Seventeen & Maldusk: A Supernatural Soap Opera

I agree 100%. Underfoot is the smartest character in this whole story. :wink:

Please don't apologize for your comments. I love them! And it means a lot to me that you read my story and let me know you like it.

There are a few limited telepathic/tele-empathic things Sixamnians can do with some other species. For example, Ion can communicate telepathically with Paladin, at least to some degree. Most of these actions take special training and/or technological augmentation, though, and are much less than the full communication they can do with each other using the Hive Mind. Maybe consider the metaphor of old fashioned telegraph messages versus modern day internet. In Chapter 5, Ion mentions wanting to peek into Reuben's mind, but chooses not to because of not knowing how Reuben would react (mental defense mechanisms) or if telepathic intrusion would hurt him.

Ion definitely has a hard time with the concept of lying. Or even just with joking (as we saw in Chapter 11 in reference to Annie's "Cleric" joke about Underfoot). This is partly why Ion is so trusting all the time. Surely this won't cause any problems when dealing with humans!

Ion doesn't understand the pronoun system in this human language. This is why Ion still refers to everyone as "it". The sixamnian pronouns don't translate well, so none of the human ones fit for how Ion sees "gender" (which itself may even be a mistranslation of the sixamnian concept).

Different characters see Ion differently. Reuben, Tristan, and Tre all see Ion as male, and don't appear to have given it much thought. Annie is using "they" because Ion still hasn't said what to use (even though she asked back in Chapter 9), and because clearly even Sixamnian reproductive sexes are different than human ones, so she figures social concepts like genders probably are too.

I've been trying to avoid using any pronouns at all to refer to Ion when responding to comments, deliberately, so as not to set anything in stone. Though, I have slipped up a couple times if you've been paying close attention. :lol: At some point Ion may specify a preference, so far we don't know.

I don't like seeing Ion with a sad face! IT HURTS :'(

Ion does have just the saddest little sad face ever. It still pains my heart when I see it, and I'm the one who wrote the story that way. :lol:

I really hope it looks like a porta potty or something.

:joy: :joy: :joy: