#foreigner!au

The main take away is that humans and atevi do not have identical emotional/mental frameworks; they cannot interact with each other assuming their minds work the same way or TERRIBLE things happen.  (That didn’t go so well for the vastly outnumbered humans.)  Cue an isolated human colony on the atevi planet, with only one highly educated and extremely well-vetted human, the paidhi, let across to the atevi side to serve as the translator and sole representative of human interests.

Atevi are ridiculously tall, black-skinned and golden-eyed, with a very pro-military, aristocratic hierarchical society.  And they dress fabulously, with a great deal of attention to detail, proprieties and symbolism.  They were only about at steam-train level technology when human spaceships rudely intruded on their planet, and as part of their terms of surrender, humans have been attempting to slowly, slowly dribble out technological upgrades to the atevi ever since without completely screwing up the atevi society or ecology.  The paidhi-interpreter’s job is to keep the peace, keep the atevi happy, and try to keep the atevi happy with the slow distribution of technology without fucking up. 

There are two ways this goes down:

Option one: human!Ben Solo studied the atevi language and history since he was a child because he idolizes his grandfather, a previous interpreter, and he dreams of the atevi Court.  The current paidhi dies in the middle of a coup in the Court, and the ideal successor dies in . . . mysterious circumstances.  Barely ready to defend his dissertation, Ben finds himself thrown into the job with Senator Snoke’s backing, with some very distinct winks and nudges from the human government about who they think the paidhi should be making overtures to. 

The actual atevi experience is like nothing Ben expected, or could have possibly prepared for.  It is alien, in every sense of the word, and far from being able to even reach the Court, he ends up taking shelter with a regional lord who is . . . reluctantly entertained by the peculiarities of this over-emotional, embarrassingly demonstrative human, who can’t keep a proper straight face for his life.  (He may have fallen in with the correct group after all, if Hux-aiji has his way.  Hux-aiji has his ambitions.)

Option two: human!Brendol Hux II has nothing but impeccable credentials to his name, including his father’s commendation that his son take his place as the paidhi interpreter.  Everything proceeds as expected.  Hux is a master of the atevi language, speaks in nothing but fortuitous fives and sevens, and never lets an emotion cross his face.  He knows that the words like and love do not exist in the atevi language.

What he doesn’t understand is when the Western leader, the present Snoke-aiji, assigns him two Guild bodyguards, Phasma and Kylo Ren.  Phasma is everything a member of the Guild should be; professional, solid, a force of nature in black leather.  Kylo Ren is . . . unexpected.

(It is only much later that he finds out that Kylo Ren has Eastern heritage, that Snoke has assigned Ren to him as test of his ties, to determine where Ren’s loyalty actually lies.  Manchi, the driving force of the atevi culture-- the homing instinct under fire.  Who is Ren loyal to?  Ren’s family suspected he was a rogue aiji; one who can’t feel loyalty either up or down.  A sociopath, in other words.  Phasma curses Hux out soundly when he runs to an injured Ren under fire, but she can’t shake her relief at how profoundly smug and proprietary Ren is when he decides he holds the interpreter’s manchi.  Ren is capable of feeling loyalty to his adherents: Hux is his, and he will protect and lead him properly.