Kassen Akoll, local “expert”
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Out-of-Placers
A story of inconvenient changes
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Now I gotta go back and see if I can spot all of Kass’ different mannerisms around different people…
Kass not knowing -anything- about ladies is pretty hilarious. I do hope Kass gets to know some of the flock a bit better so he can learn a bit more about what they do.
As far as I remember, this is entirely accurate. Having characters self reflect is great, because it means you can point out all the characterization work you did that people might not have consciously noticed :p Also, many of the musings are unrelated, or only tangentially related to that and interesting/funny in and of themselves.
It is a shame zhat Kass didn’t get to spend more time wizh Zally. Perhaps her opinion of how Yinglets see zheir Feemales would change wizh exposure to zhat free spirit.
“All women are lustful” is also an existing stereotype, so Kass might just switch from one kind of narrow-mindedness to another. Shame on a researcher for being so narrow-minded.
Kass said zhat feemales are willowy (weak minded) frightened egg factories. It is not zhat feemales are zhat lustful compared to de average person, its zhat it is a rare yinglet zhat is not lustful, wizh de Trademaster’s whole focus on us as a species zhat is closer to being feral zhan de average humani entirely based on Yinglet’s lack of impulse control. Zhat yinglets respect her means culturally we are capable of having social rules too, and zhat is a good zhing for us, and Kass too.
For Kass being narrow minded, she was raised in a traditionalist humani society her learning zhat zhose rules are worthless is like pulling off a bandage, slowly. So sure, Kass has hangups about her entire life being turned upside down, and I for one cannot wait for his Humani family to pay her a visit.
That brings up something else I’ve been wondering about: does Kass even still have a family, being a war survivor and a deserter?
Kass seems to zhink so, so it is a probability. Zhat we could see Kass doing de Yinglet version of de Bible’s story of Joseph and his brozhers meeting in Egypt after Joseph gained power in a foreign government would be interesting.
Kass trying to explain everything that’s happened to him would be… hilariously awkward xD
I wish Kassen spent more time wiff Feena or Pekkit and Vesaria. Definitely Lippie gave Diplomat Kass za wrong impression, and Zally would have given her a more different bad stereotype. Zally may only be a bit more enzusiastic zan ozzer yinglets, who are a bit more enzusiastic zan hyoomins… But Hyoomins havezings called “morals” and ozzer zings called “decorum”zat makes zem pretend most of za time zat zey are not very enzusiastic at all…
For we yingladies, zis is just talking shop, and za Matriach plans how many eggs and nests zere are to make sure ze food doesn’t run out… But hyoomins don’t have Matriarchs, so zey try to make do wiff zese weird ideas of “monogamy”, “morals” and “decorm” and “public decency” to keep zeir seekers from humping all zeir so many ladies and making more babies zan zey can feed. And zey do a lousy job of it, clearly. So zey still do what zey can to take all za fun outta seski times. So zey rilly have a lotta mean names for aggressively seski females zat you don’t wanna hear.
So… Yeah, I don’t zink Zally is za best girl to show za Diplomat, especially if I believed za ridiculous stories zat she was once a male hyoomin! She would be very sensitive to such brazen seskiality, much more zan she is. Would a former hyoomin male want to do za hatchery tour? So much no! But she did, and showed so much feminine care and compassion when she did… I heard she tried to help a dud baby by opening zeir egg! A hyoomin male would’ve been to grossed out to do zat.
I am reminded of Jane Austen never writing any scenes in her books where there wasn’t a woman in the scene, as she felt she never knew what went on between men without women being there as well, as she had literally never seen this happen. Hopefully Kass is about to use the opportunity here.
Pfffft, what? What the heck??? What’s so hard about writing men? People who don’t know what I look and/or sound like can never tell I’m a girl even though I still keep acting like Myself the Girl. What kind of interactions did she expect men to have without women? Competitions who’s got bigger?
Conversation with a woman gamer in a weekly gamestore game.
“Oh good you’re back. They’re worse when you’re not here.”
“… there’s a WORSE?”
There’s valid complains about how men write women , but whenever I read a woman author writing men they seem kind of wishy washy, indecisive, and have a way more complicated inner monologue than whats going on here.
It’s surprisingly hard to get into someone elses mindset and do it and keep it correctly.
That’s fair. Would it be more correct to write a man confidently doing stupid things rather than hesitating?
To be fair Nikkary, zhat is 90% of what growing up as a Yinglet is, outliving one’s own ignorance of what and how to function in a unforgiving world. Humani having zhat entire decade to be minimally tought zhings like hiding under a woman’s dress is inappropriate, or failing to be “house trained” can lead to being kicked. Humani males due to zheir pride often have to learn like us Yinglets do, once zhey get beyond dat decade of innocence (if zhey are lucky). So, its a function of intellegence zhat one learns from one’s mistakes, regardless of species or sex, but its a matter of pride or ignorance zhat fails for us to learn from ozhers mistakes (Vislet explained dis well, wizh showing how Humani learned from zheir ancestors, and Yinglets could not as of yet).
Well, men DO behave differently in an all male environment. If a woman is present you tone it down a little (and like i was joking about in my previous post, what most women see IS the toned down version). A little more boisterous, louder, more talking over, and physically moving around and occasionally hitting each other, less retstrained/ thought put into words etc. There is absolutely zero filter in between the brain and the mouth.
Someone that can sit in unnoticed could spot that. Someone growing up in a modern environment would see that on TV, I don’t think janes ever seen that environment, and it doesn’t surprise me kass has never seen the reverse.
Is Why Anne McCaffery is considered a queen of literature, she got how bozh sexes work in a similar environment as exists here.
Keeping in mind how different post-Sexual Revolution modern culture is to Austen’s pre-Victorian (technically za Georgian Regency era) culture as far as allowable gender roles for hyoomin females. Modern female auzzors, not just McCaffery, have a lot more access to society as zeir are practically zero males-only clubs anymore, so few topics are taboo compared to Austen, so many places that decent ladies can go and still remain upstanding citizens. If McCaffery lived during Austen’s times, it’s a pretty safe bet she’d have the same issues, eizzer you are a noble lady sheltered from za world, or your a common woman, working 16 hours a day to take care of your family for little to no wages and certainly to free time to do somezing as silly as writing fantasy\romance books!
Anne McCaffery (According to de Wikipedia) was one of doze great depression kids, born in de 1920’s to Irish parents. Her first published story was written in de early 1950’s, so to say she is a product of de sexual revolution (Yinglets should trademark zhis name) is less a zhing, zhan she just happened to be at de right place, at de right time wizh talent and a will to use it. And for doze earlier female writers zhan her, of course zhey existed, wrting under pseudonyms, until Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein all de way back in 1818!
whoopies, but zose relatively minor details aside, zat is basically my point… Zat it was za right time for McCaffery, and no matter how socially-aware Jane Austen might have been, social constrains at her time and for her class would never grant her za open access to male minds zat McCaffery could have in relatively class-fluid America. And at za time in order to afford to support yourself in order to have za free time and energy to write, one pretty much must be married to, or be a widow of, a wealthy man.
I certainly wasn’t saying female auzzors are new… some argue zat za first novel, Genji za shining Prince was written by Lady Murasaki in 1008! But again, we are talking cloistered Noblewomen, and widdows zere of. Not zat zere is anyzing wrong wiff za early female auzzors, only zat zeir cultural context kept zem from intimate knowledge of how men act when zey aren’t around wimmin.
That literally happens, though…
I know. That kind of competitions are common knowledge.
Exactly, so it wouldn’t actually be silly if that IS what she expected. What would be silly is if she wrote that into her freaking novels, which is why she just wrote what she knew.
I still wonder what else did she expect.
What do you expect?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
…don’t get me wrong, but I wanna slap Kass >:(
Also, he’s going to be disappointed when he learns that not acting girly won’t actually make him any less female.
I am fairly certain that not wanting to be female makes someone not female, that’s like the definition of being transgender man. If Kass wishes to be a man then he’s a man. Would Kass be considered trans despite being born male and identifying as male, or just cis with extra steps? something to think about
given how much of your personality comes from your brain (the mind is the plaything of the body) I think kass transformation has more or less left the possibility of any real world correlation.
I’m not talking about not wanting to be female. I’m talking about not acting girly. These are two separate things.
Not wanting to be female doesn’t make you not female, any more than not wanting to be tall makes you short. Masculine behaviours and being male are two different things, and the linkage of the two seems like the problem that leads to many people being transgender, because they can’t see a way of being themselves as female/male.
keep in mind that
1) Kass is from a pseudi medievally society where lead cups are all the rage. (they NEVER tip over…) Being ok with his sister wants to go into blacksmithing or soldier or something is… pretty fair/advanced for their day.
2) Kass’ experience with being male is “Here. You can write in the snow. Here’s a sword, go brutally end the life of another human being and get ptsd or die horribly or we will kill you” … no WONDER he has no idea why anyone would want that.
And yes, to Kass acting less girly WILL make them less female/more of a male.
Woman is a state of being, Male is a state of doing. If kas is doing useful things, running around building, protecting those around him by bathing in the blood of his enemies and seeing them driven before you! Then he is wracking up manpoints and those matter more for being a male than two lumps of fat and an innie.
By that logic, I’m male, lol.
People don’t use logic to reach conclusions. They reach the conclusion they want and then find pick the logic that gets them there.
In that case, this whole discussion is entirely pointless. We want different conclusions, plain and simple.
What I mean is Kass is going to use the logic that they want.
Kass would not apply that same logic to say, His little sister going in for blacksmithing not because the logic wouldn’t work, but that it wouldn’t get a desired result.
Kass wants to be male.
Kass wants to have some control over their own sense of self.
That Kass’ brain: a large source of their sense of self, has been set to “Female Yinglet” is fairly likely. But Kass has ZERO control over that. Clinging to the logic that you are what you do (a position not entirely without merit) lets Kass feel like they have some control over their life and can to some degree be male.
And I say that it won’t help, plain and simple. Girls can totally not act girly, and the yinglets are aware of that enough to consider Kass a female no matter how he acts.
Also, to your second point:
1. Doesn’t make sense. He has no idea why would anyone want that, but he wants that. Hypocrite.
2. And seriously, “keep in mind”? Dude, I live in Russia, where men have that very same experience with being male. As you can see by my reaction, that’s NEVER excused all the garbage I have to hear and read.
Also: Kass seriously needs to spend more time around girls.
Why don’t you explain what you’re offended about so the rest of us can have a laugh?
Kass believing it’d be “more fulfilling, exciting and satisfying for a woman to seek the attentions and care of a loving husband” and blah blah blah.
That said, it’s good writing. It’s just the character that annoys me at the moment.
What if you met a women who thought that?
Everyone has their own preferences and personalities, and of course there are people out there who dream of attentions and care of a loving spouse and of doing the house duties. I’m annoyed by the extrapolation to all women and by making it gender-specific, not by the idea of *some* people having such dreams.
And yes, I would still be just as annoyed if it’s a woman that extrapolates these preferences to all women.
You’d wanna slap them?
Sure. Or maybe punch, or kick…
What if that woman was questioning these beliefs in front of you? Still willing to be so violent?
Okay, that one *really* depends on the details. If you mean – believing these beliefs, but starting to question them, then yes. Slap her and tell her that yes, these beliefs are *wrong*, time to drop them.
Nikkary is culturally Slavic, I believe. So your question N.F. really needs context (you might be also). Women zhere are still women, yes, but are less de same as so, so Pretty Lady Kass’s own zhoughts dat feemales should be.
And what de real issue is wizh lady Kass is zhat Kass(en) is a hypocrite. Zhat when slapped in de face wizh de idea zhat people are individuals, regardless of sex, or who dey want to do de humpin’ wizh, Kass engages in finger pointing, puttin’ labels on folks zhat she herself are struggling to not be crushed under. Dat is the irritant, IMHO, dat we want Kass to conform to how we wish, also makes each of us who do so de same kind of hypocrite in not accepting zhat Kass is on a journey, like all of us are.
Yes. Thank you.
I don’t think their culture is relevant.
“Women zhere are still women, yes, but are less de same as so, so Pretty Lady Kass’s own zhoughts dat feemales should be.”
Women in slavic cultures are still women, as though that was up in the air at all, but don’t conform to Kassen’s presumptions. I don’t think that’s unique to Slavic cultures. I don’t know what context this provides that most other Eurasiatic cultures can’t parallel. It’s also not something I’ve disputed.
“And what de real issue is wizh lady Kass is zhat Kass(en) is a hypocrite. Zhat when slapped in de face wizh de idea zhat people are individuals, regardless of sex, or who dey want to do de humpin’ wizh, Kass engages in finger pointing, puttin’ labels on folks zhat she herself are struggling to not be crushed under.”
Kass isn’t pointing fingers at anyone but flirtatious Yinglets and his own lack of understanding. He’s questioning the beliefs that he’s learning where really just his own presumptions. He’s literally questioning the labels because of his new experiences. Is the problem just that he brought them up?
“Dat is the irritant, IMHO, dat we want Kass to conform to how we wish, also makes each of us who do so de same kind of hypocrite in not accepting zhat Kass is on a journey, like all of us are.”
So Nikary is a hypocrite?
Absolutely zeir culture is relevant. Zey are coming to terms wiff za much more liberal Val Salian culture, over za rustic, pastoral values of Dinnland where za hyoomins raised her. I absoultely would not bite, slap or ozzerwise attack Officer Kass, and would bite you if you tried. Because she is not saying zat she zinks zey should…. She is literally asking questions and trying to understand. When people ask questions, zey want to learn and find za answers! She wants to learn za ways and zat is good! I never want to hurt people who are trying to learn new and better ways.
Look past Kassen saying zis as za Ivenmoff Diplomat and see what zat says about za Dinnish culture of za hyoomins zat raised her? She has only started to know her own people for what about a week or two, and only visiting ze enclave in a couple of brief visits. She is learning zat girls can love reading books and crushing heads and work in za undergardens. Zoh I zink Isher may be inadvertently re-enforcing her stereotypes.
> So Nikary is a hypocrite?
Isn’t that what YOU’ve been accusing me of the whole time? The classic “You’d react differently if it were a woman”???
Lots of women do believe zis. And zat is not a bad zing, if zey find life fulfilling, loving zeir partner and running zeir household, zen good for zem. Honestly… I would love to zink zat zis would have been possible for me on some level, but it was never in za cards for me…
As social animals, people who are willing to find someone zat shares zeir values and only want to support and facilitate zem… zese are za people zat mak a society work. If everyone wanted to do zeir own zing and no one was willing to support anuzzer, well zat is pretty much describes what za dark, violent times before Graet Leader greated civilization and za Enclave system we modern yinglets enjoy today. Constant bickering, backstabbing, personal and small tribes spending all zeir time fighting and killing eachozzer.
Za BadZing(TM) is when people start to expect za anuzzer class of people has to keep to za social role zey have been given. Kassen is not saying All women must “seek the attentions and care of a loving husband”, but she is questioning because she was told and always led to believe zat zis is truly what all women want. I am as sick of hearing zat what all woman are supposed to want as much as anyone. But look what she is actually not demanding, not saying, what she is asking. “Don’t zey wimmin want zis?”
Ze answer to zat is not a slap, kick or punch, but, “no, not all of us want zat”. Kass said she would defend her human-sisters and fight to let zem IF zey wanted a non-traditional role. But zey apperently didn’t want zat. Kassen was amazed to see zings so different in Val Salia. She didn’t zink it was wrong, she again is asking, is zis what zey want? Give her time to see to conclude zat yes, zey some want to be drug-dealers (like Lady Tammerlane), some want to be career soldiers, some wanna sell lead cups. She is willing to accept it as long as you don’t go militant on her and attack her for zinking and questioning on paper as za Trademaster demands she must.
I mean, he admits in this very document that he may not know much about women, and there’s no better way to fix that then by hanging out with some of them.
Right? What’s there to argue with???
I blame Isher for some of Kass’s hangups. Isher is like a very large version of Lippie. I can only imagine the two of zhem meeting, de level of awkwardness would possibly implode time and space and create a pocket dimension where zhere would only be crafts and pretty zhings to look at.
P’hah :’D
Though I should point out that Isher arrived in Kassen’s life already after he’s arrived at Val Salia, and the hangups definitely were there before meeting her.
And also: waiting eagerly for when Kass remembers that his transformation is mind-bending and he’s been acting on yinglet’s emotionality already, so his “I’m a man in heart and soul” is not a valid argument for why he’s not having the so-called female thoughts.
Who a person is, is defined by zheir actions, abilities, and how dey used what possibilities zhey were given in life. Kassen is a product of a Iron Age post-collapse society where dey doubled down on zhings like women should be making de Man of zheir life a sandwich, barefoot, and pregnant preferably. Zhat dere are ozher species and cultures around to interfere wizh humani’s tendancies to masturbate to how backwards and assinine zhey can treat zheir fellow human just means dey now have even MORE reasons to feel superior to ozher races and species potentially. Zhat Kassen was as open minded as he was before becoming a Feemale makes it more painful when de conflict of morals and common sense collide in Kass’s psyche.
I am disappointed in you. You believe zis impossible story of mind and body bending magics, but you have no faizh in her perfectly natural normal learning processes. Perhaps you have only changed wiff your culture and never have had to try and deprogram yourself from cultural expectations telling you who you are supposed to be and how you are supposed to act zat fly in za face of everyzing you feel you are.
I hope you haven’t, but zat is no reason to hate a person who is struggling to overcome every moment of zeir childhood where zey were raised away from zeir real loving and accepting family, by big, mean, stoopid salt of za Earzh rural bread-eating hyoomins, you know zem… za Morons!
Worse, IF by some ungodly powers zat what you believe she was a hyoomin and male, zat you believe “he” would give up hope so soon of returning to zeir natural state. Maybe I am acting too girly for you by not wanting to add physical hurting to someone who already is clearly emotionally hurting. Maybe, maybe, but I won’t question your girliness for your violence and apperent lack of empazzy. Pleas, learn from za Diplomats example and try to understand zat people have to learn and grow for zemselves and decide over time. Zere is no magic switch, zat one day you are male and only have za male zots (like hitting anyone you disagree wiff in anger) and za next you are an enlighted female and you understand people’s pains and traumas and empazzize wiff people as zey struggle as everyzing zey have been told zeir whole life crashes into a new world zat is completely za opposite.
I honestly am happy zat you have never had to struggle wiff your identity in a culture zat expects completely different zings zan you can see yourself doing. It is not at all reasonable for me to expect zat anyone who hasn’t would be able to understand how difficult it is to re-assemble your whole world view in a couple of weeks, while you still have regular duties and expectations you still must comply to. But, even if you can’t understand what she is going zroo, please try to understand zat she is struggling and has far deeper concerns zan your callous impatience and zat your desires to assault her would help no one. If it makes you feel about yourself, I wonder if you were secretly raised by hyoomins also.
Kass is, quite literally, male software running on female hardware.
…however, keep in mind that Kass was not BORN with inherently male software (aside from some default ROM/kernel subroutines, no doubt). Kass spent the first couple dozen or so years’ time running around with (obviously) male hardware, and so with every interaction, every decision, every class, training, and conversation, Kass was fed/taught/presented/encouraged/programmed/TRAINED against the model of how a male is supposed/expected to act, and would no doubt have continued along such a route, refining and reinforcing the “male” identity built up within his head until the day he died.
But now things have changed. Now the hardware surrounding Kass’ neural net has changed from male to female, even though the neural net ITSELF (which is where Kass’ intrinsic sense of “self” actually resides) is still trained male. That guy in charge of House Ivenmoth definitely has the right idea–nobody in all of recorded history is going to have quite the perspective Kass has been granted. NOBODY!
The only immediate software changes are going to be those ROM/kernel (i.e., “instinctual”) routines I mentioned earlier, and they are probably going to get (re)routed to whatever the new behavior analogue(s) might be. Arousal, sadness, anger — tears will still flow, heart rate will change, and blood will still be sent to engorge certain tissues, although the specific tissues being engorged will no doubt be different than before.
Likewise, the input being fed into the existing “Kass” model has changed, and that model will therefore need to evolve to cope.
I see a lot of discussion about whether Kass is truly “male” or “female” (or “a man” or
“a woman,” if you want to get into the discussion about “gender” v. “sex”), but really, what Kass IS is “confused” and “trying to make sense/the best of a situation literally none of us can EVER possibly 100% understand” (including the author, though I presume Valsalia will TRY to make a faithful effort at extrapolation). No matter how much Kass might think/want otherwise (at the outset, at least), it would be absolutely impossible for that multi-year neural construct that makes him “him” to remain unaffected by biological/physical/social changes spanning TWO orders of magnitude (sex AND species, both!).
To Kass’ credit, I think he’s doing an excellent job at DEALING with the realization that he is “stuck like this,” but I am very happy to see that his current focus seems to have become a desire to determine that what he CAN influence, and to apply that influence where he feels it will do the most good.
So Kass self-identifies as he, it seems? I guess I should be using he now.
For a woman in the blacksmith trade, she wouldn’t necessarily need protection, she would have the muscles and various heavy iron objects in the smithy to protect herself with.