She Blinded Me with Science

[whoseesbynight]

Characters: Nepeta and Even
Content: Nepeta is an alien. Science occurs.
Location: Even's place
Time: Evening Midday
Warnings: None at the moment

All things considered, Nepeta didn't think much of the fact that she'd shared certain details about her species with Ienzo. After all, it wasn't like she'd been trying to keep it a secret. Not when she didn't look particularly human in the first place. She might not have expected the word to get around, but well. It didn't do any harm for it to get about.

Thus, she simply continued on much as she always had. If even wanted to ask further details about how trolls worked, he'd have to come to the room she considered hers and ask in person.

Comments

[defrostedpride]

This is definitely getting more into cultural anthropology than the intended xenobiology, but Even's fascinated despite himself.

"What, all of them? What purpose does that serve?" A fully militarised society that leaves its childrearing to a client species? How odd.

[whoseesbynight]

"Mmmhmmm," Nepeta answers with a nod. "And if you aren't good enough to make it you get culled instead."

She says it without the slightest flicker of uncertainty despite her apparent age and that she's talking about being killed out of hand for simply not measuring up to some nebulous standard. On the other hand, given some of the other reasons people can be culled - or just simply end up dying - the idea of making it into the militia or dying in the process isn't really so bad.

"And it's beclaws we're an empire. There are a lot of aliens out there to deal with."

[defrostedpride]

"That strikes me as one of the more pointless uses of systemic resources I've ever heard of," Even says before he remembers that you're not supposed to make judgments about your subjects' cultures to their face. This is why he is not an anthropologist.

Because he is not an anthropologist, the next question is obvious. "How do you reproduce? Clearly, from your description no one of reproductive age is in physical proximity to the location where you are born."

[whoseesbynight]

"That's what the Mother Grub is fur," Nepeta answers, in a tone of voice that manages to suggest that this much should be obvious.

"The drones take the pails to her, you see."

This... would perhaps make more sense to Even if Nepeta had really bothered to explain the process by which trolls get down the sticky business of sex, but since it makes sense to her she doesn't explain quite as much as she should.

[defrostedpride]

"No, I don't see, because that doesn't constitute an explanation. Try again, this time beginning at the beginning and moving forward in sequence. Feel free to draw a diagram if sentences are too difficult."

[whoseesbynight]

There's a soft noise of irritation at Even's request, but she supposes he has the right to ask.

"When a pair of trolls decides to confurm a matespritship or a kismesissitude all the genetic material is collected in a pail. That's why efurryone calls it pailing! And you have to do it when the drones comes, or else you get culled fur not helping continue the species."

Needless to say, the drones coming around isn't terribly fun for anyone.

"The drones take all the pails back to the mother grub so she can have enough genetic material fur the eggs she lays."

[defrostedpride]

Even manages to write down almost all of that without comment. It may be a personal best. "I must congratulate you on the least logical reproductive culture I have ever had the misfortune to encounter." Oops, now he's ranting. So much for that personal best. "In what circumstance is it rational to base contribution to the wellbeing of the species solely on sexual reproductive habits? That's far from the only way to return value, and it's the one that requires the least skill and training! Honestly!"

It's possible he may have some opinions on the subject.

[whoseesbynight]

Unfortunately, the questions he's raising are ones that Nepeta can't answer. She's not really much of a highblood, and even if she were, Her Imperious Condescension is far away and perhaps long since gone. Nepeta is pretty sure the Vast Glub went off shortly before they entered the Medium, and that's not really going to make for much of a surviving population. Especially not after the deaths that have been going around their makeshift home.

"Well, there has to be meowre grubs. Otherwise there wouldn't have been anyone to conscript."

[defrostedpride]

"Well, of course there have to be more, but that doesn't mean everyone has to reproduce, certainly not more than once! It's a simple matter of mathematics! A sustainable population only requires one reproducing offspring per person; there's no need to demand such excess. Is sexual intercourse really so unpleasant for your species that no one would do it unless their lives were threatened?" Even has been repeatedly informed that such is not the case. Trolls may be different, of course.

[whoseesbynight]

There's a moment of silence before Nepeta answers. She's never been to the brooding caverns - she's just a bit shy of the right color for that - and she certain;y doesn't know why everything is done the way it is. The problem with school feeding is that there's an awful lot of what the Empress wants people to think in in it.

"Well, the drones don't come around all that often. And you have to be old enough furst."

[defrostedpride]

"Thank goodness for that," Even says, looking either prudish or genuinely disgusted, or possibly both. "And how old is 'old enough', precisely? For that matter, how often do these 'drones' circulate?"

He can't quite decide if he's asking for information or delivering a lecture.

[whoseesbynight]

There's a moment of consideration at that. Nepeta did get the same school-feeding as everyone else, but between the various details of Sgrub and her not being terribly interested in a lot of things that are supposed to matter to troll society it takes a moment or three.

She's not really an encyclopedia anyway.

"Um, befur you get conscripted. But I can't remember when and anyway we all ended up in Sgrub furst."

[defrostedpride]

Let's face it, Even would probably rather she were an encyclopedia. For one thing, they're easier to cross-reference.

He sighs louder than necessary. "And what is a Sgrub?"

[whoseesbynight]

Ah, now that is something that Nepeta can explain without any sort of trouble. It's one advantage of having spent so long in the game construct.

"It's a game," she answers. "One that we had to play because our world was being destroyed."

[defrostedpride]

Unsurprisingly, Even does not find this particularly explanatory. At the very least, his notes were increasingly complicated and illegible enough without adding an entire new category.

"A game? What kind of - how was your world being destroyed?" Please don't say Heartless, please don't say Heartless...

[whoseesbynight]

Fortunately for Even, the answer is not Heartless. No, this destruction has been a much more mundane sort of destruction.

"By meteors. Once we'd started the game the meteors were going to destroy efurrything so we all had to get into the game befur they hit. Otherwise we would have all died."