revivalproject | Arrival Part 2 [Network Video]

Is it now? What about dogs? Do they talk too?

[Sorry for being common like that, Quintet, but you're a talking cat! It's understandable that people will react that way, isn't it?]

Nice to meet you, Quintet. Yeah, I guess I shouldn't be surprised about it. How long have you been here?

Oh geez. Seasons.

—And, yeah. Dogs can talk. Pretty much everything can talk. We're all people, like you.

It's only recently that I've been considered a person, but I'll keep that in mind about talking anim- people. I've never heard my partner's dog talk.

I take it seasons is a long time?

Well, sure. I'm— well, more or less twenty-five seasons old? Not exactly middle-age, but pretty old.

[How does that work out in the Hominid calendar everyone seems to rely on? She could never make it make sense in her head. How many days in a week? Three sleeps is four— no two... ugh, nevermind.]

He probably doesn't speak the common language. Most of us learn one of the base lingua and common together, but if your dog friend lives in the Hominid Society, then he isn't part of our own Society, and... They'd probably just know Canid. I'm pretty good at Canid, my best friend was a dog, once upon a time...

But you know, you don't speak common either. There's something about this place that makes everything translate. It's freaky.

If seasons work like they do where I'm from that means you're around six years old, more or less. That works out, if the average lifespan of a typical feline is, say, what? Thirteen years or so?

[So she's been here for what must seem like a long while in her way of reckoning time. She's probably not wrong.]

I speak English by default, but I can speak a variety of other languages as well, including some coding languages. Can Sumo- my dog friend -understand me when I speak to him? Or if he were to somehow be brought here, would I understand him?

I don't know your friend, but if he's reasonably smart then he probably knows at least a couple of words in whatever language you people use most around him. Probably can't speak it, though.

...I...don't know. That'd be interesting to find out. If you did, I could translate at least...

Do you always ask a lot of questions?

I don't know him well enough to know how smart he is, I'm afraid, but I'm sure he knows at least as much as his name and some other positively-associated words.

I'd love to be able to have a real conversation with him. I want to know what he knows about certain things.

Oh. Uhm. Sorry, yeah, I guess I do. I'm a detective, it's my thing.

A detective? Like, an officer of the rationale— [No wait, what was the word] ...a policing person?

Yes, like that. ...Why?

.......

[She wonders if her supervisor would object to this. Honestly, she hasn't exactly comported herself as befit a proper officer of the Rationale. But still. She had gotten the job. It wasn't as if it were a lie.]

...Me too. For my Society, I mean. Or, I was. They probably think I abandoned my post, or died somehow.

[His eyebrows raise in surprise, before he remembers that animals are people too.]

I'm sorry, I didn't even think about the idea that there might be some sort of law enforcement among...four-legged people? So uhm. You're a detective too? What do you do here?

[He's trying really hard not to be offensive, please pretend he's doing a good job of it.

And wait, is time passing by normally back home?]

Society, it's called Society.

[uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh he's being so earnest, she feels like a massive bitch to be the one to point it out, but— It's got to be done.]

Look, I don't want to keep having to point this out to people all the time, but that's definitely racist. Plenty of people have two legs, or none, and we're all of us animals, human people included.

Except you, you're not an animal. Or York, or Markus, or Felwinter— you're all some other kind of person. And I guess I investigate mysteries, and help people, when they need it. Mostly, I've been helping to manage the spiders and develop half-baked styles, but...

...It's not like there's a unified judiciary here. So. The law isn't exactly a motivating limiter.

[Connor looks chastened, and extremely guilty, eyes down unable to meet hers.]

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be offensive. I'll be better.

[Felwinter is a new name. Is that another android?]

That sounds good of you. I don't know about the spiders?

Don't worry too much about it. You're hardly the only one.

[There are two kinds of people: the people who don't ask, and the people who she gets into fights with. Connor represents a new, third kind of person. It's refreshing.]

Yeah, everybody called them 'giant' spiders, but they're not really that much bigger than I thought they'd be. What's funny about them is that they live communally— you don't see that very often.

Good eating, though. What about you? Do you know what you want to do?

I'm sorry about that, too. I can only imagine how frustrating that is.

[That's good? And also kind of sad.]

...How big are we talking? I know of at least one spider species back home that lives communally, but considering how many different species there are overall it is pretty unusual.

What do they taste like? [Since he can't imagine an occasion where he'd ever sample a spider, he's curious.]

I don't know yet. I was thinking maybe communications, but I haven't settled on it.

Pretty much just like normal spiders, I guess. They're lean, though; they don't have good hunting ranges, and do a lot of cannibalism. Sorta bitter if you accidentally bite into a venom gland?

[Quintet isn't really sure how to describe it. Spiders are spiders. If you don't know what a spider tastes like, then what have you been doing all your life?]

I've got a Pilot position, not that it matters. We haven't had call to use the ships yet, and they all left recently anyways. Something about upgrades. Communications is good, you get lots of languages.

I've never considered the idea of sampling a spider before, so I guess I'll have to take your word for it unless I do. They're social cannibals? [Most people would make a face about the venom gland thing. Connor doesn't.] I'd want to sample the venom separately.

[It seems like Connor hasn't been doing much living, in that case.]

I noticed there weren't any in the hangars when I first arrived. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to have any or not. [He nods.] I know many languages already, and I was thinking it might help with any unfamiliar computer OS's.

Arrival Part 2 [Network Video]

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