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Chapter: Chapter 2: Party Guests

  • Birdie asked: Talita, what holiday traditions did you grow up with, and which of them was your favorite? Talita: Oh, mostly just the Jovian holidays... so like, the maintenance weeks, Easter, the quarters, Allnighter, Independence Day... Allnighter was always my favorite. In the Garriton District kids got to help program the festival lights. At the UoJ us engineering undergrads would set up these races with improvised vehicles, using scrap we scrounged during maintenance week duties. Allnighter on campus would get pretty rowdy, and we definitely weren't helping. I usually ran with the races and played watch duty for campus security, heheh...

    RttS Reader Questions 5

    Oct 03, 2024

  • gigi-the-bear asked: Gillie, what was it like visiting earth for college? I'm sure that amount of nature everywhere was strange for someone who grew up in space. Gillie: You Terrans think we live in 6 foot grey tubes... Nexus Jovia has, like, parks. There's way more nature on Earth, obviously, but that wasn't the most jarring thing about it... For me it was the sky! Not being able to see the rest of the city above me felt so unsettling? Like we were all going to be swept out into space at any moment!

    RttS Reader Questions 4

    Oct 01, 2024

  • Honey asked: Bip, how much can you feel it when the device(s) you're on are moved/touched? Do AI have external sensation at all? Bip: What, like, innate sensation?? That's not a thing. I have to be connected to sensors to feel things. So do you, though you come in sort of a... wet package deal, which doesn't react well to being disassembled. These phones just have a dinky little accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and capacitive touchscreens. It sucks. My equipment on the ship is sooo much better...

    RttS Reader Questions 3

    Sep 28, 2024

  • LOG 2.2 Animal Agriculture Caption: Alongside the horticulture in Shikaviil Port, livestock are kept for biological waste processing and dietary supplementation. Each variety of sophont has their own unique and frequently incompatible biochemistry, requiring different agricultural branches for each of their native biospheres. Invertebrates and other small, low maintenance animals are a more sustainable source of food for spacers than large livestock, although some exotic terrestrial meats (like beef and pork) can be replicated with a food printer supplied with microorganism sourced macromolecules. But this is a lower quality food, often relying on imports. Closed, relatively diverse food systems are preferred in space habitats, as it helps prevent starvation in emergencies. Avian Livestock Animals Background Image: A tarp-lined pool of tinted water has suspended nets vertically submerged in it with stuff growing on them. a fish-like creature with six eyes and horizontal caudal fin a chiton-like animal with a seaslug face, fins, and greatly enlarged antennae a red colonial tunicate-like honeycomb crust an extremely round crab-like thing a crustacean-like animal with a long segmented eel-like body a polychaete worm-like animal with body segments that transition into new individual worms who break off Caption: The avians' animal agriculture is primarily aquatic, with large saltwater ponds split between algal tanks and livestock tanks. Avians have a more carnivorous diet than humans, and rely more on livestock for sustenance. The animals in the tanks include filter feeders that scrub the water of the hydroponics system; detrivores that recycle farming byproducts, waste, and food scraps; and herbivores that graze on algal buildup. The water in these tanks is tinted magenta by the presence of dissolved cobalt salts, just like the huge ocean of the avian homeplanet. Human Livestock Animals Background Image: A long hutch full of chabbits with nesting boxes at the end. a chabbit, a hexapodal GMO with bird-like hindlimbs, winged midlimbs, and rabbit-like forelimbs. The rear torso and pelvis are feathered, while the front of the animal resembles a typical rabbit with a chicken comb and wattles. The individual shown is a commercial breed with black and white pointed coloration. chabbit eggs, two varieties shown: a pink stripe egg and blue egg with green spots. Their markings are distinctive but naturalistic. mealworms (Tenebrio molitor var. stelladomesticus) crickets (Gryllus assimilis var. stelladomesticus) freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) freshwater fish (Sarotherodon galilaeus) Caption: The humans' livestock includes a dry section, with chabbit sheds and a cricket and mealworm bin farm. The invertebrates are fed food waste, while the chabbits are fed plant clippings from the park section of Shikaviil. Originally produced as an "Easter bunny" GMO pet; chabbits are now popular egg producers in space for being entirely herbivorous, quieter than chickens, and more sociable than rabbits. Old layers and excess roosters are also occasionally slaughtered for meat— a rare treat. The wet farm raises freshwater fish and prawns, and forms the back end of the hydroponic system supporting the fruit, vegetable, and fungi farm beds. Centaur Livestock Animal Image: A lifecycle of an alien invertebrate is shown. They have jar-like eggs with ridged sides and a circular "lid" which pops open when hatching. The juveniles look like smaller versions of the adult female, who is a strange hexapod with a mottled brown, partly exoskeletal body with six tiny eyes and an appearance somewhere in between a caterpillar, and guinea pig, and a sea cucumber. The female pupates and then becomes an adult male. The male is radically different with jointed butterfly like wings, a slim shrimp-like body, a proboscis with large compound eyes, and bright red, yellow, green, and black coloration. Caption: Talita's invertebrate farm is a small operation producing a protogynous hermaphroditic species with several different edible life stages, including adult females about the size of guinea pigs and flying males about the size of crows. Talita mostly eats them raw or frozen, to supplement a diet of food printer sausage and starch patties. Homeplanet imports are a rare and expensive delicacy for her. Image: Talita bites into a whole adult female bug. SFX: crnch

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 78

    Sep 26, 2024

  • LOG 2.1 Humans Caption: Due to the Pleistocene extinction event, humans only have one remaining natural species in their genus. However, their history with genetic modification has created new human species, colloquially referred to as GMH (genetically modified humans). “Humans” are thus described as a genus of related animals, like avians. TYP HUMAN Image: An ordinary human. TYP WITH ARTIFICIAL TRAITS Image: A human with green hair and slightly pointed ears. BIOMODDER Image: A human dressed in holographic, black, and white alternative clothing. Their skin is ink-black and blue, and their hair is bright orange, red, yellow, and black arranged in defined colorblock areas. They have fur in their hair colors on their neck and shoulders. Their ears are fin shape with bright colors matching their hair, and their eyes have red scleras and yellow irises. Their bone structure is the same as a typ human's. TAILED SPACER Image: A small human with dark reddish purple skin, auburn hair, supraorbital and genal whiskers, and very long prehensile tail. Their feet have thumbs and their body proportions include a long flexible spine and arms and legs of approximately the same length. CETASER A large human with defined grey and white countershading, neck gill slits, more body fat, webbed hands and broad webbed feet, a raptorial stance, and thick dolphin-like tail with a dorsal fin. MAGPIE BRIDGER Image: A small human with a pair of winged limbs positioned over a pair of short but otherwise ordinary human arms, a deep chest, a feathered tail, and thin digitigrade feet. Their feathers are black with white patches. DRAGON Image: A human with blue and copper scales, large ram-like horns, claws, dorsal spines, digitigrade feet,  and reptilian tail with a club at the end. TAUR Image: A hexapodal human with a human-like foretorso and an ungulate-like rear torso and rear four legs. They have white fur and hair, deer-like feet, a long tufted tail, horse-like ears, and single horn on their forehead. ANDROTHERIAN SPECTRUM Anthro-type and catgirl-type Image: A couple sits with their child between them. The anthro-type has a dog-like appearance with tan fur all over her body, a fluffy tail, floppy ears, a very short snout, and black wet nose. The catgirl-type has an ordinary human appearance other than their cat-like calico colored ears and tail. The child is somewhere in between the two, with a single floppy ear and partial fur coverage. Caption: After the popularization of GMO pets and livestock, the Overton window on human modification was shifted by financially powerful gene lab institutions who stood to gain from a designer baby craze. GMH children were especially popular as a status symbol in pre-WWIII United Martian States culture. Though the hyper-capitalist UMS government did not survive the Climate Wars intact, the natal lab institutions did, and pre-natal human alteration is still considered relatively normal in the modern day. Not that there isn't a lot of political fighting over legality and regulation— made more complicated by the fact that humanity's extreme genetic variability now means many parents need natal lab intervention if they want to have genetically similar, healthy children. Naturalized Artificial Traits artificial eye colors piebaldism pointed ears artificial hair colors iridescent hair artificial skins colors stripes Caption: Most modern clades of GMH were originally created by the designer baby industry, or by scientific communities seeking to create humans hardier to the conditions of space travel and a changing Earth. Groups of reproductively compatible humans large enough to form stable populations are referred to as “clades”. The largest clade is “typ” humans, which includes non-modified humans and those with minor artificial traits like pointed ears, skin patterns, and unusual colors. Typ humans with these naturalized artificial traits are not usually classified as GMH for the same reason a non-modified human wouldn’t be classified as GMH for undergoing gene therapy for cancer treatment, microgravity tolerance, or other routine medical purposes. The distinction is entirely constructed, since all of them have undergone some level of genetic modification. Bio-modders are a separate phenomenon from GMH, as they undergo elective cosmetic surgical and gene therapy changes as adults, while GMH are altered before they are born. Mods for adult bodies are much more limited than pre-natal alterations, but medical technology is slowly catching up.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 77

    Sep 24, 2024

  • Runaway to the Stars: Page 76

    Sep 21, 2024

  • Talita is using a web browser on her tablet. She is on a website called "A.I. Lookup," which has a pair of cartoon glasses representing the double "o"s in the title. She has selected "shipboard" from a "location" drop down menu, "sapient" from a "class" menu, and has the "services" dropdown menu open. It lists "general hire, translation, information, communication, administration, pilot, any." She selects "any" and types the name "Bip" into the search bar. No matching search results are returned. The website's glasses mascot looks sad. Talita looks annoyed. Talita: Ugh... She goes to the Ixion Recycling Plant employee portal and looks at the list of yard deliveries, which are listed by date, item class, and SIMS number. She selects and copies the SIMS number ATJTW-62398562.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 75

    Sep 19, 2024

  • Talita unites the string holding up the top of her dress and begins to disrobe, then suddenly stops dead. She looks to her right at the boxes of phones with their tiny cameras staring up at the ceiling. Bristling and annoyed, she throws a blanket over the boxes before she finishes undressing. Her dress and all four of her fancy sandals removed, she reclines in bed, operating her tablet screen with her trunk.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 74

    Sep 17, 2024

  • Bip: Yes. A clan of 10. Talita stares off into space, thoughts racing through her head. Bip rolls their eyes and places a hand on their avatar's chin, tilting its head knowingly. Bip: Would you like to ask me something? Talita: Huh? No. Talk to you later, Bip. Bip: Good night, Talita. The tablet screen goes black again. Talita stares at it for a bit, feeling a complicated emotion, then drops her hand to her side. She stands alone in her apartment.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 73

    Sep 14, 2024

  • Bip: I saw on your resume that you go by "she/her" instead of the Jovian default pronoun for aliens, gender neutral singular "they/them." Talita: How many of my files have you read? Bip: Only your public ones. Talita: Also, that’s not the same thing as “woman.” Bip: Well, given your education and work history, flawless English, Jovian cultural mannerisms, and human-like body language… I figured you could only be a cross-species foster case. Talita is taken aback. B: So pretty likely you’d also have a human cultural identity. T: You’re certainly astute. …If presumptuous. Talita looks irritated, but her mood shifts as she recalls the symbols on the outside of the ship. Talita: Bip, was your last crew centaurs?

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 72

    Sep 12, 2024

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