Work Text:
Dear Kogid_5,
I noted with concern your editorial published to the Interspecies Dispatch regarding your inability to apprehend emotion. Of course, it is unjust that certain organizations would bar you from membership based on this facility, rather than blatantly admitting their anti-robotic prejudice in a format where they may be held legally accountable. And it is good news—news that gladdens me, even—to learn that your life and work has brought you many experiences you consider of utility, that you might have taken pleasure in had you such a capacity.
Yet I fear that your jealousy of the human experience may have obscured the fact that many emotions are not desirable, and that their advantages may not outweigh the cost. I do not only refer to physical pain, though of course, I often wish that I had a nape-control-box (igdokukgudukiest) where some more adept hand could reach in to tinker with my physical settings. Mental phenomena, too, are often not worthwhile. When I feel many of these unpleasant emotions, I consider it my duty to endure them alone rather than inflict them on another party, thus subjecting them to the same pain. (I have found this logical approach a surprisingly rare one among my fellow carbon-based minds; many of them either have a penchant for masochism and/or an expectation that others do, thus compelling them to burden others with their misfortunes!) However, since you are devoid of the ability to negatively empathize with me, I hope you will not be injured by my attempts to explain these unwanted emotions. Indeed, by recognizing what you are missing out on, you might develop a fuller appreciation of your own nature.
Please find enclosed my attempts at translating some of these concepts into Kukiseso, the interspecies binary language.
*tetekikodziɣ (group-punish) the sensation of being blamed for atrocities outside your control, before your time, committed by people (usually humans) who resemble you in some demographic capacity
*zezogdigotsodtu (triumph-infant-speak) the patronizing tone taken by someone who has defeated or bested you in some capacity, disingenuously expressing that you are equals in some regard or that you have demonstrated your worth when this is not the case
*kugukigdusudustus (fair-random-balance) the belief that your abilities and weaknesses, whether naturally or artificially arisen, constitute your entire self, and that accepting outside aid to compensate for your weaknesses would be unjust or against nature
*eskidtusoxeɣdis (fear-assume-laugh) someone else’s futilely cynical or glibly mocking reaction to troubling developments, which discourages you from learning more about the world situation
*ɣokussegidixokis (brain-position-mouth) a subjective, unverifiable, ontological belief that another party demands you accept before engaging in any form of communication with them
*setetzodo (near-loud) the behavior of someone who continually attempts communication, even when you have made no signal that you are interested in engaging in it
*uɣekigdokuz (time-negation-think) the behavior of someone who is chronically late and/or repetitive, disrespectful of your time
*gosdusteke (matter-adult) the presumption that your maturity can only be attained by disdaining closure or the potential for moral and spiritual truths
*uɣekɣuzox (time-rupture) the (related) presumption that certain beliefs were acceptable during a certain historical past, but that more recent events forbid you to hold temporally-invariant truths
*kosiigtekoziz (self-wrong-focus) the belief that other people are fixated on your failures, even if you have forgotten many of the errors they have committed or rarely think about those individuals
*exizuɣek (open-time) the sensation of having unexpected reserves of free time and fear of wasting it
*dzekioskugo (imagine-shame) self-chastisement for experiencing some prior negative emotion, such as disappointment, over something of trivial value, especially when contrasted with a lack of commiseration for sentients in pain
*oxgutikegiz (decay-potential) the fear that physical limitations or pain will prevent you from accomplishing what you are capable of
*oxsteistus (sleep-layer) the assumption that you have woken up when you are still trapped in a higher-level nightmare
*xuskegixoxu (talisman-repeat) the thought that “last time things were this dire I must have had this thought as well, yet now that has receded to the point that I no longer remember what made me feel this nervous, so surely this situation will abate”
*kusodoezik (compare-location) nostalgia for a period of life you have little memory of, prompted by the presumption of its superiority to the present
*ekigsekotsud (automate-drift) mental blankness reached after a sustained period of doing a repetitive but unenjoyable chore
*setikeigsogut (return-falsehood) relief and frustration caused by someone reappearing in a community they had loudly and bitterly abandoned
*tetekiuɣek (group-time) an obligation made to yourself of how long you need to remain in an unfulfilling social situation before being allowed to leave
*tsogeggodit (internal-diagnosis) any of various phenomena that can only be verified by subjective perception, unable to be labeled from the outside, often assumed by some humans to be universally felt when this is not necessarily the case
While my translation is admittedly an amateur effort, I trust that you have now developed a more nuanced understanding of what you have the luxury to avoid. Indeed, on many occasions I would harbor the impossible wish to trade our places—were it not for the fact that I could not condone subjecting you to any of these feelings.
Very sincerely,
Ediz Tox
