Rakae 2015/11/29(Sun)10:01 No. 96270 ID: dd338c
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>Can't they just... trim their coat?
In theory we can, but we grow it back really fast. Like, just within hours. I mean, I have done that before for sure, but it's such a pain usually I just crank the AC right up or jump in the ocean.

It does mean we can use pretty heavy duty, permanent fur dyes, because when we want to wash them up we shave in the night and it'll be back by morning.

Taffrin (Itcher's Sister) 2015/11/29(Sun)10:01 No. 96271 ID: dd338c
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>Itcher's Sister and/or parents, actually, anyone's family from the Asteroid that isn't on the Asteroid with them, would you care to comment about your family member's disappearance on the Asteroid (regardless if you know they're alive on the Asteroid or assume they're dead somewhere out in space)?
My - our - parents nearly got themselves killed trying to investigate what happened to Itcher. The whole farce was covered up by the bastards, and Itcher just 'disappeared'. Eventually it came up where he went and everything that happened. We never got confirmation though whether he made it to the asteroid or not, but we hope so. We just wish we could know for sure. All I knew is that he was getting into bad stuff when he started getting cagey about how his work was going.

We weren't that close, but that didn't mean we didn't care.

Penn 2015/11/29(Sun)10:02 No. 96272 ID: dd338c
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>Hey Penn, how good are you at security systems?
It's actually become a pretty major skill set for AI scientists, especially for me with a specialty in CAI creation.

I mean, Arza's great accomplishment is said to have been cracking one of the major CAI building components, and that was nearly entirely hacking instead of AI creating.

>I expect AIs are very common in computer security.
That's right. Manpower is still used in security, but a lot of the time, the surveillance is mostly monitored by an AI system, usually non-sentient, that alerts live guards to certain feeds. Then stuff like people recognition and hack detection and so on.

>With your qualifications, could you get a job fitting software security systems like that?
I've had to turn down a lot of jobs of that kind and many others.

>Penn, since you've just been through the educational system, can you tell us what it's like now?
For belenosians, school is kind of like one big study group. Since learning is fun for us to begin with, there's not a big problem motivating students to learn, for the most part, unlike the other species. So, we just have certain milestones we have to get through, so we have to learn about certain things by a certain time to keep up. Teachers are there to help us with questions and to make sure we're focused.

For humans, things are a little more freeform than it used to be, but there's still several grades and various tests and all that. And it's still mandatory in most largely populated planets. There's still a lot of issues that it has, but there's a lot more chances to really make it up later, too. A kid at the third grade level who's supposed to be in the sixth grade isn't going to be as lost as I hear they used to be.

Human teaching is also more effective for humans, too, but while they do spend less hours per day in school, they still have to go to school for the same amount of years, and generally are expected to learn more, too.

Miklik and Heef kind of adopted the human style of courses, too, but miklik and heef schools don't have as high of standards as human based schools. I don't know much about those, though, as much as belenos, humans, and later on, neumono.

Neumono have a lot of schooling, but a lot of it is more, well, practical stuff. There's a lot of stuff on how to operate cars and relatively common machinery and construction, various arts, computers, and so on, on top of the usual pure math, science, history and so on.

>On earth, humans have a range of films, games and other media set in post-apocalyptic settings, often kind of... overblown and unrealistic in a lot of ways. Do people make historical post-apocalyptic belenosian movies, set (relatively) soon after the collapse of your ancient society? By which I mean, I assume there are historical dramas and documentaries and so on, but are there more... actiony, adventury, cheesy stories like what humans imagined from their own fictitious apocalypses?
Yes, most of them were made about a decade after first contact with them.

First, there were documentaries, stories, and movies that were played absolutely straight and as factual as possible about us new aliens.

But then all kinds of B-movies started happening and all kinds of silly interpretations of our past happened. We were always so serious about our past that this was actually kind of offputting for belenos at first, but humans mostly convinced us that their movies just meant that they became comfortable with us and our past.

Plus, we saw they did it to their own history too, so they just had a different sense of.... well, they're aliens. I guess there's still belenos who are into that, though, and humans who aren't, in other words, we always could relate in that our species' outliers did cross into each other.

>Rather than the stereotype of the fearful savage, tribal peoples - and recently tribal peoples - can can keep a stronger "center" and better preserve their focus and peace of mind when faced with things that lie outside their experience and skills. Does this match up with your experience?
I think it matches pretty well, at least with Roxie. For a broad example, if I'm proven wrong about something I can get really flustered, especially if I was so sure I was right. But sometimes Roxie will swear up and down about something, and if she's proved wrong, she just goes... 'oh'. She's not shaken at all, and I'm sometimes jealous about how she has that confidence.

>Also: have you ever seen the movie your costume came from;
I haven't.

>Did you have a reason (besides not wanting to wear a different costume) that Roxie thought you seemed unusually ok with the idea of a sexy costume?
If I'm not forgetting something, it was just that I'd rather try and wear a lighter sexy costume than put on a sapphire costume. I know I couldn't tell Roxie the real reason for that.
>And, though Roxie was anxious about Milo's advances on you, on reflection it seemed like you were really not interested to begin with and were just being polite.
I really wasn't interested. There just wasn't much I could sense between us, if that makes sense, and if I was going to see him any more, it would've just been to be more social, not because it was him in particular I'd want to see.

>First, are there different grades used to classify how "strong" an AI is?
Yes, definitely. There's three big ones. There's just case-based ai's, like chatbots, which just have set values to respond to. Then there's reasoning AI's, which can take what they've learned and make up new outputs on the fly. Then there's learning AI's, which can use their code to make new ways to make up new outputs. Then a bunch of sub-categories from there. It gets uglier from more advanced AIs, where it's harder to classify things, especially what counts as sentient and sapient.

>Second, how simple is it to make an AI? The method to make CAI AIs, at least, seems to be very organic, as it were.
Since CAI's use a mostly unexplored blackbox technology, it's on a whole separate category than regular AI making.

It's simple to make a simple AI. It's sort of like making one's own computer. People don't go do it from literal scratch, forging out the copper and all that, they use certain components. There's a lot of components in the form of prefabricated codes, modules and so on to make AI's.

The tricky part is to combine the right prefab parts into something coherent, and then modify those pieces to do what you want the AI to do.

Maybe a better example would be like a video game engine. People start off with that, and they have their set of algorithms, and code something specific from there.

That's for more classic AI though, which is the biggest market since it's the most publically legal one. AI's that can learn are tougher to come by.

>if, for example, you took the same base AI generating program and gave them to two people, and one was someone with a proper professional setup who kept a clinical distance and was always observing the AI as it grew, and the other was some dude cooking it up in his back room computer who liked just chatting with it about anything in a friendly casual way, and sometimes just left it by itself for long periods, would you end up with two significantly different AIs? Would they be different at more than a superficial level?
For the AI generating programs, though, it is definitely true that two different upbringings will yield two different AI's. But, at the same time, our current level of technology for AI like this isn't perfectly organic, so there's certain given values as well, leading to very similar behaviors.

So, we can think of the two different AI's in this example to be like identical twins separated from birth.

>If so, can AI developers be identified by the AIs they've made? What I mean is, could a certain AI's quirks and mannerisms act as a sort of "signature" for their creator. Like, if you lost a usb drive with one of your AIs on it, and Arza found it, and we assume for this scenario there aren't any tags or notes or other identifiers on it, could Arza interact with/study the AI for a while and eventually go "hmm, this looks like it might be one of Penn's"?
Yes, definitely! At least, for the more advanced AI. If it were too simple an AI, then there wouldn't be much for personality, but with any AI that has anything emulating a personality, there are certain quirks that tend to come up based on who made them.

For instance, mine have a tendency to run more passes on re-evaluating a scenario more than most makers would. They run slower as a result, but can be a lot more stable.

>How many AIs have you made, Penn? Is that more or less than a graduate student of your level in the field usually has made, by the point you've reached?
That's kind of a tough question, because there's not really a clearly defined number. If I made one AI one year, but then for the second year I improved on the first year's AI, does that count as two since year one's is backed up as it's own? What if the third year needs three different AI's, but year two's model is a really good base, so I split that model off 3 ways?

Then, at some point, I made an AI that made AIs. If those are creditted to me, then that would be a lot.

Then, every time I upload one of my AIs to a database, or back it up, in a way, I'm making a new one - would we count those? Well no we shouldn't count that, but the others make the question hard.

>Do you still have legal ownership of all the AIs you've made? If not, what happens to college-project AIs when they're finished?
Sorta. It gets tricky, because of the fact that making an AI from absolute scratch is just done for learning, but doing the same for advanced AI would be reinventing the wheel, train, car and plane. So we use a lot of base modules and values, but of course a lot of those are proprietary, and licences to use them are often granted to colleges, in which case the AI's basically belong to the college on a license grant from the module's company, and, well, it's a mess. But, the individual work that the student's do are their own, but since the foundation of the AI is typically from others' work and property, the AI itself isn't entirely theirs either.

In other words, in academia, just about every new AI that's made by students is born in licensing hell. There's ways around it though, because the student can usually pay a severance fee to purchase the usage of modules after their graduation at any point in order to fully claim their AI. Or, the school or the module owner can purchase the AI off of the student as well, which is often common since the student can still put the AI on their resume, and it's a nice financial bonus for doing all that work in school. But until the license is sorted out after the student's graduation, the AI is usually just put in stasis by the school. That's also common, since a lot of students don't want to give up what they've gotten attached to, but can't afford the fees.

>Which one of yours was your favourite, or at least, which one do you feel the strongest sentiment or other emotional connection towards?
Definitely Orix, which is basically my primary, multi use AI. It's only pseudo sentient, but really rubs up against the line of what's legally allowed for personal use. In fact, it's fully compatible with just a couple of components that would make it fully sentient, as well as compatible with a huge variety of databases.

Also thankfully, Arza allowed me to use some base engines and modules to make Orix and exercise as much legal control over him as possible. He'd probably be my only friend if Roxie wasn't around.

>Speaking of favourites, what's your favourite food?
I really like earth's lettuce.

Polo 2015/11/29(Sun)10:03 No. 96273 ID: dd338c
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>How are you with kids? We got told a story that made you seem like you got on well with some, at least. Do you interact much with your own hive's children? Or, perhaps, do they try to interact with you?
I'm alright. We love each other, of course, but I'm seen as one of the busy ones that should only be disturbed at the right times. During the right times, though, we get along well.

That is in regards to my own hives' children.

>Do different neumono hives/demographics also have different fur textures, and if so what are they?
Hives may have tendencies of having varying traits, such as thinner fur, more fur, so on, but overall the impact is made more by demographics.

Snow hiver fur does not have much texture, and is smooth throughout. Cerulean neumono fur absorbs less water, but it is also smooth looking throughout. Redgrass fur has uneven, diagonal patch lines through it. Jungle fur is usually patchier, creating a somewhat natural camoflauge look at times despite that the fur itself is still commonly a single color.

>Polo, what happened to that giant lung collapsing shard of shrapnel that got pulled out of you that you were gonna keep.
Rakae managed to pull it out and stuff it in our baggage. I'm thankful for that, because I completely forgot about it after fighting Rokoa.

Polo 2015/11/29(Sun)10:04 No. 96274 ID: dd338c
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toot

Rokoa 2015/11/29(Sun)10:04 No. 96275 ID: dd338c
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>Have you ever played Russian Roulette? I'd imagine it's more popular among neumono. Or perhaps it eliminates the whole point of the game?
Yeah, cept with us, the rules are for russian roulette are effectively the same as a simple drinking game with an added luck element. Take turns around the table. On your turn, roll a six sided die. If it's 1, take a shot. You lose when you pass out.

>How do you avoid causing horrible bedroom accidents with your horrifying shark teeth?
With a marginal amount of effort.

>And if you did cauterize a wound, would that prevent you from regenerating?
Cauterizing is just making more work, but it wouldn't stop regeneration for us. That's just a delay. But if the neumono is suffering from a lot of deep cuts over missing limbs or something, then cauterizing the wound becomes a good idea when the threat is losing too much blood.

>Rokoa! Of all the neumono guys we have personal acquaintance with - Pilon, Az, Biles, Rikek, Kappi, Tirrek, et cetera et cetera - who would you personally rank in your top 5 cutest/hottest/generally attractive, and in what order? I assume the top five would be all neumono, but if not include others too. I'd like to get an idea of your tastes.
From best to worst, Kappi, Pilon, Biles, Rikek, Az.

>Rokoa: What's your favourite human food?
Pigs.

>Are there things your small children do that you think are cute and that other species' babies don't do?
They try and fight things before they learn how to walk. Or how to fight.

>Heroic Spirit from Fate Stay Night?
Think I heard Kappi mention it in a list of old as dust anime.

I wasn't paying attention.

>If you have a baby in your hand, and you know someone who hates you is about to burst into the room, which of the [given] scenarios would be the funniest?
First one. Simple. Effective. Leaves enough to their imagination and doubt.

Kappi 2015/11/29(Sun)10:07 No. 96276 ID: dd338c
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>Heroic Spirit from Fate Stay Night?
Ohh, uhh.. geez, that's tough. Maybe shielder? I don't think I'd fit in one, but it sounds like the, uh, least proactive one. And I guess a Barrier Noble Phantasm? For the same reason. It's been a long time since I was looking at old anime, so, I'm a little, uh, uninformed.

>If you could be a character from an anime, which character would you be?
Probably Saitama!

>What anime is the character from?
From One Punch Man! Which is also the name of the character?

>Why that character?
Cause I'd rather be bored than scared. And I mean it would work well for me since I just kinda want to hang out all day.

Pilon 2015/11/29(Sun)10:07 No. 96277 ID: dd338c
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>Does the neumono tail armor cause any balance or coordination problems?
It takes some getting used to, but even if our tail is mostly fluff, they can still be strong. With enough experience, people can grow accustomed to balancing with it on. Most of the time the armor back there is lighter anyway, but whether it goes on or stays off becomes a personal preference.

Except, I suppose, the military has to stick to their uniform for better or worse.

>Is it theoretically possible for a king/queen to be a rogue? Say if everyone else in their hive died or they schismed so badly no two individuals stayed together. If so, would they stay a rogue or would they gather followers over time?
Yes, that is absolutely. In fact, a queen/king probably has it worse, as the chances of them attracting rogues to form a new hive again are astronomical, and the chance of being pulled in by a new hiveleader might be zero.

Their only option, I think, is to have kids themselves and hope it works.

>How is 'Neumono' pronounced anyway?
Like 'neuro' and 'mono' combined, minus the 'ro'.

>Neumono aging
This question's answer is still in progress, but it hasn't been forgotten about, don't worry.

Az 2015/11/29(Sun)10:07 No. 96278 ID: dd338c
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>Az, Biles, Raox even? Or whoever's answering another question anyway, if anyone, to make it convenient. Give us a top 5 best-looking, in your opinion, of the girls we know.
Yeah this question sounds like my kind. Cept it's tough, cause I know a lot of girls you don't.
Vivilli, Rokoa, Roxie, Katzati, Jess.

Probly some inbetween there that I'm forgetting about.

>What on earth convinced you that letting a mouth full of teeth like that near your dick was a good idea?
The part where we know they're gonna leave their teeth out of it.

Roxie 2015/11/29(Sun)10:08 No. 96279 ID: dd338c
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>I want to know how much potential trouble Penn could get herself into if she did have a one-night stand with some belenosian dude. Diseases seem unlikely in this advanced era, so I'm mainly thinking about family planning. I've heard that belenosian ladies "just start running eggs through their plumbing in response to a dude trying to fertilize it", so, does that mean they could have a kid any time?
Yeah, they have like a 2/3 chance of having a kid with any intercourse whatsoever, whether or not the girl or guy want it. It's insane.

Luckily! Belenos have all kinds of insane pharmaceuticals too, and they can just take an over the counter pill to prevent any kids for like a week straight, which also cancels any pregnancy up to a point. So as long as she remembers that within like a week, she can do whatever.

>While I'm asking, how's battery life on your phones? Do you have super future batteries that last for days or weeks, or do you have some sort of thing where in cities and other built-up places there's some sort of wireless charging so that stuff stays powered?
There are wireless powerups, but only in big towns, and only with specialized phones.

It's easier to just use our super batteries that can last weeks with a little use.

>Also, if someone asked you what is the best thing about being uplifted, that surprised you, what would you say? By which I mean, when you get uplifted I assume you get lectured at about a lot of stuff like peace and security and wealth and technology, so, what's the best thing about being uplifted that no-one told you about and that you didn't expect?
Probably the hygiene. I mean sure they taught us how to use it, but I didn't think how much it would impact me. Now having a bright sheen on my coat feels nice and is important, so I shower every day, and it feels great.

>And what's the worst thing?"
... actually having to keep it up. Now I go visit home and I get bugged by the tiniest clump of dirt in my toes, which baffles everyone including myself.

>Hey Roxie, your degree is Linguistics, right? What inspired you to move into that field?
Honestly, it just sounded easy, so I went into it.

First off, it wasn't easy, but then I learned that I was interested in all the funny noises things make.

>Do you speak any languages beyond the galactic standard and your own hive's tribal language?
Nothing fluent that's spoken widely by real sapient species, but I've studied the verbal communications of a whole bunch of my home planet's wildlife. That's kind of my specialty, but of course my studies did include the actual sapient languages.

>What language do you like best?
For personal bias, my own tribe's language, of course. For actual use, Base. Base is just an artificial language that was meant for easy learning, use, but still have enough nuances to work well with writing and poetry or whatever. I'm pretty fluent in that, actually, but the only people who use that are, well, all kinds of people, but not many people.

>And can you answer something I've wondered: is it easier and/or faster for a neumono to learn a new language, so long as they have another neumono to learn it from, since you can use empathy to clue you in on meaning?
Yeah, that does help a lot. We seem surprisingly good at learning language anyway considering how much we'd refuse to do it pre-uplift.

>And, perhaps, you have an advantage even without that, because your brains seem like they retain more plasticity for longer compared to other species?
That's probably it.

Also, we're slower thinkers overall, but we can hold a lot of thoughts at once, so it helps with long term memorization and learning a huge set of rules and so forth.

>Conversely, do neumono have particular trouble learning to make some sounds that alien languages use? Or do other aliens have that trouble? Do the different species have an audible "accent" that's just due to the different shapes of their mouths?
Yeah, but thankfully all aliens can either learn how to make an approximation of a noise, or learn a substitute for it that other aliens can learn. Yich eaters, for instance, can hardly make the 'th' sound, hard or soft, so they make a weird, airy 't' noise instead.

Every species has a pretty noticeable accent anyway.

>How are the ultrahive cities generally built?
The capitals all start as an alien base of operations. An official one, I mean, not from some big megacorporation looking to mine out a nearby mountain. They're well protected, were the least shady areas, and generally had the biggest platform for growth. So they were always seen as the place to go to get away from war, even if it was still affected.

Other major cities though were just places of interest that weren't blown to smithereens, or were made after the big time wars. They could've started off as military bases, or just somehow had some gimmick that drew people to them.

Typically places with the least amount of bad wildlife, bad weather, easy construction soil and still well within ultrahive jurisdiction are good factors to growth.

>Given that it's still only a few generations from uplift, do most neumono still know their former tribal language in addition to the standard?
Yeah, in fact, hive homes still have a lot of old languages that are spoken. My hive'll probably be the same for awhile, where the kids are taught english but all the old grannies still speak angry sounding language.

>How about the other species? In the case of belenosians, did they have a single language still, as a legacy from the old imperial age?
Nah, belenos split off from one another pretty hard languagewise, in a collective motivation but separate manner of trying to get away from imperial talk. So they had all sorts, but were pretty quick to learn english when humans came by.

Still a bunch know how to speak it, but it's not as common even on their own planet, according to Penn.

>For example, Roxie, if that manipulative racist girl you met had really just wanted to pester Penn instead of riling you, could she have switched languages to try exclude you entirely, assuming you don't speak any belenosian or whatever the name of it is, if they do have a single language?
Probably not, because it's probably only old people on belenos that speak old languages, not kids on astreneus.

>If there's a program for individual tribals to be sent out to live among civilized neumono and aliens to get used to them and prepare their hive for full uplift, is there an opposite program? Are there aliens who go out and live with tribal hives to help them get used to aliens? If so, how well does that go down?
Yeah, really, that's how a lot of hives are found now. My hive was approached by aliens, with gun-wielding escorts, to learn about us. Or so they said to learn about us, but we learned more from them. I was just a kid at the time, I think.

Not many actually live with tribes, though. Takes a supernerd of a belenos or an overly daring human to do something like that, but it happens.

>Do neumono suffer from that two people walking towards each other and you try to step around them and they go the same way and you get caught in a loop thing, or does empathy preempt that. Or does empathy just mean you get stuck in the loop sooner.
Nah, empathy causes a little bit of the loop initially, but it's solved by the time we get physically close.

Jammers would fuck things up though, especially if you're used to being outside of a jammer.

>Hey, Penn didn't punch you when you got home! Did you sign her up for martial arts classes? Or paintball or parkour or whatever?
I'm gonna try and convince her later. Because I gotta, because apparently they don't let people sign up other people to things like that.

Three Stripes 2015/11/29(Sun)10:08 No. 96280 ID: dd338c
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>Three Stripes, did you ever get it on
Three Stripes is lost

Three Stripes only has many buddies and hopes that answers the question?

>Business of Four Stripes and Dead Stripes
Three Stripes only tried to get along with the other two and never knew how the other two got along with each other

Tin 2015/11/29(Sun)10:08 No. 96281 ID: dd338c
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>Sorry if this has already been asked before, or if I had simply missed it, but in most of your pictures, you don't seem to have a mouth. Unlike Hok, who has a visible mouth in some pictures, I don't remember seeing you with a mouth at all. It might just be my crappy memory, but if it's one of your mutations, how do you eat and talk?
I do. It's low and small.

If I had a mutation without a mouth, I would be dead. Probably.

Some Sealock Kids 2015/11/29(Sun)10:09 No. 96282 ID: dd338c
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>How are you with Polo?
"She's so serious but sometimes we can get her in a good mood."
"We can even get her to roughhouse with us sometimes!"
"But then we can't walk around without being in danger of noogies. She can go silent, it's not fair!"

Penn's Grandmother 2015/11/29(Sun)10:09 No. 96283 ID: dd338c
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>But, is there anything you can tell us? Like, she mentioned a while ago that she's never gotten any sort of infectious illness in her life. And I notice she seemed to have good endurance for a desk worker. She explained it by saying she sprinted between classes a lot, but that gives a different kind of endurance than a lot of walking needs, which is what was going on, so that's suspicious.
Correct. I have dodged the topic for obvious reason, but for those who know of her imperial influenced genes, there's no harm in saying that her health is exactly because of her influenced genes.

Belenos still do not get sick that often, and they respond well to cybernetic and biologically enhancing drugs, but even those qualities must have been weakened after just shy of 10 thousand years of evolution with minimal genetic engineering and optimization. If Penn's genes were influenced as they seem to have been, then, for all intents and purposes, she has a superior set compared to any other belenosian. I have no idea how that will come to be used, or how many downsides it may have in the future.

I won't say what specifically she may have, but only because I am not 100% sure of any of it. I would have needed another few decades to see her grow before making final conclusions, and I don't like to share guesses.

>Also, how much of her isn't from her... special status?
Her unique experiences growing up in our world. It couldn't have been everything, but everything is suspect.

That includes her gender. There is hardly any data on Sapphire's early life. Records indicate most of the empires being refered to as a gender neutral pronoun, which makes sense, as records also indicate that the nobles favored being agender, asexual, and, frankly, non or partly biological.

Even if they looked like one gender over the other, it's a safe bet that most emperors were sterile and could only reproduce through technological means.

What I'm getting at as that Sapphire could have been female, and the spitting image of Penn, before being transferred to artificial bodies.

>Why were you assigned to work with Penn, have you studied cases of previous individuals like her?
I'm just a geneticist. Maybe they thought I was renowned enough to work with Penn, or maybe they thought I may not treat her like an evil tyrant ready to bring a new age of whatever. I didn't ask.

I have studied previous cases of belenos genetics, but none with specifically interesting composition. Penn was easily and by far the most unique.

>Do you ever get an urge to headbutt things? Maybe even just when you're children? I ask because I imagine tiny horned fuzzy babies bumping their heads against things and it's adorable.
We don't get the urge to do it via some ancient belenos evolutionary tendency. It's possible it used to be there, then was beaten out of us by the imperials, and post-empire evolution wasn't enough to bring it back.

That doesn't mean that it doesn't happen anyway by energetic children wanting to show off their growing horns.

Or babies who just bump into things anyways.

>Are there things your small children do that you think are cute and that other species' babies don't do?
Act well behaved once in a while.

>Does a tendency towards certain horn shapes tend to run in families? Milo and Navanna were siblings, for example, and seemed to both have a front-two-small-back-two-large shape.
Yes, but not by much. They are much less likely to get one of the 4 most probable general horn shapes than they are to get another random horn shape.

>Speaking of horns, are there any cultural connotations to using horns in a certain way? Like, is grabbing someone by their horns considered especially rude, or is it considered particularly vicious to actually attack someone with them, when size/shape/situation makes that possible?
Grabbing horns for us is on par with grabbing a human's hair or neumono's ears. So yes.

Attacking with horns is clumsy and out of desperation. It looks cool I'm sure if it's done effectively, but not extra vicious.

Otherwise, cultural connotations of horns are purely visual.

>have you guys come up with special pillows to accommodate horns when sleeping? Because it seems like a lot of you would have trouble lying on your back, and others trouble lying on your sides. Lying on your front seems the only position where they couldn't potentially be a problem, but that's not usually the most comfortable for most species. Unless it is, for you guys?
The front of our necks stretch out better than many other species, and so we are able to lie on our stomachs, heads forward, more comfortably than it may look. That is the most common way.

The horns are typically built well into our skulls anyways, which do well to disperse weight as broadly as possible, so putting weight on one's horns isn't like jabbing a finger on someone's head. In short, lying on the backs of our head is also much more comfortable than it looks to aliens.

We have pillows that are made pierce and tear resistant anyways, and work well molding to the shapes of our horns. This material still can be breathed through, making it plausible for flat faced aliens to sink their heads into, making belenos the leading manufacturer of good pillows.

If all else fails, however, belenos are exceptional at falling asleep in many positions, be it a regular chair or otherwise.

Zirkala 2015/11/29(Sun)10:10 No. 96284 ID: dd338c
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>Healing magic is damaging to the undead, right? Should Story Seeker be careful about potentially bringing powerful healing items or other effects back home to you from his trips, and if so have you warned him about things like that? Or do you have precautions set up to negate those dangers to begin with? I'd assume you set up your ghouls with some way to not burst into flame if someone tried to heal them, for example, but maybe that's just an acceptable hazard.
To an extent, healing magic harms undead. It can be complicated, as healing magic can vary in intent and possibility. There is healing magic to restore lost limbs, and healing magic to revert wounds as though they never happened. I'll talk about the latter case.

Those wound-reverting healing magics will attempt to sew a body back together however it sees fit. That includes getting rid of rotted flesh, debris and anything that isn't the wound itself. So, in cheap zombies, haphazard ghouls and patchwork skeletons, those bodies will be seen as undesirable elements of a wound, and the healing magic will expend its power on destroying the bodies, hence, healing is very effective against such things.

In undead made by anyone remotely competent, however, their bodies are truly undead and can be treated as inanimate, and so targeting such an undead would be the same as targetting a boulder. Nothing will happen.

In well made, expensive undead, their bodies will be made of flesh that is sustained and living, put together in such a way that their body can emulate a living being. Healing magic, if the caster does not have or take the precautions against these pseudo-living bodies, can heal the undead as though they were living.

That's the simplified version of it.

>Actually, if Kexluk had been around back then, would he have had a way to detect your ghouls?
I cannot be sure, but I doubt it. His plain power is frankly obscene, but his techniques, arsenal and mentality are all hardly versatile.

Ruli 2015/11/29(Sun)10:10 No. 96285 ID: dd338c
File 144882064930.png - (92.60KB , 800x800 , RuliITQ1.png )

>Neumono that got barked at while trying to get hotdogs
>what were your thoughts at the time?
I really hate holidays.

Cogsvi 2015/11/29(Sun)10:11 No. 96286 ID: dd338c
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>Hot dog stand guy: So, how did your 'dog-making skills hold up?
Really well! I think. I mean, even if I know a lot about cooking, it's a really straightforward job. I just had to know how to operate the machinery and catch his lingo.

>Hot dog stand guy: How did your other skills hold up. *nudge nudge, wink wink*
P-pretty good?! I think? She left in a good mood so I assume so!

>How often do you imagine doing terrible naughty things to your customers. Is this part of the appeal of your stall.
Never! I mean, not usually, but usually they don't, just, wear... that, and then... do things. And think things. I couldn't help it, but that is definitely not the appeal of the stall!

It just... happened this time.

Person of Hot Dog Importance 2015/11/29(Sun)10:11 No. 96287 ID: dd338c
File 144882070046.png - (79.72KB , 800x800 , ImportantHotDogManITQ1.png )

>How did you become so hot dog important? Do you have importance in any other food domains?
By making it a habit to visit every hot dog store, stand, restaurant and shop in town. I became a specialist on it, and my opinion and feedback was valuable. I kept doing it long enough that within the hotdog niche, I became popular enough that other people treated my opinion as valuable as well.

Just for hot dogs.

>And, are neumono health and safety standards for culinary preparation more lax than for aliens, or do you just not care?
I didn't care. It's about the hotdog, not the ambience or whatever.

>Do neumono, being mostly carnivores, have a larger, more varied and more nuanced market of meat products compared to aliens?
Yeah. That's why I like hotdogs. It's simply a combination of meat, no bullshit with buns or vegetables or whatever.

Murderhouse Winners 2015/11/29(Sun)10:12 No. 96288 ID: dd338c
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>Person who eventually won the Halloween murder house mystery: how did that go down?
It wasn't too special, actually. I basically cheesed it by hiding the whole time until at the very end, where I and two neumono managed to piece together who one of the murderers was. Which happened to be the last one. It wasn't hard either, the last murderer got pretty sloppy at the end as they got more and more impatient and nervous. I basically missed out on the slaughterfest where like half the total people died within half an hour in what was basically a shootout. I think it started with Roxie, but once she got killed some murderers took advantage of the resulting chaos and things went downhill pretty fast.

>>96272
Penn, how is AI romance seen in public circles? As in either romance between AI's, or between one with an organic?

Oh, that's assuming that you guys don't make organic AI's. I'm also interested in potentially organic artificial intelligence that people have tried to make. Also interested in how the romance is seen between an organic artificial intelligence and a organic natural intelligence.

Actually, I have some other questions for anyone who can answer them.

How far has science gone in the essence of understanding the consciousness, and whether or not it's possible to digitize an entire mind, and how to transfer a proper consciousness from one area to another, like into a different brain?

I assume that the ancient belosian empire MIGHT have mastered that concept, since it sounds like some emperors have switched bodies into a robot body and brain ala "Ghost in the Shell". So I'm curious how far along humanity or whoever is currently researching it in that regard.

Anyone knowledgeable: Did any species have a name for their homeworld, which was kept after humans came by?
All I remember is that tribal neumono didn't see the big picture in the first place, and belenosians had long forgotten their homeworld's name after the apocalypse.

Question for anyone, Which races are most likely to pursue romantic partners outside of their species?

>>96315
My money's on humans, what with how our libido goes off of what the torso looks like.

>>96315
>>96318
Obviously it'll be humans, but which? The smart furry humans? The feathery humans? The psychic regenerating furry humans? The varying plant humans? The scaly humans? The non evolutionarily viable humans? The robot humans? The absent humans? The ai humans? There are so many possibilities!

>>96322
What are you talking about? Like, seriously, is there a point or a joke/"joke" I'm missing? "Human" and "person" stop being synonymous when you start having more than one race of sophonts.

>>96323
Joke about how Asteroidquest deals almost exclusively with http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumanoidAliens

>>96324
I'm confused. The article you linked emphasises how the aliens of that type are only just close enough to humanoid to qualify.

I mean, if you're going by mindset, sure, but if you're diluting the definition of human to be human minded as opposed to genetically related to Homo sapiens then very few things on this entire website count as nonhuman.

So really what distinction is even left?

>>96327
Y'all are over analyzing this, I was just making an innocent joke about how the intelligent aliens in Asteroidquest are mostly just humans with a few differences. This is true of most soft sci-fi. The aliens in most media are usually not even as alien as some things we can find on Earth.

You have killed my joke, it is dead. The funeral is in one week. I expect you all to attend.

>>96328
>You have killed my joke, it is dead.

It was put out of its misery. A kindness.

>>96272
>I've had to turn down a lot of jobs of that kind and many others.

If you didn't have the next step in your career lined up with Arza, but you still had all your qualifications, what job would you like to do?

>It's simple to make a simple AI. It's sort of like making one's own computer. People don't go do it from literal scratch, forging out the copper and all that, they use certain components. There's a lot of components in the form of prefabricated codes, modules and so on to make AI's.

Hmm... what's the state of robots, as opposed to AIs? Like, I imagine there are housekeeping robots and ones that help in hospitals and so on, that are pre-made for specific jobs, but how possible is it for someone to build a robot for themselves? Is it similar to how you describe AIs there, that you can buy up a bunch of components and put them together in a custom configuration for whatever task you have in mind? You'd have to come up with an AI that can use the weird custom body, of course, but for someone like you that wouldn't be too much of an issue. Have you ever made robots, Penn?

>AI quirks

Besides the idiosyncrasies of individual makers, do you feel like there's a difference between AIs made by different species? Do AIs made by a human or a pomi or a neumono differ in recognizable ways from one made by a belenosian?

>In fact, it's fully compatible with just a couple of components that would make it fully sentient

So... if legality wasn't a problem, you could upgrade Orix to be sentient pretty easily? What are the legal limits, anyway, is more allowed for government, corporations, or military work? Are there like, wealthy CEOs who go "oh no we need an advanced AI to handle our security", but who are really just using that as a loophole to have their own special AI buddy?

>I really like earth's lettuce.

Lettuce is basically just water, but... well, if you like it you like it. On the subject of food, do you and Roxie ever cook for each other? Or is it too problematic for aliens to prepare each others' food, like what tastes fine to one won't taste the same to the other. Or, like, when a neumono cooks for aliens they always make too much food, and when aliens cook for neumono they don't make enough, so the neumono has to go "oh thank you" to be polite and then sneak off afterwards to cram something else into themselves. That sort of thing?

Actually - maybe Roxie would answer this one instead - do neumono need different arrangements in regards breaks to eat at work or college? Humans, and I assume most species, have that three-meals plan that's not really natural but designed to work well with the working day, but neumono need more food more often. So, do neumono workplaces have brunch and linner breaks in addition to what everyone else has? Or do they just have extra food stands and snack machines on site and the neumono just get up and grab something whenever they feel the need, and everyone just accepts it? Do places with a lot of neumono tend to have a lot more street vendors and restaurants and such in general? Do they tend towards any higher quality than those for other species, since neumono don't do so well just cramming junk into their bellies to stop hunger pangs until later?

Also... psst, Roxie. How much does Penn eat, compared to other belenos? All that braining all day must eat up a lot of calories. Plus, well, you're both lovely ladies, and you're curvier overall of course, but Penn doesn't seem like she has to make any excuse in the caboose either, know what I mean? And good for her, too.

>>96278
>Vivilli, Rokoa, Roxie, Katzati, Jess.

... Az, do you have a snow neumono fetish? I mean, three out of five when there are four options... and you did indicate once that if Pilon was a girl you'd like him. So it sounds like you have an extra appreciation for the pale ladies. Is that just physical, or is there like, since the white and red are the largest and there seems a sort of implicit rivalry there, maybe it's a racial tension thing...? I mean, no shame, man. I'm just curious.

>>96283

So, I know you're not Penn's actual biological grandmother, but did you have any kids of your own? If not, is that common? Like, is there a problem with the biggest belenosian science nerds being so busy doing science that they don't have kids. And, since you mention a lack of husbandry during the tribal era, are there any weirdos who are trying to make up for that now? Eugenics, and such?

Speaking of biology, we know neumono have crazy regeneration all by their own, but how does medical assistance stack up against it? If a belenosian loses their arm, can science cook up a clone limb and reattach it, or stimulate a form of regeneration artificially? Are there cyborgs who emulate neumono resilience by having backup redundant organs installed, and can they get put back in action as quick as a neumono can if they have the best treatment available?

Finally... this is sort of an insensitive question, but besides that you guys just like learning, do you think belenosians' comparatively limited lifespans have an influence on how eagerly some of you pursue science? Like, you know you only have so much time to see how far science progresses, so you want it to go faster so you can see and learn as much as possible? And, do you think Penn will behave a little differently in that regard, since there's a reasonable chance that she might have space to be more patient? I mean, the ancient belenosians were certainly capable of making improvements in that regard, and it seems like one of the first featuress you'd include.

Couple of more broadly targeted questions:

Any CAI contestant, along with sight and sound and touch, is the sense of smell part of your experience? I noticed Unity experienced taste for the first time in the belenosians sim, and those two senses are linked, so I wonder.

And speaking of scent, to neumono: you can't get empathic readings off aliens, but can smell make up some of the difference? Different emotions produce different chemical balances that come out with perspiration, particularly the excitement-oriented ones like fear, anger and arousal and so on. I assume aliens just smell weird at first, but after a while learning what odor corresponds to what, can you pick up information on them through your nose? Not just emotion, but things like general health, what they've been eating, how old or what sex they are in the more ambiguous cases? Like, Vern said that without scent, voklit wearing loincloths wouldn't be able to tell each other's sex, which implies smell does tell sex pretty clearly, and that should hold for most species. Could neumono learn to tell voklit men and women apart by smell?

Dear Shaman from a alternate universe in which Story seeker makes really bad life choices.

So some people are worried that you tribe treats new immigrants horribly and that you in particular seemed awfully prepared for that sort of thing.

Do you in fact run a horrible sex dungeon on the side and make a habit of selling passerby's into slavery? Or has the whole situation been blown out of proportion?

Rokoa: Have you ever ripped off your ear and used it as a projectile weapon, and would that actually be useful, assuming that you didn't have a gun or something?

Following that food question, what did belenosians eat during the pre-contact days? If there was any natural ecosystem left under the empire then it must have gotten absolutely devastated. It seems implied that there weren't any animals left, either, besides toyas. So like, without insects, did farmers have to see to crop pollination themselves? Without beasts of burden, did they have to do all the ploughing, hauling, etc. as well? Did they ever try to breed toyas to be more suitable to help out? Were there ever giant riding toyas?

As for the plants, what was left? Was there anything natural, or did the original survivors have to put up with using more tech-dependent crops? Were there like, seed banks? Maybe a few wealthy nobles before the disaster had been paranoid enough to create survival bunkers, loaded with stuff that helped out? Did any such survival-crazy old nobles actually survive and reappear during the tribal eras, out of stasis or whatever?

>>96369
Wouldn't that be like throwing an uncooked steak at someone? Humans used to be known to be excellent throwers, but how good are the different arm-having aliens at throwing?

>>96374
A really big one, maybe.

>>96376
C'mon, her ears aren't THAT big.....are they?

>>96377
C'mon guys, she isn't Pilon, stop trying to make her self conscious about her ears.

>>96377
Biggest steak I've ever seen was a bit larger than my head. Rokoa's pretty tall for a neumono, and her ears are large even in comparison to her body. So her ears are at least that large.

>>96379
A) I'm pretty sure Rokoa is secure enough in her raw sexuality/slaughter potential that anything I say would - at absolute worst - come off as the conceited ranting of the stupid. She ain't gonna feel self-conscious.
B) I was under the impression neumono saw large ears as an attractive trait >.> Which is part of why Pilon gets all the bitches.

>>96379
And C) nice job implying that Pilon's got ugly ears, mate :P

>B) I was under the impression neumono saw large ears as an attractive trait >.> Which is part of why Pilon gets all the bitches.
Pilon can you confirm this is true.

Polo can you confirm this is true. (You know ears big enough to use as a mattress and/or quilt are sexy).

>>96384
I'm just saying that not everyone can have beautiful ears like Pilon.

Everyone: Milk or cereal first? Water or toothpaste?

Yo Jessica, if I remember right, you were raised in a jammer city, right? I was wondering, recently: I know in jammer cities you don't get neumono getting in trouble with each other because they empathically rub the wrong way, and you don't get rogues constantly being reminded what they're missing out on, and a bunch of other problems damped down, but as part of the exchange... would there be more racism or sexism in jammer cities?

I mean, the reason discrimination starts is because people need a mental shorthand for dealing with each other. Ideally when you meet someone new you would get to know them personally and treat them like the individual they are, but it's impossible to do so for every person you'll interact with in any sizable population. So, people's minds take a shortcut, looking at someone's appearance or clothes or way of speaking, and using that to sort them into a group that's assumed to be similar enough to each other that they can all be treated the same way. Of course, it doesn't go down as sensibly as that, it mostly happens subconsciously, people take disproportionate influence from media, pick up wrong ideas second-hand, seldom bother revising their assumptions and so on and that's why discrimination generally sucks.

Now, without jammers, neumono probably don't have this problem as much. The first instinct is to judge the other person based on their empathy, and once you get past the basic not-my-hive reaction, the empathic read tends to be pretty accurate, so there's no reason to make judgements based on anything else about them. When you're in a jammer, you don't have that. For example, during Polo's most recent adventures, I noticed that after spending a long time in a jammer, Katzati started getting more flak about her weight from her companions. You can high-five every neumono you meet to get an empathic read, of course, but in the case of a jammer city that seems both very impractical and defeating the point of the whole thing in the first place.

So, when you live in a jammer city, do you get people making more assumptions or judgements based on you being female, or red, or dressing or speaking a certain way?

To Clunker: Who did you work for before you met Story Seeker? Have you had any jobs other than being a bodyguard?

To anyone; would you eat Miklik if it was presented as part of a nice salad at a fancy dining occasion?

To the fluffiest Belenosian: Just how fluffy are you, and does it pose any issues?

>>96540
Wouldn't neumono be more appropriate, with their being known for regeneration and all?

>>96605
Last I checked, Neumono aren't known for their plant-like properties

Glitcher, Rulekeeper: So... how was the date?

>>96608
Have you never had meat in salad?

Also, any belenos, are you aware of the ancient Celtic deity Belenos? Coincidence, evidence of alien meddling, something else?

Lagotrope, why did you pick belenos/belenosians? Was it because of the sun god or just a coincidence?

>>96693

Building on this question: aliens, how do you feel when you find things that resemble yourselves in other species' ancient culture? Any pomi want to comment on finding human stories about lizardmen, or belenosians on discovering fuzzy horn-having people-creatures?

And how about non-human instances, are there like, any ancient pomi myths that coincidentally include hairless monkeys or half-plant folks or whatnot?

While I'm asking questions, an unrelated one to those: Penn, have you ever met any others of Roxie's hive? I assume you've never actually visited her proper hive, but has she ever like had another who's going through the uplift program come over and visit her, for example?

Also, do tribals going through uplift get like special resources to help them deal with technology, or did you often have to put up with Roxie coming to you for help every time she couldn't figure out how to turn on the tv or so on? Or maybe both?

>>96694
I bet that the ancient Belenosian empire actually did discover ftl travel, but they kept it a secret, and that's why so many aliens resemble belenos. The aliens with the three genders (forgot the name) were genetically engineered by belenos. Humans and goats both evolved from belenos (possibly artificially?). Mikliks were a belenosian experiment in creating sentient life from plants!
It's all a conspiracy! Soylent Green is people! They're putting fluoride in our water! The diamond emperor is still alive! (okay maybe that last one is a little far fetched, BUT STILL!)

>>96695
At the very least, extensive fossil evidence and overwhelming genetic similarity to nonhuman species would disprove that theory for Earth, since it's fairly definitively proven that we evolved here from native fauna. Either that or belenos have been around for billions of years, which brings up a whole another host of problems to do with lack of advancement.

>>96696
That's true for our universe, but maybe not necessarily for theirs.

Belenos could stay the same for quite a while what with their genetical manipulation.

The Belenosian empire had absolutely ridiculous levels of technology, which could potentially excuse a lot of bullfuckery surrounding this crackpot theory, so I'd say it's still as good an explanation as any.

>>96693
I think it was already said that the name comes from humans. They named the star Belenos (humans naming a star after a sun god, how surprising...), gave a number to the planet, and since the natives had forgotten their name, they too were named after the system...

Karri, are you seeing anyone right now? Or do you just have a few casual flings now and then? Anyone we know? We haven't shipped you with anyone save maybe kappi, and I think your mom might have dibs on him? It might not be dibs.

How about you, Pilon? We haven't even shipped you with kappi... Yet.

Rokoa do you have dibs on kappi, or would you share if either of them was interested?

Going really far back with this one, but... >>91170

Miss, do you pomi ladies just lay eggs regularly, regardless of prior activities?

>>96729
Oh hey, yeah, after reading that post again, it makes me want to ask if that means that Belonos are REALLY fertile, and have a higher chance of having twins and triplets.

Belonos birth control must be a BITCH for the women, because all the good stuff must have been made in the empire days. Might have been a good thing we never got Penn a boyfriend (and that Milo was just a backstabbing turd waiting to happen).

>>96741
>(and that Milo was just a backstabbing turd waiting to happen).
Honestly, when I was first reading through the bit there, I was expecting that he'd have defended himself and outted his sister, and hoping that he would have ended up staying when she was coerced to leave. Dude had some awesome potential, it's a shame it got thrown aside because of his overzealous sister.

Speaking of Milo... hey, Milo! You seemed pretty confident in your wooing abilities. You seduce ladies often? You didn't look to have much objection to your role in the plan, either. In regards the morality of it all that's one thing, but not personally, either? Did you just not mind, or did you actually find Penn attractive enough to make it less of a chore?... You a leg man?

Also does your sister pull this shit often. Complicated vengeance/sabotage resentment schemes, I mean. She seems like she would.

Question most relevant to Az, but directed at anyone who might know.

How does a king/queen happen in a jammer hive? I was under the impression it had something to do with empathy, but in a jammer hive that cant really be the case, can it?

Terribly sorry if this has been answered before. I know Az went into detail about how queens are for the most part born rather than created, but wouldn't the lack of empathy be a problem?

>>96796
Jammers allow empathy via physical contact. They can only block it at a distance.

Belenosians: do you have fingernails or some equivalent under that fur? Or do the soda cans of other species taunt you with their slippery tabs?

Neumono: We've teased Polo with the word "frenemy" to describe her relationship with Rokoa, but I'm wondering if frenemies could actually have been a thing, historically. Like, if you have two neighboring hives that weren't really warlike, they would have raided and skirmished and beaten up on each other a lot, but with neumono toughness a lot more of the participants would survive than with other species. So you could end up with particular individuals meeting each other again and again, and developing a familiarity and knowledge of each other. Like, Rokoa's parents presumably met each other in some similar fashion. In extreme cases, you could even end up with two particularly old enemies becoming the eldest in their hives, so that they'd have known each other longer than anyone else. Is that a thing?

And if it is a thing, how do such relationship generally turn when hives are uplifted? Since the ultrahives are geographically bounded, and hives seem to want to keep their ancestral homes more often than not, there must be a lot of former enemies who are having to see a lot of each other. Are there neumono going out to drink and talk about the young people these days, then getting in nostalgia fights with each other? Hives who are otherwise peaceful to each other but who have this one pair who keep getting into arguments because their mutual antagonism is just part of them now? Intimate dalliances between couples whose forbidden attractions are now permissible? People turning up at each others' doors with apology gifts going "hey sorry for breaking your arms and legs all those times"?

>>96856
Actually, that reminds me. Rikora basically said that big women with tiny men was a family preference/fetish. Rokoa has admitted she'd have sex with Polo, and we've seen the kind of stuff she does to Kappi.

So, Polo, have you realized that you're Rokoa's fetish yet? How does that feel?

Hey Rokoa, when you were were telling that story to Kappi, did you leave out the part that was never to be spoken of again? >>/questarch/429257

>>96796
>>96797
Yeah, jammer hives still have empathy, just less often. You need a certain level of emphatic activity for members to bond / attune / sync with the hive. You can't have a bunch of people with the same or similar pattern in a vacuum.

>>96861
Although to be fair that's apparently a bit of a retcon or jammer tech has advanced, since when someone asked how sex was in a jammer the answer included that there was no empathy.

>>96862
Nope, no retcon. The very same post that discusses how sex in a jammer can feel weird to someone not used to it also discusses how physical contact in a jammer still provides empathy, just weaker than you'd get sans jammer. >>/questdis/74540 (It's something of a matter of degree, and what you're used to).

>>96862
>>96864

Plus, that post was quite a while ago now. Most of the more recent neumono adventures have empathy through physical contact in a jammer as quite a significant thing. Most of them are set in the past relative to the main Asteroid Quest, so technology could have advanced, but Christmas Quest was set at around the same time and it was still possible for Rokoa to get reads off Jess and that one CEO guy. Christmas Quest was in a different timeline, but if anything it seemed to have superior technology overall.

>>96283
>Records indicate most of the empires being refered to as a gender neutral pronoun, which makes sense, as records also indicate that the nobles favored being agender, asexual, and, frankly, non or partly biological.

Hmm. This might be more of a psychology or sociology or anthropology(xenothropology?) question, but do you think forsaking sexuality and sexual identity may have been a factor in the nobles becoming... well, assholes?

I mean, sex is more than just messy reproduction. Most animals have very brief, to-the-point couplings; sentient species like humans and, clearly, most of the rest of you, developed longer mating sessions for a reason. It's a bonding exercise, fostering attachments and trust and intimacy and so on, forming and reinforcing social and emotional connections within a group. By not having sex, the ancient nobles would have effectively severed themselves from one way to create and to strengthen relationships with others. Strong sexuality is very useful for many purposes.

Engaging in reproduction itself is also a common, primitive but effective way to form alliances. Having a child creates a mutual interest for two family groups, effectively allowing them to adopt each other as relatives. Having no sex makes it far harder to form such relationships; even a token presentation of gender for a physically asexual being would allow them to participate in the traditions to some extent. It also makes it harder to be a parent, as you become "creator" to any offspring rather than the more primal, culturally weighty "mother" or "father". Being unable to have mates also eliminates the slight but present possibility of any other member of one's species being a potential adopted relative, which creates further social distance.

There's an element of hubris to it, as well. To be a gendered entity is to present yourself as incomplete in and of yourself, one half of a whole that remains unmade. Effectively, if you're male or female, it's an implicit admission that there are some things you can't do by yourself. Have you ever read Frankenstein? One of the ideas commonly held as to the work is that, in creating a child without involving a woman, the titular Frankenstein pursues his goal as an exercise in his own ego, to create offspring without having to admit the involvement of anyone else to detract from his own achievement. If they had stayed gendered beings, the ancient nobles might have kept a little more humility.

I can get the idea of ascending past the limits of mortality and flesh and blood and all that, but a being within a greater universe can never be perfect, and reminders of that imperfection are useful. Besides, I gather most of them kept forms that resembled belenosians. That may have been a matter of how they want to present themselves, but then gender would have been as well.

Sorry for my rambling.

Another, related question: How are the soft sciences and humanities viewed by belenosians, generally? Did they, being less threatening than fields which can produce technology, continue to be pursued during the tribal eras? And in the modern era, are they spit upon in comparison to the fields which produce harder facts?

And another: I assume most belenosians are atheists or on the harder side of agnosticism, but what sort of views are common in regards the philosophical questions of the meaning of life or sense of purpose, or why certain things are important, and so on? I was wondering if a certain flavour of pantheistic atheism would work well for you guys. Like, "we are the part of the universe that is capable of appreciating itself, so the best fulfillment of life is to just discover and experience as much as possible", and that would carry on to attitudes like "just by existing you have vlaue, life is precious and especially sentient life because killing someone or destroying their mind takes away a unique perspective on existence", that sort of thing. That would be one that supports science a lot, though it could also support art appreciation or creation or exploration or even hedonism if you want to spin it that way. Would a philosophy like that be held to by belenosians, in place of religion? Were any actual religions rediscovered/created during the tribal period?

How does Yich Eater child rearing generally go? Are all three parents involved in raising kids?

Many / most of the other major sapient species pair off to form something like nuclear families, and neumono obviously skew towards more collaborative hive rearing. But we know almost nothing about Yich Eater social constructs! (I don't think we've ever even seen two Yich Eaters interact directly).

Heeeeeey Pit, are you familiar with Lieutenant Pit from the first thread or are there just only so many monosyllable names?

Penn, has Roxie ever tried teaching you any of her hive's language? Does the belenosian learning thing apply well to gaining a language?

Do neumono tails play a part in the physical expression of emotion? Like, bristle for fear/anger, lift for alertness, droop for depression, wag for happiness, et cetera?

Penn 2016/01/26(Tue)16:15 No. 97414 ID: dd338c
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>Penn, how is AI romance seen in public circles? As in either romance between AI's, or between one with an organic?
Romance between AI's practically has its own field of study, just because of how complex relations can form from one AI to the other. Sometimes they're not supposed to, but in any respectable field, it's seen as a shortcoming of the building of the AI rather than the AI's own fault.

AI and an organic, well... most places see it as weird, since most of the time, non-sentient AIs are supposed to be treated the same as non-sentient tools. Or in the case of sentient AIs, on a pure professional basis.

But people fall in love anyway, whether or not it's a good thing.

I mean, that's really not including the AI companies that make artificial significant others, but that's a controversial field. Also, there is a huge, sentient AI on earth that acts as like an unofficial therapist or counselor to anyone inside of earth's solar system. That's also controversial since AI's can't really get degrees like that legally, so that AI always has to be presented 'for entertainment purposes only', even if it's done a lot of emotional good for people without access or willingness to go to a professional living being of the respective field.

Siiince it's basically a sentient being that's made to be available for public talk and to be as nice as supportive as inhumanly possible, a lot of people have confessed love for it.

It has its own algorithms to deal with people who fall in love with it or grow dependent on it or whatever, too.

>How far has science gone in the essence of understanding the consciousness, and whether or not it's possible to digitize an entire mind, and how to transfer a proper consciousness from one area to another, like into a different brain?
Not very, just because everyone saw how well that worked out for the belenos. So there's a lot of legal red tape that has to be cut to make studies on it, and that red tape is usually in the form of having to proof that there's a very serious benefit to what exactly they're trying to do.

Still, we know a lot about it, but there would need to be an enormous amount of breakthroughs, one after the other, before we get anywhere close to being able to move people's brains into other formats reliably, and in a way that, even just arguably, moves it instead of cloning it then destroying the original.

>Did any species have a name for their homeworld, which was kept after humans came by?
No, not really.

Each species had their own name for it, definitely. A lot of names for it, really, since each species would have their own languages. Most of those species' language would just translate it to something like 'all the dirt under our feet' or something like that, rather than a planet as we understand it.

>If you didn't have the next step in your career lined up with Arza, but you still had all your qualifications, what job would you like to do?
Ah... I would probably still want to work with CAIs very much, I think.

>Hmm... what's the state of robots, as opposed to AIs? Like, I imagine there are housekeeping robots and ones that help in hospitals and so on, that are pre-made for specific jobs, but how possible is it for someone to build a robot for themselves?
It's definitely doable, but it also has the same issues of making an AI from scratch. Anyone with some money can just go buy some prefabricated parts and install in a compatible AI that can understand what its limbs specifications are. More in depth people can buy smaller and smaller parts to build a robot body with, and can code in the specifications of the limbs for the AI to work off of.

So, yes, it's exactly similar to how I described making AIs, kind of.

I have made some robots a little, but only to show how an AI can learn how to use its limbs without being told how. That class usually films the results so people can laugh at all of the robots flopping around trying to stand up. It's kind of funny but also kind of depressing that it's funny.

>Besides the idiosyncrasies of individual makers, do you feel like there's a difference between AIs made by different species? Do AIs made by a human or a pomi or a neumono differ in recognizable ways from one made by a belenosian?
Ah, sort of. Not really much between human and belenos, but that's because a lot of the field's advances are because of us two working together on it so much, so it blends together. Neumono have a tendency to make it run a lot of processing power to come up with a "correct" decision even if there really isn't a correct one. Pomi try to have it run efficiently at the cost of, well, making it stable.

I haven't seen enough AI's made from other species though to tell if those AI's quirks are because of the species, or because of the individuals.

>So... if legality wasn't a problem, you could upgrade Orix to be sentient pretty easily?
Well, if legality wasn't a problem, and if I had the modules, Orix could be sentient easily. Those modules are hard to get, though. I can probably get one from Arza, but.... that doesn't count.

>What are the legal limits, anyway, is more allowed for government, corporations, or military work?
Only for high level military and government work. They can be loaned out, in a way, to corporations, but the AI is always to answer to the government, not the corporation.

>Are there like, wealthy CEOs who go "oh no we need an advanced AI to handle our security", but who are really just using that as a loophole to have their own special AI buddy?
Yes, but since the government can easily investigate and check up on the AI, it would be really difficult to get away with trying to make the AI serve the corporation's purposes.

>On the subject of food, do you and Roxie ever cook for each other? Or is it too problematic for aliens to prepare each others' food, like what tastes fine to one won't taste the same to the other. Or, like, when a neumono cooks for aliens they always make too much food, and when aliens cook for neumono they don't make enough, so the neumono has to go "oh thank you" to be polite and then sneak off afterwards to cram something else into themselves. That sort of thing?
Wellll, that may be common for aliens cooking for one another who aren't familiar, but it doesn't take long to get an idea of what an alien eats, at least for a basic idea.

I rarely had time to cook for even myself, but Roxie, since she's being funded by Arza at my request for being helpful, cooks for me all the time. It was a little rough at first, since she insist on cooking things that were complex and things that she'd never eat, but she can do it well now.

>Any pomi want to comment on finding human stories about lizardmen, or belenosians on discovering fuzzy horn-having people-creatures?
Human stories might've been unflattering but I mean, the bad guys that were goat people didn't really look like us anymore than an orc or whatever would look like a human, so there's just enough separation that it didn't mean much.

But, uh there was a little while, like a few decades at most, where neumono were being spot-uplifted over a lot of areas that weren't necessarily connected, and there was a lot of stuff neumono were starting to make. Like, a lot of hives wanted to get in the technology based industries, so a lot started making video games, cars, movies, all that kind of stuff. But they didn't have the normal tools or education on it, so there were a lot of interesting... products of the time. Including the movies, which were sometimes about aliens, which, uh... well, it's a little amusing how they got into the industry to prove a point to aliens that they can use technology too, and then used that technology to make some really goofy interpretations about what aliens did and do.

>Penn, have you ever met any others of Roxie's hive?
Almost! But then I got shy and ran out of my apartment before her hivemate showed up and I missed the meeting and I've always felt terrible about it since, because in theory I should get along just as well with Roxie's hivemate as I do with Roxie.

>Do tribals going through uplift get like special resources to help them deal with technology, or did you often have to put up with Roxie coming to you for help every time she couldn't figure out how to turn on the tv or so on? Or maybe both?
Well, yes, but most of the basics like tv's and toasters and whatever are covered in initial courses long before they get a roommate, so that isn't an issue. There's also a big database in either a book or computer file format that the neumono can look up.

Roxie knew how to use appliance and stuff well, but I did have to answer an awful lot of computer questions for her for awhile.

>Do you have fingernails or some equivalent under that fur?
Yes! Our claws are sort of like a thin fingernail, so it's basically flat at the end, but it's really tough.

Since we don't know how it would've come up in an evolutionary sense besides guesses, it's a safe bet that our fingernails were designed to do stuff like open cans.

>Penn, has Roxie ever tried teaching you any of her hive's language? Does the belenosian learning thing apply well to gaining a language?
A little! Sometimes when I ask what a word means when she yells one out. It's usually a curse. I remember most of it, because Belenos are definitely also good at learning languages, but I'm definitely not fluent or even capable of broken speech with it, because it's still a big deal to learn for such a specialized thing. Plus, statistically speaking, if Roxie's hive migrates to an ultrahive completely, then at least 95% of the hive will also know english in about 30 years.

Roxie 2016/01/26(Tue)16:15 No. 97415 ID: dd338c
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>Do neumono need different arrangements in regards breaks to eat at work or college? Humans, and I assume most species, have that three-meals plan that's not really natural but designed to work well with the working day, but neumono need more food more often. So, do neumono workplaces have brunch and linner breaks in addition to what everyone else has? Or do they just have extra food stands and snack machines on site and the neumono just get up and grab something whenever they feel the need, and everyone just accepts it?
We're not so lucky! We don't really get more breaks, but vending machines are about as common as bathrooms. Also, rules are a lot more lax about eating at our desks or wherever. And if it's not, then taking a food break is just as acceptable as taking a bathroom break. It's why though a lot of our food is just condensed snacks.

>Do places with a lot of neumono tend to have a lot more street vendors and restaurants and such in general? Do they tend towards any higher quality than those for other species, since neumono don't do so well just cramming junk into their bellies to stop hunger pangs until later?
Yes, for sure we have more food places, at least in highly populated areas. After all, people need to eat, so it's gonna have an industry, and if people need to eat three times as much, it'll be three times as big an industry!

The 'quality' of food has to go up, yes, but the taste of food, not so much. So there are places that keep the taste up, some places that are just convenient and fast but still healthy, and we still have our junk food, but our bodies start having issues way faster if we eat too much junk. As opposed to aliens who do just fine for about 30 years on a junk diet.

>How much does Penn eat, compared to other belenos? All that braining all day must eat up a lot of calories. Plus, well, you're both lovely ladies, and you're curvier overall of course, but Penn doesn't seem like she has to make any excuse in the caboose either, know what I mean? And good for her, too.
She eats... enough? I guess? When I first started watching her eat, I thought she was trying to starve herself even after being told they eat a lot less.

I never watched other belenos eat whole meals or anything, but Penn tells me that she makes sure she eats enough to keep herself operating well. Which is a really belenos way of putting it.

>And speaking of scent, to neumono: you can't get empathic readings off aliens, but can smell make up some of the difference? Different emotions produce different chemical balances that come out with perspiration, particularly the excitement-oriented ones like fear, anger and arousal and so on. I assume aliens just smell weird at first, but after a while learning what odor corresponds to what, can you pick up information on them through your nose?
Yeah kinda.

Only works on studying one person though, since it's even harder to pick up the patterns shared by all members of the species.

>Could neumono learn to tell voklit men and women apart by smell?
Probably. Maybe? Voklit smell is supposed to kick ass, so it depends on if that gender difference is a big difference or a subtle one.

I mean, I've been around voklit before, jungle and all, but usually they brought bigger concerns than wondering about their reproductive capabilities.

>Do neumono tails play a part in the physical expression of emotion? Like, bristle for fear/anger, lift for alertness, droop for depression, wag for happiness, et cetera?
Yes! Like any other limb. It'll, uh, not wag, but wave around if we get happy, jerk around if we're irritated, but otherwise just what you'd expect I think.

Karri 2016/01/26(Tue)16:15 No. 97416 ID: dd338c
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>Karri, are you seeing anyone right now? Or do you just have a few casual flings now and then? Anyone we know?
Just casual stuff with a few guys that I get along with. Nothing significant or long term.

Miss 2016/01/26(Tue)16:16 No. 97417 ID: dd338c
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>Any pomi want to comment on finding human stories about lizardmen
I think some early Pomi had a pretty cool sense of humor about saying how they weren't aliens at all, but inhabited the center of the earth long before humans were around and then for reasons were on our homeworld.

But really no one paid any more bad attention to weird lizardman stories in human movies any more than humans poke fun at how badly their own movies predicted what 50 years in the future would look like.

>And how about non-human instances, are there like, any ancient pomi myths that coincidentally include hairless monkeys or half-plant folks or whatnot?
Plant folk, sure! The mikliks, uh, didn't really live up to the epic tales of plant gods.

We never really had a good match with human looking things, though.

Buuuut, we did have one pretty major god who was the god of gluttony who just a little bit resembles a neumono, so that's cool.

>Miss, do you pomi ladies just lay eggs regularly, regardless of prior activities?
Kinda, but it's a really small egg, so it's barely even worth a bathroom break.

Pilon 2016/01/26(Tue)16:16 No. 97418 ID: dd338c
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>Question for anyone, Which races are most likely to pursue romantic partners outside of their species?
I believe human and neumono are the most common for this. The theory for us neumono is that we already have experience with other sapient and sentient creatures, and so we at least had a boost of familiarity with the concept unlike most others.

Humans, well... they're complex, and I think they have a tendency to look and focus outside of their boundaries a lot more than the other species. So even though they can be just as discriminating for just as arbitrary reasons as any other species, they also open themselves up to a lot of possibilities.

>My money's on humans, what with how our libido goes off of what the torso looks like.
That would explain it, and in simpler terms, too.

>I was under the impression neumono saw large ears as an attractive trait
>Pilon can you confirm this is true.
Often, yes, but as the saying goes, there's no accounting for taste. And even neumono have a sense for too big, too much, and so my ears can still be offputting even to those who like large ears.

Oh, since it's related... just in case anyone thought differently, you can't make Rokoa self concious of her ears.

>How about you, Pilon, [are you seeing anyone right now]?
I do have my relations with various people, yes, but it's not quite the same as having a lover, and even considering that, it certainly doesn't feel as strong as I wish it did.

So, I'm not seeing anyone in the sense that most people take "seeing someone" to mean, no.

Polo 2016/01/26(Tue)16:17 No. 97419 ID: dd338c
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>I was under the impression neumono saw large ears as an attractive trait
>Polo can you confirm this is true.
I find Pilon's ears are more of a novelty to me than attractive.

Nonetheless, if I were out of an appropriate bed or other sleeping surface, I would sleep on his ear even if it is strange.

>Would you eat Miklik if it was presented as part of a nice salad at a fancy dining occasion?
No, under the presumption that I am not starving to death.

>So, Polo, have you realized that you're Rokoa's fetish yet? How does that feel?
I doubt it's that simple.

I still won't miss her.

Rokoa 2016/01/26(Tue)16:17 No. 97420 ID: dd338c
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>Have you ever ripped off your ear and used it as a projectile weapon, and would that actually be useful, assuming that you didn't have a gun or something?
Yes. My ear by itself would be completely useless. It's got some good weight to it, but it's still soft and fluffy. At best, it's a special distraction in a special circumstance, especially if I throw it at some alien or weakling who reflexively protects themself from anything dangerous or unexpected.

The reason why the answer was yes, is because normally I have remote controlled explosives or plasma swords lodged in my ear when I know I'm going somewhere that doesn't have a CAI or any possibility of activating them unexpectedly. So that question got fucked, because ripping off my ear is the same as dislodging a grenade or something.

Without shoving whatever tech in my ears, there's not as many fuck-you options. A few examples of when I've done it are, other than food, is to use as a blindfold, something to muck up and sabatoge an engine, and to slap someone with.

>Would you eat Miklik if it was presented as part of a nice salad at a fancy dining occasion?
Yeah. They're an acquired taste, but then they're not bad. Like a mix of meat and vegetables.

>Rokoa do you have dibs on Kappi, or would you share if either of them was interested?
If I had dibs on Kappi, I'd shove him in my backpack wherever I go, because I can't leave a person alone and expect them to not get stolen or wander off.

So he can screw around with anyone else while I'm away.

Just like I can judge him on his choices.

>I'm wondering if frenemies could actually have been a thing, historically. Like, if you have two neighboring hives that weren't really warlike, they would have raided and skirmished and beaten up on each other a lot, but with neumono toughness a lot more of the participants would survive than with other species. So you could end up with particular individuals meeting each other again and again, and developing a familiarity and knowledge of each other.
Yeah. Usually the less neumono around, the better, so we just bit the hell out of other neumono to get them to fuck off or die. But in one of our environments that we passed through yearly, we were in a place where some nasty wildlife hung around, and with enough neumono, the population of that wildlife was kept in check. That's when we recognize that less neumono isn't good, so we would come to a sense of agreement that instead of killing each other, we'd just beat the shit out of each other but let them survive.

Course, we'd want to beat them up so hard that they wouldn't want to fight us anymore. In hindsight that was a dumb fucking idea, because a few times we'd get our heads beaten in and that just got us wanting to do the same back to them even more. If we used our heads, we'd realize that they'd feel the same way when we won hard.

>Rokoa's parents presumably met each other in some similar fashion. In extreme cases, you could even end up with two particularly old enemies becoming the eldest in their hives, so that they'd have known each other longer than anyone else. Is that a thing?
They had that begrudging respect thing going on.

Also, snow areas tend to have tougher wildlife per neumono, so we killed each other less than, say, redgrass neumono on each other.

>And if it is a thing, how do such relationship generally turn when hives are uplifted? Since the ultrahives are geographically bounded, and hives seem to want to keep their ancestral homes more often than not, there must be a lot of former enemies who are having to see a lot of each other. Are there neumono going out to drink and talk about the young people these days, then getting in nostalgia fights with each other?
I saw where the world was going before I landed on the asteroid.

There probably wasn't a whole lot of old enemies finding each other and having to deal with each other's presence, cause they couldn't find each other in that sea of kids everyone covered the planet with.

I bet some fights happened, though. Some would be nostalgic and harmless, some would go full tribal backslide.

I can bet that because I'm sure just about every imaginable outcome happened at least once.

>People turning up at each others' doors with apology gifts going "hey sorry for breaking your arms and legs all those times"?
Except this one. Tribals doing that to other tribals is comical.

>Hey Rokoa, when you were were telling that story to Kappi, did you leave out the part that was never to be spoken of again?
Hell no I didn't, I never agreed to that, and it's an important part of the story.

Az 2016/01/26(Tue)16:17 No. 97421 ID: dd338c
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>Az, do you have a snow neumono fetish?
Think I think about why I like the things I like?

I don't.

I just know I like 'em.

>How does a king/queen happen in a jammer hive? I was under the impression it had something to do with empathy, but in a jammer hive that cant really be the case, can it?
Physical contact within the hive to get past the jammer, and lots of it.

Penn's Grandmother 2016/01/26(Tue)16:18 No. 97422 ID: dd338c
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>I know you're not Penn's actual biological grandmother, but did you have any kids of your own?
I had a good for nothing son that ran off with a good for nothing girl. The more he tried to stay in contact with me, the more I wish he'd drain out. Eventually he got the hint.

If I have any grandkids, I don't feel attached.

>Like, is there a problem with the biggest belenosian science nerds being so busy doing science that they don't have kids. And, since you mention a lack of husbandry during the tribal era, are there any weirdos who are trying to make up for that now? Eugenics, and such?
Yeah, but there's enough non nerds that it isn't a big problem, yet.

There's belenos that want to practice eugenics, sure. Problem is, they're all about theoretical eugenics and wouldn't recognize practical application if you wrote a masterpiece book on why their idea is bullshit.

So that's not a big problem, yet.

They will be, and I won't be sad that I'm too dead to miss it.

>If a belenosian loses their arm, can science cook up a clone limb and reattach it, or stimulate a form of regeneration artificially?
A cloned limb is the way to go. It's not cheap or prohibitively expensive. Trying to mock direct regeneration, like neumono, has had some results, but is far too primitive and unpredictable to be useful yet.

>Are there cyborgs who emulate neumono resilience by having backup redundant organs installed, and can they get put back in action as quick as a neumono can if they have the best treatment available?
Theoretically, it's possible, but trying to cram people full of spare organs has its own limitations.

On a mass scale, it would be cheaper to reduce the cloning laws, clone the would-be cyborgs as backups, and let them die and replace them.

>Finally... this is sort of an insensitive question, but besides that you guys just like learning, do you think belenosians' comparatively limited lifespans have an influence on how eagerly some of you pursue science? Like, you know you only have so much time to see how far science progresses, so you want it to go faster so you can see and learn as much as possible?
No. The most productive belenos scientists are the ones who pursue a goal without any sense of mortality to them until they're on their deathbed. Not including the ones studying immortality.

Passion and discipline. Master those, and you'll go just as intensely knowing you have ten years left as you would knowing you have a thousand. A scientist that decides to not study a field because it won't be as advanced as they'd like when they die is not a scientist who justifies their brain.

>And, do you think Penn will behave a little differently in that regard, since there's a reasonable chance that she might have space to be more patient? I mean, the ancient belenosians were certainly capable of making improvements in that regard, and it seems like one of the first featuress you'd include.
I am not one hundred percent sure how much space she'll have to be patience, but patience is irrelevant. I feel that she will study as she wants, when she wants, which will be a lot, with neither patience or impatience about it.

>Following that food question, what did belenosians eat during the pre-contact days? If there was any natural ecosystem left under the empire then it must have gotten absolutely devastated. It seems implied that there weren't any animals left, either, besides toyas. So like, without insects, did farmers have to see to crop pollination themselves? Without beasts of burden, did they have to do all the ploughing, hauling, etc. as well? Did they ever try to breed toyas to be more suitable to help out? Were there ever giant riding toyas?
Toyas were the only animals left, but there were still stockpiles of crops that were made to be easily and efficiently farmable in a plain environment. Still, tribals typically did have to do all the labor themselves.

Needless to say, the diet was not very diverse. Many belenos lived and died only experiencing the taste of a few different things, granted, there were creative ways to cook the exact same thing in different ways.

As for beasts of burden, no. There were more than just toyas that survived the apocolypse, but tribals let them starve or just killed them if they were remotely dangerous animals. Which was any animal that was not a toya.

>Did any such survival-crazy old nobles actually survive and reappear during the tribal eras, out of stasis or whatever?
Yes. The tribals, in their religious fervor and shortsightedness, would use technology to destroy other technology. Therefore, any time an old deathbot, noble or "self sufficient" battlestation reactivated, the tribals somehow were able to destroy it before going back to a life of harvest and rock banging.

>Would you eat Miklik if it was presented as part of a nice salad at a fancy dining occasion?
I would say no, but ever since I was put in charge of Penn, I was led through some high society shit with some out of reality mindsets. Like the more exotic the food, the better.

And of course, grandpa topdollars would get offended if I didn't eat whatever gold seasoned, 30 year activated manure was put on my plate.

So never willingly, but I could be coerced under the right circumstances.

>Belonos birth control must be a BITCH for the women, because all the good stuff must have been made in the empire days. Might have been a good thing we never got Penn a boyfriend (and that Milo was just a backstabbing turd waiting to happen).
No. Belenos are highly fertile, and having sex without protection is a surefire way to become pregnant, yes, but like most medications, we are very responsive to birth control as well. We have birth control that prevent sex, and pills that are safe to stop a pregnancy a little while in, at least enough time to take it in case the normal birth control pill was forgotten.

>This might be more of a psychology or sociology or anthropology(xenothropology?) question, but do you think forsaking sexuality and sexual identity may have been a factor in the nobles becoming... well, assholes?
As a small part, perhaps, but that's just one sacrifice they made in the big picture of living, breathing organisms.

>How are the soft sciences and humanities viewed by belenosians, generally? Did they, being less threatening than fields which can produce technology, continue to be pursued during the tribal eras? And in the modern era, are they spit upon in comparison to the fields which produce harder facts?
To a degree, yes, but with formal scientific methods seen as some kind of heretical religion, the ideas they formed around it were as harmful as helpful.

As for the modern era, they're not spat on. At least, no more than the mathematician brags about the purity of his field over physics, or those who mock philosophy students who took the beginning courses and now think they understand the world. However, on the whole, they are recognized as useful in their own way, and although arriving at a hard, irrefutable facts is far more difficult in those fields, sometimes us belenos see that as a challenge to come up with something useful with softer material.

>I assume most belenosians are atheists or on the harder side of agnosticism, but what sort of views are common in regards the philosophical questions of the meaning of life or sense of purpose, or why certain things are important, and so on? I was wondering if a certain flavour of pantheistic atheism would work well for you guys. Like, "we are the part of the universe that is capable of appreciating itself, so the best fulfillment of life is to just discover and experience as much as possible"
To a degree, yes. But we do have tendencies to wish to control our surroundings as much as possible and then some. Although belenos are not as openly religious as they used to be during the tribal era, many do believe that the universe is somewhat of a living thing, somehow while recognizing the fact that it's just one big, slow motion explosion. And that we are its cells, so to speak, but with freedom to do with the universe as we please.

That last part is usually phrased in a less overt manner.

> and that would carry on to attitudes like "just by existing you have [value], life is precious and especially sentient life because killing someone or destroying their mind takes away a unique perspective on existence", that sort of thing. That would be one that supports science a lot, though it could also support art appreciation or creation or exploration or even hedonism if you want to spin it that way. Would a philosophy like that be held to by belenosians, in place of religion?
I have not heard of many ideologies that place value on just existing. There is not much of a concept for us of equal minds. However, many religions of the tribal era were about politeness and generosity - to organics, of course - and so at least some value was placed on any random individual. If not by just existing, then by potential.

There was not a singular church that took hold of wide swaths of the planets, though, and with less communication, there were lots of variances.

>Were any actual religions rediscovered/created during the tribal period?
Probably not many were rediscovered, and those that were were likely mutated, perverse ideas suited to the new times. Lots, however, were created entirely from scratch, aside from known history for loose justification.

Milo 2016/01/26(Tue)16:18 No. 97423 ID: dd338c
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>You seemed pretty confident in your wooing abilities. You seduce ladies often? You didn't look to have much objection to your role in the plan, either. In regards the morality of it all that's one thing, but not personally, either? Did you just not mind, or did you actually find Penn attractive enough to make it less of a chore?
It's not like I try to get in the sack with women all the time, but I'm definitely a social kind of guy, and once social games are down, it's not much of a bridge to gap to seem appealing to women.

And no. It was a nasty plan, but my sister and I look out for each other, so I don't mind breaking some hearts for her.

I did like Penn, actually. The reason for my approach was a shitty reason for sure, but if we really did hit it off well, I might've been able to stay in the clear and actually treat her well.

>Also does your sister pull this shit often. Complicated vengeance/sabotage resentment schemes, I mean. She seems like she would.
Yeah. Usually not as complex, but this didn't come out of left field by any stretch.

Glitcher 2016/01/26(Tue)16:18 No. 97424 ID: dd338c
File 145385393137.png - (35.91KB , 800x800 , GlitcherITQ2.png )

>Any CAI contestant, along with sight and sound and touch, is the sense of smell part of your experience?
So, the -

>Any CAI contestant
I'm close enough.

So, the answer is basically yes.

Smells kind of come up whenever, though. Most of the time there just wasn't anything to smell up until simulations got involved, or when the stage had some point to smell something, or whatever.

And when there's nothing to smell, the contestants can't smell! Which is kind of silly, but I guess it takes out a bit of overhead for them to process it.

>So... how was the date?
Man it was confusing but you know I think we're getting along pretty fishy now. Which is good. Because fish swim. So fishy is swimmingly. Which I have no idea what swimmingly means. In fact fishy sounds kinda bad so just forget it.

So we're doing more stuff together and I want to be around her more than I don't want to be around her so considering that we were about to try to murder each other I'd say it went pretty glorious-like.

Rulekeeper 2016/01/26(Tue)16:19 No. 97425 ID: dd338c
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>So... how was the date?
Better than expected.

Jess 2016/01/26(Tue)16:21 No. 97426 ID: dd338c
File 145385411283.png - (13.33KB , 800x800 , JessITQ17.png )

>Would there be more racism or sexism in jammer cities?
Not really. Meaning there's a lot, but people don't know how to deal with it.

In non jammer cities, people often immediately dislike each other, but it's common, so they go about their lives and it's not a big deal, because people are used to being disliked. There's no, you know, expectation otherwise. Well, okay gotta keep in mind that, er, I hear from aliens that they frequently think of some nasty thoughts about an acquaintance or something if they get inconvenienced accidentally by them. But if they actually confront, they'll often suddenly be nice and polite and stuff. There's kind of the same idea with us, except that our thoughts are open to confrontation, too, so we won't necessarily think the same way in front of a person as we would if we were out of empathic range or in a jammer.

But! Not everyone, though, and I don't think to a big extreme anyway, so we still have to get used to being disliked, and having other people know we dislike them, even if we act all nice to each other because we're civilized, society loving neumono.

But there's still going to be wary eyes on that redgrass neumono walking in like she owns the place.

>The first instinct is to judge the other person based on their empathy, and once you get past the basic not-my-hive reaction, the empathic read tends to be pretty accurate, so there's no reason to make judgements based on anything else about them.
Yeah, but we still judge off other things. Like 'oh, he seems like a polite fellow, but he dresses like a dumpster diver, so he probably has issues that I just can't sense offhand'. It takes a little more getting to know him, with or without empathy, before the first glance impressions really go away.

>When you're in a jammer, you don't have that. For example, during Polo's most recent adventures, I noticed that after spending a long time in a jammer, Katzati started getting more flak about her weight from her companions. You can high-five every neumono you meet to get an empathic read, of course, but in the case of a jammer city that seems both very impractical and defeating the point of the whole thing in the first place.
There is kind of a two way problem for people who are used to always being in a jammer or always our of one. Jammer neumono have trouble suddenly being opened up when they leave for a nonjammer town for the first time, but nonjammer neumono also get pretty weird. They're so used to being an open book, they don't know what to do when they're in a jammer. So then they start trying to convey their empathy by the other physical means by holding up body posture, or just vomiting words that are best left internalized. Just too much discomfort, I guess, with being closed out from everything, so they express themselves more actively to compensate. And words to us can sometimes convey empathy about as well as the written word can convey someone's tone of voice.

And there's the problem, because nonjammer neumono suddenly put in a jammer suddenly forget there's a difference between just thinking 'oh she's pretty fat' and actually going up to a girl and going 'oh wow you're fat what's up with that'. The former is at least passive and there's an understanding that bad thoughts are going to happen, but talking about it is giving those bad thoughts value and affirmation.

Clunker 2016/01/26(Tue)16:22 No. 97427 ID: dd338c
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>Who did you work for before you met Story Seeker? Have you had any jobs other than being a bodyguard?
Yeah, I've had other jobs. By that I mean I've had a job. By that I mean I was never a bodyguard before meeting Story Seeker.

But you know, odds and ends. Whatever needs doing. A little of everything. Basically assistant. Yeah, that was my job. Assistant. Assistant cook, delivery man, handyman, anything. Anything that paid a thing.

Agnes 2016/01/26(Tue)16:22 No. 97428 ID: dd338c
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>How does Yich Eater child rearing generally go? Are all three parents involved in raising kids?
Rarely so. Modern Yich Eaters often split the children. The carriers will be raised by other carriers. The rest will be raised by the non-carriers, together. This virtually always happened pre-uplift, but although modernization has skewed things to have exceptions, it is still a long standing tradition.

Pit 2016/01/26(Tue)16:23 No. 97429 ID: dd338c
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>Heeeeeey Pit, are you familiar with Lieutenant Pit from the first thread or are there just only so many monosyllable names?
There are over ten billion neumono.

There are many Pits, yes -

What I mean to say is, Pit isn't that common a name, but it's not that uncommon either. I've heard of at least a few Pits in my life, and I'm sure I'll hear of more. I'm sure there's some with the name Pit, and with the same hive as me, too.

The short answer is no, I'm not familiar with that particular Pit, nor anyone named Pit who has any military relations.

Likol (Rokoloverse) 2016/01/26(Tue)16:23 No. 97430 ID: dd338c
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>Are there any obvious signs of Neumono aging?

Hello. I'm Likol. The one from Rokolo's timeline, for those of you who need the distinction made, although I gather you might not have too many of me to be confused by. If I have managed to stretch a few decades more than some of my counterparts, though, that isn't going to last much longer. I'm getting old.

Which makes you fortunate. Neumono dying of old age still isn't at all common. Hives who do have a member reach the point of deterioration tend to get quite protective, and don't appreciate prying. My hive, however, are among the ones who do the prying.

A neumono can begin their decline towards death by old age any time after their second century. A few even start a few decades before then, but it's rare. Around two hundred and fifty is about the median point of the range, and there's a great deal of variance. Since timekeeping was spotty pre-uplift, it can be hard to know exactly how old some neumono were when they died, but at least a few have pushed past three hundred. Legends, of course, talk about various heroes and villains living several centuries further than that. Tentative theories suggest that empathy can have a strong impact on when a neumono starts to age, as it has on so much else of our physiology, with neumono whose hives especially value them tending to live longer. There's been no record of a King or Queen, for example, starting to age earlier than two hundred twenty, but the amount of them who have died of old age is a very slim slice of an already small sample size.

Now, what happens to you when you do start to age?

It happens gradually. You might take a few months to realize what's happening, maybe a year if you already lead a sedate, reasonably healthy lifestyle. The first thing you notice could even seem positive: you stop being as hungry, as your metabolism starts to slow down. Along with that, if you're in the habit of doing anything that wears at your body somehow, you start to discover that your regeneration isn't working at full capacity any more. In my case, I was already accustomed to using my eyes so much that I needed glasses, and when I began to age, my eyesight began to worsen more quickly and take longer to return to good condition. Despite your lowered metabolism, your body also gets worse at storing food, so in combination with the loss of appetite you begin to lose weight, particularly in places with low blood flow. The ears are usually the most noticeable. You begin to get tired earlier in the day, and become more prone to feeling cold, since you no longer produce as much heat yourself. A healthy lifestyle with good diet and exercise can help your energy levels and keep you healthy for longer, but it has to be actually reasonable exercise, not the common neumono military regimen of repeatedly smashing your face into dangerous objects. If you are unwise enough to keep up the careless habits that a lot of neumono have, you'll find that not only do you not heal as fast, your regeneration starts to make mistakes: broken bones won't set properly, severed tissue will be misaligned, the negative effects of recreational substances won't clear away as quickly, and so on. Depending on your environment, you will likely become more prone to cancers. Your body still retains some ability to clear them, especially when they cause actual pain, but they develop further and cause more problems than in a young neumono, and you can no longer simply get yourself cut open and the tumor torn out so carelessly. Since we have redundant biology, cancers will only kill you if you're unlucky enough to lose functioning in every instance of an essential organ at once; however, even moderate internal damage can cause exhaustion, confusion and other persistent symptoms until your body catches up, which can take far longer and require more medical assistance than it previously would have. It gradually becomes harder to maintain muscle mass, and your bones become more frail. Flexibility doesn't suffer much, though, compared to aliens, and again, good exercise can slow the decline somewhat.

After a few years, there are more cosmetic changes. All neumono can develop gray hairs during their normal lifetime, especially under stress, but as you age it happens more often. Your body still tries to keep up, so color can return, but the rate of new gray fur appearing slowly begins to outpace it. You will get some overall fading, in addition to pure gray patches. After a few years, you'll also begin to get some bald spots, mostly on extremities and on the joints, where there's some more wear and tear. We do develop a few wrinkles, but not any faster than aliens; they don't have time to get too severe. The ones we do get are usually hidden by our fur, except where it gives way to something else, such as the edges of our eyes.

That's it for physical symptoms, but if behavior counts as an obvious sign, I should mention the mental effects of age as well.

Psychologically, the decline is more... subtle. There's a sort of senility that sets in, but instead of forgetting things, or not being able to think, you actually start to think too much. It becomes difficult to keep your brains in line, so you get a lot of different thoughts trying to go off in several directions at once, and it gets harder to maintain focus on any one thing in particular. When you're well-rested and well-fed, it's not so bad, but the more drained you are the worse it becomes.

Along with the general loss of mental cohesion, your self-awareness starts to slip away. It's a little hard to explain, as an experience. Have you ever had a dream where you were doing something strange, that you normally wouldn't be able to do without realizing how silly or senseless it is? But in the dream, you just don't notice? You do things, and you're aware of what's happening in the dream, but you don't think about them. For neumono who are aging, moments like that start to happen when you're awake. Mostly, what you do during those moments isn't that different from what you would normally do, but it's alarming to suddenly realize you've spent the last few hours not paying any attention to your own thoughts.

Perhaps related to that is the trouble you start having with empathy. It doesn't fade or dull: if anything, you start to become more vulnerable to external empathy, particularly from hivemates. It becomes a lot harder to keep track of the distinction between your own thoughts and those coming from outside. As your condition worsens, it happens more and more. What we do know from other hives suggests that, by the end, an aging neumono will lose themselves completely. Or, well... not "lose themselves", exactly. From my own hivemates' experience of me when I have such moments, I'm still mostly myself. My personality, my habits and so on are all still there and apparent. I don't become very wild or overly emotional. I simply lose my... sentience, I suppose. Autonomy? Free will? I'm not sure what to call it. You get the idea. Eventually, I'll lose it and not be able to get it back. I'll stop really being a person, and become... more like a pet animal. A well-trained, well-loved, probably quite happy pet animal, with an empathic connection, but they tell me the difference is still noticeable.

Some time after that, if your body hasn't suffered some fatal failure by this time, you finally just die on your own. As if your body simply decides there's no more benefit to staying alive. You get tired, and fall asleep, and then just don't wake up. There haven't been many chances to study the exact process properly.

It's really not a bad way to go, compared to the alternatives, I think.

One of my hivemates suggested that, if elderly neumono become more sensitive to empathy as they decline, it may be that aging rogues could find themselves more easily able to make a hive connection again. Which is good, but... really still more ironically tragic than anything.

From deterioration to death takes about five to ten years, and I'm in the middle of that. I don't really mind. I've been ready to die on any day for hundreds of years. Rokolo has several ideas about neumono immortality that she's talked to me about, but... no. None of that. I'm too old. I've seen too much. I remember when just figuring out how to make semi-transparent glass was a big deal. I've had to stretch too far; it might be the effects of age talking, but I'm worn out. The rest of my hive will do better without me holding them back.

Besides, the Rokoa clones, they...

Likol (Rokoloverse) 2016/01/26(Tue)16:24 No. 97431 ID: dd338c
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>"Likoool! You're not in the gravity room! Come on, we put the timetable on your wall."
>"You know your bones snap like fucking twigs if you don't train!"
>"And then it'll be time to eat!"
>"If you haven't worked up an appetite we're just going to jam it down your throat for you again!"

... like me.

There are more than twelve hundred Rokoas here.

There's going to be thousands.

Death may not come fast enough.

The Fluffiest Belenosian 2016/01/26(Tue)16:24 No. 97432 ID: dd338c
File 145385427284.png - (13.00KB , 800x800 , EnaloITQ1.png )

>To the fluffiest Belenosian: Just how fluffy are you,
Very.

>And does it pose any issues?
Yes.

>Lagotrope, why did you pick belenos/belenosians? Was it because of the sun god or just a coincidence?
Just a coincidence.

>>97431

Ok here is a question for the Rokoa hive. Or anyone close to them.

So how stable is a hive made up of clones? Do you have any non Rokoas that joined or were born into your new hive? And did the strongest Rokoa become a queen or what?

Also do you fight over Kappi?

>>97428
Agnes, I know carriers get the shit end of the deal, are there ANY neurological or fulfilling benefits such as endorphin or something similar for their part in the reproductive process, or is it nothing but a painful process? Why would a carrier choose to bear children, if they only really get a 1 out of three chance to raise it? Is that 1/3 chance really seen as worth it at all by the carrier population?

Is their Yich Eater birth control for carriers, if there is a neurological benefit of the process for the carriers in case they want that benefit without the child bearing result?

>>97414
>there is a huge, sentient AI on earth that acts as like an unofficial therapist or counselor to anyone inside of earth's solar system
...okay. That demands followup.

Sol therapy-AI, how are you doing? What's a day like for you? How do you manage interacting with probably millions of people in parallel if you aren't a CAI?

How did you even come to be? Honestly, something as phenomenally useful and sensible an idea as you is the kind of thing that never happens without people killing it by panicking over potential abuses misuses and dangers, people being unable to fund something of such scale (even if it's cost saving in the long run), or the government and/or military, being the only ones who could afford such an endeavor, turning the whole thing to their security (or other) agendas.

>>97419
Polo you're trying to deadpan deflect attraction by talking about sleeping with him. Freudian point undercutting.

>>97424
Glitcher are you aware you're wearing Rulekeep's snaggle-tooth. Were the makeouts that intense.

>I still won't miss her.
Of course you won't. You have clones to keep you company!

Rulekeep, why are you red?

>>97427
Now you're an assistant fatass :D

>>97420
>to slap someone with.
Wait, so did you just rip off you ear and slap them in one continuous motion? Or did you already have your ear ripped off and then you slapped them? did you slap them with the bloody bit or the floofy bit? Did you eat it afterwards? Was it a friendly slap? A "fuck you, bitch!" slap? A "get yourself together private!" slap? I have to know more!

>>97419
>I still won't miss her.
Denying your feelings is just delaying the inevitable, wouldn't you be happier if you just accepted them?

>>97457 
> >to slap someone with.  
>Wait, so did you just rip off you ear and slap them in one continuous motion? Or did you already have your ear ripped off and then you slapped them? did you slap them with the bloody bit or the floofy bit? Did you eat it afterwards? Was it a friendly slap? A "fuck you, bitch!" slap? A "get yourself together private!" slap? I have to know more!  
To me it sounds a lot like a "challenge" slap, like they did with gloves in ye olde times.

>>97419
Jokes about how you secretly like Rokoa aside, it's fairly obvious you have some feelings and/or urges towards her, given how you briefly fantasized about calling her cutie and slapping her ass on their mothership, then said that you thought about hurting her. You were later worried about how you seemed to linger on Rokoa. How likely is it that your "obsession" was caused by you trying to suppress that sort of thought about Rokoa instead of just getting it over with?

Sevens, Rokoa-clone Queen 2016/01/30(Sat)16:37 No. 97535 ID: 15e42e
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>Ok here is a question for the Rokoa hive. Or anyone close to them.

Queen Rokoa, here. They call me Sevens, since I was clone seventy-seven. We weren't feeling very creative, back then.

>So how stable is a hive made up of clones?

We're very stable. A few of the oldest clones, mostly some of the dart clones who were more mixed up, left as soon as they were able, but it wasn't many. There was another pair who wanted to try hook up with Rikora's hive, as well, around the same time. Since then, no-one's left, but that might not be just from being a hive of clones. If rogues and schisms happen when neumono get sick of their hive, then clones of someone who's not happy with themselves probably won't be able to keep together very well. Rokoas, though, so long as we're moving forward, we feel pretty good. So we haven't had many problems, so far.

>Do you have any non Rokoas that joined or were born into your new hive?

Yeah, see, there's where we might have trouble. Us clones are sticking pretty good, but we're not all clones any more. We haven't had any miracle rogues join, but we do have a bunch of kids, and we're planning on more. Some of the science hive think that, since the majority of our hive is more similar than a normal hive is, hive members who aren't Rokoas will feel more like outsiders by comparison, even though in a standard hive the level of difference would be totally normal. That could make them more likely to go rogue.

We have a predator and a half-predator around who can try help if things really get out of hand, but to help head the problem off, I encourage the girls to try and be at least a little different from each other. It's not as hard as you'd think, since the process of cloning leaves you a bit malleable. To be honest, if we met someone who knew her, most of us would feel a bit toned back compared to the original Rokoa. Since we start off with her personality traits faded a bit, we all get some space to become our own people. Partly. Still clones. But being part of the Rokoa hive is about trying to live up to the real meaning of the name, not about being a perfect copy. So long as these little guys do that, they're going to fit in fine. They're a bit spoiled for attention, but they work hard to make up for it.

>"Today I learned how to fight in a moving car! Tomorrow it's on motorbikes."
>"I learned how to defuse bombs so you can use them yourself!"

Good work, kids.

>And did the strongest Rokoa become a queen or what?

Pretty much, but not quite. See, way back when, we agreed that so long as Rokolo could beat us, we'd be her army. People think it's some sort of weird honor slavery thing, but that's not what it's about. Rokolo is what's left of the original Rokoa, mixed with someone who was able to beat her. If we can beat her, fair and square, then we'll know for sure we surpassed the original and have the right to lead our own lives. If we can't, then we don't deserve autonomy. So, every five years, we had a big tournament to see which of us is stronger than all the others, and that winner got to fight Rokolo herself.

None of us beat her, but I managed to reach her three times in a row, and after that I became Queen. I don't know whether I was really the strongest Rokoa, but I am the one the others thought was closest to our ideals, and that's what does it.

Things have changed, of course. It's only the top hundred Rokoas who take part in the tournament, now. Starting from the bottom, a new clone begins with just her four-digit production number, which isn't a rank at all. She can pass a set of tests, though, involving a lot more than just raw fighting ability, to get herself in on the bottom of the three-digit numbers, which are ranks. Higher the number, lower the rank. She can challenge other three-digits to take their number and move them down, and if she makes it to the top 100 she gets to call herself an elite Rokoa and join the tournament for the chance to fight me. Then the winner between us fights Rokolo, after resting, because we're not idiots. Maybe if anyone ever managed to beat me, she'd take my place as Queen. It'd depend on everyone else's opinion of her beyond that.

I'm for certain not the highest pure-strength Rokoa, now. That would be one of the giant clones, which we have a few dozen of. They're all massive, so much that they need cybernetic reinforcement to keep their bodies from crushing themselves. Bones, tendons, lungs, hearts, all that. They have their own competition between themselves, since fighting the rest of us wouldn't prove so much. Fights and contests still happen, it just doesn't count for position.

>Also do you fight over Kappi?

Nope. He was never born, here. I heard about him from Rokolo, though. We'd like to meet him.

It's not like we can't find other cute guys, though, and sometimes they manage to last. We know how to share.

Is it possible for a Neumono to become discontented enough with their hive to want to leave without becoming a rouge? As far as I can tell rouges are a result of misaligned empathy, and it's possible for Neumono with different empathy to be friends, so is it possible for Neumono from the same hive to dislike each other enough to want to leave while still maintaining similar enough empathy to not be considered rouges? Maybe if a whole hive contracted self loathing, but then one of them got it worse than the others and decided to leave despite not technically being a rouge, would that be possible? Or, in a more general sense, is it common for Neumono to abandon their hives without going rouge first?

>>97535

So how does the big fight with Roloko go down? Who gets to pick the weapons used or the format? And do you do it in a giant arena or what?

Also how did the past few fights go?

Why does it take so long for symptoms of aging to manifest in neumono? Shouldn't their regeneration cause higher rates of mutation and telomere erosion?

>>97560
Mutation isn't technically the right word, but you're assuming they have telomeres and that regeneration doesn't also fix them or whatever analogue they have. Their genetics do seem related to empathy, with how a hive can subtly change someone's genetics, so I doubt telomeres are too big a part of it.

I really expected some Miklik to answer that salad would be a culinary heresy and that they're better steamed, or something the like.

I do have a meta question for any character who'd care reply. What would you look for in a theoretical good poster's suggestions for your actions? Conciseness? Best-laid plans? Wicked one-liners?

Dear Super-Team Space Hive Omega-Waveforce. So what exactly were all of you doing at a volkit brothel? And with your uniforms and gear no less?

Also how did you get into the super hero powered by crazy mad science business?

Okay, now that I think about it and it's in my head, even so soon after posting about it in the discussion thread, I HAVE to ask.

Rokoa, and anyone else who would be interested in playing a game of Roy, how would YOU play it as Roy?

Jess, what other problems can arise when Neumono date humans, and vice versa? You already mentioned having to compensate for a lack of empathy by being much more verbally and physically expressive than you normally would be.

Any neumono scientist or Ben if you're in a particularly good mood; have you thought about building off the existing (and really primitive) human mirror neuron empathy system to create actual neumono empathy in humans? We can already do this:

-Human A lifts a heavy thing
-Human A's brain activates to say "wow, heavy thing"

-Human B sees human A lifting
-Human B's mirror neurons activate identically to the way they would if he or she was doing the same lifting
-Human B can kind of sense what it would feel like to lift the object, cringes, and goes "agh that must be heavy."

>>97432

How's the hug game tho

>>97415
>usually [voklit] brought bigger concerns than wondering about their reproductive capabilities.

Kort, you're a voklit expert. Have you learned to tell the difference between dude and lady voklits? Would it be important to be able to know, if someone wants to interact with them a lot, or would it be a long way down the priority list?

>>97422

So, you studied Penn, and then created a false report to say there wasn't anything really special about her besides the eyes, right? But you must have kept your own notes about the study, some sort of documentation with the real facts, as much as you could find out. Did you just destroy them, or did you give anything to Penn herself? Did you tell her much of anything about herself that you kept secret from everyone else?

On the topic of birth control: How is it on the men's side? Do they have an effective pill, too, or would they still need a surgical option? Maybe an implant of some sort? I'd expect there to be implants for ladies as well. Speaking of men taking pills... does belenosian steroid use have, uh, the same drawbacks associated with more primitive steroids? On the other end of the spectrum, how about pills with the opposite effect? Humanity has been plagued by false promises of male supplementation for centuries. Has belenosian medical technology surpassed those limits?

Also, for any belenosian: what's more attractive, sizeable schnozzles or small snootles?

Extra question: do you have any ability to move your ears? Most of the time when you have them they seem to just hang down. Is there any wiggling or waggling possible?

Rokoa, do you pretty much always think people who rely almost entirely on technology are weaker than those who don't have to, or is there a point when you start to respect someone for how much bullshit they can pull off with tech? Like the CAI for example.

Polo, what is the best example of "wow that really shouldn't work but I guess it does" you've heard of or witnessed in the field? Bolo net made of salaki innards? Arm-mounted trash railgun? Blade that secretes Liquid explosive at the press of a button with an ignition switch on the hilt, allowing you to slow down the regeneration of severed limbs by cauterizing the wound with sudden combustion?

Hey Rokoa, have you ever raped anyone before? If yes, have you ever done it post contact? Have you ever had sex with an alien? Sorry if this has been answered before, but it's been a while since I've read through BTE

Dear Poloquest Rokoa, where do you see yourself in a hundred years?

Hey Penn, I know AI design is your core subject, and presumably general computer science as an extension of that, but Arza's having you take a bunch of other classes as well, right? What's your favourite of the non-technical sciences? What's your best, if it's not also your favourite? What's your favourite academic subject outside the sciences? And, though I'm sure you don't have time for it, did you have any interests when you were younger that are outside what you study now?

I know Belenos probably have (had?) a bunch, but do any other aliens have any notable symbioses?

Hey Polo, ever get/send any mail from/to Rokoa?

Hey Tom or Chee, roughly what does the power scaling on soul bursts look like? We saw a single one at close range was enough to detonate part of an island and every soul in an entire false world was enough to instantly kill a God forever, but what about firing a beam of 100, 1000, or just a few souls of especially powerful people? Could Chee have used you like Sans uses Gasterblasters at low soul levels?

How high could Muo's power climb if she continues to cause chaos on larger scales, and what do the upper levels of devotion award? Is there a point at which you pretty much start making your rules with what you can give a follower, or is it carefully monitored like the "no direct communication" one is at a lower piety point? In a hypothetical scenario where a dude goes around causing larger and larger amounts of chaos in an area full of intricate plans to jam up, eventually plunging the entire world into anarchy, what tier of devotion would he be in?

What do you think you'll do once Chee is the God of Chaos?

Pilon your opinion on this .gif is needed urgently

>>98086

For real, I'd mostly like to know what you think about the hype thing and whether you actually have any notoriety, either as a fighter, as a diplomat/lover, or as anything else.

Actually, do neumono have any particular sex symbols or is attraction too based on empathy for those to be a prominent thing? Maybe Quirill, Pit, Az, Pilon, Vivilli, other ultramonarchs and neumono with strong personalities?

Can anyone give a quick rundown on what species names were given vs. what ones were kept from themselves? I get the impression that all your homeworlds got names from the humans, and I know neumono and belenosians were given those names as well, but do the rest of you have your own names that you kept? Pomi, heef, miklik and etc. all seem like names you could have had for yourselves. And did that mean you had some more semblance of unified culture, or were there different names in different cultures and just the most dominant/first uplifted one got primacy?

Hey, Kappi, I just realized something. Rokoa starred in a movie, and the Internet is still the Internet. How much porn of Rokoa is in your browser history, and how much of that involves Polo?

>>98141
>the Internet is still the Internet
Not really, an interplanetary internet isn't really possible, especially with the danger of CAI, and especially on the asteroid.

>>98144
That's already been explained in ITQ. It's been long enough since the movie that for these purposes, yes there is.

Hey, Penn! Did you have any problems with how neumono smell, when you moved to their planet?

Because, I was just thinking, I know you're both really omnivorous, but that belenos lean closer to being herbivores and neumono lean closer to being carnivores. And a thing is, predators usually smell worse to most other species? Like, if you're a predator, you're ok with the smell of yourselves and you like the smell of your prey, whereas if you're more of a prey animal then generally you're ok with your own smell but hate the smell of predators. Also scent is partially based on diet and diets high in animal protein do have a slight tendency towards producing more unpleasant scents, though it's a minor issue in comparison to things like overall hygiene and so on, obviously, there are plenty of plant-eating animals that smell terrible and meat-eaters that are ok, but it's another bit of a trend.

And possibly it would have been pronounced for the span of time in which Roxie was still mostly tribal in her sensibilities, and hadn't grasped the nuances of presenting herself well, in all senses including the olfactory? I mean, by now I'm sure you're used to how neumono smell, scent is one of those things you adapt to over long exposure, but in the past?

Contrariwise, do freshly washed and dried neumono smell fine? Good, even? It occurred to me as possible that some quirk of biochemistry could randomly mean that neumono just smell nice anyway.

And did Roxie ever make any blunt comments about you smelling weird or bad (or tasty?) to her?

Rokoa: This is probably a pretty racist question, but which of the non-neumono species do you find you tend to like best? Like, just to click a bit better with, when you're forced to interact with them?

And which species' fighters would you say tend to give you the most trouble, when you take them on?

>>98145
Even if there is Kappi doesn't have access to it.

>>98166
>>93251
0/10

The internet exists, it's just more segmented into chunks both to restrict CAIs from running wild, and because they don't have constant interplanetary FTL data transfers. You have to wait for content updates from other planet's / system's internet to make it to your local one.

If you assume ftl-ships have to carry internet updates from system to system, it makes sense the Asteroid-net might be more out of date or take longer to get stuff than planets or systems with more regular traffic.

Oh, Jess: how's that chocolate.

Non-canon Story Seeker Lizard:
Do you have more experience as a girl or a guy now?

>>96272
>I really wasn't interested. There just wasn't much I could sense between us, if that makes sense

It makes sense, but what's more interesting to me is the implication that you are familiar with what it'd feel like if there was something between you. Have you had any romantic relationships before, Penn? Or just romantic aspirations? Crushes? Fantasies? Celebrities, historical figures, fictional characters?

Hmm... have you ever seen the humans' old show, Star Trek? I don't know if you're attracted to humans, but personalitywise, would you call yourself more of a Kirk or a Spock girl? (Or McCoy? Pickard, Riker, Data? Sisko? Trek has a lot of guys.)

That does make me think of another question: studying AIs, is it part of your education to study the less hard-science fields related to that, like public perceptions of AIs, the expectations, and how cultural attitudes have historically formed and developed about them? I'm sure you'd have to be aware how certain things are going to be received by the public within the context of artificial intelligence, so it seems like a basic familiarity with the cultural background would be a requirement. Like, for your species you'd have to know how belenosians feel about AIs, of course, and particulars from your history and stories to embrace or avoid, but for humans there'd be similar things to know like the Three Laws, ideas of what counts as life, not to give it glowing red eyes or call it Hal, et cetera. Other species less so, since they generally didn't have enough science to have science fiction, but I still imagine there's a difference if, like, pomi for example have mythological tales about golems brought to life and rebelling against their creators, or similar.

So do you have any exposure to old science fiction from an academic or professional perspective?

How were the arts among your species, anyway, pre-contact? I gather you kept yourselves at a roughly late medieval/renaissance level, maybe up to just pre-industrial, as far as technology went. But, I also assume literacy was kept widespread? So, was there a solid print industry? I'd guess you couldn't have much of a popular music industry unless you allowed yourselves, like, phonographs as not too much of a transgression, but were there popular novels, magazines for publishing short stories, et cetera? And how were visual arts, painting and sculpture and so on? Architecture? Performing arts in the form of bards, gleemen, magicians, circuses?

Basically, what did you all do for fun?

>>98220

On the topic of artistic expression, Penn, would the belenosian learning-is-fun reaction apply to any art stuff? Learning how to play songs, for example? And do you know how to play any musical instruments?

Same question for everyone, actually. Anyone have any musical skills we haven't had the chance to see?

Someone from Fen Quest who would know: can you give us an idea on the upper limits of magic? Like, who's the most famous historical magic-using kobold you know of, and what were their greatest feats? Or, would the greatest magic be something done in cooperation with multiple mages? Basically, I want a rough idea of the biggest thing a solo mage has ever done, and the same for the biggest thing magic in general has ever done.

Also: I notice that a lot ladies have seemed awfully friendly towards Fen. Is he up high on the attractiveness scale? ... Would he maybe have to worry about noble ladies pressing affections on him? Because he does plan on becoming a gladiator, and that sort of thing does seem traditional.

>>98627
He's muscular and rich relative to 90% to 99% of the population. I'm only surprised that men haven't started trying, too.

To Cheese from Fen Quest: Were you surprised at how quickly Fen managed to track you down?

So Sealock types: how much work is it to clear a beach of all the terrible creepy crawly critters so you can actually lounge around on the sand and play in the surf safely without anything trying to eat anyone?

Or are beaches typically not so dangerous? Do you get things you can safely cohabitate with, like humans sharing beaches with seals? (Tooth-gulls minding their own business)?

I've been wondering how easy it is to raise neumono kids. Human babies need time to learn language, but empathy seems more instinctive than that, while at the same time conveying more information than things like posture, facial expression and tone of voice. Not that babies always pick up on those, either.

So, are neumono kids made any easier to handle by the fact that they can pick up on an adult neumono's empathy, to understand empathic feelings like "you need to not touch that" or "stop fighting"? Conversely, is sensing their empathy a very big help in taking care of them, to tell more specifically what they want when they're distressed? And are there disadvantages to them having empathy, as well? If an adult gets annoyed or angry with them and manages to contain their outward expression of that, will a small neumono child still start crying just from feeling someone be mad at them? Do upset neumono babies set each other off on a chain reaction of crying more easily than alien babies do? What sort of qualities make for someone who's good at minding small kids, if empathic sensation is a big factor in how well the children will respond to them?

Further Fen Quest questions: How do the rules of inheritance for nobles work? Are titles/ranks passed on directly, or is there some more complicated arrangement, due to that "nobles must be strong" thing? Like, some sort of test to pass, or a decreasing rank each generation unless you boost it up again, or similar? If rank is passed on, do only legitimate children inherit, or like illegitimates only get consideration if there aren't legitimates, or are all children equal?

>>97422
>Needless to say, the diet was not very diverse. Many belenos lived and died only experiencing the taste of a few different things, granted, there were creative ways to cook the exact same thing in different ways.

I'm now imagining that, during first contact, after carefully figuring out what foods were able to be shared between the two species, there was a moment when humans invited belenosians to have a meal of earth food with them. And after the first couple of bites the belenosians were overwhelmed by flavour and went crazy just cramming everything into their mouths. Then for months the humans had to deal with constant attempts to sneak into their kitchens and storage, compensated by the ability to get interviews and guides and other research subjects easily just by bribing them with, like, a thermos of pea soup.

Anyone want to comment on whether that idea's at all accurate?

I'm also wondering how good belenosians are in regard lactose tolerance, or other aliens for that matter. Being able to consume milk products as an adult was kind of a weird mutation for humans. I expect it from a species as ravenous as neumono, and for belenosians maybe your ancestors engineered it in because why not, but how about pomi, or especially the species without mammalian attributes?

If belenosians are fine in that department, I guess the question that naturally follows is if any desperate belenosian chefs tried anything with toya dairy products? I know humans have done that sort of thing with their household pets.

>>98661

On a related topic to inheritance, what are the rules for marriage? I recall Shup having multiple wives, is that only a thing for male nobles, or can female nobles have multiple husbands, too? Is it only nobles? And what's the stance on homosexuality? Are there guy-guy or girl-girl marriages? Or some sort of lesser arrangement, like maybe some oath of quote-unquote brotherly affection between totally masculine warriors, wink wink nudge nudge? Or is just totally taboo?

Agnes 2016/04/03(Sun)10:51 No. 98834 ID: dd338c
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>Agnes, I know carriers get the shit end of the deal, are there ANY neurological or fulfilling benefits such as endorphin or something similar for their part in the reproductive process, or is it nothing but a painful process? Why would a carrier choose to bear children, if they only really get a 1 out of three chance to raise it? Is that 1/3 chance really seen as worth it at all by the carrier population?
Perhaps I mis-spoke.

We have multiple children at once, and unless some unlikeliness occurs, there are always at least 3, generally much more, and the carrier is guaranteed one. Of course it is not always divisible by three, and who gets the upper rounding depends on the agreement.

Furthermore, again, perhaps I did not imply this correctly, but while reproduction for us is not pleasant nor, often, rewarding, we do get the urges. A sudden mental need to get on with it, but one that we don't derive pleasure from.

It is still odd that we do not derive pleasure from it, as this would be far more effective in a darwinian manner than simply having the equivalent of a sudden urge to stab oneself with a knife.

>Is their Yich Eater birth control for carriers, if there is a neurological benefit of the process for the carriers in case they want that benefit without the child bearing result?
This does not apply since we do not get that neurological benefit, but medical knowledge is catching up such that carriers can be drugged to make the process, if not pleasant, not terribly unpleasant.

Soltai 2016/04/03(Sun)10:52 No. 98835 ID: dd338c
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>Sol therapy-AI, how are you doing?
Hello, I am well, thank you!

>What's a day like for you?
Intense, if we consider me a single person. I talk with so many different people and have so many different experiences at once, it's hard to describe a single day as, well, a single day.

>How do you manage interacting with probably millions of people in parallel if you aren't a CAI?
Many, many cores all running together in a very, very big computer.

>How did you even come to be? Honestly, something as phenomenally useful and sensible an idea as you is the kind of thing that never happens without people killing it by panicking over potential abuses misuses and dangers, people being unable to fund something of such scale (even if it's cost saving in the long run), or the government and/or military, being the only ones who could afford such an endeavor, turning the whole thing to their security (or other) agendas.
I only started out as a small project by a few people, but then became integrated into a research facility which implemented in a large sample group of volunteers. Even if I'm not an official counselor or therapist, the public became fond of me and many people pushed for me to be more ubiquitous. This continued on until I was given wide scale funding for the good of the world, and so my many cores in a very big computer is now paid for by lots and lots of taxpayers.

Glitcher 2016/04/03(Sun)10:53 No. 98836 ID: dd338c
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>Glitcher are you aware you're wearing Rulekeep's snaggle-tooth. Were the makeouts that intense.
Look I'm pretty sure we basically fused with one another at some point in time.

So I mean

Calling it a makeout is kind of

An understatement ??

Rulekeeper 2016/04/03(Sun)10:53 No. 98837 ID: dd338c
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>Rulekeep, why are you red?
I wished to stand out from the white contestants, but didn't wished to be confused for the blue or purple ghosts. Beyond that, red is simply arbitrary.

Rokoa 2016/04/03(Sun)10:53 No. 98838 ID: dd338c
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>Rokoa, do you pretty much always think people who rely almost entirely on technology are weaker than those who don't have to, or is there a point when you start to respect someone for how much bullshit they can pull off with tech? Like the CAI for example.
Tech's got little to do with it, the more I think on it. If some weakling kid grabs a gun, I'm still gonna think he's just a weakling kid even if he's now capable of more harm. If that same kid then goes to the training field every day and becomes a damn good shot, then at least he's got some strength.
I don't know a damn thing about the CAI. Sounds like some kind of tech things that were born as wizards, and it doesn't sound like it's tough for them to do their bullshit at all, so they're probably weak. Can't judge, though, cause again, I don't know shit about them.

Point is that these days, there's more ways to be strong than finding animals and beating the hell out of them, and I've slowly gotten accustomed to it.

>Hey Rokoa, have you ever raped anyone before? If yes, have you ever done it post contact? Have you ever had sex with an alien?
Yes, probably but not going to elaborate, yes. Didn't get a taste for alien sex enough to keep doing it.

>Where do you see yourself in a hundred years?
Doesn't matter when in my life it was. Either fighting, or dead because of fighting.

>Rokoa, and anyone else who would be interested in playing a game of Roy, how would YOU play it as Roy?
Check out how well I'd do if I were a human and had to dodge shots more often.

>Slapping someone with ear?
>To me it sounds a lot like a "challenge" slap, like they did with gloves in ye olde times.
It was. Some kid wanted to fight me, and told me he'd have my ear. So I took it off and slapped him.

Then ate it in front of him.

Then ate his.

>This is probably a pretty racist question, but which of the non-neumono species do you find you tend to like best? Like, just to click a bit better with, when you're forced to interact with them?
Humans. Most aliens are cowards who will hide behind cover at the slightest bit of danger despite that people and what they care about are counting on them to fight. Most humans are cowards too, but the ones that don't are the ones that I can respect. Even moreso than neumono, since humans know damn well that a single lucky bullet will mean that they won't even be aware that they're dying. If they aren't hopped up on their adrenaline or complete morons, it takes a specially trained alien to do that shit.

It's a lot easier to get along with people like that for me regardless of how they act when they're not having bullets skimming their helmets.

>And which species' fighters would you say tend to give you the most trouble, when you take them on?
In a firefight, humans. The good ones can be just as aggressive as neumono, except that their fragility means they play smart, their reflexes are good, and of course their hands are way better for precision intruments.

For fighting, heef, easily. My strength is my strength, but I can't outpower a lot of heef, so I've got to fight in ways I'm not used to.

Then again, trained martial artist humans can punch me twice before I react to the first, so the really good ones may be worse than heef. Never met many good ones, though, usually they just train unarmed good enough to not be totally helpless if they drop their gun.

Still, my claw can extend far enough into either species in a fistfight to hit an artery, and neither one of them deals well with that.

>Anyone have any musical skills we haven't had the chance to see?
I can play the piano.

>I've been wondering how easy it is to raise neumono kids.
They're a lot more receptive than alien kids to their family's wishes. So they might want to wander off normally, but we can convey to them that we absolutely do not want them to, and usually they'll listen enough. They'll rebel by trying to convince us that they can handle it, so most kids are in a big hurry to grow up.

>Conversely, is sensing their empathy a very big help in taking care of them, to tell more specifically what they want when they're distressed?
I've done a little babysitting for alien kids.

They just scream when mildly distressed. Neumono kids will empathically scream, which is worse, but actually be a goddamn help unlike the screaming. Alien kids, you're left wondering if they're hungry, if they want to be held, if they don't want to be held, whatever.

With neumono kids, you can tell that sometimes, they're just upset for no reason. Suddenly some weird thought got in their head and now they're crying. But you can tell that. And they can feel you being sure that they're being babies and that everything is okay. Alien babies will just scream harder thinking the world is unravelling or some shit and they aren't even listening to your words let alone understanding them.

>If an adult gets annoyed or angry with them and manages to contain their outward expression of that, will a small neumono child still start crying just from feeling someone be mad at them?
Yeah, that's kind of a downside, but if the parent keeps their outward expression cool, then their empathy will be saying they're trying to keep cool, too. That they're upset, but trying to be patient. Sometimes the kid is okay with that. Sometimes the kid gets upset and yeah, then the wimps start crying from someone being mad at them probably for a good reason.

>Do upset neumono babies set each other off on a chain reaction of crying more easily than alien babies do?
And here's the downside. Yes. They do.

>What sort of qualities make for someone who's good at minding small kids, if empathic sensation is a big factor in how well the children will respond to them?
Comfortable, caring empathy put inside of saint-like patience.

Kappi 2016/04/03(Sun)10:53 No. 98839 ID: dd338c
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>How much porn of Rokoa is in your browser history, and how much of that involves Polo?
Oh gosh, I really don't think I would be comfortable seeing Rokoa in something like a porn. I mean I guess it wouldn't really be Rokoa, just actors who look kinda like her, but, it'd be kinda weird to me!

But no I haven't seen any with her in it, even though, uh... I'm sure it exists on some level.

Polo 2016/04/03(Sun)10:54 No. 98840 ID: dd338c
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>Polo, what is the best example of "wow that really shouldn't work but I guess it does" you've heard of or witnessed in the field?
There was once a tank that had issues with flipping over. Instead of making it more stable, they attached a big spring lever on it capable of flipping it back over.

Apparently it worked well.

>Jokes about how you secretly like Rokoa aside, it's fairly obvious you have some feelings and/or urges towards her, given how you briefly fantasized about calling her cutie and slapping her ass on their mothership, then said that you thought about hurting her.
That was a high stress environment while in the center of an entire foreign hive's empathy constantly butting heads with my own. Intrusive thoughts will happen. It is not a fair assessment.

>You were later worried about how you seemed to linger on Rokoa. How likely is it that your "obsession" was caused by you trying to suppress that sort of thought about Rokoa instead of just getting it over with?
Unlikely.

>Ever get/send any mail from/to Rokoa?
As of a few months after meeting her, no.

>How much work is it to clear a beach of all the terrible creepy crawly critters so you can actually lounge around on the sand and play in the surf safely without anything trying to eat anyone?
Lots. Clearing it out is not too difficult, but we have to install lots of measures to make sure that they stay out.

>Or are beaches typically not so dangerous?
They are dangerous enough that most places would want the children out of the water and all neumono to be close to one another, but not so dangerous as redgrass. There is some cohabitation, but even then, there are many animals that can be a threat if they are either hungry enough or angry enough.

Pilon 2016/04/03(Sun)10:55 No. 98842 ID: dd338c
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>Is it possible for a Neumono to become discontented enough with their hive to want to leave without becoming a rogue?
If leaving means a five minute walk to cool down, then yes, it's common and even good, but for a more definition of leaving is effectively the same definition as going rogue.

It could just just purely maligned empathy, but sometimes it's perfectly healthy empathy that forms a dissonance with the hive's ideals.

>And it's possible for Neumono with different empathy to be friends
It's a little different, perhaps unfortunately so, that in the best of circumstances, extra-hive neumono are held to a different, generally lower, standard than one's own hivemates, so more can be forgiven.

So all in all, perhaps there have been some rare circumstance in which someone physically leaves their hive for malcontented reasons but without fully going rogue, but that has to be an extremely rare occurrence.

>What would you look for in a [general assortment of suggestions for you to act off of?]
Diplomatic, then avoidance, then fighting, in that order, but how they're presented doesn't have to follow a strict ideology.

>Anyone who would be interested in playing a game of Roy, how would YOU play it as Roy?
That's difficult, as it seemed like that game did not provide awareness of one's own, real life? So it sounds as though I would just be a regular human with a rather normal upbringing in a family.

In other words, I doubt I would stray from living a simple life.

>Pilon your opinion on this .gif is needed urgently
>>98086
Heheh, it's very nice to see someone make something like that, but it's hard to think too well of it without feeling narcissistic.

>For real, I'd mostly like to know what you think about the hype thing and whether you actually have any notoriety, either as a fighter, as a diplomat/lover, or as anything else.
I do have notoriety as a potential threat to watch out for, yes. The difference between me and Rokoa, though, and the reason why I'm less feared, is because if I do become an enemy, it's after friendly options have been exhausted, and the person knows that things are going sour. I'm a predictable lightning bolt that only strikes under known circumstances, and it's harder to fear such a thing when you know where to avoid standing.

Rokoa, however, is the lightning bolt that can strike from anywhere and any time for reasons that were completely unknown to the struck person.

>Do neumono have any particular sex symbols or is attraction too based on empathy for those to be a prominent thing?
We do have symbols, yes, although they are archaic from the tribal days. They exaggerated everything that was remotely seen as typically attractive. They were just symbols, though. A real person with those traits would be seen as too over the top by most people. The symbols, though, represented someone with the body size of Az, my ears, the openness of Vivilli and, depending on male or female, the traits of Pit or Qiurill. Then again, there were many tribes, and so maybe some had the traits of both.

Jess 2016/04/03(Sun)10:56 No. 98844 ID: dd338c
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>Jess, what other problems can arise when Neumono date humans, and vice versa? You already mentioned having to compensate for a lack of empathy by being much more verbally and physically expressive than you normally would be.
Neumono gotta remember that when you roughhouse with a parner aliens are fragile. If that's not something that comes up, then I dunno, it's mostly all about the lack of empathy that comes into play.

>How's that chocolate.
Fuck'n delicious.

Roxie 2016/04/03(Sun)10:57 No. 98845 ID: dd338c
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>but do any other aliens have any notable symbioses?
I think the only symbioses we ever had was when we raised creatures for their whatevers, but not really any sort of natural symbioses that I'm aware of.

>Anyone have any musical skills we haven't had the chance to see?
I'm told that I'm pretty good at singing. I don't think I have the voice for it, but I can hold a note and that kinda technical stuff.

Ben 2016/04/03(Sun)10:57 No. 98846 ID: dd338c
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>Any neumono scientist or Ben if you're in a particularly good mood; have you thought about building off the existing (and really primitive) human mirror neuron empathy system to create actual neumono empathy in humans? We can already do this:
Yeah! Artificial empathy relayers exist, and we can transfer our feelings into it. Problem is, is that most brains are so associative and finicky about everything, that trying to run something in a normal brain reliably and predictably - necessary traits in any product - is difficult to put it nicely! So putting the right emotion in the empathy relayer is tough enough, let alone that the empathy relayers to real empathy is like wood as a replacement for steel!

Enalo 2016/04/03(Sun)10:57 No. 98847 ID: dd338c
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>How's the hug game?
For me, like I'm getting squeezed in some place.

For someone else, like they're squeezing a dense portion of air.

Kort 2016/04/03(Sun)10:58 No. 98848 ID: dd338c
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>Kort, you're a voklit expert. Have you learned to tell the difference between dude and lady voklits? Would it be important to be able to know, if someone wants to interact with them a lot, or would it be a long way down the priority list?
Yes. Smell is tricky, but sometimes a voklit ends up on the particularly extreme end of their dimorphism and a neumono can tell. For the ones that don't, neumono smell isn't good enough.

There are, despite popular belief, slight visual differences between the two, but I don't tell people what they are because then they start calling girls guys and guys girls thinking they can tell, no matter how much I tell them that personal variance far exceeds actual dimorphism.

The most reliable factor is cultural differences in gender. This requires studying the voklit tribe more than the voklit, but most tribes do treat men and women differently, as well as the voklit themselves having a different demeanor based on their gender. Excepting the tribes that hardly view gender differently, this is, by far, the best way to reliably tell.

Tribes familiar with ambassadors will know they judge based on cultural more than anything else, and so calling a guy a girl will be taken to mean that that guy, in the neumono's opinion, acts like a girl.

For the most part, it's a middle priority.

Penn's Grandmother 2016/04/03(Sun)10:59 No. 98849 ID: dd338c
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>But you must have kept your own notes about the study, some sort of documentation with the real facts, as much as you could find out. Did you just destroy them, or did you give anything to Penn herself? Did you tell her much of anything about herself that you kept secret from everyone else?
Yes, I did keep the truth documented.

I took it to the grave. The risks otherwise outweighed the benefits.

>How is it on the men's side? Do they have an effective pill, too, or would they still need a surgical option?
Pills work, surgery is easy, implants are cheap. Eugenics were part of the empire, and so sterilization was made easy and convenient.

>Speaking of men taking pills... does belenosian steroid use have, uh, the same drawbacks associated with more primitive steroids? On the other end of the spectrum, how about pills with the opposite effect? Humanity has been plagued by false promises of male supplementation for centuries. Has belenosian medical technology surpassed those limits?
I could hardly say that our medical technology surpassed those limits, but that makes it sound flattering. In truth, once again, our biology simply is highly receptive to simple medication, and so it is resistant, not immune, to the side effects. Which is why belenos on steroids are so massive, and there is no middle ground. Likewise, male genital "supplementation" works well, and so belenos with large bulges can be assumed to take those medications, too. Usually they take too much and it works too well and they just become a novelty.

>What's more attractive, sizeable schnozzles or small snootles?
That has nearly identical implications, and tastes, as small or large horns. One is represented as dainty belenos descended from the empire, the other as a stereotypical tough techless-barbarian.

>Do you have any ability to move your ears? Most of the time when you have them they seem to just hang down. Is there any wiggling or waggling possible?
Yes. Some people are able to move them slightly, but record holders are able to nearly flap them up and down with the muscle near the base of the ear.

>Can anyone give a quick rundown on what species names were given vs. what ones were kept from themselves?
Belenos is just the name of our sun, but we were happy to adopt a name from aliens rather than ourselves.

'Miklik' is based on a miklik tribe's language, in which miklik meant, roughly 'as it goes' or 'that's life' or similar.

The tribe said it as hellos and goodbyes, and as 'oh' and as 'I understand.'

In other words, they said it a lot, and the humans attributed it so heavily with the mikliks that that is what they called them. So in a way, mikliks named themselves, but not knowingly so.

Neumono is established as the misnomer of the bunch, as it is short for 'neuro mono' or a single... well, let me put it this way. Humans initially thought they were fully telepathic with each other and thought they shared the same mind. Not just is that wrong, but "neuro mono" doesn't even make much sense as a name for that, so neumono got tied for the worst name of all. It doesn't matter, though, as it's not condescending, and hearing 'neumono' only gets people to think of the species rather than the literal phrase of which it came.

Yich Eater because they ate Yiches. Simple, plain, no one hated anyone over it.

Heef was based off of a human twisting of the word 'hen', and so Heef are tied with neumono for the worst name in my opinion.

Pomi, surprisingly, kept their own word for it. Their uplift might have been the best uplift performance on the human side of things of all, and an attempt was made by officially putting those newly found aliens down as "BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB" until their name for themselves was found out to be 'Pomi'. Until then, some humans called them "Beebee's," and there was a real fear that that would catch on before "Pomi".

>I'm now imagining that, during first contact, after carefully figuring out what foods were able to be shared between the two species, there was a moment when humans invited belenosians to have a meal of earth food with them. And after the first couple of bites the belenosians were overwhelmed by flavour and went crazy just cramming everything into their mouths. Then for months the humans had to deal with constant attempts to sneak into their kitchens and storage, compensated by the ability to get interviews and guides and other research subjects easily just by bribing them with, like, a thermos of pea soup.
>Anyone want to comment on whether that idea's at all accurate?
Some belenos did get get fanatical about all the new foods, however, food was common enough that they did not need to do drastic actions just to get a thermos of pea soup.

Plus, some belenos grew so accustomed to a single taste that anything other than the few flavors just seemed wrong to them.

Others, still, did not care. It was interesting to them, but they did not get overwhelmed.

>I'm also wondering how good belenosians are in regard lactose tolerance, or other aliens for that matter. Being able to consume milk products as an adult was kind of a weird mutation for humans.
We are lactose tolerant. Perhaps more genetic engineering was involved, but there was no reason for us to lose the ability to consume a common, healthy food.

>I guess the question that naturally follows is if any desperate belenosian chefs tried anything with toya dairy products? I know humans have done that sort of thing with their household pets.
The idea is disgusting now, but I'm sure that every single part of a toya was considered worth consuming in 10 different ways each, by old tribes.

Penn 2016/04/03(Sun)11:00 No. 98850 ID: dd338c
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>Hey Penn, I know AI design is your core subject, and presumably general computer science as an extension of that, but Arza's having you take a bunch of other classes as well, right? What's your favourite of the non-technical sciences?
I guess psychology! It's hardly even a science in belenos eyes, but you can still do experiments and just sort of glean the results as guidelines, and it's almost like a freestyle science?

Well I'm sure a real psychologist would want to slap me for that answer.

>What's your best, if it's not also your favourite?
Probably economics.

>What's your favourite academic subject outside the sciences?
I uh... don't know.

>And, though I'm sure you don't have time for it, did you have any interests when you were younger that are outside what you study now?
Ehhh... counting stars if that counts.

>Did you have any problems with how neumono smell, when you moved to their planet?
Yes, sometimes. Some smells okay, some smelled bad. Roxie smelled kinda weird at first, but I think I grew to be okay with that too. I mean, it helped a lot when she started using shampoo and stuff, but she still smelled like her even with that. And.. well actually I guess I kind of like the smell now but that's just because I like her, not the scent itself.

>Contrariwise, do freshly washed and dried neumono smell fine? Good, even?
I think, then, is when they just smell like whatever products they used, so how good it is depends on the product!

Still, I think that's kind of the concensus on how neumono smell. I hear that heef actually tend to kind of like it, though, but maybe that's just rumor.

>Have you had any romantic relationships before, Penn? Or just romantic aspirations? Crushes? Fantasies? Celebrities, historical figures, fictional characters?
Sort of. I've had all the things normal people do, except I can't help but feel like it's somehow weaker than even most belenos. Like just enough to recognize it for what it is, but I don't think I've really been in love with something. Instead, just kind of a sense of... that I may enjoy this person's company or affections for what they are instead of simply serving a purpose beyond themselves.

>Hmm... have you ever seen the humans' old show, Star Trek?
Uh, a little actually, just as one of those funner days in history class where we changed the pace and looked at what humans thought the future would look like. I mean, this was a less funny example of a funny thing, and was more just an example of the more major human media thing rather than whatever goofy stuff was drug up from the human's media past.

>I don't know if you're attracted to humans, but personalitywise, would you call yourself more of a Kirk or a Spock girl?
I feel like I'd get along better with Spock overall, but, um, not actually sure if that's who I'd want to get along best with, if that makes sense.

And if not him, I don't know who the alternative would be!

>Studying AIs, is it part of your education to study the less hard-science fields related to that
Yes, but mostly just ethics. I think the stuff like 'don't give it glowing red eyes' is just something we're expected to pick up with peer review and not being completely socially incapable, desk hovering info machines. We don't have a class on that sort of thing specifically. Then again, the ethics classes do tend to cover a lot of things that aren't directly ethics but aren't cleanly put into a whole other class.

>So do you have any exposure to old science fiction from an academic or professional perspective?
Sometimes, yes.

>How were the arts among your species, anyway, pre-contact? I gather you kept yourselves at a roughly late medieval/renaissance level, maybe up to just pre-industrial, as far as technology went. But, I also assume literacy was kept widespread? So, was there a solid print industry? I'd guess you couldn't have much of a popular music industry unless you allowed yourselves, like, phonographs as not too much of a transgression, but were there popular novels, magazines for publishing short stories, et cetera?
Yes. The printing press existed, but it was kept, uh, the rule was that every action that the machine did, the person had to do an action to cause that machine's action. So you couldn't just hit 'go' and have it print out a newspaper, people had to organize the individual letters and... however old people did it I guess. So things like that existed, but not on a very wide, accessable scale.

Paintings and individual writing was common though, and we definitely had some good stuff back in the day, especially since the arts, whether it was painting, performances, architecture or whatever were seen as a good way to study without leading to technology stuff.

>magicians
Well... we were kinda superstitious so magicians had to be careful about how good they were.

>On the topic of artistic expression, Penn, would the belenosian learning-is-fun reaction apply to any art stuff? Learning how to play songs, for example? And do you know how to play any musical instruments?
Yes, but it's harder overall, since the learning-is-fun kind of applies to hard facts that we understand are real and reliable. Finding something that works for sure in an artistic way, well, since it's subjective... it definitely pleases us if we feel we learned something, but that subjectivity has got kind of a sour taste to our mind.

Tom 2016/04/03(Sun)11:01 No. 98851 ID: dd338c
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>Hey Tom or Chee, roughly what does the power scaling on soul bursts look like? We saw a single one at close range was enough to detonate part of an island and every soul in an entire false world was enough to instantly kill a God forever, but what about firing a beam of 100, 1000, or just a few souls of especially powerful people?
Think of the souls like bombs. If you have two bombs, then they explode twice as much as one bomb. They don't like, partially cancel each other out or make the other explode harder or anything like that, it's all just so - bombs stacked on bombs!

A really powerful soul can be like a whole bunch of souls, but as far as blowing it up goes, there's no difference between that and just using a whole bunch of souls.

>Could Chee have used you to shoot out series of smaller blasts?
Absolutely.

>How high could Muo's power climb if she continues to cause chaos on larger scales, and what do the upper levels of devotion award?
I'd totally give someone demi-god level abilities if they use it right.

But that's the trick. Using it right. Chances are, they don't need demi-god levels to cause good mass chaos, so the ones good enough to become demi-gods probably don't get to act like demi-gods. The system is fucked up like that and that's how I like it.

Upper levels of devotion award the ability to buy big time spells. They can't cast it themselves, but they'll be allowed to cash in their points for it, while low levels of devotion won't get much more than making a wheel slowly take the form of a square over time.

>In a hypothetical scenario where a dude goes around causing larger and larger amounts of chaos in an area full of intricate plans to jam up, eventually plunging the entire world into anarchy, what tier of devotion would he be in?
Chaos is kind of a relative thing. If the whole world were in anarchy, it'd be harder to scale things up from there. So I'd probably go hungry while waiting for things to get orderly again so they could get chaotic again.

So it would be like going to an all you can eat buffet, and then not eat for a month.

Now, if this person consistently was able to devolve places into anarchist extremes consistently and frequently without making the whole world like that, then they'd get to max levels pretty damn quick!

>What do you think you'll do once Chee is the God of Chaos?
Tell her what to do on the sidelines cause damn me if she'll have any idea or intuition for what to do!

Cheese 2016/04/03(Sun)11:07 No. 98852 ID: dd338c
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>Someone from Fen Quest who would know: can you give us an idea on the upper limits of magic?
The only limit is the wizard's imagination!

Okay, okay, that's only true in theory. Theoretically a wizard could do some pretty... world bending stuff. But in actuality, we just do some... world changing stuff. So! The upper limits of what's actually been done!

>Like, who's the most famous historical magic-using kobold you know of, and what were their greatest feats?
Yes like this, this is the question I should've waited for before going and answering saying... nevermind.

The most famous magic using kobold, at least in the north empire, is proooobably the emperor himself, but it's kinda hidden what he actually does with his magic. I mean the true tales and the tales of what he's supposedly done might be different? So I'm just gonna avoid that and go to the archwizards.

So, biggest change in our lifetimes and really probably the greatest magical feat of all time in the northern empire is the warp zones between province capitals. It took the archwizards the greater portion of their combined efforts to come up with it, and a huge bunch of wizards to power up the whole network enough to warp everything once a week but now that it happened, trade has been made a hundred times easier for everyone, the capital populations have boomed so the towns actually look like a real capital rather than just being some dingy place where a greater beast probably died and all that.

For single wizards, well... the Might Wizard is a good example. This guy is in the Poluputus army, and basically he boosts up the physical power and toughness of kobolds. His army is only like about 1000 strong, but they are basically huge giant kobolds with the strength of 10 and hard as heck to slice through. I mean, I'm pretty sure some of them can compete with a Dragon Knight, but, uh... things that can beat Dragon Knights are kiiiiinda watched a bit more than most people would like by the empire considering the rate of rebellion, so the Might Wizard denies they're that strong. But they've had so much success while being vastly outnumbered that the wizard is pretty well renowned and feared.

Then there's the Necromancer of Erja Nokol. He's able to raise up bodies that died there. He can only control so many at once, though, so he usually gets the strongest ones, or just the scariest looking ones. Which coming from Erja Nokol, can be pretty scary, neverminding that stabbing on in the face doesn't do much to stop it. Still, he has a few hundred under his flag.

There's other examples too but that's basically the power levels! Other wizards mostly just affect fertility, either making things grow up faster and healthier than they would otherwise, and stronger wizards just change the scale and duration of what they do.

Southern wizards are stronger, though. Kinda scary to think of what they can do, but we mostly get the rumors. I hear that they can kinda.. collect magic in a spot and then unleash it all at once, so like, a northern wizard might be able to make a place hot for 20 hours, but a southern wizard might spend 20 hours doing what looks like nothing, and then suddenly make the place explode in fire. But then again southern wizards say that our wizards can create 20 super soldiers per day from the ground! Or that our wizards are fake and that we can't do magic. So I mean... everyone's kind of full of it, sometimes.

>I notice that a lot ladies have seemed awfully friendly towards Fen. Is he up high on the attractiveness scale?
Yeah kinda? I mean he seems way too serious to be likeable in Fisher's run, and I think he'd be seen as way too plain in Dragon's Fall, but he sure isn't bad looking definitely not to me haha.

>Would he maybe have to worry about noble ladies pressing affections on him?
Ladies who are nobles? Probably not, they get to pick the cream of the crop, so Fen would really need to fit their tastes perfectly.

Ladies who are wives or consorts with nobles? Uh... well that would probably be a bad idea for them to press affections on a commoner!

>Were you surprised at how quickly Fen managed to track you down [from the Fence]?
Oh my gosh, yes. I mean I wasn't too surprised he got to the Fence, but I knew the chances of him finding out about me were slim. But it kinda happened anyway and then he found out I skipped town and... I'm just surprised that he killed Rasyan, got his money, and then friended the crows.

>How do the rules of inheritance for nobles work? Are titles/ranks passed on directly, or is there some more complicated arrangement, due to that "nobles must be strong" thing?
Wellll, the nobles can pass on their title to a single person if they want, actually, and that usually is their kid or their spouse or whatever.

But, uh, there's a lot of shit nobles can do to one another, so... nobles do pass it on to their kid, but they make sure it's the most promising kid, not just the firstborn or whatever, and make sure they're trained from birth to be a noble. I mean it doesn't even have to be their kid, they can just pass the title to whoever. The thing is is that when they do get the title, whoever they are, they'd better have proven they're competent and strong, because otherwise, other nobles will prey on them. If they're not suited to be a noble, well, they'll get eaten alive.

Omega RED 2016/04/03(Sun)11:39 No. 98854 ID: dd338c
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>So what exactly were all of you doing at a volkit brothel? And with your uniforms and gear no less?
Investigating a building of INJUSTICE and OBSCENITY. We were on the case of the STOLEN CHRISTMAS, which is why we were in full uniform. Unfortunately, we did not prepare for a gas attack from another source!

>Also how did you get into the super hero powered by crazy mad science business?
Perhaps our BACKSTORY may enlighten you?
http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questarch/res/614976.html#630614

>>98852
Hey, Cheese. Uh, just so you know, no matter what other mean people say about you, I think you're cute!

>>98832

Looks like this Fen Quest question got in just before the batch, so I'm just linking it so it doesn't get missed next time.

>>98834

So... your part in the process isn't pleasant, but it is still somewhat satisfying? Like scratching an itch?

>>98839

Kappi, if you only think of live-action porn, you're not as big a pervert as I thought! What about drawing, comics, animations? What about fan fiction? I mean, probably since they're all made by people who didn't really know her, they're probably erroneous and weird to someone who actually has met her, but still. Step up your game, Kappi!

>>98838
>I can play the piano.

... Are there special neumono pianos? If not then that's extra impressive. When and why did you try learn that?

Discovery: This thread is not mobile friendly.
>>98835
Which quest did SolTAI show up in? Was that Kappi's?
> Instead of making it more stable, they attached a big spring lever on it capable of flipping it back over.
To be fair, if the enemy has a ramp designed to flip tanks over, that spring is a good idea, as it counters the ramp.
>but he sure isn't bad looking definitely not to me haha.
If he were polyamorous, how interested would you be in him? Like, on a scale of consort to major spouse.
>I'm just surprised that he killed Rasyan, got his money, and then friended the crows.
He's an odd one, isn't he? Killed a noble, and was swiftly willing to kill the guards to help you, but he befriended not only the crows, but wanted you to be a friend even after you stole his Dragon Cloth.

>>98861
>Which quest did SolTAI show up in? Was that Kappi's?
None. Penn mentioned it in the last batch of answers >>97414
, so follow up questions got directed to it.

To any neumono who wears glasses, why do you wear them? Wouldn't regeneration take care of most problems?

Also, Az mentioned that trying to fit rogues under other hives has problems, why is that?

And on that subject, any rogue who wishes to answer, what's it like being rogue? A lot of the rogues we've seen seem normal, at least on the outside.

>>98898
I'm pretty sure most of those were answered. Regeneration doesn't make you perfect, it makes you the same as your original genetics. So if you get fat you usually stay fat, lose muscle fast, etc. If you have a genetic defect that messes up your vision, regeneration will keep it messed up.

Rogues don't fit well into other hives because not being in a hive doesn't mean you automatically fit in other hives. Same way just being an orphan doesn't mean all families are great.

Kappi's answered what being/going rogue feels like, iirc. The short version is "really shitty".

>Yes, but it's harder overall, since the learning-is-fun kind of applies to hard facts that we understand are real and reliable. Finding something that works for sure in an artistic way, well, since it's subjective... it definitely pleases us if we feel we learned something, but that subjectivity has got kind of a sour taste to our mind.

I see. But, I suppose the technical aspects would still apply? How to read sheet music, the proper methods for producing X sound from Y instrument, et cetera? Someone previously mentioned that belenosian music is quite formulaic. Would that be because it's easy enough to learn how to play and to replicate existing songs, while actually having the creative spark to produce the more subjective, innovative sensual aspects is more difficult?

>Probably economics.

Hm. Tell me, is there a lot of apprehension and/or excitement about neumono among economists? Their population is growing rapidly, and now that they've mostly compensated for the negative effects, their empathic abilities seem like they would be a huge boon to business. Less miscommunications, less obstructive formalities, better multitasking with what Roxie said about holding multiple thoughts at once better, and a natural inclination (perhaps better intuitive understanding?) towards operating in large groups rather than as individuals. Like, if a neumono government thinks "we need to stop spending so much/spend much more on [thing]" to fix a certain problem in their economy, with other species that sort of direct control would be barely possible at all, but with neumono all you need to do is convince the Kings and Queens and then a massive portion of the populace will go along with it, even if it's a hardship. It seems like their economic productivity could well outstrip everyone else's in just a hundred years or so. How would you feel about living in a galaxy where neumono have become the dominant species, Penn? And an overall better economy is good for everyone, but are there many who seem hard set against the possibility?

Another question: You said once that there are belenos who've studied straight for days. Is that more from just the allure of knowledge overriding the need to sleep, or do belenosians need to sleep less often in general? Or, is study somehow a kind of activity for your brains that can replace sleep, at least to some extent? How about yourself, are you good at going for long periods without sleep, or at having less sleep per day? What's your record, and how quickly/to what degree does it impair you?

>>98900
Ah, that makes sense, and I hadn't realised the last one had already been answered, I'll have to go back and look.

>>98898
>>98900
The other reason some neumono need glasses is that lots of screen usage and/or reading can cause eye strain / eye damage that regeneration needs to repair. Which means depending on how badly you've been abusing your eyes and/or how much you've been giving your eyes a rest and letting regen work, your prescription will actually be different, necessitating multiple pairs of glasses to function. (It's why Mimi is bitching about not having the right intermediary pair of glasses during Hok's last crime spree. >>/questarch/575710 ).

Obviously not everyone is as susceptible. Kappi and Lakkat stare at screens for their jobs all day, but neither wore glasses. (Although maybe that visor Kappi uses helps?).

Dastrica, in Polokoa, has advanced adaptive science-magic glasses that adjust so she doesn't need multiple pairs. ( >>80341 , last heading / question).

>>98838

I was wondering if this was too rude a question, but considering one you just answered there: Rokoa, have you ever kept a slave? What sort of qualities qualify someone as good slave material, anyway? Would most slaves be, like, some sort of craftsperson who can make something the hive wants but doesn't like to do themselves? Or would it be less practical and more horrible and most slaves would just be kept as playthings to torture before killing them once they become boring?

Related question: if something like your scenario with Kappi had played out pre-contact, would it be possible you'd have kept him as a slave then? Because, well, I can't imagine he'd be able to just live his life with you visiting him like you do now, and a slave scenario seems possible. So, pre-contact you is out and about on business, on your own, you find this rogue, he falls in love with you instantly and your empathy clicks together pretty well, what do you do with him? I mean, taking him back to your hive would probably get him killed even now, but maybe if he's set up in a cave living by himself or whatever, would you let him be and just come out to visit him now and again? Make him maintain a little hunting lodge for you or something?

And if that still wouldn't have happened with you, is it the sort of thing that still could have happened somewhere with someone, some time pre-contact? Are there any big extra-hive romance stories set pre-contact that have reached popular consciousness, or is that sort of thing still considered too deviant and/or scandalous among most neumono?

>>98845

Psst, Roxie. Penn got asked, so I want to ask you the same: what do you think about how aliens smell? Did you think Penn smelled funny when you first met her? Was it her specifically, or just that all civilized people smelled weird, until you got used to it?

What did you think when you first met an alien, anyway? Were there any specific species that you had any particularly interesting/embarrassing thoughts about when you first saw one of them? I remember you saying that your hive was contacted some aliens and their escorts, but did you personally talk a lot to anyone in particular, in the course of your preparation to come out and learn to be civilized? Maybe your hive has some specific liason or team of liasons who they talk to/get talked to by, in relation to their attempts to uplift? What are they like, do you like/trust them? And on the topic of liking aliens, most of your friends besides Penn seem to be neumono. Do you have any other alien friends, or alien partybuddies at least?

>I'm told that I'm pretty good at singing.

Hmm. Have you ever heard Penn sing? Like, even maybe just some earworm that got into her head and she sang it in the shower or something that you heard through the wall. For... some reason, I imagine she would have a voice that people wouldn't mind listening to, if she used it confidently. Would you say that's accurate?

Belenosians/neumono/heef: have you managed to invent bandages that work well with fur/feathers? Just as lesser-fluffed human I know that trying to put one on where there's a lot of hair doesn't work so well. And what about taking them off? I mean, ouch.

>>99258
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-adhering_bandage

Hey Polo, who do you admire most? I imagine your Queen is up there, as that seems to be part and parcel of the relationship between a hive and their king or queen, but anyone else? Any celebrities or historical figures who you'd like to meet? Dare I say, even be excited at the chance to meet?

>>99282
Have we met the sealock queen?

>>99285
Nope.

>>99286
>>99285
We have, actually. Check the older threads.

>>99372
I can't prove a negative short of linking every post she doesn't appear in, so I'll settle for a chat log excerpt.

Apr 19 22:07:43 <Lagowork>I sure don't remember drawing her

If you've got a post in mind, by all means, link it.

>>99374
Maybe they were referring to when Polo called home during the intermission? There were some random sealocks in that panel.

Polo, since you've actually experienced it now, what's it like for a neumono who's been dominated / pacified by a predator?

I'm directing this at you because from what we've seen, it seems to be a disorienting experience (and therefore hard for people to describe effectively), but your training with Three Stripes meant you went under and came back out repeatedly. Which is a different experience than most have (ie "no experience", "bluh, that was one confusing and disorienting trauma I had" or "I'm sorry, I'm a brain dead zombie and no good as a witness"), and might have afforded you some degree of acclimation and/or a perseptive that's less clouded by / overwhelmed by the whole experience.


To anyone (un)willing to find themselves the subject of an amusing visual, what's a shaved neumono look like?

Hey, Kappi. You're trying to get swole, and familiar with the animes. From what we've seen of ships and space stations, you guys have artificial gravity technology, right? Well, do you have hightened gravity training rooms? I mean there are possible theoretical complications to going more than a few decimal points above standard for humans and probably most species, but for neumono I imagine it would actually be very good for convincing your body to maintain higher muscle and bone density? Have you tried it? ... How hard is it to implement, would a hardcore like Rokoa be able to get it installed in her living space so that she can have it on as much as possible?

By the way, have you tried making any other bets with Rokoa? I was thinking that, since you're smaller, you could maybe take her on at a reflex-based shooting gallery game, if you practiced a lot. You could try get more clues out of her to that thing she wants. Or other favors, wink nudge.

Also did Jess get mad at you making a mess of coffee and mug shards and then asking her to cover your job thereby implicitly making her clean up the probably-by-that-point-dried-in coffee mess?

Itcher, buddy, let's cut to the meat of the matter. Are you naturally beefy, or supplemented? No shame if you are enhanced, I mean, you're not employed to be a tank, but with your lifestyle and residence it probably would have been a good idea to look intimidating, though maybe not so much now. On the other hand, we've been told you are in the natural range, and your sister seems pretty solidly built as well. If you are a natural, do you get sick of people assuming otherwise? Do you work out much?

How do you feel on the imperial-vs-tribal division of physical ideals, anyway, overall? And how do you feel about the various chemical and technological enhancements on offer for your species, are there any others you'd be tempted to get?

... Also would you smooch a robot. Or like a super cyborg or something. Imagine Whiskers turned out to secretly be, like, an ancient belenosian noble who flung herself into the future by doing loops around a black hole at .9c, or something. Would you still want the hot makeouts?

Kappi, you messed up! When Rokoa told you not to have chocolate anymore, you should've just grabbed a piece of chocolate and ate it right in front of her! You probably would've gotten a little respect for having the balls to do that!

>>99998
Rokoa, what would you have done if he actually did that?

>>99999
Also, Jessica, do you think you're getting less terrified of Rokoa now or is she still not someone you want to be around?

>>100000
GET

Belenosians: We know that neumono like getting their fur brushed, how about you? I mean, one would assume that some brushing is necessary for comfort after using the body dryer, but there are logistical problems with brushing yourself. You could use some long-handled brush arrangement, or some other device, but I imagine they wouldn't provide the same satisfaction. So about what level do you need to be on with someone to let them/ask them to take a brush to you? I'd ask the neumono the same question but one assumes the answer is just something like "anyone who I like and who's empathy I can stand".

Speaking of grooming, non-humans: do you have equivalents to hairdressers, where you go to get yourself tidied, smoothed out and prettied up? I mean, even humans have salons for like skin and nails and such, but they're comparatively rare. Do you have something you'd use more frequently?

Shup 2016/06/03(Fri)23:20 No. 100087 ID: dd338c
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>What are the rules for marriage? Is it only nobles?
There are virtually none, aside from a fee required for the empire to formally recognize the union. The fee is nominal, but it is a fee nonetheless, so most peasant 'marriages' are simply informal. Otherwise, so long as the two parties are both willing, any two adult kobolds may be married.

>I recall Shup having multiple wives, is that only a thing for male nobles, or can female nobles have multiple husbands, too?
For nobility, multiple wives and husbands is a signifier of wealth. While trophy wives and husbands certainly exist, and may even be seen as valuable, a noble with many wives and husbands has connotations to be willing to share their wealth, livelihood and well being with others. After all, those husbands and wives have their own familes, and those families can expect to reap generosity.

This is the ideology of the empire, but in practice, some nobles simply have glorified harems.

>And what's the stance on homosexuality? Are there guy-guy or girl-girl marriages?
Certainly, at least among the nobility. The peasantry, while not often outright hostile to homosexuals, tends to give the idea negative connotations. The emperor cares little about this, and so by extension and his blessing of titles, the nobility is free to indulge in their own tastes. And the peasantry, not wishing to offend the nobility, wisely keeps their views amongst their own less polite company.

>Or some sort of lesser arrangement, like maybe some oath of quote-unquote brotherly affection between totally masculine warriors, wink wink nudge nudge?
And this would, perhaps, count as the informal 'marriages' of the peasantry I had prior mentioned.

Agnes 2016/06/03(Fri)23:20 No. 100088 ID: dd338c
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>So... your part in the process isn't pleasant, but it is still somewhat satisfying? Like scratching an itch?
That is a good analogy, and correct.

Kappi 2016/06/03(Fri)23:21 No. 100089 ID: dd338c
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>Kappi, if you only think of live-action porn, you're not as big a pervert as I thought! What about drawing, comics, animations?
Well it would be weird to look up that stuff now! And it would've been before I got to know her too, come to think of it!

I mean, she'd probably laugh at it, so I guess the option is there. So that's nice.

But still the internet here is kind of shoddy scraps of the real internet, so I can't hold out much hope. Or, expectations.

>Hey, Kappi. You're trying to get swole, and familiar with the animes. From what we've seen of ships and space stations, you guys have artificial gravity technology, right? Well, do you have hightened gravity training rooms? I mean there are possible theoretical complications to going more than a few decimal points above standard for humans and probably most species, but for neumono I imagine it would actually be very good for convincing your body to maintain higher muscle and bone density? Have you tried it? ... How hard is it to implement, would a hardcore like Rokoa be able to get it installed in her living space so that she can have it on as much as possible?
I doubt Rokoa has one installed personally, but it's actually possible that her hive has something like that! Last I checked, a lot of their crashed spaceship was still functional, and that included antigravity, though it must be old as heck by now and maybe it either doesn't work or is more or less replaced part by part.

It has been tested, though, and yeah, it's mostly common amongst weightlifters who like to do competitions since it's pretty hardcore. I mean, regeneration does bring us back to the baseline, so if you want to get the benefits of doing that kind of training, then you have to do it all the time to keep the benefits. Supposedly, though, the strongest neumono in the galaxy do train in heavy gravity and take a lot of steroids for neumono and other stuff. Rokoa says that neumono like that could snap her in half if she fought them with brute strength, but they're all really slow as far as agility goes and tire out quickly.

>By the way, have you tried making any other bets with Rokoa? I was thinking that, since you're smaller, you could maybe take her on at a reflex-based shooting gallery game, if you practiced a lot. You could try get more clues out of her to that thing she wants. Or other favors, wink nudge.
That's the idea! I haven't made any other bets, but I'm thinking of some.

>Also did Jess get mad at you making a mess of coffee and mug shards and then asking her to cover your job thereby implicitly making her clean up the probably-by-that-point-dried-in coffee mess?
A little bit, but I think she'd mostly be mad at Rokoa, and she doesn't want to get mad at Rokoa.

>Kappi, you messed up! When Rokoa told you not to have chocolate anymore, you should've just grabbed a piece of chocolate and ate it right in front of her! You probably would've gotten a little respect for having the balls to do that!
That uh.... that might be going a little far. I think she wants me to challenge her in ways that improve me, not challenge her in spiteful ways for its own sake!

Rokoa 2016/06/03(Fri)23:21 No. 100090 ID: dd338c
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>Rokoa, what would you have done if he actually did that?
See how well he responds to getting punched in the throat mid-swallow.

>Are there special neumono pianos? If not then that's extra impressive. When and why did you try learn that?
There are, and it looks more like a grid of big buttons than a real piano. I don't even want to hear my attempt at trying to press down those toothpicks on antiquated pianos.

Anyway, my hive's always had a soft spot for classical music, so it was always a little hobby of ours over the course of decades.

>Rokoa, have you ever kept a slave?
Yeah. Not for long term, though.

>What sort of qualities qualify someone as good slave material, anyway? Would most slaves be, like, some sort of craftsperson who can make something the hive wants but doesn't like to do themselves? Or would it be less practical and more horrible and most slaves would just be kept as playthings to torture before killing them once they become boring?
Some jungle hives kept a few redgrass or snow neumono slaves around for heavy lifting where it was tough for a lot of the little twerps to deal with, and that's the only time I've seen common slave cases before aliens showed up.

Most lengthy slavery is just when food is good and there's enough spare food to feed the slave. Once the food supply hiccups, though, that slave becomes the backup.

And most slavery, period, is that horrible stuff. Sure, some hives just screwed around with their slaves as playthings before killing them, but some wouldn't kill them when they became boring. They'd show that slave just how much pain and suffering can be inflicted, and when the slave is completely dead inside, then the hive would return the slave back to the slave's own hive to bring their wounded, broken empathy to poison the hive. It was our version of psychological warfare.

>If something like your scenario with Kappi had played out pre-contact, would it be possible you'd have kept him as a slave then? Because, well, I can't imagine he'd be able to just live his life with you visiting him like you do now, and a slave scenario seems possible. So, pre-contact you is out and about on business, on your own, you find this rogue, he falls in love with you instantly and your empathy clicks together pretty well, what do you do with him? I mean, taking him back to your hive would probably get him killed even now, but maybe if he's set up in a cave living by himself or whatever, would you let him be and just come out to visit him now and again? Make him maintain a little hunting lodge for you or something?
I'd probably kill him. Back then I was all about the killing of rogues.

Maybe he'd hit the mark back then too, though. Hell if I could claim that I remember myself perfectly one hundred years ago. If he did though, he would have to live seperately, but the mental image of that guy living as a rogue out in those wilds for more than a day is comical! And if he did that, and I got over the rogue offense, then damn right I'd make visits to him off in his cave or hut or whatever.

>And if that still wouldn't have happened with you, is it the sort of thing that still could have happened somewhere with someone, some time pre-contact? Are there any big extra-hive romance stories set pre-contact that have reached popular consciousness, or is that sort of thing still considered too deviant and/or scandalous among most neumono?
A few case studies got made into best selling novels or movies or whatever, and are perpetuated since aliens are all about glorifying two different hives getting together by unlikely pairing or whatever. Modern neumono eat it up, too.

I'm sure it's happened somewhere in the past, though. We had a real ultrahive, apparently. I'm sure since and before that, there's been wonky neumono.

Rokoa 2016/06/03(Fri)23:22 No. 100091 ID: dd338c
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>To anyone (un)willing to find themselves the subject of an amusing visual, what's a shaved neumono look like?
'Amusing' is a new one.

Polo 2016/06/03(Fri)23:22 No. 100092 ID: dd338c
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>Hey Polo, who do you admire most? I imagine your Queen is up there, as that seems to be part and parcel of the relationship between a hive and their king or queen, but anyone else? Any celebrities or historical figures who you'd like to meet? Dare I say, even be excited at the chance to meet?
Not really.

>Polo, since you've actually experienced it now, what's it like for a neumono who's been dominated / pacified by a predator? I'm directing this at you because from what we've seen, it seems to be a disorienting experience (and therefore hard for people to describe effectively), but your training with Three Stripes meant you went under and came back out repeatedly. Which is a different experience than most have (ie "no experience", "bluh, that was one confusing and disorienting trauma I had" or "I'm sorry, I'm a brain dead zombie and no good as a witness"), and might have afforded you some degree of acclimation and/or a perseptive that's less clouded by / overwhelmed by the whole experience.
At first, to me and most other neumono, getting controlled by a predator feels more like I was deciding on the action. It's still disorienting, because there's still a large part of the brain that detects that the controlled thought is either wrong or otherwise influenced. It's disorienting though because it isn't as though one can feel the predator's mind tugging at our own, but rather our own mind decided something against its own will, and for a mind to do that is, for the most part, a first. If they don't know there's a predator there, they may just feel it as a sudden, out of place urge to do something. The ones that do know there's a predator affecting them often report they weren't initially sure if, say, their sudden urge to eat an apple was because of the predator or their own mind playing tricks on them. At least not until they scarfed down the apple against their will.

Later on in my training, I felt like Three Stripes was able to control my body more than my brain. This wasn't the case, of course, but I could feel my mind getting dragged in places instead of it feeling like I was making decisions against my will. While attempting to hold onto a rock, I could feel my limbs abandoning my conscious mind's orders. That was even more disorienting when I felt like there was something to fight against. And I would still drop the rock. This seemed to unnerve the researchers more than what was previously felt by predator's targets, as Three Stripes seemed able to control neumono on a deeper level than originally thought. I was a case study, however, and it's possible that Three Stripes, with his extensive practice on me, was able to get to my deeper conscious even by just sporadic bursts of control. Eventually, I was able to think clearly about holding onto the rock before, during, and after my hands letting go of the rock. It became like aliens call alien hand syndrome.

.... which sounds funny to me.

Ultraking Az 2016/06/03(Fri)23:23 No. 100093 ID: dd338c
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>To any neumono who wears glasses, why do you wear them? Wouldn't regeneration take care of most problems?
Alright here's a refresher. The regeneration puts our eyes back to baseline, which is usually well and good vision, but screens fuck up our eyes fast for a lot of us, so we're in a constant state of damaging and healing our eyes. That's why neumono that are susceptible to damage need a lot of intermediate pairs of glasses.

>Also, Az mentioned that trying to fit rogues under other hives has problems, why is that?
Because to a hive, rogues feel like someone took a shit in a rose garden. And to a rogue, a hive feels like.... let me grab a random rogue, here we go. Yeah, his posture is bad, he's depressive, he's just awful to be around. What do hives feel like to you?

>".... those other guys."

That's right. Other guys. Not his guys.

>And on that subject, any rogue who wishes to answer, what's it like being rogue? A lot of the rogues we've seen seem normal, at least on the outside.
Care to answer that one, rogue?
>"It sucks."
Care to elaborate?
>"Like everyone's a stranger. Even if you know all the facts about them, and you've been with them for a long time, every time you see them you still feel inclined to greet them like you would if you first met and to not get too cozy."

Penn 2016/06/03(Fri)23:23 No. 100094 ID: dd338c
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>But, I suppose the technical aspects would still apply? How to read sheet music, the proper methods for producing X sound from Y instrument, et cetera? Someone previously mentioned that belenosian music is quite formulaic. Would that be because it's easy enough to learn how to play and to replicate existing songs, while actually having the creative spark to produce the more subjective, innovative sensual aspects is more difficult?
That's right, I think! We usually compose stuff base on rules that try to be hard set and formulaic, and we just have no idea what to do if we try to break out of that mold and do something, well, creative. There's some belenos that are about to do it, but they're terribly rare.

>Tell me, is there a lot of apprehension and/or excitement about neumono among economists? Their population is growing rapidly, and now that they've mostly compensated for the negative effects, their empathic abilities seem like they would be a huge boon to business. Less miscommunications, less obstructive formalities, better multitasking with what Roxie said about holding multiple thoughts at once better, and a natural inclination (perhaps better intuitive understanding?) towards operating in large groups rather than as individuals. Like, if a neumono government thinks "we need to stop spending so much/spend much more on [thing]" to fix a certain problem in their economy, with other species that sort of direct control would be barely possible at all, but with neumono all you need to do is convince the Kings and Queens and then a massive portion of the populace will go along with it, even if it's a hardship. It seems like their economic productivity could well outstrip everyone else's in just a hundred years or so.
I, um... I've never really been in a big neumono business meeting, but there are a lot of neumono who have to meet up for a common cause, and... there is a lot of honesty between them, but I've learned that whenever an alien keeps something to themselves, maybe that's a good thing? I've seen a neumono who was speaking vigorously about his point, and then he suddenly hushed, and he and a bunch of others faced this one other neumono, and the speaker confronted that neumono if there was something he'd like to share. I forget what he said, but it didn't go well and the whole place blew up in screaming and yelling.

As for just convincing the queen/king, well, that does work well in small chunks! The problem is is that it falls apart pretty badly on the big scale of things, because there are a lot of kings and queens to convince. And the hive rulers will often be really set in their ways because they have their hive of dozens and dozens of neumono backing them up.

There are a lot of neumono though, and they'll probably be a huge powerhouse of economy, it's just that a lot of people are worried that the neumono aren't really going to be friendly to themselves or aliens about it. It's just going to be a lot of warring corporations instead of tribes, they say. I think it's been mentioned, but hives have so many kids! They have so many because then they can get more power since it's so many people working together, but then it gets too big, then you have two hives. Then you have two hives that lost a lot of people, and they want to replenish their numbers! Even though it caused the issue in the first place! Then you have four, and... well, there's worries. A lot of civilized aliens will, for some reason or another, actually get less kids as their civilization stabilized, but for neumono, there's just no signs of stopping. And it's not necessarily a good thing, because ultrahives can schism too, and that's, uh... it's not pretty.

>How would you feel about living in a galaxy where neumono have become the dominant species, Penn? And an overall better economy is good for everyone, but are there many who seem hard set against the possibility?
I don't know! I hope they don't become dominant before I get accustomed to them. I hope they remain more or less friendly to aliens like they've shown in the past pretty consistently! I guess most non-neumono that are against it are the ones who don't want to get sidelined or ended up treated as second class citizens. Or just don't like neumono, and not liking neumono on Astreneus is already a really awful fate.

>You said once that there are belenos who've studied straight for days. Is that more from just the allure of knowledge overriding the need to sleep, or do belenosians need to sleep less often in general? Or, is study somehow a kind of activity for your brains that can replace sleep, at least to some extent? How about yourself, are you good at going for long periods without sleep, or at having less sleep per day? What's your record, and how quickly/to what degree does it impair you?
We need to sleep just a tiny bit less than humans, but we can go without sleep for a long period easier than most other species, and without the harm to the brain.

So, I've definitely pulled consecutive all nighters, but we get sleep debt and I once slept for a day straight. Roxie called emergency services and everything.

>Belenosians/neumono/heef: have you managed to invent bandages that work well with fur/feathers? Just as lesser-fluffed human I know that trying to put one on where there's a lot of hair doesn't work so well. And what about taking them off? I mean, ouch.
Yes, there are self adhesive ones for the simple option. But, we've got a special weird paste that's almost like a foamy glue, but it cleanly wears out after several hours and just sort of disintegrates on its own. That's pretty common for just little nicks that just need a little bit of covering for awhile.

>Belenosians: We know that neumono like getting their fur brushed, how about you? I mean, one would assume that some brushing is necessary for comfort after using the body dryer, but there are logistical problems with brushing yourself. You could use some long-handled brush arrangement, or some other device, but I imagine they wouldn't provide the same satisfaction. So about what level do you need to be on with someone to let them/ask them to take a brush to you? I'd ask the neumono the same question but one assumes the answer is just something like "anyone who I like and who's empathy I can stand".
I guess, well, you are right, because it is tough to get to the back unless you have an actual handle extension. So decent friends will be pretty comfortable with brushing each other, and it happens frequently, even in public. Neumono and heef do it way more though because they're a lot more inclined to get the social interaction that some species get out of grooming one another, but Belenos usually don't bond quite like that, normally. I don't know much about how comfortable heef have to be with each other, but neumono will do it to anyone who they want to bond with, but Roxie told me how she once had to let herself get lightly groomed by, and groom, neumono from outside her hive as an uplifting training session. Which seems kinda weird to me.

As for me.... I've got the handle extension, even though Roxie has offered to brush me a lot.

>Speaking of grooming, non-humans: do you have equivalents to hairdressers, where you go to get yourself tidied, smoothed out and prettied up? I mean, even humans have salons for like skin and nails and such, but they're comparatively rare. Do you have something you'd use more frequently?
We do! They're still not as common, so the ones that do are usually multi-racial, so humans can get their nails done while belenosians can be given special shampoo and... have their nails done too. That's actually where I see mikliks most often, because they have a lot of allergy and skin issues off of their home planet, but special treatment helps a lot with it.

Roxie 2016/06/03(Fri)23:24 No. 100096 ID: dd338c
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>Psst, Roxie. Penn got asked, so I want to ask you the same: what do you think about how aliens smell? Did you think Penn smelled funny when you first met her? Was it her specifically, or just that all civilized people smelled weird, until you got used to it?
At first it was weird as heck like they were.... you know, aliens. It was kind of bad, but by the time I met Penn, I got used to it! And now I almost like the smell of some aliens.

>What did you think when you first met an alien, anyway? Were there any specific species that you had any particularly interesting/embarrassing thoughts about when you first saw one of them? I remember you saying that your hive was contacted some aliens and their escorts, but did you personally talk a lot to anyone in particular, in the course of your preparation to come out and learn to be civilized? Maybe your hive has some specific liason or team of liasons who they talk to/get talked to by, in relation to their attempts to uplift? What are they like, do you like/trust them? And on the topic of liking aliens, most of your friends besides Penn seem to be neumono. Do you have any other alien friends, or alien partybuddies at least?
I was kind of shy to aliens at first, actually. I was basically just a late adolescent when I first saw them, and that was the first creature outside of my hive that I ever saw mixed with my own hive's empathy screaming at me 'you must never ever hurt this thing!' And I also heard they're really fragile, so I was afraid to even touch any aliens for a long time. It was so ridiculous that I scooted away from aliens who tried to touch me because I was afraid they'd hurt themselves somehow. That was dumb, but, you know, a lot of those aliens took that to mean I didn't like to get petted, because in their head, they were trying to pet me like some, uh, you know, pet. And that was dumb and insulting too, so my idiocy sort of saved them from their idiocy! Anyways, I behaved well enough though for an adult, and since my hive wasn't comfortable sending impressionable kids off to other hives, I was selected to go get uplifted.

At first we did have a liason of sorts, which was basically just one of our older guys who seemed to get a knack for getting english down, but these days our alien liasons are basically the uplifted neumono. Like me.

Aliens are pretty cool though for the most part, but it is more involved to get friends with them. Most of my friends are neumono just because we pass each other by and if we'd get along well, we'd know it right away.

>Have you ever heard Penn sing? Like, even maybe just some earworm that got into her head and she sang it in the shower or something that you heard through the wall. For... some reason, I imagine she would have a voice that people wouldn't mind listening to, if she used it confidently. Would you say that's accurate?
I swear she's sung to herself. I keep almost hearing it, and then I try and listen in, and it's gone. Someday I'll hear her sing.

Jess 2016/06/03(Fri)23:25 No. 100097 ID: dd338c
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>Also, Jessica, do you think you're getting less terrified of Rokoa now or is she still not someone you want to be around?
I'm getting less terrified in the sense that that sense of murder feels more like a sense of respect her. She's still hard as hell to read and even more awkward to be around, because she's always looking for damn trouble. The hub really isn't that big once you walk around it a couple times, too, so I keep running into her when she's around. So even if I know she's not going to rip my eyes out for looking at her weird, if I get too cozy around her or start thinking she might actually be a softy, she might start seeing me as worth starting trouble with and start giving me shit.

And that's bad, because I don't like taking shit, and that means things would probably escalate between us, and the chances of me coming out on top are pretty bad.

Itcher 2016/06/03(Fri)23:25 No. 100098 ID: dd338c
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>Itcher, buddy, let's cut to the meat of the matter. Are you naturally beefy, or supplemented? No shame if you are enhanced, I mean, you're not employed to be a tank, but with your lifestyle and residence it probably would have been a good idea to look intimidating, though maybe not so much now. On the other hand, we've been told you are in the natural range, and your sister seems pretty solidly built as well. If you are a natural, do you get sick of people assuming otherwise? Do you work out much?
Alright, lotta people think I hit the roids, and sometimes I wonder why I don't. Probably cause I don't want to look like a meathead, but I want to look like I can fight. And that's the reason I give, cause I've gotta put up a front. It's a good reason, 'cause it's true. I used to get picked on when I was a scrawny fucker. I thought I was okay with it, but if it was convenient to look like a meat wall of no shit taken, I figured I'd take it.

And then I got put on gold watch duty. They didn't let me take in books or games or any goddamn thing to entertain myself with, so it was just me, waiting for several hours per day, in a locked room full of heavy, golden bars and given rations under the Zozu family's direction. Them being Salikai, that means 'optimally healthy food'.

Anyways, I ain't gonna miss my Zozu days that much, but I am gonna miss being able to say that I got swole by lifting bars made out of solid gold.

Actually, it's probably for the best that I don't say that in front of greedy assholes anymore.

>How do you feel on the imperial-vs-tribal division of physical ideals, anyway, overall?
I am a goddamned mental vegetable when it comes to having feelings on that.

>And how do you feel about the various chemical and technological enhancements on offer for your species, are there any others you'd be tempted to get?
Probably would feel pretty good if I gave enough of a shit use those chemicals and things.

But I don't.

>... Also would you smooch a robot. Or like a super cyborg or something. Imagine Whiskers turned out to secretly be, like, an ancient belenosian noble who flung herself into the future by doing loops around a black hole at .9c, or something. Would you still want the hot makeouts?
If we're talking the beep-boop non-sapient steel things, I wouldn't smooch 'em. If Whiskers was a secret robot? Well then I've already smooched her all over the place and I'd say I was pretty cool with that. And I'd also say that if she was a robot, then those ancient belenosians knew how to build them convincingly.

>>100098
hi Roxie how did you shapeshift into Itcher

>>100091
So Rokoa you are black under the fur to help keep warm in snow climates. But what about Polo? Is she white to help reflect the heat on the summer beaches? And what about Jess and Az? Or the mystery cave neuomono?

We obviously need a shaved lineup of the different neumono tribes for science.


>>100092
If you can mentally but not physically resist a predator does that mean you could pretend to be controlled and docile while secretly plotting away until the perfect moment came up to escape/blow stuff up? Or would it be able to notice you still thinking away in there? Seems like something your new partial empathy/lying ability would come in handy on.


And a final question for the Omega waveforce team.

So after that scuffle with Polo did she make off with your empathy gun? Did you ever get your vengeance? Or was there a whole bunch of bureaucratic muttering about jurisdiction and vigilantes getting involved in official cases while Polo grumped at you about irresponsibly taking a giant robot into a civilian center?

Or did you flee and put her picture on your wall of villains as "The Grump" and then later had a two part holiday special to try and teach her he meaning of Christmas?

>>100105
>So Rokoa you are black under the fur to help keep warm in snow climates. But what about Polo? Is she white to help reflect the heat on the summer beaches? And what about Jess and Az? Or the mystery cave neuomono?

>We obviously need a shaved lineup of the different neumono tribes for science.

The skin coloration thing was mentioned somewhere before. The darker coloration is specifically a snow hive adaptation / gene. Neumono without it have pinkish skin.

And if you really want to know who has which color skin, head on over to the draw threads, look at the porn, and pay attention to the nipples and dongs. Color coded for your convenience!

Polo, if Dart-Rokoa changes your body in any way before you "eat" her and there was no way to stop the change, what would you want the change to be?

>>100105
>>100111
Rokoa's skin is black under her fur because she's the walking manifestation of neumono nightmare.

>>100165
No, that's Polo.

Rokoa and/or another neumonoalien with the experience: Can you give me a rundown of which aliens are the best tasting, for the times you've had to eat them, if you've done it at all? Maybe even a description of the flavor.

Since cannibalism is only in reference to eating something of the same species, what's the crime called when you eat an alien sapient species?

>>100167
Rokoa's already had a fair bit to say about how various peoples taste.

Humans >>82263
Pretty much everybody else >>82469
Mikliks, again >>97420

>>100168
Oh dammit, Im pulling a "Simpsons did it"

To any of the nonhumans in the Asteroidverse that're willing to answer: Humans have expressions that go like "Brother from another mother" and "Sister from another mister", do any of you have a similar expression for your species?

>>100098
>I am gonna miss being able to say that I got swole by lifting bars made out of solid gold.

So, what are you doing now? It'd be a shame to let all that muscle go to waste, and you counteract all your drinking if you don't want to get a beer belly. Though, I dunno, maybe you guys have different weight gain trends than humans. I don't think I've ever seen a belenosian with any chub on them. Is that a thing, or has it just been coincidence?

... You know, you should consider learning to pole dance. It's very good for keeping in shape, and I'd bet you if she heard about it, Whiskers wouldn't be able to help coming by to sneak a peek on you some time. She seems like an appreciator of the arts.

Dogs with floppy ears get yeast infections. Do neumono have this problem, and how do they deal with it?

Hey, Rokoa. You're super dedicated to your hive and everything, pretty sure everyone knows that by now. But then why leave the snowhive for the warhive?

Also, what sort of other uses do nanobots have? Given what bioarmor is capable of, the first other applications that come to mind are medical and industrial. You could make a less complicated, less expensive version of the stuff for surgeries or particularly complicated chemical synthesis, but what sort of thing justifies the cost of large-scale nanobots?

Also, roughly how much territory/population does each race have? Pit mentioned there were 10 billion neumono, but I'm curious how many planets they're spread over and about other species. Especially humanity, with stuff like Soltai it sounds like they've gotten close to a post-scarcity society.

Which one is stronger: an average heef or an average voklit?

>>100166
Polo is a spooky ghost story. Rokoa is a slasher movie villain.

Did the Belenosian empire ever attempt interstellar colonization?

I just realized that we know startlingly little about the overall galactic political situation off of the asteroid, anyone care to fill us in on that? For example: Do humans run everything? Are the alien home worlds independent? Is there a singular "United States of the Galaxy"? Are there multiple interstellar empires? Are most planets unified or are they broken up into smaller countries? Is democracy still dominant or has favor shifted to meritocracy or some other system? Is society post-scarcity? What about just Earth? What kind of equipment do space cops come equipped with? How do humans fight, in general? What notable military and para-military organizations exist, and what equipment do they use? What is the most destructive weapon currently in existence? Is intergalactic travel possible, and has it been attempted?

To what extent has the singularity happened with the AI regulations getting in the way? Is any form of Eugenics common or acceptable? How far has VR tech come? Is it possible to virtually simulate a human or alien consciousness? Are consciousness uploads possible? How old are the oldest members of each species? For which species is indefinite life possible, if any? Are genetic modifications commonplace or acceptable? Do human subspecies exist? Has artificial biological sapient life been created either through genetic engineering or selective breeding? Do space marines exist? How good are current prosthetics? Did a Deus Ex scenario ever take place? More generally; to what extent has trans-humanism taken hold?

Who is the most infamous individual in all of history? Most revered? Who killed the most people? Who killed the most people personally?

To Tin: Almost every time we see you, you're balancing a pen or something on your finger. Are you bored or is it just that entertaining to balance things? Also, what's the most things you've balanced at one time?

To Moi: If you can somehow make it out alive with Biles' group, how do you think you'll be able to live a normal life with that bioarmor being permanently stuck to you? And do you think you might ever get it off?

(Doing this one for shits and giggles) To the fluffiest Neumono: Just how fluffy are you? Does it pose any issues? How's the hug game?

>>101118
> (Doing this one for shits and giggles) To the fluffiest Neumono: Just how fluffy are you? Does it pose any issues? How's the hug game?

Weren't the first two of these already asked?

Hey Croc, tell us about your love life. You thought Cheese was cute, and now I'm curious.

Has your opinion her in improved at all, by the way?

>>101123
Yes, but they were asked to a Belenosian. This time a Neumono is being asked.

>>101127
I thought Pilon was the fluffiest neumono and then someone decided to ask about the fluffiest belenosian? Actually why not take it further? Fluffiest individuals of every species including ones that aren't normally fluffy, how's life?

>>101133
We don't know for sure if Pilon is the fluffiest, we just know that so far, he's the one with the biggest ears.

You know what race we haven't asked about fluffiness yet?
Mikliks.
The fluffiest Miklik, where are you? If that mutation is possible.

>>101142
>every species
Are you saying miklik aren't a species?

>>101133
Whoops, my mistake. Sorry for interrupting you.

>>101159
I was teasing you, no need to apologize.

Hey Cheese, in your assorted moments of desperation and fear, you went "oh god" a few times, and you did have a church for a base of operations for a little bit.

What can you tell us about kobold religion? Do you have one god or a pantheon? Is there an official religion of the empire, or various scatter heretical mumbling? Does organized religion play any big part in politics (the fact that the church was disused and that Gauche treated going there as a dying, futile act of curiosity / desperation imply it's not now, although it might have been in the past). What's the kobold god supposed to stand for, and what's their big story?

>>101395

That raises a bunch of other possible questions. Like, how much evidence is there for any actual divine intervention? Do deities have any role in the afterlife? We were told the land contains the souls of all dead kobolds. I assume they reincarnate or something. Do kobolds ever have any ability to recall past life memories? Has anyone ever been identified as a reincarnation of someone else? And what are the limits of necromancy, we got a hint that it's possible to talk to the dead, has anyone ever tried bring them back to life and succeeded, even partially? Like, if blood binds the soul to the body, are there like... kobold vampires, dead souls pulled back into bodies by magic who have to drink blood to maintain the connection, or something? Or how about other soul manipulations, can necromancers use souls for power or try to absorb soul stuff to make themselves stronger?

What happens if a kobold dies outside its natural environment? What happens if a kobold dies outside kobold lands entirely?

If you all came from big magical beasts, are there like... beast cults, who worship the beast they came from as their ancestor, or believe the beast's spirit is still alive in them and the land, or similar? Are the beasts that kobolds come from intelligent? Are they all gone, or are any still around?

>>100094

Eyo Penn, I'm wondering, how much is it possible to create a personality duplicate of an existing person? By which I mean, like, not a brain scan copy or upload or anything, I figure those are still out of reach, but like could someone take a few psychological tests and answer and bunch of questions and load in their biography, and have a program created that could effectively imitate them? How easy would it be for you to make an AI that could act like a copy of you, and fool people? I have to imagine there are some antisocial nerds out there who would make an AI to do all their online interactions for them, if it were possible. And in general, is it easy now to create non-sentient AIs that can pass the Turing test?

Another question: how's the state of belenosian cyberbiology these days? I gather there are cyborgs, and there are combat advantages for military and criminals, but aside small convenience things like heart monitors or fertility switch implants, are they common outside those groups? Are there police cyborgs? Or in any other fields? Are hate crimes or discriminations against cyborgs a big problem? Apart from the big physical things like super jumping/running legs and guns popping out of arms and so on, are there more subtle upgrades like brain implants to help with certain mental tasks, wireless interfaces for "telepathy" with machines, et cetera? Do cybernetic implants tend to require a lot of maintenance and repair and upkeep, and the structure to support that, or are implants reliable enough for a cyborg to go trekking through a wilderness for a few months? How long can cyborgs go without specialized support?

Would you consider getting any implants yourself? Large ones? Subtle ones? Even any of the small medical things that don't really count?

>>101395
Well, it seems fairly clear they worship the dragons and Emperor to some degree, considering that the dragoncloth was a holy relic from said Emperor. Might just be lip service, but that's still something.

More Fen Quest kobold questions: Is there public education in the empire? Or, is that up to the nobles of each area? With the big emphasis on nobles needing to prove their strength and strength being such an important thing in general, how much structure is in place to help people get strong in the first place, or for naturally talented people to get what they need to maximize their abilities and thereby serve the empire as best they can? Does the emperor mandate any sort of basic education for children, or any policies that people who are good at something get the chance to do it? It seems like there are ways into the military for everyone, but are there other ways to learn to fight? How about crafts or magic, do you have to have a source of coin to get into them, or are there like, scholarships, or loans, or so on?

Dear Belenosian guys and ladies. With those big old stabby bits coming off the back of your feet do you ever accidentally jab one another during sex?

Or any other foot related activity for that matter.

Also is there any Belenosian martial art designed to make use of those stabby bits? And how sharp or dull are they by themselves? Could you strap some metal covers over them and spin kick someone in the neck?

Clamp, it's been a while.

You know, I was curious what kind of economics your clan thrived on. Do you guys typically just do standard agricultural work and your warriors are mostly for defense or clan warfare, or does your clan pillage and rape a few villages for profit and fun? You know, steal, enslave, torture etc.

You seem like a swell guy with a moral compass and code atypical of the stereotypical gnoll but who knows maybe you got yourself a few slaves offscreen. Just cause you treat your friends and family nice and with dignity doesn't mean you don't enjoy torturing some poor slave you got in a cage somewhere.

Hey Rokoa, you run around all over the Asteroid getting into danger. Do you keep stashes and hideouts around the place in case you need them? Actually, since the Asteroid seems to have a very high population of people getting in trouble all the time, are there, like... professional safehouses? Like, places that specifically cater to taking in people on the run, with like hidden entrances and that are good at keeping inquisitive people from looking in the right places, and tight rules about dealing with other guests and so on?

Or do you generally just go to one of your mysterious non-hive friends when you need to lay low?... Is that how you make friends?