And here we have the first sighting of the Dove (or the Pigeon, but Dove sounds classier).
They’re hanging out at a Tibetan monastery. It never came up in canon, because I didn’t have the space or the religious-knowledge grounding to do it justice, but the idea was that the Dove’s Master was a beloved and respected bodhisattva. Every time one died, the monastery would go through the usual procedures to figure out who their reincarnation was, and the Dove would hang around Masterless until the child made the next Contract.
So…were the monks right? Was reincarnation a canon mechanic of the BICP universe? I don’t know if I would’ve confirmed one way or the other.
But it sure would explain why the Dove had the most persistent memory of any Being on record. Instead of forgetting everything more than 1-2 Masters ago, it had clear memories all the way back to the monk who was considered to be its Master’s first incarnation, more than a thousand years before.
María: Of course! He’s an Unshaped Being. Does that mean he could take on any form you told him to . . . ?
Josh: Not quite. I don’t understand how a living body works well enough to design one from scratch. All the Beings as complex as Saxon are based on existing creatures. I was going to make a Dove, like I used to as a kid . . . but it turns out that was taken.
Not a problem, though! I like Donkeys just as much.
Saxon: And I’m just happy as long as he likes me.
Josh: Hey, ah — don’t go telling people about this, though, okay?
María: Wouldn’t dream of it. Do your new friends know?
Josh: The guys? Not yet. There are a few I plan to tell at some point. I’m just afraid if it gets out more widely, someone will accuse me of playing God. And I can’t see that ending well.
… so, she was without master several years each time, before the new incarnation got old enough to say something so long?
Well, Raven looked very impatient in searching for new master, but maybe with right programming …
It’s “I, [a name I think of as my own]”. My kid took a while to be able to say her first name properly, but maybe I shouldn’t have given her such a complicated one; I imagine some can do it in a year.
Mispronouncing it on the Contract through genuine incapability might be an interesting way to get around the “can’t say Master’s name” prohibition, actually!