Old Friend

This holoprint? I'm glad you asked about this one. It's special to me. They're all special to me, but this one especially so.
I had a friend many decades ago, a puyg. That's puyg; it's one of the seemingly rare nonterran names a human with an unaugmented larynx can pronounce. Speaking of which, are you finally considering getting the procedure done? No? Why, you stubborn old shipper! You haven't changed a bit.
Anyway, the puyg are about the closest convergent evolution has come to making another human, at least that we've discovered so far. Erect bipeds, descended from primate-like animals, with all of their organs in basically the same place as we have them. They even have five-fingered hands, complete with thumbs! You wouldn't know, the way you keep to human worlds, but meeting a nonterran being that you can properly shake hands with is a very rare occurrence. There are some differences, of course. The arms attach in the middle of the chest, rather than on the side of the torso, so the way they move their arms is rather strange, and what looks like a puyg's shoulders are actually its elbows. They don't have jaws, either. Instead, they have a flexible proboscis hidden under the fur of their neck. The rib complex is rather unusual, as well...but I'm digressing. Ask M'Sshaila if you want to know more about it's biology. She's the expert!
Anyway, many, many decades ago, I became quite close friends with a puyg. Muynurt, his name was. Quite an important official on his homeworld, actually. I dealt with him professionally before becoming his friend. His world and another world in the same system were having a dispute over the apportionment of mining and harvesting rights in that system's oort cloud. The world that had been settled earlier claimed exclusive rights, while Muynurt's world, which had been terraformed and settled much later, wanted it split 50/50. Typical intra-system dispute, but it was decided that there was a medium risk of armed conflict if an agreement wasn't reached quickly, so I was sent to arbitrate. I tell you, Muynurt was a pain in the ass to deal with: pushy, obstinate, disagreeable. Just the same qualities that made him such an interesting friend in later years, to tell the truth!
Anyway, a deal was finally reached--70-30 split favoring the older world, if you want to know--and both Muynurt and I retired from the interplanetary stage shortly after. Both of us traveled from place to place for a time before finally taking up residence on the Ring. We bumped into each other, decided to have lunch, and the rest is history. What times we had! Probably the best person I've ever known, besides M'Sshaila. He was the person who introduced me to her, by the way, so I owe him more than he knows.
No, this isn't a holoprint of him. This is his granddaughter. He died long before I got into the habit of recording holoprints of the interesting people I meet. Most puyg choose not to live beyond their natural lifespan. No regen, rejuve, or anti-senescence treatments. They're quite a spiritual people, and firmly believe in reincarnation. Why extend this life when you have the next one to look forward to? Muynurt had it from a religious authority that he was going to come back as a female African elephant--an Earth animal, believe it or not!--and would live a life of peace, simplicity, and community. Sounds nice, doesn't it? I was terribly sorry to see him go, you can be sure, but he met death with such peace and contentment that I couldn't be too sad.
No, this is his granddaughter. Lovely girl; M'Sshaila and I make a point to visit her every now and then. See those diagonal markings on the clasp of her harness? That's actually stylized puyg writing, similar in concept to that Arabic calligraphy that all the kids seemed to get into mid last century. A professional puyg calligrapher even took a stab at my own name. Would you like to see the print? Come, it's right over here.

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'Nother Ring alien. Drawn on a road trip, as was the Gkaz, my last Ring alien. Inspired by some pugs that I saw.

EDIT: Changed the design of the upper harness slightly.