Curls (Akin Iyapo Shing Kaalnikanjlo)

( Dawn in a nutshell. )

( Read more... )

What Akin Learned
-- Whatever caused humans to need Oankali was self-inflicted -- the war mentioned previously was between humans and other humans, not an invasion or anything. Without Oankali intervention before, they would have all died.
-- Well... damn. This is a lot to think about, especially given Sabra events.

( Read more... )

What Akin Gets
-- Some history. I'm cutting off the bit where he, Tii and Dichaan talk more about the future of humanity, but there's still bits of where the ships come from.
-- Ability to better interface with Oankali 'tech'. Useless in Sabra, but...
-- ... he may be able to apply some of those memories when working with Jace or another telepath, doing what his father did for him.
-- ... This is not helping with Pillar trauma. Seriously, the more he remembers of ships and towns, the more this place feels like one of those psychological horror films where everything looks normal until eldritch horrors start kidnapping people and replacing them with pod people when you turn your back.

( Akin is small and up in the mountains with the Phoenix humans, when he smells Oankali. He is cleaning a vase, and puts it down to find Tate, who is digging up things. )

What Akin Learned
Actually, mostly this reinforces things he's already known, besides that Tino survived. He collects things for ooloi -- in this case, his ooan, but in adult Akin's case, he might have a ooloi mate -- because, well, it feels nice to share things, and ooloi can do things with the information he can't. His mother is ambivalent about the Oankali, which is one reason why he was so determined to find her better way. His relationship with Ti is messed up because the Oankali essentially decided to use him as a scout on resister humans, which annoyed his family because, dammit, you guys, our kids.

Truthfully, Akin can see why the Oankali don't get humans and that they need to understand. He even has enough self-knowledge to know that a construct had to be a bridge -- even Lilith couldn't explain humanness to them well enough for them to truly get it. OTOH, he can also notice that it would have been nice to not disrupt his family and his own life to get this information.

Sabra is another data point for him. Sabran humans can be a lot crueler than resisters, since some Judges reward cruelty, and really there's a lot more threats than 'each other's bad tempers' and 'ennui'. OTOH, Akin persists in believing a lot of what humans do is from fear or their hierarchical urges.

( Day 255-259 )

So, Akin is really Not Okay.

( In other news, water is wet. )

Status: Not Taken Yet

( Akin is nine months old in this memory. Lilith basically is carrying him on her back as she works in a vegetable garden. )

( Days 250 to 254 )

This is another memory form when Akin is kidnapped as a toddler.

( Summary )

What Akin Learns
-- Akin's gardening skills get a major boost here. At this point, he might well be able to transplant anything that is transplantable in SLT, and will probably try everything. He'll probably try to grab the fern squash-pepper things that grow in the fields. (He's been trying for a while with limited success) and maybe figure out why he can never get the vaguely-spinach things to grow right. You'll also start to see him doing more fussy things with the soil in Canis's garden -- things like mixing different soils or crushed rock.
-- He also knows more about why he collects samples. He'll probably redouble his efforts to collect from all of Sabra's native animal and plant species, even the useless ones. (And will end up with a good knowledge of Sabra's ecosystem by the end -- hell, his people might even be able to recreate any species that doesn't need things like magic.)
-- Geology 101.
-- Knowledge of American culture, at least the urban things: acting, living in a city. Probably Gabe mentions 'the war' -- a conflict where America and the Soviet Union (or someone and someone) decided to finally nuke each other to oblivion. Gabe may not have told Akin enough -- since Akin already knew the details in canon -- that it wasn't the Oankali who did it.
-- Whatever the war was, it killed a lot of the large animals on Earth. Like bears. (This is a column against the Oankali conquered Earth theory, as Akin refuses to believe they would kill bears.)
-- Shakespeare. Since Akin has a perfect memory, he can probably do King Lear (certainly Lear's part). He may well be able to tell the stories of other plays, and do major (male, since Gabe was the one recalling them) soliloquies. If it occurs to him he can write them down for other blanks.
-- Humans have different groups based on kinship. Akin's picture probably won't be like a human's -- For one, Africa looks a lot more diverse on a genetic scale than anywhere else in the world. But he can now probably tell if a Blank is from East Asia or Europe. Assuming they're from places with East Asia or Europe.
-- Man, Gabe is so cool. And acting is amazing.

Because I need to do this for characters with eidetic memories. Seriously. And tag my posts.

( Days 240-249 )

* Mini essay 1: Akin is used to being his own best authority on himself. I've talked a bit about this with regards to healing -- Oankali tend to assume that oneself and one's kin are the best people to ask about medical/psychological matters because they have all the data. Since Akin realizes his own judgement is compromised by emotions, Canis is the obvious people to ask 'should I stay or go?'.

** Mini essay 2: Honestly, if I didn't have Tazendra in the game, I would have wrote on this more. Akin is not completely saintly. In canon, he feels anger when people hurt people he cares about deliberately. (For instance, seeing his step-father seemingly killed in front of him when he's kidnapped makes him actually want to hurt the person who did it, though he's still willing to lie to protect him from the residents of Phoenix.) So Shiba managed to provoke Akin enough to overcome his normal reluctance to use a weapon or hurt someone -- normally he'd try to restrain first***. Though Akin is aware enough to realize he might have killed Shiba if the mere touch of the sword didn't take him out, and he didn't care that Shiba was only the figment of Chika's dreams, rather than a real person (ie, he was thinking of Shiba as a person, while the rats are easier to dismiss as 'not really alive'). OTOH, it was to protect Thistle who would have died if he didn't intervene. So it's more of a fear of his own wrath than distaste for trying to kill Shiba.

*** Well, in canon he later learns how to fight just as a sort of human dominance thing. Men assume the scrawny construct teen is easy pickings, so he learns how to put someone down without lasting injury but quickly and decisively enough to get respect.

Lookit me, actually putting my typed up notes on Akin's heart!

( The moral of the story of this, kids, is don't take two neg-sig memories before Persona ganks you -- well, the mun encourages it, even if Akin is probably not happy about it. )

Okay, so canon is pretty ambiguous on exactly how fast Oankali healing works. Among other things. This is kind of collecting a bunch of details that are mentioned elsewhere.

But I'm going to make an attempt to set reasonable limits based on other Sabra healing things:

( What we do know: )

Akin hasn't taken this one (or the last one) yet.

( Sulky Teenager Ahoy! )

( Read more... )

I am behind. Woe is me.

( Human Anatomy Lessons )

( Nikanj teaching him not to sting people accidentally. )

( Museum of pre-war stuff )

His Own Birth
Mostly this is a bunch of strong impressions, but Akin remembers it and the 'feeling' of his parents -- all four living parents were present and Nikanj was faking the presence of Akin's human father so the newborn Akin would feel safe.

+ Honestly, not much he can gain from this besides the knowledge that this is his first memory chronologically. And it'll take a bit to figure out exactly what he's remembering.

Finally Akin gets a memory from when he is older than 2!

( What happened. )

What Akin got from it:
-- A lot more about Oankali. They're spacefaring, and at some point had humans on their ship, possibly against their will (worrying, but he wasn't bothered by it in their memory). They're very plastic -- Akin had no problem accepting the Akjai ooloi as 'Oankali too'.
-- The ship is alive and Oankali communicate with it and between themselves via neural links. He remembers Nikanj teaching him that way as well.
-- --100 Pillar fear. When you live in something, knowing the rock around you is alive is less worrying. Akin is still not dumb enough to try to talk to the Pillar/the Old Man.
-- He was interested in learning vet science, so he was studying with an ooloi teacher.
-- A little bit more about how his 'taste' works.
-- While canon seems to indicate Akin can't link with a non-Oankali*, he'll have gained leaps and bounds in transmitting/receiving information to Jace or another telepath. So, he'll probably be a lot more likely to transmit feelings or images or whatever if he's speaking mind-to-mind with Jace.

* My inference. Nikanj can, but the books also imply that it's one of those things ooloi can do that males, females and children can't. Later, Akin notes that he can't mess with Tate's nervous system to make his healing her feel good to her, so he was just going to knock her out to avoid the pain signals.

Summary
( Welcome to Phoenix )

What Akin Learned
-- His alien part is Oankali. He knows their scent, and that they're part of him.
-- Gabe and Tate and the town of Phoenix.
-- His first name. Which is a human name, from a group of people called the Yoruba in a country called Nigeria.
-- Tino, who is important to him, but not his father. Akin's father is dead. So is Tino, probably.
-- His mother is Lilith Iyapo, and they are from Lo. Lilith apparently has a reputation. Lo is safe for Oankali and constructs, but this place is human only.
-- Venomous bite? How does that work?
-- His tongue, which is like his current one and his tentacles. He smells and tastes with it, and can taste cells and genes. (He has the words for what he does now! Yay!) Also sensory patches and the ability to share impressions with other Oankali/constructs.
-- Languages -- he speaks some. (Book doesn't specify, but at least English, Spanish and Oankali.)

-- +10 of baggage about being not human. He doesn't mind, but he keeps getting mixed messages that humans don't like his kind. Despite Jace telling him that he's fine with him. But Gabe calls the Oankali 'worms', in a disparaging way, even while being kind to Akin.
-- +10 Skill at diverting and diffusing situations.
-- +15 unease around strangers, especially human-looking ones.

Summary
This is more mentioned in canon. Basically, Akin can 'taste'/'sense'/'examine' cells down to the level of a gene, though without any medical knowledge, it's mostly a 'this looks right/wrong' and a rough idea about the owner's sex/ancestry/species. It's mentioned that his mother was the first person he tried to do it to, when he was an infant, and he hadn't mastered the art of not triggering a pain response. His mother felt pain (like being stabbed by a blunt needle) he felt it too from the link, and starting going into the standard infant 'cry his head off'. His ooan (ooloi parent) then promised to show him how to do it without hurting anyone. He also recalls she wasn't too thrilled about him looking at her cells, for some reason, though his ooan didn't mind.

A lot of the details here will be... not really fuzzy, but the accompanying thoughts will be weak. Mostly sensory info and emotion.

Comments
-- Akin already tried to do this with Jace when he first showed up. Remembering how not to hurt someone is going to make him interested in trying it again. (I might need to put up a ping post.)
-- On the other hand, the Lizard of Guilt might make him more apprehensive about touching people, lest they misinterpret it.
-- He has mental images of two of his parents, even if he doesn't remember their names, just Mother and Ooan.
-- Probably from the lessons, he's figured out he's part human and part whatever Ooan is. He can see the similarities between his mother and himself, even if they aren't physical.
-- Explaining to teammates he can remember things that happened when he was several months old, that'll be fun. Though not as much fun as when he gets the memory of his own birth.

( 200-209 )

Summary
( Read more... )

Comments
-- Man, what a scary memory. Though it scares him more that between Ari's memories and what Jace has told him of Sabra, Curls himself can't rely on having an ooloi to patch him up.
-- He's also more consciously aware of the difference between Oankali and humans regarding gender. He remembers he has five parents, and he was born to a human but isn't fully human himself.
-- Sensory issues. Akin as a kid was almost completely human looking -- his senses were a bit muted and he'd be more aware of having a nose and not breathing out of a hole in his throat. And, you know, the lack of tentacles.
-- Having more control over his fast healing is nice. And, you know, knowing about it. He has enough knowledge from Ari to know that most humans can't control their bodies in this way and heal slower.
-- +10 self-sacrifice, or at least willingness to push the system. Granted, Curls also has the empathy enough to realize if he's punished for this, it will hurt Canis. And he remembers losing someone, and he doesn't want anyone to feel this.
-- He was being taken away from his home against his will in this memory, and he just wants to get away from these scary people who killed someone to catch him and were willing to let their own friends die.

Also, as a note, Curls will be easing off the meat he eats, but not enough to starve. Probably a lot of trying things growing in the higher places (he's avoiding the water on Jace's word) and seeing what's edible.