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Terran
An intelligent race of large, centipede-like aliens with many clawed legs and a venomous stinger on their tail. Tlic are parasitic and need a host animal to gestate their eggs in until they are ready to hatch.
Tlic Quotes in Bloodchild
The Bloodchild quotes below are all either spoken by Tlic or refer to Tlic. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Bloodchild
Quotes
T’Gatoi whipped her three meters of body off her couch, toward the door, and out at full speed. She had bones—ribs, a long spine, a skull, four sets of limb bones per segment. But when she moved that way, twisting, hurling herself into controlled falls, landing running, she seemed not only boneless, but aquatic—something swimming through the air as though it were water. I loved watching her move.
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I had been told all my life that this was a good and necessary thing the Tlic and Terran did together—a kind of birth. I had believed it until now. I knew birth was painful and bloody, no matter what. But this was something else, something worse. And I wasn’t ready to see it. Maybe I never would be.
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“I saw them eat a man.” He paused. “It was when I was little. I had been to the Hartmund house and I was on my way home. Halfway here, I saw a man and a Tlic, and the man was N’Tlic. The ground was hilly. I was able to hide from them and watch. The Tlic wouldn’t open the man because she had nothing to feed the grubs. The man couldn’t go any further and there were no houses around. He was in so much pain, he told her to kill him. He begged her to kill him. Finally, she did. She cut his throat. One swipe of one claw. I saw the grubs eat their way out, then burrow in again, still eating.”
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Get the entire Bloodchild LitChart as a printable PDF.
Tlic Term Timeline in Bloodchild
The timeline below shows where the term Tlic appears in Bloodchild. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Bloodchild
...reflects on T’Gatoi’s struggle to keep the Terrans in the Preserve safe. The masses of Tlic outside all want access to the Terrans and do not understand why they are protected...
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...of the Preserve. Lien, knowing that she would have to give one child to a Tlic no matter what, promised T’Gatoi one of her children. Though Xuan Hoa wanted to be...
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...Qui been raised in such a way, perhaps he would not hate and fear the Tlic as much as he does. Even so, Qui makes sure that he gets his fair...
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...holds the door as she carries an unconscious man inside, saying that the man is N’Tlic. T’Gatoi starts stripping the man’s clothing off and orders Gan to run and call for...
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...a firearm and confiscate the rifle. Guns had been outlawed after the Terrans and the Tlic had spent several years fighting and killing each other, before peace had been made by...
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T’Gatoi begins removing Tlic grubs from Lomas’s body, the first one having eaten its way through the egg case...
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T’Gatoi happily pulls out a few more Tlic young, but knowing that Gan feels ill, sends him outside to vomit. He does so...
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...that clearly said, as long as [Gan] was all right, [Qui] was safe from the Tlic.”
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...Gan that he has seen worse than Lomas’s birthing. He tells Gan that he saw Tlic eat a man. Gan calls him a liar but Qui continues: when he was little,...
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Qui and Gan argue about whether or not the Tlic view the Terrans as mere host animals. Gan tries to defend the Tlic, but as...
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...walks back to the house. It is getting dark, but he can hear voices, both Tlic and Terran, in another room. Gan goes to the kitchen and sits at the table...
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...She claims that they are far more than host animals, and reminds him that the Tlic gave the Terrans protection on the reservation even when the Terrans were still trying to...
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...these are adult matters and the Terrans truly are more than host animals to the Tlic, she must accept the risk inherent in dealing with a partner. T’Gatoi makes an angry...
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