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[Fiction-ish] Brainstorming for an untitled future Tom and Barbara fic
[Fiction-ish] Brainstorming for an untitled future Tom and Barbara fic
#1
Things I've learned from dating a trans-catgirl, by Tom Rutley:

1. There is a very good reason why the Senshi don't help you biomod your way out of Gender Identity Disorder without easing you into living as a girl first.

2. There is a difference between genderqueer and genderfluid, but if you ask your girlfriend's trans* support to explain precisely what it is the ensuing argument will take most of the rest of the evening and fail to reach a conclusion. (And don't even ask about agender.)

3. Yes, you will get hairballs, but the purring makes it all worthwhile. (No, I am not explaining in more detail.)

4. Your mum will take it better than you might expect.

5. A collar with a bell on as a gag gift is only funny once. (Even if I have to admit she looked really, really cute in it.)

6. Crude jokes about "eating pussy" aren't even funny the first time.

7. Buy shares in Dyno-Rod.

8. PMS and claws? Bad combination.

Things I've learned from dating Tom, by Barbara White:

1. The English really are that obsessed with tea.

2. Your cousin will fail to grasp the idea that being vaguely brown does not automatically make someone Mexican, and try to impress your boyfriend with authentic Mexican cuisine because she "thought you might like a taste of home". (It would have been a lot more awkward if Tom hadn't nearly peed himself laughing.)

3. Yes, he's half-Indian. As in the country India. Two borders away from the place we lost the huge-ass war in. (Have I mentioned I really, really hated growing up in rural Iowa?)

4. The NHS is fucking awesome. Seriously.

5. There are more English regions than London and the North, and people from those regions get cranky if repeatedly confronted by people who don't know this.

6. Just because you were in the RAF, it doesn't mean you can pull off a moustache.

7. The Elite fen really need a better faction name.

8. English people, and Europeans in general, are under the impression that "redneck" is a deadly insult. I don't know which country this says more about.
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#2
I think many catgirls at CI would agree to many of these points... Wink
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#3
If you shine a laser pointer "dot" on the wall and move it around, does she play with it? If she does, is it a reflex, or is she playing with your head?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#4
Considering that Americans either take it as a mark of pride or an insult I would have to say don't worry about it.
 
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#5
robkelk Wrote:If you shine a laser pointer "dot" on the wall and move it around, does she play with it? If she does, is it a reflex, or is she playing with your head?
You know, I'm not really sure.
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#6
There is, of course, the corrolary...

Catgirls in Heat.

Even if that does sound like a VN Mackie would play....
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
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#7
Yeah... not going to touch the estrus/heat issue until I find something in the wiki that gives me a definite answer about whether catgirls are capable of conceiving children at all, much less with baseline humans.

Also, have a quote:

"I am not having a mid-life crisis! I was having a mid-life crisis when I built a spaceship in Uncle Greg's old barn, but Barbara and I didn't start dating until five years after that."
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#8
The only datum we have with regard to biomod/non-biomod cross-fertility is Helen Scott.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#9
robkelk Wrote:If you shine a laser pointer "dot" on the wall and move it around, does she play with it? If she does, is it a reflex, or is she playing with your head?
I chase laser pointers... Even if my pseudo-ish author avatar is a fox girl...
RE: biomod cross compatibility - I think it depends on the differenation between the mods and human baseline, even with wavium easing the pregnant barrier. So Leda and Noah can easily have kids; Leda is very close to human baseline. But somebody like N, or Naedial, couldn't have kids with a baseline or another biomod, unless that mod was close enough to theirs.
Catgirls are probably at the "close enough to mix" area: ears, tails, light fur, a diluted version of the entire package... But I think we should think like handwavium - what is dramatically appropriate? 
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#10
Quote:6. Just because you were in the RAF, it doesn't mean you can pull off a moustache.
For one thing, it hurts like the dickens. And glasses... (YEAAAAAHHHHHH!) are more dramatic.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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#11
Ouch Bob, that hurt
 
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#12
I would like to posit that if catgirls (and only catgirling machine victims/volunteers, mind) can interbreed with baseline humans, there's basically 3 outcomes:

Human child who's a *carrier* for Catgirl traits (Most of the boys that result, I'd think)
"Ears and maybe tail only" cat-person, if the mother has fur or stronger feline facial features
"Just like mom" cat-person

I'd say the three stages are possible for any offspring, but Boys skew "normal" and girls skew "like mom." It's probably cross-linked with some of the simpler mundane genetic oddities, like ability to roll one's tongue or hair on the further out knuckles, frex.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll
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#13
The Homeostasis of the catgirls is quite strong, so it might be "mothers biomod is dominant".
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#14
I've always run under the assumption that the homeostasis effect is one of the main reasons female biomods DON'T get pregnant. That's not to say they can't, but it'd take an awful lot of want and effort to do so (IVF mostly, but weird pregnancy rituals would probably also help). Unless the Laws of Drama dictate that you get pregnant, then you will.
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#15
I'd understood that the homeostasis effect was only for catgirls, not for all biomods ...?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#16
Quote:robkelk wrote:
I'd understood that the homeostasis effect was only for catgirls, not for all biomods ...?
I'd always assumed that it was specifically established as a catgirl thing... it doesn't mean other biomods don't get it, but it's not guaranteed as near as I can tell.
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
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#17
There are a few others with homeostasis (the Ten-Johs come to mind).

As to the other comment, it’s a bit of a long explanation and maybe a bit of head canon.

At the start there is Rule 2:
”The Rules” Wrote:Rule #2
You can get one biomod, you get only one, and after you get it, you can't get rid of it, barring major reconstructive surgery - and sometimes not even then.

a) Biomods are physical alterations and like anything else that makes substantial invasive changes to a biological system, may well cause corresponding changes in physical appearance.
From the above, I can conclude that a biomod either makes significant genetic changes or some of the wave used stays around as a sort of maintenance system to maintain the biomod. The later is not being too much of a stretch given Rule 1 c) ii)):
”The Rules” Wrote:Rule #1
c) Handwavium has quirks. The more complex and interesting the device you're trying to build is, the quirkier it will be on average.
ii) Quirks don't apply to critical life-support systems - air, water, food, sewer. Power systems can be quirky, but never to a life-threatening extent.
Bolded emphasis mine.

This leads to the thought that biomods have health benefits. Since it’s so difficult to get rid of a biomod, there must be some sort of regeneration going on. And since that sort of thing tends to be useful, it would spread out to other parts. As this will cause people to be kept close to their original biomod form, that’s a vote for homeostasis. It’s rarely perfect though.

Also, because of the changes made by biomods there is likely to be less compatibility.

Next that is the fact that Leda’s pregnancy was the first known mod/non-mod pregnancy implies such things are rare (but remember the Laws of Drama people). If the differences of a comparatively minor mod makes things that tricky, it bodes darkly for more extensive mods. Hence my mentioning IVF.

It could be after Helen’s birth and the Swansen-Scott/Peters papers, things have improved on that front. But my opinion is that the more divergence from baseline human, the trickier it’ll be to get pregnant for fem-Fen.
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#18
I kind of like the idea of homeostasis being something of a drawback of being biomodded. Though, that might be a little too dark, depending on how you look at it.

People get old and change, but the biomodded are just that little bit more static in some way (Ford still looks barely 19 in 2024, for example)
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
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#19
That would be an interesting avenue to explore with the characters I started this thread to brainstorm about; Tom's older than most Fen outside of Island One, and a bit... sensitive about the fact that Barbara's a decade younger, to say nothing of the fact she now wants a baby when most of his contemporaries are having grandchildren.
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#20
There is also Nina Ustinyavna, which still looks quite young as every catgirl but fears that she still ages without noticing it... and just drop dead from old age one day. Nobody knows (at the moment) if a biomod with strong regeneration makes you ageless or just give you the same appearance until you die from old age.
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#21
You know, there's the makings of a page/article for the Fenwiki in this.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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#22
Hm. And, again, Asmodeus Grey (that son of a bitch!) was trying for a Weapon X/Wolverine mod when he started the Catgirling Machine project.

How much of the catgirl effect is because Grey had a large collection of anatomical skeletal models that were molded from a female skeleton is likely still hotly debated by Fen scientists trying to work out the ins and outs of the Machine. It's also quite likely nobody has the desire to see what happens with a MALE anatomical model skeleton.

Rule of Funny would perhaps lead to a "Tiger Girl" like in Foster's Spellsinger series...
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll
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