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N O T I C E : : m e m o r y _ s t r e a m _ l o c a t e d
I D : : A f f i n i
T Y P E: : R E C O L L E C T I V E
The affini themselves are also absolutely one of the races of all time. See, whenever landamaeri authors have conceptualised precursor races, they've almost always been either aloof or asshole-ish or disillusioned with everything. In that regard, I think from a metatextual sense they've tended to represent takes on different aspects of pre-existing human behaviour, and the general assumption was that precursors would be like us, just older and grumpier.
The fact that the
actual precursors are in fact pet-obsessed BDSM drug play enthusiasts is, uh, not a twist that I think many of my people could have seen coming. I think the weirdest part about it is that it's so... not horrible? Like don't get me wrong, florets are conceptually nightmare fuel and the whole 'owning other sentient beings' thing is very fucked whether or not they're competent enough to justify it, but it's also like, the fact that they actually 'care' - even if it's in their own, patently insane way - and actively engage with the universe, rather than sequestering themselves away and going 'lmao younger species' is I guess kind of surprising. I suppose they do still sort of do that; it's just more 'lmao get turned into a pet' than 'you suck we don't want to interact with you.'
Opinions on the affini back home are mixed. In the first place, barely a handful of people are aware of them conceptually, and I'm - to my knowledge anyway - the only one who knows they actually exist. Most people who've heard of them and aren't part of the small community that like the thought of them consider them slaving nightmare fuel, and I can't blame them in the slightest for that. For my part, though, I think I've got some complicated feelings about them. They may be consent-ignoring brainwashing imperialists, but their society is actually a lot more compatible with my preferred way of living than Landamaeri society is. The affini are
much better equipped - both culturally and technologically, but mainly the former - to deal with someone like me, and I think there's a chance I'd be accepted in Compact society in a way that will never be possible back home.
But at the same time, they fall short in so many areas. For a species that profess to be obsessed with individual care for their sophonts, they are egregiously awful at actually treating xenosophonts like individuals; rather than just part of the collective group of 'pet races.' They have this terrible habit of assuming all pets, at least from a given race, will behave in largely the same ways; at least regarding certain things. Like, they take one look at a traumatized feral Terran and go 'oh yeah it'll end up walking right into my vines after a week or two.' And okay yes, fine, 99% of the time they're right. But that's the problem with this stereotyping behaviour; such overwhelming consistency blinds one to that small 1% chance, and makes them assume that this one will be part of the 99%. I know that if I ever do end up talking to them, they're going to do that with me, and I think that therefore my biggest challenge in interacting with them will be finding a way to convince them not to do that.
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N O T I C E : : m e m o r y _ s t r e a m _ t e r m i n a t e d
