Pylo had heard her sing and dance.

And with it the little nook of Tunie’s light baffling fell away to the light and sound of the tale as Quarti began a story.

“So it was that there was a time when sun did sweep from rim to high...”

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