... is considered by its own people to be eccentric and brilliant, which is why the Primarch allows it to do as it pleases. Also, they are clutch-mates and share 75% of their parentage.
...first discovered its 'thing' for humanoids about 75 standard years ago, when it was about 70 centimeters wide and one curious girl from a species with bright yellow skin and four antennae picked it up. Intrigued by the muffled thoughts it felt through her hands, it touched four tentacletips to her four antennae and they conversed through the night until her people came back for her.
...first got the idea for more tactile exploration about ten years later, when another group of explorers (these were green-skinned) didn't realize the planet had sentient life, set up camp and divided up into pairs and threesomes to copulate before sleep. Hidden in the nearby brook, the Mathematician watched them tangle with each other and seemingly share thoughts and emotions, and decided that it really, really wanted to do that too. It was too shy to join the group it observed right then, but the next time they had visitors it had a grand time tangling with one, and the rest of his party offered to let him stay in exchange for wider mining rights, but the Primarch said he should leave with his fellows and he inexplicably agreed.
A bonus: After the controversy over the Starfleet navigator, who wasn't even hurt (which is more than the Mathematician could say for itself after his crazy fellow officer sliced nine of its tentacles in half), the Primarch severely scolded the Mathematician and told it to wait at least twenty standard years before doing such a thing again. The Mathematician spent most of that time learning new symbological systems and sulking.
PS Sorry for the assorted versions, I was editing.
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The Mathematician...
... is considered by its own people to be eccentric and brilliant, which is why the Primarch allows it to do as it pleases. Also, they are clutch-mates and share 75% of their parentage.
...first discovered its 'thing' for humanoids about 75 standard years ago, when it was about 70 centimeters wide and one curious girl from a species with bright yellow skin and four antennae picked it up. Intrigued by the muffled thoughts it felt through her hands, it touched four tentacletips to her four antennae and they conversed through the night until her people came back for her.
...first got the idea for more tactile exploration about ten years later, when another group of explorers (these were green-skinned) didn't realize the planet had sentient life, set up camp and divided up into pairs and threesomes to copulate before sleep. Hidden in the nearby brook, the Mathematician watched them tangle with each other and seemingly share thoughts and emotions, and decided that it really, really wanted to do that too. It was too shy to join the group it observed right then, but the next time they had visitors it had a grand time tangling with one, and the rest of his party offered to let him stay in exchange for wider mining rights, but the Primarch said he should leave with his fellows and he inexplicably agreed.
A bonus: After the controversy over the Starfleet navigator, who wasn't even hurt (which is more than the Mathematician could say for itself after his crazy fellow officer sliced nine of its tentacles in half), the Primarch severely scolded the Mathematician and told it to wait at least twenty standard years before doing such a thing again. The Mathematician spent most of that time learning new symbological systems and sulking.
PS Sorry for the assorted versions, I was editing.