Do You Like Being A Herethroy?

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

Stormydragon asks: Do [Herethroy] like [being Herethroy], or are they just resigned to it?

Let’s ask them!

What, all of them?

Yes! Let’s ask all of them!

1. Hops and 48%: I don’t think about it very often. Why would I? It’s not as if I could be anything else very easily. It has its good points and its bad points, more good than bad I guess.
2. Greenstripe and 43%: I am very glad to be a Herethroy. Other prime species are so low on limbs, it’s just pitiful! I rejoice in my smooth carapace, tough and protective yet light and sensitive, so easy to adorn with gems and metal inlay. I rejoice in my swift and graceful body, my highly expressive antennae, my exceedingly-useful Creoc knack! I love being, I love being, I love being a beetle!
3. Coriander and 15%: I am not fond of being an impoverished peasant. This doesn’t so much have to do with being a Herethroy.
4. Fennel and 15%, mostly male: I am glad to be a Herethroy man (or an attractive co-lover). Aside from having a very nice body, I have a dessert of extra status over other Herethroy — and that means, all the sex I want, and girls and cosis competing for my attention, and generally lots of treats.
5. Chickory and 10%, mostly female: This concept of “too many women” is awful. I’m never going to manage to get married, and probably never even going to lose my 3-virginity (even if I somehow manage to make it with one other Herethroy). It’s not so much having a Herethroy body that’s so bad, it’s the general Herethroy social structure.
6. Casamint and 8%: The problem isn’t so much being Herethroy, about which I have no complaints. It is about rustication. I don’t want to live in a sleepy socialist Herethroy village. I want to live in a big, bright, exciting city! This is not always easy to do if one wishes have a reasonable Herethroy life, e.g., getting married.
7. Marjoram and maybe 1%: Real strong, four arms, built-in armor. Why would a tough adventurer want to be anything else?
8. Mynthë and a tiny fraction of 1%: I hated being Herethroy! I hated it more than anything else in the world, save one thing, and that one thing was Sythyry putting words in my mouth — especially after I died and had no useful way of objecting any-the-more. So zie’d better stop it.

Comments

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Yes, and they are almost all protrayed as having had to choose almost total alienation from proper herethroy society in order to do so.

An excellent point. Especially if I have somehow managed to portray "proper Herethroy society" as being "proper village Herethroy society, which is an utterly defensible point of view. And considering also that my closest Herethroy friends -- Mynthë and Dustweed, say -- have been among the most alienated Herethroy around.

The Herethroy in the city who take part in cosmopolitan prime society [think Casamint -bb] are not particularly a part of proper village Herethroy society, but they are a part of proper urban prime society. So, with another quick poll: 27% feel alienated from village life; 28% feel themselves a part of village life on those occasions they go back to the village; the remainder feel liberated from the constraints of village life.

[Sythyry is making up all these numbers, btw, though zie is trying to make them accurate. -bb]

I do believe that can be interpreted as proof of a diluted version of your point. I might phrase it as: Herethroy village life is wonderful for those Herethroy (the majority of them) who enjoy it; but a significant minority don't like Herethroy village life and are either miserable in villages, or happier elsewhere.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Yes, but "cosmopolitan prime society" is largely cani, rassmiel, and orren. The fact that individualist herethroy end up being able to integrate with other species doesn't change the fact they're largely cut off from their own.