#i suppose the way i'm doing worldbuilding it's just really in depth oc lore

[bureaumantic]

little goober i made for one of my worldbuilding projects (the one in question being Ghelter Aquatic Desalination Corporation)

look at the fella, sitting there with his roblox fish lookin face

You know what I think I'm going to start expositing lore. That wasn't my original intention but I'm gonna do it anyway.

Click the Keep reading button thingy if you'd like to read about marisians and their lives in Ghelter Aquatic.

So I'm sure you've all read the 17 page long in-universe research paper written by Kosi Neuer about marisians that I wrote a little while back...

...but on the off chance that you didn't, here's a basic summary!

Humans are not alone, we have discovered a whole buncha fish people called Homo Natans but more colloquially referred to as marisians.

Marisians are dangerous because they are largely unpredictable (at time of that paper being written) and can only reproduce through infection of humans through bites. Also they might be able to tear people apart with their fangs without infecting but we don't know for sure, it could have been that the flesh was separated from the body at such a speed that there was no time for an infecting agent to enter the body. So it's a maybe on that one for now.

When a human is transformed into a marisian, they take on a number of new qualities. The skin is recolored, along with the eyes and hair. Marisians develop new appendages like fins and fish-like tails. Their pupils also glow. Regarding mental change, most marisians develop a combination of lower intelligence, immaturity, energy, and physical strength (that is often belied by their appearance). More rarely, however, a marisian will experience a significant increase in intelligence that often surpasses their human intelligence (even if that trait is difficult to accurately quantify and measure), maturity, but lower energy and physical strength. The former are called "Swimmers" and the latter are called "Sapients." The ratio of swimmers to sapients is roughly 7 to 1. This may point to a brawns-and-brains mechanic that schools of marisians may use in nature, with sapients being discouraged from doing much physical work and doing the mental work for the group, leading the swimmers who can execute their plans. Swimmers are often docile and compliant with security and researchers while sapients are more hostile and unwilling to conform. Marisians also lose all of their memories upon transformation into a marisian, but do retain a few skills like the ability to speak any languages they knew or a few habits/rituals.

So that's a summary of the relevant part of the paper. There is still more but it isn't exactly relevant to what I want to talk about.

So what does a marisian's average day to day look like? Well, they spend most of their time in their holding tanks. Half of their holding tanks are dry ground while the other half is essentially a really deep pool. There are beds and rooms on the dry section but most choose to sleep in the pool. The entrance to a holding tank is sealed by a huge door thing. idk man i don't do doors lol.

wait i have an image

this is what those doors look like for the most part. there's a decontamination chamber/checkpoint behind that door that will allow you to enter the holding tank.

Marisians are allowed to mingle with one another and essentially can do whatever they want while not being tested on. Food is delivered and distributed 3 times a day by some poor soul in the Hospitality Department. Employees of the Hospitality Department are going to be the most frequent sight for marisians, other than the Security Department, of course.

Now when I say "poor soul" I don't mean they're like gonna die or anything like that. They're just going to have to get through a really uncomfortable and possibly dangerous environment for like a half hour or so as they try to get everyone's attention and to pass out meals without aggravating anyone. Also they do have an escort of guards so yeah.

The Hospitality Department also handles all of their janitorial work and such. Occasionally, someone in the Engineering Department may need to enter the holding tank to fix something.

Every marisian has a medical check up once a year, held on the "anniversary" of their transformation. That is conducted by the Medical Department and overseen by some grunt from the Ethics Department.

Also anytime I mention departments, assume a few fellas from the Security Department are present. That'll just go without saying.

When being tested on, there will (obviously) be a few fellas from the Research Department and there will usually be some fella from the Ethics Department but not always.

While there is the occasional riot (on average, once every 2 years, actually), most marisians are content with their lives. They don't really seek freedom, on account that most of them are swimmers and just spend all day relaxing in a holding tank with free meals, no rent, no taxes, no jobs or other obligations, free medical care... hey where can I sign up to be one of these guys?

But they do get tested on and sometimes they are extremely unethical. For example, the Psychology Division of the Research Department decided in 2014 that yes, it was very important that we find out what happens to a marisian who basically has the intellectual capacity of a child with extreme claustrophobia and stuff them in what was essentially a small box and deprived them of food and water for 48 hours. Needless to say, that was extremely problematic and the Ethics Department raised a fuss about that one.

That was just like one example of an unethical experiment, they happen startlingly frequently, I just don't feel like making up more right now. Just know that like 1 in uhhhhhhh like every 10 experiments is extremely unethical. Ideally that would be 0. 0 in every 10.

So on account of those, sapients are usually able to get a bunch of swimmers to agree with them that things need to change and they organize a riot. These riots always fail (except the August Riot of 2018. That was a bit... too successful) and usually result in a lot of corpses, blood, and heavy workload for the Recruitment Department.

uh yeah i think that's just about everything i wanted to talk about... can't really find a good way to segue into a conclusion so uh yeah bye.