Figurative Space
Nov08
Sorry about the long break. Usual issues…
↓ Transcript
Sky
I haven't actually seen them in person yet. They didn’t complete gestation until I was well away on this mission. I named them Atlantica and Pacifica. I was hoping for a boy to name Indiana, but it didn’t take.
Luna
I’m sorry to hear that.
Sky
It’s OK. They’re probably non-viable when that happens, so we don’t get emotionally involved that early, anyway.
My aunt, Da-te, and my friend, Anatu, the K’Sel Vice Grand Leader, are looking after them on Ace’s habitat. I get away with keeping them together because there are so many Lawton girls, running around. So I have more than a few pics and vids to show, when you’re ready.
But be careful with Stormy. She was X-mom’s first out of gestation, and she takes her position as big-sis, particularly to her half-sibs, seriously. She has entire virtual libraries. and by “virtual” I mean literally, not figuratively.
I haven't actually seen them in person yet. They didn’t complete gestation until I was well away on this mission. I named them Atlantica and Pacifica. I was hoping for a boy to name Indiana, but it didn’t take.
Luna
I’m sorry to hear that.
Sky
It’s OK. They’re probably non-viable when that happens, so we don’t get emotionally involved that early, anyway.
My aunt, Da-te, and my friend, Anatu, the K’Sel Vice Grand Leader, are looking after them on Ace’s habitat. I get away with keeping them together because there are so many Lawton girls, running around. So I have more than a few pics and vids to show, when you’re ready.
But be careful with Stormy. She was X-mom’s first out of gestation, and she takes her position as big-sis, particularly to her half-sibs, seriously. She has entire virtual libraries. and by “virtual” I mean literally, not figuratively.
Glad to see you’re back Andy.
Also glad to hear About Anatu.
While I welcome the return of the PRIMARY story, I hope this doesn’t herald the end of your “Aelfheim”-updates … ?
( … I imagine that they’d be enjoyed by most of us as weekend-fillers, maybe?)
TYPO:
“LAWTON”, not “LAUTON”.
I guess your spell-checker is messing with you again.
I blame the booze! But, hey, she’s off duty…
I assume that in this context, “au”-&-“aw” are both pronounced like the “aw” in “draw”?
It’s the Orions spelling…
Glad to see the girls in the bath back. Be even more glad to see why Ace was kissing his bodyguard in her wedding gown. I know, establishing the setting first before moving the plot blocks around.
It’s surprising to many of us in this day and age to hear a sentiment like a mother saying she “didn’t get emotionally involved too early.” Some might even take offense to hearing it. However, that attitude has been entirely normal throughout almost all of history. Infant morality rates were so high up until just about 150 years ago, many parents wouldn’t even NAME their children until they were a year old.
For the same reason, it wasn’t unusual to couples to have –or at least give birth to– over a dozen children, in the hopes that one or two of them would survive to adulthood.
I don’t know how accurate this was, but a novel I read about Aztec society peri-Columbus had kids naming days on their 6th birthday, until then they were just the Aztec equivalent of hey you or hey kid.
I can see that, actually. By age six, a child is developed enough to show some more unique aspects of their character. You might be able to pick a more meaningful name that reflects who they are as a person at that point.
My maternal grandfather’s parents gave birth to 15 children between 1898 and 1926. 12 lived to adulthood. Two died as infants, one at 10 years. Though heartbreaking, an 80% survival rate was actually a considerable improvement from a few decades earlier.
That was somewhat my point; we think of it as heartbreaking, but from the perspective of people who lived in those times, that was just how life went. Getting worked up about it wouldn’t help anyone, and would actually be an impediment to trying to continue the family.
And that does sound about right with the timeline I mentioned. By your great-grandparents time, infant mortality was greatly reduced over the previous generations, so it would make sense to start having fewer children… of course, not everyone figured that out right away. 😛
I’ve long suspected that the Bible’s emphasis on be fuitful and multiply had a combined origin of the low number of pregnancies that succesfuly made it to an age to start producing their own offspring, and the need for a large number of able bodies to maintain a farm using non-mechanical muscle.
Anyone else curious what Magenta is staring at with such a wanting look?
[Assassin Loiza]:
… or why her name is omitted from the “Characters”-list, above … ?
Neither she, nor na-Nilina are speaking, yet only one of the 2 girls gets listed.
So why do the Orion girls have a ring around their necks? I’d think the uniform would be off for bathing, and I doubt that it was painted on them.
Shipsuits have to be nearby in case of emergency. For bathing, purposes it likely retracts to a collar and armbands.