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And all the feffert had gone with it.		24.4%	[ 33 ]
It even sted my horn.		28.1%	[ 38 ]
They took them from the Earth, you know.		47.4%	[ 64 ]
Total Votes:	[ 135 ]

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Post: 9727107_1 created on Sat, 27 Aug 2005 06:50:42 +0000
Posted: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 06:50:42 +0000

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Welcome... to Pikaia's Children, a science fiction storyline set in the not-too-distant future. Here you'll find a wealth of strange and wondrous creatures from Earth's distant past--and children of the Earths that might-have-been, had our past gone another way...

table of contents
... i. staff & recent updates ...
... ii. the story so far ...
... iii. world information ...
... iv. stages
... v. plot summary & faq ...
... vi. general rules ...

New Thread!

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Post: 9727107_2 created on Sat, 27 Aug 2005 06:51:40 +0000
Posted: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 06:51:40 +0000

the staff:
[x] Coronaviridae: Your lovely zombie hostess & creepy Gaian cat lady.
[x] Ves: Thread goon & co-owner.
[x] RedChimera: RP lackey & foxy manslave.
[x] Polecat Junkie: Part-time artist & emo frorg wife.

job offers:

We are, amazingly, no longer hiring due to a massive influx of interested staff. heart Stay tuned to this part of the thread for details if we ever need more bodies. Probably for pagan sacrifices.

updates:

31 March 2006: The writing contest was quite a success, with Aelfgifu and Deestra taking first and second place. Aelf will be taking over the character of Mandy Wexler, while Deestra has opted to take a random PC child. Next up: auctions! Stay tuned.

10 February 2006: Congratulations to our new owners--Rieluni, Toshihiko, ELF, and r i i! Also, a hearty welcome to Mythee, who will be taking over as Sidereal's parent.

Stay tuned for the Pikaia writing contest and guest auctions from Antigra and Sullivan!

sales & auctions:

[x] Auction's over! There WILL be a flatsale for (at least) two eggs quite soon. Suggested species are Laggiana cambria, Microdycton, and possibly Ayeshayea.

link to us:

Thanks to the marvelous Presumptuous, we have a linking banner and lovely little animated button. We happily do link exchanges--leave us a note and we'll put your image here!

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Coming soon: Almucantar, Nebula, Parallax, and Blueshift. <3

affiliates:

Secrets of the Amazon: Fangrunners - if we're just a little too prehistoric for you, go have a look at these Jurassic beauties.

- these critters are amazing. Seriously. And the head artist has put a whole lot of time and effort into making them work, so go visit!

- as the thread mule's sig puts it, Runners of Irune rock my everlovin' socks. Check it out.

- Like animals? Like awesome art? Then Padoru is for you! They're just starting up, too, so they can use the love. <3333

- Another recent start-up, Trials of the Gifted has a really engaging storyline. Reminds me a lot of Mercedes Lackey, so if you like her, definitely take a look.

-- Evil never looked so cute.

-- heart

-- Heralds rock.

-- Bitzers are downride addictive. biggrin I predict that they'll be the Next Big Thing one of these days.

- Not only do you get an adorable little animal kid, but they're also going to ride a dragon when they grow up! How awesome is that? D*Corp is rawksauce, seriously. Go check it out!

- Soap operas? Drama? Sweet! Go check Boca Raton out if that sounds like a combination for AWESOME.

- Not for the faint of heart, The Antherios Project is based on the original The Island of Doctor Moreau by HG Wells. Dark, creepy, and really awesome art combine to make this an excellent start-up idea.

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Post: 9727107_3 created on Sat, 27 Aug 2005 06:52:47 +0000
Posted: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 06:52:47 +0000

from the journal of dr. catherine vrais...
Pikaia won.

That is to say, of all the myriad of strange and gorgeous fauna that crept and swam through the Cambrian ocean, Pikaia gracilens--a little finned worm, at 40mm no longer than your index finger--became the ancestor of all of phylum Chordata and subsequently life on this earth.

It didn't have to happen that way. The powerful Anomalocaris genus was by all rights the lordly class of the Cambrian era. The largest of them were as long as two meters--long as you are tall, or longer. They were the apex predators, lords of all they surveyed. They fed on Pikaia, trilobites, sea-scorpions, Wiwaxia, Yohoia, Laggania cambria... But even they became a mere footnote in history, forgotten until a fortunate discovery in Canada's Burgess Shale.

That, of course, is not the really interesting part of the story. The scientists are still arguing over how to classify many of these little wonders, whether they are athropods or lobopods or a new phylum unto themselves, unique and extinct forever. Well--it's that "forever" part that's gotten a little tricky recently.

Our story begins, as these often do, at night.

None of us at the Institute are quite sure what triggered the quake. Yes--I say "triggered", because we've learned the fault lines around here, well enough to know when the quakes are coming and how to release their pent-up energy in smaller shivers and shakes to keep such devastating events from occurring.

We didn't cause this one.

In the early hours of the morning--two o'clock ante meridian, as it was--the first little trembles began. I was knocked from a restless slumber and dreams stitched with threads of earths that could-have-been, roamed by creatures with impossible forms and dreamlike beauty. Had those pre-shocks not awakened me I may not be alive to tell you this story today, for the quake that followed was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. I dove beneath my desk when I realized it was more than just a trembler, and it was good I did so.

Once the shaking stopped, two minutes later, my entire room had been destroyed, save for the heavy wooden desk I huddled under. The lights were off, but a strange golden glow suffused my ruined room--from my window. When I could extricate myself from where I had sought shelter, afraid of the ominous silence of the building and every creak that could herald a sudden collapse of the entire Institute, I was more concerned for my colleagues and even the rest of the nation than I was for that glow.

I forgot about it for two days, as we as a state and a nation dealt with our injured and dead and began to rebuild from the quake. On the evening of the second day, though, I found myself out on the cliffs--a foolish, foolish place to be!--overlooking the Pacific, watching the sun go down. But once it had sunk below the horizon and the fire in the sky had died down, I thought I could see that same golden glow again. I squinted--in disbelief, I think--to see a line of light beneath the surface of the ocean, winding its way off to the distant curvature of the Earth.

I had heard of this--this great wound in the ocean that had opened from the quake. The satellite pictures had shown it, a gaping maw the newscasters were already naming "the Abyss". Geology was not my speciality, but it seemed so strange somehow that it should be glowing--when all initial reports from the seismographers that it wasn't--no, couldn't--extend as deep as the molten mantle. If it had, the sea would have boiled, and all of us would have been parboiled in our beds...

Always the fool, I put this thought aside and found my way down the cliffs, nearly ending my own life in several foolish missteps. When I made it to the beach, my fear had all but wrung the foolishness out of me.

The beach was desolate, much as I had expected it to be. The earthquake had killed or frightened off anything that once lived there, so I waded down a shoreline decorated with the corpses of fish and birds and seals... The stench was incredible.

I came upon a place where that gash in the earth nearly met the beach. I moved close, only to find the tide coming in and filling several pools of water that had formed in the tumult. There was--or so I thought--something floating in one of them, something that looked much like a string of frog's eggs. It proved to be much like a wrack of frogspawn on closer investigation--and as far as I could tell by visual inspection alone, they were vital! Though how such a thing could have survived the quake, I don't know--life is wonderful indeed!

I had with me a plastic cup, forgotten in my hand from dinner, and I used it to collect the little eggs with some of the sea water they'd been in, and bring them back to the Institute. Though most of my lab was still a war zone, I installed them in a leftover tank that had somehow survived the quake, filled it with saltwater, and forgot about them.

When I came down two days later, I found the most curious thing swimming in the tank...

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Post: 9727107_4 created on Sat, 27 Aug 2005 06:53:55 +0000
Posted: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 06:53:55 +0000

setting: Pikaia's Children is near-future science fiction, set on a world much like our own Earth, but fifty to a hundred years from now. Technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, but not so far as to make Earth--or the human race--unrecognizable. Some things--like control of earthquakes and advanced biotechnology--seem like magic, but cars are still cars and most people eat cereal for breakfast. Real magic is still unheard of and disbelieved as a matter of course, but sometimes there are things technology just can't explain...

A devastating earthquake opened a crack in the Earth off the coast of California, resulting in what is now called the Abyss. The crack itself extends from well out onto the continental shelf inward to a beach in Southern California, its old name long forgotten in favor of the nickname "Abyss beach". Strange golden light poured up through the crack, though there was none of the heat or sulfurous toxins that anyone expected from a c***k in the Earth's mantle.

The new landscape, though, was not the only aftereffect of the earthquake. Tide pools quickly formed in the new intertidal zone caused by the collapse of the cliffs over the Abyss beach. As treacherous as the path down had now become, a single foolhardy scientist ventured down there two days after the quake to see what she could see. Much to her surprise, though the quake and resultant aftershocks should have killed or frightened off anything living on the beach, she found a small mass of eggs in one of the tide pools. Instead of letting it alone, she collected it in a plastic cup and took it back to her laboratory at the Jianfeng Institute for Advanced Biosciences. There, she installed her new "pets" in a glass tank, thinking nothing would probably come of the eggs.

Two days later--again, to her surprise--the scientist found a single larva swimming in the tank. It was a little like the larval shrimp and crabs she'd studied before, but in ways, quite different from those. Something about it was naggingly familiar, a feeling that resurfaced again and again (along with highly vivid and unusual dreams) as the larva grew into an adult of its species.

Its species...was a shock to everyone who saw it. Five-eyed, with a grasping "mouth" on a long, flexible stalk, it was Opabinia regalis--an invertebrate that went extinct hundred of millions of years ago. It was also surprisingly tame for what should have been a wild animal with no instincts of how to deal with humankind--it would even eat from the scientist's hand, and let her touch its (strangely smooth) skin. How could this have been possible? Had the quake stirred up sediments that had--impossibly--contained fertile eggs from the Cambrian era? It didn't stand up to reason.

That was not the only surprise, though. The scientist's dreams became more intense as the days flew past, culminating in nightmares that had her sleepwalking out of her room in the Institute, down to the same beach where she'd found the creature. It was going through changes, too--becoming torpid and refusing to feed, until at last it retreated to the darkest corner of its tank and spun itself a cocoon of light. Or so it appeared, anyway.

Eight days later, it hatched into a child.

It was not a human child. It had a tail, and five eyes, and a long flexible tongue, and spines in place of hair. It also--as the scientists quickly determined--had almost no bones and an organ structure completely unlike that of a human. Strangest of all, though, it clung to its "mother" like a human child would.

And it spoke Hawaiian.

Intense study of the child, now named Snowline, ensued. It was determined that--by some bizarre quantum hiccup, or accident, or timequake--this child was actually an import, as it were, from a parallel Earth where Opabinia regalis, instead of the polychaete worm Pikaia gracilens, had been the ur-ancestor of intelligent life. Giddy with this realization--this impossible realization, like one out of a dream--the Institute's oceanographic and biotechnology teams jointly sent a press release announcing their discoveries.

That was to be the greatest mistake they could make.

The public reception went from incredulous to overjoyed. Here was intelligent life--in a world next to their own! Could it be reached? Could they contact their intelligent neighbors and learn more about these creatures?

Could they reach the human Earth? Could it be possible their timeline would crystallize and overwrite all of humanity? Were they hostile? A fearful wave ran through Earth's population, not far behind the joy. What else could crawl out of the Abyss to threaten them? The very thought sent shudders down anyone's spine, and it catalyzed the formation of an organization who named themselves "Pikaia's Children".

Pointedly, maliciously, the Children began a terror campaign against the hapless Jianfeng Institute, sweeping the United States with their paranoia. They made deliberate attempts on Snowline's life, the life of scientists and their families--and sometimes, they succeeded. They made their best efforts to collect and destroy any eggs that washed up on the Abyss beach.

The scientists, desperate, could only go to war. They had determined that there was some sort of deep emotional link between Snowline and her "mother", and that anyone--anyone!--who might have had the good fortune to discover their own eggs off the beach would have the same link. More than that, those links--tenuous, fragile things!--had something to do with the health of both members of the bond, and more sinisterly, that the death of one would lead to the death of both...

...and there was the possibility that with those deaths, the timestream that had spawned the atavistic creatures would collapse, ending countless intelligent lives.

It was not a risk anyone was willing to take, especially as bond-partners, mystified by these creatures they had found, began to trickle into the Institute. The staff fortified and prepared--prepared, it seemed, to take on the whole human race for the sake of every other existence that lived alongside theirs.

world notes:

technology and politics

Vehicles--mostly the same we've got around now, though there's a prevalence of hovercraft and hydrofoils for overwater travel and military technology. Most cars are electric, now, and very sleek little numbers with autopilot and GPS and glass "cockpits" (or dashboards, if you prefer).

Aviation regulations have become slightly less strict with the introduction of "highway in the sky" technology--many families have microhelicopters, though their utility is somewhat limited as you still need an aviation license to be either a commercial pilot or for IFR flight. All aircraft come equipped standard now with TCAS and GPS technology; in many cases, they can fly themselves, though having a trained pilot aboard greatly reduces the likelihood of fatal accidents. The success of the EclipseJet has led to cheaper light jet aircraft for consumer use, as well.

MagLev trains and automated magrail trolleys have mostly replaced buses and trains as far as mass transit goes. They have the added bonus of making a lot less noise and being a lot safer, since they can stop in a much shorter distance than conventional trains with less discomfort and risk of injury for passengers.

Weapons haven't quite advanced to the stage of laser guns--while "laser scalpels" and high-frequency knives (vibrating blades, yo) along with microfilament weapons are relatively common, the energy requirements for true laser weapons are much too high to make them practical. On the other hand, sonic weapons and microwave-based weaponry are quite common. Some rapid advancements in metallurgy as well as (very expensive, but commercially available) cybernetics have made swords and knives really feasible as weapons of war once more, in large part due to advances in defensive technology that can largely nullify projectile weapons.

Industrialization and urbanization really vary widely. California has actually stepped backward from its high degree of urbanization, demolishing decaying urban areas and replacing them with parks and such. There's been a big push to preserve the environment as well, so SoCal and NorCal are both much more parklike than urban and industrial. Texas, on the other hand, has slowly been growing into one big city, and the remainder of the States range from predominantly farming areas to states like Montana where there remains approximately NOTHING to New York, which has also gone the way of One Big City.

The gap between third-world and first-world countries has actually narrowed considerably--in part the secession of Texas and fracturing of California have jolted the United States into taking better care of their near neighbors, like Mexico, so the world has seen an overall improvement in cost of living and living situations. There's also been an increase in life expectancy, which resulted in the UN passing the Child and Family Awareness Act. (Better known as the "It Takes a Village Act".) Support for the CFAA in the US has been generally mixed--conservatives applaud its focus on the nuclear family, but dislike the more liberal stance on abortion and birth control; liberals appreciate the freedom given to women, but decry the limited rights given to "alternative" lifestyles--but the rest of the world has been more open to it. The CFAA's most major impact has been a slow tempering of the massive human population explosion, as well as better use of land and resources.

Additionally, a very rapid decline in world oil stocks during the mid-21st century led to a series of lightning wars in the Middle East that in turn led to a stock-market crash and brief global depression. Surprisingly, the UN nations managed to pull together and help each other up off their feet, in large part by massive grants supporting alternative energy solutions and better land-management. Unfortunately, this was not in time to save some of the more delicate biomes on the surface of the Earth--the rainforest is almost a thing of the past now, existing in a scant few areas and highly protected on pain of capital punishment.

The world has existed in another period of glasnost--"openess"--for the past twenty to thirty years, but the growing Pikaia's Children movement has stirred the fires of political unrest. Though currently limited to the United States, and more importantly, California, the PC have gained support in Texas and have been rallying politically in the US capitol. Reports of egg masses drifting away from Abyss Beach to locales as distant as Puerto Vallarta and the outlying islands of Japan have led to the PC "party line" gaining popularity in other countries, though local cultural mores, as always, have tempered the introduction of this alien element.

places

Rosewood, Southern California --

In the year 2024, following the lead of Texas in seceding from the United States, Southern California declared itself independent of Northern California. The line bounded by the northern borders of Inyo, Tulare, Kings, and San Luis Obispo counties became the new border between the two states and remained so for the next four years, until Fresno and Monterey counties voted to join Southern California. They were followed in 2030 by Madera county, and the border between the two new states has remained static since. Northern California retained the postal code of CA, while Southern California took SA for their postal code.

Rosewood is located near the southern border of Monterey county, near San Luis Obispo. Situated near one of the picturesque bays that Monterey is noted for, Rosewood overlooks several miles of ocean. By far the most famous beach--now--is Abyss Beach, that same beach where the earth cracked open during the Great Quake.

Abyss Beach and the Institute are far from being the only points of interest, though. Despite the fact the town was nearly flattened during the quake, it's sprung back marvelously. Rosewood is famed for being a haven of very--shall we say--adventuresome architects following in the footsteps of Frank Lloyd Wright. Now it's a favorite tourist spot of Southern California not only for its beautiful beaches, but also the stunning skyline--one some discerning critics have been heard to compare to that of San Francisco or Manhattan.

Places of note in the town itself (again, besides the Institute) include the thriving Spanish section of the city (known jokingly as "Little Spain", and home to a bimonthly market of anything from cacti to livestock to sarongs to fresh produce grown by local farmers), the Four Winds Mall, Six Flags over Rosewood, and USCR, the University of Southern California at Rosewood. Despite all this activity, though, most of Rosewood still retains its sleepy Mid-Californian charm, like much of Monterey county.

Politically, Rosewood is somewhat more conservative than most of Southern California (a state known for its strong liberal bent, even before the division from Northern California). However, and surprisingly, the Pikaia's Children are extremely unpopular within the town. Though there is still a healthy fear of the strange things that have crawled out of the Abyss, the contact between the Institute and the surrounding community has been strong since before the Great Quake, and only grew stronger when the Institute (a private organization) lent financial and physical aid to help get the community back up on its feet.

Since Dr. Vrais's discovery of Snowline, much of Rosewood's population has even evinced a certain pride about the bizarre creatures born from the Abyss--and as such, when the Children do hold demonstrations or stage assaults on the Institute, they are careful not to make too much noise within Rosewood itself.

This is a good map of California and its counties, for those unfamiliar with the state. The fictional town of Rosewood is located at the tiny pinching-in of Monterey county nearest to its border with San Luis Obispo county.

dramatis personae:

the institute

[x] name (Gaian SN) - Pet Name/Stage/Sex/Species - Journal
A note on sexing: F & M are, predictably, female and male. H is hermaphrodite, N is neuter, and a ? is "we have no idea what this thing counts as".

[x] Dr. Catherine Vrais (Coronaviridae) - Snowline/Adult/F/Opabinia regalis - Journal
[x] Ves (Ves) - Meridian/Adult/M/Amplectobelua symbrachiata - Journal
[x] Micah Deusi (Jestari) - Nadir/Adolescent/F/Tricrepicephalus coria - Journal
[x] Dr. Martina Bach (Polecat Junkie) - Bolide/Adult/M/Burgessia bella - Journal
[x] Sarah Diasi (Prolixity) - Almucantar/Adult/M/Opabinia regalis - Journal

unaligned

[x] name (Gaian SN) - Pet Name/Stage/Sex/Species - Journal

[x] Fidra Henson (Smerdle) - Nebula/Imago/M/Marrella splendens - Journal
[x] Eva Wagner (Inle-roo) - Parallax/Imago/F/Anomalocaris saron - Journal
[x] Varuna Amiculum (Mythee) - Sidereal/Imago/M/Wiwaxia corrugata - Journal
[x] Raven (Katherine of Dreamland) - Blueshift/Hatchling/H/Hallucigenia sparsa - Journal
[x] Rowan Taylor (Sosiqui) - Equinox/Imago/M/Tricrepicephalus coria - Journal
[x] Richard Beech (Ary Keeyara) - Lunation/Hatchling/F/Pikaia gracilens - Journal
[x] Krys Ricci (EchoLimaFoxtrot) - Faculae/Hatchling/F/Burgessochaeta setigra - Journal
[x] Dr. Toshihiko Millay (Toshihiko) - Gibbous/Hatchling/?/Zacanthoides typicalis - Journal
[x] Neon Vidalis (Rieluni) - Aphelion/Hatchling/?/Microdictyon sinicum - Journal
[x] ??? (r i i) - Rehua/Hatchling/F/Amiskwia sagittiformis - Journal
[x] Kevin "V" Cleveland (Mouse Pachinkorelli) - Plage/Hatchling/F/Phragmoceras angustum - Journal
[x] ??? (Deestra) - Demi/Egg/N/Pambdelurion whittingtoni - Journal

pikaia's children

[x] name (Gaian SN) - Pet Name/Stage/Sex/Species - Journal

[x] Juste Moreau (RedChimera) - Albedo/Child/M/Pikaia gracilens - Journal
[x] Mandy Wexler (Aelfgifu) - Besselian/Hatchling/M/Pikaia gracilens - Journal

pikaia's minis
Minis are generally given out as promotional events or as a gift to people Ves & Cee like. While they will never grow any larger than the size they're given out at, they can be RPed around the thread and guild. Fortunately, the Children overlook them as weird pets, so people with minis don't have to worry about religious fanatics breathing down their necks... wink

Please don't beg for minis, as it's a quick way not to get one--ever.

[x] name - Pet Name/Species

[x] Lulu_Tiffany - Marik/Amplectobelua symbrachiata
[x] Sinclaire - Natty/Hallucigenia sparsa
[x] Ary Keeyara - Kale/Opabinia regalis
[x] Prolixity - Jaune/Hallucigenia sparsa
[x] Jestari - Renji/Amplectobelua symbrachiata
[x] Pinka - Punku/Opabinia regalis
[x] Tamtun - Brutus/Amplectobelua symbrachiata
[x] Aqua Drageen - Moto/Amplectobelua symbrachiata - Nowhere Man Edition!
[x] Safaia - May/Amplectobelua symbrachiata
[x] Sosiqui - Azurite/Marrella splendens
[x] Apothecary - Cryptic/Marrella splendens
[x] EchoLimaFoxtrot - Chiida/Hallucigenia sparsa
[x] Mythee - Jiboo/Wiwaxia corrugata
[x] Prolixity - Azul/Hallucigenia sparsa
[x] tekilite - Oort/Opabinia regalis
[x] El_Shivelamouse - Oompelpie/Anomalocaris saron
[x] Gullien - ???/Wiwaxia corrugata
[x] Gullien - ???/Hallucigenia sparsa

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Post: 9727107_5 created on Sat, 27 Aug 2005 06:54:57 +0000
Posted: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 06:54:57 +0000

Note: the author uses "her" to refer to the Cambrian child in this instance (for brevity), though they exist in theoretically every biological sex and some in between.

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the egg: Or egg mass, as the case might be. Like most fish and free-swimming arthropods of our era, the various Cambrian organisms begin life as an egg. You'll discover your egg (or blob of eggs) in a tide pool beneath the shifting, broken cliffs formed in the same earthquake that opened the Abyss. While the larger anomalocarid eggs have a hint of the animal that will later hatch, smaller ones look no different from frog or fish eggs...if you discount the pale golden glow...

Note that even if you receive a blob of multiple eggs, only one hatchling out of any given egg mass will survive. It's sad, but it's nature.

the hatchling: Now the fun begins! Hatchling Cambrian organisms look nothing like anything you've seen before, unless you're an avid watcher of zooplankton. They've already begun to develop the extra limbs (and sometimes eyes) as well as exotic colors that characterize their species; most of them are soft-bodied and almost translucent in a strong light.

At this stage, you'll begin getting snatches of odd dreams when you sleep, and bits of overheard conversation and incoherent thoughts during the day. Though your new pet is small, it already has a link back to its own timeline, and has begun developing a personality. You won't want to be too ungentle with it right now, though--these glass-bodied nymphs are far too fragile for most handling, though they will respond to the voice and movement of their guardians outside of their containers.

This is also the stage at which there may be untoward interest in your new pet by those around you. Word spreads rapidly about such unusual things, and Pikaia's Children have their ears open for any news of the Cambrian animals, so it will be in your best interest to keep your head down and keep quiet.

the imago: At this point your pet may well outgrow the fish bowl (or even the bathtub!) you were keeping it in! Having reached the adult stage of their life through a series of sheds and a lot of careful feeding, the imagines are now mature representatives of their species. They theoretically could also breed, if a member of their species of the opposite sex happens to be present--but this is not likely, as even the people at the Institute are unsure of what the atavistic creatures require as far as breeding conditions go.

Speaking of the Institute, Pikaiai's Children aren't the only ones with an information network--by this point in time, if you haven't sought them out yourself, the Institute will have contacted you and offered you a stipend and safe living quarters inside their walls. In addition, the dreams will have become stronger, and whole snatches of conversations or memories of alien Earths will play through your head once or twice a day.

Your imago, while gentle enough to accept food from your hand and robust enough (in some cases) to spend a little time out of the water, has imprinted on you completely and will be hostile (even dangerous!) toward those it doesn't recognize. Prolonged exposure to another person you trust may gradually teach it to be less wary of strangers, but its first and strongest friendship will be with you.

the cocoon: The cocoon, or chronoblast, is the most dangerous stage, both for your pet and for yourself. The imago will start to grow sulky, refusing food from anyone and retreating to the darkest corner of its enclosure. Eventually it will settle into a torpor from which it will not stir without insistent attention. You may fear for its life--especially when white or blue or gold tendrils of what appear to be jellied light begin growing around it. Within a day of the first tendrils appearing the imago will become completely covered in them, a cocoon having formed.

The dreams will be at their strongest now. Institute personnel have even recorded the deep delta waves of dreaming sleep intruding on the consciousnesses of the atavisms' keepers during the day--which is to say, even when you're awake, you'll often be dreaming of that same alien world. In many of the dreams you'll find yourself accompanied by another person--one who, while alien in the extreme, will seem as familiar to you as an old friend. You'll have conversations with them you don't remember. Often, you'll get the prompting to return to black-sand Abyss beach where you found your egg--wandering the treacherous shoreline there without a care in the world, beneath the cliffs that daily crumble further into the sea.

This is a very rapid stage--perhaps a week or two before the cocoon comes to maturity--but this is also the stage of a high threat to both partners. If the cocoon is destroyed--or the human keeper is badly injured or killed--both will die. Whispers say that it isn't just the two unfortunates who perish, though, but the entire timeline represented by the pet's species is wiped out in a burst of quantum chaos.

Guard your cocoon with your life. Now is the time when Pikaia's Children will be their most active in trying to rid the world of you and your pet.

the child: Within a week to two weeks of its formation, the cocoon breaks down in a smattering of timesand--gritty, glowing-gold quantum dust. Within the wreckage is a child--fully sentient as a human child of its apparent age, with all the troublemaking and mischief-finding abilities of any young thing. Of course, they don't look human--far from it. These children are the offspring of intelligent races of other Earths, the Earths that could-have-been had anything except Pikaia gracilens risen to primacy.

The dreams will have lessened to the occasional strange vision every once in a while. You'll find instead that you have something of an unusual empathic bond with your child--she'll know your feelings and you will know hers, and she'll be very clingy for the first few days out of the cocoon. It will also help you get a sense for the language the child speaks--inexplicably, it's almost always a human language, living or dead. (Snowline, for example, speaks Hawaiian natively.)

the adolescent: In humans, adolescence is often a difficult stage, full of emotional upset for both parent and child. It's no different on any other Earth, though the length of adolescence and "puberty", such as it might be, varies from species to species. So to will the temperament of your child as it goes through this difficult stage vary--there's no real yardstick for knowing exactly what a given child might be like.

At this point, a bizarre processes colloquially called "unforgetting" starts happening. It has been theorized by the Institute's scientists that--given the accelerated growth rate of the children, and their unusual cultural knowledge--the individuals brought over via the cocooning process were not children to begin with. At the onset of puberty--or its equivalent--the child begins regaining memories of a life-that-once-was. It occurs in fits and starts, sometimes surfacing in dreams or coming to mind after a particularly traumatic event. Sometimes a familiar sight, sound, or taste will trigger an episode of unforgetting--though memories are often hazy in the extreme.

It's through this process that the adolescent gradually gains knowledge of her own culture, people, and mythology--though, of course, she'll have long since adopted many of the traits and habits of her parent and the people around her. Even so, the adolescent may experience bouts of homesickness for her own kind, or indulge in experimentation of strange cultural behavior. It's certainly a time of changes and growth--and easily one of the most interesting and turbulent!

the adult: Congratulations! Your child has reached adulthood--perhaps through a series of molts or the ordinary pubertal progression of growing pains, she is now a full adult member of her species. (Though this doesn't necessarily mean she's at her maximum size--some might keep growing, after all!) While the unforgetting process--as well as the empathic bond and the strange dreams--will continue throughout her life and that of her guardian, she will have by this point gained most of the social knowledge she needs to speak of her homeworld. She will be--at times--drawn down to the Abyss beach, gazing longingly into that glowing-gold void as if wishing to go home.

At this point, also, various unusual abilities that first showed up during childhood--a kind of telepathy, maybe, or an unusual seventh sense for bioelectric fields--will finally mature. Now the child can take care of herself against attacks by Pikaia's Children--but that doesn't mean she won't still need the help of her guardian and the people of the Institute to keep safe.

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Post: 9727107_6 created on Sat, 27 Aug 2005 06:55:55 +0000
Posted: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 06:55:55 +0000

plot summary: So there are these animals from like two hundred million years ago, right? One of them was called Pikaia and it was a tiny little worm, but there were a lot of others with all kinds of weird names. Pikaia is the one that eventually evolved into humans.

That's not important, though. What's important is that a bunch of these things started showing up again and then morphing into crazy alien things when they were raised by humans. Funnily enough, these crazy alien things speak human languages. Also, they're from a parallel dimension where something that wasn't Pikaia eventually became people. Awesome.

Not so awesome, though, are these mean religious and secular nutcases called Pikaia's Children, who want to kill all the neat alien things and destroy their parallel universes. You must stop them, and save the world(s)! (Before bedtime.)

So, basically:
1. High RP pets.
2. Unique and seven-stage.
3. Based on Cambrian animals.

faq:
[q] What's going on here?
[a] I invite you to read the story and world pages above--or just the plot summary, if you're lazy.

[q] Rad. So can I get one?
[a] Sure. If you buy one during a flatsale or custom auction.

[q] How long do they take to grow?
[a] That depends. Egg to hatchling takes about two days, but every stage after that is dependent on how active you are in roleplay. It's a perceptual thing--we'll be judging it on how much we've seen of you, not whether you have x amount of entries in your diary.

[q] Huh. So what's the pricing on these critters?
[a] Flatsale purchases will be 20k (that's 20,000 gold) in gold or donation items. Custom auctions--well, the starting bid will be 30k, and the final buy price depends on the bidder. Autobuy (right now) is set at an OMG.

[q] Why the heck are these so expensive?!
[a] Because they're seven-stage, unique changing pets. biggrin That's a lot of drawing, coloring, and certificate-making for me and my artists, and a lot of RP that needs wrangled by my lackies. It'd be cheaper if we had line art templates or nonsense like that, but it wouldn't be nearly as fun.

[q] Payment plans?
[a] For reasons of these being abuseable and iffy, the answer right now is "no". Similarly, don't make a bid on an auction and then--when you win--say you don't actually have the money/items. It'll automatically default to the next highest bidder, no ifs, ands, or buts.

[q] How often are flatsales?
[a] Every couple of months or so, depending on the workload of our artists. They might be more or less frequent than that, and if one artist has just had a flatsale with her critters, don't expect her to participate in a flatsale or an auction for two or three months.

[q] Do I get to pick my own critter?
[a] Yes and no. During a flatsale you'll usually have a choice between at least two eggs, though we reserve the right not to tell you what species they belong to. If you win a custom auction, you can pick any Cambrian critter that your heart so desires. (Within reason--if we end up with five Opabinia regalis, I'm going to close the species for a while.) Auctions are also the only way you can acquire Pikaia gracilens as a pet.

[q] Aww, why can't I have a Pikaia?
[a] Plot reasons. ninja Win an auction and we'll give you one.

[q] OMG! Prehistoric animals! Can I have a dinosaur?!
[a] No, wrong. We're pre-dinosaurs and will remain that way. Cambrian invertebrates are more fun. Check our affiliates list for a link to Shadows of the Amazon--they have some nice dinosaur pets for you there.

[q] Snowline, Meridian... What's with the names?
[a] All of the kids are named after astronomy terms. Flatsale pets will already be named; auction winners will be allowed to pick their names from a list of astronomy terms.

[q] Do you do pet trades?
[a] Make us an offer. heart Usually we'll only do pet trades if our slots are open, but you CAN bribe us (especially me; I'm a huge softy) with something we reallyreallyreally want. Don't hesitate to ask, though due to time constraints we may turn some offers down.

[q] Can I sell, trade, or give away my pet?
[a] No, no, and...maybe. You cannot sell or trade these guys. Please don't try to, or I will have Ves and Polecat Junkie break your kneecaps and send you b2gbs. If you've decided you don't want your pet anymore, you can give it back to the shop and we'll later resell it (discounted) at a special flatsale. Asking us to transfer a pet as a gift makes us go :/ and likely will not happen.

[q] So what's the deal on customs?
[a] I'm glad you asked! We DO have a couple of open custom spots that can be bought, for the right price. However, you can't acquire a Pikaia gracilens except through an auction, same as with flatsales. Custom pricings start at 800k for an egg, running to 100k for a full adult. We'll let you know when customs are open and from which artist. (Note: if Cee's customs are CLOSED, you may still be able to bribe her--right now, her bribe is set at an OMG. Check with Ves to see what she'd need to be bribed with.)

[q] So what should I call these things, anyway?
[a] <species name> child, Cambrian critters, Cambrian children, ativisms, "wtf!", their names or species name.

[q] Can I bring my pet from xyz shop in to play with my PC pet? Pretty pleaaaase?
[a] Depends. My spot ruling on the whole issue is "no overt mysticism", i.e., if it's a pet that evolves from some random object (i.e., Banthi from crystals, Koru from electrically charged objects) or it has some kind of special magic (Talaye), or it's just way too weird to be explained within the bounds of the PC setting (Dream Realm critters), then I suggest not trying to shoehorn them in. Additionally, if they come from a setting where it would be difficult or impossible to explain their presence in PC (Shadows of Africa, Shaoilin Wolves) or the owners of the shop have requested that you not take their pets outside the setting (Project LAYHR), then I'd suggest not trying to shoehorn 'em in. Yeah, that's a lot of rule, but given the nature of the PC setting, it's not all that robust to having talking unicorns and people who evolved from candy being plunked in (as much as I adore most of the pet shops out there).

Basically, if you're not sure, feel free to talk to me (Coronaviridae) about it. We can work something out.

[q] Snowline's got ribbons, and Meridian has a megaphone--how do I get items?? Do I need to pay extra?
[a] Nope! We draw items on the critters as we feel it artistically appropriate. It might be RP-influenced; you might be able to ask us nicely to give your kid some clothing or a toy or something. Essentially, it's at the whim of the artist.

[q] So I need to go away for a couple of months, and I was wondering...
[a] Ahhh yes, an idle policy; all RP-heavy stores need 'em. We aren't going to be Nazis about people not RPing regularly, because heck, we know how hard it is to focus on Gaia, school, and other things all at once. However, if you need to leave for a couple of months, please please please drop us a line and let us know what's up! Your pet will grow much more slowly during hiatus periods, but we won't take him, her, or it away from you so long as we know what's up.

If you mysteriously disappear for a month or two months, don't respond to RP prompts, and can't be reached--we do reserve the right both not to grow your pet, and to revoke it and give it away through an RPaffle at a later date.

[q] What if my question isn't listed here?
[a] PM Coronaviridae or Ves, OR post the question in the thread. We'll get to it, no worries.

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Post: 9727107_10 created on Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:26:43 +0000
Posted: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:26:43 +0000

Nobody likes them, but like every shop, we have them. Following them will bring you many wonderful things, such as not being banned from the shop.

1. DO NOT PM CORONAVIRIDAE OR VES ABOUT SALES. All sales and shop-related business are to be handled IN THE THREAD, where everybody can see it. If you have questions, ask them in the thread first or check the FAQ before flooding our inboxes.

2. Reflecting the first rule, DO NOT SEND US MONEY UNDER THE TABLE. If there's a flatsale or an auction, you are welcome to participate - but when there are no flatsales or auctions going on, we are not going to give you a child even if you try to bribe us. If you send us a trade anyways and expect a child back when we're not in the market, we'll turn down the trade. It needs repeating, so: All sales take place in the thread. No ifs, ands, or buts.

3. DON'T BID OR BUY IF YOU CAN'T PRODUCE THE GOODS. This should be common sense - if you don't have the money or items, DON'T BID OR BUY. Likewise, if you back out of an auction or sale and don't pay up, you'll be blacklisted and never be allowed to recieve one of our pets.

4. WE DO NOT TAKE RESERVATIONS. Don't even ask us to hold something for you at a flatsale.

5. ONLY ONE CHILD PER PERSON.

6. NO CO-OWNING. This is pretty much like two people playing the same character, and therefore not kosher for roleplaying. One guardian per child, please.

7. DO NOT COMPLAIN IF THE CHILD DOESN'T COME OUT THE WAY YOU WANTED IT TO. There is no quicker way to annoy the artists than telling them that their artwork doesn't meet some unwritten expectation of yours, because we put a lot of work and thought into our pets. While it is possible for your child's appearance to be changed and influenced by what goes on in RP, don't get angry if we draw it in a way that you think is ugly or unappealing. If you want cute fuzzy kitty pets or bishonen pets, there are other shops out there better suited to your tastes.

8. RESPECT YOUR FELLOW POSTERS and NO GIANT FERKIN' QUOTE PYRAMIDS. I hope this is self-explanantory.

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Post: 9727107_11 created on Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:29:01 +0000
Posted: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:29:01 +0000

[x] Customs [x]

1. Coronaviridae
CVirus's art can be seen in Snowline, Nadir, Nebula, Parallax, and Albedo. It's all-digital--she does the initial sketch, clean-up, and final lineart in Photoshop before coloring it with the same program. Her coloring can be called "experimental"--she never does it quite the same way twice, and is always fiddling with ways to improve it. As a warning, she can be a little bit slow on filling orders, tending to do them all in a burst when she gets free time.
Custom slots:
1. open!
special: Tahja Estes - for a custom SW. O_O (my half completed)

2. Ves
omg teh ves
Custom slots:
1. open!

3. Polecat Junkie
She loves the polecats and the polecats love her!
Custom slots:
1. closed.

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Post: 9727107_12 created on Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:35:17 +0000
Posted: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:35:17 +0000

[x] misc. data [x]

Coupon Holders

N/A right now!

Raffle Ticket Holders

N/A right now!

Past flatsales

9-18-05 Flatsale entries

Mythee - pp. 85
darkone - pp. 86
TheSinWithin - pp. 86
EchoLimaFoxtrot - pp. 87
Smerdle - pp. 87
Katherine of Dreamland - pp. 88
Ary Keeyara - pp. 88
Inle-roo - pp. 94

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Post: 9727107_13 created on Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:44:27 +0000
Posted: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:44:27 +0000

[x] Latest Developments [x]

Coronaviridae

>_> <_< >_>

Besselian and Rehua!

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Post: 9727107_14 created on Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:51:33 +0000
Posted: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:51:33 +0000

[x] pet trades [x]

If we find a pet that we really really like, we may be willing to offer custom children in exchange for it! biggrin These are the pets on our wishlist that we're immediately willing to trade for, although if your pet isn't on the list, PM one of us and ask! Keep in mind that we may turn down your offer, but please don't be offended - we're just really picky, or may have too much on our plates to do a pet trade for every person who stops by and makes an offer. These are, after all, 100% unique and take a lot of drawing and hard work! What stage the child begins at is negotiable, and usually depends on how many stages the offered pet has (so if someone offered us a five-stage pet, for example, we'd draw them a child in exchange that started off in the imago stage).

CVirus's wishlist:
Koru
Anubii
Forgotten Document
Crescent Falling
Layhr
Dream Realm
Herald
Mozou

Ves's wishlist:
Anubii
Nitemare or Angelic Kitsusagi
Soquili
Shaoilin Wolf
Layhr
Dream Realm
Mozou
Shadows of Africa
Gaia Humane Society
Mush!
[[in general:]]
Alien/scifi/xenomorph pets
Bird pets
Something with king vulture (Sarcoramphus papa) colors
I am also easily swayed by cosplay pets, depending on the character and how much I like the artwork. biggrin Cosplays of my original character Rowan are adored.

Polecat Junkie's wishlist:
Skies of Pern bronze
Alien/scifi pets
Hyenas

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Post: 9727107_15 created on Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:58:04 +0000
Posted: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:58:04 +0000

[x] credits & disclaimer [x]

The whole Pikaia's Children idea and story is (c) me...

The art belongs to me, Ves, and Polecat Junkie, respectively...

Uhm, that's about it for now.

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