"So two brothers and a war for survival--it's a lot to leave behind." Vrenille is sympathetic. "If it helps to hear it, all the evidence seems to say that we don't vanish from our home worlds when we come here. There's an us that's here and an us that's still there. So they're not left high 'n dry without you." It's the sort of thing that maybe helps in getting on with all that the city requires of them.
So far as the concern about being a degree or two less human, Vrenille honestly has to shake his head at that. He's long been under the impression from everything he's heard about so many different versions of Earth that the place suffers from being too uniformly human. Either it's a trait of the world or a trait of humanity itself: in the absence of other non-human races, it seems like humans will turn factionalism against each other, act like differences in skin tone or culture make a person's "humanity" more or less. Suddenly introduce a non-human adversary, like what's happened in Ben's world, and they'll find ways to worry over the limits of the human all over again.
His own perspective both from home and from Duplicity is very different.
"Look, I come from a place where humans are the minority, so I get, y'know, that there's people out there who are really worried 'bout humanity just dying out. But here? You got loads of people who might look pretty human but really they're not, or at least not-so-much. Vampires, werewolves, half-aliens, mutants, cyborgs. It gets to be a damn long list. And whether they're proud to not be human varies a lot, person to person."
He lets that sink in for a moment. "I've known guys here who're scarred over 90% of their bodies, people who've been through all kinda shit. Hell, there's a woman here who turns into a sea monster. Whatever's happened to you? Looking at you right now, I can't see it. I just see a good-looking kid who's been through some rough times and is probably a little too used to being judged for it."
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So far as the concern about being a degree or two less human, Vrenille honestly has to shake his head at that. He's long been under the impression from everything he's heard about so many different versions of Earth that the place suffers from being too uniformly human. Either it's a trait of the world or a trait of humanity itself: in the absence of other non-human races, it seems like humans will turn factionalism against each other, act like differences in skin tone or culture make a person's "humanity" more or less. Suddenly introduce a non-human adversary, like what's happened in Ben's world, and they'll find ways to worry over the limits of the human all over again.
His own perspective both from home and from Duplicity is very different.
"Look, I come from a place where humans are the minority, so I get, y'know, that there's people out there who are really worried 'bout humanity just dying out. But here? You got loads of people who might look pretty human but really they're not, or at least not-so-much. Vampires, werewolves, half-aliens, mutants, cyborgs. It gets to be a damn long list. And whether they're proud to not be human varies a lot, person to person."
He lets that sink in for a moment. "I've known guys here who're scarred over 90% of their bodies, people who've been through all kinda shit. Hell, there's a woman here who turns into a sea monster. Whatever's happened to you? Looking at you right now, I can't see it. I just see a good-looking kid who's been through some rough times and is probably a little too used to being judged for it."