Dignity [18 Trandary 4386]

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

Alzagonde, of course, got into trouble. She could not simply quietly accumulate data about transaffection in Hanija; she felt obliged to do something about it. In certain ways one cannot blame her; a Rassimel cannot easily give up or hide an obsession. In certain other ways, one wishes to blame her quite heartily.

She was hard at work on the thesis that Hanijan-style transaffection is a form of prostitution in which the rich and powerful sexually corrupt the poor and innocent. (Which would seem to be to be pretty much a universal constant — it gives the rich and powerful something to do, after all, and if they weren’t doing that, they’d probably be off doing something much worse, like passing laws regulating other people’s private lives.) Proving this thesis requires interviews with tofyofs and other Hanijan people. Alzagonde has no interest in disproving this thesis; she is not doing that kind of research.

Including, in this case, Guwim Tujawepa. I did not actually meet Guwim, but I imagine her as the brawniest brown beetle that ever braised broccoli. The brawny brown beetle part is attested to by several witnesses, as are her plentiful assortment of shell-markings. The braising broccoli is not. She is a stevedore, not a chef. What she does on her own time may reasonably be imagined as “private”, and may well involve broccoli in ways which I must leave to your imagination.

Alzagonde discovered Guwim’s interesting little family situation by reading the public records of registration of toffitudes. Guwim had three co-daughters, all of them quite handsome. All three of them had, within the last year, become tofyofs. Alzagonde had interviewed Womwo-Nei and Sefhu already, though Ekuna refused to talk to her.

I need a table already:

Co-Daughter	Keeper	Keeper’s Species
Womwo-Nei	Yithkhi	Rassimel
Sefhu	Jajijang	Herethroy
Ekuna	Sholi	Orren

Alzagonde accosted Guwim at her favorite pub, the Sign of the Crossed Fornacles. She (Rassy) stood her (Hery) to lunch and drinks if She (Rassy) could ask her (Hery) a few questions about herself and her family. “Well, ask away, you foreign complicationist,” said Guwim.

“So, first of all, let me see if I have the right of it,” said Alzagonde, and summarized the table above.

“Yeah — what’s a foreign complicationist want to know about my co-daughters anyhow? Got your snouty-eye out for a pretty little cosi to take away to Foreignland where zie’ll never be seen from again?”

“What? Great Galloping Gods, no, no such thing! I am not the least bit transaffectionate! Any husbands or wives I take will be Rassimel, every last fur-strand of them!” exclaimed Alzagonde.

“What’s that? Herethroy aren’t good enough for you? You damned foreign fluffy-butts are all alike, too stuck-up for a good beetle!”

Alzagonde is somewhat used to this. “I have nothing but the greatest regard and respect for my fellow primes, the Herethroy. I simply have no indecent designs upon you.”

Guwim glared at Alzagonde, waving her antenna. “Are you saying something about what I have indecent designs on me?” She shook a fist in Alzagonde’s face. On her brawny arm was a low-grade dye-inlay or tattoo of a Canimorphic Cani phallus equipped with very a generous Rassimel bosom, squaredancing with a full trio of Heremorphic Herethroy genitalia. Some of her other tattoos are less describable, or, at least, my witnesses refuse to describe them.

Alzagonde did her very best to ignore — nay, even to miss — the indecent designs. “Excuse me, ma’am. I simply mean that I shall not be offending the honor and dignity of your co-daughters.”

Guwim frowned. “Are you saying one of my co-daughters has got something on her?”

“No, just that they’re all three tofyofs, and I want to understand how you taught them and what, if anything, you would have done differently in bringing them up.”

“I brought ‘em up to use anything they got to their best advantage. And what’s that mean but they gonna be tofyofs? They’re co-lovers. They ain’t going to take up a woman’s job on the docks, not my co-daughters. Sure, they could go around sewing cloth or cooking food for a couple lozens a day, there are plenty of bad jobs where they gotta do lots of work for the sake of some fancy fully-folly fumbergines who don’t care a bit about them and will cheat them sure as garlic is in my groin.”

Alzagonde was a determined sort of researcher. “Or, perhaps — did you do something differently for Sefhu, the one who’s a tofyof to a Herethroy, than you did for Womwo-Nei and Ekuna?”

Guwim was a determined sort of fool. “And now are you accusing me of some sort of unfairness? I’ll tell you what, you stripey-wipey foreign complicationist. Have you ever been a mother? Have you ever had three co-daughters all at the same time? What do you know about how to treat your children fairly? I ask you — can you know anything at all about it?”

Alzagonde tried a different tack. “Or did you notice anything different about the three of them? Maybe Womwo-Nei and Ekuna were a bit less moral than Sefhu, or a bit less demure and self-controlled?”

Guwim arose. “I said you could buy me lunch! I didn’t say you could go insulting my co-daughters! They’re all good girls — better than you, you louche foreign complicationist!”

“Yes, but the two that are in transaffectionate tofyof-ships are…”

Guwim silenced Alzagonde with a heavy punch to the muzzle, followed by a double-fisted belly blow, and then, I believe, a kick to the ribs. The two of them, assisted by a mighty Herethroy waiter, agreed that Alzagonde should leave the Sign of the Crossed Fornacles as quickly as possible.

There was some disagreement about whether this departure should be land-based (Alzagonde’s opinion) or aerial (the Herethroy opinion). A compromise was quickly reached, in which Alzagonde flew a short distance, with some assistance from the Herethroy, and then skidded and tumbled for a somewhat longer distance. Unfortunately, a stout-timbered wall disagreed with both horns of the compromise, recommending that Alzagonde prefer commotion to motion.

Guwim clapped the waiter on the back and went back to her lunch, laughing.

Aftermath

I finished binding up Alzagonde’s ribs in herb-rinsed white cloth. “I wish you’d stop offending the natives.”

“You wish I’d stop figuring out how to keep people from turning out like you!” snapped Alzagonde.

“What do you have against wizard-healers who cure their passengers for free?” asked Phaniet curiously.

“You know what I mean!”

“I do. Is it working? Have you figured out how to prevent transaffection, or remove it, or any such thing?” I asked politely.

“I know one thing. I know right from wrong,” snapped Alzagonde. “And I know the gods agree with me!”

“The Creator gods do — or did, at the time of creation, anyhow,” I had to admit. “Probably because they wanted to make sure primes multiplied without distraction — which they did. Some of the Noun Gods are, if anything, traff themselves. And none of the gods are living on the World Tree trying to be people, anyhow, so I don’t see why their opinion matters.”

“It’s a matter of morality and dignity!” proclaimed Alzagonde.

I rather expect I’ll be writing that on her grave, at this rate.

Comments

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Have you figured out which of the non-Rassamiel species is the one she's attracted to yet?

Because I'm still betting she's secretly traff, and this whole thing is really about trying to 'fix' herself.

[rowyn]

I'm not sure Guwim was the determined sort of fool in this conversation.

Guwim's take on tofitude -- as a reasonably respectable and easy sort of job, I guess -- reminds me of attitudes towards marriage for women for my culture, several decades back. Getting married was the Thing Women Did for Support, some time before I was born. It was more romantic than that seventy years ago, and not romantic at all a few hundred.

The premise that "tofitude is a form of prostitution" does seem pretty reasonable. That may not make it *bad*, but it does make it less romantic.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

... She had to pick a morality fight with the brute of the Bar? Aren't tattoos and branding a sign that you shouldn't mess with a person on your world?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

If simply being large and strong is not enough of a sign!

But I think she(h) rolled her -- got her(r) to buy her(h) lunch in exchange for something, then amused her(h)self by picking a fight instead of giving the something.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Sythyry: I have not done. I am quite certain your analysis is correct, but I have not seen her actually panting over anyone, Rassimel or otherwise. Perhaps because I generally try to avoid her.

Alzagonde: I am trying to fix someone in particular. Not me, for I am not broken.

Bard: Well, except for a few bones.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I think that Guwim was determined to be offended, so that she(h) could get her(h) lunch paid for without having to keep her(h) half of the deal to Alzagonde. Cheating foreigners is a Tree-wide custom, after all; nearly a patriotic duty.

[rowyn]

Cheating Alzagonde is almost a moral virtue. }:)

[redbird]

If Alzagonde really thinks that transaffection is a form of prostitution in which the rich corrupt the poor, she is interviewing the wrong people. If I adopted her premise (which I don't), the people to question are the parents of the keepers: find out what they did wrong in raising their children to want to corrupt the innocent this way. Not only is Alzagonde blaming the "victims," she's going at it wrong from a practical viewpoint: there are almost certainly fewer rich Hanijans who want to keep tofyofs than poor people who need the money. She's taking what she thought would be a cautious if not cowardly approach, challenging people she thought couldn't dangerously take offense.

I also note that I have a friend whose reaction to Alzagonde's approach to Guwim would include "Some people's children!" meaning that A's parents should have taught her some reticence.

[brynndragon.livejournal.com]

Alzagonde is not bright enough to, if not pay afterward, at least pay some now and some later, rather than all up front? She needs to get out of the ivory tower more often!

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I think Alzagonde needs to hire some research assistants who can do the talking for her. Or the fighting. Maybe both? She can stick to the offended glowering.

[rowyn]

Maybe she could hire Inconnu. He's got lots of experience in researching traff behavior.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Alzagonde: I am trying to fix someone in particular. Not me, for I am not broken.

Ah, I see. She's in love with someone who has no interest in other Rassimel, and she thinks that browbeating and abusing this person into "changing" will endear her to this person. And she also does not grasp that believing that someone is broken is hardly a form of love.

Too bad you can't dump her in Hanija without a dime to her name and let her fend for herself.

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

I'm going to start accusing people of being "complicationists". It's nearly always true, even if not in the narrow sense Guwim meant. Also, I continue to very much enjoy the tales of your adventures, probably more than you are enjoying most of the actual adventures. This is an injustice, to be sure, but I'm going to die before you so everything evens out. :)

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Alzagonde: Inconnu, I want you to help me figure out how we can stop people from being traff.

Inconnu: ...

Alzagonde: Well, you know a lot about it, right?!

Inconnu: Would you like some first-hand research material on the subject?

[rowyn]

"Because if you want to know how to stop something from being attractive, it helps to understand what attracts people to it in the first place. Right?"

[rowyn]

It's the perfect retort for any argument!

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's just the line Inconnu should use! >_>

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[Bard grins! "I needed an interesting insult that sounded like it meant something -- I am glad you like 'complicationist'!]

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

but I have not seen her actually panting over anyone

Five lozen says she's attracted to Zi Ri; Sythyry, in her typically oblivious fashion, has completely falled to notice how Alzagonde keeps creating excuses for them to interract.

The someone is Algondze admitted to wanted to fix is you, Sythyry. Hazing a traff Zi Ri that she's attracted to is dangerously tempting, and if she can fix you, she can go back to denying her own traffness. (And yes, I know you're not attracted to her, but repressed people rarely understand what healthy people like them are like).

If you really want to watch sparks fly, make sure Algondze finds out about you and Saza. ;>

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Gah, I certainly hope not. I don't particularly like her.

And I'm sure she knows about me and Saza. We haven't discussed it -- I do not seek her out, nor manufacture excuses to interact, and I haven't let her interview me...

Um, that's actually not true. She was one of the students when several of us got interviewed by several of Mump's classes. She asked some quite rude questions. I can't remember if I mentioned my relationship with Saza. I must go and look...

...

I seem to have insulted her quite a bit. She's Student 5, if I recall, whom I described as having "a putrid little mind". But I don't believe I told her about Saza.

Well, she probably knows. All the Strayway crew do.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, you HAVE to show this comment thread to Phaniet or Grinwipey or SOMEONE who can make sure the appropriate level of entertainment results from it.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Sort of like accusing someone of being defensive?