#we've been looking at brains and neurons in biology

[fssofficial]

[Testing log]

So... Uh, it's been a... very long time since I've done one of these. For good reason, I swear! There's been interesting developments between two of our psychokinetics. Yes, those two...

Before you say anything, yes, I know they hate each other. But that's what makes this development so... interesting...?

See, we need to update their forms now. To, uh... female. Yeah.

[Mild pause, tongue click]

Look, this is gonna sound weird, just hang with me, okay?

So apparently, they have an ability we weren't informed of until now. The ability to activate, or de-active, certain glands or even entire neuron paths in the brain. This has massive implications, right? So, you might be thinking, "oh shit, they've lobotomized each other", but... uh...

[Short sigh]

Somehow they've figured out how to produce estrogen in each other's bodies through months of very specific, sustained activation and de-activation of parts of the brain. They're no longer producing testosterone, and now are, somehow, producing estrogen.

How this happened is completely beyond me. I can't tell if they're geniuses in biology or what, but the point is...

They've become more and more female over time. We've tried asking them why, and have gotten... baffling answers. To quote...

[Indistinct shuffling of paper]

"I want her to look like a dumb whore when I'm done with her. She's going to wake up in humiliation for the rest of her life. At least, until I end her."

And, from the other...

"It's easier to choke a cute girl, what can I say? Especially when that cute girl is that bitch. She's gonna be so ashamed, dying like that. Makes me excited just thinking about it."

...I have no answers. We've been trying to keep them away from each other, yet consistently manage to break out or continue this... feminization of one another... Security has been giving me shit for it, as if I control them... Pain in my goddamn ass...

Look, this is besides the point. We need to either let them continue this... thing, and yes possibly risk injury on our highly valuable test subjects... Or, we risk injury and or death to the people working here, not to mention thousands in damage every time they break out. It's not a choice we WANT to make, it's just...

[Exasperated sigh, sound of a door opening, indistinct chatter]

...What? What the do you MEAN they broke out again? NOW?

[More chatter, a snort of laughter]

Very funny, but please take this seriousl-...

[More chatter, door closing, long silence.]

...The subjects are, as I've now been informed... violently copulating. I hate this goddamn job.

[End log]

[ashwin-the-artless]

This morning, while making breakfast, Goreth asked me casually if I see the same colors they do.

We took a moment to experiment, by switching who was fronting, and looking through each others perception of our eyesight.

It's a trick that Sarah and Goreth have always been able to do. From what we've read online, some human systems can do it too. And some can't.

Which is pretty similar to how things are for us Ktletaccete.

Anyway, it turns out that I perceive color slightly differently from Goreth. They're more vivid when I'm fronting, and the hues are slightly shifted.

And because we'd been switching so much, we'd momentarily lost some of our faculties and were a little befuddled.

So, Goreth mused, "I wonder if that’s because Ktletaccete eyes are built differently than mine. Or, is it a visual cortex thing? Do you even have visual cortexes?"

(reminder, I'm an alien, a Ktleteccete)

I became excited by these questions and said that I wasn't sure, but that I'd love to learn more about human physiology to help figure it out. I do know some things about Ktletaccete biology, after all, since you do tend to pick things up in nearly 500 Earth years of life.

Anyway, I knew that Goreth isn't human, and is a dragon, but they were born in a human body, sharing it with Sarah, and that's what I meant by "human eyes". And Goreth nodded and told me that's what they were assuming, anyway.

I said, "It’s probably both the eyes and neurology behind them. I mean, we don’t have mitochondria, while you do, so who knows just what makes a difference?"

"Hey, dweebs," Sarah said, waking up. "You’re both using the same set of human eyes right now."

We stood there feeling foolish for several seconds.

"Here, let me front," Sarah said.

And then we switched between the three of us.

The more we switched, though, the less obvious our differences were to us, but we think we caught them before they faded. And we've since found that if we let our brain rest for a while, we can repeat the experiment and confirm the results.

Sarah and I see color almost exactly the same way. Goreth is the odd dragon out.

It seems, in our case at least, that it's a brain hemisphere thing.

Sarah and I are localized more strongly in our right hemisphere, while Goreth is in the left. We each can, probably, use the whole brain, but our locus of awareness and bulk of neurons that we each use the most are centered in one hemisphere or the other.

And there's a whole lot of evidence supporting this, including me just hopping outside of our body for a moment and just observing Sarah and Goreth.

Anyway, best we can figure is that our visual cortex sends slightly different signals to each of us, or we each interpret them differently. And it’s brain hemisphere that makes the difference.

How or why is not something any of us can figure out yet. Not even with Phage’s help.

[m4gp13]

Alabaster: Hey Ethan, if I looked in your empty eye socket would I be able to see the optic nerve from your other eye?

Ethan: Do you want to survive until the morning?

Al: Preferably, yes

Ethan: Then shut the fuck up and go to sleep