Chapter Eight: The Fierce Urgency of Now Titan: Contact by D.X. Machina

“Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.”

Dinah CraikA Life For A Life

Robyn Martin hoped that she’d been called down to the situation room for a damn good reason.

It was very early in Washington, D.C., or perhaps very late – it had reached that point in the wee hours of the day when it was impossible to tell. Martin was just about halfway through her first term, and she was starting to really get her bearings; she had long ago figured out that if the military could find an excuse to bring her into a meeting sleep-deprived, they would take it.

The group jumped to its feet as the President came in. She’d thrown on the suit she always had ready to throw on for just such an occasion; Wendy chided her for it, but then, Wendy was First Lady, and quite happy to still be asleep.

“All right,” Martin said, settling in at the head of the table. “What’s going on?”

“Madam President,” said Tom Nowitzki, the Secretary of Defense, “we’ve…uh…uncovered some information.”

“Okay,” the President said, leaning back. “And it couldn’t wait three hours?”

“Well…you told us that if we came across something related to the situation on Titan, we were to notify you right away.”

Martin tented her fingers. “Out with it,” she said.

“Madam President,” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “we happened upon this during a standard review of physical files, not sure how we missed it yesterday.”

He slid an ancient folder over, which had last been checked out, according to the log, in 2061. Martin opened it, and began reading the incident report.

“Three soldiers and a high-value prisoner magically disappear from Groom Lake back in the 2010s, one magically re-appears a bit later…okay, mildly interesting. What’s it have to do with Titan?”

“Well, there are some interesting things about it. The manner of the disappearance, for instance, is suggestive of extraterrestrial involvement.”

Martin sighed. She was so sick of this rigmarole. “Okay. Why not share this before?”

“Well, Madam President, we didn’t know this existed. You know, there was the reformatting of the archiving system back in 2083, and….”

“Bullshit,” Martin said. “There’s more to the story than this, or you wouldn’t have woken me up. Admiral Rice, the attaché case you’re carrying? Pull the rest of the folders related to this incident out, and put the graphics up on the screen.”

“Madam President, I —“

“You went through security screening, I know they’re in there, Secret Service has been monitoring you since you got here. At my request,” she said. “You’ve tried this trick one too many times. I’ll be asking for your resignation after the end of the present crisis; I’m not asking for it now only because of the crisis.”

Rice was ashen; as he pulled the files out, he said, “Madam President, I brought the files in case…in case you thought that was worth pursuing.”

“Nice try. You would have handed me the god damn briefing binder if that was your intent. You know what? Sorry, Joe, I’m asking for your resignation now. General Stevens?”

“Yes, Madam President?” Sue Stevens, the Army Chief replied.

“Congratulations, you’re the new acting chair. You got that, by the way, because Secret Service heard you telling Rice this was a bad idea. Smart. Don’t know whether you actually care about civilian control of the military or just thought Rice was being monitored, but a good decision either way.”

“Thank you, Madam President,” the acting chair said.

“Not gonna clarify which?”

“No, Madam President.”

Martin smiled. “I like you. All right, General Stevens, give me the rundown.”

“Yes, Madam President,” Stevens said, as an adjutant led Rice from the room. “We came across this information yesterday afternoon during the initial sweep for highly classified information you requested.”

“Before I met with world leaders.”

“Yes, Madam President.”

“Rice is lucky I don’t ask the JAG corps to bring him up on charges. Continue.”

“All right, as you can see, in 1872, we recovered a creature in Alaska, on Kodiak Island. We actually discovered it in the 1860s – this creature is the entire reason we bought Alaska from the Russians. You can see images of it from the early 20th century at the front of the binder – careful, it’s seen better days.”

“Where? All I see are pictures of a young child, a couple dolls.”

“Look closer.”

The president looked at the image a bit more closely. She gasped.

“Not dolls.”

“No ma’am. Subject was known as Eyrn Fitzgerald. Not sure how exactly it came by the first name, information on file is not clear. Last name comes from a soldier who more or less adopted it. Subject was detained at a variety of locations – Ft. Vancouver, Ft. Snelling, Ft. Sam Houston, Ft. Bliss, NAWS China Lake, and MCAS Camp Pendleton. At the time of its disappearance, subject had been in detention at Groom Lake for over sixty years.”

“Poor kid,” said Martin, leafing through the folder, looking at the enormous figure. She flipped through the early psych reports – it was clear the subject had seen herself as a human girl, even though she was physically and psychologically out of step in a number of different ways.

She must have felt awful. Like her body didn’t fit in the world the way she thought it was supposed to. The president sympathized; she knew that ache all too well.

“All right, obviously she’s an anomaly; how do we know she was alien?”

“We can’t know for sure, but the information we have strongly suggests it. It was found preserved in cryosleep; the remains of two adults, apparently of the same species, were found nearby in deactivated units. We think that they were in the remains of the ship – you can see an image on page seven, it’s not particularly clear…..”

Martin turned to it, and swore. “The writing – it looks a lot like the markings on the ship that hit the Sally Ride.

“Agreed.”

“So if they had a ship, why didn’t they leave? A small – okay, humongous – family isn’t lying in wait to spring a trap.”

“We’re not sure. Our suspicion is that they had landed on Earth at some point, something went wrong – they weren’t able to take off, had to wait for someone to come pick them up – and they tried to use stasis to ride it out.”

“And the adults ran out of time.”

“Yes, Madam President. We don’t know why they died and their offspring survived.”

“Just a guess, but I’d suspect it’s because they rigged it that way,” Martin said, flipping through. “If they thought they had limited power, or unobtanium, or what have you, they’d make sure their child got the last drop. What Wendy and I would do for Barack in the same situation; parents giving themselves up so their kid can live. Wherever they come from, whatever their issues, they can’t be that different from us. Anything else?”

“Yes, Madam President. Their technology was far in advance of ours, especially factoring the age of the wreckage. The subject had some kind of anti-grav technology integrated into its skeleton. We have no idea how it works; looks like a variation on the impeller from the records that have survived, but….”

“I don’t need the specifics. Okay, so we had an alien for 140-some years. She looks like she aged into her twenties. If they stop being assholes and agree to be civilized aliens, we should ask their secret. What happened?”

“We don’t know. It was being minded by MSGT Avery, Darren. He disappeared, along with CPL Ibanez, Isabel; PVT Jones, Reese; and the subject.”

“Eyrn Fitzgerald.”

“Beg pardon?”

“She had a name. I know they’re being jerks right now, but we can be better than they are. We detained this poor person in aircraft hangars and army bases. We should not forget her name. Now, this soldier who returned – the private. What info did he give us?”

“Not much. He was questioned, but didn’t seem to remember much of anything. Tests showed a bit of deception but nothing we could prove. It was possible his memories had been altered, or possible that he was lying, or possible that somehow he avoided being kidnapped. In the end we discharged him. We don’t know for sure, but analysts at the time strongly suspected that whoever was supposed to pick up the family finally got there, and grabbed the…grabbed Eyrn. We don’t know if the soldiers were picked up on purpose or by mistake.”

“Could be either. Doubt they’d notice a couple toy soldiers tagging along. Okay, so next question: are they the same aliens we’re dealing with now?”

“It’s impossible to say, but Gen. Sanchez provided analysis of the craft that struck the Sally Ride; the data suggests it could be just a shuttlecraft. While our imaging is patchy, what we see for configuration makes it more likely a shuttlecraft for forty-meter tall aliens than a carrier for two-meter-tall aliens.”

Martin breathed out, hard. “All right. Obviously, this information is not for public dissemination. However,” Martin added, “we cannot sit on this. My duty is to defend against enemies foreign and domestic, but once we hit extraterrestrials, we’re all in this together. I want you to prepare a report so I can present this to the Secretary-General and my fellow heads of government as soon as humanly possible.”

“Madam President, that would compromise—”

“Redact any information that does not directly pertain to Ms. Fitzgerald. But the Lem is out there, alone, and they need to know what they’re up against. And damn it, the other governments deserve to know too. I want you back here at 05:30. I’ll have the kitchen make some crêpes. Dismissed.”

“Thank you, Madam President.”

The shell-shocked brass withdrew, as Martin took a sip of her coffee. “Well,” she said, flipping through Eyrn’s file. “I guess this was worth it after all.”

* * *

Alesia reached her apartment and rang the bell; she wanted to gauge Sorcha’s current level of anger. After hearing something that was not quite English, Alesia realized to her horror that Sorcha was swearing in Gaelic, which was just one notch down from pure gibberish on the how-angry-is-Sorcha meter.

Alesia sighed, and put her thumb to the human-height bioscanner; Pryvani had long ago had several flats redesigned for cohabitation by Titans and Humans. The door slid open, and Alesia walked in to the foyer.

It was a modest apartment by Pryvani standards, meaning it was roughly double the size of her childhood home, and given that Alesia’s mother was a bestselling author, and her home had been reasonably large even by Titan standards, that meant Sorcha and Alesia were having to make do with just a tiny six bedroom apartment. The only reason Niall and Naskia weren’t staying with them was that Pryvani had another one free that she’d set aside in case they ever decided to stay on permanently.

Alesia could just head for her room, which contained its own miniature copy of the apartment itself at perfect human scale. If she really felt like confronting Sorcha, she could turn on the holoemitters in there, and meet her eye to eye…but she knew better. She’d been friends with Sorcha her entire life; contrary to what she’d told the Freemans, Alesia knew full well that Sorcha would just get angrier the longer this festered. As for the holoemitters, well, Lessy was always most comfortable as she was.

She felt bad. Really, she did. She didn’t regret a word of what she’d said; it was the truth, and damn it, she had to make them understand at some point what this was about. But she knew as soon as she said, “You’ve vetoed every human….”

She hit the buzzer by Sorcha’s door; Sorcha was clearly packing angry. Immense items were flying about, landing with titanic thuds, almost-but-not-quite drowning out Sorcha’s profane gibberish.

Alesia hit the buzzer again, and held it. She had never seen what came after gibberish, and she didn’t really want to find out.

Finally, the door flung open, and a 142-foot tall woman stared down, eyes ablaze. “The fuck do you want?” she bellowed.

“To talk,” Alesia said, calmly.

“Oh, you’ve talked just fine,” Sorcha said. “You’ve talked enough. I’m busy packing. FECK! Garblinantn…where’s my identification card….”

Sorcha wandered back in and began rifling through her dresser drawers; as she’d left the door open, Alesia followed. The furniture was Titan-scale, but they’d added ladders to most of the taller items, and Alesia had climbed up the dresser enough times to know that it would take her just under four minutes to do so, by which point Sorcha would probably be swearing in Insectoid.

* * *

Ted Martínez groaned as he recovered from the impact.

It took him a moment to pull himself together; he was wearing a thermsuit and a helmet. He’d been on the EVA to get reconnaissance information, they’d gotten into the airlock, then the floor dropped out….

He looked around. He had hit what appeared to be a carbon air filter, one that needed cleaning. It had what could be literally a ton of tarry hydrocarbons stuck to it, gradually pulling it downward. He supposed that they must be recirculating the oxygen-rich air, and filtering out Titan’s atmosphere. Sensible.

“Gool, headsup, messages.”

He frowned. No messages and no contact with any other crewmates. Not surprising; the metal in the base would play havoc with person-to-person comms. “Send at first contact with any comm signal: Martínez, Ingress, continuing mission, position unknown. End.”

He looked at the filter. The fact that it had seen better days was a good thing; it had developed a hole in the top corner. Probably almost unnoticeable to the people who lived here, but just big enough for him to get through. Ted began to climb, which was less arduous than he’d feared. Still, he got a good thirty or forty feet up before he reached it.

He pushed himself through; it was a tight squeeze, but he made it. Unfortunately, he was unable to get a good hold on the other side, and before he knew it, he was falling, albeit in slow motion. He landed on the metal with a thud, which scared him far more than it hurt him. The sound echoed up and down the vent; he felt certain they would find him at any moment. But a few moments later, he sighed. He supposed he was about the size of a mouse to them. It probably just sounded like the usual creaks of any ventilation system.

Standing up, he began walking the ventilation shaft, hoping to see where it led him. It wasn’t a particularly exciting plan, but frankly, there wasn’t really anything else he could do.

* * *

Sorcha tossed a pair of shorts over her shoulder, neither knowing nor caring if they made it anywhere near her pack or whether they had any purpose for this mission. Her executive function had stopped having much effect on her not long after Alesia spoke up, and it didn’t appear to be coming back online anytime soon. She stood up and looked first at the half-open top drawer, and then to the top of her dresser, intending to chuck some of the haphazardly-arranged detritus toward her bed. God damn….

Lessy Sorcha 8“Alesia! Fucking…would you go? I have no interest in hearing another goddamn word out of your mouth.”

“No,” Alesia said, calmly, standing amid the assorted books and papers and a plate or two, a few pens, some doodled equations, a list of Earth cities, and a photo of Sorcha and her that was nearly life-sized.

“Seriously, don’t let me keep you! You’ve gotta go! Hurry! You don’t have time to wait for someone like me. You humans have a date with destiny, unlike me. I can just knit. You don’t have a choice. Not like me. Not even like me.”

“Sorcha, I know, that probably stung, but….”

“PROBABLY?” Sorcha said, bringing her left fist down so hard on the dresser that the impact momentarily lifted Alesia a good five feet in the air.

“Alesia, do you know what my earliest memory is?” Sorcha spat at her friend, who was trying to hold her balance after getting one foot down cleanly. “It’s me asking why I had a tiny daddy and a big mum. I knew people with tiny dads and tiny mums, and people with big dads and big mums, but mine were mismatched. I wanted to know why.”

Sorcha leaned in closer, eyes red and bloodshot. “My parents told me they loved each other very much, and they wanted a baby to love, and so they went through all kinds of things so they could get their wonderful baby. And that I was lucky, because I was the very first girl in all the galaxy who had a big mum and a tiny dad, or even a tiny mum and a big dad. I was unique. I was lucky.

“I was six the first time someone called me a freak,” Sorcha said, wiping her eye. “We were at lunch. Overheard a waitress talking with a woman who must have recognized my mum from, you know, everything. Said that she couldn’t believe they let a half-animal freak out in the world. Waitress said she thought it was all a cover. That was also the day I learned the word ‘cuckold,’ though mum wouldn’t tell me what it meant. She said they were jealous, and she said some people didn’t like that my mum and dad loved each other, and that some people would be mean. But that I was lucky, still, because my parents loved me and my Grandpa and Grandma loved me and Uncle Captain and all the others, like Aunt Nonah and Uncle Dhanyle and Hector and Ulee and little baby Lessy. Not everyone got to have friends who were big and little, because they thought big and little people were different, and big people were important, and little people weren’t, and that was just wrong.”

Sorcha covered her eyes, and drew in a deep, shuddering breath. “And so I grew up. And I got to go through the taunting at school, even in a college town, among the children of people who’d voted to give my dad a job years before. He was good enough to hire, but marry? And the idea of bringing a half-breed into the world. I mean, I would clearly be stupid. Half-human? Everyone knows humans are stupid. Lazy. Just want to have fun. Don’t want to pay attention.” She took another halting breath. “Alesia? They were right.”

Sorcha rose up, took a step back. “I never felt like I fit. I was smart, I’d understand things, and I’d want to go on! Let’s keep pushing! We don’t have to review fractions, I get fractions, let’s do algebra. I get algebra, let’s do calculus. Why are we reading these easy books again, reviewing them, there are more new books to read! Let’s read ‘em! And let’s take today off, and ditch school, because we’ll never get today back! We’ve got to live it!

“I wanted to go, all the time. Full out. You know. You were with me, the whole time. From the time when I was eight and you were two, we’ve been going off and having adventures. The Titans never understood, not even my mum. But you did. You did. You understood why I couldn’t sit still. Why I wanted to keep asking questions rather than meditate on the answers. Why I couldn’t just drill down. Why I couldn’t just do one thing with my life. Why I had to do something grand. Because Titans – Titans drill down. They find something and they work and they work and they reach excellence, and they do – my mum did, my grandpa, my aunts and uncles, Loona….but humans don’t. Humans know that our days are numbered; we feel it in our bones. Every day is another step forward, another tick of the clock and it’s saying move, move, not much time left! Go and see and do, you won’t have another chance! Go! The Titans never would have come up with the phrase carpe diem. There are so many days, why bother seizing just one? But from the moment I heard it….”

Sorcha’s face grew hard. “For as long as I can remember, Alesia, I have known I don’t fit in the Titan world. I look like them but my soul is a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. I know I’m half-Titan, but my soul is human, God damn it, and you know that. You know me better than anyone – better than my parents, for God’s sake! How dare you read me out of your species as if I don’t count! As if the sacrifices my mum and dad made just to bring me into the universe don’t count! As if my dad’s fight to be recognized as a citizen hasn’t carried forward – Lessy, my dad’s name isn’t on my birth certificate. In the eyes of the Empire, I have no father. My human father has been deleted from their records, so how dare you try to delete him from my identity.

“Sorcha, I never –”

“YOU DID. You did, Lessy. Pryvani asked two people to go. Rixie, and me. A Titan, and a Human. And not two minutes later, you’re telling Pryvani she vetoed every human and she’s agreeing with you. GOD DAMN IT, SHE PICKED ME.

Alesia was quiet; she had seen Sorcha angry. She had seen her hurt. She had never seen this.

“I’m sorry,” she said, finally. “I just—”

“Oh, I know, I don’t fit the mold of what a human’s supposed to be. Deep down, you see me the way they all see me – half-breed, freak, except the freakish side to you is my Titan half, because they’re the oppressor and you can’t forgive me for sharing that heritage. I didn’t pick it. I love my mum, but I’ve wished she was human for as long as I can remember.”

“No,” Alesia said, as she fought for a sense of equilibrium. “No, Sorcha. You don’t. You don’t understand….”

YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!” Sorcha thundered, banging her hand against the dresser, causing it to shake so hard that this time Alesia could not stay righted. Sorcha turned her back to her, not watching as she tried to get to her feet. “You know what you are! Who you are! You always have, Alesia! What am I? I’m human. My father is human. My mother is not, but society hasn’t been giving me a pass because of that. I’ve always been a freak, and I always will be, and all I ask is to be able to say that I am at least a human freak, and you can’t even give me that!”

“Sorcha, that’s not it. I know, so much of you is human. But –”

SHUT UP!”

Sorcha wheeled, and with all her might, took both arms and slid them across the top of the dresser, sending the tons of detritus, the pens and the plates, the pictures and the equations, thundering down one hundred feet to the ground below.

It was only as the picture frame impacted the ground that she realized what else had been there.

“No.” she whimpered, and without conscious thought, she was diving to the ground and digging. “No no no oh god no no no Lessy please. Lessy, please, where are you, oh god oh god I’m sorry oh god I’m so sorry where are you where ARE YOU WHERE ARE YOU!

The words crescendoed into a keening scream as she tossed bits of meaningless garbage aside, searching desperately for the only person who had ever really known her, the only true friend she had ever known, and she finally lost control and collapsed, sobbing, still begging for Lessy to answer, to tell her where she was. Or if not…to be okay. Please, just be okay.

“Sorcha.”

She heard her name, soft and clear from high above her. She did not look. She did not dare look.

“Sorcha. I’m up here.”

She rolled over and stared upward at the dresser. Alesia had pulled herself over the lip of the drawer, and was staring down upon her friend. Her eyes were wide in terror, as much for Sorcha as of her.

Sorcha put her hands to her face and wept. When she was finally, finally able to speak, she said, with shaking voice, “I could have killed you. I could have killed you. Oh, God, Lessy, I could have. And….”

She sighed. She tried to breathe. Part of her almost didn’t want to. Part of her wanted to just crawl into a hole and die. She kept her face covered. “I’m not a human, I’m a Titan. Oh, Alesia, you were right. I’m sorry. I’m so….”

“Sorcha Freeman, shut up.”

Sorcha Freeman shut up.

“You aren’t a Titan. I’ve been your friend as long as I’ve been alive, Sorsh. I don’t know if souls have species, but yours is more human than anything. I know that. I’ve seen it. I know.”

Alesia rubbed a hand over her eyes. “Remember Eda Volen’s party? You decided that you were gonna bring me because fuck it, I was your friend, and she came up to you and said that you couldn’t have your pet there, and you stormed out?”

“Fuck them,” Sorcha said. “Who wants hang around people who can’t recognize a person?”

“And remember when I was seven? Your mom and my mom gave us money, we went out to shop? And you got up in the face of the man at the restaurant who said they didn’t let humans eat there, saying you were half-human, so where should you eat?”

“I think it’s a fair question.”

“Sorcha…I agree, you are as human as anyone needs to be to qualify for membership in the club. Probably more. In a lot of ways, you probably fit better than I do. But Sorsh…when they came up to talk to us, to tell us the human pet wasn’t supposed to be there, who did they assume was the Titan, and who did they assume was the pet?”

Sorcha kept her hands over her eyes. She still couldn’t bear to look at Alesia. She didn’t deserve to.

But she owed her an answer. And so, quietly, raggedly, she said, “They thought I was Titan.”

“They did,” Alesia said gently. “And they were wrong, just like they were wrong about me being a pet. I would be the worst pet ever. I’d cause you nothing but grief.”

“I’d be worse,” Sorcha said.

“Probably true,” Alesia said, which brought a bitter half-chuckle from her friend. “Sorsh, you aren’t a Titan. But you can pass for one. You can go home and pretend that it doesn’t affect you. At least theoretically. But I was wrong when I said one thing, and I want to apologize for it.”

That drew a sob. “Don’t apologize to me, Lessy. Don’t you dare. I already don’t deserve your friendship. I could have killed you. I don’t deserve to live.”

“You don’t get a choice. Your parents made that one with the help of Pryvani’s money and a team of scientists, and thank the Emperor for them all, because I got my best friend, and whether you deserve to live or not, I’m not getting rid of you.

“And Sorsh…you weren’t gonna kill me. Do you think I managed to stay your friend this long without figuring out when to duck?”

That actually brought a modest laugh.

“Sorcha, I was wrong to say that you can choose not to fight. I was wrong. Because maybe some of the other people your size could, but there is too much of you that’s human. Our fight is your fight. You are one of us.”

“Not in the way that matters. Not in the way people see,” Sorcha says.

“Maybe not,” Alesia said. “But I….”

She stopped. She swallowed hard, to clear her heart from her throat. “I see it, Sorsh. I see it. I always have. I always will.”

Sorcha struggled to her feet, got up, and very gently scooped up her friend. She wanted to weep, in deep, shuddering gales of grief. But instead, she did her best to hold her friend gently, safely against her shirt, because far more than she wanted to weep, she wanted to stand with the one person in all the universe who understood why she couldn’t sit still, why she couldn’t do just do one thing with her life, why she had to do something grand.

65 comments

    • Locutus if Boar says:

      If I were the President of the Council of Avalon, I would not be comfortable with both Darren and Lysis off-planet at the same time. As a more practical matter, when Darren gets himself kidnapped yet again he’ll need rescuing. My guess would be that Lysis probably already has a team of Avalonian special forces type trained in how to secure a Titan facility.

  1. Naoru says:

    Im half and a half here. I love Sorcha, and I understand that she struggles with identity, and that is sad. She is more complex and not nearly as perfect as she seems to be; being rich and beautiful doesnt garantee you a perfect life and everyone feel their own sorrows as the deepest ones. Hers are just hers, and they are just as valid as anyone´s. Im a cis woman of middle class and a lot of people struggle with things I dont have problems with, and I have some priviledges others may not. But I suffer from depression and anxiety, and thats important for me, even if out there they are people having it worse. What I mean is that Sorcha doesnt have a lot of the problems other have, but she does have her own, they affect her, and that and her obvious anger issues make her less than perfect in my opinion.

    I do agree with Dann that she is no human tho. She is her own thing, especies, hybrid; but she cant be human. It reminds me of a Switched at Birth discussion about heritage and race, where Daphne was raised by a Latina woman, but she was by blood a Kennish and her mother refused to acept that, arguingthat it was the culture she was raised in.No matter who raised her, she is no latina, she is a normal american girl. No matter who raised Sorcha, or who are her parents, she is neither human or titan, she is something else, and what it means its up to her to discover.

    So, for anyone that would like to skip the monologue, Do I think Sorcha is too perfect?not at all.
    Does she was right for getting angry fo not being counted as human?Nope
    Is she an interesting one that may and will develop and will be interesting to stick around and see her grow?yes, absolutely, completely.

  2. Dann says:

    I feel the need to mention, that despite what you may perceive from D.X’s biased stance, Alesia DOES have a father, who actually had a hand in inventing a lot of the clever things we see around, especially the scaled down technology. Much of the day to day contraptions that make co-habitation for humans and titans easier is thanks to Lessy’s father. Whom D.X loves to hide under the light of Nonah and her book’s 😛

    Don’t worry, I’ll continue to point out in the reviews where he has had a hand. 😉

  3. Ad Augusta per Angusta says:

    Also why do I feel that mr Martinez is in for an interesting (bad) encounter (read Ibanez) that will result in him being taken by someone not in the military. Possibly far away…

      • Soatari says:

        I keep hoping for more Continuing Adventures stories. The last we saw of Ibanez and Gwenn were a few scenes from Exile, when it looked like Gwenn was starting to develop a crush on her little roommate.

        • Ponczek says:

          Well, hopefully we will get more CA at some point, at least none of Authors said we won’t. Also article on wiki implies that there will be some more stories than Attenuation.

        • Dann says:

          Izzy and co were hyjacked from me by a very bored D.X while he was waiting for Titan Exile, Nomad and Arena to finish. I put the brakes on him however because he was getting ahead of where I wanted TCA to be, as i DO actually have a plan for my characters that involves D.X holding his horses 😛

  4. Angel Agent says:

    Now I want to see Zhan and Pryvani son Odin and see what he is like. Just getting tired of reading chapters that all the main players are titan women. Am ready to see a titan size male hybrid for once or a human size hybrid pop up once in a chapter.

    Do I think Sorcha is the first of her kind, maybe to where she lives, we don’t know how soon Odin was born and have they meet one and another.

    Yeah didn’t really care for Sorcha’s in this chapter, she basically was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and had a much better life than any humans and even some titans would have and throws a fit that almost killed her best friend because she got called a titan and not human, yeah she has a short fuse on her, I wonder if she ever talked to Odin on her feelings as he is like her but a titan size male hybrid.

    But I can see where she is coming from. Am a mix breed of 50% Finnish and 25% Irish and Spanish but my Spanish side show so people take me for Spanish even if am 75% white and I hated it when I was working that people would speak Spanish to me thinking I would know it.

    • Ponczek says:

      Actually – we do. 3 years after Titan: Arena (or maybe 4) Pryvani was pregnant, so i would give at least half TY for pregnancy. I do believe that Arena is chronologically later than end of Physics, also there is said that Sorcha was born about 2 years after end of that novel. Wikia says that they are both 17, but well… Still i’d say that Sorcha is at least half Titan Year older than Odie.

    • Soatari says:

      She spent most of her life separated from any of the other Titan-sized hybrids. She didn’t even meet Pryvanni until she was 16. Odin, and the rest of Pryvanni’s children, were raised on Avalon, so they don’t have nearly the same life experiences as Sorcha. Those are the only Titan-sized hybrids we’re privy to so far, at least as far as how their lives were led anyways.

  5. faeriehunter says:

    Sorcha came very close to bringing ruin with one rash act there. How very human. And a prime example that being human is not always something to be proud of.

    This chapter gave great insight in Sorcha’s character, and to a lesser extent Alesia’s. I’m curious to see how this incident will affect them in the future.

    And props to Madam President for seeing through (former) Admiral Rice’s attempt to keep some of his information hidden. What the hell was he thinking? Humanity has encountered aliens in mankind’s own solar system, we know virtually nothing about them but they appear threatening, by all indications they have better technology, and Rice decides to keep relevant information from his own Commander-in-chief? He may not know everything that we do, but he should still have realized that the fate of all mankind might hinge on the president’s next few decisions. Ugh. He deserves to be court-martialed. Perhaps worst of all is that hiding things from the president was something he’d been doing for a long time.

    • Locutus of Boar says:

      I suspect the interplay between the President and Rice was a nod to the firing scene in Independence Day 😉 Bureaucratic bumbling does help to cover how the Terrans made it out to Jupiter and Saturn without expecting to bump into the Titans. I still suspect not everyone on Earth was caught by surprise quite as much as the President.

      • synp says:

        Even knowing about Eyrn, there was very little reason to expect to bump into aliens within the solar system. No place in the solar system other than Earth is habitable, so I wouldn’t expect aliens to settle on a Saturnian moon that requires an airtight base with airlocks.

        All that the story of Eyrn proves is that we’re not alone in the universe and that aliens have visited earth just under 150 years ago.

        • sketch says:

          They may have expected the chance was high enough to have configured their ships to become weapons at a moments noticed.

  6. Dann says:

    I get to be a reader and a natural third party here for many reasons. First, I’ve had almost no input into Sorcha’s creation, and I had very little input into the early chapters of Contact, so here is my two cents.

    I dislike Sorcha, a lot. Yea, I get she has some real internal conflict, her father might never be legally recognized as her father, she has some real identity issues, humans will never see her as a human, and the titans that know she is a hybrid will never let her forget she is not fully titan either.

    I get that, it’s some real cause for some very real inner turmoil.

    But the thing is? None of that matters.

    Sorcha is a woman of model like proportions, with the strength of a Titan Captain America, who’s parents are millionaires, she has a godmother who is a multi-TRILLIONARE who would never allow her to fall into bad times. Her father has had a near exceptional life, while he has had to face prejudice and strife and conflict, he has had it pretty damn good since her birth.

    So, she is a gorgeous, millionaire, Wonder Woman with the universe at her disposal. All of that makes me shake my head at her over-reaction to Lessy’s very real point.

    Now onto Lessy’s point.

    Sorcha missed the point completely. That point was, that if everything goes as bad as it looks like it is going to go, Pryvani, Rixie, Eyrn, Naskia and yes even Sorcha get to walk away. They can still work, earn money, own things, go where they like. They will never have micro chip in their back “just in case” somebody wants to kidnap then. Sorcha will have to face a lifetime of prejudice, but not even really, because it’s not even like her human heritage is something that makes her physically stand out from the rest. She doesn’t even have the difficulties of a human sized hybrid.

    We are in the middle of an inter-species, inter-global crisis. The fate of an entire SPECIES hangs in the balance, a lifetime’s work for so many close to her has come to its crescendo, and she has the nerve to have a mental break down over a few words muttered in frustration from her best friend? People like that bother me, people like that are a liability in times like this. I’m sorry to say it, but Sorcha a loose cannon like you has no place on this mission. If I were Pryvani(or Rixie…or anyone in charge here) She’d be staying home for sure.

    I really get that there is another side to the argument, and I really hope some of you discuss that here, because D.X does a fantastic job writing Sorcha. The fact that I am so emotionally effected by her, even though it is a negative feeling, means he has done a stellar job pulling me into this story.

    • Locutus of Boar says:

      Being different from everyone else…even when those differences are in your favor, is difficult for some folks. Also keep in mind that Sorcha appears older than she is to everyone seeing here as a defacto Titan. Emotionally, Sorcha seems very much to be in her mid teens whereas Lessy who may have naturally been more emotionally mature is maturing much more rapidly as well. Add to that Sorcha is seen against a backdrop of the best and brightest Titans and Humans anywhere and I’d be inclined to give the kid a break.

    • NightEye says:

      Now I understand why you said in the chat you couldn’t stand Sorcha. 😉

      I kinda agree with you : she’s discriminated, but nowhere near as bad as her (fully) human friends and family. If they don’t throw fits, she doesn’t get to pull a nutty about it.

    • Ad Augusta per Angusta says:

      Had you posted this last chapter I’d have agreed, but DX really did a great job here showing Sorcha as a young, discriminated, and unique individual. Yes she has so many things going for her physically, mentally, and economically, but it is clear this means much less to her than her identity, her place. She is the first of her kind and is out of place in both worlds. Additionally, despite all these advantages she is looked down on by those that know her heritage and doesn’t have the power to affect the change she so desperately wants and believes in. She can’t change the world with the snap of her fingers or in any short period of time.
      I agree her reaction is way over the top and unforgivably dangerous and her misunderstanding is annoying for one supposedly so bright, but I feel like she truly identifies as human and can’t stand being rejected from that classification by her closest friend. I’d still keep her in Avalon like you suggest if such outbursts and emotional instability are the norm but if this was a rare moment then I understand it now and can move on to see what she does next without disliking the character.
      But hey everyone’s got at least one pet peeve character that rubs them wrong and I can identify with your reasoning, which is why I gotta praise DX for completely reversing my view of the character in a single chapter. Also I like that passion she has for seeing this fight thru, the others were getting far too relaxed with the status quo.

      • faeriehunter says:

        Sorcha does have a temper, but it’s made clear that she never lost it like this before. “Alesia was quiet; she had seen Sorcha angry. She had seen her hurt. She had never seen this.”

        • Locutus of Boar says:

          Well, Alessia did say she’d learned to duck. It makes one wonder how much either of them knew of the ghosts that haunt Naskia’s nightmares. If they did Sorcha might realize Lessy is the person she would be most likely to hit if she lost control and Alesia might realize she was the one most likely to push Sorcha too far.

    • faeriehunter says:

      Hah, well, it’s not like we get to choose when we have a mental breakdown. Also, at this point Sorcha and the others have no idea how dire and urgent the situation truly is. All they know is that a strange traffic warning suggests that a human ship is headed to Saturn, that Ziah Solis brought in a xenosociologist who specializes in humans (actually a very sensible thing to do), and that said xenosociologist thinks that an unchecked humanity will be the end of the titans.

      I also think that Sorcha didn’t so much miss Alesia’s point as that she ignored it because of Alesia calling her a titan. Now, unless I seriously misjudged her she’s been idolizing humans and demonizing titans (notice that after nearly killing Alesia she switched from insisting she’s human to denying it and saying she’s a titan). In part because of this, Sorcha sees herself as human, she just looks like a titan and therefore gets treated as such by the Empire. So when Alesia, another human, Sorcha’s best friend in the whole galaxy, the one who Sorcha thought understood her best, called Sorcha a titan it hurt worse than a punch in the face.

      I agree with you though that Sorcha misunderstood Alesia. Alesia wasn’t saying that Sorcha is not human, Alesia was saying that Pryvani’s subconscious decided that Sorcha could go because she’s legally and sizewise a titan. Sorcha should really have had more faith in her best friend and have realized that Alesia wasn’t denying Sorcha’s humanity, there was merely a lack of nuance in what Alesia said (no surprise given the situation).

      • Nitestarr says:

        Ok..This whole humanity will end the Titans thing… Well hmm if Solis and the rest of the Titans truly believe that and assuming that humanity survive this, then humans won’t have much of a problem catching up and perhaps even surpassing the Titans tech wise and in other areas…In other words Titans are a bunch of friggin’ idiots..Common sense here guys…. But it does make good drama 🙂

        Sorcha has her own set of problems perhaps we as full blooded/DNAed humans can’t really relate to. Its true she has it good materially but I don’t think material considerations drive her..

        I think she would serve the team by being a ‘intern’ to Pryvani, learning from her. Her temperament makes her unsuitable for a mission like this..But she can’t assist Pryvani in other areas

        • Locutus of Boar says:

          Solis is driven by the immediate needs to preserve Titan Station. Gernhatt’s paranoia should be the fear of economic competition when humans expand beyond Earth and Avalon to populate all those vacant super Mu class planets with gravity over 0.4g

          Sorcha is definitely the wildcard on this mission and will probably take the story off on all sorts of interesting tangents.

    • Ponczek says:

      Honestly, up to now, i was actually neutral to Sorcha. Now i can tell i slightly dislike her. In my case its just that, that her constant “I want to do something grand, can’t sit still” etc. is annoying. Ok, say it once, or twice, but not EACH time. Also her being so overconfident is a little extra to whole that thing, but again, its just my opinion about such trait. And also i see TD’s point about her – she literally has everything in her reach, and she is complaining whole time.

      But pretty nice work in description of Sorcha-Alesia, very detailed.

    • sketch says:

      I don’ t think it’s that she missed the point, one I no longer think is 100% accurate, but that that point is irrevelent to why she feels upset.

      Earlier we have a nice scene where President Martin sympathizes with Eyrn, someone whose mind doesn’t jive with her physical form. Sorcha’s identity crisis isn’t just being biracial. She’s a human literally trapped in a Titan body. I know some have objected to the Life Extension process robbing humans of their main advantage, accelerated thinking. Sorcha gives us a glimpse that even in the longest lived Hybrid type, that just isn’t the case. Going off to live a Titan way of life would drive her mad in short order.

      Sorcha has one close friend who gets that. Actually, she may have very few other friends from childhood. She grew up away from Avalon and the largest collection of other hybrids, and it doesn’t sound like she kept many of her Titan friends very long. The majority of people supporting her are family or friends of her parents, and maybe later professional relationships made working on Avalon. But she had one friend in her peer group who’s been there for her. (I think this make the scene in Campaign where she complains about not being able to visit her friend as much far more significant.)

      I imagine it would be as if the president had a close childhood friend who fully accepted her, and then one day in a room full of family, friends and colleagues, that friend referred to her by the opposite gender. And not one of them stepped in to correct the statement. I could see that feeling like a betrayal to the point that she didn’t even want to look at that person.

      Who knows, maybe a qualifier as simple as “every human under 0.04 units” would have saved some grief. So far I like both characters. Characters with some angst can be a good read when written well.

      • D.X. Machina says:

        I am a radical believer in Death of the Author, not because I think a creator’s intentions are unimportant, but because I don’t believe creators are consciously aware of all the reasons they do things. Indeed, I know I’m in the groove while writing when I’m not consciously directing characters, when I’m simply letting them react the way they want to. Which means sometimes characters do things for reasons I’m not quite sure of.

        Which is a long way of saying that I think this is a very insightful point, one that I didn’t fully understand until now. The person who did get it, though, is Lessy — which is why she apologized fulsomely and reaffirmed Sorcha’s humanity, even though Sorcha really could have killed her had Lessy been a bit less spry. Lessy does understand why Sorcha is upset, and she feels bad about it, for the very reason you cited.

        At least, that’s what I think, but as a radical adherent to Death of the Author, I will be the first to tell you that my viewpoint is not privileged, and others can feel free to disagree. 😀

    • Dann says:

      Well, good to see that people are divided on this, always good to see people discussing things.

      As I have said in the Author’s chat(we have been at this all day OHH and I), It’s not so much that Sorcha has “problems” that I have issue with, yea I can admit she has a few MINOR issues that some people MAY allow to control them, but it is her blatant, unrepentant, and Niall Freeman-eske stubbornness and refusal to acknowledge her privileged that has me so upset.

      She actually thinks she can relate to a humans struggles, she ACTUALLY believes she has it that bad. The girl has no IDEA how wrong she is, and “i feel bad, you don’t understand” doesn’t change the fact.

      OHH believes I am being unfair, but I’m really not.

      Nonah was stepped on and nearly crushed to death by Naskia, let’s not forget this is after being a per her whole life, and later in the story she is forced to put on a striptease for ol’wassisname in order to buy Niall some time.

      Darren and Tapp were turned INTO LUNCH and made a trip down a woman’s esophagus.

      Alex spent some time in a ladies stomach.

      Sophia was blinded by a virus designed to KILL her entire species.

      Luke lived a hand to mouth existence at the feet of careless monsters who thought him nothing more than a vermin, later he was saved (From what a titan would consider a pest) only to be taken against his will to live like a pet, even if they did have good intentions.

      Sam was taken and forced to fight like a dog in a ring for his life, for people’s amusement.

      Dhanyalle….opps…can’t get into that, haven’t written that story yet…

      Scroof, and every other human pet out there lives in a cage, forced to wear devices that prevent them from having children when they want, doomed to spend the rest of their lives as PETS for a species that looks IDENTICAL to them.

      And she has the NERVE to tell Sorcha she “is human”, and to argue with Sorcha when she says “Not even you Sorcha, not even you.”

      Nope, I don’t think so.

      Every human in this story is missing one thing Sorcha takes for granted, citizenship, person hood. Rights.

      Had Sorcha killed Keeran in self defense, she’s of been given a trial.

      Had Sorcha applied to be a professor at Tanhouser Gate, and had all the qualifications, she’d not need a trial to prove she is a person.

      Syon could never of forced Sorcha into a fighting ring, Sorcha has never been taken against her will simply because she was too tiny to fight back.

      So, this is at the core of my opinion as to why Sorcha missed the point, the point being that No titan has any IDEA what it mean’s to be human, Not Naskia, not Eyrn, not Pryvani, not even Sorcha…

        • Ad Augusta per Angusta says:

          Aaaaaaaand you’ve swung me back to disliking Sorcha again. Well done sir 😀

          In all seriousness I agreed with that in my initial response but you’ve framed it better now. She doesn’t understand but has suffered because she actively resists. No she can’t be the face of human liberation and won’t ever understand human suffering but she can and does help. She identifies with being human when the easier choice is to let that go at least publicly. My point being yes she has a silver spoon, yes she way overreacted and it bothers me a lot about the character, but she has had struggles the other titans haven’t and actively fights for her humanity and for her species. I can overlook 1 hissy fit in a stressful moment. If she doesn’t get it together tho and plays the ultimate victim and not what she actually is then I’ll come around to your side pretty quick. But you do know more than us about her so maybe I will end up in your camp :p

      • faeriehunter says:

        Oh wow does your post rub me the wrong way, Dann. Let me see if I can explain why.

        Sorcha says she is human. Yet you consider her a titan who has no idea what it means to be human. On the grounds that she was never eaten, blinded, made to fight for other people’s amusement, etcetera. But guess what, most humans on Earth never experienced any of those things either. So do they have no idea what it means to be human? Say, have you experienced any of those things? I can tell you I haven’t, and if you think that means that I have no idea what it means to be human, then I’ll answer that having suffered is not what defines being human.

        Secondly, Sorcha says she is human. Denying that because she is legally and (for the most part) physically a titan is like telling a pre-op transgender woman that no, the man-parts show that they’re a man. A rich and handsome man, so don’t they dare have any complaints!

        All that having been said, I do agree that Sorcha fails to see that her life could have been far worse. If her mother were human like Sorcha wished for she’d merely trade one set of problems for a whole bunch of new ones.

        • Nitestarr says:

          I think what drives Sorcha is guilt over have the privileges of being a Titan so she lashes out. She knows what humans go through in the empire and it frustrates her that she can’t make much headway to improve their lot.

          I would also image she thinks and feels like a hybrid…And I’m not sure what that is. Half human, half titan..What really is that? Poor girl might be constantly torn between two worlds. Two ways of thinking and viewing things.

          Its good that she has Lessy as a friend and a sounding board, else she would go really crazy.

          • Nitestarr says:

            More specifically guilt over having the bennies of a Titan at the same time identifying as a human and knowing what they go through…And titan society recognizing her as neither. Don’t forget she has experienced discrimination being a hybrid, I imagine the less kind among the Titans would call her a ‘half-breed’ or worse..

            People are looking at her surface behavior without delving deeper into her psyche

        • Locutus of Boar says:

          Well put FH. This entire debate comes down to the question of who out there really can empathize with the plight of most humans in the Empire. I suspect before Contact is over we will find out that those people won’t be titan, human, or hybrid but they are out there and they will have an important say in how the story is resolved.

        • Dann says:

          D.X tried to use that Transgender argument against me, but it’s a strawman argument that draws attention away from the point.

          No, Sorcha doesn’t know what it mean’s to be human, not a Titan born human, or even an earth born human. Not only is she fortunate enough to escape everything her human or human sized hybrid friends have to endure, but she has no idea what life on earth is like, outside of the stories she has heard from her father. She idolized human beings with out even knowing what she is idolizing. While at the same time demonizing her titan half.

          The point I make, and the same point Lessy was trying to make was “This is our fight.” nobody present save for the humans who have had to fight for their freedom understand what that is like.

          Sorcha wants to approach this fight form the side of humanity, she can never be the poster child for the human cause because she can’t relate to them. At least not the ones in the line of fire.

          She can’t relate to earth born humans because she knows nothing about them, their culture, or the struggles they face.

          She isn’t a member of the smallest, most helpless, most vulnerable sentient species in the galaxy, she is not confined to one planet in one solar system, nor is she even restricted by a short lifespan, she has all the benefit of being Titan, with the few benefits humans have, with NONE of the disadvantages of being human.

          So, I don’t consider this at all like a transgender pre-op.

          And one more thing.

          How I feel about Sorcha, it’s human nature. It’s why we feel sorry for the poor hard working common average joe who has a sob story. People on the internet will donate money to some joe with a sob story, the downtrodden, the poor, the virtuous thieves, the Robin Hoods, the blue collar’s. But the rich, beautiful, wealthy, those who have a near perfect life. We have trouble relating to them. We see it every day, we hound the rich and famous, we trivialize their pain, we make public every aspect of their life, their addictions, their breakdowns.

          I think I got off track?

          No, you don’t need to go through all those terrible things Darren, Niall, Nick, Tapp, Sophia, Luke, Alex, Pierce and Sam had to go through to BE human. But the fact that Sorcha doesn’t even have to WORRY about any of that, does put her in a very hard to sympathies place.

          She can’t relate to any of the struggles humanity faces in this new world, she can’t relate to the titan’s who are trying to help the humans, and she can’t relate to the titan’s who are trying to enslave the humans.

          I didn’t deny she had troubles, but I do deny her access into the Human being club, and the fact that she nearly killed Lessy over a minor disagreement in a rage hissie fit only strengthens my resolve.

          She isn’t human, and she never will be.

          • Per Angusta Ad Augusta says:

            Yeah the transgender argument definitely is a straw man argument and she has the benefits of both species and only a few social negatives. (doesn’t sound like transgender). You are pretty convincing Dann, and spot on that she has it nowhere near as bad as the others and can walk away and probably amplifies her own problems, but despite some glaring early flaws I’m willing to give her a little longer and see what these few brief windows into her life add up to with some more story time.

        • Dann says:

          P.s.

          I don’t consider her a Titan either, because she is not. She is a half breed, stuck in the limbo between a titan and a human. A Liger is neither a Tiger nor is it a Lion, neither is Sorcha titan, or human.

          This is sad, but it does not excuse her actions, nor does it buy her membership into the human being club. And it sure as heck doens’t excuse her for nearly murdering somebody.

          She is a loose cannon, more a liability to this mission than an asset. Nobody has time to sort Sorcha’s teenage angst out, adults have important things to do 😉

          • Nitestarr says:

            She can help out being an aide of some sort to Pryvani. As I said earlier (up there somewhere) she is not suited for this type of mission..I think she is just a high strung kid who is a bit immature…..holy cow LETS SHOOT HER!! She is smart, quick thinking and resourceful. Surely she can assist somehow eh?

            I also think she idolizes and identifies with her father and takes a good chunk of her personality from him, so you have that…..(and she’s a hot chick too) 🙂

          • faeriehunter says:

            Earlier I had been thinking that Sorcha calls herself human because she thinks like one (restless, driven, wants to seize every day) but Dann’s comments reminded me of something I had forgotten. Namely that right after her outburst she suddenly denies being human and calls herself a titan. Rereading her scenes with that in mind I came to the conclusion that while Sorcha has convinced herself that she is a human who looks like a titan, she doesn’t truly believe it with all her being. Rather, she identifies as human because she feels out of place among titans as a result of all their prejudice and latched onto humans as a group she could belong to instead. I think that that’s why Sorcha got so upset about Alesia and Pryvani labeling her a titan. Since she is out of place among titans, if she cannot be human then there is no group left for her to belong to, making her an outsider everywhere.

  7. Kusanagi says:

    Fantastic chapter, I wasn’t totally sold on Sorcha’s reaction last chapter but this really convinced me while addressing the holes in her thought process. I also like the use of the term of passing, which has been at the heart of angst for many, many, people in the past. ‘Is it still might fight if I have the opportunity to ignore it.’ some did, some didn’t, Sorcha’s clearly in the latter.

    Also, yay competent president, this is a world crisis state secrets be damned. Still at this point the passengers of the Sally Ride might just respond with a ‘no duh’ to the possibility of giant aliens.

    • synp says:

      The people of the Sally Ride may respond with ‘no duh’, but the people of the Lem don’t know yet.

      And it makes a huge difference. That “huge ship” that the Sally Ride bumped into? It’s very important to understand that this is not some huge warship but a small shuttle capable of carrying three titans. In fact, it might turn out that there are no huge military ships on Titan, which makes the Lem the only thing with a weapon.

      To put in in terrestrial terms, if the occupants are people, what we saw was a huge armored vehicle. If they’re giants, this was just a jeep. In makes a lot of difference and it’s good that they’ll know.

  8. OpenHighHat says:

    I’m fairly certain this is my favourite chapter in the whole damn book. It sums up Sorcha perfectly. And Alesia too.

    A lot of people will decide they dislike or like Sorcha based on her here. Say what you will about her, she’s a great character. Thank you very much for developing her so well. I don’t think I could have done it as well in Hybrid alone. Actually I know I couldn’t.

    • Nostory says:

      She’s kind of hot so I’ll give her a chance. I have a biracial background and somehow her human-titan make up resonates with me, you just might have created a new favourite for me back when you wrote Physics. Plus, I get her and Alesia’s problems, it sucks when people see you as a freak or as a pet.

    • smoki1020 says:

      i hope Lessy’s parents or Naskia heard abt her life’s threathning talk… somehow. could be an interesting vignette hehe !

    • faeriehunter says:

      I’m deferring judgement on Sorcha for now. I haven’t seen much to like so far, but we’ve not had the chance yet to see much more than her at her worst.

      • Locutus of Boar says:

        Sorcha is definitely her mother’s daughter and so is Alesia. To get through the mission ahead though Sorcha will need to show her father’s ability to channel her anger and frustration into problem resolving drive.

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