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| Page of Cups |
The physicality is there; the same range in heights, the same rangy build, many of the same eye, skin and hair colours (no skins of marble white, however; no blue, no silver). Even their dress, if somewhat plainer, isn't too different, with kilts and cloaks predominating. But they carry themselves so very differently, the Muvians. They are still and reserved while the Atlanteans are motive and expansive; they are solemn and unsmiling while the Atlanteans are expressive. They are quiet while the Atlanteans are loud.
Atlanteans think that the Muvians are devoid of humour. The Muvians think the Atlanteans don't have the first clue about subtlety.
They eat plain food: root vegetables, greens, a little meat from time to time, and prefer the company of each other. They smell of sweat and hard work, and of the dormitory.
They smell like human beings. They smell like movement.
The Muvians are absolutely frank about their sexuality; rarely do they make lasting couples. Muvians work, sleep and fight together, male and female, take lovers of all genders, and abandon them whenever they will with no malice. They enjoy their own and each others' bodies and take no offence if one refuses an advance. And every member of a Muvian creche-barrack shares responsibility for the children that result; any Muvian has a dozen fathers, a dozen mothers, and few of the Fourth People can see how anyone would want to settle for only two parents, or one, or in the case of some Atlanteans, none at all.
