Double Drabble: Alien Customs

[badly_knitted]

 



Title: Alien Customs
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Gwen.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 465: Motive at tw100.
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Gwen is appalled by the behaviour of a group of alien visitors.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
A/N: This one’s a double drabble.





“They’re eating each other! That’s disgusting, we have to stop them!” Gwen cried, appalled.


“No, we have to let them continue; we can’t interfere in their customs.”


“But cannibalism is against the law! It’s barbaric!”


“They’re aliens; they’re not governed by our laws. Look, you can’t assign human motives to aliens, Gwen,” Jack explained with weary patience.


“Why not?”


“Because they’re not human.”


“But they look like us.”


“That’s coincidental, it doesn’t mean anything. Their physical forms may have some similarity to our own, but their culture evolved differently. To them, eating their enemies is perfectly acceptable, even expected. The losers in the battle would feel slighted if those on the winning side didn’t respectfully eat them. It would be seen as a monumental insult and probably result in the battle starting up again. It’s not our place to interfere.”


“I’m not going to just stand here and watch, Jack! They need to understand that what they’re doing is wrong!” Gwen would have stormed over to the aliens, but Jack held her back.


“Only from your perspective. Our custom of taking prisoners would seem barbaric to them. Let it be, Gwen. You don’t have to like it to accept it.”



The End