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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 2, 2018 13:22:55 GMT -5
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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 2, 2018 13:24:01 GMT -5
LIFESPAN & IMMORTALITY
Humans on Set have it rough. Life in a decent town still comes with the risk of being snipped into tiny chunks by a pack of angry lobsters. Space junk likes to show up to ruin a life or twenty every once in a while. Bad healthcare and backwards folk medicine mean injuries are twice as lethal as they should be. Even up in orbit, the sheer deadliness of space has a way of levelling the playing field for spacers. Between infant mortality and garbage hauler visits, a bottom-level townie can expect around 35 years of life. Under good conditions, a human on Set usually goes for about 80 years of life - and only in the absolute top percentiles of life on the planet. Space Loonies get it rich. 230 years on average, longer if they're the cagey sort.
Long lives on the Looney side of affairs aren't rare. It's not only that Loonies go the distance. It's that some just never stop ticking. Some time in the heyday of the Pioneer Network, the Loonies found the fountain of youth. Whether it's through black-box brain cybernetics or genuine eternal vitality, immortality has finally arrived. The oldest man alive, as of the present day, is Roger Demmitt of the so-named Demmitt Command Post; 812 years and counting between around a dozen different bodies. No one has an accurate count on the men and women reaching for the thrones of the gods, but the Loonies have made sure it is anything but high.
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Post by Insano-Man on Oct 2, 2018 14:01:15 GMT -5
INTERSPECIES RELATIONSHIPS & PARENTING
It doesn't take very long looking at a redworlder to see that the aesthetic appeal is still there. It doesn't take too long thinking on the subject of sorassan to realize that a hole's a hole, no matter where it is. That doesn't make it all any less icky. Even for Space Looney fleets with shared sleeping arrangements, xenophilia is not popular. For most species, it enforces itself; if it's even physically possible, alien ideas on romance usually stop it dead cold before it can start. Only the greys can really make it to the lust stage - and lethal allergies usually kill both parties before they can finish.
Stations up in orbit and multi-species towns typically have a set of regulations forbidding interspecies romance in the physical realm. Mostly, it's to keep people from killing themselves. In the emotional realm, the line is more of a mine field. Open-minded communities keep a "don't ask, don't tell" policy - up until a body turns up. Conservative and pre-emptive places usually try to clamp it down to nothing more than friendship - even if proving more than that is a nightmare. Alien prostitutes on Lebedrovez and down in Cloneston can make things as confusing legally as they are anatomically.
When it comes to parenting, things ease back. It's not uncommon for humans to foster little greys and redworlders to foster little pinkies. Unionites are just a software download away from being stable, reliable parents. Boglanders make for interesting experiences for everyone involved. It's often regular practice in multi-species communities to hire out friends or professionals to help take care of a child that doesn't match their parent's genes. In most cases, it's vital; details on nutrition, medication, and developmental cues can only come from an expert on the subject. In some cases, it's just a matter of keeping the kid on the right cultural path to make sure their own kind doesn't end up rejecting them.
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