Thread 6308534

Your name is BrightReef Grover and you are finally a Science Scout!

Among the youth of Swallia; public service is considered a great mark on a resume for a future career, and a great use of a young person's time. Before being mated or mature enough to engage in the workforce; it is a method to expend youthful energy towards something useful. But you wouldn't know much about that; you're more interested in the merit badges, the sash, and the cool stuff you get to do.

The Scouts are a direct subsidy of InterCon; the governing body of your independent planet. Swallia and its two moons are in an autonomous zone and are free from the predations and exploitations of other powers in space. This is guaranteed by your protector-in-all-but-name state; the Jaxtian led Hegemony. But once again, you don't really know much about that. You're just a kid, you're much more excited about summer vacation on the last day of school. You even get to meet the representative from the Eugenic & Science policy department of the Swall government. Cool!

Today, you make a promise. You are told to salute. You hold up your hand and drop three fingers down; representing wealth, respect, and health; whole holding up the index and pointer fingers to represent your family and country.

“Do you promise to abide by the moral standards set by InterCon?”
”I promise!” You say excitedly, with the others.
“Do you promise to only seek advancement when the necessary steps have been met, and only be awarded badges of merit when you have mastered the skills or practices within?”
”I promise!”
“And finally; do you promise to help the people who can't help themselves?”
”I promise!”
“Then I advance you all to the rank of first class scouts. Congratulations.”
”Woo hoo!”

And with that, the last day of school ends. It's summer vacation! You go outside to smell the fresh, sea-scented air of your home town. It's cleaner then it used to be; a result of InterCon's efforts to reduce your species more early industrial pollution. But to you? It smells like freedom! I mean, you did just make a promise to be a good, responsible scout... but that can wait a minute.

What should you do first?
>Go for a swim with your friends
>Explore and go for a hike
>Tinker in the laboratory
>Get right on your Scoutly duties

>Swall Sidequest
Hell yeah
>Set in the independent era
Hmm, curious.

>Go for a swim with your friends
Why not? Ain't like he's gonna do much once he gets slimed by Reeex

>>6308535
>Go for a swim with your friends

>>6308535
>>Go for a swim with your friends
swimmer

>>6308535
>Go for a swim with your friends
I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand, I really like the idea of seeing swallia pre-jaxtification, on the other hand I really feel like the last thread ended like one update short of a proper finish which I was hoping we'd get.

>>6308546
I'm assuming you are referring to not having a supreme choice previous thread, I apologize for this but the previous thread was already so long at 1700 posts I just didn't feel like I had the time to properly flesh out candidates. It was also supposed to sort of be "Halams" arc. I can promise that thread #14 is not going to be just Halam still since he's reaching the end of his natural lifespan in the current timeline. If you're referring to the other elements like the beginning of the Esaal conflict or the new cradle life machine, I wanted to leave some stuff for future prompts so I don't have to just make up everything new.

>>6308553
No, I do get why you ended it, it's just that ending a thread with the Supreme a few years from death and not choosing the next candidate was a pretty big cliffhanger, so obviously I thought the next thread would solve that, rather than going to a sidequest.

But again, I do like seeing about the swall, so I do like the thread itself.

>>6308535
>Go for a swim with your friends
FISHE

>>6308534 (OP)
>I leave for the weekend
>new Space Monke
Damn it.

>>6308535
>Explore and go for a hike
I’m sad, since I know how this story ends.

I want to explore Swallia before it gets ruined.

>>6308535
>>Explore and go for a hike

>>6308535
Hmm. Not sure about a side story set hundreds of years ago. Especially given how the last one went...

>Get right on your Scoutly duties

>>6308535
>Go for a swim with your friends
Go have some fun, kiddo.

>>6308535
>>Go for a swim with your friends

>>6308535
>Go for a swim with your friends

Hmm. How's this going to go, I wonder. Setting this in the area before the evil Mask decided to over-rule every single player decision actually made about the Swall is certainly... a choice. I know some pre-hegemonic Swall were abducted by the Esaal, could that be a potential 'escape vector'?

>>6308713
Technically speaking all the people killed by Wrix were revived by the machine. But I'm pretty sure this kid lived a long time before that, no?

>>6308715
Also, even if this was near the genocide and the kid does get murdered and then revived, it's been like 100 years since the genocide anyways.

>>6308716
That's what I'm thinking, so...

>>6308535
>Get right on your Scoutly duties
A dutiful fish will adjust best to being a Hegemonian.

>Swall in the time of the autonomous zone.
Yoohoo! Let's go!

We get to revisit a time and place we hardly explored and I get to revisit my guilt for choosing and abstaining in just the right way to make it all die!

>Go tinker in the laboratory.

Going for a swim on the first day of summer vacation? That's almost a Swall tradition! Being able to go into the deep blue waters and just enjoy it, the refreshing liquid oxygen pushing against your gills, your body's swimming muscles getting a totally different workout then your spine and walking muscles. It's a nice change of pace! In today's advanced world, with radios and televisions and electricity which doesn't work well in water; Swall are spending more and more time out of their ancestral environment; water!

The kids are playing a game; a combination of physical skill and intelligence. You're supposed to throw rocks into a pattern to get a match; surrounding the opponents pieces to flip them over to your side. They sign to each other. You've never much liked this game as much as swimming. You feel like people get way too competitive about it. Though, being competitive, smart, and ahead of everyone else is a virtue in your culture. You just think sometimes people take it a little too far. This game always ends badly.

How do you feel about overly competitive people?
>You should try to be more like them
>Avoid them
>Don't really know...

>>6308927
>You should try to be more like them
GOTTA BE THE BEST

>>6308927
>>You should try to be more like them
Life is competition Grover. Competition for resources, for mates, for even water. A real scout remembers this, Grover. Are you a real scout?

>>6308927
>You should try to be more like them

>>6308927
>Don't really know...

>>6308927
>>You should try to be more like them
Despite not liking it, it's the game of the modern world

>>6308927
>Don't really know...

>>6308927
>Avoid them
Comfort in nor being #1 will be handy, soon...

>>6308927
>>Don't really know...

>>6308927
>Don't really know...

Don't want to be one ourself, but let's not blow them off either.

Competition. The lifeblood of capitalism and Swall's advancement thru technology and the ages. You're split. You see the kids before you, one day to become adults like yourself, and you see these power dynamics and hierarchies forming here to one day become very real ones. You think you should be more like them, on the one hand, but on the other hand, you're not really sure...

After the initial excitement of Summer Vacation has worn off, you find yourself back at your Scout meeting place. It's a specific room in the Roughscales garage; a local sponser who very kindly donates part of his business for your troop's usage. Here, you collect some of the medicinal things and materials used for your community service. It's a useful meeting place about equal to every member of your Scouting group. You check over what you have.

Some norken snails to be milked from their mild paraylsis venom, some rare corals, donated blankets, water-insulation useful in older wet homes, simple humidifers to be handed out in dry homes... Most people could afford these things themselves, or don't need them, but the people you promised to help can't. For many? It's medicine. Not even a hundred years ago; this type of medicinal help was all that there was before the advent of advanced medical technology. That knowledge wasn't lost, just became a secondary type of pursuit. That's why it's left to the Scouts.

In Swall society, self-reliance and independence is seen as very important. Along with being competitive; being reliant on others is seen as a moral and personal failure. It makes sense, after all, everyone started with the same oppertunities, and burdening others with your disability or poor life choices is socially taboo. Every Swall wants to be independent, a provider, a leader or inventor, and socially respected. In this way, those who serve others, especially those who can't provide for themselves, are considered to have a very low position of low skill and low importance. Social workers and nurses are always lesser and less desirable then a administrator or doctor, for example. Adults willing to work such roles are always in short supply, which is once again, why it's left to the Scouts.

The ones most criticized though? The Elderly.

You even think it yourself, you've internalized it, even if you don't fully understand why yet. But old people who are disabled, or living alone without children or their life partner, or poor and unable to care for themselves... how do you mess up that badly? You had your whole life. Swall society looks upon them very poorly, and the responsibility is put on the individual. If you outlive your life-mate, then you chose one poorly, should have chosen one closer to you in age or with a similar level of health. If you have no children or no children willing to take care of you in your advanced age; it's your fault for not raising them better. This is especially true of females, who are considered more responsible for not putting enough effort into enriching their eggs. If you are a burden upon your community or government, then you didn't work hard enough or save for retirerment. Most seem ashamed of needing help, and rarely ask for it, or express or show any kind of weakness. This is yet another responsibility of the Scouts.

To help the people who can't help themselves...

With this set of donations, you should be able to help your community on things you can't gather yourself. As for herbal and aquatic medicines, you'll need to do a bit of gathering. The adults put this entirely on you; after all, it helps show your initiative and young-leadership role. As a member of your Scout patrol, you'd like to assume some amount of leadership! But how are you going to get this stuff out to the people who need it? Individual treatments and resources change all the time, and hasn't exactly been well documented. What's the best way to go about this?

>Take a survey of the local community on foot and see who needs what
>Check request forms & previous donations sent out and go from there
>Divvy up responsibilities among the Scout troop to make it easier
>Give out everything as quickly and easily as you can

>>6309352
>Divvy up responsibilities among the Scout troop to make it easier
LEADERSHIP

>>6309352
>Check request forms & previous donations sent out and go from there
Ashamed old people won't honestly answer a survey if their answers will make hem look pathetic and weak, but anonymous requests might be more revealing.

>>6309352
>>Check request forms & previous donations sent out and go from there

>>6309352
>Divvy up responsibilities among the Scout troop to make it easier

>>6309352
>>Take a survey of the local community on foot and see who needs what
Most dont ask for help right? I bet there is more to the world than exists on requisition forms and bureaucratic papers

>>6309352
>>Divvy up responsibilities among the Scout troop to make it easier
>>6309353
got a point

>>6309352
>Check request forms & previous donations sent out and go from there

>>6309352
>Divvy up responsibilities among the Scout troop to make it easier

>>6309352
>Check request forms & previous donations sent out and go from there

Rolled 1 (1d2)

You decide it's probably be best to divvy up the responsibilities of doing your community work to your whole scout troop. There's a lot to do, so having each boy and girl in your troop having a separate task would be the best way to tackle it. Because of summer vacation, you have plenty of time, but you shouldn't procrastinate! You look over the supplies in the garage and start writing down what's short. Just then, someone enters.

"Oh, hello Mr.Roughscales."

He's the owner of the garage. He's nice. As both your senior, and someone donating a part of their business for use by the scouts, he's someone to be respected. Swall culture has mostly done away with bowing or great signs of submission in the modern era; that's feudal thinking. But you do turn your head to the side respectfully; a gesture from the days when you were all fish and a fish looking at you straight-on meant it was likely planning to eat you.

"Hey Kiddo! How goes the Scouting?"
"Oh... alright. We won't impede on your business any more then we have to, Sir. Thank you for letting us use this place as storage."
"Of course, anything to help. I wasn't a Scout when I was your age; they didn't set it up yet. I kinda wish I could have though..."

You think Mr.Roughscales is trying to get closer to you since he never had a son. It doesn't really creep you out or anything, he seems harmless enough, you just don't want to come off as rude; especially given he's a successful business man or whatever. If anything, if you want to be more competitive and all, maybe you should ask him for some practical business pointers? But then again, he did say he respected Scouts for not being so money focused and thinks its good for the community. You'd hate to come off as only caring about this for a career to your troop's sponsor...

>Ask him if he thinks the Scouts are a waste of time for you
>Question why he supports the Scouts
>Thank him again for the compliments and get back to work

>>6310009
>Question why he supports the Scouts
This seems like a fair question

>>6310009
>Question why he supports the Scouts

>>6310009
>>Question why he supports the Scouts
Something about business, society, misfits.

>>6310009
>>Question why he supports the Scouts

>>6310009
>Question why he supports the Scouts
I assume he's just more altruistic or collectivist than normal, but even getting that perspective could set our boy here up for success in the Hegemonic future to come.

Hes gonna molest us lol

>>6310009
>>Question why he supports the Scouts

>>6310009
>Question why he supports the Scouts

>>6310009
>Question why he supports the Scouts

I assume the whole 'no son' thing means he might be planning to rely on us scouts when he gets too old himself?

>>6310533
That checks, actually. Maybe he's less altruistic than I first assumed. It's enlightened self-interest, all the way down!

>>6310659
I mean, sounds perfectly reasonable to me
>Be afraid of being left uncared for in your old age
>Support group that supports old people

"Why do you support the Scouts so much, Mr.Roughscales?"
"You shouldn't question people who are helping you you know!"
"Oh, sorry... I was just curious."
"No no, it's okay. I just think it's nice to see the young people taking an interest and Swall helping each other. We're always competing with each other but, really when you think about it, we're all we got stuck on this planet together. Might as well try to make the most of it!"

That answer seems adequate to you; and he seems nice and friendly. It's nice to have a good sponsor for your troop. He thanks you again for your volunteer work and leaves.

After examining your donations and tasks; you've compiled a list of things you need to get done. Gathering some materials, installing and maintaining equipment, wildlife safety and education, all that stuff. It's a lot, but since your planning on divvying it up, it should be manageable. But you aren't purely a supervisor here; you're expected to do some of the work yourself!

With that said, you do have a small advantage. As you're the one setting this up, you could just assign yourself the easiest and shortest tasks so you can spend more time goofing off and enjoying summer vacation... but no, the work will be good for you, good experience for a future career, and of course more fair to the other Scouts. You mentally exclude yourself from the easy jobs and decide to think about these and your potential future. After talking to your parents about it briefly and their recommendations; you could really shape a future career out of extracurricular activities like this.

>Gather, Milk, and Process Norken Snail venom into ointment for the medical experience
>Help with the humidifiers for technical experience
>Paint some houses for something relaxing and the artistic experience
>Manage and organize the donations for the financial experience

>>6310765
I think this is a key vote for the Hegemonic future. I'm inclined to vote
>Gather, Milk, and Process Norken Snail venom into ointment for the medical experience
but am amenable to being persuaded elsewise

>>6310765
>>Manage and organize the donations for the financial experience
A good doctor have less influence than a mediocre businessman. You need to be a great doctor, or an excellent one, to manage projects that rivals.
Meanwhile a good businessman can fund medical programs lead by an excellent doctor. Not speaking of a great or excellent businessman, which can shape research and the planet in general

>>6310765
>>Paint some houses for something relaxing and the artistic experience
Art lives on

>>6310765
>Gather, Milk, and Process Norken Snail venom into ointment for the medical experience

>>6310765
>Gather, Milk, and Process Norken Snail venom into ointment for the medical experience
Businessmen might be richer, but doctors don't go bankrupt.

>>6310768
>I think this is a key vote for the Hegemonic future
Yeeeeeah no, listen dude, even if Brightreef here dies young, it's already been over a century since the return of the aliens by the time of the current threads. He'd already have died.

>>6310765
>>Help with the humidifiers for technical experience

>>6310842
The Life Capsules produced multiple versions of the same people at multiple separate times, IIRC.

>>6310765
>Gather, Milk, and Process Norken Snail venom into ointment for the medical experience

>>6311010
>The Life Capsules produced multiple versions of the same people at multiple separate times,
Until we stopped them from doing it, and that was pretty early in the reign.

>>6311018
I nevertheless think this will prove significant.

>>6310765
>Paint some houses for something relaxing and the artistic experience.

Art is great for future leaders.

>>6310765
>Manage and organize the donations for the financial experience
I would like to explore the economic side of Swalli

You decide to assign yourself the task of gathering up some snails. It's not too hard, but requires a bit of a good eye and is nice and outdoors. Norken snails are very common, being similarly amphibious as you are, usually found along the shores and shoals. They are known for their paralytic venom that ceases muscle movements; used to stun and prevent their preferred prey like small crustaceans and fish from running away. It isn't harmful to Swall except for very young newborn hatchlings as its effects are mild; but it can be used medicinally to help with muscles soreness, cramps, seizures, and especially jaw pain. Lots of older Swall whose life mates have died clench their jaws in their sleep, causing chronic pain.

As you head outside, you look over the other people going about your day, the hand-crafted brick dryhouses, the electric and message-wires hanging and feel like you're living in the future. All of this is possible because of your government; InterCon. But as your Dad tells you, it's really because of your people, the Swall.

You live in a high trust, highly individualistic society. Everyone looks out for their own family members and themselves first; yet despite this, crime and corruption are almost nonexistent. Simply put, your race is enlightened by principles of self interest. Your government is crafted to maximize individual freedoms while limiting the amount of harm that those freedoms can cause; creating a system where people obey the laws and principles simply because it benefits them, their families, and their community more then trying to exploit the system for themselves. It's not something you fully understand the philosophical undertones of yet; but the propaganda and education you're received throughout your life has taught you this. You've fully embraced it. You feel free and blessed to live in this time in history; after the planetary unification. Oh and also, knowing aliens are real? That's kind of cool.

The Swall have arranged themselves most strongly around their core unit of society; the nuclear family. Swall mate for life, your biology inextricably dedicated for the purpose of raising a few high quality, high survival-rate children who mature slowly and age gracefully. It's so important that, despite the similarities between the sexes, even Scouts are split up by sex once you grow up. Girls will go to girl schools, girl jobs, live in girl dorms... everything to keep them seperated from boys until their marriages can be arranged.

You wonder if you'll get to marry Constance one day. She's in your scout troop. You like her. Though you aren't exactly sure what marriage fully entails. Your health classes are very sparse on details. Hmm...

You plunge into the waters along the vacationers coast, heading out towards the nearby reef. You keep your Scout uniform on the beach; not worried about it being stolen or messed with. No fences or guides stop you from reaching this highly protected place; you already know how delicate and important these ecosystems are. You were taught this in school. There is no urge to destroy it, or allow it to be destroyed.

You do need to gather some Snails though. After picking just a handful, your fingertips start getting a little numb. Dumb venom... Using your cleverness, you should use some kind of tool to help you out with this task, so you can avoid touching the snails directly. You could just turn your collection bag inside out but you don't want the ones you've grabbed to escape already... What's the plan?

>Find a branching coral and use it as a ranged grabbing tool
>Wrap some seaweed around your hand as a glove
>Squirt your own ink venom to dislodge the snails and catch them in the bag
>Other (Write-In)

>>6311361
So, any write-in ideas?

>>6311361
>Wrap some seaweed around your hand as a glove

>>6311361
>Wrap some seaweed around your hand as a glove

>>6311361
>Use trunks as glove to avoid damaging the ecosystem

>>6311361
>Wrap some seaweed around your hand as a glove

>>6311361
>rawdog that shit
Be a man

>>6311361
>Squirt your own ink venom to dislodge the snails and catch them in the bag

>>6311360
>Oh and also, knowing aliens are real? That's kind of cool.
mfw he deosn't know what's coming

>>6311361
>Squirt your own ink venom to dislodge the snails and catch them in the bag

Going to delay the update until tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.

>>6311839
No problem, thanks for running.

You decide to use some seaweed as a nice wrap to protect your hand from the annoying effects of the Norken snail venom; ripping up a small plant and using it like a bandage. You get to work, and quickly harvest the rest of the snails you need, making a mental note of where you need to return them...

Only after your work and as you begin to return to the surface, do you realize that you did actually disrupt the ecosystem. You blush in embarrassment as you shake the bit of kelp off. You suppose that's why laws and practices and the like exist; but instead of enforcement, moreso kept by people being told the best practice and socially conditioned to enforce it themselves. As a kid, you can laugh it off, but as an adult? Yeah, you get why they take it so seriously. It was still just one little plant, but if everyone ripped up one little seaweed...

As you surface and walk back from the beach, you come across a Slicer. Suddenly, you feel excited again, and the humdrum snail harvest fades away. Wooo! You'd love a nice little snack right now!

Slicers are cheap, easygoing food stalls often installed in high traffic areas. They just have one or two fish that they caught that day, and sell off thin slices cut with a very sharp knife. While affordable to even a kid like you, you aren't supposed to get your full meals from places like this. You don't want to spoil your appetite, and they charge by the slice. But it is a way to get the taste of meat and a quick refreshment. As natural carnivores, Swall don't eat much else other then fish, invertebrates, a few ocean-dwelling mammals, and some sea sponges. You're dripping wet and carrying your scout uniform, and the stall attendant barely acknowledges you.

"What do you have today?"
"Bluefin, and Chordfish."
"Give m a slice of the Bluefin!"
"Sure."

You fish out your money and hold out your hands, in which the man will plop your finished slice of lunchmeat right in your hands straight from the blade. You're very excited for your snack!

You are now Southstorm Theodore, and you are an attendant of the Southstorm Slicer; an upscale Swall restaurant in the city of Myym. Before you is a young Jaxtian, who seemed to wander in from the underwater's city streets.

"Can I help you?"
"I just never checked out Swall food before. I'm curious is all..."

You're resisting the urge to say something. It's not that Jaxtians aren't allowed or anything, obviously, it's just a little... underdressed.

"Do you have a reservation? Our tables are full at the moment."
"What do you even serve here...? Fish?"
"Yes. Today? Bluefin. Only the finest, and most premium selected ingredients."
"Can I try that?"

The Jaxtian doesn't really get what this place is about. The Slicery is traditional Swall, raw, food preparation. Just the way it's cut, folded, and chilled totally changes the fish's texture and mouthfeel. It's a premium experience! How do you feel about non-Swall experiencing your culture?

>It's fine
>You don't like it
>Just give him some fish so he'll leave

>>6312344
>It's fine
Yea, back to the modern swall.

Anyway, your culture is great, so of course people will wanna try it. This guy is just doing it WRONG

>>6312344
>It's fine

It's better they enjoy and understand Swall culture than try to get rid of it. Also he looks like he's wearing Supreme candidate clothes so best to be polite.

>>6312379
+1, good thinking. But also, I'm very doubtful a being that is largely frugivorous is going to care for it.

>>6312344

>>6312344
>It's fine.
Better they try and experience it and try to understand us.
>Have you eaten much fish before?

>>6312466
+1

>>6312466
+1

>>6312336
>>6312337
Cool transition. Also cool that sliceries went from lowbrow to highbrow after 95% of Swall culture was nuked.

>>6312344
>Just give him some fish so he'll leave

>>6312336
>>6312337
Also the symbolism of the white and black knife regarding pre/post chimp outis appreciated.
>>6312501

>>6312501
I can't exactly say "how much" of swall culture was really destroyed, but a poor person's food eventually becoming a rich luxury is hardly something extrarordinary. It happens a bunch of times, like with Sushi or Lobster.

>>6312506
Sushi seems like the very direct analogy here.

>>6312501
Agreed, I liked the knife transition quite a bit, with the first chef serving a young person helping his community and the latte runeaisly serving a "tourist" from the conquering elite.

>>6312552
>a "tourist" from the conquering elite.
Now to be fair, this wouldn't be any different if a Swall Science Overseer went to some small jaxtian business. They *are* finding their way through the hegemony's social ladder, even if they don't have "Elite families" like the jaxtians do yet. We even had one be a candidate for the supremacy, even if we didn't pick him.

>>6312344
>It's fine

The world is wierd.

>>6312555
I think a Swall overseer in the Hegemony would be expected to know the ins and outs of Jaxtian culture. On the other hand, I think they literally can't eat monke chow for the most part, being obligate carnivores.

It's fine that a Jaxtian wants to try your cultural food. If anything, you enjoy seeing the other races of the Hegemony interested in the Swall, especially since you always felt like the fish out from the school. Jaxtians are omnivores, after all. Besides, it's not like a Vetucker will ever be interested in trying your food; or at least if one is, that would be a real fish out of water.

You decide to give the Jaxtian a simple fold-over cut. You expertly slice along the fish's meat, organs already carefully removed and digestive track cleaned and washed, to create a uniform thickness with your ultra-thin and sharp knife; chilled in the refrigerated scabbard built into the preparation deck. At the end, you fold the meat over itself, creating a single fold that gives the meat a uniform, basic mouthfeel with a bit of heft to it. It's a classic, only a lay-flat is more commonly ordered type of cut. You place it on a luxurious tray with a beveled surface, ultra-slick ceramic coating on the top allow it to easily and perfectly slide anything placed onto it directly into the mouth of the restaurant's patron, only requiring you to lift and tilt the place into your mouth. Beside it, you also present two basic toppings; a cup of dried algae flakes specially farmed in the algae bloom preserves above the ecumenopolis to add texture if sprinkled over your carefully cut slice, and a cup of two parts water and one part oyster sauce; watered down significantly as to not spoil the natural umai of the meat. You hope he doesn't go too crazy on the toppings, but you have to cater to the customer somewhat in any business; even one run by the Hegemony.

”Your slice is ready, Sir.”

Grabbing it off the plate and crushing the well-prepped slice with his fingers, the delicate folds crushing up into a ball, and shoving it into his mouth, the monkey chews. He gulps it without allowing the meat to melt on his tongue, and swallows it down in but a few seconds.

“Ahh! Hey, that was pretty good! And so filling, wow! That protein. Thanks!”

He seems strangely satisfied with just one slice. He pats his belly with satisfaction, almost as if mocking you, but he seems grateful for the experience. You suppose Jaxtians don't eat that much meat; so even a relatively small amount like this is like what a heavy steak would be for your people.

“Hey, cool knife by the way.”
”The... Slicer.. knife?”
“Yeah! Knives are more of a Jaxtian thing so, surprised to see your culture have a whole restaurant built around one.”
”...It's a tool for the kitchen. Every culture with metal working would invent a tool like that.”
“Yeah, but, Jaxtian dueling knives are in a league of their own. And you may be good at slicing up fish, but people? In a duel? Well, that's another level of skill entirely.”
”I practiced for years to develop the skills necessary to run this restaurant.”
“And I've been raised from birth to be an expert knife duelist. I'm number three in the whole Hegemony, actually. I can almost rival Halam Anak himself. But only in knives obviously, can't simulate a huge iron staff very accurately...”

The Jaxtian stands there proudly and arrogantly standing on his achievement, despite his being young and with no lanyard or ranks or anything of the sort.

You subtly motion your hand to a coworker to get his attention. The waiter watches your hand as you use your “hunting language”,your sign language; developed for underwater communication by the Swall. You glance at the smug Jaxtian before you, who is too absorbed in himself to follow; though you doubt he's studied hands.

[Who. Stupid. Kid?]
[Monkey. High. Birth. GAR- AS- TRA. Careful]

The phonetic signs are especially uncommon outside of expert signers, but you understood the message well enough. That's just great. You're hoping he's had enough of this cultural exchange and just leaves, but then again, maybe you can instill a valuable lesson? You've had just about enough of him disrupting the high level of professionalism your establishment is known for.

>Teach him a lesson
>Appeal to his ego; hopefully he'll leave you alone faster
>Ignore him and focus on other guests
>Make fun of him in Sign to the other guests to lighten the mood
>Other (Write-In)

>>6312886
Yeeeeah, I don't know what exactly "teach him a lesson" means here so I'm not so sure about choosing that.

>>6312344
>It's fine
best to put our best foot and fin forewards just make sure its not outright toxic and its fresh just say the food is good but it may not be a perfect fit for a non-obligate carnivore as it misses part of the experience our taste buds are made for it but taste buds made also for the greens would miss atleast half as just the temperature makes a big difference

>>6312886
>teach him a lesson of slicery but actually explaining showing him how, tell him about knife techniques for cooking where its most about precision and smooth motions and of knives made to cut flesh but not bone or armor and the importance of its forging of its metallurgy to not affect the taste of the product negatively and the careful handling required to not dull or break such a blade of this thiness where even a strong hand could bend it, saying both are skills of the knife but of different paces and such and about how the thiness allows the meat to dissolve on the tongue as he would not know so much about swali diet.

basically

>cultural Exchange from a angle he would understand he seems willing but lacking understanding and tact he is too say, fresh out of the egg, so need a soft fin and understanding in return is required as he is using a different frame of reference and will simply not know things and if he is of such high status this is a important impression as he seems to be trying to form common ground based on what seems like shared experiences?

>>6312895
No, that's lame. The kid is just stroking his ego. He doesn't deserve a lesson.

>>6312898
of course he is stroking his ego he only knows the most basic summary about us about personal achievement and individuality he thinks it will positive he is a fucking dumb ass because he knows nothing and again he is of high birth and if his own words are true of 3rd place of his species and being a potential candidate he is trouble if we make him into it

>>6312899
Doesn't mean we have to try to teach him our trade or nothing. Just that we probably shouldn't try to piss him off severely.

>>6312886
>>Teach him a lesson

>>6312886
>Appeal to his ego; hopefully he'll leave you alone faster

>>6312895
+1

>>6312886

>>6312886
>Appeal to his ego; hopefully he'll leave you alone faster
I didn't want to vote for this but if it means stopping people from voting from that dumb write-in, i'll do it.

>>6312900
its one lesson not a entire education but it will make him atleast not painfully ignorant and again
[Monkey. High. Birth. GAR- AS- TRA. Careful]
lets not make a enemy where there is none

>>6312925
>that dumb write-in
I don't get why it's dumb. it's just "Teach him a lesson" with specificity about what the lesson is:
>there's a right tool for a right job
>knives can be more than weapons of death: utility in peace is important, too
>finesse matters as much as force
>understanding cultural context is important, and so is patience: try letting the meat melt next time
>understanding the purpose will better explain the tool and the technique

These are all good lessons for a Supreme.

>>6312947
Because it's an OOC option. Theodore isn't some wise teacher trying to impart wisdom on the young masses, he's a dude doing his job who's annoyed that some dumb aristocrat kid is wasting his time bragging about stupid shit.

>>6312886
>Make fun of him in Sign to the other guests to lighten the mood
Ignorant and spoilt brat

>>6312886
>Make fun of him in Sign to the other guests to lighten the mood
Him being a Jaxtian and of high-blood doesn’t save him from subtle mockery, especially ones he can’t understand.

>>6312950
Ah, sorry, I guess I lacked your deep understanding of the character's rich hustiry and well-defined inner life.

>>6312977
Anon, he literally calls him "Stupid Kid"

>>6312886
>Appeal to his ego; hopefully he'll leave you alone faster

but secretly

>Make fun of him in Sign to the other guests to lighten the mood

You just know that making fun is gonna end with the reveal he knows swall sign language or something.

>>6312995
Then make him less stupid by explaining some of the culture and philosophy behind the culinary practice and tools. That doesn't require Theo to be a secret sage, just patient.

>>6313030
There is also that very real possibility, lol. He's a Supreme candidate with an interest in fishies. He may speak/sign their languages.

>>6312950
OOC talking about the thing our life is centered around and not doing stupid shit that could make one of the monkeys make our life hell?

>>6313030
it would be a very banana qm thing to happen with him not catching our question to our waiter literally beacuse his eyes where closed at that moment

>>6313041
Damn I wish I thought of that

Looks like tied for 3 teach him a lesson (including the write-in) and 3 appeal to ego.

>>6313318
Appeal to da ego. Cam on.

>>6313323
empty ego stroking dont seem like something that satisfies

>>6312886
>Appeal to his ego; hopefully he'll leave you alone faster

"...You're number three in the whole Hegemony in dueling? Wow, you must be of Jaxtian nobility."
"I am. Jinn Garastra."
"Oh! I had no idea we had a dueling prodigy in our midst! Perhaps you could teach me some of your pointwork which I could apply to my simple food preparations!"
"Oh... It's all intended to be used on warm meat instead of cold, haha, I'm sure Swall Spear dueling you are way better then I could be!"
"Thank you, your Grace!"

You feel dirty saying it. The Jaxtian balks

"Well, err...hold on now, I'm not the Supreme Ruler or anything..."
"I just simply wanted to show... an adequate level of respect. I'll ask the AI not to charge you your recreational tokens for the meal." You cringe. He looks very pleased with himself, and gracious.
"Oh please! The Garastra line would never impose among the common people like that; you are a craftsman here, it must be properly rewarded. If anything, I'll tip double. Hear that computer?! Make it so! And thank you for the food!"

He turns to leave, getting his moment of noblese oblige. You sigh, not wanting to make any enemies. You hope none of the Swall in the restaurant judge you too harshly for being such a suck up, but it was the best way to get him out of your hair.

As you make the rounds to take more slice requests; you see the hands of a regular patron come up to get your attention. The old man who visits every week; on bluefin day. He smiles, relaying his thoughts through signs.

[You. Handled. Well!]

You sign back in thanks. You don't think he "said" it to you in sign because he wanted to keep it on the down low; sign language is learned by all Swall before written speech and is easier for protected groups. Young hatchlings are too agoraphobic and underdeveloped to use their lungs much; and are born fully independent since Swall aren't mammals... Well, you weren't. Vocal chords are an evolutionary luxury, moreso then hands; and once Swall reach a certain age they could strain or even snap if they speak. It's not dangerous, but can be very painful, so you understand completely why he'd prefer to talk this way.

It is the year 203 of the Resurrection Era. Notable current events? The death of the once-immortal Cijan Anak, the 100 year anniversary of alien reintegration of the Hegemony, and the Esaal's genocidal attack on a far off planet. To top it off? The Supreme Ruler has gone into seclusion following an unspecified illness.

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2025/6266528/

You were hoping these last few years would be kinder. You finally achieved your dream of opening a Slicery right here, on Myym, the planet-wide megacity built on the ruins of Swallia, your species homeworld. The transfer request wasn't that difficult after all, the city is meant to be the height of your culture and jewel of the Hegemony; and specialist dining and entertainment is a massive part of making that bit of civic planning a reality. Though you don't think Swall are "first in line" exactly; much more important to place them in aquatic and amphibious environments on the various Hegemonic planets. All that underwater space otherwise of little use to the surface-dwelling Hegemonians...

You look out over the interior space. Trees underneath an ocean. It's quite uncanny, living in what is essentially a giant forest. The large open spaces do not make your race feel very at home here. But where else are you supposed to go? This was your homeworld. Though the Hegemony has made a very good job at having you all feel welcome; not at all an underclass as the “aliens” were once treated. Nothing like the Hazaar, or even the days of Cijan Anak. His death was the last legacy of your place in the Hegemony before Wrix Val, the Unspeakable. And now, with the Esaal attack...

To be blunt, the Swall are not doing good right now. You've tried to distance yourself from politics and things like that to focus on your craft, but even you can't ignore it. The Esaal attack hurt the Swall worse of all the Hegemony's races. Millions of Swall were killed, and Migrators too of course, but many Swall feel that that ocean world could have been “your new home” as it were, or at least one of the more promising planets. And here you are, looking over the hollow interior of what was once your homeworld and natural habitat...

You've got a pretty good head on your shoulders, and think you represent the average Swall's opinion. How do the Swall feel about the transformation of your planet?

>Unhappy, but that is the fate of a conquered people
>Fine, it is a marvel nonetheless
>Grateful to be allowed to be alive at all
>Other (Write-In)

>>6313658
>Other
>Grateful their treatment seems to be improving, but still unsure b b/afraid of their future and safety
I guess my logic is, the Swall in 100 years went from being dead to being "1.5 Class" citizens. But it's hardly easy to forget genocide. They should still be worried about the chance the hegemony decides to just...kill them again. You might say this should make them unhappy, but at the same time when the Hegemony is so powerful and their enemies are either weaker than them or straight up worse (Esaal) there's really no way to "resist"

I imagine the Swall will never fully trust the hegemony until they REALLY become 1-1 equal with Jaxtians. We'll probably need a swall Supreme for that.

>>6313661
Ah, shit, ignore that "b b", mistyped. I think my suggestion is pretty clear though. They should objectively be glad that they're improving but still paranoid about the possibility they'll just end up dying out again, especially after their "new home" got genocided

>>6313661
I like this one

>>6313658
>Grateful to be allowed to be alive at all
I wouldn’t be surprised if they thought they wouldn’t have been genocided if they originally joined the Hegemony in the first place.

>>6313670
I don't think Swall are *that* submissive, they're pretty individualistic.

>>6313661
+1

>>6313658
I'm >>6313031 on mobile, and can verify later.

>>6313658
>Unhappy, but that is the fate of a conquered people

>>6313672
they are individualistic but they can see the writing on the wall living in a pretty nice place more then most of the galaxy even if there is some anxiety that one of your species will do something so stupid enough to get your entire people killed but atleast you are not a capitalistic serf or having to deal with the Esaal species or the worms
>>6313661
support some logical anxiety but it has improved with time along with dread about Esaal but sort of happy the jaxtians fought against the Esaal even after what they did instead of just logically leaving as there was nothing they could do we are enough of a part of them to retaliate instead of complete apathy

>>6313720
>they are individualistic but they can see the writing on the wall
I meant the part about feeling how it wouldn't have happened if they joined the hegemony earlier. They're not stupid. The vetuckers did it too and they got genocided all the same.

>>6313721
True. Wrix got a little carried away.

>>6313658
>Filled with self-loathing at your compliance and struggling to hide your self-destructive impulses.

Let's go with "all messed up."

>>6313658
>Grateful to be allowed to be alive at all

The Swall of old knew that banding together with one another was the only way to stop factionalism driving them toward nuclear Armageddon. The Swall after them should have realised that we could not be apart from the Jaxtians... either the two societies joined, or one would inevitably destroy the other. Survival is better then extinction, no matter the form that survival takes.

>>6313693
This is me.

Okay, so, from what I gather, the vote is

>>6313661
>>6313664
>>6313693
Grateful but worried

>>6313670
>>6313841
Grateful to be allowed to live

>>6313698
Unhappy

>>6313812
Self-loathing

>>6313658
>>Grateful to be allowed to be alive at all

Well, that's cool, now we got a tie...a whole day later...

Unfortunately do to "the incident" I will not be able to update today, and possibly not tomorrow either. My sincere apologies.

>>6314287
sorry, work sucks man.

>>6314287
A tie between 'Grateful' and 'Grateful' isn't really a tie. They're the same picture!

This extra post brought to you from 3 years ago.

>>6314457
Neat!

>>6314376
The tone is rather different. One is subservient gratitude to the Jaxtians for generously not re-genociding them. The other is a guarded gratitude specifically for improving relations, coupled with fears things will get worse again. The intentions are not the same.

For example, I voted for the latter, but if write-ins weren't allowed would have gone with
>Unhappy, but that is the fate of a conquered people

>>6313658
>Fine. It is a marvel nonetheless. Could similar efforts be done to make Swall friendly worlds?

>>6314678
>Could similar efforts be done to make Swall friendly worlds?
How do you mean? the resurrection pods just spit out clones of select races at unpredictable intervals sometimes, right?

>>6314682
The terraforming of a world into a 'water hive world'. I was playing on the curiousity and problem-solving drive of a science/engineering race to view the issue through a problem solving lens rather than a lens of hoplessness. Mania rather than depression.

>>6314853
Except that a "Hive world" is kinda against the Hazaar standard? Myym was built as a Jaxtian-style city, back when we didn't have any other race except the Hazaar. Swall would much rather have oceans to swim in.

>>6314854
>Hazaar
Swall*, fuck. I keep confusing those two names, I don't know why.

>>6314853
Well we can terraform worlds somewhat for sure, but I don't see its relevance to.the genicide/rebirth

>>6314854
An ecumenopolis was a gard sell for any Hegemonic race, in fairness. We had to dedicate Wrix's flamboyant son and all his aesthetic genius to making it at all pleasant for even a Jaxtian to live here.

Yes. It was from the perspective of the individual Swall. It was a question asked by our lone fishman to themselves, not a question that I had for Bannannas. The Hegemony does have the technology to reshape worlds to be amenable to Swall colonization if they feel like it. These wouldn't be towering jungle cities, but it sounds like a mix of shallows and depths with some islands or air pockets for specialty work.

Truthfully, logically, you should just be grateful to be alive. Your race lost the evolutionary arms race, just abstracted to a technological difference instead of a biological one. You were defeated by a "superior" species. Any and all second chances are not normal or to be expected by any other species in the galaxy. You should consider yourself lucky, and perhaps even grateful, that the Jaxtians did not finish the job when they easily could have.

But...

That doesn't change what happened, nor does it calm the fears and doubts and scars of those born after the genocides. The original survivors who crawled from the life pods are almost all dead now; but even so, the question remains. What's stopping them from doing it again? Some sort of new utopian ideal of the Hegemony? Or is it merely the novelty of being a multi-species empire that will one day wear off? Despite many strides by Hass Takar and Avae Anak to grow your populations and use the conquered Hazaar worlds to grow many new communities of Vetucker and Swall; you are still a minority in the Hegemony and its greatest institution, as well as sole Supreme Rulership, remains firmly in Jaxtian hands. You've been killed before when it was convenient to do so, and you could simply be killed again. Your only assurance is a promise that they won't. For the Swall, the Hegemony has become a new, great government and power to live in and serve by necessity; though not serve out of choice or love.

You are now Grover again.

You take your collection of snails, gently shaking them over a pool of water with small stones to simulate a hunting encounter. By instinct they release the slime, letting you collect it. You strain it, concentrate it, and finally crush it with simple earthen materials to form a paste. Creating custom medications like this, those not made for profit like a performance enhancing drug or for athletes, is common given there is basically no profit to be had. No one is willing to exploit the people who need it, so it isn't a profitable thing to manufacture in the first place.

One old man you visit can't lift his arms up very high. He mostly must live in water at his age. But this ointment washes off too easily in water. You will apply the ointment for him. Around the back of his neck and top of his spine, you rub in your hand-made medication and muscle relaxer. He visibly becomes more comfortable. His jaw stops popping. That's a good sign.

"...Alright Mr. Mistwave. I hope you're feeling better! Remember not to go into the wet part of your house for at least 3 hours to let time for the ointment to set."

The old man nods, signing to you shakily.

[Thank you! You. Are. Kindness!]
"Thank you, Mr. Mistwave."
[Without. MAR- ID- ITH. Cannot. Apply. Ointment. By myself.]
"Don't worry, I'll come back in two days for the next dose. Make sure to use the emergency telegram if you have something serious, ok?"

You find it easier to respond to him vocally, since his eyes aren't very good anymore. He's nearly blind. Not that he needs them much in the wet parts of his house. Electric lighting underwater is way too rare and expensive. People who live in all wet houses are poorfolk; and living outdated in the last century.

[Let. Me. Give. You. This!]

Mr. Mistwave uncrumples a bill from his shirt pocket. The waterproof plastic is noisy, and the denomination is higher then you expect.

"Oh... I can't accept any money, Mr. Mistwave. We work for the community only." You say, softly.

He shoves it at you again, a smile on his face. You think maybe he doesn't hear you, so you sign to him instead.

[Cannot. Take. SC- OUT. Rule!]

He shakes his head. Insisting the bill into your hands.

[No. One. Else. To. Give. It. To.]

>Accept the money
>Refuse the money

ADDITIONAL OPTIONS
>Accept money but donate it to the Scout Troop instead of keeping it like he wants
>Other (Write In)

>>6315569
>Accept the money
Meh. The man wants us to keep it. So long as we don't start acting like this is an expected reward its all good I reckon.

>>6315569
>Accept money but donate it to the Scout Troop instead of keeping it like he wants

>>6315569
>Accept money but donate it to the Scout Troop instead of keeping it like he wants

It helps us help others

>>6315569
>Accept money but donate it to the Scout Troop instead of keeping it like he wants

I'm >>6313031

>>6315570
>Accept the money.
Self interest is Ok.

>>6315569
>Accept money but donate it to the Scout Troop instead of keeping it like he wants

Update will be finished and posted ~12 hours from now. Thank you for your patience.

>>6315569
>Accept money but donate it to the Scout Troop instead of keeping it like he wants

You decide to keep the money, but not for yourself. You give it to the Scout troop. As charitable donations of money aren't very common, you'll have to put it on the ledger for a future large purchase or recruiting efforts. Giving charity is not common among the Swall; not only because all people are naturally self-interested for themselves and their families, but also because it sets a bad precedant for society. Just like your Mom and Dad always said; giving people things for free just makes them entitled and makes everyone else who didn't receive that treatment jealous; it causes more problems for society overall. They never had a problem with you joining the Scouts though, and if anything seemed happy. Maybe because of how good it looks on a resume...

The next day, after waking up and eating breakfast, you rise from the wet part of your family' home to the dry part, looking at the television.

Your Dad bought this model just five years ago. It's a Spectra LLV model. Decent screen resolution, capable of color with special filters applied to the screen; otherwise its black and white. It's already hideously outdated. You don't blame him for not wanting to get a new one though, the new one will probably be outdated in just a few years too!

Unsurprisingly, the Hegemony broadcast is playing. While not exactly huge fans of them, the Hegemony does have the best signal, the best picture quality, and has uninterrupted broadcasts with zero commercials. It's quite surprising they are able to run their network without any kind of advertising compared to normal Swall channels, who rely on it to stay funded. You heard that the very day the first color televisions came out, the Jaxtians had already begun broadcasting in color, while most Swall stations took at least a few months to adapt, like they were ready for it. As part of the agreement between InterCon and the Hegemony; they are allowed to broadcast to all of Swallia without government censorship or blocking. But, Swall are free to ignore the broadcasts if they want. Your parents are standing around watching this one though. It's about the Death of a Jaxtian.

You see a very old Jaxtian on the screen, and the narration goes over their painful and inevitable demise by a disease called the Geriatric Protien Collapse. You wince as you see the boils and pustules growing on the poor elders body. Their families must feel terrible being unable to do anything about it. Then the statistic that over 90% of Jaxtian will die from this disease, or more accurately be euthanized because of it. The broadcast shows a tearful goodbye of the primate's family and life-mate as they enter a pod to breathe their last. It's awful!

“That's what they get for playing with their genetic code.” Your father says, heartlessly. In a way though, you know he's right. Elderly Swall don't die of such terrible, unnatural fates.

...What you find strange though, is the specific condition. Protein Collapse? You've heard of that before, actually. At your school. Strangely, you believe it's a condition that only effects arthropods and insects, not mammalians. Studying biology is one of the many subjects you study at your school; along with nuclear physics and capitalist economic theory; common subjects for children your age.

Crustaceans shed their shells to become larger in a process called molting. However, their rapid metabolism of old biomatter can lead to a syndrome where their proteins collapse and unravel themselves. When this happens, the organism will be unable to molt that year, and will simply choose to not grow any larger instead.

That specific passage is one you remember. Doesn't that mean... it's survivable? You're quite confused, the Hegemonic broadcast mentioned it as having a 100% mortality rate. Perhaps because it's not a natural condition for them, or perhaps because of their lack of biodiversity, they just simply don't know any better? While a Jaxtian is obviously not a Crustacean; you find it strange that they seem to be having such an issue with the collapse. Maybe they've simply never studied creatures who have it as a natural part of their life cycle? Or more likely they probably have and simply never found a solution to it, or this is considered a “good enough” way to end the average Jaxtian's life and their dystopian government doesn't want to spend more money to try and fix it. But that's not a good enough answer for you.

You'd very much like to help the Jaxtians cure the protein collapse. However, you aren't really sure how.

With how the Scout troop has been going, rather boring and uneventful after the thrill of Summer vacation starting has worn off, you figure this would be a great project for your summer vacation. As of right now, you figure you'll need to research protein collapse, find a sample creature that can survive it and then somehow transmit that information to the Hegemony from your own planet. Which is easier said then done!

What should you do first?
>Recruit your friends to help you in your project
>Study up on the Protein Collapse at your school
>Gather up some invertebrates to find example organisms
>Work on setting up a transmitter that can send signals into space
>Other (Write In)

>>6316437
Make way, make way! Future Science Overseer BrightReef Grover is coming through!

>Gather up some invertebrates to find example organisms

We don't know it now, but if we are among those resurrected by the pods, we'll have our chance to communicate this to the Jaxtians eventually. For now, we need to take advantage of those unique resources which the Hegemony has not studied (and never will, since this world will become Myym): the local fauna who have the same medical problem.

Our friends are unlikely to see the personal value in this, and I am doubtful our school holds a solution since I doubt anyone is trying to cure lobsters of geriatric conditions.

>>6316437
>Gather up some invertebrates to find example organisms
Imagine if he's about to cure protein collapse and then fucking wrix comes, kills him and burns all his shit

>>6316437
>>Gather up some invertebrates to find example organisms

>>6316437
>Gather up some invertebrates to find example organisms
Seems legit.

>>6316437
>>Gather up some invertebrates to find example organisms

>>6316437
>Study up on the Protein Collapse at your school
Got to do the background reading first! We COULD just grab some invertebrates at random, but study beforehand will tell us what to look for.

>>6316629
Shi, ur right anon. We don't know what invertebrates we should be picking. I fear you're a bit too late for that though. I'll change >>6316448 to
>Study up on the Protein Collapse at your school
But I'm not sure others will

>>6316437
>Study up on the Protein Collapse at your school

>>6313661
>Grateful their treatment seems to be improving, but still unsure b b/afraid of their future and safety
>>6316437
lobsters just grow so large until they die of exhaustion or get stuck inside of the shell or sometimes just decide not to and the shell stats rotting around them

>>6316738
I think you copy pasted the wrong vote anon

Not that it'll matter much unless someone changes to studying protein collapse in school.

>>6316738
Alien lobsters, anon.

To start, you need at least some examples of the protein collapse in nature, to see how it works. Maybe you can see how creatures survive it, or take all-important chemical samples. Even if you don't really have... a laboratory for this kind of thing. Scouts work with wild and domestic animals all the time; so it won't raise too many eyebrows.

But as you go out to the nearest reef with a stony field, home to many underwater invertebrates known for molting, a thought hits you. How are you going to... justify this? Morally, you know that taking random creatures from the wild is wrong. It's restricted for a reason; only allowed for commercial purposes to stimulate the economy or for medical or science research, which is technically what you're doing, but you aren't exactly getting permission. You get the feeling they'd probably say "no" after all. Pet ownership outside of a few fish species is heavily restricted as well for the same reason; food is acceptable husbandry, recreation isn't as to not teach bad behaviors to these animals. What are you going to do if you get caught or questioned? Guess you really haven't though that far ahead...

What should you do?
>Grab and isolate some likely candidates in jars and label them for medical use
>Take them home and seal them away in a wet part of your house under your parents' gills
>Try to make your observations in the wild instead, though you'll have to sacrifice some more days of your summer vacation
>Other (Write-In)

>>6317399
>Try to make your observations in the wild instead, though you'll have to sacrifice some more days of your summer vacation
We're pursuing our passion here!

>>6317399
>>Grab and isolate some likely candidates in jars and label them for medical use
They are for Medical use indeed.

>>6317399
>Try to make your observations in the wild instead, though you'll have to sacrifice some more days of your summer vacation
Would probably be better to observe them in their natural environment as to not cause stress and mess up their molting schedule somehow

>>6317399
>>Grab and isolate some likely candidates in jars and label them for medical use

Hmm, I'm not sure whether keeping them in jars or observing them in the wild would be more efficient

>>6317399
>Try to make your observations in the wild instead, though you'll have to sacrifice some more days of your summer vacation
Ehhhh, nature, bro.

>>6317399
>Try and make your observations in the wild instead, though you'll have to sacrifice some more days of your summer vacation.

Selling them as medicine is likely to be the most pro-ape choice, but I like the idea of Scout roughing it on a camping trip and observing the ecosystem in action while hiding from sharks.

While we have a minute: How are you liking the thread so far?

>>6317901
I've been liking it. I like learning about the Swall. They've really won me over ever since they were revived. I didn't care much for them before, they didn't really have that much going on. But now...

I distinctly remember, back when we only had the Hazaar, that I said the supremeship should never ever be taken over by an x*no, since the Jaxtian identity was the very core of the hegemony and anyone else would screw it up. And while that's still true, I think that the Swall are honestly deserving of having at least one shot to show what THEY would add to the hegemony on the steering wheel. The Vetuckers have too much herd mentality and everyone else in the galaxy either sucks or is too different. But the Swall? I want them to become a real part of the "nation", not just a small vassalized group.

>>6317901
I like it.
My "guess" is that our kid will be scrubbed dead but his school project or whatever will survive.

>>6317901
I am sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop, and I'm not sure I entirely get how the dominant political philosophy of the Swall works, but I am enjoying it!

Why would you delete that. That was awesome.

Sorry about the lack of updates the last few days. I don't have much excuse, and I'll need to delay today as well for work. My apologies. I'd like to get back on it as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.

>>6318562
I didn't I think it got mod-nuked, which is weird, because it's not even nudity. Someone really does not like Hazaar, kek.

Instead of disrupting the ecosystem or having to deal with taking some "new pets" home, you decide to spend more time observing your new charges instead. The little scuttling crabs and lobster-fish; kindly giving you all the boring observations you could possibly need for your new scouting project. Of course, this takes time, which is one things kids have a lot of, but also patience, which kids have very little of.

Every day, you see kids rushing out to the shores and shoals to play in the water, to explore, and to have the freedom you also crave. But yet you're stuck here, watching stupid little crustaceans. Your friends, Maximilian, Reginald, Nathanial, Jason... even Constance. They're scouts too, mostly, but none seemed to take it as serious as you. You can't blame them really, because watching these animals is just... boring.

You get some revenge in your mind with misanthropic thoughts. How foolish of them to play and laugh in the sun-lit waters! Don't they know that this will likely be the last summer, maybe one or two more at most, they'll get to splash around like this? Soon the young "schools" of fish will have to start taking their real "school" more seriously soon. Soon, the biological impetus of mating will begin for your species, in which case boys and girls are separate and chaperoned to prevent a mating bond forming where it shouldn't. People will be expected to take on their family businesses or seek high positions in society and wealth; to care for their own future offspring and their elders. Of course, this is your own future too, but you put off thinking about it. Life as a Swall sure does seem rough from your perspective. It's all school and studying, work, marriage time, repayment of the society that brought you up, and then elderly life; where you pay the price if you didn't make a strong enough family or get rich enough to beat back poverty and humiliation. Work work work. You wonder, bleakly, if the Scouts are some attempt by your society to steal away the precious few years of fun you get as a child; and you agreed to it with enthusiasm.

After just a few days of observation, you do manage to pick up some really useful patterns though. You don't really see any individual animals with the signs of the protein collapse; but you do see some shed shells. They look a bit melted. You take a few as examples and for further study. Even these spots of disease seem to concentrated and intense for most cases of protein collapse in nature; you think maybe they're concentrating the "bad" proteins in their body to shed them? An evolved defense against it?

Eventually, you do find a few living members of the crabs with the condition. Big purple splotches, slow movement, and large sizes indicate advanced age. But they aren't laying around dying, they all seem to be moving in one direction... towards open water. Yikes!

While it's not that you can't go to the open water, just the idea fills you with apprehension. To the Swall, open ocean is to be avoided. All Swall are naturally agoraphobic to an extend; preferring plant cover or artificial hideouts, to avoid predators. For a diurnal surface dwelling creature, you suppose the closest equivalent would be like going into a dark forest in the middle of the night. Not an instant death sentence or anything but just simply... not done flippantly. Swall did cross open ocean many times throughout their history; in big migrations or even in wars as a way to surprise their foes by going around their defenses set up along coastlines and shallows. Seldom few Swall cultures lived in open ocean for long; the caloric density of the open ocean is like a tundra or a desert, as opposed to the reefs and bays exploding with life. You really need to follow the sick crustaceans and see where they are headed, but you can't just go swimming out there unprepared. And you can't exactly ask a grown up for help, as they aren't likely to say yes. Even going out there by itself could get you in trouble; but it's easier to ask for forgiveness then permission, or so they say.

>Steal your dad's harpoon gun so you feel a little safer
>Bring some camping supplies with you
>Try to get at least one fellow Scout to come with you
>Other (Write-In)

>>6319109
Hmm, I don't know. How many predators are there in the open sea? Is the problem the sea, or the animals?

>>6319109
>>Bring some camping supplies with you

>>6319109
>Steal your dad's harpoon gun so you feel a little safer
It's just borrowing, really. A loan. Our research will pay him back!

>>6318562
Let's try this again/spoiler]

>>6319109
>Bring some camping supplies with you

>>6319109
>Steal your dad's harpoon gun so you feel a little safer

>>6319114
Alright, well...I've thought over, and I guess that while IDEALLY we would get both camping supplies AND Dad's Harpoon gun, I'm guessing that's not a choice.

Well, since the UPDATE said that the "caloric density" is like a TUNDRA or DESERT, I can only assume that there's not a lot of big predators - after all, you need a lot more calories to survive on big predation if you're not one of those insect-eating bottomfeeders.

Therefore, I will go with
>Bring some camping supplies with you
And hope that the update was supposed to be implying about the correct answer rather than making it a coin toss.

>>6319503
>Well, since the UPDATE said that the "caloric density" is like a TUNDRA or DESERT, I can only assume that there's not a lot of big predators - after all, you need a lot more calories to survive on big predation if you're not one of those insect-eating bottomfeeders.

Not necessarily. Earth’s open oceans are nutrient-poor, but in many regions they support large predators like orcas, great whites, and giant squids. They survive by roaming huge ranges and preying opportunistically.

>>6319508
Not as nearly nutrient poor enough to be classified as a 'desert' though, no? If there were enough animals to sustain giant predators, then the Swall wouldn't consider it nutrient poor because they're literally predators themselves.

>>6319511
Au contrair anon, they are very much known as deserts just biological deserts as the lack of nutrients such as iron and phosphorus make it so not even plant life will grow, they are lacking in that which supports life not just water specifically like the traditional desert

>>6319513
Okay but he specifically described it as a CALORY desert. If the Swall, which are predators, say that the open ocean is like a desert in terms of finding food, how would there be giant predators in large numbers? If there are things to predate on then it wouldn't be a desert for the swall either.

If this is this thread's autism argument meltdown it's a little lackluster imo

>>6319518
Sorry mate, just a regular discussion on marine life. Nothing worth an autistic meltdown in this thread yet.

>>6319516
The answer: there are large predators, but probably fewer of them, just like Earth's oligotropic zones. Look it up, anon.

Plus, don't we already know for a fact there are those alien sharks out there? Is that not WHY Swall regard the open ocean as being like a spooky dark forest?

>>6319531
I would have assumed it was due to it being environmentally dangerous. The elements. They are predators themselves, after all.

Again, I would have preferred to take both supplies and the gun, but without the both of them being an option, it seems like running out of food is a far bigger threat than any predator.

You know after this argument there's a 100% certainty we're going to run into a giant predator and lose track of the snails or worse. Like it's pretty much set in stone now that you went an argued about it. It's totally happening.

>>6319543
The most dangerous predators of the waters...

>>6319539
>The elements. They are predators themselves, after all.

well, we know how it goes.
>Pick camping, the answer was gun
>Pick gun, the answer was camping

The nice thing about camping gear is that the tent is like a little nest to hide you from sharks on the sea floor. If worst comes to worst, take two tent poles and a cover to make a shield, and another tent pole for a spear, and ole the shark like a hoplite or a matador. I imagine that fighting a shark with a tent pole might require rolls though.

fun new capcha. Is a diamond a circle? I'm assuming so.

>>6319667
>fight a shark like a matador or hoplite would using improvised weapons
Big ask for a little kid.

This is why hiding comes first.

Genuinely don't have any ability to manage time any more. I'm sorry.

Have some rough draft of Monke/random creature designs as a consolation

>>6320128
The second picture kinda looks like some sort of Urgi Power Armor.

>>6320131
>>6320132
Duck people from Glorantha rpg

>>6319550
kek

>>6320173
Also kek!

>>6320128
>>6320131
Nice drafts


Life is hard, I know about it

spacer

To see where the afflicted crustaceans go... you'll need to venture out to open waters. Best to be safe by bringing along useful camping supplies. Some sealed snacks, light, fathom pole, heating packs; just the basics. You don't think you'll be out that long, hopefully, but it also pays to be prepared.

You gather up the supplies from your scout group's communal stockpile at the garage. There, you are met by Mr. Roughscales again.

“Preparing for a trip?”
”Oh, err, yes! I'm sorry we're taking up so much space, Mr.Roughscales!”
“Nah. This room is rarely used now. Business really ain't what it used to be. Where you heading?”
”I'm studying sick animals with the protien collapse, it will help me achieve a Naturalist badge.”
“I'd certainly be willing to sign off on the witnessing credentials!” He promises, helpfully. “But that's not really something Swall get... You think you can make a natural remedy out of that?”
”Some species do, like Jaxtians. I'm curious to see if it can be cured.”

The older man is quiet for a moment.

“You're going out? Into deeper water?”
”Uhm... along the coast.”
“Hopefully not be yourself, right? There was a Zhark sighted there not too long ago.”
”Oh, not alone! Hopefully, hah, it won't be there by the time of our trip.”
“Shoot the whole thing.” Mr.Roughscales warns, shaking his hand dramatically. “It's not going to be safe out there until winter when the seas get cold. You should camp inland instead. I'm sure you can find some way to get your merit badge there.”
”Oh... well... I'll postpone the trip. Thank you, Mr. Roughscales...”

You did lie to him. You feel a little bad, but you can't exactly trust anyone else to take this journey as seriously as you are. You don't want him to tell your parents, so hopefully this ends it here. Still, he seemed strongly advised against following your research. Adults can be so weirdly stubborn.

Ooh! A giant sea clam! Petrichor crabs! And look at the igneous rocks along the sea floor!

Tenatively, you've set a date and gave an explanation to your parents. You're “going to a friends house” for today. You don't know how far out you'll have to go, so better just make sure you'll be covered for an overnight stay. Leaving the relative safety of the shallows and reef for the first time for the open ocean was a bit stressful, but quickly you've found yourself enjoying the sightseeing. As a Scout, you learn about a lot of natural wildlife and the marine enviorment, even though you rarely get to see them yourself. The number of fish rapidly dwindle, and the few you do see get bigger and more ugly in color; more adapted to lonely life out here in the quiet depths.

Almost no Swall societies existed out in open ocean for any period of time. You can see why; it's so open and exposed, with no real natural resources other then the oppertunistic movements of large animals. Plus, more importantly, no land access. That means no fire, no wood or other useful crafting materials, no ability to dry out fish skins for basic leather... As much as the Swall feel themselves as being uniquely aquatic, you are as dependent on dry land as any terrestial creature. Probably why no Swall nations in history were ever “waterlocked”, else they simply couldn't develop.

You bounce yourself along the sea floor with your fathom pole; letting you conserve energy while swimming, and more importantly keep a good distance away from the fire corals dotting the sea floor. You'd rather not touch those; some fish use them as cover, but Swall certainly are not immune. They'll melt your scales right off and cause them to grow back all crooked and messed up forever; and that's only after you feel the immense pain from a simple touch. You've followed the trail of the crustaceans, and you think you may have found a place where several tracks and activity peaks. There is a small formation of rocks, with a natural grotto within.

Inside the grotto, you find several of the crustaceans you've been following; old ones especially; and several large and rare kelp plants. You can't identify the species.

Hmm...

You don't know why exactly, but you have a strange hunch. Watching them, you think some of the sick invertebrates are using these plants as a natural curative for their protein collapse. How do they know to do that?! Sure enough, some scavenge the shed kelp pieces from the grotto's floor, eating them oppertunistically. You look closely, seeing the structures within the aquatic plant in a rigid and highly organized structural lattice. You need to research this more; but something about this plant could actually be the secret to how to cure the protien collapse. It's easy to test too, you just need to take a sample and feed it to some of the lobsters and crabs that have the protein collapse, and see if their condition improves. You feel elated!

Taking some samples and readying yourself to leave the grotto, you feel weridly apprehensive. Is it just you, or did the ocean get quieter?

You poke your head out of the grotto to survey the waters around you and, if by instinct, duck back inside instantly. The large body of a Zhark swims by just overhead.

Oh no...

Zharks are one of the only natural predators of the Swall. Despite their obvious fully aquatic nature, they are actually your closest living relative among animals. While you are morphologically very different, Zharks have almost the exact same organ ratios, the same venom glands, same gill and similar teeth, just more of them, and even the same brain structures. Though scientists swear up and down Zharks are no where as intelligent as Swall, stories of their seemingly instinctual cruelty and cleverness abound in your historical literature and folk tales. Most of these have been forgotten, but even your advanced, scientific, and highly developed society can't fully scrub away it's superstitious tradition.

Zharks have been known to study prey items to find their habits and routines, prey on lone individuals, and single out weak swimmers or those with their backs turned to it. Despite having to constantly keep moving to move oxygen across their gills, unlike Swall, some have even been said to lay in weight; practically suffocating themselves; just to lay an ambush for a prey item. They are pretty scary, and the main reason Swall don't go out into open water. Especially not alone. Like you did.

Yet despite all this; the Swall never deemed it appropriate to eradicate the Zharks. They're too central and important to the food web; their role as Apex predators and a form of population control against all manners of creatures is too important. The Swall government even protects them; but they thankfully stay out of the shallows. Perhaps learning that sticking around means harpoon guns aimed at their direction. But you went out from the shallows, and you are trapped.

While you are fairly certain the Zhark can't get into the tight spaces and rocks of this grotto, you also know the Zhark isn't going to pass you up too easily. You're a juicy target out here; lots of biomass and a slow swimmer with no natural poisons, toxins, or quills that can upset the Zhark's hungry belly. What are you going to do?

>Hide in the grotto with your camping supplies until it goes away
>Throw out some food as a distraction and make a break for it
>Try to make bubble signals for help to arrive
>Other (Write-In)

>>6320669
I would have personally gotten the harpoon gun after hearing about a shark sighting, but...

Anyway, I'll ask a question - is there anything stopping us from both making a signal AND waiting out the Zhark? I don't know how long these things can go without eating but I feel like just waiting it out might just not work.

>>6320670
You can do both, but the "hide" option is more making zero noise or movement so the Zhark forgets about you or loses track and the "signal" option is more about making a bunch of bubble signals (like smoke signals but underwater) to get attention, so the Zhark would know something is there but just not be able to reach you. Similar but two different approaches.

>>6320669
Do we have any scout-acquired knowledge of their weaknesses we can exploit? If not,
>Try to make bubble signals for help to arrive

>>6320678
I see...but I'm not so sure the Zhark would forget so easily innit. I guess it depends how long it can go before it decides its wasting energy.

The good thing, if it's smart, is that it can probably tell its not a good idea to try to force yourself through a really tight hole, so...

>>6320669
>Hide in the grotto with your camping supplies until it goes away
I guess I'll add that we could start doing signals if it doesn't go away after a lot of time. It's probably more useful if we wait until they start "searches" anyway - right now, nobody is looking for us.

Is there any fire coral we could use to try and make a pain stick that we can use in a bait and stab approach? If not, I favor lieing in wait and studying the lifeforms in the cave. Are they edible enough to stretch out our rations?

>Hide in the grotto with your camping supplies until it goes away.

>>6320703
I will consider this a write-in
>Make a weapon

Do we even know if a zhark would FEEL a Firecoral?

>>6320669
>Make a weapon
We're smart. Smart people make weapons.

>>6320687 is me, and I'll change to:
>Make a weapon

>>6320774
They're our very close cousins, so if it affects us, it seems likely it will affect them.

>>6320820
I mean, monkeys are our cousins, but they still can't eat chocolate innit. But I guess that's a bit pedantic given this is just a story.

>>6320824
Fair. This is a little different in that it's an external venomous defense... It's a chance I'm willing to take!

Is it bad that this reminds me of X-Men Apocalypse's line about the Babylonians and their swords and fire sticks?

You could try to signal for help, or just wait around. You have supplies enough to last out here for at least a day without getting too hungry or banged up. But even if you do... are you sure the Zhark can't get inside the grotto? You'd feel a lot safer if you had some kind of weapon.

Beyond a very small pocket knife, there isn't much you have to really fend off an attacker, especially not one so big. You banish any ideas of being able to kill the Zhark; Swall folkloric heroes never killed them anyway. Stealing from a God and slipping away unseen or archetypal tricksters tricking beings far greater then them dot your mythical past. You figure that the fire corals are your best bet. But you can't just stab the Zhark with a coral, you won't be able to get close. You want something at arms length... maybe a spear?

Spears are an archaic weapon. Despite their importance in your prehistoric societies and mythologies, even artwork and burial traditions often included spears or the imagery of spears; in modern times they have mostly been forgotten. Nobody learns how to fight with them, as they are an inferior weapon. Nobody glorifies mastery or warriors who once used spears; as the socio-economic factors creating the conflicts that lead to their use have now been solved and abstracted. Conflict of roving bands of Swall for valuable resources and mates have been evolved into resource collection and acquisition through capitalism and assets; bloodless conflict. It's a superior system; though you really don't know much about that. You just think you'd rather have a gun in this situation!

Except... Spears have stuck around in your culture for one small thing. Your species nuclear weapons. Much in the same way spears were used as they are effective in water and on land, and are especially useful to keep away larger and more dangerous predators; so to were the first nuclear weapons so named as spears. Many early Swall scientists and thinkers thought that the cosmos might be similar to an ocean, and may also be filled with creatures. Your people know now this is true; as space is filled with alien races, some belligerent and violent. As such, a global defense network of space-launching nuclear missiles were created as soon as your technology was capable of making weapons of such strength; envisioned as being your new species "spears" pointing out of your homeworld, threatening anyone who came too close looking to prey upon the young Swall. You suppose it worked too; as the Jaxtians were so afraid of them they forced your government to disarm their nuclear weapons and enter an agreement. You have autonomy while they colonize and watch the stars above you. Even to children your age, it is clear that the Jaxtians and their Hegemony have a certain advantage over the Swall, but putting your spears away as a sign of good faith is a generally agreed-upon good choice that makes peace between the races more likely.

You take some fire corals and carefully knap the edges with smooth stones to make it sharp and pointed. You make small notches, breaking the coral along natural fault lines, careful not to touch it directly to your sensitive hands, and eventually form it into a sharpened spearhead. Then, you attach it to the end of your fathom-pole, creating your improvised weapon. You don't even really think the sharp point is necessary, given how painful the coral already is just by touch, but you feel much safer with this at hand.

By the time your weapon is finished, the sun is going down on the surface, and the light piercing the water gets dark very quickly. It's far too dark to swim out into open water now, meaning you're spending the night here. There is no chance you're leaving when it's dark. You break out one of the underwater emergency flares; making light through a burning chemical reaction that's state of the art, and check the inside of the whole grotto; paranoid that the beast could break its way in. But you don't see any cracks or crevices it could fit through, and even if it did, you are confident you could stab it with your speak if it tried. You even get to have a snack. As the light fades you settle down to sleep in the cool waters, thankful for your species ability to breathe through your lungs without having to swim, mindfully entering a state of suspended animation yet with your eyes remaining open. You feel no need to blink when under water. Overhead, the light from the twin moons of Swallia are occasionally eclipsed by a large moving shape; the Zhark; keeping well above the grotto. It hasn't left yet, it seems. You think for a moment it's doing it on purpose; like a demon of folklore taunting you with your upcoming demise. But no, it is merely an animal trying for its next meal. No need to personal something operating on raw instinct.

The next morning, as the sunlight returns through the water and you shake from sleep, you take the last of your snacks and poke your head out tentatively. Is it gone? You wait a while longer, not sensing any disturbance in the water. Even the other fish are out again; scuttling creatures moving out from the cover of the grotto, including some of your potential research subjects; looking health and happy even though the protein collapse seems to ravage them. You are eager to get back home again, and don't want to wait any longer. After a few minutes of caution, you cut your sample straight from the kelp stem for maximum freshness and head out from the safety of the grotto back into open water and towards the shore. Staying in that grotto was getting boring anyway!

But as you begin your swim back, you get a trickling feeling of paranoia and the sensation of being exposed again. With no easy cover on the sea floor beneath you, you turn about to see what is following you...

>Quest continues tomorrow

>>6321170
Oh shit, here we goooooo

If our boy manages to wound or even kill the Zhark, that would literally put him beyond the level of Swall folkloric heroes.

Of course, it's probably also illegal as fuck so we can't tell nobody.

>>6321392
not until we resurrect from the life pod anyway, kek

There, in the gloomy distance, you can see something large swimming. Your eyes spot it and pick it out from the background water and sediments in the ocean; its color is familiar. Like an instinct to catch a swimming Swall in the distance. The Zhark has been following you.

You don't know what to do. You shouldn't have left the grotto, but you're a dumb kid afterall. Dumb kid who is about to be lunch. You could sink closer to the sea floor to limit the angles of attack but, an impact against the ocean floor would likely knock you unconcious. Floating up to the surface is even worse, you think the light up there would only further your ability to see its natural camoflague. But you can see its eyes glinting at you.

You open up your hand and sign to it, impotently. You “shout” your words, making the symbols as big and obvious as you can.

[Go. Away!]

You repeat the symbol. The Zhark doesn't react; but weirdly keeps looking. Almost like its trying to understand.

[I'm. Warning. You!]

You don't dare to take your eyes off the large animal. And then, within a moment, it glides away silently, and disappears. You grip your spear tightly and begin to lower it towards its direction. You hope that means it went away, but you know that isn't what that means.

Sound carries well in water, but you hear nothing but the slightest hint of water wooshing as the Zhark slams into you. Without even thinking you turned towards it, spear in hand, the spear suddenly lurches back as though it struck into something; then bends and the pole snaps. Its immense weight slams you backwards; sending you reeling and forcing you to let go of your only defense. Your eyes sting from the sudden cloud of darkness. What is it? The Zhark's venom? Your venom? Your blood? The Zhark's blood? You can't tell. There's nothing to think about; only the instant instinct to dart away from the confusion; to find safety. You instinctly know which way is up, and which way is towards shore and the shallows, and that way is the way you go, without even opening your eyes and seeing how much of your flesh is missing.

Quickly, it becomes apparent none is. You come to the shallows and the shore; and you are still alive.

You fall onto the beach in total exhaustion; a swim that fast and far is not normal for Swall your age and very taxing. You break through the last wave hearing the laughter and conversation of people on the beach; and suddenly realize you can't breathe. The suffocation makes you panic until you realize you're still trying to use your gills on dry land; your neck hurts from them stretching and trying to push water thru them uselessly. You open your mouth and use your lungs instead; its hurt to inflate them so quickly when you haven't used them in over a day, but you can finally breathe again and fall onto the sand with an exhausted slump.

After a second, with the sun in your eyes, you reach down and pat your special kelp from the grotto, still on your belt. You dropped or threw off most of your other supplies to reduce drag and escape faster; but this one made it. If this thing actually can cure the protein collapse... those monkeys better freaking appreciate it!

You laugh in triumph after a moment more of rest. You actually did it! You faced a Zhark; no guns, no submersible craft, no travelling in a goup of 20 plus to watch all possible angles and scare it away with sonar pings; but with a spear! And all by yourself! It was stupid, yeah, but you still feel amazing. Who are you going to tell?

>Brag about it even if you get in trouble
>Tell your parents and accept their punishment
>Only your closest friends and become the coolest Scout
>Keep it your own secret

>>6321657
>Only your closest friends and become the coolest Scout
So long as we make sure they're not the kind to snitch.

>>6321657
>>Only your closest friends and become the coolest Scout

>>6321657
>Only your closest friends and become the coolest Scout

>>6321705 is >>6320820, btw. I' just on mobile.

>>6321662
>Only your closest friends

Cool shark encounter

>>6321657
>Keep it your own secret
Epic dad lore to tell your kids

>>6321836
>Cool shark encounter
It was some pretty neat art, especially when it was lurking in the murk, at the edge of perception.

>>6321657
>Tell your parents and accept their punishment

>>6321657
>Tell your parents and accept their punishment
Bragging rights need to be secured

>>6321657
>>Tell your parents and accept their punishment

>>6321657
>Only your closest friends and become the coolest Scout

>>6321657
>Tell your parents and accept their punishment

kinda sus

>>6321705
>>6321706
I will verify that this is me, and this is my only vote.

>>6322430
Hopefully that reduces suspiciousness, at least a little?

>>6322436
Pretty sure he's talking about the toootally organic flurry of votes for telling your parents for absolutely no reason. Just a bunch of people suddenly voting like that out of nowhere a long time after the vote started. Totally organic guise

>>6322461
They are all long time voters though... I dunno. Plus, "closest friends" wins anyway.

>>6322465
Having a lot of posts on your ID doesn't exclude you from being a samefag.

Holy shit it's samefagfag again. I hate this guy.

>>6321657
>Keep it your own secret
Who you are in the dark.

I personally don’t care how this vote ends, because we already know how this story ends. I just wanted the kid to be publicly known as an absolute badass for Rambo-ing a natural Jaws shark Predator-style, like a kid Arnold Schwarzenegger, before this quest ends in the Chimpout.

But hey, you do you lads.

>>6322467
>>6322755

The winning vote is still to share it with his friends, as it stands. Stop malding, please. It's unnecssary. Also, as sen innteh segments in the "present," this story doesn't necessarily end at the genocide.

>>6322780
Ain’t malding if you don’t care lmao

Also don’t know how you could avoid this story ending in genocide, considering we’re only a couple years away from it and the Hegemony didn’t find any cure in the Wrix era, but I suppose the kid could die before the Mask

>>6322878
Genocide wouldn't necessarily be the end, for the reason I keep saying: people killed in Wrix's genocide were revived afterwards. Multiple copies of them, in fact, unless I'm mistaken.

>>6322991
The only real issue is finding a way to keep the plant. Even if it's dead, if we can get the plant to somehow survive the apocalypse it could be found and remade with the life machine, especially given we have a second one.

Going to have to delay the update again, sorry.

As a side note; whoever drew this concept art in the qtg; I really liked it! Really captures the Monke style.

And I will also post this one just so I don't forget it later lmao

spacer

You somehow managed to survive a Zhark... it was scary in the moment, but it is still kinda cool. You want to tell someone about it, but your parents would kill you. Not to mention and Sea & Wildlife or ecosystem government body might want to have a word with you for putting yourself in such a dangerous situation. No no.... you'll only tell your closest friends. You may bask in their adoration, but only to those who are close to you and would truly appreciate it as a major milestone in your life. As for today? It's back to normal summer vacation. Same as an other. Hopefully, next year's will be a little less eventful.

You are now Southstorm Theodore again, and while at a community pool and swimming space, your mind starts to wander again.

You know... ever since you moved to Myym, you've noticed the large amount of swimming pools, diving areas, large and open walkway spaces; all things unbecoming of the average Jaxtian. Deep within the city centers, you can find murals or pieces of art that don't seem to fit the normal Hegemonic mold. In fact, deep under the water in this pool, there is an inscription of a Zhark, a now extinct apex predator from this planet's past. You wonder, why would the maker of the city put these things here? You're sure there are a few Jaxtian freedivers but... it's almost like the artist who crafted this city knew that your race would exist in it. It seems impossible, given the context of what happened in that age.

What do you think?
>He somehow knew your race would return
>It was an apology for the sins of the past
>Artistic license
>Jaxtians may have evolved themselves to adapt to more biomes in the future and this was future-proofing
>Other (Write-In)

>>6323599
>Artistic license
Seems like the most reasonable guess for someone like hin

>>6323599
>He somehow knew your race would return

>>6323071
That's Sojourner.

>>6323599
>It was an apology for the sins of the past
Surely some Jaxtians felt guilt.

>>6323599
>It was an apology for the past, but also either knowledge or hope for the return.

The Jaxtians already had access to the life machine, were genetic experts, and had access to the Swall genome. They could have brought the Swall back with their existing technology if they cared enough to do so. These murals and spaces could make future Jaxtians wonder about the Swall, perhaps enough to remake them. The culture would have been lost, but a new purer Hegemonic Swall could have come to be, though the Artist perhaps hoped for the reincarnation of the originals rather than the New-Swall born of modified gene-seed alone.

Swall protect their children fiercly. Do the children also similarly seek to protect their parents?

>>6323599
>He somehow knew your race would return
I like the idea of a bit of mysticism, and Wrix’s artistic son was my favorite part of the post-Mask era, where he put wondrous secret Easter Eggs meant to inspire.

I’d love for this Swalli to feel the same magical wonder he felt as a child, if only for a moment.

>>6323599
>He somehow knew your race would return
The swall...were always going to return.

>>6323599
>It was an apology for the sins of the past

>>6323599
>Other (Write-In)
Autistic fascination for swalls

It had to be simply an artistic apology; a recognition of the original "owners" of this planet. Your people's planet. As much as you can "own" a planet anyway. It doesn't make sense any other way. But when you look at this scrawled illustration of a Zhark deep in this diving pool, looking at you with its ancestral hatred and feeling the sense of instinctual fear; you just have the strangest feeling that this wasn't really meant for the Jaxtians themselves to gawk at as some cultural artifact. Like a cathedral to a dead world...

At the very least, your Slicer restaurant is doing well. The Hegemony has no actual requirement for your business to turn a profit as long as its value of novelty, positive experiences, and culture is still up to the standards the AI network likes. But things have been busier. You think that appealing to the ego of that Garastra kid really helped spread the restaurant to the rest of the Hegemony at large. Despite the dietary differences; Jaxtians have been coming to try it out. You even included a vegetable cut as a novelty of traditional Swallian seaweed; a high fiber palette cleanser mostly only used for medical purposes or as bulk for Biocubes; still grown on the shallow aquifarms in the city's sunlit layers. But Vetuckers have actually taken a liking to it, coming to the restaurant as the most unlikely new guests. It's been nice to see so many people interested in your culture, but in a way, you kinda wish it was still mostly Swall in the restaurant. It felt like "your place". You wouldn't dare ever say it in public though. You're sure that's some kind of anti-social sentiment. You're a still a guest in this city after all...

You are back to being Grover again, and you've been studying your findings. While it's hard to tell in the wild, not having the ability to easily track the various invertebrates relating to your project, the sample of kelp you collected seems to have positive effects! You are almost sure it's a cure, or at least some kind of natural remedy. With your summer vacation days rapidly dwindling before your eyes, you get a little impatient and capture a little bug which looked sick with the protein collapse. Over the past few days, you've been feeding it in Mr.Roughscales garage, keeping it far away from your parents notice as your "new pet", and you think it's turning around despite its new cramped conditions! You'll release it soon, but you might need it as evidence for your findings...

At home, things have been quiet. With most of the scouting responsibilities done with, you've spent a lot of time in the nursery with your little sister. She's recently hatched, still unwilling to leave cover; but curious enough to watch you make hand signs and try to teach her words.

[Hello!]

Trying to say something to a being with no concept of language is very strange. Your mother having a second child so soon after her first is a good sign though; you might even get to walk to school before you're busy with your own work or family or whatever. That's a rare sort of thing! You'd feel like a protective big brother. Not too different from how InterCon feels about you. Pfft. Like you believe that.

Recently, you've been having a lot of thoughts. Specifically about your special project. You might just have a cure for their terrible condition. Even the research would be useful; you don't think the Jaxtians know any creatures on your planet naturally get or have resistance to the protein-collapse. Even this information would be extremely useful; with their genetic modification technology, they could probably do a lot with just a few samples of your little pet and the kelp.

...But how are you actually going to tell the Jaxtians?

At the present day and age, communication with the Hegemony it basically impossible. Broadcast messages can't really be encoded and sent just to them; it's as public to any Swall with a radio. There's also the legal and operational precedent. You assume that your government, InterCon, has a direct line of communication with the Hegemony but that may not be true. Within your autonomous zone, your planet and its twin moons, the Swall are to have air and space superiority. The Hegemony gets the rest of the solar system, and likely rest of the galaxy, if your impression of their imperialist goals is spot on. But even if InterCon can talk to the Jaxtians, will they do it? It would likely have to go through a bunch of official channels. Who would you even tell? Your local magistrate or defense coordinator? Maybe the headmaster of your scouts? But they manage an entire ocean...

Truthfully, you just don't trust the people in charge of you. Call it intuition, but you just don't feel your contributions will be taken seriously. And that's not even counting the possibility of sabotage. It's highly likely that InterCon could try to take your discovery and politicize it in some way, maybe as a bargaining chip to try and regain more sovereignty over your space or nuclear arms, and the Hegemony would try to manipulate things in their favor. And even if you could contact the Hegemony directly... would they even tell their own people? The "Supreme Ruler" is a dictator of their whole society. Absolute power corrupts absolutely; all Swall know this. He might hoard it for himself; or make a special deal with InterCon to have a few plants for his own personal use farmed here, but for the billion of poor, not-noble born Jaxtians? No no, that's much too expensive, too politically inconvenient... you can see it now. You don't want that to happen.

Not that you trust your own government to act in the interest of the Jaxtians either. Even as pure benevolent aide; too much blood has been spilled in your history by communists and collectivist mania. You don't think an honest outreach program would help. You need to do this yourself. But how?

Swall haven't unlocked the secrets of FTL flight or communication. Lasers, which are cutting edge technology only found in a few laboratories on Swallia, could work but you'd have to aim it at multiple planets perfectly adjusting for stellar rotation and it would take decades for the light to travel there; no, you aren't capable of that. So instead, the only idea you have left is a direct data transmitter. A powerful, experimental device used to transmit data from room-sized computer rooms across vast distances. It's being researched as an alternative to telegram & electricity towers that stretch across the dry parts of your planet, and there's one at your local school. But you're too junior of a student there to really justify renting it for an experiment! But it's summer vacation, so it's probably empty...

What should you do?
>Go to the school and see if you can get access to the machine
>See if any local business are using a similar piece of equipment
>Write your findings in a journal and put it in a time capsule
>Other (Write-In)

Hm, I don't know. The fact is, he technically can't have succeeded on telling them directly. Using a time capsule would be the "meta" option given what we know happens. But since it's a meta option, does that not mean it's the wrong one?

>>6324758
Perhaps... make a meta choice? Do you really want immortal Jaxtians?

Pros: Seems like a way to make Threemind and AI in general less necessary. People might like more consistent characters as they are explored deeper and become fan favorites like Bluey. Long lifespans may lead to motivation for cultural gains.

Cons: This might just lead to different medical problems. Immortal characters tend to get really weird and twisted. Cultural and technological stagnancy and resistance to change. Long lifespans can mean convoluted long term grassroots resistance may become possible.

I'm split on this decision as well.

>>6324817
>Do you really want immortal Jaxtians?
This wouldn't actually make them immortal. though? It would just increase their lifespan because they'd no longer suffer from the breakdown. But they wouldn't suddenly be ageless.

>>6324747
Aww, that's adorable.

>>6324755
>Write your findings in a journal and put it in a time capsule
One day, when we're big an important, we'll go retrieve it and make history.

>>6324860 is >>6323645 on mobile by the way.

>>6324755
>Send out directed radio waves or coded laser pulses (if that technology exists) or something into space. It would be valuable to send at least one transmission into an area where it can reasonably bounce between celestial objects. Even if the Jaxtians don't find it, someone will some day, and could be facing a similar biological bottleneck due to convergent evolution. As the current rulers of nearspace the Jaxtians are the most likely to intercept it at this time. Can seal the hard copies in my time capsule.

>>6324755
>Write your findings in a journal and put it in a time capsule

>>6324755
>Write your findings in a journal and put it in a time capsule

I'm going to actually override the time capsule idea; the character has no reason to do it and I couldn't think of another setup for the "heist" mission. No idea why I included it in the original prompt. Sorry.

>>6325136
We need some Kewl Jars that are only at school, just sitting right next the school's machine.

I'm just gonna rewrite the prompt. I was really unhappy with the last one anyway.

I would also once again apologize for stamping down the obvious "meta" choice but I genuinely regretted writing it and thought (for some reason) people wouldn't pick it.

>>6325152
It happens.

>>6325152
To be fair, it's like i said in >>6324758, it's a bit weird in votes like these because you KNOW that the direct option kinda has to fail.

You write down all of your findings in a special journal. Along with the various observations and samples; it would be nice to get this published. You even have the idea to put it into a time capsule to preserve it for the future, perhaps when technology improves but... what would the point of that be? The truth is, you don't really trust anyone to get this information where it needs to go. Your government has a vested interest in controlling information sent out to the wider universe, especially the Hegemony and their Supreme Ruler. Both anti-Jaxtian sentiment to avoid angering them and communist or anti-InterCon factions who may try to ally with the Hegemony to act as a military proxy or insurgents. Even if they dug up your journal a hundred years from now, the Swall in charge wouldn't be any more likely to share this information with the Hegemony then your government today. The idea of sending the journal up in a rocket ship also appeals to you but, obviously, that's not going to happen either. Only the first few early space missions have ever been flown, and no manned flights to either of your planets moons...

No, you have to broadcast your findings.

But how exactly are you going to do that?

As with today's technology, the most powerful broadcasting devices that send messages directly along the wires. The interference from your planets complex tidal systems means radio transmissions are very weak. Lasers are a new technology, but those would require a huge amount of power and room-sized conductors and computers to handle all the complex calculations... no no, you can't rely on those. Only your school has that kind of equipment nearby, and the only way to get your message out there and show you've developed a possible cure for the protein collapse is to broadcast a signal out into space yourself.

You realize you could have bought a simple transmitter if you would have kept the money from the kind old man you helped... blast. Hobbyist devices like that are around, but expensive. Since you can't just buy one, you'll have to get creative...

How are you going to get your transmitter?
>Spend the rest of your summer vacation building one yourself from scrap (chance to fail outright)
>Embezzle some money from the scouting group or your parents to buy a hobbyist radio
>Burrow it from your school
>Other (Write In)

>>6325175
Well, I'll wait to check if someone has an idea, but otherwise I'll probably go for
>Burrow it from your school

>>6325175
>Other (Write In)
>Get a part-time job at a slicer cart
If it's allowed?

>>6325180
Getting a part time job seems interesting, but is a slicer cart really a choice for that?

>>6325175
>>Burrow it from your school

>>6325186
It has a low skill barrier to entry in Grover's era, and we know where to find a guy to pester for a job.

>>6325215
Yeah, but I mean, does a slicer even need/is able to afford a part-time helper guy? You don't usually see street vendors hire part time helpers. It's always just themselves or family. Cuz they're poor.

A part time job would probably take too long for Grover to buy a radio himself. He's also slightly too young (closer to the 10-12 "kid" age then teenager age). Part of the time pressure inherent is to finish this "project" when he's a young and carefree kid going on adventures before he gets busy with work, school, marriage, etc.

Well, seems like getting it from the school is probably the best choice then...embezzling the money definitely won't turn out good.

Right, and we can't do a money making scheme to fund this, because then we'd get sucked in to the capitalism instead.

>>6325175
>Embezzle some money from the scouting group.

We donated that money to the group in the first place. Now we're taking it back out to buy this radio to work on our advanced telecommunications badge, which could be a way to teach our scouts cutting edge skills to get a job in this developing industry. It's a gamble, but not totally unreasonable. Put the expenditures on the books. Get creative with the verbage if needed. Buracracy & creative accounting!

Also, we're fish, not moles or echidna. We shouldn't be doing much burrowing.

>>6325337
Anon, you know very well that we'd get immediately caught.

Who checks the books? If it's us or if we are creative or convincing then it's not a problem.

I guess my point is that we need to be in a position where we are capable of embezzling the money, otherwise it wouldn't be an option.

>>6325347
No, the option means we can try. We can also get caught, at which point our friends would think us a fuckwad and our parents would probably get rid of our research as punishment.

You decide tokeep the money, but not for yourself. You give it to the Scout troop. As charitable donations of money aren't very common, you'll have to put it on the ledger for a future large purchase or recruiting efforts. Giving charity is not common among the Swall; not only because all people are naturally self-interested for themselves and their families, but also because it sets a bad precedant for society.

First, our father is opposed to this research to begin with, so we probably didn't tell our parents what we are working on. Thus it's unclear if they would know enough to destroy the research in punishment. Secondly, our acquisition using the Scout funds is potentially in alignment with scout values and thus not worthy of punishment. Third, we appear to have access to the ledger, so we just put in the ledger that we took the money out for the large purchase of the radio-thing. If the ledger requires a purpose, said purpose is training in this rapidly growing field, which will open up economic opportunities for the scouts who devenlop an understanding of this cutting edge technology. Is it even embezzling or is a large purchase in furtherance of the scouting ideals? So it doesn't matter much if we get caught. We're doing Scout Stuff tm.

>>6325222
I see.

>>6325423
>>6325337
I'll back this, then.

>>6325175
>Burrow it from your school

Digging into our school to get it sounds cool

>Embezzle some money from the scouting group or your parents to buy a hobbyist radio

It is all for the good. We must commit crime in order to save the monkeys, who in turn will be grateful to us for all time.

>>6325337
+1

You know your school has a radio... An entire lab with equipment too. Schools are very important in your society, as they directly teach the all-important skills and knowledge that create the business capitalists and citizens of the future. They tend to teach every valuable subject; as in an subjects that make money; and innovation is a huge part of Swallia's projected growth. They're also very competitive, because schools who don't chrun out high value people with good careers don't make any money, because that is where schools get their money from.

Like many things in life, your parents and family line will usually determine what school you go to. There's no tuition, only the understanding that you'll splash-back the costs of your training and education based on your future funds and innovations, based on how much the school directly helped. You'll be a founder and patron of your school too one day. The absolute minimum is 15% of your income for 15 years; but many give much more. Of course there is no actual law or rules in place to enforce this, as not to bankrupt those who fell through the cracks or to give room for those to protest bad schools by not giving back but... I mean, nobody would abuse it. That would just be foolish to bankrupt the next generation mentally and finanically. You wouldn't dream of it.

I mean, you fully intend to give it back. If you steal radio equipment from your school that is; but what if you break it? Your mind shifts to Ribbonfin Casper, that little jerk who always brags about not caring about school since his parents own the most successful garage and repair shop business in your town; what kind of smug look would he have? Or you think of Constance... you'd hate to disappoint her. You decide against taking it from your school. Instead, you decide to look at the scouting budget.

Just barely...

With the money you embezzle from the scouting discretionary budget, you head down to a local electronic and specialty store and grab the radio transmitter you need. But quickly, it becomes apparent you'll need a signal booster, and a display and tuning guide to actually accurately see what you're doing. You end up spending a lot more then the small donation you received, and will likely cost the scouts your winter trip or a future food or clothing drive. Of course, the radio technology could be useful for the scouts at some point in the future, but if people found out you did this primarily for your own project first and foremost... you'd likely get kicked out of the scouts. That's the risk you decide to take.

Did you really need all this stuff? The store owner really put one over on you! She was quite a salesperson...

With the equipment procured, you have one more step. You need to decide where you are going to send your broadcast. You know all radio equipment at your school is on the top floor, and most big communications arrays are in the mountains because of interference... What should you do?

>Drag the equipment up the mountain and send the signal out to space
>Try to find a useful broadcast channel from your own house
>Use Mr.Roughscales Garage's roof for a bit of elevation

>>6326332
>Drag the equipment up the mountain and send the signal out to space
I can only hope that our boy was smart enough to fudge the numbers instead of leaving a giant mark behind as the one with access to the money.

>>6326332
>Use Mr.Roughscales Garage's roof for a bit of elevation
He's sympathetic.

>>6326341
I don't really want the risk of him looking at our equipment and realizing it's the reason behind the "hole" in the funds.

>>6326332
>Drag the equipment up the mountain and send the signal out to space

>>6326332
>Drag the equipment up the mountain and send the signal out to space

>>6326332
>Drag the equipment up the mountain and send the signal out to space
>Invite the other scouts as part of this mountain climbing/radio broadcasting/starwatching expedition.

This radio equipment was a big expense and its utility should be shared. We can stick around after everyone else goes home from the camping trip because we are an enthusiastic radio enthusiast. I can imagine several badges appropriate for this trip. Mountaineering, survival, mechanics, radio, astronomy (would need other equipment but is relevant), journalism (to document our trip to the mountains and how competent and innovative we scouts are), logistics, high-altitude biology. There are numerous opportunities for professional development for scouts on this trip to help justify our fun-time radio broadcast. Again, we can stick around at the end to broadcast our manifesto and tell the others that we're going to endurance test the system by having it broadcast some books. Organizing the trip will show our leadership skills.

>>6326502
>>6326344

You know, okay.

>>6326332
Changing from >>6326341 to back >>6326502

>>6326502
Support.

>>6326502
The MC was more trying to keep this "contact the Jaxtians thing" a secret.

>>6326684
It's a dumb idea anyways. Should have said that before you embezzled. But anons just keep trying to force something even when it no longer makes sense. Changing votes after time passes is very rare too.

>>6326332
>>Drag the equipment up the mountain and send the signal out to space
Keep it a secret boss