(no subject)

[keaalu]

Stupid on-call. -_- To start with it was busy as heck in the dispensary all day. And now Somersham ward just called, they want "Nutriflex Peri 1875 PLUS". I have no idea wtf this is. :\ I've checked the PRS, no dice. The OOH TPN sheet just mentions "Nutriflex Peri". I didn't even know this stuff EXISTED. So I'm going to have to beg Penny AGAIN for information on what the heck "Nutriflex Peri Plus" is. :\

Typical bank holiday. *headdesk* And I'm STILL coughing.

Edit: Oh! And Pabishka's changed a bit. She's part of a tri-gendered species, and she's a "high female" (who make up the bulk of the ruling class). Yeah, I swiped the idea a bit from some published sci-fi (...which I have NO IDEA where, I just heard "three genders" and went "ooh I try" and forgot the author. ¬_¬) , but eh. We'll see if I can get it to work.

Comments

[jill-dragon.livejournal.com]

So how does their reproduction work? Is one gender technically neuter? Or do all three play a biological role?

[keaalu.livejournal.com]

Hmm, not really "neuter", as such... well, kind of, I guess? Hm. Like I said, I took the idea from some other sci-fi, as it seemed sufficiently weird/creepy to work for NaNoWriMo. ;) But I can't remember a lot of the details.

Gist of it is as follows. I'm going to change the words a bit, some are pretty clunky, but I need something to use while I get it down):
One is "traditionally" male (originally known as instigator, but "male" works just as well), one is "mostly" female (known both as bearer and "low female"), as we'd know them on Earth, but although the female has a vagina, she has no ovaries, so she can't get pregnant on her own. The third is a "high female" (originally also known as mediator), with masculine features - she has the ovaries and a vagina, but no womb. Instead she has an "ovipositor"; she is the one that has sex, to make a fertilised ova, which she then implants (with the ovipositor) into the female. About 50-60% of the population at any given time are bearers, 25-30% male, 10-25% high female.

High females are the ruling class because they have huge power over reproduction; casual sex is very much a popular activity, but if she considers the male to be "inappropriate" (e.g. too crude, too classless), she can just "oviposit" the fertilised ova into a disposal cartridge (or anywhere else she deems fit). (This was originally to ensure the foetus was genetically sound - major birth defects would be sensed and the egg rejected before it could implant and become more difficult to terminate.) This has been taken to more political lengths in modern society - only males the high female likes and deems suitable for having children ultimately get them.

Unfortunately, the "lower females" don't get a lot of choice in the matter. Not only can they not make children on their own, as they have no genetic material of their own, they also have to submit to the high female that "owns" them (as 99% are slaves, seen as little more than animals). It used to be that it was a communal decision between "mediator" and "bearer" - all three genders had a role to play in producing children, with all three coming to a decision based more off emotions, and the bearer could also reject a foetus if they so chose, provided it was early on - if circumstances changed, if raped, etc. Male and "mediator" could also have a bearer as a child. Failed foetuses are a lot more common in the species - something to do with the complexities of the sex xhromosomes, but I've not thought too hard about that.

These days, however, lower females rarely get a choice in whose children they carry; they are hormonally blocked from rejecting, and rely heavily on their owner for all their needs - "misbehaving" would mean their food, clothing, shelter etc is cut off. Most do admittedly live comfortable, well-tended lives, but they're treated more like valuable livestock than people. They're also mostly born through cloning - high females having "bearers" as daughters is a very taboo idea!

Madam Pabishka is a high female, and owns a high-end brothel. She has a harem of several dozen personal bearers (although she would rather indulge in "play coitus" than "functional coitus" with them, and only has a few children - four male, two high female) and owns a couple of hundred prostitutes (although they're known as something else, to make them seem more classy/less "people", although I'm not sure what to call them yet). She's a major shareholder in Nuori-Deuchainn SocialDesign™ GeneLabs, hence how she comes into contact with Lara.

Phew. China's Great Wall of Text™

[dragonheadthing.livejournal.com]

Hm... Interesting. I can tell you are putting some thought into a three gender thing could work.