Application: Valentine Michael Smith: Stranger in a Strange Land

[guy_from_mars]

A young man entered the Sorting Room. He was handsome of countenance, and his expression was serene. His eyes were as guileless as a child's, and yet seemed to hold the wisdom of the ages

Comments

[bowchickamaou]

"You're right! Sexually harass is a wrongness!" Finally, someone to share Yuuri's indignation without the weird moralistic homophobia that usually accompanied such objections!

Yuuri was sixteen years old, had an adopted daughter not yet ten, and was saddled with a male fiance. He was not one to denounce alternative family structures.

[guy_from_mars]

Mike was not about to start moralizing or being homophobic. He was not thusly inclined himself, but, well, what happens in the nest stays in the nest.

"There are better ways to grow closer," he agreed. "Always, it should happen when all parties desire it."

[bowchickamaou]

"Yeah. And they should be married, probably," Yuuri added.

[guy_from_mars]

Mike nodded sagely, even though the Martian concept of marriage was... distinctly not Earth-like. "Growing closer is a great goodness between water brothers," he acknowledged.

[bowchickamaou]

Wait, what? "Water brothers?" Yuuri took a step back. "No, no, I don't want to do anything like that with my brother! He's really overprotective and kind of, um ..." Creepy would've been a good word for Shouri's attitude toward Yuuri, sometimes. But Yuuri would never conceptualize it that way. That'd be an unthinkable betrayal. Instead, he chose to think his brother was just a weird guy, who happened to be good at heart. Never mind the time they bodyswitched and Shouri insisted on pretending to be Yuuri, instead of telling anyone what was going on! And then made Wolfram rub his shoulders!

"Um, my brother likes dating simulation games a lot," he volunteered. "He likes girls, he's just shy. And I definitely don't want to do anything 'growing closer' with him!"

[guy_from_mars]

Mike was completely lost by this point. "I do not think we grok each other," he said after a long pause in which he extended his time senses that he might contemplate this stranger's words and try to grok their meaning. "There are other ways to grow closer," he said finally. "I do not wish to quicken the eggs of my brother Jubal. My brother Jill, though, is another matter."

[bowchickamaou]

Shin Makoku had taught Yuuri not to take all outward indicators of gender for granted.

"Your brother is named Jill? And he lays eggs?"

Curiouser and curiouser.

"Like a bearbee egg?"

[guy_from_mars]

Two people speaking literally at each other definitely complicated things. "No... Jill is a woman," Mike answered. "According to the Encyclopedia Britanica's section on reproduction, human offspring are quickened in the mother's womb." Because, clearly this was a concept yuuri, having largely been raised by humans, would be unfamilliar with.

[bowchickamaou]

"Oh!" Now Yuuri turned pink. He knew about that stuff. "But you said Jill was your brother ... Does that just mean 'friend' where you come from?"

[guy_from_mars]

"Yes," Mike admitted after another lengthy pause to gather his thoughts. "But more. Water brothers are... like family, but closer. To make someone a water brother implies trust that you would not speak or do wrongly to them." Again, this was an easy concept in Martian, and his English was proving limited and not helpful.

[bowchickamaou]

"Okay," said Yuuri, uncertainly. "That sounds like it would be okay. Since no one is harassing anyone."

Some concepts made Yuuri more than a little uncomfortable.

"If a water brother did do wrongly to his other water brother, what would happen then?"

[guy_from_mars]

"Then one or both would have to discorporate," Mike said matter-of-factly. Because talking casually about killing oneself? Not creepy at all.

[bowchickamaou]

"That's kind of harsh." Yuuri disapproved. "People could do wrongly by mistake."

[guy_from_mars]

"It is the Martian way," Mike said. "But people sometimes do and speak more rightly than at other times. In any case, I am in no danger of discorporation. I have much to grok still."

[bowchickamaou]

"Martian?" Could Yuuri be hearing that correctly? He shook his head like a dog trying to clear its ears of water. "You're from Mars? I never thought a Martian would look the same as a human! There isn't air there to breathe, right?"

[guy_from_mars]

"My parents were humans," Mike answered. "But they discorporated before I was born. I was raised by Martians, and we lived in underground cities."