WIP Discussion (Part 1!)

[Suederwind]

I hold to 'Noticably appealing male'.. as in Every scene where Alex encounters a Loroi female Even if they do not directly speak to him ..THEY ALL turn heads to get a good look at him..

Dude, he is on a ship that is entirely crewed by females and it is save to assume that none of them had "shore leave" in the recent past. Even if their sexual drive is lower than that of humans and he isn't exactly attractive to Loroi standarts...
There is a reason why sailors in accient times thought that a woman aboard only brings bad luck and that might be the same reason why Stillstorm locked him up in that cell for such a long time.

a Completely unnecessary mannerism.. when likely they have all been telepathically been made aware of his presence and likely have seen electronic images of him already!

I can assume that Fireblade and/or Beryl were sending out somithing like a telepathic warning as they escorted him to the bridge. But I don't think that they would give away pinup pictures of him. Stillstorm wouldn't like that for sure. However, there must be a reason why she kickes of a high ranking Listel of her ship. Beryls explanation on the most recent page was almost too cute: "The commander sometimes gets tired of looking at some of her officers..."

[Sweforce]

The similarities between Loroi and Humans are so staggeringly close that CLEARLY there MUST have been some common progenitor of both species.

Not so much a common progenitor as a blatant copy of the human design using other materials and then modded with things such as longevity and telepathic communications among other things. It just that it so darn difficult to do all the ground work yourself so you just shamelessly steal a design close to what you want and then start playing around with it. Nothing wrong with that, many people (Soia included) like to get creative as times and change things, for the lols if nothing else.

Can we sue the Soia for copyright infringement?

[dragoongfa]

Not a sexual manner per se

Which imho is the epitomy of seductivity

... ok.

You haven't been wrapped around the finger of a MILF haven't you?

EDIT: i.e. The sex plays a part but alone it isn't what makes a man go back every time for more.

[Arioch]

Can we sue the Soia for copyright infringement?

"Genetic rights" law is still in its infancy, but if we use software copyright law as an example, if you were to create a functional copy of a program but you developed it independently and didn't use any of the original source code, then I believe that's not a copyright violation. I don't think you can copyright "look and feel."

Patents are another matter, but they're really screwy when you get into software.

[Siber]

I'd expect everyone to take a look at him even if he held no attraction at all. He's a new alien, and a novelty on a ship that's been deployed for quite a while. Even if pictures of him have circulated, that's still worth a look.

Still, given Tempo's status as spy/diplomat I doubt any allure is accidental. Especially with the reputation of Loroi males as unable to handle dry spells at all, being attractive probably sounds like good enough leverage to not at least try.

[icekatze]

hi hi

I suspect that at least half of the Loroi turn their heads because they don't want to turn their back to what is obviously an Umiak plant, and they want to be ready for when he makes his inevitable move to destroy them.

[sunphoenix]

Cute well you all see what you want to see.. lol. But from the many facial expressions it is not anger or loathing ...as Loroi are clearly capable of such expressions - see Still Storm and Fire Blade's many expression; that all those Loroi females are giving Alex.

As for the Soia genegineering science {shrug} who knows.. but I would find it Very odd they saw no use in the human genome considering how similar to humans they crafted the Loroi... why not just use humans? Why would THEY care if they had to kill more humans than Loroi in their wars... though the extent to which they improved on the human genetic 'pattern' makes one wonder.. what the hell kind of enemy or wars did the Soia fight that needed such genetic upgrades in an entire species to fight? And if such was needed why not go with the Umiak genetic model instead? Practically no independent thought, very durable with even cheaper cybernetic upgrades, very little genegineering needed and mass producable EVEN faster than the Loroi!

Plus, Arioch has said himself.. if you control planetary near space orbit with space fleets armed with mass destruction weapons... you don't really need a army of super-soldiers as any ground forces can be wiped out with orbital bombardment without resorting to messy ground fighting. Why put all this effort into a lovely elf-like killing package in the first place? Surly there are easier ways to have an army of killing machines? Why bother making them pretty?

I think there was something else going on in the Soia mentality when they crafted the Loroi...

All you folks just want to look negatively at the Loroi ...which I don't see them anymore horrible or destructive than humans have proven to be {shrug} NOR any less deserving of respect and wonder at their achivements in building {or salvaging... whatever spin you want to put on it} their respective civilizations! Loroi are different .. but I think humans and Loroi have a lot more in common than different.

As a species, a meeting of minds and cultures~ different points of view... I think they could be good for each other... {heh}.. and kick much alien Ass in a unified Alliance of warrior cultures!

[Krulle]

Can we sue the Soia for copyright infringement?

"Genetic rights" law is still in its infancy, but if we use software copyright law as an example, if you were to create a functional copy of a program but you developed it independently and didn't use any of the original source code, then I believe that's not a copyright violation. I don't think you can copyright "look and feel."

Patents are another matter, but they're really screwy when you get into software.

But then copyright AND patent terms are limited in their running time.
Since the Umiak and the Loroi are at war since more than a century, and developed their respective societies in at least thousands of years on their planets beforehand, copyright (<= 70 years) and patent (20 years) protection surely cannot be invoked anymore.

you need to catch them while your protection still runs, else it becomes difficult.
On top of that, you can't sue the Loroi for violation of whatever, as they are the product, not the producer.
The producer, the Soia, are not around anymore if I understood the background correctly.

And that's not even touching the subject of which court to go to...

The Soia remind me a bit of the Consu of the "Old Man's War" series (a series I can recommend!), in that they play around with genetics. (In the series the Consu "uplift" a race, but deny them consciousness as an individual. The race as a whole is conscious, and knows they lack individual consciousness.)

[discord]

sun: two reasons for the massive changes.
#1 logistics, both food and medicine is simplified if all the beings on your side have the same basic biology.
#2 if you easily can, why not improve the basic design while you are at it.
#3 blue is just prettier?

the big question though is towards what goal? the improvements are just generically 'good', if you were making a 'super soldier' things would probably be more extreme, but what the Loroi have got is a uniform 'good' and to me that suggests a generic multipurpose goal, not a shock trooper.

think about it, 10:1 female to male ratio, fast and cheap breeding.
efficient metabolism, cheaper to run.
longevity and health, quality merchandize.
fast maturation, again cheaper to produce....
telepathy?....dunno.

bottom line, my guess is generic servant race, or these guys just like to tinker with new races.

[sunphoenix]

Yes, Discord.. I agree.. if you wanted a super-soldier... more extreme changes specifically suited to combat would have been made. The Loroi.. are a work of art... so yeah.. the Soia must have had something else in mind {shrug}.. a sexy adaptable servitor race is as good a guess as any other!

[dragoongfa]

Bear in mind that the Loroi may not be the 'finalized' product, one of the angles that I have pondered on is of the Loroi being a prototype of shorts for a pure space combatant. Such a space warrior would have to have three things:

1) Natural tolerance for a lot of Gs of acceleration
2) Natural aptitude for 3D movement
3) Natural telepathy for Command, Control and Information purposes.

The Loroi cover number 3 perfectly, with passing grades for number 1 especially with some tech assistance.

In order to perfectly attain 1 and 2 however one would have to make some more radical changes, lets just say that I don't believe that the 'To be continued' page is there for being pretty.

[Count Casimir]

Guys I think they're looking at him because he's a pink alien.

What would YOU think if you were at work and you saw your HR rep walking around chatting with a blue woman?

[dragoongfa]

Is she single?

[sunphoenix]

Is she cute?

[Krulle]

Who is she?
Can I be introduced to her?
Can I meet her?
Why is she here?

[icekatze]

hi hi

I think perhaps the more appropriate analogy is not how someone in this particular forum would react to a blue skinned girl walking by on a ship, but rather, go back to 1960 in the USA and have someone walking by with a black skinned girl and see if the locals were immediately smitten on account of her skin color.

[dragoongfa]

That's a totally different fruit of a situation on so many levels.

EDIT: Yes, the Loroi aboard Tempest are certainly on alert because of the Human Lotai and the possibility of Alex being an enemy agent; however the question is if they would show the same behavior if the Alien in question wasn't so similar to their males?

[icekatze]

hi hi

The Loroi are, in general, rather xenophobic. Alex represents not just a threat to their safety as a possible enemy agent, but a threat to their perceived racial superiority, as the torch bearers of the Soia legacy. He also has the capacity to telepathically sneak up on them, not mentally announcing his presence until they suddenly hear his voice. I would expect wariness to be amongst the more positive reactions that most Loroi would have.

[Argron]

hi hi

The Loroi are, in general, rather xenophobic. Alex represents not just a threat to their safety as a possible enemy agent, but a threat to their perceived racial superiority, as the torch bearers of the Soia legacy. He also has the capacity to telepathically sneak up on them, not mentally announcing his presence until they suddenly hear his voice. I would expect wariness to be amongst the more positive reactions that most Loroi would have.

Dunno about xenophobic, their civilians might not be so, being rather used to friendly aliens and not so engaged in political matters. Most humans are rather xenophobic towards other humans so I don't feel we can give lessons on that matter lol

The military would be suspicious considering they have already faced similar Umiak infiltrators, more so a frontline battlegroup where a mistake trusting some agent could mean the death of the them all. They could have been more diplomatic but we know what they think of spoken language, and their CO is a rather bitter person towards anything that smells of Umiak to her.

[icekatze]

hi hi

I have used the term "xenophobic" to describe the Loroi in the past, but the Loroi do not truly have a "fear" of outsiders, but rather are usually uncomfortable around and intolerant of non-Loroi, and have a highly ethnocentric point of view, in that their psionic abilities make them superior to others (and that they believe they are descended from the Soia, and are therefore the rightful heirs to that galactic empire). Fireblade came late to Loroi society, so she is herself a bit of a cultural outsider. However, like other Loroi born since the start of the war, who have never known peace, it is easy to see all non-Loroi as potential enemies.

- Arioch

I quite purposefully made no attempt to hold any sort of moral high ground for humanity. My example of people treating other people with suspicion or outright hostility was done so for a reason. If humans were in the Loroi's position, of being in the middle of a major war for survival, humans would probably act similarly. Just look at the kind of paranoia that goes around whenever people are at war, from internment camps to random people in a small town beating up a traveling journalist because they thought he looked like a muslim.

A lot of us are here because we think blue space elves are cool, but the Loroi are there because they're fighting a war.