Just a few footnotes to the whole thing.
"You should watch more than the highlights" - comes from the Mort saying "You should watch the whole program not just the highlights" implying that someone is not in possession of all the facts.
"Three of the Shaktar hissed between clenched teeth at him, shaking their heads so their, umm, hair-tentacle things flared out like a halo. To Alex that didn't seem good. " - a Shaktar sign of displeasure and readiness to fight, whilst the origins of the reaction is unknown researchers believe that this pumps the fluid in the tentacles and "warms up the brain"
"The Cloak sponsored one stepped forward and spread his arms at them as if to embrace them. " - an obvious challenge to unarmed combat, the Shaktar equivalent of "Come and have a go...". A throwback to a Shaktars past.
"... bared their teeth and snarled loudly, this didn't seem a whole lot better. " - backing down from a confrontation, this implies that they have the ability to press the matter (their teeth) but choose not to out of respect. This gesture caused a great deal of confusion in first encounters. The legend that this gesture was the "adder in the grass" that started the Conflict Wars has never been proven.
"the One Step" - as in the One Step Beyond (ha, ha, ha, I'm so sorry)
"Alex looked again at the female, perhaps telling them apart was more difficult than he thought. " - whilst as with nearly every other culture the Shaktars recognised that sending your women to get killed in battle seriously damaged your childbirth rate they also came to the logical conclusion that there was no reason to protect sterile women and that not to use them was a waste of manpower. Therefore sterile females could be declared "male" and receive all the privileges and responsibilities thereof. Another practice which has fallen into decline in the modern age.
Oh and
"Sue however believed her tactic would work, it has succeeded before...mind the cables....the use of her physical assets to calm a foe, the offer to "Love him long time, sucky, sucky" was a valid stratagem against a military man and would have resulted in disarming and disarmouring him. Private Mulhollands reaction was sudden and extreme. At first I believe that he reacted to her offer to supply "pie", whatever deviant act that may be, but from the rant that followed as he widely separated her body it appears that the medical records we accessed were not complete."
came from
"Oopse. that will teach me to check what I write. Ok name your penance." - Sue
"Come now Sue, you should know that by tradition he now gets to kill you..." - HexRevenge is a dish best served with custard.
Martin
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