rebelarrow | IC Contact

rebelarrow

I'll call you back later.

TEXT | VOICE | VIDEO | ACTION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

rebelarrow

[Judd follows a strict code of ethics where he doesn't intrude on someone's mind without permission, but he appreciates the caution just the same.]

Go ahead.

From:

helpdesk_hero

In the pop-culture lore of my world it is held that werewolves can only enter their were-form on the full moon, or maybe that and the two nights bracketing it, and that regardless of whether they see the moon or not. Is the same true of shifters in your world?

[Yes. Start small and work around to ‘unimportant’ details.]

From:

rebelarrow

Not any more than my abilities being tied to any sort of cosmic cycle. Changelings are both animal and man. Limiting their ability to shift would wound both sides mentally.

Under normal circumstances, they can shift forms whenever they desire.

From:

helpdesk_hero

Oh my, seems like my world has gotten it quite wrong. Still, it is good to hear they have control. Though I'm left wondering if there are situations where there is uncontrolled shifting.

From:

rebelarrow

[There might be another reason, but curiosity has Judd in its snare and he isn't about to point that out now until he gets to the bottom of what this is all about.]

The pups have a tendency to shift randomly, but they're still young. It's mostly spotaneous semi-shifting that occurs when Changelings are experiencing extreme emotions.

[A pause.]

It can be forced through psychic interference, but it's an extremely vile practice.

[And he'd personally take out anyone that thought it was a good idea.]

From:

helpdesk_hero

Okay now that is beyond disgusting to even see typed out. People who do that deserve shot.

But you’ve got me curious about ‘pups’. So all groups of shifters refer to their young that way?

[[His interest is piqued. He is now genuinely invested in the topic.]

From:

rebelarrow

You get no argument from me.

It depends on the pack. The wolves call their young pubs, the leopards and other cats (and the bears) call their young cubs.

I have no idea what the water changelings call their young--they're incredibly isolated, even for Changelings.

From:

helpdesk_hero

Water changlings? Tell me more.

[Focus and intent lost. Data pursuit wins.]

From:

rebelarrow

Changelings come in all species--wolves, deer, leopards, bears, tigers, rats, snakes, eagles, lynx, hyenas, swans, wildcats, falcons...

That includes water species as well. However, they've historically been incredibly insular, and we're all playing a little catch up. A conclave of water changelings have sprung up in the last century, with its current alpha being a woman I've met multiple times, but we'll all be damned if we know what her animal is.

SnowDancer betting pool currently has it at great white shark or killer whale.

From:

helpdesk_hero

There are shifters for non-predator species? That's not something my world ever imagined.

From:

rebelarrow

Yes. Changelings divide themselves into predatory and non-predatory species. The non-predatories typically live on predatories lands and receive their protection.

I've got a non-predatory deer buck on my speed dial--he runs the bar the juveniles get into all kinds of shit in.

Other predatory species need explicit permission from the pack that holds the land to live in or travel through pack lands. Pack law.

Edited Date: 2019-10-16 12:25 am (UTC)

From:

helpdesk_hero

Wow, that's all really interesting. Formalized processes in the best ways. What, I have to wonder, is the value to protecting non-predatory species? There has to have been an evolutionary bias for that? And is there interbreeding between species?

From:

rebelarrow

Changelings are protective by nature, and predatory changelings take it to another level. [Dominant predatory changelings can sometimes be downright insufferable.] The process had to be formalized to prevent another war.

The value to protecting other species is that, again, they're protective by nature. While predatory changelings have no compunctions hunting down a wild deer, the human side has no desire to go after a Changeling Deer.

Even if they aren't altruistic, changelings can only keep the land they can protect, and that includes ensuring safety of those lands to everyone in it.

Edited Date: 2019-10-16 12:49 am (UTC)

From:

helpdesk_hero

Consider me truly captivated by your world. How, originally, did Psy figure into this social structure?

From:

rebelarrow

The common theory is that we all started out as humans. Psy and Changelings merely evolved differently from them--Changelings physically, Psy mentally.

Pre-Silence, Psy married and lived freely among Humans and Changelings. However, we had a much higher insanity rate as a result of our abilities. Insanity would often lead to violent outbursts.

In 1979, we implemented the Silence Protocol in an attempt to curb it. Psy knew that our abilities were tied to emotion, and that through emotion we lost control, so through Silence it was conditioned away.

From:

helpdesk_hero

That's inhumane. Control is important, yes. But emotional castration is vile.

From:

rebelarrow

You sound like my pack.

We were desperate.

I can understand the desperation of the initial council that signed off on the Silence Protocol. I fought breaking Silence, even if it meant not being with my mate, until it almost killed me.

Because the idea of having emotions and harming someone on accident wasn't worth the payoff.

From:

helpdesk_hero

Emotions will always hurt people. But a lack of them hurts people more. And makes it easier to see those with emotions as lesser, as needing controlled.

From:

rebelarrow

You caught on to an issue of Silence a lot quicker than most.

It also allowed for the truly Silent, the sociopaths, to roam free unchecked. The latter Psy Council's even covered this fact up, to protect the Psy and to protect Silence.

[He knows. He helped to cover it up.]

You'll be happy to know that Silence has fallen. The Psy reputation is long in tatters among the other races, and it will take decades, if not another century, to repair.

From:

helpdesk_hero

Yeah, I was going to point out that it makes it hard to pick out people who are just sociopathic and more likely to hurt others. It's a lot worse when you can silence your victims. Let them live in the horror.

You seem more... emotionally open.

From:

rebelarrow

I broke Silence 3 years ago.

I've been told I still sound a little toneless.

From:

helpdesk_hero

You seem quite expressive for three years. And that coming from a psychiatrist.

From:

rebelarrow

Our emotions weren't excised, merely buried. Some things came more naturally than others.

And I have no doubt living among Changelings helped. They're as emotional as Psy are emotionless.

You also seem a little young to be a psychiatrist.

From:

helpdesk_hero

I told you about my powers, right? Psychomimetic? I retained a portion of what I had absorbed back home. I'm just rolling in doctorates and medical degrees and so many other things.

I'm a fucking blackbelt in telepathic warfare, not that I ever had the sort of telepathy to allow me to make use of that.