Woman opens her eyes, and sees a humanoid dog with eyes like void. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! WHAT IS IT!?" She looks around again. "Where I am!? Who are you (all)!? What do you (all) want from me!?"
The Multiverse Inn
Re: The Multiverse Inn
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Re: The Multiverse Inn
((Yinrih are more like new world monkeys from the neck down, like a Capuchin or especially a woolly monkey, but with fur more like a wild canid))
Doug, startled by the woman's scream, leaps up and hangs from the rafters by his tail again. After taking a second to collect himself, he introduces himself, still suspended upside down. "Light shine upon you, friend. I'm not sure where we are, but they serve drinks," he says somewhat louder looking in Dzojwĕsoun's direction. "My name's Shimmering Water, or Doug. You can call me whatever you want, just don't call me late for dinner." He waves all four prehensile paws in a friendly manner. "I'm a monkey fox, or a yinrih, or a cynoid, or a vulpithecine, Like I said, just don't call me late for dinner." he extends a rear paw and points a claw at Cynewulf and Argenzu. That not-a-werewolf is Cynewulf, and that not-a-rat is Argenzu. He shifts his paw to point at his adopted son. "That's my son, Sherman, and the fellow over there getting our drinks," he projects his voice again, "is Dzojwĕsoun. Oh, and those other folks," He indicates the others he has yet to introduce. "I'm afraid I haven't been introduced to them properly either, but I'm sure they'll say hello eventually."
Re: The Multiverse Inn
"I am Sarah. I was returning to home after work, I opened a door which is, or was, entrance of my home and landed here. Sorry, but I must go. Goodbye!" Sarah exist the Inn, but two seconds later door open again and she enters again. "Hmmm... If my door turned into an entrance to the strange place, how can I enter my home?"
Re: The Multiverse Inn
Doug, still hanging by his tail, tilts his head in thought. "You know, I haven't thought about how to get out of here, wherever here is. Before you got here there was an eldritch horror from beyond and a giant jellyfish. They seem to have left no problem." He looks over at Sherman. "Do you think you could take a look at the mass router in there to see if we're stuck here or not?" Sherman nods and retreats to the mass router room, adopting the same pensive expression from earlier.TBPO wrote: ↑01 Sep 2024 20:13 "I am Sarah. I was returning to home after work, I opened a door which is, or was, entrance of my home and landed here. Sorry, but I must go. Goodbye!" Sarah exist the Inn, but two seconds later door open again and she enters again. "Hmmm... If my door turned into an entrance to the strange place, how can I enter my home?"
Doug addresses the woman again, "At least our chinny chin chilla friend over there," he points at Argenzu, "has managed to leave here and return, so chances are good you'll find a way out soon. But why not stay a while and have a drink?" Doug says a bit louder again, licking his wet nose thirstily.
Re: The Multiverse Inn
"Okay, I will stay here for a while... but where you come from? I'm sure that I never seen humanoid pseudo-dog or humanoid rat."lurker wrote: ↑01 Sep 2024 20:28Doug, still hanging by his tail, tilts his head in thought. "You know, I haven't thought about how to get out of here, wherever here is. Before you got here there was an eldritch horror from beyond and a giant jellyfish. They seem to have left no problem." He looks over at Sherman. "Do you think you could take a look at the mass router in there to see if we're stuck here or not?" Sherman nods and retreats to the mass router room, adopting the same pensive expression from earlier.TBPO wrote: ↑01 Sep 2024 20:13 "I am Sarah. I was returning to home after work, I opened a door which is, or was, entrance of my home and landed here. Sorry, but I must go. Goodbye!" Sarah exist the Inn, but two seconds later door open again and she enters again. "Hmmm... If my door turned into an entrance to the strange place, how can I enter my home?"
Doug addresses the woman again, "At least our chinny chin chilla friend over there," he points at Argenzu, "has managed to leave here and return, so chances are good you'll find a way out soon. But why not stay a while and have a drink?" Doug says a bit louder again, licking his wet nose thirstily.
Re: The Multiverse Inn
"hay, I'm not humanoid," says Doug as he returns to the ground and begins prancing around in normal yinrih quadrupedal fashion. "My hands are also my feet, see?" He repeats the juggling trick with the carton of cooling bark, first with his forepaws and then, standing on his front legs, with his rear paws. "Or were you referring to Cynewulf? He certainly IS humanoid."
"I think I've got a bottle of fresh steadfruit juice in one of my bags, could you grab it for me, Sherm?"
Sherman complies, emerging from the mass router room with a bottle of impossibly blue liquid and a pair of drinking bowls. The bowls are made of a synthetic ceramic, a deep matte black almost matching Doug's eyes. They're decorated with a floral pattern around the rim in an electric yellow that competes with the liquid in the bottle for which of the two is more chromatically saturated. Inside the bowl is a depiction of First Meeting from the yinrih's perspective. A human, too tall with lanky arms and impossibly long legs reaches forward to shake the forepaw of a yinrih, much more reasonably proportioned but still somewhat lacking in perspective in the manner of a Byzantine icon. The overall shape of the bowl is a compromise meant to accommodate a yinrih's lapping tongue and a human's nimble pursing lips: a shallow spout for the human, and a broad base to allow a yinrih's tongue to lick the inner surface clean.
Sherman pours some juice into both bowls and hands one to his adoptive father. Doug growls a short blessing, tapping the side of the bowl with a claw. The bowl lets out a pleasant ring, then Doug begins noisily lapping up the liquid. Sherman unceremoniously brings the vessel to his lips and silently takes a deep draft, his face contorting in response to the impossibly sour flavor.
"Shame it's not fermented," Doug says. "I guess we'll just have to get our other drinks when we get them. There's more in the bottle if any of you want some," he continues, addressing the other guests. "It's human-safe," he adds. "not sure about humanoid rodents or wolf-men though."
Doug addresses Sarah. "We're from a planet called Hearthside. It orbits a star we call Focus. My species is from another of Focus's planets called Yih, and Sherman is a human form Earth, or AN Earth, anyway. We were on our way to another planet called Welkinstead. Hearthside is... well think Arrakis but less wormy and with perpetual sun. We call it the Nightless Desert for a reason. Yih is a lot like Earth. A bit bigger around, a little bit lower gravity, and it has a ring. Welkinstead is a gas giant with floating cities."
Sherman interjects. "Speaking of Welkinstead, I checked out the router. It's got sufficient power, don't ask me how, and the ansible has a YIP address, but from a range I wasn't aware was being used in production networks. The neighbor table shows it's connected to the port on Hearthside and a router on Welkinstead. Both connections have stable heartbeats.'"
Doug looks up from his drink and traces an upward arc with his muzzle. "Skip the jargon, son. Are we stuck here or not?"
"Well, there's one way to find out." Sherman reaches into his own bag and pulls out a notepad and a small bag of Swedish Fish. "I keep these around for times like these." He jots down the following note in Commonthroat:
"Human and Yinrih, Sherman Deloscanes and Shimmering Water Sandyfur, O.S.C, Dropped out of Underlay in unexpected location en route from Hearthside to Welkinstead. Possible rogue router attached to intra-Focus network. See YIP address below. From one tech to another, please enjoy these Swedish Fish."
Sherman tosses the note and the bag of gummies onto the bed of router, slides the bed into the bore, and shuts the hatch. He taps a few buttons on the side. The same quiet thump that announced the pair's arrival can be heard, then Sherman enters the main hall again.
"And now we wait.
"So what's you're story, Sarah?" Sherman asks.
Re: The Multiverse Inn
1) "Can I drink some... juice? What is this drink?"lurker wrote: ↑03 Sep 2024 23:33"hay, I'm not humanoid," says Doug as he returns to the ground and begins prancing around in normal yinrih quadrupedal fashion. "My hands are also my feet, see?" He repeats the juggling trick with the carton of cooling bark, first with his forepaws and then, standing on his front legs, with his rear paws. "Or were you referring to Cynewulf? He certainly IS humanoid."1) "Shame it's not fermented," Doug says. "I guess we'll just have to get our other drinks when we get them. There's more in the bottle if any of you want some," he continues, addressing the other guests. "It's human-safe," he adds. "not sure about humanoid rodents or wolf-men though."Spoiler:
2) Doug addresses Sarah. "We're from a planet called Hearthside. It orbits a star we call Focus. My species is from another of Focus's planets called Yih, and Sherman is a human form Earth, or AN Earth, anyway. We were on our way to another planet called Welkinstead. Hearthside is... well think Arrakis but less wormy and with perpetual sun. We call it the Nightless Desert for a reason. Yih is a lot like Earth. A bit bigger around, a little bit lower gravity, and it has a ring. Welkinstead is a gas giant with floating cities.""And now we wait.Spoiler:
3) "So what's you're story, Sarah?" Sherman asks.
2) "What is 'planet'? Do you meant 'globe'? What is Earth? Is it similar to our World? And what is Arrakis? I deduce it's full of worms and it has normal sun..."
3) "I didn't expect that I will have to tell the story... Our World is one of 4 globes orbiting the Sun: Soo, Kyerra, World and Iris. We don't found any aliens or 'yinrih', but we're currently terraforming the Iris. The Soo is the gas globe and the hottest globe in the whole Solar System. The Kyerra is the deserted globe without atmosphere. The World is the globe where we live. The Iris was the cold, deserted globe covered with ice and thick atmosphere, but we are currently terraforming it."
Re: The Multiverse Inn
"Absolutely," says Doug. He trots into the side room. Some rummaging can be heard. "We're lucky we packed for a trip," he barks back into the hall. "We've got plenty of supplies." He comes out with his tail curled around another bowl resting on his back. "These were supposed to be a gift for some friends of ours on Welkinstead. We'll just have to wash them when we get there. If we get there, I guess," he says a bit more apprehensively. He grabs the bottle from the table, his claws making a tink-tink sound against the glass as he positions the bottle over the bowl, pouring out the azure liquid. He waddles over to Sarah and extends his forepaws, offering her the drink. A bright violet sheen churns on the surface of the juice like the interference pattern of a soap bubble.
"It's REALLY sour," Sherman warns.
"That depends on what you mean," says Doug. "It's A globe, as in a sphere, at least if you believe those LIEntists at NASA," he jokes, flicking his left ear jovially. "Kidding, of course, Earth is in fact round."
"Hay, I AM an alien," says Doug, thumping himself demonstratively across the back with his tail. "At least from your perspective. Of course, from my perspective YOU are the aliens, ya sweaty goo-eyed tailless bipedal weirdos. And I wouldn't have it any other way," he says looking at his human son.TBPO wrote: ↑04 Sep 2024 00:06 3) "I didn't expect that I will have to tell the story... Our World is one of 4 globes orbiting the Sun: Soo, Kyerra, World and Iris. We don't found any aliens or 'yinrih', but we're currently terraforming the Iris. The Soo is the gas globe and the hottest globe in the whole Solar System. The Kyerra is the deserted globe without atmosphere. The World is the globe where we live. The Iris was the cold, deserted globe covered with ice and thick atmosphere, but we are currently terraforming it."
"But what about this 'soo' Is it a star, I mean does it glow bright?"
Re: The Multiverse Inn
((I was away from here for a while.))
“You know,” the wolf-man responds, “we have enough data to make ourselves a picture – or a 3D print.”
Cynewulf closes his eyes rubs the space between them and the edge of his snout with his left index finger and thumb.
“OK, I'll go get the first aid kit and you'll stay here in case they need help”, he instructs Argenzu, who observes the scene.
By the time the wolf-man had unlocked his car, unclasped a large metal box from the rear of the back seat, and carried it inside, the human woman was already conscious, alert, and speaking coherently again.
The rodent, on the other hand, was still observing the scene, with only his nostrils showing that he hasn't turned into a statue.
“And I am not a pseudo-dog, either! We've had some jump leads to arrive at the right path, but the pedigree of my people is 100% dog. We even re-evolved many of the breeds found on Earth after a few million years!”
Cynewulf places his hand-like paw on Argenzu's shoulder.
As the two observe Sherman and Doug pour themselves and Sarah drinks, the wolf-man turns to his rodent friend: “If they're drinking, we can drink, too – what do you think?”
Argenzu looks at him: “You brought something with you?”
Cynewulf smiles – exposing his canine teeth – and nods. He slinks out of the inn and returns with two bottles with a sky-blue and sand coloured label.
Argenzu's ears are wandering forward and back, and finally, the wolf-man puts one of these bottles in front of him with a big smile.
“Those are ₤10 per bottle —”
“That's why I brought them to drink here”, the wolf man shushes the rodent and sits down in front of his own bottle.
“And I know you love that alcohol-free piña colada”, Cynewulf says in a low tone, with a wink.
Argenzu and Cynewulf are listening and sometimes chuckling as the story unfolds.
“You know,” the wolf-man responds, “we have enough data to make ourselves a picture – or a 3D print.”
“Oh, Great Scott!”
Cynewulf closes his eyes rubs the space between them and the edge of his snout with his left index finger and thumb.
“OK, I'll go get the first aid kit and you'll stay here in case they need help”, he instructs Argenzu, who observes the scene.
By the time the wolf-man had unlocked his car, unclasped a large metal box from the rear of the back seat, and carried it inside, the human woman was already conscious, alert, and speaking coherently again.
The rodent, on the other hand, was still observing the scene, with only his nostrils showing that he hasn't turned into a statue.
Argenzu blinks and shudders.
Spoiler:
Cynewulf places his hand-like paw on Argenzu's shoulder.
As the two observe Sherman and Doug pour themselves and Sarah drinks, the wolf-man turns to his rodent friend: “If they're drinking, we can drink, too – what do you think?”
Argenzu looks at him: “You brought something with you?”
Cynewulf smiles – exposing his canine teeth – and nods. He slinks out of the inn and returns with two bottles with a sky-blue and sand coloured label.
Argenzu's ears are wandering forward and back, and finally, the wolf-man puts one of these bottles in front of him with a big smile.
“Those are ₤10 per bottle —”
“That's why I brought them to drink here”, the wolf man shushes the rodent and sits down in front of his own bottle.
“And I know you love that alcohol-free piña colada”, Cynewulf says in a low tone, with a wink.
Edit: A letter.
Last edited by Egerius on 06 Sep 2024 10:29, edited 1 time in total.
Re: The Multiverse Inn
1) Sarah drinked some juice and twisted her face. "Uh, it's very sour! You was right... what's your name? Sewwan? Sorwan? Seeban?"lurker wrote: ↑04 Sep 2024 01:151) "Absolutely," says Doug. He trots into the side room. Some rummaging can be heard. "We're lucky we packed for a trip," he barks back into the hall. "We've got plenty of supplies." He comes out with his tail curled around another bowl resting on his back. "These were supposed to be a gift for some friends of ours on Welkinstead. We'll just have to wash them when we get there. If we get there, I guess," he says a bit more apprehensively. He grabs the bottle from the table, his claws making a tink-tink sound against the glass as he positions the bottle over the bowl, pouring out the azure liquid. He waddles over to Sarah and extends his forepaws, offering her the drink. A bright violet sheen churns on the surface of the juice like the interference pattern of a soap bubble.
"It's REALLY sour," Sherman warns.
2) "That depends on what you mean," says Doug. "It's A globe, as in a sphere, at least if you believe those LIEntists at NASA," he jokes, flicking his left ear jovially. "Kidding, of course, Earth is in fact round."
3) "Hay, I AM an alien," says Doug, thumping himself demonstratively across the back with his tail. "At least from your perspective. Of course, from my perspective YOU are the aliens, ya sweaty goo-eyed tailless bipedal weirdos. And I wouldn't have it any other way," he says looking at his human son.TBPO wrote: ↑04 Sep 2024 00:06 "I didn't expect that I will have to tell the story... Our World is one of 4 globes orbiting the Sun: Soo, Kyerra, World and Iris. We don't found any aliens or 'yinrih', but we're currently terraforming the Iris. The Soo is the gas globe and the hottest globe in the whole Solar System. The Kyerra is the deserted globe without atmosphere. The World is the globe where we live. The Iris was the cold, deserted globe covered with ice and thick atmosphere, but we are currently terraforming it."
4) "But what about this 'soo' Is it a star, I mean does it glow bright?"
2) "Yes, I meant this."
3) "I didn't see you as alien. At first I saw you as a monstrosity, but later I was seeing you as something like fantasy race."
4) "It shines like a bright star on the night sky, but it's the first globe, or 'planet', in the Solar System, not the Sun."
Re: The Multiverse Inn
1) "I was talking about Doug, not you."Egerius wrote: ↑04 Sep 2024 19:17 ((I was away from here for a while.))1) “And I am not a pseudo-dog, either! We've had some jump leads to arrive at the right path, but the pedigree of my people is 100% dog. We even re-evolved many of the breeds found on Earth after a few million years!”Spoiler:
Cynewulf places his hand-like paw on Argenzu's shoulder.2) “Those are ₤10 per bottle —”Spoiler:
“That's why I brought them to drink here”, the wolf man shushes the rodent and sits down in front of his own bottle.
“And I know you love that alcohol-free piña colada”, Cynewulf says in a low tone, with a wink.
2) "What is 'piya kolada'? Can I drink some?"
Re: The Multiverse Inn
Cynewulf takes his laptop and types on the keyboard.
“My friend must have misheard”, Argenzu explains, while sipping on his drink.
“He hates being called a mutt, or something similar.”
“It's coconut milk, pineapple, and, usually...”Cynewulf takes a demonstrative sip from his bottle with integrated plastic straw, “rum – but I have to drive later. And you don't know where our tongues have been.”2) "What is 'piya kolada'? Can I drink some?"
He demonstratively licks his nose before letting it touch the straw again. The wolf-man turns around his laptop that shows a step-by-step instruction in pictures on how to make a piña colada.
“Besides, Sarah,” he uses a deliberately archaic pronunciation ((imagine Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor: [sæ̝ɾə])) “too much sour food could give you heartburn. A sour, burning feeling between your stomach and your throat.”
Argenzu nods.
“Now, where were we”Cynewulf whispers to the rodent.
“You found the Multiverse Inn and wanted to celebrate with me”, Argenzu asks, with a smile.
“We could also celebrate Mr. Acrobat Monkey Fox's first official contact with us”, Argenzu points at Doug and Sherman.
”... Or – you know – just the two of us.” He has a sly grin on his face.
“Shhh!” Argenzu shushes Cynewulf again, who then laughs.
Re: The Multiverse Inn
“There’s no need to make a big deal about it,” says Doug. “I’m happy we’ve found the place, and it’s been a pleasure, but—” Another thump from the mass router room. Sherman lopes over and unseals the bore. The bed slides out, revealing the same note, with some fresh yinrih ink on the back, and the same bag of Swedish Fish, now empty. Sherman snatches the note off the bed and reads it.
“Sherm, walk tall and don’t fall, HI HI. It’s Clear Sky from back at the networking academy. Remember me? Brown coat with the white spot on my chest? It wasn’t that long ago, well for me anyway. I’m still climbing the career tree, but I suppose you’ve reached retirement age now if I’m not mistaken. Thanks for the gummies.
“But before my ink sac runs dry, yes, wherever you are, that router has a healthy network path connecting it to the port here on Welkinstead. Thing is, we can’t figure out where you fellows are, either. That YIP address should have been filtered as bogus by any neighboring routers, and the timestamps we’re getting back when we ping it are way off.
“Me and the other techs here think you ought to hop on over so we can troubleshoot the issue together.”
Sherman hands the note to his dad. Doug sniffs the ink. “Ha! It’s that yappy pup you ran with in college.” He takes another deep breath. “And he’s a sire! Never would have guessed he’d lay his egg. Why don’t you go say hello? I can stay here a bit longer, then I’ll head your way.”
Sherman nods and gathers the bowls and bottle of juice. “Oh, and let our friends know we’re both OK, but… maybe stay quiet about this place. Let your techie buddies know if they ask, but this whole… inn between the worlds… let’s figure out how to break that news gently. You saw how I acted back there. Every Wayfarer at Focus is going to freak out once they hear.” Sherman nods again and gather the rest of his things.
“Pleasure meeting you all,” Sherman says, looking around the room at the odd collection of sapients. He tosses his bag onto the bed of the router, presses a few more keys, and lays down. The bed glides back into the bore. Sherman reaches up and closes the hatch from inside. Yet another low thump sounds, and he’s gone.
Re: The Multiverse Inn
Argenzu and Cynewulf only took a few sips of their cocktails when Sherman left. They were peeking into the closet with the mass router as it happened.
Cynewulf chuckles: “Hehe, lay his egg...”
“Maybe they're advanced monotremes”, Argenzu guesses, then almost chokes on his own saliva: “Hey, hold on —”
The wolf-man clears his throat and whacks his rodent companion a few times across the back.
“Let's maybe not ask Doug about how his kind reproduces”, Cynewulf whispers.
Now Argenzu clears his throat.
He takes his laptop and pulls up a window with the coordinates to the Multiverse Inn: “Hey, uh, Doug; you might want to write down these coordinates in case you'd want to come back here.”
Cynewulf chuckles: “Hehe, lay his egg...”
“Maybe they're advanced monotremes”, Argenzu guesses, then almost chokes on his own saliva: “Hey, hold on —”
The wolf-man clears his throat and whacks his rodent companion a few times across the back.
“Let's maybe not ask Doug about how his kind reproduces”, Cynewulf whispers.
Now Argenzu clears his throat.
He takes his laptop and pulls up a window with the coordinates to the Multiverse Inn: “Hey, uh, Doug; you might want to write down these coordinates in case you'd want to come back here.”
Re: The Multiverse Inn
"How do your kind reproduces, Doug?" Sarah asks.
Re: The Multiverse Inn
Doug pulls a small notepad from the wallet around his foreleg and draws his writing claw across the paper. No ink flows out. “Oops, this happens sometimes.” He makes a flicking motion with his writing claw and inner thumb and tries again with no success. He lets out a quiet trilling hiss of frustration, vigorously shaking his forepaw. “I guess I drained most of my ink when Sherm dragged me back to the mass router room,” he says looking over at the streaks of navy-blue ink on the floor. He swipes his writing claw across the page again, and ink finally begins to flow. “Aha!” He looks back at Cynewulf’s laptop and copies the coordinates. “I’m not the kind of monk that would know this stuff. I just foster humans,” he says. “Sherman’s the one who knows about the mass router network, but someone back at Focus or Sol will probably know what to make of this.”
Doug turns to Sarah “So you want to know how babby is formed?” he chuckles. As he continues, he walks back into the mass router room and rummages through his impedimenta. “I think the closest Terran animal you could compare us to would be salmon. We may look like Earth mammals on the outside, but we don’t carry our babies inside us.” He re-enters the main room. A rag is strapped to one of his forepaws and the end of his tail is ensheathed in a loofah. He begins dabbing up the ink he left behind on the floor with the rag and continues his explanation.
“We lay eggs, yes even the males. My ovary is as barren as the Nightless Desert, so I can’t have pups of my own. That was the other reason besides being a massive Terraboo that I joined a fostering order. Anyway, both males and females lay eggs, but we can only lay one egg in our lifetime. To make a litter of kits, you need an equal number of females and males to contribute their eggs to a clutch. You can have as few as one male and one female, but more is better. I have six parents myself. We call male parents ‘sires’ and females ‘dams’. Together the sires and dams form what we call a ‘childermoot’. The childermoot places all their eggs together in an incubator, or if you’re a moron—uh I mean ‘natural brooder’, just a cool dry place.”
He goes off on a tangent, dabbing up the ink a little more aggressively. “If you don’t incubate your womb-nest, you’re exposing your kits to all sorts of hazards. Womb-nests are surrounded by a membrane that lets air through. Germs can pass through this membrane and make the kits sick. Some people think incubators aren’t natural, so they leave their womb-nests out in the open. More Atavist cloaca butter. One of the missionaries that found Earth is from a naturally brooded litter. You know what happened to his litter mates? Everyone but him was stillborn. Fortunately his childermoot—or the two that were left after the others died of the same plague that killed their kits—saw sense and left that dirt farm for good. Incubate your womb-nests, people!” He looks up from his rant and flicks his ears as he realizes he’s the only yinrih in the room. “uh, sorry, guess that advice doesn’t apply to mammals.
“But where was I,” he turns to Sarah again. He sprays the loofah around his tail with some cleaning solution and begins sweeping his tail across the floor where the ink was. “We put our eggs in an incubator. A womb-nest forms over the eggs, and the insides of the eggs melt into a soup. Kits grow out of this soup. Each kit is a genetic combo of all the contributing parents. I have three sires and three dams, so I have one sixth of each of their genes. It takes about 144 days, give or take, for the kits to bake, so to speak, then they’re yeaned from the womb-nest. We call them kits from the time they’re conceived until they start eating solid food, then we call them pups.
“Oh, and because every human always asks,” he holds up a forepaw, palm facing out. “The difference between men and women is that women give milk. They sweat it through the palms of their forepaws. This large pad in the middle of my palm is how you can tell males and females apart. In women, there are three much smaller pads and more exposed skin. That’s the lactation patch. That’s where the interjection ‘palms!’ comes from. It’s short for ‘by the palms that nursed me!’
Re: The Multiverse Inn
"Why wolf-monkeys are so similar to 'Earth' mammals in some way, while still being completely unrelated to the latter?"lurker wrote: ↑14 Sep 2024 16:56Doug pulls a small notepad from the wallet around his foreleg and draws his writing claw across the paper. No ink flows out. “Oops, this happens sometimes.” He makes a flicking motion with his writing claw and inner thumb and tries again with no success. He lets out a quiet trilling hiss of frustration, vigorously shaking his forepaw. “I guess I drained most of my ink when Sherm dragged me back to the mass router room,” he says looking over at the streaks of navy-blue ink on the floor. He swipes his writing claw across the page again, and ink finally begins to flow. “Aha!” He looks back at Cynewulf’s laptop and copies the coordinates. “I’m not the kind of monk that would know this stuff. I just foster humans,” he says. “Sherman’s the one who knows about the mass router network, but someone back at Focus or Sol will probably know what to make of this.”
Doug turns to Sarah “So you want to know how babby is formed?” he chuckles. As he continues, he walks back into the mass router room and rummages through his impedimenta. “I think the closest Terran animal you could compare us to would be salmon. We may look like Earth mammals on the outside, but we don’t carry our babies inside us.” He re-enters the main room. A rag is strapped to one of his forepaws and the end of his tail is ensheathed in a loofah. He begins dabbing up the ink he left behind on the floor with the rag and continues his explanation.
“We lay eggs, yes even the males. My ovary is as barren as the Nightless Desert, so I can’t have pups of my own. That was the other reason besides being a massive Terraboo that I joined a fostering order. Anyway, both males and females lay eggs, but we can only lay one egg in our lifetime. To make a litter of kits, you need an equal number of females and males to contribute their eggs to a clutch. You can have as few as one male and one female, but more is better. I have six parents myself. We call male parents ‘sires’ and females ‘dams’. Together the sires and dams form what we call a ‘childermoot’. The childermoot places all their eggs together in an incubator, or if you’re a moron—uh I mean ‘natural brooder’, just a cool dry place.”
He goes off on a tangent, dabbing up the ink a little more aggressively. “If you don’t incubate your womb-nest, you’re exposing your kits to all sorts of hazards. Womb-nests are surrounded by a membrane that lets air through. Germs can pass through this membrane and make the kits sick. Some people think incubators aren’t natural, so they leave their womb-nests out in the open. More Atavist cloaca butter. One of the missionaries that found Earth is from a naturally brooded litter. You know what happened to his litter mates? Everyone but him was stillborn. Fortunately his childermoot—or the two that were left after the others died of the same plague that killed their kits—saw sense and left that dirt farm for good. Incubate your womb-nests, people!” He looks up from his rant and flicks his ears as he realizes he’s the only yinrih in the room. “uh, sorry, guess that advice doesn’t apply to mammals.
“But where was I,” he turns to Sarah again. He sprays the loofah around his tail with some cleaning solution and begins sweeping his tail across the floor where the ink was. “We put our eggs in an incubator. A womb-nest forms over the eggs, and the insides of the eggs melt into a soup. Kits grow out of this soup. Each kit is a genetic combo of all the contributing parents. I have three sires and three dams, so I have one sixth of each of their genes. It takes about 144 days, give or take, for the kits to bake, so to speak, then they’re yeaned from the womb-nest. We call them kits from the time they’re conceived until they start eating solid food, then we call them pups.
“Oh, and because every human always asks,” he holds up a forepaw, palm facing out. “The difference between men and women is that women give milk. They sweat it through the palms of their forepaws. This large pad in the middle of my palm is how you can tell males and females apart. In women, there are three much smaller pads and more exposed skin. That’s the lactation patch. That’s where the interjection ‘palms!’ comes from. It’s short for ‘by the palms that nursed me!’
Re: The Multiverse Inn
"Convergent evolution," says Doug. "We have the body of a monkey because we used to live in trees. Of course, humans used to live in trees, too, but they came down after a while. As for the fox part, well, the wet nose helps us pick up odors better, and the whiskers make it easier to navigate dense foliage."