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The Eidolon Initiative: Chapter Five, Page Twenty-One
A Polydactylic Xenomorph?
An alien with supernumerary digits? How would Corwin know what the ‘normal’ number of digits was for John’s people?
Wouldn’t Pseudopodal Xenomorph, an alien that can form its own limbs, be more accurate?
I think Corwin may have a bit of a judgemental streak, to be perfectly honest.
Indeed.
‘Why would I care about the fate of a mediocre student’, if I recall correctly.
According to Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English lexicon, πολύς has as its primary meaning with respect to number just “many,” not supernumerary (you can see the definition online here). Whether one thinks of Howard/John’s extensions as “fingers” (δάκτυλοι) or as “feet” (πόδες) seems to me an aesthetic judgment, although since both use them for manipulation, perhaps fingers is better. So I think Corwin’s neologism of “polydactylic” is readily defensible.
The P.X.’es think Corwin is weird.
I’m not arguing the point, but for alien shapeshifters who seem reasonably assimilated into human society to call someone weird….that’s saying something.
It’s worse than that–most PXes think Howard and John are weird.