un: theball | text

[stresstokens]

Hey. Hope everyone's recovering from that stupid maze okay.

I'll just get right down to my point of inquiry. For a place that claims that we're meant to save the universe, I've noticed a pretty dramatic human-bias around here that strikes me as kind of odd, considering how diverse the universe actually is.

So I'd like to get a show of hands. Who here is from a world where humans are the only sentient species around, and who here is from a world with more than just humans kicking around? What other sorts of species are around? I'd like to know how much of it is selection-bias based on who's running this place and how much of it is them drawing from places that just don't have any non-human populations. I wouldn't mind hearing about what sorts of non-humans you have around either, but that's probably less important, statistically speaking.

Lastly... what do you see when you look at this picture?

[ Inserted is a photograph of a suave looking goblin man in a tuxedo with a pencil-thin moustache. He's holding a champagne flute towards the camera with his arm around -- something. If you've been infected by the curse, you'll see the goblin man's arm is around a black tabaxi woman, but if not, his arm looks as though it's simply hanging in mid-air. ]

[ OOC NOTE: due to the extremely low likelihood we'll ever get kalina in-game, the picture is just for flavour! if you'd like your character to be infected by the shadowcat and thus able to see her image in the photo, it would be due to any circumstance in which any of riz's bodily fluids were absorbed into their own body in some way, i.e. blood or saliva. feel free to handwave a circumstance in which that could happen, even if it's riz's blood lingering on one of the labyrinth's traps that then got into an open cut of theirs, a glass in the labyrinth he drank from that they then used, etc., etc.! Please see this comment for more information! ]

Comments

[agoddessonce]

[ So, this is a very long text message that, on an interface as confusing as Etraya's little network devices are, is going to take a while to read and respond to, while making sure she can answer to the best of her ability.

So she decides to make a concise little list! ]

1-a. Yes. We are mutants, and the mutation manifests in different ways. [ Brief, no-nonsense. This is fact, and she won't budge on it. ]

1-b. There is a wide range - to list everything would take far too long. Some common ones are telepathy, enhanced senses, some affinity for an animal or beast of some kind, enhanced strength, and physical changes such as a change in skin, or new or different limbs.

2. So you have encountered people unfamiliar with goblins and other races here, but they have not treated you any differently. Our alleged charter appears to be saving multiple universes - some of them would likely have humans only. Others may have the races you and I speak of. What, then, is the concern if I may ask?

[ She doesn't understand, but she would very much like to! ]

[stresstokens]

[ Sorry, Ororo! Riz has a bad case of can't-shut-up disease and unfortunately for everyone around him, it's incurable. ]

That's interesting. It seems consistent across all of the Earths that people have been talking about here too, even if everyone has different terminology for it.

If I were to take them at face value, which I don't, my concern is that non-human worlds would be deprioritized over the human ones. And that if we look at our population, that whoever's in charge here will want to prioritize those worlds too. Even if people are generally kind, it doesn't mean that they'll still treat you equally. It's not as though Goblins are particularly well-liked, even where I'm from.

But I guess the emotional answer is, it's just weird. Where I'm from, there are all sorts of races. Humans, Elves, Orcs, Tieflings, Kobolds, Dragonborn, Gnomes, Aarakocra. Coming to a place that's almost only Humans just came as kind of a shock.

[agoddessonce]

[ It's fine, actually! Ororo has dealt with people just like him before - it's why she'd chosen to respond with a list that she'd done her best to keep as concise as possible. (It still wasn't very concise, but... she tried!) ]

I think we have too small a sample size to really say that this place is truly 'mostly' or 'only Humans', as you say. There are very little of us here, in the grand scheme of things. It is a very small city, and there are so few of us. So much empty land and so many empty buildings.

I'm loathe to believe that this will be the last of us - so perhaps we can give it time. More races may come as time passes; after all, there are so many universes out there. This is not everything, and for everyone to truly be represented we must expect more of each world to arrive.

[stresstokens]

If there's five people in a room, and three of them are human, it's still mostly human. As the only green guy and the only small race around, let's just say I notice when I stick out like a sore thumb.

I'll always update my understanding of a situation based on changing information, don't get me wrong. But I don't think it's so bad to do some preliminary information gathering either. We've got to make the most of what little information we have.

[ After all, he thinks -- there seem to be plenty of metahumans, parahumans, mutants, whatever you want to call them. But the whole fangs and claws thing? That's Gukgak city, baby. ]

[agoddessonce]

[ It's not the point, but the mention of his skin color has her wanting to say more and explain more, finding that that issue strikes particularly close to home even here, in a little isolated city. But she chooses not to go that route. He didn't have the context for it. And he's still right about visible mutations. Selection bias, indeed. ]

I understand. Then please count me as one tally for a world with non-humans. And let me know if you need further details as you continue to gather your data, or decide what you might do with it.

[stresstokens]

Will do! Thanks for answering all my questions. I appreciate it.

If you ever want to look it over, you're welcome to. It's only fair.

[agoddessonce]

Whenever your results feel ready to be presented, then. It would certainly be useful information to have on hand.