Aliases are alternative forms of a reference. They can include actual aliases for characters, nicknames, plural variations, gendered versions of some [Classes], and even typos.
Scastein was a combination of ‘Scala’ and ‘Frankenstein’, a fitting blend. As for Elizabeth? Well…Selphid-Geneva had thought of calling herself ‘Marie’ or ‘Marie Curie’ after one of the most famous female medical practitioners to ever live, but she’d had the feeling everyone might do that.
Elizabeth Blackwell was another famous woman, so Selphid-Geneva had stolen that first name. She wasn’t sold on the new moniker, first or last. She wasn’t good at coming up with names.
“Well, ‘Elizabeth’, you’d better have a good reason for not presenting properly. The Lizardfolk here got wind of the Gathering Citadel’s destruction, and every settlement in the region is whispering about the Minds and the Forgotten Wing company and casting eyes at us. You are from there, aren’t you?”
The two Selphids pressed in, both physically and in a way that Elizabeth would have described as someone leaning over and staring at you if she were still Human. It was beyond handsy—the feeling of two other species in such close proximity.
However, it did not feel like inappropriate sexual conduct, more like general closeness. Which she was glad of—then Elizabeth realized she might not even technically be ‘female’ in a biological sense since Selphids had no variance in sex. Also, and this was funny—the way one of the two was prodding her rather reminded her of her heritage.
She was…deeply cynical, she realized. Geneva Scala was that after so long of seeing the Minds and the deaths she had been unable to prevent. But Elizabeth?
To lock her down, she realized. She tried to dodge, but he just ‘grabbed’ her, and while both were infinitely malleable, there were weaknesses she realized. Teyis seized Elizabeth’s body where she was elongated, like someone performing a joint-hold; if she stretched, she might snap at these critical junctures.
This dour statement explained much of the Selphids’ way of life. It came from Teyis and was accompanied, to Elizabeth’s rather surprised amusement, by a chatter of voices.
A nursery. Elizabeth was horrified as a Human and entranced as someone studying this unique culture. Selphid biology was still largely foreign to her—and she was a Selphid!—but she had picked up enough to understand their life cycle in reproduction.
