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yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit · 6 months ago

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Okay so like, as an example, an example I turn around in my head a lot, take Namekians from dbz [leave star trek out of this for now]

Pure fiction and imagination, sure, but the point of world-building and theoretical biology is to ask yourself how things would really work right?

So you have these people who you are told by word-of-god are asexual, they have slug/snail and plant like features and lay eggs, well, spit out eggs, and are a social species that clearly have a kind of family structure. If you get really into the weeds there IS dimorphism between two different "types" and one can reproduce is physically smaller and has command of magical abilities, and the other is physically a lot stronger and nothing is said of their abilities otherwise except what seems to be common to everyone like the ability to communicate telepathically. This is NEVER -in the series- compared to gender or sex. They go out of their way to act like whatever humans have going on is confusing and weird [could be translation]. Their antenna -technically facial tentacles- are implied to have something to do with some of their extra sensory abilities. Got it? Great.

In real life, and so in theoretical biology, you don't get facial tentacles unless you need to perceive stuff around physical objects, usually attached to your own body right? [ie snails and mollusks], otherwise there's exoskeleton on them and they are actually proper antenna. So in theory at some point in their evolutionary history they either had shells or maybe lived in closely knit networks of burrows and developed really fine tuned pheromonal and bio-electric reading capabilities before they had a chance to de-evolve "antenna" so they got to stick around even though there's no clear point in the being 'antennas' anymore, yeah? Do they still have vestigial shells?

In real life, laying eggs, and the high investment young of very intelligent species, are absolutely opposite reproductive strategies [in most cases], and you can see with lots of snakes and lizards that when an even remotely intelligent or remotely social species starts to adapt back to raising a small number of high investment offspring, with eggs, they often re-evolve placentas by keeping their eggs internal for longer and longer during gestation until they are giving birth again, because leaving your eggs laying around is a good way to get them eaten. So to maintain egg laying there has to be an alternate strategy like having nests nothing else is good at reaching because you can fly -like birds- or like carrying your eggs around with you [adorable]. Otherwise it's eggs by the hundreds or thousands in hopes some make it.

In real life, a species only evolves to be very intelligent and very social under the pressure to 1. Avoid predation by working together, 2... reproduce sexually, or 3. usually it's all of the above in spades. This means that in order to evolve into the dominant social intelligent species on the planet, much like humans... Either they were up against a very impressive and constant threat to survival, in the form of being actively hunted, OR -like most species that reproduce through parthenogenesis, they -used to- reproduce sexually at some point in their evolution. Recently enough that there's still visible genetic diversity.

The thing about developing parthenogenesis withing a sexually reproducing species is that you will find that 1. They basically form a new subspecies that co-exists alongside their evolutionary siblings, 2. They still sometimes occasionally sexually reproduce outside their new subspecies to gain genetic diversity, 3. They often still engage in mating behaviours to stimulate reproduction even if no genetic material is exchanged.

The base rout of why that is on our planet breaks down to the laws of physics, ultimately, and how genes function and would function anywhere the laws of physics and reality were relatively consistent.

And that raises so many questions. It paints a much more complex picture than what we are told. And there is a 0 percent chance that if Akira was still with us he would want to answer any of these questions or even have answers.

Do not get me started on star trek.

Do not get me started on science fiction in general. Fantasy.

I will end up writing the book on fantasy and sci-fi sex one day, I will.

But in the meantime I have to watch fans argue about this shit from a very simple perspective of "haven't you heard the word of god", or "no I am ignoring it" or write fiction from the standpoint of either taking it 100% at face value that a fictional race of people are completely alienated by the idea of sex at all, when biology would tell us it is pretty much guaranteed to be a part of their relatively recent genetic past, or go the rout of "let people have fun" and ignore the textual asexual reproductive strategy entirely... When like... You could do something so much more INTERESTING with this.

Not to even get into how much being a sexually reproducing social species impacts the way animals, like humans, socially function on so many different fundamental levels. It ties into how our brains experience reward and bonding of all kinds, how we feel pleasure, how we socialize in a fundamental way.

And if I tried to go up to whoever is currently in charge of this and go "So what was hunting Namekians for food so skillfully that they evolved to exist this way at all, or was it the sex?"... I don't think they'd even necessarily have enough interest or background in biology to have that question even make sense to them at face value, without a fuckton of explaining [that would need translation and run up against all their existing biases about how sex and reproduction work]. I don't think Akira put too much more thought into it beyond "What would be cool and funny, and fun to draw and let me use name puns." which is valid. SO valid. Eggs are cute! And convenient for story and having to draw shit. "spat out an egg" is so much less fraught than "gave live birth mid battle"... the fuck...

And the potential explanations are just balls off the wall right?

What could motivate a sexually reproducing social species to start relying on asexual reproduction despite living together in close knit groups? A disease [a fatal STI]? A mating behaviour that isn't worth it? A predator that takes advantage of a mating behaviour but leaves their eggs alone for some reason maybe? How intelligent does a predator have to be for psychic and powerful social beings who can heal that well to have evolved those abilities and still need to change the way they reproduce on a fundamental level to survive? Are we talking competitive parallel evolution [one that used mimicry and reproduction as a lure]? Did overpopulation play a role? If they never reproduced sexually in current evolutionary history at all, what was so overwhelming to force them to live in tight knit social groups, AND evolve their abilities, to survive anyway? Did they wipe that species out? Did the climate disaster? What role did that other species play IN the climate disaster? Was it a brood parasite? Is this just basically like Vulcans having eliminated the need to mate at all because it makes them hella fucking irrational??

Or were they the ones needing to hunt ever evolving prey to survive? We are told they can survive off of water and sunlight if they have to and don't eat much, let alone meat... But baby Piccolo caught and ate small animals with no memory to rely on and only instinct, and they have the teeth of omnivores. They have stomachs and -can- eat. You don't maintain the organs to eat evolutionarily when you don't actually need them, or at least get a huge benefit from them. Any animal that can eat a protein rather than make it themselves will do that opportunistically, even in "herbivores" on earth. ... And the only other use for canine-like teeth on earth tends to be for something like latching onto someone while mating????

What have we been told by the text, in the little details and what have we been told by word of god? That was accurately translated to English where I could see it?

Like I said, so many questions. No answers. I'm not word of god so I can't answer these things myself [outside of maybe writing fic].

This is what happens when you just throw together a bunch of traits that seem correct enough or seem like they fit together enough based on pure vibes. Someone like me picks it up like it's a puzzle to solve and gets a terrible fucking headache.

I have questions.

But more so, Piccolo grew up on earth surrounded by human culture and earth biology and earth animals, and largely has the same background knowledge someone casually studying biology on earth would have, probably, and I think maybe he'd have questions too? It's bad enough he's been socially alienated most of his existence and also seems alienated from pleasure or joy or connection in the broad sense of those things, but like, to add to it he's finally getting some answers and is being given the same surface story we are... Maybe he comes to know what Nail knows, but Nail is young and I think was born very much after the planet wide cataclysm that wiped out most of everything, so does he know? Was he told? If I was Piccolo I would have so many questions. Probably equally unanswered.

The problem with loving theoretical xenobiology and world building is you will have SO MANY QUESTIONS about aliens and stuff other creators came up with but most often they didn't even put enough thought/theory into inventing those things themselves -rather than just going with what seemed cool or weird or colourful- that you even have the framework to ask them the questions, and if they did have the framework, they still probably wouldn't have an answer.

#piccolo dbz #theoretical xenobiology

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catbowserauthor · 5 years ago

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After Seven Years DBZ AU Fanfiction

So, this whole story branched from this beautiful picture:

As far as I know, this is the artist's website: https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=50521500

And my own belief that the scene in the anime where Gohan see his father again after him being dead for 7 years needed a lot more impact than it did. Anyone that knows my writing knows that I am an utter sucker for the father-son relationship between Goku and Gohan. So here's my take on an alternative version of their reunion after seven years in the Buu Saga:

It was a day of new experiences for everyone.

Gohan, for all his experience fighting, had never been to a Tournament. Well, aside from the Cell Games and the less he thought about that, the better. That day would forever be burned in his mind and he��d no desire to linger on it today. This was a day to be celebrated.

His father was coming back.

One day, he said. 24 hours.

It could have been five minutes and that would have been enough. Any time was enough after seven years.

Seven years. Seven years that didn’t have to be. Seven years that wouldn’t have been if I had just—

Shaking his head, Gohan fought the thoughts. They still came, frequently. He’d grown rather accustomed to them and usually focused on distracting himself. Here, with his father so close, with their old friends gathered, the thoughts began to rapid fire.

Look how many people have gathered just to see Dad. Look how many lives he touched, look how many people long to see him again if only for a few moments.

Look how many lives you ruined .

Shaking his head again, Gohan grasped his sunglasses and pressed them harder against his face. So many people had asked about his outfit, about why that and why not a gi. They knew he had one.

His answer was partially truthful. He did think the outfit was a neat one. After all, how many people got to dress up as a superhero? How many people got to BE a superhero?

There was something else to it too though that he didn’t touch on, that he didn’t want to touch on.

He hadn’t earned a gi.

Not in front of his father. It was one thing to train with a Goten but he and his father...

After what he...

No. He had no right to a gi.

“Gohan?”

Looking down, he spied Goten tugging on his pant leg. “What’s up, squirt?”

“Are you okay,” Goten narrowed his eyes. “Your ki feels funny.”

Krillin, not too far ahead, laughed. “It’s gonna feel funny, kiddo. Your brother hasn’t seen your dad in seven years! YOUR ki feels funny too!”

Goten looked up at his mother, “Is that bad?”

ChiChi smiled. “No, sweetie. It just means you’re nervous and that’s okay. But just you wait, your dad is going to love you.”

Goten nodded, though he hardly seemed convinced and stuck as close to ChiChi’s leg as he could. Gohan gave him a nod of reassurance but was fearful his mom was handling that. Normally, he would have been babbling about how much Dad would be so excited to find out he had a second son but right now, he didn’t have the emotional energy for it.

Gohan shifted his eyes to the left. He still couldn’t believe Piccolo came but maybe he should not have been so surprised. For all the airs the Namekian put on not being emotional or caring about his father, Gohan saw right through it.

“...they weren’t able to bring him back?”

His mother’s voice through his thoughts and he had to admit, the crack and tremble in it was mirrored in his own heart. It was possible after all. The rules of the afterlife were pretty strict and while Goku had certainly earned his fair share of bending them, what if he WASN’T able to come?

The disappointment crashed on his heart like a battlefield. So long and all he wanted was a moment, a simple single moment...

Yamcha and Krillin, as always, pasted a smile with reassurances “No worries, we’ll go comb the area.”

“Good idea...”

The sound of displaced air was unmistakable. It was a sound Gohan had grown accustomed to both in training and in every day life. The distinct sound of instant transmission.

A turn, a shift of the feet and there he was.

Standing there, not ten feet away, a goofy smile, the small old gi and Baba floating by his side. If not for the halo above his head, you might have thought he was just returning from a fishing trip. “Hey guys! I’m back!”

Voice was the same. Eyes the same. Face the same. Posture the same. Nothing different. Just like it had been the morning of the Cell Games. How he’d laughed during breakfast on the Lookout and set Gohan up on his shoulders for a bit while they waited. How he’d grinned up at him and talked about showing him where the biggest fish swam once the day was over.

The fishing trip they never got to take.

Grandpa had shown him, said there was only one place Goku could have been talking about. He’d been right and the fish had been humongous and just right for a good fish fry. But without Goku there to show him and laugh with him and say how much Gohan resembled a drowned monkey, it wasn’t the the same; the fish had tasted coarse and dry despite nothing being different about seasoning or preparation.

Fish still tasted coarse to him.

“Goku!”

“Wow...pinch me.”

“Welcome back!”

Gohan heard them, saw them. He saw them trembling, sobbing, fighting to keep in their tears. His father, here again...

“So...are you guys just going to stand there and stare at me all day?”

It was like a switch was thrown and suddenly everyone...Krillin, Yamcha, Bulma, Oolong...they all rushed Goku as if he would vanish any moment. Amid tears, sobbing and choked voices, his father’s voice rang out over all else, clear as a bell.

Yet, he couldn’t find himself moving. He felt frozen in place. He was vaguely aware of his mother saying how much she missed him and Dad saying he missed her too and then...

“I think there’s a little me hiding behind your leg ChiChi.”

Of course. Goten.

Prying his eyes away from his father—his here-in-front-of-him father—he saw his little brother lay eyes on their father for the first time.

Because of you. He only knows him as stories and tales because of you.

“...I’m Goten.”

He has to introduce himself because his father doesn’t know him because of you.

“And I’m Goku. Hey!”

Your own father was robbed of knowing his second child because of you.

Goten stood there, half hidden a good second or two more, unsure, reluctant, before finally rushing out in a rapid ‘do it all out or not at all’ dash.

He doesn’t know how great Dad is because of you.

He’s afraid to approach him because he’s a stranger.

And he’s a stranger BECAUSE OF YOU.

“ Hey...Gohan. Aren’t you gonna say hello?”

It was like he was hearing it through water. He saw his father put Goten down and he was vaguely aware of Mother saying “Go on, Gohan.” Yet he stayed rooted in place, as if bound to the earth.

“...are you mad at me, Gohan?” The slight pout and pain in Goku’s voice was impossible to miss.

Mad? Mad at HIM? What did I have to be mad at him about?

At himself, sure. But at Dad...no. No.

“You sure shot up like a weed! You’re a giant!”

Oh if he’d been there...

Your fault! YOU’RE the reason he wasn’t there!

“You’re looking well, Gohan. Been showing Goten to eat all those veggies?”

Yes. Yes, I have. I hated it but swallowed them and put on a strong face because you weren’t there to do it, Dad.

Because of YOU!

“You look like you could keep right on up with me! Piccolo and Vegeta been keeping you on your toes?”

Yes. My style is a mix of them and yours. I tried to keep it just yours. I fought to keep it just yours but the more I sparred with them, the more it changed and I lost it and oh Dad, I’m so sorry...

BECAUSE OF YOU!

“Sure have missed all of you. Especially you, little man.”

That word. The one stupid, little phrase.

It all came flooding back in images and sounds and smells...

Hey, that was a good left hook, little man.

Bit too slow, little man, tighten your stance.

Aw, your mom’ll love the flowers, little man.

Not a bad try, little man. You’re so close to Super Saiyan. Let’s go again.

I don’t care if your fifty, you’re always gonna be my little man.

Like water through a broken dam, Gohan’s feet were suddenly moving, slam, slam, slam against the ground. He pushed his sunglasses up against his forehead, cursing the tears that made his whole vision misty but he could still see the blurry form of black and orange and he leapt for it.

Strong arms wrapped around him and Gohan clamped his own arms around that neck so tightly that a lesser man would have fallen.

But his father was not a lesser man.

Gohan buried his face into the side of Goku’s neck, tears freely flowing down his face now and he dug his fingers into that familiar gi and yes, yes, yes, he was here.

“I’m sorry,” Gohan found himself saying and it mattered not that he was nearly a grown man himself. Right now, all that guilt, all that pain that he had repressed and let scab over the last seven years was raw and fresh and he might as well had been a little boy again. “I’m so sorry, Daddy.”

Goku’s hands glided upward, pushed the bandana away (Goten would catch both it and the sunglasses as they fell) and ruffled that head of black hair. “Sorry? What do you have to be sorry about?”

“...my fault.” He murmured into his father’s neck and only Goku and perhaps Piccolo could make it out. “All my fault. That you’ve missed all this. My fault.”

“Little man. No.” Goku kept his time low and the others, out of respect had backed away. “No, none of this was your fault.”

“My fault.” He repeated. “I did all this to us. My fault.”

“Gohan.” There was a sharpness to Goku’s tone, one rarely heard. “Are you listening to me?”

He nodded, slightly against his father’s neck but didn’t move otherwise.

“Good cause I know you’re smart.” Goku gently pushed Gohan away, just slightly so he could look at his face. A face bright red with tears staining his cheeks. “I don’t blame you and neither does anyone else. You did the best that you could and that’s all I’ll ever ask you to do.” He rested a hand on his son’s cheek, gently rubbing at a few loose tears. “I’m here now, for today. So let’s appreciate that, okay?”

That warm smile, the genuineness of those words. Gohan didn’t know if he could ever believe them, entirely. If those voices of guilt would ever be utterly silenced. If his heart would ever stop hurting completely.

But for today, with his father here, he could pretend.

#Dragonball Z #dbz #goku #gohan #father-son #goku is a good dad #gohan loves his father #Goku is Gohan's father #Goku loves Gohan #AU #alternative reunion #Buu Saga #Gohan sees Goku again after seven years #family love #angst #survivor guilt #The Cell Games did a number on Gohan #Gohan is still Goku's little boy #fanfiction

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duhragonball · 3 years ago

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Aprwum Update: 8,624

I’ve been on a pretty decent run so far. I thought the first three days would go poorly because I was watching all these GCW shows during WrestleMania weekend, but I actually found time to keep up with writing. The goal is 30k, so as long as I keep averaging 1k a day, I should be fine.

I need to focus on that positive, because I had hoped to pull ahead over these past three days, and that hasn’t materialized. So I can either write 5k words over the weekend, or just accept a steady pace across all thirty days. That second option is probably more advisable, but I always worry that I’ll fall behind and regret not writing ahead early. Then again, that’s basically what I did in January, so I don’t know why I’m so concerned about it. I mean, it wasn’t a good time, but it’s already happened. And I’m already in a better position this time than I was then.

But I use that to keep me motivated. I haven’t missed a NanoWriMo goal since 2017, and now I feel like there’s some incentive to keep the streak going. One of these years, I may crash and burn, or decide to withdraw from the event, or just decide I’ve written enough words even if it’s short of the posted goal. But not this time.

My goal for the year is to update the fic to one million words. Currently I’m about 110,000 shy, but I should have the bulk of it sorted out by November 30. I tried extrapolating where that would put me in terms of the plot, and it sure looks like I’ll have wrapped up this whole “Xenoverse 1″ leg of the story. I mean, I’m working on the Beerus stage of the story mode now, and after that is just the part where Demigra makes his move and the player defeats him to save the day. It’s hard for me to know exactly how long that will take, but if I don’t get there by 11/30, I’ll probably be very close, which is surreal to me. I’ve been aiming for that milestone for so long that it’s strange to think of it being so close.

That won’t be the end of the fic, though. I have some stuff planned beyond Demigra, but it’s all pretty raw and nebulous. I resolved not to get too deep in those weeds until I needed to be. The point is that I could end the story with the Demigra arc. It’s a natural place to stop, like the end of the Cell Games in DBZ, where I could add more but not feel like there was no closure. So it’s always been very important to me to make it this far.

But I haven’t made it yet, so I gotta stick with this. I started writing this post because I had to look up the land snail article on Wikipedia to choose a name for a Namekian and now it’s like three hours later and I still haven’t picked one, so I should really get back to work. Later.

#camp nanwum 2022

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