#e.g. Nid's stepmom who married Casper after Nid grew up

[void-botanist]

#per survived yayy!! #which is an extremely common thing with uep. some don't even know their second parent at all. Nid doesn't #<- I'm so curious Abt why that is

Oh boy I cannot resist an opportunity to discuss this. So, compared to all the other species, uep have weird reproduction. All of the sexual species (read: nonroots) reproduce the same way humans do. The rooted species (neriem and uep) both use this same rootstock-style reproduction, where there is no such thing as a male and female of the species. But while with neriem, having no sexes means reproduction is completely open-ended and any pair can reproduce, there are nine subspecies of uep and they can only reproduce with another member of their subspecies. Except that has nothing to do with how people form relationships, and it's extremely common for uep and neriem to be in relationships too.

Enter the central Tree Forest government.

The Forest runs the equivalent of a sperm bank for uep, but the end result is more like Tinder: they have a database of vetted uep who have applied to work as seeders, who are paid to be someone's second parent. Some people will choose a seeder parent from the database on looks or on vibes, but the preferred way to do it is to choose (or have the seeder department choose) based on their interests, because uep reproduction requires two uep to be rooted together in one place for some number of months (I haven't decided how long). So it's kinda important to not do that with someone you are likely to not like. Ultimately lots of uep have a parent they don't know, and that's normal. But there's a lot of possible permutations with this situation:

Nid doesn't know their seeder parent at all beyond the bio in the database. Casper raised them and did not keep in touch with their other parent.

Ellery knows his seeder parent, Kadelia - she lives on another continent with her husband and their sprout, who is El's half-sibling but who he considers a cousin.

Milo didn't really know Tem even though his mom kept in touch because Tem also lived on another continent. Some 40 years later, after Tem's husband died, they and Marietta ended up getting married.

It's also related to why many uep don't have siblings that they were raised with (Rae and Madge are exceptions - they had different seeder parents but were raised together by the same dad). Getting a seeder isn't the hardest process but it is a long one, along with the unavoidable requirement of being rooted in for months. Uep who are partnered are more likely to have multiple kids (like Tirias and Ari) but even then it's not that common. This is also a big reason that Nid and El keep putting off sprouting, because they have to get seeders.

Wrapped Scenelets No. 95: splits

I'm writing scenelets for (most of) my Spotify Wrapped top 100 songs. Here's number 95, Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

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The Confluence leaves seemed to intensify the sound of the wind, clattering together in a way the conifers at home never did, and throwing around the weird storm light with their shadows. It was easier to look out the window than it was to keep watching what was happening six feet away, to keep waiting and waiting. Tem stole a glance back anyway. Marietta was still making small talk with the nurses, though it was getting bigger the longer it went on. Probably Tem should be talking too, pretending that all this was real normal and they weren’t that worried. But they didn’t feel quite like they were in the room anymore. The worry and the panic surrounded their mind completely, and they were getting through it by just not thinking about it too hard. Not thinking about how their roots were still locked into Marietta’s, and would be until their sprout, Milo, finally split off their combined rootstock, however many more hours that took. Not thinking about the brace around Milo’s tiny body, covering so much that it looked like per was just a metal can with limbs and a head, the only thing standing between per and all manner of infection and injury. Not thinking about what happened if the brace wasn’t enough, and despite the doctors’ confidence, Milo died when per differentiated. Just thinking about the strange foreign leaves. The strange foreign wind, and the strange foreign shape of the window. Just how this was their first, and Marietta’s, and if per died, they would have to get out of this job. There was no way they could brave it again after that. It was honestly a wonder they hadn’t passed out from the stress yet.

They were half-rehearsing a worst-case call to their husband when they felt an odd creaking in their roots. Turning back to the room, they found the nurses all crowding around Milo, and Marietta watching them. Milo’s roots were lifting up, shrinking back from the rootstock. When Tem could feel the bizarre sensation of Milo standing on their roots rather than as part of them, per eyes opened. They felt per wobble and their heart stuck in their throat. But the machine connected to per brace said that per was breathing. Now Tem was too, coming halfway back into reality out of pure relief.

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Scenelets wrapped taglist: @kk7-rbs