{"id":2792,"date":"2025-06-29T09:48:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T16:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/?p=2792"},"modified":"2025-06-29T09:48:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T16:48:51","slug":"anemoia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/29\/anemoia\/","title":{"rendered":"Anemoia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

prompt: Center your story around a character who yearns for someone or something they\u2019ve lost \u2014 or never had.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

available at Reedsy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What defines a person as human? Perhaps better, what defines a human as a person? How are human persons different from those around her? Grag thought about those questions often, and when she did, she felt a longing for a life she never had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By DNA, she was human through and through. By culture, upbringing, and language, though, she was an ortian. By family, she had none, really. No blood relatives, and even the \u201cadoptive\u201d family in which she was raised treated her more as an experiment than a family member. Except for the youngest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat are you thinking about, Grag?\u201d Arien put two arms around her and settled back on his tail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDeep thoughts, Ari, deep thoughts.\u201d She chuckled. \u201cYou know I used to feed you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut you don\u2019t have\u2014\u201d Arien began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA crop pouch, I know.\u201d Grag brushed the fur on Arien\u2019s face. \u201cI used to chew up your food and spit it into your mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy didn\u2019t matriarch\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour sire died just before you hatched. Not sure, but I think your matriarch had a difficult time adjusting.\u201d She knew why the researcher was absent. It had everything to do with work and nothing to do with the loss of a mate she\u2019d considered sub-par.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs that why matriarch spent so much time at the lab?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure of it,\u201d Grag lied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTell me again how matriarch made you,\u201d Arien said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAren\u2019t you too old for stories?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe, but I like it when you tell them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd why that story?\u201d Grag asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause it\u2019s you, and you\u2019re my favorite housemate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grag recounted the story. \u201cWhen ortians first got hold of the human genome, they studied it. With time, more samples were made available, and more of the genome was mapped, including the non-protein coding regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At some point, they decided that studying the genome would get them no further. Instead, they averaged out the available human genomes, and created a batch of new, identical humans from scratch-made, custom DNA. They considered the job trivial, and the resulting children a curiosity to study, until the lead researcher \u2014 that\u2019s matriarch \u2014 named one and took her home, saving her from being destroyed with the other dozen infants as \u201cpossible contaminants\u201d shortly after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI grew up with that researcher\u2019s children, though I grew and matured faster than they did. My creation was never hidden from me, even while matriarch was on trial for stealing property of the government. As a child, I was even allowed to testify on matriarch\u2019s behalf. The sight of me speaking the common language resulted in giggles and titters from the crowds in the galley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne thing that I\u2019ve always had a talent for was language. Aside from the common language, I also learned Galactic Standard, terzian common, and yelicoan official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMatriarch gave me a pair of artificial arms that fit below my real arms with a neural implant to control them, but I no longer wear them. I\u2019m a human, and humans only have two arms. I closed the gate on it years ago, while you were still small. As frustrating as it is to operate ortian machinery with only two hands and no heavy tail to balance, operating two extra arms built with no thought to my comfort or balance is worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFinally, one day, I moved into my own dwelling, and little Arien, now taller than me, decided he\u2019d move in and be a pain in my armpits. The end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arien made a grunting noise from his crop, the ortian equivalent of a raspberry. \u201cYou just like to tease me. But\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut what?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAm I really a pain in the armpits?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, you\u2019re not.\u201d Grag blew out a deep breath. \u201cIn truth, I\u2019m glad you\u2019re here. At least you might understand a little.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnderstand what?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEver since the humans discovered the probe, I\u2019ve been having these thoughts,\u201d she said. \u201cQuestions with no answers and no good reason for asking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arien pushed himself a little forward with his tail. \u201cWhat kind of questions?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat would my life have been like if I\u2019d been born like a normal human? What is it like to have a human family? Would a human matriarch have raised me differently?\u201d She patted his upper hand. \u201cThings like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He turned his head nearly 180 degrees to look directly in her eyes. \u201cDo you wonder if the humans will accept you when you meet them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do,\u201d she said, \u201ceven though it\u2019ll never happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t say that. You don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do know.\u201d She waved her hands in a complicated series of gestures that would be two simple, three-handed gestures for an ortian. A display lit on the wall. \u201cI\u2019ve calculated how long it will take them to reach us with their technology. It\u2019s around a thousand of their lifetimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arien sat bolt upright, his four compound eyes locked on Grag\u2019s. \u201cYou didn\u2019t hear? Matriarch didn\u2019t tell you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTell me what? We haven\u2019t spoken in more than four orbits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis,\u201d he said, making a couple gestures to change the display. It was a news clip showing the arrival of an odd-looking ship in orbit around their planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe humans took the probe apart, figured out the slipspace communications, and somehow built a ship that uses the same technology to travel.\u201d Ariel grabbed her near hand between all four of his. \u201cThe humans are here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought slipspace was unstable for anything other than massless particles like photons. That\u2019s why we spend all the energy to create a wormhole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ariel laughed. \u201cThe humans proved us wrong. Two orbits after they found the probe, rather than the hundred-twenty it took us to go from slipspace communications to wormhole technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cCan I get access to the human information now \u2026 or is matriarch still blocking me?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All four of Ariels shoulders dropped and he pointed is gaze at the floor. \u201cI don\u2019t understand her. She was ordered to give you full access so you can learn their common language, and you\u2019re meant to report to the Security Division three suns from now for briefing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wonder what they\u2019re like,\u201d Grag said. \u201cI wonder if they\u2019ll accept me as one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf they do?\u201d Arien asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWould you go back to their planet with them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grag thought about those questions again. There was no way she could get the childhood and early life she\u2019d longed for, but maybe the rest of her life could be different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She looked at Arien. \u201cI don\u2019t know. Maybe. I might. If I do, you\u2019re the only housemate I\u2019ll miss. Hell, you\u2019re the only ortian I\u2019ll miss.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

prompt: Center your story around a character who yearns for someone or something they\u2019ve lost \u2014 or never had. available at Reedsy What defines a person as human? Perhaps better, what defines a human as …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[208],"tags":[210,228,209],"class_list":["post-2792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trunk-stories","tag-fiction","tag-science-fiction","tag-short-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sxT7i-anemoia","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2793,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions\/2793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}