Hello again Chrontius
Hi again, Nightstalker! :D
You weren’t kidding that really was a moral minefield there, and a really deep one too, still from the outside it looks like you have it in hand.
I’d like to think so. Basically, this was all inevitable from starting principles; I could choose denial, or to embrace the implications. Telroth’s player, DarthAndroid, prefers furry-style fantasy - I’ve seen him produce over 400 eggs, but I’ve never seen a peep out of him about supporting those 400 children. It’s kind of a Republican thing to do… ;)
I prefer the other track - I could have ignored the implications and had better wank material, but by not ignoring them, a rich, detailed world emerged, and the story now writes itself - I feel like I’m just along for the ride, responsible for transcribing the results of a simulation for the written word.
… Which is to say I absolutely do not have it in hand. However, as far as I can tell, the problem will self-correct in between fifteen and twenty years. (We’re at year 12 now)
Got a couple follow on questions for you this time after the last round plus a few more general ones this time
Okay, shoot!
Statically speaking is it more common for someone to choose to become a dragon VS being born a dragon
There are more turned dragons than natural-born dragons. Consider rate of production: a human can be turned in a week, one per nanotech tank. Breeding dragons requires a fertile female and male, and the female has to be willing to carry a pregnancy. There are many more nano-tanks than reproductively active females at the moment, but in the long term, that ratio will certainly reverse.
I think you’ve mentioned it somewhere before but i can not remember where exactly. If a parent to a dragon decides to have them Lapped Ie fully converted over at what age can they make this choice for their pup.
The more underhanded they’re willing to be, the younger they can get it done. That doesn’t explain it all, though - the rules are relaxed over time as disaster fails to follow in the wake of those breaking the rules. (And yes, I know that disaster would take decades to show up, and they relaxed the rules in years…) Used to be that you had to deal with very unseemly people to get it done. Then you could get it done in Mexico. Then it was something that many small veterinarians would do, but wouldn’t advertise. Then you could get it done at one major franchise, the Boutique, and the flood-gates opened - soon even the ‘Shoppe was advertising special services, known as the PAL initiative (short for Pediatric Alter-Lap) which were designed to keep the sexual undertones, always previously present, out of it. And then adults were signing up for PAL-style conversions, and then certain groups were pushing for dragons to be cut if they want to attend public school around “vulnerable” un-altered humans…
Does it change anything if it is not the parent’s desire to have the pup Lapped but the Keeper’s desire, or are they not permitted to make such choices for their pets.
I’ve discussed it at length, but it was never posted to FA for liability reasons.
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=1019841
In addition, the whole mess is covered by contract law, so that it’s possible for children produced by avowed pets to inherit their parents’ condition - legally shaky, but adequate to cover a vet’s ass - or keepers gain the same medical power-of-attorney by proxy over the offspring that they have over the parents. More likely to stand up in court, and provides the same level of control as the shaky ones. In practice, they can’t sign pethood contracts themselves, but they can have all the same surgeries and be treated the same way.
There’s also a lot of different contracts out there… this complicates things. And most people aren’t lawyers, and don’t have lawyers on salary. In practice, it’s a lot like software license agreements; most don’t read them in any detail, some don’t read them at all, and most who try base their understanding on one commonly-used contract and act like they all say the same things. Most assume the power-of-attorney based clauses from a UP–3 contract are in force, if they don’t know any better. And substantially all dragon-keepers can trivially find someone who will fix their pets’ kits. Even if all involved parties know that wasn’t part of the scope of the agreement, it’s so easy to successfully feign ignorance or misunderstanding… Most pets won’t “pull the fire alarm” after that, too - they’re too used to the lifestyle, and they’d have to scramble to find new housing if they decided to leave as a result of such actions.
(Though that gives me an idea for a story set at a dragon-shelter…)
How much control can a Keeper exercise over their Pets before needing the Pet’s consent more talking about body modifications such as piercing and a like
Depends on how much rights the pet signed over on that contract I mentioned. The International Pets Union publishes standardized contracts, with standardized “levels” of “invasiveness”. Level 1 is “Only what is specified at the time of conversion”, level 2 is “Those things comparable to the procedures used during conversion”, level 3 is considerably more permissive. Dewclaw removal and debarking were originally considered “level 3” procedures, but the widespread addition of dewclaw and “front dewclaw” surgery as part of default packages has pushed it into Level 1 and 2 contracts (A reindeer’s only necessarily going to sign a Level 1 contract, but will typically arrive without any dewclaws, for example) and aftermarket dewclaw surgery is now covered by a Level 2 agreement. Debarking was initially a Level 3 procedure, but the widespread use and popularity of voice packs has lead to its reclassification as Level 2 - and once again, Reindeer on Level 1 contracts will typically arrive with a prosthetic voice. It is still a technical violation to remove it without the intention to immediately replace it, but the voice packs are a “wear part” and removing a damaged one is considered necessary and prudent first-aid - as a result, the ambiguity makes this one hard to enforce.
What goes into a Pethood contract exactly and generally when is one signed, before or after going to the Body Shoppe?
After entering the shop, but before surgery.
Moving into some more General questions here
Okay!
Again generally speaking how dexterous is a dragon’s paw, you’ve mentioned having special keyboards for use by dragons but are they still able to hold a pen or a pencil to write or draw?
Dragons’ paws naturally have a maximum of four digits. This makes the QWERTY keyboard a poor fit for them. Actually, QWERTY is a poor fit for everyone, and intentionally so. It was designed to slow down typists to what early mechanical typewriters could handle; as machines became more capable, the keyboard was retained only due to cultural inertia, and we can do much better now. For dragons without “front dewclaws” they’re more limited. Generally, dragon keyboards are ortholinear designs like the Truly Ergonomic or the ErgoDox. For those without “front dewclaws”, the Keybowl is a popular option for operating a computer.
Dragons’ paws are fairly dextrous - think otter or raccoon. Like otters’ and raccoons’ paws, they’re load-bearing structures first and foremost, but dexterity is also pretty necessary for their survival in the wild and intended lifestyle in civilization.
They can most certainly hold a pen or pencil, and even ones lacking “front dewclaws” can, by clamping it between index and middle fingers.
Anything food wise to avoid once becoming a dragon, Can not imagine chillies being too friendly to a quadruped
Nope. Dragons actually tolerate some foods that humans don’t, and their superior immune system is important when they go feral - those who walk away from society to live as hunter-gatherers can scavenge like wolves. They’re also specifically immune to several naturally-occurring toxins, especially the belladonna family. This is a carefully crafted balancing act, though - atropine is a belladonna derivative, and is crucial in reviving someone in a trauma medicine context, so it has to function as expected.
And lastly got a few broad question more aimed towards the novels themselves
All right!
I will try to ask anything spoilery as I will be intending to read them when finished, lol!
Ha! I’m glad to hear it!
You’ve said your planning a number of prequel novels along with a core one. speaking generally if your able to without giving the game away what is the intent for each to cover on its own
Novellas. And I can give you a thesis of each without blowing it.
1: Zombies. An Aum Shinrikio bioweapon attack on San Fransisco is thwarted when furries and dragons prove immune to the engineered rabies strain, hicks from the sticks roll in with technicals and barely-legal guns by the truckload, and a dangerously genre-savvy population has mostly dealt with the situation by the time the National Guard shows up. Think Sean of the Dead, combined with Left 4 Dead. Many victims are dosed with black-market heroin and placed in chest freezers, in a desperate attempt to save them. Ongoing research in how to safely thaw and treat these patients continues for over a decade, but hope remains. Uncle Sam eventually transfers them to a facility in northern Alaska for long term storage and monitoring. Rabies vaccines made mandatory nationwide for people and pets.
2: Baby-selling leads to rioting. Ripped from the (Chinese) headlines, this is most people’s first exposure to underaged lapdragons. Cops and social workers try to take a baby dragon from a loving adoptive family. The dragonet doesn’t understand what’s going on, but scared dragonets don’t cry like babies, and the social worker is mauled nearly to death, the dragonet is shot, and while everyone survives, thanks to nanotech regeneration tanks, it’s a morally murky morass that is resolved when the Supreme Court says “Leave him with his family, and don’t consider this a precedent.” The lawsuits eventually pay for the dragon’s college tuition and trust fund. Loss of trust in the system, combined with outrage fatigue that started here pave the way for the real novel.
3: Hostile takeover of the Bodyshoppe, and neutralizing a spokesbeast - the company’s conscience - represents organized opposition to the bizzarre transhuman future; a long game to preserve a “pure humanity” and relegate parahumans to being second-class citizens finishes its preparations and is put into action.
4: North Korea’s misadventures with bioweapons! They attempt to purchase the zombie plague from Book #1, but instead get something very different, and just as terrifying - a contagious strain of dragon. Dating to the early days of the Open Dragon Project, and believed to have been destroyed, samples existed in a secret government bio-defense lab for years, unknown. The Korean regime tests the new bioweapon on political prisoners, who instead of transforming into mostly-brain-dead face-chewers, transform into flying, fire-breathing, iron-bending, bulletproof, contagious super-soldiers. They rape, pillage, and burn their way across the nation, razing the regime as they go. (Rape, especially buttsex, is the easiest and surest way of infecting another, with the minimum of danger to them. Bites can be infected by other things, and during the transformation, the immune system is weakened. Blood transfusions are also feasible, but for the poverty-ravaged Korean health system.) The humanitarian crisis striking primarily China and South Korea is amazing; thousands of regime officials “melt away” into the scaly hordes of refugees after being infected, or deliberately infecting themselves. The crisis isn’t limited to there; the Navy fishes exhausted dragons out of the water for weeks, while others reach Japan, Oceania, New Zealand, India, and Thailand, for example.
5: The planned core Lapdragon novel.
6: Blake & Molly Go To Italy (preview available)
7: Small Business Dragon Goes To SxSW (preview available)
As for the Core Novel will your Handsome Spokesbeast be the protagonist or is someone else set for the lime light.
He will be the central character of an ensemble cast - think of West Wing here. Ultimately, though, it is his story. He set these events in motion, albeit mostly unwittingly.
Ether way i do hope we get to learn more about his experiences within the company.
You will!
Last one for then ill leave you alone for little I promise
Aaaw, do you have to? D:
What is your favourite piece you have drawn so far to accompany the story?
… Ooh, now that is a good one… That piece is an unreleased WIP of comparably breathtaking scope, an artifact from the imagined future, a pamphlet on the ethics of “intergenerational pethood” aimed at people living in the universe. It ties together and explains a whole bunch of things, including a huge amount of never-before-heard backstory. Currently, I think it stands at 12 pages, all laid out like a magazine.
Take care and looking forward to hearing from you again
Likewise!
have a great day!
And that, too! :D