(no subject)

[sythyry]

Doom Du Jour [4261]

Narngi:"Ghirbis, Sythyry? We need a moment of your morning."

Ghirbis:(singing)"A moment, a foment, a ramping romping roment!"

Me:"Of course!"

Narngi:"We think we need another roommate."

Me:"What? Did Agrimony leave?"

Ghirbis:"Agrimony has dread, and Agrimony has bled -- No surprise that Agrimony fled!"

Narngi:"No, though maybe he will over another transaffectionate roommate."

Me:"Another...?"

Narngi:"We need to have Enziet live with us."

Anoof:"Just for two months or so."

Me:"But weren't you two the main forces keeping Enziet out of your upcoming marriage?"

Anoof:"With your kind and still-appreciated assistance, yes."

Me:"So ... wouldn't that make you the people least suited for housing Enziet?"

Anoof:"Exactly! I told you zie'd understand instantly, Narngi."

Me:"The what?"

Narngi:"I claim affan in Comprehension of Zi Ri."

Me:"Oh, dearie."

Narngi:"Since we're going to marry Enziet, we need to be loyal with her. That usually takes a few weeks of close contact, like living together."

I may be spending too much time with Cani. This almost makes sense.

Ghirbis:"Ah, the legendary Cani Loyalty Instinct, subject of many a song and story! Mostly miserable ones, of course."

Me:"She'll be living in your room? Is there space?"

Anoof:"It will be tight. Maybe we could abduct the Gallery of a Thousand Shining Alarming Geometrical Solids to keep the clothes, and our desk? We'll pay extra rent."

Me:"We'll still have the Arena of Massacres and Spectacles of Blood for a parlor ... I don't think you should pay extra rent. You'll be paying in misery, I think."

Ghirbis:An unmemorable yet loudly-sung assent.

Me:"I suppose this calls for some kind of congratulations?"

Anoof:"The kind that come with considerable brandy, I hope. I expect a rather miserable term."

Me:"Well, yes. Maybe she can join the Vheshrame Academy Traff Students Association."

Anoof:"Can non-students join?"

Me:"Not with that name."

Ghirbis:"VASTA is not a good name in any case. It sounds like a place from which to observe a huge amount of noodles -- a vista of vast pasta."[Literally: "It sounds like a whistle placed in a public square to assist with defecation." Ghirbis is being crude.]

Me:"We'll think of another. Maybe we'll hold a contest."

Anoof:"Thank you, Ghirbis, Sythyry. We'll go ask Agrimony and Dustweed and Tethezai... and thanks in advance for being sweet to Enziet when she's here."

Ghirbis:"Oh, dearie-dee. We will have to do that, won't we?"

Anoof:"If you possibly can. It's very important to us."

Me:"Havune's being bossy and domineering, now that he's got affan?"

Narngi:"Not at all. This was my idea. We haven't checked with him yet, though he'll surely agree."

Me:"Do you actually want to marry Enziet, after you lost that choof?"

Anoof:[wagging her tail 'til the wind of it knocked buildings over in Daukrhame]"No. But I'm going to, and so I want to want to. And I'm going to work as hard to want to as it takes."

[Poll #714421]

Comments

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

The Doom!

For once, thankfully, not your own doom. Enjoy being a Bystander to Doom! It's somewhat less uncomfortable.

[thestra.livejournal.com]

The nice thing about being Cani is that one can hear this story, wag one's tail and feel happy that everything is obviously going to work out fine.

[redbird]

I couldn't really figure what I would do in her situation, because I'm so not-Cani that I can't see myself getting into anything like it.

I hope thestra is right about everything working out fine, but I can envision any number of ways it could go wrong, from someone else vetoing the living arrangements to a natural disaster.

[justicezero.livejournal.com]

Frankly, if Enziet isn't going to react badly to it, i'm not really worried.
I think a lot of the monster population here is alarmed because it's so alien to them, but it's not alien to -all- of them. My people, for instance, tend to arrange single marriages at the village level as a means of acquiring useful skills for the village. The idea of being told to set aside a concern that i'd researched for the good of the tribe - or in this case the family - is something I can understand and sympathize with completely, it mostly seems odd because I have to explain it to people of the sort who are objecting to the situation a lot.
Furthermore, the whole situation seems reasonable. They did some research, they presented why they thought a decision was a bad idea, through some form of process they decided that the objection wasn't serious enough for them to change their plans, they're still part of the group carrying on with their intent. I fail to see the issue here.

[justicezero.livejournal.com]

*shrugs*
I find the whole process of going out, soliciting females based on appearance, spending some time together, then deciding to marry based on what is primarily a matter of physical attraction without input from others in a tribe or extended family to be obscenely doomful, and I can't imagine how it could possibly be expected to work. I can envision many, many ways in which -that- could go wrong, and often does.

[vernononfm.livejournal.com]

I'm not Cani, and know Thestra is right. Of course, I've known a lot of Cani, so maybe I've just learned how those things work.. Anyway, I wish them all the best. :)

[redbird]

I find that one equally weird and problematic.

The place where I don't fit cani-ness is in the idea that a marriage/household naturally contains eight or ten or fifteen people, and needs to be transitive: if A wants to marry or otherwise be connected to B, and B wants to be married to C, that means A and C have to be married. And so on out to F or G or W.

I'm still boggled at having gotten involved a woman I'd only known a few weeks (a year or so out, it's working), and we were introduced by close friends, not selecting based on attraction.

[spotweld.livejournal.com]

Possible club name: The Society for the Study of Modern Interspecies Culture?
Perhaps the initials tranlation into something interesting in orren?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

TSFTSOMIC? That sounds like something Rhedwy would say if you stepped on her tail.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[OOC - who are your people? Anyways, yes, you do understand the Cani. Perhaps better than I do. -bb]

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well, there are three degrees of marriage. Each Cani has about one other in the closest degree, 2-3 others in the middle degree, and all the others in the family in the weakest degree. So A and C -- or A and W -- aren't as married as A and B. Not that it's no issue, but it's not as extreme as it might be.

[OOC - We should invite you up here sometime to chatter polystuff and fantasy and suchlike.]

[redbird]

Ah. Thanks for clarifying.

So I might conclude that, say, I want to be married to A and B, and B is already married to C, which is okay because I like C even though she wouldn't want to be that-close-married to me, and I can get along with the other person C wants to be married to.

[OOC--definitely.]

[spotweld.livejournal.com]

So you're saying it has potential?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well, Cani generally get it all arranged ahead of time. Changing a marriage is awkward, they say. But if you want to be married to A and B, and A wants to be married to C, and you would like living with C, it works.

[Email me -- bard@bestweb.net -- and let's pick a time.]

[redbird]

I know, they'd think me weird. I've been with one partner for two decades, one for about three years, and the third for just over a year.

[justicezero.livejournal.com]

Athabaskan Indian (Southcentral Alaska) but the same tendency shows up in a lot of interactions i've heard of or had with various tribes along the Pacific Northwest.

[zeeth_kyrah]

Well, so does The Association for Inter-Affiliation.
Potential for what, I dunno.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

TIFIA?

[zeeth_kyrah]

You would prefer BLUMP? (Bureau of Lovers United Making Progress)