Silhouette

Arms crossed, James tapped his fingers nervously. It had been a handful of hours now since he'd brought his little family to the city hall for the kids' test to obtain citizenship. He and the ratlings had been separated almost immediately to be interviewed individually. While his meeting had been rather short, he had yet to see a hair of the children in the waiting room he had been brought to since he was left here. He tried his best not to worry too much. Marry did tell him this situation was likely to arise, after all. It only made sense, everything related to children grew complicated quickly, but still.

He had to restrain himself to only be tapping with his fingers. Had he been alone, he would just be using his foot instead, uncaring of the noise it would make. Sadly for his nerves, others were waiting as well.

He didn't know if all present in the room were here for something similar, but he had an inkling multiple services shared this same space to have people wait. While some of the folks around seemed as tense as him or even worse, some seemed perfectly calm or bored. Still, there was a noteworthy tendency for non-human physiologies around. Seated to James' right was an elderly orc woman reading a magazine, her thin glasses and spotted dress contrasting drastically with her wider-than-tall figure. She alone had to be taking up at least three or four seats, something the designer of the place likely foresaw with how rather than cheap plastic chairs it was equipped with sturdy benches.

To his left James found a kindred soul. At least he thought so. While he liked to think he'd gotten better at guessing what faceless people felt, it was difficult to apply that to an orb of energy. The sparkling sphere floated as a head above a stone and metal body, a thin puppet-like thing occasionally lit up by a bolt of stray electricity normally coursing through its insides. Well, that was his assumption of its composition given the small fractures that appeared here and there and the large opening where the creature's neck should have been.

While he couldn't be fully certain this wasn't just a quirk of its body, the way its head crackled sparks intensely like it was about to blow up led him to think it was just as nervous as he was. He thought about starting a conversation before quickly giving up on the idea. He had no idea if they liked strangers approaching them in the first place, the tense situation would only make things even worse.

The non-organic person took the choice out of his hands by addressing him. Their voice was light with a crackling undercurrent that made him buzz.

"Have you been here for long?"

"A little over two hours I think."

They sighed sparks as they put their glowing head into their hands.

"Argh, I can't wait so long! I'm gonna burst..."

James nodded.

"I feel you. What are you here for?"

"I want to start something for newly born elementals in the city. A place for them to increase their chances of attaining sapience. And you?"

"I'm here to prove my rat kids are people and earn the right to adopt them."

"Oh, I hope everything goes well for you."

"Same to you. I don't know much about elementals, but I'm guessing without proper support they don't develop, right?"

The electricity that had been wild so far calmed down as it focused on James and began to answer.

"Something like that. We start with little to no intelligence, closer to plankton and jellyfish than anything else. Then, from that point on, we grow and change to adapt to our environment. Some stay mindless but grow powerful bodies, others turn into beasts, and lastly, a few like myself become people under the right circumstances."

"And you wish to create a place where these circumstances are guaranteed."

"Yes. It usually takes decades if not centuries for us to become self-aware, and in the modern age, this doesn't work anymore. The regulations in place consider each category of elemental as though they were entirely different species. It is perfectly legal to have an animalistic or mindless one of us as a pet, despite the fact they have the potential to grow to personhood."

"To be fair, you could say the same of mundane animals too. I have experienced it."

"Yes, but the difference is the likelihood. Animals growing sapient is fully random, but for us, it is part of our natural evolution. Not only that, but the fact they are being kept as pets drastically lowers the chances they will reach higher levels of intelligence. There is no need to adapt in a cushy and lazy life spent being cared for."

James nodded.

"When you put it this way, I get it."

The elemental sighed once more.

"I know it's pointless to try and change the laws surrounding us by my lonesome, so the next best thing is ensuring at least some more will become people."

"But if you're so nervous, it can't be as easy as adopting a bunch as pets and then raising them."

"The mass breeding of sapient lifeforms is forbidden. There are also all the ramifications of turning what they consider a mindless animal into a person. I don't want to become the parent of thousands, even becoming a tutor to so many would be an administrative nightmare."

"Thousands?"

"In the long term. I plan on working with 'classes' of a dozen or two individuals at a time, at least at first."

"So, you're here looking for permits, derogations, and official aids of some sort."

"Yes. Something to help take care of fully raised elementals, for instance."

Thinking back to Decanov's story about his family, James could see why.

"I'm no expert, but maybe they could use the same system they have for robots? A friend of mine told me about it."

The elemental nodded as they twindled their thumbs.

"Yes, something like that could work. It couldn't be exactly the same, but it'd be a good enough foundation. I just hope they see how important this is."

James let out a small sound to voice his support without words because frankly, he couldn't see what else he could say to reassure. Though Terra Stellis was a world that featured a lot more intelligent creatures than Earth and Zalcien proved itself greatly accepting, there was still a trend he was noticing. Mutants and grotesque figures were a lot more common back in the slums, folks in the city were varied but still often very human-looking. Humanoid animals were common too, sure, but that was it. There had been no one quite as bizarre as Maltodextrin the psychic alien squid. The same went for Medraw, he had yet to see another person with such prominent bug features outside of the slums.

Decanov's rants came to mind as well. Oh, he didn't doubt the man's temper and attitude had something to do with how often he was fired, but still. It couldn't be denied the mechanical scientist was mistreated much more often than other fleshier colleagues in his field. Sure, the engineer had the nasty habit of purposefully designing his inventions to explode if a singular minuscule flaw wasn't fixed at the last moment, but James' time on this world's internet had revealed scientists with worse habits still getting work. He still had some shivers about that one elf who took out her sadistic tendencies on test subjects up until the police forced her employer to close down that specific branch of testing. She still had work over at Xenocorp.

This waiting room didn't help matters regarding this train of thought. There were no humans, no elves, no dwarves. People here all had something strange going on. Sure, maybe he was just being paranoid, the elemental and he were both here for matters related to the sapience of entities who weren't guaranteed to have it after all. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that maybe, just maybe, things weren't as nice in the civilized parts of the city as he hoped.

No, he had to push away those worries. That exterminator had been polite even after finding out his kids were rats. Maybe there were a few bad apples, but Zalcien as a whole had treated him... Well, he couldn't quite say well, but at least good enough.

"Oh! How rude of me, here I am droning on and on and I haven't even asked your name!"

"Oh, I'm James, James Valdest. And you?"

"Magne Magnolia. Sorry again for waiting until now."

"No, no, don't worry. I didn't ask you either."

The two sat there in silence for a moment, awkwardly waiting. At last a city hall employee arrived, someone in surprisingly mundane clothing for a person working in as fancy a building as the place was on the outside, a simple name tag indicating their identity. The simplicity cut a clear contrast with the architecture that felt closer to an oligarch's mad overfunded project with too many curves and angles than an administrative building.

The middle-aged ginger man briefly looked down at the tablet in his hand before addressing them, though his gaze was solely locked on James.

"Mister Valdest? If you would follow me, please."

James nodded as he got up, giving his elemental interlocutor a final parting wave as the public worker guided him to his next destination, an isolated office with dark red walls where the kids were waiting for him alongside a woman with olive skin. He recalled her being the one taking Goliath away when they were separated, and now it looked like she'd be the one finishing their case. As soon as James stepped inside his guide left, closing the door behind him.

"Mister Valdest, please take a seat."

He did exactly that.

"After interviewing your son and comparing notes with my colleagues who handled you and his siblings, I think I have learned to make a few decisions. To begin with, I hereby officially declare that all five of them passed the sapient test and shall hereby be considered people. As this and their core formative period occurred here, they are also hereby granted citizenship."

James let out a sigh and slouched back a little in his cheap chair, a fair part of his stress melting away at those words.

"Thank you, miss."

"I'm only doing my job. Though I must say, you have raised one delightful son."

The largest of the ratlings beamed at the praise from his cushion, one having been provided to each member of the litter.

"Oh, thank you. And..."

The fact she had used the term son gave him hope, and thankfully she confirmed it.

"Yes, so far, I see no reason to separate them from you. Your interview showed no issue on your part. We'll have an agent examine your living space and pass by your workplace, but if all goes as expected then no issue should arise."

"Oh, thank you. I don't suppose you could tell me when?"

"No. Unexpectedness is part of the success of the operation. But again, if you are exactly as you presented yourself, then there should be no problem."

She spared a glance at the furry siblings as they silently cheered. Even David and Lucille sported little smiles on their snouts, though both quickly dropped them when they met the other's gaze, crossing their arms to appear unphased.

"You seem to have formed quite the happy little family already. I have no doubt you all have a bright future ahead of you."

"You're too kind."

"Perhaps. But in this line of work, I think it doesn't hurt. While your circumstances are far more than satisfactory, it's not always the case. I think you can't see the world the same way once you've had to separate crying children from their non-sapient mother or explain to an ascended animal parent that the chances of their offspring born before their ascension following their path are slim."

She let out a sigh as she looked off to the side before focusing back on the present.

"Back to the matter at hand. Considering your given location and your children's needs, I've prepared something for them to enroll in what I believe is the best school for your situation."

She reached for a thick folder at the corner of her desk before sliding it to James.

"I recommend giving it a thorough read. If you have any questions when you're done, don't hesitate to ask them through our website."

She rose from her seat, prompting James to do the same as he picked up the heavy bundle of paper. The kids noticed it and scurried away from their cushions, gathering at their father's feet.

"I really can't thank you enough for everything you've done."

She answered with a warm smile.

"It's my pleasure."

James' problems were getting solved one after another.