(no subject)

[bypartisan]

[Is it possibly for a mental voice to sound giddy? Because there's a distinct giddy tinge to By's thoughts, for all that his words come out with his normal, lazy, lightly Russian-accented drawl.]

Byerly Vorrutyer here. We're on Earth, pre-spaceflight, although someone who isn't me will need to get a better read on the actual date and location. Linguistically, it's a hodgepodge. I can hear archaic Russian, a whole host of Asiatic and Romance languages, and something else I can't quite place.

If you can "hear" this, check in. We need to know who we've got to work with.

Comments

[bypartisan]

I don't think so either. From your words, I take it you're also from the relative future of most of our fellow Travelers?

[brokers]

By several centuries. Although even those who are post-contact have not encountered my particular species. The divergent nature of our histories is fascinating.

[bypartisan]

Mmm. I'm not from your future either, then. We haven't encountered any sentient non-human life yet. Just animals and plants and things.

[brokers]

A pity. Still, it is always good to find someone who has travelled other worlds before setting foot upon our current path.

[bypartisan]

Oh yes. I quite agree. It makes one feel a little less anachronistic.

[brokers]

I suppose. Alien is the term I would use, I think.

[bypartisan]

Ah. Well, I suppose you would.

[He can't say he's not curious. An actual real live alien and not someone gengineered to hell and back...]

[brokers]

Only due to the demographics.

Fortunately, the people of the worlds we visit typically see all of us as a species appropriate to that world, even when we do not truly change form.

[bypartisan]

Oh, that is useful.

[brokers]

Incredibly so.

Of course, it does not prevent us from drawing attention to ourselves through our behaviour.