#we are from incompatible species

[gaphic]

strategizing like a 4-star general on how to explain to oleg why adina's sexy dance class makes me uncomfortable without making it seem like i'm weird about sexy dancing

[the-trans-dragon]

I am eagerly waiting for my society to figure out that our sex is more complicated and nuanced than "male and female" and I think a nice baby step would be admitting that our concept of sex is...

...inadequate?

...incompatible with a comprehensive understanding of life?

...silly?

I don't think humans will ever have the perfect terms for perfect comprehension but...it's kinda human nature to try to find the words. Are you telling me that this type of terminology (link to the Wikipedia article) is the best we can do? Even when discussing creatures that clearly are not compatible with a binary view of sex?

Like, if we can't even admit that complex sexes exist somewhere on the planet, how could we fathom that they exist within us?

[prokopetz]

Not posting this as a reblog because I don't want to screw with somebody else's notes, but the whole "theological implications of Tolkien's orcs" business has some interesting history behind it.

In brief, a big part of why the Lord of the Rings Extended Universe™ is so cagey about what orcs are and where they come from is that later in his life, Tolkien came to believe that orcs as he'd depicted them were problematic – albeit not because of, you know, all the grotesque racial caricature.

Rather, he'd come to the conclusion that the idea of an inherently evil sapient species – a species that's incapable of seeking salvation – was incompatible with Christian ethics. Basically, it's one of those "used the wrong formula and got the right answer" situations.

In his notes and letters, Tolkien played around with several potential solutions to this problem. (Though contrary to the assertions of certain self-proclaimed Tolkien scholars, there's no evidence that he ever seriously planned to re-write his previous works to incorporate these ideas.) In one proposal, orcs are incarnated demons, and "killing" them simply returns them to their naturally immaterial state; in another, orcs are a sort of fleshy automaton remotely operated by the will of Sauron, essentially anticipating the idea of drone warfare.

Of course, this is all just historical trivia; any criticism of The Lord of the Rings must be directed at the books that were actually published, not the books we imagine might have been published if Tolkien had spent a few more years thinking through the implications of what he was writing. However, the direction of his thoughts on the matter is striking for two reasons:

Tolkien's orc conundrum is very nearly word for the word the problem that many contemporary fantasy authors are grappling with fifty years later. They want epic battles with morally clean heroes, and they're running up against exactly the same difficulty that Tolkien himself did – i.e., that describing a human-like species who are ontologically okay to kill is an impossible task.

After all the work he put into solving this impossible problem, one of Tolkien's proposals was literally just "what if they're not really killing the orcs, they're just sending them to the Shadow Realm?"

[fozmeadows]

TERFism really is just white beauty politics in a pseudo-feminist hat, because there's simply no escaping the fact that every concern-trolling argument TERFs make against transition, and particularly towards trans men, boils down to the worst thing you can be is an ugly woman, where "ugly" is code for "insufficiently young, white and/or traditionally feminine."

The ridiculing of trans women, for instance, centers disgust at the idea of anyone with traditionally "masculine" features attempting to pass as female, which - as has been well-documented by this point - frequently sees butch women, women of colour, older women, tall women, strong women, and any other woman who doesn't fit this dogwhistle standard of prettiness caught in the crossfire. Masculinity is incompatible with beauty, this logic goes, and all women must be beautiful. Ergo, the more masculine you appear, the less female you are. TERFs, of course, will try to deny their active participation in anything so ragingly unfeminist as policing women's bodies in pursuit of a narrow physical ideal, and yet, as the recent furor over Imane Khalif has roundly shown, this is exactly what they end up doing: an endless reinvention of new and shittier forms of phrenology to explain why this woman or that is not, in fact, really a woman.

Accepting trans women who don't, by conventional standards, pass, means accepting the femininity of women - both cis and trans - who diverge from these beauty standards: who have facial hair or receding hairlines, deep voices or big hands and feet, who are muscular or tall or strong-jawed, who are either incapable or undesirous of pregnancy, or one of a thousand other things we're told (despite the fact that humans are not a strongly dimorphic species) are exclusively masculine traits. But trans women who do pass engender a different terror: the fear that beauty is not an exclusively "feminine" inheritance, such that someone deemed a man might natively posses it and thereby render "real" feminine beauty somehow less special.

And then we have the scaremongering around trans men, which frequently presents as "concern" over, specifically, impressionable girls and young women being tricked into harming their healthy bodies by the nefarious Trans Cabal. That this same concern is never extended to adult women is the giveaway, because adult women are, by this reckoning, inherently less valuable, being neither as pretty nor as fertile as their younger counterparts. It's already too late to prevent their inevitable descent into the ugliness of ageing, and either they're parents already (in which case, their biological purpose has been served, thus rendering their identities past that point moot) or else have been written off as too old for childbearing anyway (which adds to their irrelevance).

Which makes it all the more ironic how many of the stated negatives of transition for trans men dovetails with things the cis female body normally does as it ages and/or postpartum. Long-term binding is decried for the way it causes the breasts to sag or deform and the nipples to enlarge, for instance, when this is exactly what happens as a consequence of pregnancy and breastfeeding. An increase in facial and body hair is common for post-menopausal women, let alone those with PCOS. Plenty of women naturally have deep voices, with many growing raspier regardless with age, while both ageing and childbirth inevitably alter the appearance of genitalia, sometimes radically. Even top surgery, the procedure most maligned as "butchery," has its cis analogues: not only for survivors of breast cancer or those who, due to genetic predisposition towards aggressive forms of it, opt for preventative mastectomies, but those who undergo breast reduction surgery, whether for cosmetic or health reasons - while some women, on yet a third hand, are natively flat-chested.

Taken together, then, what unifies the demonizing fear of trans women and the infantilizing dismissal of trans men by TERFs is an obsession with a specific, youth-and-Eurocentric-based notion of female beauty, where being deemed too masculine in either direction is the disqualifying factor. In TERFlandia, masculinity therefore becomes a synonym for ugliness: trans women can't shed it sufficiently to be counted at any age (unless they pass, which is a prospect too terrifying to countenance), while trans men must be stopped at all costs from embracing it (unless they're already old, in which case they no longer matter). Which is not to say that transphobia more broadly lacks for other avenues of attack; it's just that concern around trans bodies and the necessity of controlling them inevitably circles back to beauty, youth and fertility as the abiding hallmarks of womanhood, and as soon as you point this out, all the other arguments start to unravel.

[host-hubliminal]

>>START_LOG: HostLog_5: Subject: Host 2.3 Name: Mephone 4 Species: Mephone 4/Meeple Product | Objectmade; Nonbiological Lifeform Source: Inanimate Insanity Gender: Male Pronouns: he/him Description: Mephone 4 is an average sized touchscreen cellphone of Steve Cobs’ creation. His home screen appears as a gradient from near-cyan blue to cornflower blue. His limbs are completely robotic (Addendum/ We have no way of knowing this. We have not cut him open yet.). The pads on his digits and palms allow him to interact with his own screen and other screens. Mephone 4 has no tail. Mephone 4 is reported by Mr. Cobs to be extremely outdated, bringing him here is a risk of our own safety (Addendum/ It is unlikely Mr. Cobs cares about Mephone 4 at this time due to the extremely long period between seasons of Mephone 4’s show. That and we doubt Mr. Cobs has interdimensional tracking built into Mephone 4.). Mephone is lazy, but opportunistic, and will often bite off more than he can chew, both literally and figuratively. It is possible Mephone weighs the second most out of all the Hosts on file, with Host 2.2 weighing the most. Mephone 4 isn’t an outwardly violent individual, but it is possible he can do heavy damage if he really wanted. Known Abilities: Item generation, Respawn abilities, and Teleportation via Portals. In tandem to this, he is a functional cellular phone. Procedures to take: We have had to very legally acquire (Addendum/ The program was stolen. This information is unimportant.) and modify Meeple Hinderance Technology to suit the nerfing of Mephone 4’s abilities to prevent escape and otherwise. Whether or not this programming works in practice is unknown, and will not be known until entry of Host 2.3. It is also possible this technology is completely incompatible and will not have a chance of working, if so, we will give up on researching Host 2.3 unless we can somehow convince Mr. Cobs to give us the tech to do so (Addendum/ Who is writing these logs? And can they cut the flowery, passive aggressive shit? This is a Research Log, not a private diary.). All in all, the nerfing of Mephone 4 will probably be extremely unstable, so it is best to convince him NOT to use his powers.

END_LOG.

[indignantlemur]

hello! I was wondering are there any etiquette rules for andorians that would confuse humans and vice versa? Thank you.

Hello, Skygirl! Sorry for taking so long to answer - still a bit broken, so typing is a bit uncomfortable!

To answer this question, first I'm going to break down what etiquette actually is. I'm going to keep it pretty simple, because literal tomes have been written about the nuances of etiquette in various cultures, and I'd rather not rehash the last five hundred years of social standards across the world.

Etiquette is defined in the Oxford dictionary as "the customary code of polite behavior in society or among members of a particular profession or group." This code is usually determined through a combination of majority opinion, traditional values, religious proscriptions, and social hierarchies.

From there, etiquette can be further divided into categories of politeness and manners, and business etiquette.

Politeness and manners basically come down to self-regulation to follow a social code of conduct by following normative behavioural standards and being, overall, pleasant company. A person has good or bad manners depending on whether or not they can adhere to these social standards, and an individual may have good or bad adherence to different types of manners relating to hygiene, courtesy, and social norms all at the same time. So, hypothetically, you could have a perfectly polite person with terrible hygiene and a weird disregard for others' personal space. Or, conversely, someone with impeccable hygiene, middling social awareness, and absolutely terrible manners. Literally any combination is possible, and one can see this just by looking at the folks who surround us every day.

Now, business etiquette is a little different in that it's much more goal-oriented and involves the necessary adherence to ethics and norms required to successfully facilitate transactions and generate profit. Business ethics can vary quite a bit between corporate bodies, and it's difficult to standardize a universal code of conduct because of the unique nuances each culture has regarding business, which usually results in a kind of culture shock for all of the parties involved.

A common example is the practice of napping at work, which in Japan is often seen as a sign of something called "inemuri" - earnestness and dedication to one's work, resulting in one working so hard that one is exhausted and falls asleep at their post. In North America, however, napping at work (when not on your break, and sometimes not even then) is a good way to get written up and fired. The two approaches are somewhat incompatible, as you can clearly see.

So, looking at all of the above, I think we can pretty confidently say that there are definitely going to be some things Andorians and Humans trip over when dealing with each other - after all, it still happens regularly within Human cultures, and we at least have the benefit of at least being the same species!

So! What would some common sticking points be?

In terms of politeness and manners, I could easily see Humans stumbling over the highly ritualized customs of the Andorians. Andorians society has developed over time to be very rigid in structure and social norms in every day interactions as a means of preventing internal conflict, which often gives Humans the impression that Andorians are cold and unfriendly. In truth, Andorians are only cool and distant with strangers, but their demeanour and a lack of expressiveness in their faces (due to chitin) makes them seem stoic and really quite unapproachable to the uninitiated even well past the initial introductions and early acquaintanceship.

Additionally, while Humans and Andorians largely agree on standards of hygiene and personal grooming there are a number of differences in how some of these things are treated within the different cultures.

For example, Andorians would sit and soak in mineral hot springs all day, if they could reasonably get away with it, to the point of conducting family meetings and minor business while soaking - unlike Humans, Andorians do not easily overheat and faint, nor does prolonged exposure to high heat bother them overly much. This habit of languishing in the water for hours on end is something which Humans tend to find excessive and, when it comes to meetings, inappropriate. Additionally, Andorians are fastidious about bathing prior to soaking, and forgoing that step is considered not only rude but incredibly unsanitary - a step which some Humans skip, or roll into a single event with soaking, to the horror of the Andorians. Adding further complications to such things, the Human tendency in certain cultures to view all nudity as inherently sexual baffles Andorians, who frequently soak together in familial, bonded, or mixed groups and see no issue with such things.

Similarly, grooming each other is often a sign of trust and affection amongst Humans and therefore not something we allow strangers to do outside of specific circumstances (barber/salon, wedding prep, etc.) As a very social and physical species, Andorians have no such compunctions about contact with others ranging from family to work colleagues and acquaintances. Andorians are very touchy and mean absolutely nothing by it most of the time, but they don't always remember that Humans do things a bit differently and have different ideas of what is and is not appropriate.

Cosmetics as part of personal hygiene and grooming can also be a point of confusion, as Andorians are fond of using brightly pigmented colours around their eyes and mouths across both sexes, even in professional environments. Humans, meanwhile, primarily market cosmetics at women, using products ranging from subtle to neon, and such a strongly gendered association would be considered bizarre on Andoria to say the least.

In terms of personal conduct in social situations, Humans can find Andorian customs to be extremely rigid and difficult to navigate without prior research. Andorians use a number of visual and verbal cues to indicate who they are, what Clan they belong to, and their station in society that are lost on most Humans who haven't taken the time to prep in advance. An Andorian can tell at a glance what most Humans need to play 20 Questions to find out. In fact, the very act of inquiring about these details inevitably irritates the Andorian being interrogated for information which, to their mind, should be quite obvious.

On the opposite side of this dynamic, Humans are infuriatingly vague to Andorians at times. Unless a uniform is involved, it is remarkably difficult to discern whether one is speaking to a social subordinate or superior when conversing with a Human and often times lower ranking and higher ranking Humans conduct themselves in the same manner.

And in terms of business etiquette, Andorians are very formal during business dealings and are not generally receptive to friendly overtures, which they regard as deeply suspicious - and small talk falls under friendly overtures.

When Andorians enter into a business meeting, they are there to reach an agreement, exchange goods and/or services, and leave. They do not want to be friends, they do not want to hear about your children or have you ask about theirs, and if they wanted your opinion on the weather or decor they would have asked for it. Honestly, when dealing with Andorians on mercantile matters, it is best to stick to business topics only until such a time as it is concluded. Discussing business over dinner, as some Humans are wont to do, just doesn't fly with Andorians; dinner is dinner, business is business, and never the two shall meet.

In the workplace, Andorians find they their work days and deadline schedules are not fully compatible with Human ones; Andorians work on a 36 hour day, requiring very little sleep at a time, and Humans function on a 24 hour day. Andorians receiving deadlines from Humans, such as "I need this done by the end of the day" often have to double and triple check if that means today-today or tomorrow-today. And Humans never seem to be available to cover shifts, since they always seem to be sleeping! It's very frustrating for both sides.

Hope this helps! If you have anymore questions, do let me know!

[hive-sight]

Changes and Diets 1

Greetings Sentients. Since settling among the debris, Lumina, this one’s assigned Thalorix ambassador, has started venturing out of their designated chambers. From the time of leaving Xylopthia, Lumina has only been seen out of their chambers for mealtimes.

More surprisingly, Lumina has begun to enter the research deck. They appear to have a passing interest in the culture of the Terrans. This one will attach a transcript of one of Lumina’s inquiries with physical descriptors.

--Transcript Start—

Elysia:        Fascinating…

Lumina:      *Walks up from behind Elysia* What is?

Elysia:        *Startles* Oh! Lumina… This one was just analyzing the small groups the Terran’s divide themselves into. It appears that many Terrans will group together in order to raise their young!

Lumina:      *Leans forward, focusing intently upon the view screen. One of the digits from their primary limb indicates toward the image* This is one of their young?

Elysia:        *Dips their antennae* It is, yes.

Lumina:      It is so… small. *Moves their digit to a different individual* What of this one? They look different from the other three.

Elysia:        *Dips their antennae once more* That is one of their females. Terrans appear to be highly sexually dimorphic.

Lumina:      This one, what are their roles?

Elysia:        Her.

Lumina:      *Looks towards Elysia* Apologies?

Elysia:        While some Terrans use the terms, “They/Them/Their,” it is not typical. Those are regularly known as plural pronouns to Terrans. This one, *Elysia gestures to the Terran* uses the singular female pronouns “She/Her,” as an expression of identity.

Lumina:      She/Her...

--Transcript End--

Since this interaction, Lumina has become a staple of the research deck. Regularly they will read page after page of Terran culture. This has been a relief, as this has freed some of this one’s time to begin looking into other aspects of Terra.

This one has begun looking into the dietary habits of the Terrans. It is important to know what sustenance is available on Terra prior to attempting first contact. One could only imagine the devastation if none of the foodstuffs were compatible with our digestive tracks.

There was a surprising revelation to come from this. Terrans were omnivores. A Terran can, with little preparation, just as easily consume and digest meat as they can plants. This is in stark contrast to the diets of the Xylokthians. We subsist, largely, on glucose and water.

This one had a moment of disappointment, thinking that Terran foods would be incompatible with this one’s species. At least, this one was worried, until the discovery that Terrans are absolutely addicted to sugars.

Terrans add sugar to just about every item in their diet. They add sugar into their drinks. Terrans have crafted a drink that contains, in 12 ounces, more than the amount of sugar needed per day for a human to survive.

They have named this drink “Coca-Cola,” and this one truly wishes to try it.

Considering starting first contact early on this, TD 7th of June, 2030, XD 4682C 4A 19L, this is Elysia of Xylopthia, signing off.

[warmmilk-n-honey]

So I've been seeing a lot of dadbastian hate lately in the confessions-which is fine you are completely in your right to not like something I do. As a dadbastian scholar I just wanted to write out some of the reasons I and others love it because I will take any opportunity to talk about dadbastian lmao.

I think dadbastian is interesting because of the inherent angst of having a parent/child relationship that is inherently incompatible due to the difference in species between father and son, (this can also lead to funny/cute hijinks) more about that down below 👇

Let's talk about Coattails, the dadbastian fic. Part of the appeal of Coattails is seeing Sebastian transform from how he is characterized in the manga, to a loving parent, and having him grapple with the guilt of contributing to Ciel's trauma. There's catharsis in Sebastian beginning to feel the way we feel for Ciel when reading the manga. I can only speak for myself here but reading the manga feels like a thousand knives being stabbed into my heart knowing that Ciel will never get the help he desperately needs, thus Coattails provides a sort of remedy to this with Ciel's trauma being properly addressed. It's not that I don't like the dark story of the manga, but it can be nice to have a more comforting alternative with the characters I love. And while it is comforting, there is also a lot of angst that goes with that comfort. They say the worst thing a parent can go through is outliving their child, and that is inherent in Ciel and Sebastian's relationship because their species aren't compatible with one another. Sebastian also may not be the best person to parent Ciel, but he's all that Ciel has, he's doing his best but worries about failing the child. Manga Seb is a very static character, so giving him more human emotions and feelings uwu can make him more dynamic and interesting to write/read about. There are just endless things you can explore with the monster parent/human child dynamic, it is simply chef's kiss.

I also want to dispel that myth that dadbastian is inherently "wholesome," because it certainly doesn't have to be. You can explore abusive dynamics with dadbastian and explore Sebastian's demonic personality. My biggest issue with the way Yana characterizes Ciel and Sebastian's relationship is the psychosexual aspect to it that is not properly explored nor addressed. It is just there for gross fanservice reasons-I could write an entire essay on that in of itself. Dadbastian can provide a way to explore this abusive dynamic without the sexual undertones that can be quite triggering for some people. Also to say Yana doesn't purposely make their relationship parental on any level would just be false, it's just that she combines "the filial with the erotic" to quote that academic Black Butler essay written like a decade ago lol. Dadbastian simply takes out the erotic side that is not thoughtfully addressed within the manga to make it a more straight forward abusive parent type relationship.

TLDR; I think many of us are attracted to dadbastian because it makes Seb into a more interesting and dynamic character than he gets to be in the manga, cuts out some of the uncomfortable "undertones" in there relationship that are not properly explored/addressed in the manga, there is a lot of angst to their monster parent human child relationship, and having Sebastian be a loving parent can be cathartic for many because Ciel's whole personality is that he needs a mom. idk my brain is just filled with serotonin when Seb tucks his kid in or something-I can't explain it!!

Dadbastain is the best thing this fandom ever invented y'all are just mean

[acourtofthought]

Elain and Lucien were given a mating bond in book 2.

Their story has always been and will continue to be about them because it's not just about it being Elain's bond but Lucien's as well and we know that males struggle to a greater degree.

It is about what happens when two strangers from two different worlds were shocked to find they share a rare and special link to one another.

Where neither was in a place to really explore or give in to what that means because they had been dealt trauma after trauma in their lives and had to make it through that darkness first. Feeling drawn to one another but knowing they weren't ready and needing to navigate their paths alone before confronting what it is they might mean to the other.

Elain avoiding her traumas and instead latching on to the idea of something easy with no strings attached in her crush with Az is not the major hurdle of her character arc.

Her crush on Az is the most minor and insignificant detail of Elain's story.

The rejection from her fiance who she pledged to love forever when accepting his ring.

The loss of her father who she loved and cared for.

Being made into a species she once feared and living in a land she never wanted to be in.

Stabbing someone when cruelty greatly bothers her.

Being given powers she doesn't fully understand and that not one person in the IC has bothered to try to help her learn.

Being surrounded by people who don't really see her and often speak for her even when it goes against what she herself wants.

Having a pull to someone, that pull being something she doesn't understand as she wasn't raised on the idea of the mating bond, a bond that forces her instincts to react in a way she's unaccustomed to.

These are the big issues we need Elain's thoughts on.

A near kiss after a year of nothing more than a few glances and lingering touches is dust compared to the heaviness of what I'm guessing is Elain's inner turmoil with the rest, that she's desperately trying not to think about.

In my opinion, Az has only been her attempt at a band, used to hold back the water in a dam and after Solstice, that dam finally exploded.

He wasn't the quick fix she hoped to get and now the real work will begin because she can no longer run from her past and the things she needs to face head on. That includes her mate and the real reasons she's avoided him.

Her story started with Lucien. It doesn't matter that she met Az in the human lands because Az walked away as no one to her. She still looked forward to her marriage to Graysen, still slept with Graysen, Az did not register as anyone more than her sisters fae friend.

The thing that suddenly threw a wrench into the life Elain wanted had nothing to do with Az and everything to do with her being turned and finding out that Lucien was her mate:

“I don’t care what his name is.” The first sharp words from Graysen. “You are his mate. Do you even know what that means?”

Her story started with Lucien and as we've seen for SJM mated pairs (even ones as poorly matched as Rhys's parents since some love to throw that out as proof of why Elucien won't happen though they ignore what is said about his parents incompatible personalities), I believe her story will end with Lucien. Because it's not just her bond but his as well and SJM is not going to give her version of Jamie Fraser anything less than the best.

[prof-lemon]

OOC Edit: Adding a trigger warning to the top here for mentions of Pokemon experimentation, cruelty, and death.

Hello all. I wanted to share some information I received about the specifics of Team Calm's experiments and research.

If you are not familiar with Team Calm, Team Calm is a team focused on creating "ultra domesticated" Pokemon. These Pokemon have a lower prey drive, and are much more docile. Team Calm then gives away these Pokemon, or sells them for a profit. These Pokemon also have health issues, as well as general lethargy from decreased prey drive.

Many people have had concerns about how this was accomplished so quickly. Domestication is a slow process, and Team Calm is able to create UD lines very quickly.

I received information from someone who chooses to remain anonymous. Regretfully, the process by which Team Calm domesticates these Pokemon is one of cruel experimentation.

Team Calm has created a certain compound that is used to speed up the domestication process. This is quickly injected into Pokemon eggs, and fundamentally changes how the Pokemon develops inside the egg.

You may have seen some of the UD Pokemon. As previously stated, they come with health issues and lethargy. These are the ones Team Calm advertises. They are the best case scenario.

The documents I have received show a history of unethical experimentation. The compound they inject into Pokemon eggs is fundamentally incompatible with many species of Pokemon.

I have spent hours digging through documents and reports about the worst case scenarios of these experiments. The ones that do not hatch are lucky.

The ones that do hatch will rarely live long. The results vary greatly. Some have instincts so nonexistent the Pokemon does not even know how to breathe, and ends up suffocating because it never figured out breathing. Some Pokemon are born with jaws so far back their skulls are permanently impacted. Some Pokemon are born with such great fear and prey instinct they die from that fear alone, even if they are physically well.

What Team Calm is showing you are the successes. We should have been asking about the failures.

[toomanybs]

Homo Superior: Awesome New Species or Super Over-Exaggerated

Mutants being called a different species compared to baseline humans is a common trope in X-Men media. Sometimes by human bigots, sometimes by mutant supremacists. But that,,, doesn't sound right. So we're going to use a trio of Species Concepts biology taught me to test the question: Does this claim hold any water? Like, any at all?

Morphological Species Concept:

If two groups look different and distinctly recognizable, they probably aren't the same species. This is appearance, abilities, and behaviors.

Mutants can obviously do things that are impossible for baseline humans. Professor X can read minds, and Magneto can control electromagnetism. No "Homo Sapien" could, so they are a new species. Very cut and dry. However... can Professor X bend metal with his mind? No? Then I guess he is also a different species from Magneto. And every other non-telepath

Mutants are shown distinct from baseline humans by defining what they are not, but they are as different from one another as they are from baselines. A different species that does not make unless you want to try and apply that logic to each and every one of us, individually

Is a lactose intolerant man a different species than me, who loves to drink milk? No? Guess amazing abilities a nebulous ~~someone else~~ wouldn't have isn't enough to be a new species

Mutants think the same way humans do, socialize the same way humans do, and live the same way humans do. If they can hide their powers they fit right in, no greater difficulty than the stress, which they would not be able to do if a different species

Verdict: They are the same species

Molecular Species Concept:

DNA. If two groups have very similar DNA they are probably related. Similar enough and they are probably the same species.

It's called the X-gene, which seems to either refer to a group of genes or be very poorly understood/vague. Either way the genetic difference between baseline and mutant is small, possibly to the point of being unidentifiable. If you watched First Class, you've seen Charles flirt by naming mutations as an analogy for Mutants. We can assume the X-gene is so small as to be comparable to normal variation

Verdict: They are the same species

Biological Species Concept:

A species is a distinct evolutionary line. If two groups can reproduce together and get kids that can also reproduce they are probably of the same species, because the pair isn't an evolutionary dead-end. If anything gets in the way, be it mechanics, timing, genetic incompatibility, behavior, or kid's (poor) survival they are probably not the same species or on their way to diverging

Some differing species, like grey wolves and coyotes, can produce hybrids, but they won't be of either species. Instead the are something distinct and new (often less suitable to either of the parent's niches), such as the previously mentioned coywolves, who are on their way to being their own species

Let's look at some canon examples of human and mutant pairings, and their kids. I will include Comic and Movie characters, because I wanted an example of baseline parents = baseline kid without feeling pedantic:

Magneto (mutant) married Magda (baseline) and their first child was Anya (baseline). They sometimes then had Wanda+Pietro (mutants). Magneto and Suzanna Dane (baseline) had Lorna Dane (mutant)

Mystique (mutant) and Sabretooth (mutant) had Grayson Creed (baseline). Scott Summers (mutant) and Jean Gray (mutant) had Cable (mutant).

William Drake (human) and Madeline Bass (human) Bobby Drake (mutant) and Ronny Drake (baseline)

mutant + baseline = mutant or baseline, no hybrid

mutant + mutant = mutant or baseline

baseline + baseline = mutant or baseline

If you believe parents of a shared species could produce offspring of a different species, you are wrong. About as wrong as a guy who thinks the dinosaurs are all dead because a black hole was jealous of their beauty and sucked them all up. That's how wrong

Verdict: They are the same species

To Conclude:

Magneto is dumb. Apocalypse is dumb. Shaw is dumb. Trask is dumb. Baseline humans are not the irrelevant leftovers of a bygone area, or the blood-sworn enemies across town. They are the Mutants' identical twin in the bottom bunk with a slightly different freckle pattern

The fact that Apocalypse has existed since 10,000 years ago (according to X-Men: Apocalypse) and manages to find 4 other Mutants every time he shows up despite mutants being unknown to humans is evidence enough to be honest. Mutants are a part of humanity and have been for longer than literature. They are not the instantaneous, brand new direction to replace humanity. They are fully integrated, but often unrecognized, members of the Homo sapiens. No such thing as a Homo superior

You could argue they are a subspecies (Homo sapiens superior), but humans have spread across the entire globe and been cut apart by entire oceans for and have not a single subspecies among us. Native Americans are twice as old as Apocalypse, the oldest known mutant. Mutants aren't even isolated from baselines. It would be very hard to believe they are more separate than any real world group

[mirronhg]

Does Mira want to have another baby? Has she thought about it? Is it even possible physically for her? Who was the father of the unborn child?

Sorry for the avalanche of questions! I'm curious.

Thank you for your interest! I appreciate it ✧

She had no thoughts of wanting another child, because the memories of pregnancy and the events associated with it in captivity were the only suppressed memories in her head. It only came out when the worm in Commoraggh was looking for something to profit from in her mind. This little bastard literally opened a small Pandora's box to simply take nothing from there. Dying and looking at this memory, she felt something close to a shock and at the same time an understanding of which exactly part of the puzzle was missing in her memories.

In any case, looking back on these events, she felt a sense of deep despondency leading nowhere. She has been trying for many years to get off her life swing of failures to succeed and find something of her own just to end up with her face smashed into the asphalt at high speed. This struggle is pointless and she has given up on wanting something.

In Commoraggh the psyker's abilities were triggered towards biomancy, which restored her body, perceiving non-human organs, which, for the sake of interest, a haemonculus put into her [instead of artificial ones that were there] as her own. That is, biomancy sewed part of drukhari's code into her own. And it wasn't anything good. With artificial intestines, she felt like thick worms were crawling inside her, and now she feels like her insides are itching and she feels discomfort under her skin. She can't get rid of it. Her biomancy will reproduce the erroneous code over and over again. But, nevertheless, from then on, her recovered body was physically able to conceive a child.

And the pregnancy actually happened, some time after the main events of the game. But this pregnancy turned out to be unexpected, because answering Nomos' question about the concept of family, she didn't expect Nomos to perceive the information about the incompatibility of Eldar and human biology as a challenge and turn her being inside out. From now on, her body can recreate a representative of another species and it's not even a half-breed or a hybrid. It's a damn fully drukhari kid.

She had difficult feelings about the sudden pregnancy, because it was neither her nor the decision of the child's father. And she had absolutely no idea what kind of monster she would give birth to. And if the child does appear alive, then he will be an absolute outcast from all sides. It's a terrible fate and she didn't want that for a child. She should have had an abortion, but she just couldn't. Not after everything that had happened in her life. But in the end, everything worked out. The child was born a healthy and full-fledged Eldar as I said before. It was a boy. After a while, he got a sister.

She isn't ready for the third one because this pregnancy is very hard and she has to torn and put a part of her soul into the soul of the children.

I know that joint children from an Eldar and a human were possible only in the first edition, and then it was removed. Now this is just a headcanon of people. But I tried to hang up a few guns, for an outcome like this, that would come together and shoot at her. And when I say that there is almost nothing human left in her, this isn't a dramatic metaphor. It's literally.

In addition, there is another moment that is associated with a pit of total darkness where we will receive the buff "champion of the abyss" if we successfully pass it alone.

And yes, the father is Marazhai.

[rjalker]

"I'm autistic and I feel isolated, almost like I'm a different species, so I'm going to write a story about someone who literally is a different species and that's why they don't fit in!!!"

Okay, cool, sounds fun. But are you prepared to deal with the resulting statement you're making that different people shouldn't live together?

Are you going to provide specific problems that arise from this scenario that make cohabitating an actual problem, (temperature incompatability, dietary requirements that can't be met, overstimulation from having different levels of hearing or vision) or is it just going to be that the problem is they're different kinds of people, and that means they shouldn't live together?

If you want to write being a completely different species as a metaphor for being autistic, you need to make sure you're not accidentally arguing that segregation is a good thing.

Because you can very easily slide from point A (being autistic is socially isolating because you're different from everyone else) to point E (different people shouldn't live together at all because there's no way to be happy unless you're around people who are exactly like you)

How to avoid this with your "different species as a metaphor for autism" stories?

Assuming your setting has many sentient species, have very specific problems that prevent specific different species from living together.

Do not make it a general problem of "no species can live together"

Show us different species living together, even when there's no "real" advantage to doing so (like living in a port city with lots of trade passing through). Make cohabitation a casual thing that lots of people from lots of different species do.

Show us accommodations that species make for eachother when living together. Species X has incredibly sensitive hearing that can cause them pain? Species Y adapts their local dialect to soften what would normally be loud pronunciations to convey specific meanings. Species A has strict mating seasons where they lose control of themselves and start attacking anyone they view as a rival? Species B, and anyone else who doesn't want to participate in the fighting, moves to another site for the season and gets to come back in a few weeks to everything being nice and tidy.

Make it so there are specific problems that specific individuals have with certain situations, not the entire species at large. Even with your metaphor being about being autistic, you should still have some characters, of every species, who are literally autistic. And include other neurodiversities too, like mental illnesses.

And while we're at it, give people physical disabilities too, and not just as a result of cohabitation with the "Well species J are mermaids and Species K are land-mammals, so if you think about it, Species K are disabled in the water" thing. Have characters who are amputees from birth and injuries. Have people with allergies. Have people with migraines. People who are deaf and blind and hard of hearing and struggle to see and any other physical disability you can think of. Your species shouldn't be monoliths, not mentally, physically, or culturally.

???? IDK

Just try not to let your "being autistic is like being a different species! I must find my people!!!" thing turn into "segregation is good and are we even really sure those other species are even people"? thing.

because it's a lot shorter of a slide than you think it is.

And again. cannot stress this enough. You also have to show literal autistic characters existing in your setting in these various cultures. Even if it's a fantasy setting so you make up another word to use instead of "autistic".

Otherwise your story might accidentally have the moral of "autistic people are literally not human and there's something Wrong With Them™ that we need to try and fix or else we have to cast them out of society altogether".

Don't let biological essentialism ruin your fun autistic story.

[mdhwrites]

you've said the collector isn't a kid bc he's been alive for thousands of years, but isn't he still mentally (and physically for that matter) a kid though? or at least that's how i think the show wanted us to perceive him as

(though the show never makes it clear if the collector's species just age much more slowly than others, or if being trapped for so long caused this specific collector to never age during that time)

for the record i do 100% agree abt the collector being a monster, so i'm not trying to argue with you on that/excuse the collector's actions just bc """""he's a kid"""""

So... This is one of those things that can't really be proven or disproven. On the one hand, you have the fact that you do not need to be mentally a child to be childish. Also, you can also be a child physically but have had to grow up quickly so you have the worldview of an adult. Not only that but we don't know how his people age. He was apparently old enough to work with his brothers (he knew their guidebook on genocide) but... Apparently a couple thousand years hasn't changed him whatsoever.

The thing that stops me most from claiming he is a child... Is the Draining Spell. In fact, even more than his lines about playing in bones, how Belos likes to torture the Grimmwalkers, destroy them, etc. like that that proves he knows what death is and is kind of extremely evil with how much glee he takes of all of this, just the fact that he KNOWS the draining spell at all is not a good sign.

That is not a spell a kid learns. That is not a spell a kid is taught. MAYBE some very evil or naive kids might accidentally read it but to be able to regurgitate after having been away from such books for literally thousands of years? Let alone to be able to even theorize with someone else on how to do it on a race of people that didn't exist before you were imprisoned. That means you mastered that fucker. You are the draining king! You sapped the magic out of people for FUN. That is how much you like this spell.

Also, if we want to claim he's just a dumb kid who doesn't like death or hurting people, doesn't like mass genocide like his brothers did... What the fuck was the conversation with Belos? What was ANY of them?

"I wish for a spell that can kill all witches upon this land. To make them extinct."

"Oh, you just mean make them sleepy, right?"

"...What?"

Belos is not exactly a subtle person at the height of his ability, let alone as Philip who BARELY is even okay at his job. He used mercenaries and two people who obviously were ready to believe anything he said. MASTER MANIPULATOR! So how is it that the Collector's childish views made him okay with this? It's not like the witches imprisoned him? Hell, he was willing to work with the Titan Trappers who VERY explicitly wanted to murder Titans for him but he just calls them weird. Like... Collector, you had literally NOTHING else to do than talk to these two people. Did you literally never listen to ANYTHING they said?

It doesn't make the Collector come off as a child. It just makes it so S2 Collector is literally a different character. The two are entirely incompatible. Even if they acted the same, the knowledge base and morality of the two Collectors is too severe for them to co-exist.

BUT. Like I said: I can't firmly prove that the Collector does not have a child's mind because while S2 Collector absolutely is just childish and gullible, he is not naive nor is he a child, except in physical appearance. S3 Collector though? That's a lot harder of a sell. He literally just wants to have fun and friends and is too self centered to care about if other people are having fun too. His fun prioritizes everything. That... Honestly still isn't actually a kid's point of view. Kids aren't inherently monsters. They do feel bad for their actions, even if they want to be justified in having fun. Admittedly, the Collector does EVENTUALLY do this as well so it's still kind of there but really awkwardly when put beside even everything else in S3.

After all, he presents King with the same book that has his brother's instructions to kill everything. A kid would not pull that out. They wouldn't risk for a SECOND that being seen. At least... Not a ten year old like this. Not unless we want to say that the Collector is a literal toddler, which is not the vibe TOH is going for. No, he's old enough to know what he's doing is wrong, just not old enough to actually do something about it I GUESS.

You're not supposed to think about it, like most elements in the show. Just like how you aren't supposed to think about how Amity bullied Willow for YEARS. Or how Hunter has probably killed wild witches in the past. There are inherent, core parts of these characters that you're just supposed to ignore so that they can be redeemed and given hugs because they never actually did anything wrong. So the show can tell you they're good people, rather than addressing and showing how they've stopped being bad people.

So yeah, we can argue about if The Collector is or isn't meant to be a child. It doesn't really matter at the end of the day, especially when good luck being actually able to say one way or another. I still won't claim it. I will just claim that he is a monster before he is ANYTHING else.

And I think that's way more important.

======+++++======

It is fun how TOH takes a shot at redeeming the gems in SU and how the fandom rallies around killing the villain being TOH's final subversion when the Collector is RIGHT THERE. You know what also redeemed one character who then went into personally decided exile while also killing the big bad but did it way better? Amphibia with Andrias and the Core. *sigh* Just a side tangent from my Discord recently I wanted to share.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[charlesoberonn]

We're having another prompt poll on my collaborative worldbuilding Discord server!

You can vote on next week's world right now!

Here are the options:

🎭 A world where identity is tied to physical masks in a metaphysical sense. Social interactions are entirely determined on the creation and trading of masks. Was it always like this? What happens if you take the mask off?

🐉 In the beginning there was the tri-headed dragon. And it breathed out great streams of fire. And from those streams the gods were born. This is a god-making exercise, building a world beginning with a divine pantheon. What gods will we have? What kind of universe will they build?

🧛‍♂️ A world with biologically plausible creatures from folklore. A hominid subspecies that evolved to eat blood in the dark? Vulpine evolution that led to bipedalism? A sapient dragonfly species that resembles tiny humans? Stuff like that.

🍋 Chimeraworld. The animals in this world are a hybrid of two or more animals in our world, no matter how seemingly incompatible. Were they always like that? Do "pure" animals exist? Can more hybrids be created?

🐹 A living star system. A star system where the star(s) and planets are gigantic (but adorable?) creatures. How will they function? What kind of smaller creatures live on or in them? What happens after they die?

Come and join us!

[memedemonblog]

so I think we can all agree the retcon that matoran gender distribution was the result of the great beings being stupid and terrible wasn't that well thought out. Here's what I think would have been a more interesting alternative; vortixx cultural export

vortixx have a misandrist society and are a massive source of trade in the MU, so likely when sorting out how matoran (a genderless species) fit into their society they would distribute male/female based on what each type does, with matoran types you want to keep in good graces being dubbed female and matoran you want to keep in their station (or don't live there) dubbed male

female;

ga matoran would likely be important to handling ships and transportation, which is pretty important if you want to run a country based on heavy exporting

vo matoran would likely be electrical workers or handle electronics production and manufacturing, which are important to a high-tech industrial economy

ce matoran would probably be in-house therapists (good for keeping workers happy or at least from striking or going crazy) and maybe customer service. Someone to manage customers and internal problems would be important for a corporate structure

(given their importance, this might mean the vortixx see the nynrah ghosts as female)

male;

ta, fe, and su matoran would likely be mostly be used in metal working and maintaining components that get really hot (intentionally or not)

le matoran would likely find xia uninhabitable due to all the polluted air and the lifestyle there being incompatible with adventure (best explanation I can come up with for le matoran not also being used for shipping)

po, onu, and ba matoran would mostly be used for construction or repairs

ko matoran would probably be data ntry if they exist there at all

fa matoran (I can't think of a reason they wouldn't be in shipping, I genuinely can't think of an answer here)

bo matoran would probably find the place uninhabitable due to the heavy pollution and vast lack of plants

de matoran can barely handle whistling, so a whole isnand of loud manufacturing and constant talking would make xia a second karzahni to them

av matoran;

av matoran in canon can be male or female. my explanation is either someone noticed all the female matoran were blue and av-matoran can color shift themselves or it's a debate on them being able to use their element vs. them probably not living on xia

Now for the fun part: why is this idea of matoran gender distribution so widespread? pridak. pridak controlled xia during the league of 6 kingdoms, specifically because they were the biggest distributor of weapons, meaning the 6 kingdoms (which ruled most of the MU and had trade agreements with metru nui) were receiving frequent imports from xia and what comes along trade routes? cultural ideas. Likely, the vortixx's idea of how to define matoran among their own cultural ideas spread without the context of industrial use.

how/if their ideas spread to the other sapient species of the MU is unclear, but they may have had their own ideas

and that is my attempt to provide a more satisfying answer to a not very well thought out plotpoint