---Mischief---
Having departed Xīn de Qín, early this morning, the martial-artist-cum-fitness-instructor took all of his new pupils to the gym.
I sit in Triple M’s Commonroom, observing the interactions between the, now, three Human owned pets… and small, Gaelic woman.
Jennie manages to work her head out from underneath Fluffy, where she was pinioned moments ago, and takes a deep inhale, suggesting that she either wasn’t able to breathe or was finding it difficult while buried under fuzz(!)
“Enjoying yourself?” I ask, with an amused smirk.
“Immensely!” answers the flushed woman as Qīnglóng opens his snout to, playfully, nibble her entire head with his sharp, piscivorous teeth. The fact that she can have such a look of contentment on her face, while surrounded by such an enormous quantity of deathworld predator, stands testament to her Terranness(!)
“Also enjoying! Enjoying! New friend, such playing!” yips Sam while wrestling with Qīnglóng’s tail.
“A mirkbeast lying on top of you, a Shuǐlóng attempting to swallow your head, while your girlfriend’s dog bravely attempts to rescue you(!) I guessed you’d be pretty pleased by your current circumstances(!)” I smirk at Jennie, who grins back.
“OK, Fluffy, I don’t have your Daddy’s stamina… I’m a bit tired out now, could you let me up?” she says with clear regret.
Fluffy, seeming to understand some combination of Jennie’s tone and the tap to the side she gave, raises the section of her body, under which Jennie was immobilised, allowing her to get up and come to rest on the sofa, still clearly extremely satisfied.
With no small Human in their midst, Fluffy, Qīnglóng and Sam begin much more boisterous play… it’s only the nonreaction of all Terrans present that keeps me from reading this as having devolved into a mortal bout(!)
“That fiddle-off last night was pretty crazy, wasn’t it!” Jennie addresses the room at large.
Most present give noises of agreement.
She is referring to the point in the party where Byrne and Dǎo Yuán discovered that they were both players of similar, stringed instruments and, so, ran back to the ODR to fetch their [violin] and [èrhú], respectively, facilitating what I can only describe as a ‘musical battle’, the rules of which, seemed to be; one player plays a tune and the other attempts to replicate it… neither of them seemed to falter at any point, meaning that, I suppose, the contest was a draw…
The whole thing was certainly impressive but “I’m afraid, every Terran I meet is so impressive, in one way or another and, every other instance I spend time among your species, something happens that my intuition tells me shouldn’t be possible… I don’t really have any frame of reference for how impressed I should be by that display, last night(!)”
Hasiakh nods “I have to second that! You guys consider so many amazing talents to be mundane and routine things that anyone should be able to do that it’s difficult to know what’s impressive and why(!)”
Msia chuckles “Let me put it this way; if I live to 500 years old, I think I’ll still be excitedly recalling the time to people that I watched an American spy reveal that he was also a virtuoso Celtic fiddler, then have a jambattle with a supercentenarian, Chinese, kung fu master, virtuoso èrhúist(!)”
All Terrans present give firm grunts of agreement… all except Dr Mink, who just shoots a sidelong glance at him before looking away… seeming to be making a show of lack of interest.
“Noted… quite impressive then!” I nod in response.
Interjecting here Krish asks Emiko “Is Jae going to be alright in Deck 3?… I mean, with the amount of time that Master Yuán is going to be training our lot, she’s effectively on her own with…” a look of concern passes over his face “…that guy… wouldn’t it have been better to put Ziva and Leon in there with them, rather than in Plus Ultra?” that latter directed at both me and Emiko.
Emiko answers “I wouldn’t worry about it… she seemed very excited about the ability to interview him and learn about what life was like for him, with his unusual cultural background… plus, Tcakqaal and I made it very clear to all the new hires that, if they experience any issues with their dorm placement, they can come to us and we’ll do our best to resolve them… ideally they’d have a Dorm Liaison but, well, the obvious choice would be Master Yuán, except it doesn’t seem as if he plans to spend much time there…”
Krish continues to look uncomfortable before saying “OK… she may not be unhappy with it… but, doesn’t the guy seem a bit… creepy? What if… I don’t know… what if he tries something?”
Emiko nods, with some sympathy, before saying “Mr Dhawan, your concern is… admirable… however, entirely unwarranted… if he ‘tried something’ Ms Stone would be quite capable of picking him up and snapping him in half over her knee!”
“Wait, really?!” answers Krish, eyebrow raised in disbelief “But, he’s a hunter isn’t he?... And she’s so…”
“Heavy?” supplies Emiko.
“Well… yeah…” answers Krish, clearly uncomfortable for some reason.
“Dr Zunberi, would you give us all a little lesson on Denisovan anatomy and the mechanics of hybridisation between lineages?” smiles Emiko.
Msia looks a little surprised to be addressed but quickly collects himself “Uhm, I suppose… Denisovans diverged from Neanderthals around 450,000 years ago, that’s around twice as much divergence as there is between us and Southern and Northern Khoisan (the two most divergent ethnic groups of Homo sapiens, from everyone else). The evolutionary pressures of the plains and mountains of Central Asia happened to push them to a body plan that favours retention of fat but they’ve got a comparable level of muscle, underneath that fat, to the average Neanderthal… Thran is certainly not representative of the typical Neanderthal, having a genetic condition that fails to inhibit the growth of muscle and bone density, but, what is true is that, average strength for Neanderthals sits comfortably above us Sapiens, with Denisovans much closer to the former than the latter… As to Ms Stone being half Sapiens, that would actually be more inclined to edge her up, rather than down… in terms of her strength and physical fitness… this is because the more divergent your parents’ lineages are, from eachother, the less likely you are to inherit harmful recessive alleles from both parents, meaning that people of mixed parentage are typically healthier, fitter, stronger and (subjectively) prettier…” he looks back to Emiko with an expression that says ‘is there anything I left out?’
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Thank you, Msia, exactly! Denisovans and Denisovan hybrids might look cuddly… but you’d not want to pick a fight with one!” she smiles “Of course, as I’m sure you can tell, Mr Nulgynet is a hybrid as well, his maternal grandfather having been a Longi, but Longi, being Sapiensoid, aren’t known for their strength, the way Neanderthaloids are. Additionally, his lifestyle has emphasised mobility, agility, stealth and calorie conservation… Underneath that, admittedly unnerving, coat he’s as skinny as a waif! Nearly as slender as you are, Krish! If the two of them came to blows, my money would be on Ms Stone… strange as that might sound(!)” she thinks a moment before adding “I also don’t think you should be so quick to condemn his personality on the strength of his ‘creepiness’… you warmed up to Thran, afterall, didn’t you?”
At this, Krish throws up his hands, conceding defeat “Alright, I’m sorry, I’ll stop worrying about it… I didn’t mean to impugn his honour, or whatever…”
Here, Hasiakh slithers off the sofa and wraps herself around her boyfriend, giving him an affectionate kiss on the cheek, before quipping “If you [white knight] for ladies other than myself, my Oasis, you’re liable to make me jealous, you know…(?)”
Krish chuckles before returning the kiss.
At this, Twila whistles before hollering “Get a room, you two(!)” cupping her hands to her holographic mouth, despite the fact that her voice is projected from Jennie’s holopad… making physical amplification both unnecessary and impossible.
“We have a room, it’s across the hall(!)” responds Krish, with a mirthful frown adorning his face, the five fingers of his right hand splayed, with the palm facing the ceiling in a gesture of incredulity.
“Use your room then(!)” shoots back Twila, not missing a beat, her mouth twisted into amusement at her own jest.
Hasiakh, here, grips Krish’s chest with her two thumbed hands, pressing his back against her front, before preening over his shoulder “There’s nothing wrong with a little [PDA], I assume no one’s grossed out by watching us kiss eachother on the cheek.”
A chuckle moves round the room followed by a brief moment of quiet.
A moment that is broken by Jennie, announcing “Coming back to Jae and Tymancha… I think they’re into eachother!”
“What could possibly give you that idea?” asks Dr Mink, sceptically, narrowing her feline eyes in suspicion.
With a haughty smile, Jennie responds “Just a bit of a sixth sense I picked up, going to uni on a gardenworlder space station… I like to think I can smell attraction from anyone to anyone! Doesn’t matter how subtle they are about it… It wasn’t quite as obvious as Cuddles and Tunie or Cucu and Soo but… defo something there!”
“They sat across the table, two people apart and didn’t even glance at eachother, all night!” objects Mink.
“Exactly! They didn’t even glance at eachother!!!” says Jennie, triumphantly “If two people are sitting that close and don’t look at eachother… well, it means they’re trying not to look! Can you think of another reason that you’d be avoiding looking at someone, besides fancying them?”
“You might be embarrassed about something else? Something unrelated? Perhaps they had an awkward moment, before we were introduced?” I suggest.
Jennie waggles her finger “If it were something like that, they would have sat at opposite ends of the table! They sat close enough to admire eachother through their peripheral vision! I think Deck 3’s name is going to become Domus Amoris, when they pick a Latin name for it(!)” with a smug smile at that latter joke that required a little extra translation than normal, for me to understand.
Here, I quip “I was planning to visit Plus Ultra and Deck 3 after this… just to see how the new additions to both are finding it… now I’m somewhat apprehensive(!)… Given how embarrassing you Terrans find any exposure of your sexuality, I worry that things might become awkward between myself, Ms Stone and Mr Nulgynet, if Deck 3 has, indeed, become a ‘House of Love’(!)”
Hasiakh cocks her browscales and responds “You’re assuming that, if Jennie’s supposition is right, they wouldn’t have the sense to move proceedings to behind one of their locked bedroom doors? Put up the privacy field?”
I chitter back “I do have experience with Terrans forgetting to put up privacy fields…”
The original Triple Ms give nervous chuckles.
“Besides…” I add “…might it depend on… I don’t know… how quickly things happen? If they assume they have the Commonroom to themselves and one thing leads to another, they might not wish to break off proceedings to take things to a bedroom?”
“True…” interjects Jennie with a finger extended to acknowledge the validity of the point I just made.
“Sorry to interrupt but…” interrupts Mink “…why would you have been more likely to develop this ‘sixth sense’ going to a gardenworlder uni rather than a Terran one? That is what your suggesting, isn’t it?”
“I’m glad you asked.” smiles Jennie “You’re right that Terrans are on the subtler side when it comes to displays of attraction, there are species with mating dances and coloured crests that they can’t help but erect when someone catches their eye… but we aren’t the subtlest… when you’re in a mixed environment, like that, you learn how to, sort of, broaden your radar, I suppose. You learn how to recognise when someone’s behaviour deviates from normal for their species or themself and you get very good at just making the jump to inferring what that might mean… I think, anyway… maybe I’m wrong… Maybe I’m just born with it(!)” with an affected preen at that latter.
At this point the Commonroom door opens to reveal Shí Dǎo Yuán, his arms folded behind his back, his eyebrow cocked, his lips pursed into a wry smile.
Yuán’s pet uncoils himself from Fluffy, fast enough to cause a reproachful yowl, and whips across the room to reunite with his master.
“Did you make friends, Qīnglóng?” says the man, his smile softening as he pets the enormous head of his companion animal.
A few moments of mutual appreciation later, he turns from his pet and strides to stand facing me, his purselipped smile and cocked eyebrow returned.
“Problem, Master Yuán?” I ask, worriedly.
“Of a sort, yes… You see, I had just completed a training session with my new students and instructed that we were going to begin meditation… we started… we got about ten minutes into our session… when a very loud, very grating song about a family of sharks began to play over the PA… I’m sure you can appreciate that this made continuing our meditation, somewhat… challenging… I’m informed you know something about this?”
At this point, Twila begins a noisy fit of mischievous giggles.
Leaning to look around the mildly irritated martial artist, I address her incredulously “You couldn’t have warned me?!”
Through her giggles (and even simulating being out of breath) she answers “*hehehehehehe*…*huff* I could have…*hehehehehehe*…*huff* Captain, but…*hehehehehehe*…*huff* it would have been…*hehehehehehe*…*huff* much less fun!!!”
I give an irritable flap of my wings, coupled with an irritable chirp, before saying “Twila, effective immediately; Victor Taylor’s restriction on gym usage is waived, so long as he is accompanied by Master Yuán!”