Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

[Arioch]

How well would the average Loroi get along with Terran pets like birds, cats, dogs, rodents, et cetera?

As differently as different individual humans would react to unfamiliar animals.

So somewhere between "Aww, can I hold him?" and "Get that THING away from me!".

Can Loroi use senzai with animals native to the Sister Worlds?  Do those animals have senzai as well?

Some animals have a telepathic signature that Loroi can detect and interact with, but none are telepathic themselves.

The Loroi are not aware of any other organisms with telepathy besides themselves.

[Bamax]

I am curious... provided the Loroi visit Earth... which is a likely possibility since no one expects Earth to irreverently end like Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy... what would the Loroi accent sound like to English speakers... if say... Tempo or Beryl was speaking english?

Spiral would be a hoot to say the least : )

Fireblade probably could only manage a few words at best since speaking is not her thing.

What is the Loroi accent closest to when they speak english?

French? Chinese (please no), spanish (so accustomed to it I hope not), or British (so cliche I hope not).

Because it's obvious you take great pains to make the Loroi alien and unique.. Tempo does not even show three fingers like Anericans do (three fingers), since Tempo counts her thumb and two fingers and that's good enough for her and too bad for you if you think it's two.

Subtle and cool choice.

[Arioch]

Loroi Trade has mostly soft consonants, so the accent might sound a bit like French or Portuguese.

[Keklas Rekobah]

Would you give us a few examples, please? For instance, I imagine our hero’s name to be pronounced as “AH-legz” and not “AL-eks” by the Trio.

I also imagine Beryl’s voice to be high-pitched and lilting (soprano), Tempo’s voice to be lower-pitched and articulate (alto), and Fireblade’s voice to be lower still (tenor?) and rasping with all the warmth a military drill sergeant can muster.

[Arioch]

Loroi Trade has no k, u, th or j, which would be pronounced as g, (o or a), z and (i or z) respectively. It has a sort of y sound as part of a dipthong (as in ia pronounced "eeyah"), but it's preceded by a vowel. So,

"Alex Jardin, I think you stink!" would be pronounced something like:

"Alegz zardan, ai zing eeyoh sting!"

[Bamax]

Loroi Trade has no k, u, th or j, which would be pronounced as g, (o or a), z and (i or z) respectively. It has a sort of y sound as part of a dipthong (as in ia pronounced "eeyah"), but it's preceded by a vowel. So,

"Alex Jardin, I think you stink!" would be pronounced something like:

"Alegz zardan, ai zing eeyoh sting!"

Wow... that's pretty bad... if not for your translation I would have ZERO idea what you just said.

Spiral is doomed here to people looking to Talon or Beryl to translate whatever she says.

Then again.... with enough and ample gesturing (pointing, hand pinched on nose) I am sure people would understand. Would be even more embarassing for Alex around fellow humans though. "Even space elves say you stink... so it must be true!" Humans would joke.

Out of them all both Beryl and Tempo should excel... Beryl because it is literally her job she trained for, and Tempo because she is a trained diplomat among other things so she would want to understand english despite the difficulty.

[Keklas Rekobah]

Egzelent! Ai see dat derr may be some similarities in prononciation between Trade and a Filipino agsent.

(My wife emigrated from the Philippines, and I love the way she talks!)

[Arioch]

Wow... that's pretty bad... if not for your translation I would have ZERO idea what you just said.

It looks worse written than it would sound.

[Snoofman]

Since Mizols like Tempo seem to be able to control or at least heavily influence aliens like Umiak... is it possible that Mizol have the power to rewrite or erase an alien's memory? Or other loroi with weaker mental defences?

[Snoofman]

Since Mizols like Tempo seem to be able to mind control or at least heavily influence aliens like Umiak within close enough proximity... is it possible that Mizol have the power to rewrite or erase an alien's memory? Or other loroi with weaker mental defences?

Or is the seeming mind-control more like a form of telepathic hypnosis?

[Arioch]

Telepathic techniques only affect the conscious mind of a target, not its physical body (which includes memory). So a Mizol can't edit or erase memories, but she can temporarily affect access to memory (causing the target to temporarily forget or overlook something obvious), and suggest untrue things which the target may store as a false memory. A really skilled telepath can sometimes convince a target to bury a memory deep in the subconscious mind.

Or is the seeming mind-control more like a form of telepathic hypnosis?

Yes.

[Keklas Rekobah]

Then there must be something like the “Mizol Mind Trick”, right?

[Cthulhu]

Then there must be something like the “Mizol Mind Trick”, right?

*Waves hand* No, even the very notion of that is utterly absurd and therefore, shall be forgotten right away.

[Snoofman]

Then there must be something like the “Mizol Mind Trick”, right?

*Waves hand* No, even the very notion of that is utterly absurd and therefore, shall be forgotten right away.

Tempo: *Waves hand* You don't need to report the presence of these loroi!

Kikitik: ......I don't need to report the presence of these loroi.

Tempo: That isn't the human you're looking for!

Kikitik: ......This isn't the human we're looking for.

Tempo: They can go about their business!

Kikitik: ......You can go about your business.

Tempo: Move along!

[Keklas Rekobah]

Then there must be something like the “Mizol Mind Trick”, right?

*Waves hand* No, even the very notion of that is utterly absurd and therefore, shall be forgotten right away.

Tempo: *Waves hand* You don't need to report the presence of these Loroi!

Kikitik: ......I don't need to report the presence of these Loroi.

Tempo: That isn't the human you're looking for!

Kikitik: ......This isn't the human we're looking for.

Tempo: They can go about their business!

Kikitik: ......You can go about your business.

Tempo: Move along!

It would not surprise me at all if Arioch says this is exactly what happened.

[inxsi]

What age does a Loroi start to form memories? Does it differ for a listel?

[Arioch]

What age does a Loroi start to form memories? Does it differ for a listel?

Well, as with humans, infants can recognize voices or faces when only a few days old (and some contend they can recognize voices heard prenatally), so basic memory is functional at birth if not before. However, I think long-term "declarative" memory develops gradually over the course of the first few years, and whether early memories survive into adulthood probably depends on whether they are reinforced, or were formed under crisis conditions.

So if the question is "can Loroi with eidetic memory remember their infancy, birth, or prebirth?" the answer is probably no, unless the memory was extremely traumatic or reinforced in childhood and later life (such as continually hearing a particular sound she had been exposed to while in utero).

My earliest memories are from a fairly early age, perhaps two or three... of playing in a large field, watching the Apollo landings, receiving favorite toys at Christmas... I'm sure there are many more lurking in their somewhere that could be brought out with a key stimulus.

[inxsi]

I was wondering what the earliest memories a loroi would likely have - I wasn't sure how to think about it given their faster development than humans.

[Arioch]

I think human babies grow very quickly in the first year or so, then slow down. So I think Loroi wouldn't grow much faster in the first year or two.

[Dan Wyatt]

I think human babies grow very quickly in the first year or so, then slow down. So I think Loroi wouldn't grow much faster in the first year or two.

I read that our Listel Beryl has a phobia regarding 'being around too many people'; is it related to any childhood trauma?
Does Fireblade have any trauma from her childhood days?