trope-a-day
Bizarre Alien Sexes: While the eldrae started out with the standard two (male, female), biotechnology has since added two more to their repertoire (neuter, hermaphrodite). And the standard taxonomy of sexes in their language, which has to cope with other species, includes two more – the most common mappings of other-species
worldbuilding
While going over the old “How to Tell if You’re Imperial” post, this particular entry stood out to me:If you have an appointment, you’ll be sure to turn up a couple of minutes late. While you’ll apologize if you’re more than five minutes late, being
non-canon
From today’s utterly-non-canon-but-it-got-stuck-in-my-head department of advertising snippets: The myrmidonic carbonizer. It’s the top of our range. The myrmidonic carbonizer. Erodes muon metals in seconds. The myrmidonic carbonizer. For when you absolutely, positively need to split quarkonium. Our critics have accused our research department of being questionably sane. Well,
trope-a-day
Bizarre Alien Senses: Well, hell, who doesn’t have some sort of bizarre senses? Especially since it gets very tricky if you count the whole electromagnetic spectrum as one – i.e., “ultravision” and “infravision” are both strict subsets of “vision”. As, for that matter, is sensing gamma rays – and other
Resplendent Exponential Vector
From: Capt. Isvieve Kalyn, Procurement, Resplendent Exponential Vector To: Adm. Gilad Tsurilen, Bureau of Innovation Subject: FAT NINJA progress report Security: SECRET (GREEN)Â FAT NINJA Development on project FAT NINJA itself is essentially complete. Our research contractor has successfully demonstrated a prototype design capable of using intense paragravitational fields to
trope-a-day
Bizarre Alien Reproduction: …are you sure you really want to know? Well, first, if it’s done on Earth, by anyone, it’s probably used somewhere. Mere external fertilization, et. al., is relatively mundane. The temĂsi, say, are quite straightforwardly parthenogenic. For exotic – well, then we’re getting into how
biowaste
217-9963 (BIOWASTE) For interstellar freight purposes, biowaste is defined as nonspecific organic matter for disposal: this includes categories as disparate as sewage, grooming fragments (i.e. shed skin, hair clippings, etc.), animal waste, plant matter, spoiled food, medical and surgical waste, corpses, et. sim., and mixed lots of any or
trope-a-day
Bizarre Alien Psychology: Most of them, to one degree or another, however well concealed it may be by translation and commonly agreed protocols. Particularly notable are the aklaknak and embatil, both of whom are collegiate intelligences rather than single consciousnesses; the codramaju and seb!nt!at, who don’t use
Vintiver
On that day, eleven years before Alphas I crowned himself, two figures walked down the dusty road striking down from the wooded dales of upland Vintiver into the setting sun. The hills on either side of the road were shadowy, draped as they were with the vines of the purplish-black
trope-a-day
Bizarre Alien Locomotion: In many variants on the standard walking, flying, and swimming, certainly. Eliéra’s bluelife includes its tubefish, for example, which move via peristaltic pumping of water, not swimming as we know it. Among sophont races, the chfssssc swim through solid rock thanks to what one might call
Fundamental Contract
The most important thing to know about the Fundamental Contract is that it is not a contract. The second most important thing to know about the Fundamental Contract is that it is not fundamental. Or, rather, while it is expressed in the form of a contract, it is not one
trope-a-day
So, um, first some words of apology for the last week’s silence (due to feeling sicker than a dog, mostly, along with various other impedimenta that made it hard to write), especially to those new patrons who must surely be wondering what they signed up in time for… Sorry.