Japanese Neko

by on March 13, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Neko of New Japan have long pursued a degree of augmentation avoided by most other people. Whether it’s the oldest of attachable tails or the newest of cybernetic and gengineered eyes and ears, the Neko have gleefully taken experiments of technology and genetics into their very bodies. They’re constantly looking to enhance their physical appearance or abilities with new technology, and everything from embedded phones to IDs are common. They can be walking down the street in nothing but their fur, talking to someone on the other side of the Earth via a phone no one can see, and purchase something to eat with a wave of their hand. Many of them have never used a physical key to unlock anything, or find the idea of handling physical paper money that someone else had touched disgusting. They’re on the forefront of adopting cybernetic and genetic technologies into their lifestyles, and they can seem a little alien to many others on Earth.

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Jack of Harts

by on March 12, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

One of the defining traits of my Jack of Harts universe is that the aliens are human too. Aliens that are not human are obviously genetically engineered from Earth animals of the present or the past. The Albion were busy little gengineers in their time, and our own Western Alliance gengineers were similarly busy with the uplift process once they figured it out.

There are no alien aliens in Jack of Harts at this time. It is not that they do not exist. It is that the story I am telling does not require them. They may appear in the future, but Jack of Harts is a purely human story. Humanity and those we create in our image. Those we play god with. Does that make us gods? Or simply children that do not understand the dangers we play with while thinking we have the knowledge of gods?

Jack of Harts is a coming of age story for humanity, and for the titular character, with all the Races of Humanity playing front and center as they argue and fight over what stories their descendents will tell in the age that follows. Perhaps I will write a story with aliens in the future. If I should, I will have fun writing it. But for now, as we all know looking upon each other on Earth, humans can be plenty alien enough to each other for just about all the stories I could hope to write.

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Japanese Neko

by on March 11, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Neko were a culture devoted to having fun. They still are, mind you, but that was their sole driving goal before The War. They were tricksters, yes, and they were sneaky, and they were jokers. They spent centuries self-selecting for those who wished to have fun, sometimes at others’ expenses. But the best jokes, the ones that would live on in memory forever, were the ones that the target could laugh about as well. When the target spoke of the trick played on them, everyone knew it was a trick well played. That is because the Neko were spiritual descendants of the Japanese cat spirits. Jokers and tricksters all. But the Chinese cat spirits were different. They were killers. Monsters. Murderers. The Neko embraced that version of their spiritual ancestors after the Shang destroyed Los Angeles. They devoted themselves to the goal of killing every Chinese and Shang they could find. Those stories their targets do not tell tales about, and the Neko are pleased. They have returned to their long-held goal of having fun, but never make the mistake of thinking they are harmless. They can be most dangerous when provoked.

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Japanese Neko

by on March 10, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

Neko have a reputation for being sly and sneaky. Maybe add a dash of the joker or trickster in there. They can be a lot of fun to be around. And a lot of frustrating. They enjoy confusing people. Whether gengineered or prosthetically enhanced, the majority of Neko just seem to love acting the way they think humanoid cats would act. Not that they’re always right. I’ve met many cats who think Nekos are stupid at best, or insulting to real cats at worse. I think it’s really self-selection in most cases. Somebody wants to have fun acting like that, so they modify or augment themselves to look like that, and then nobody questions when they act like that. Though I do know at least one person who was genuinely “born in the womb Neko.” She wears the stereotype like a glove.

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Japanese Neko

by on March 9, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Neko of New Japan have been around in some form for centuries. They used to be purely cosmetic, but advances in gengineering allowed some Japanese to make the changes permanent and even capable of being passed on to their children. There are innumerable types of Neko, ranging from those with just cat eyes, ears, or tails, to those who have everything up to fur growing all over their body. Some have even taken to mimicking the Cats of San Lucas, though there are still significant complications in body modifications that extravagant. The vast majority of Japanese Neko, and the Westerners who seek to join that community, keep their standard humaniform with only minor changes. Those changes can be significantly functional though, as those Neko who fully learn to use their tails can attest. Many of them have eyes and ears with different acuity as well, and those with fur have an entirely different sense of touch than most of humanity. While not a full race of humanity yet, they show promise towards becoming one in the future, which says interesting things about the future of Earthborn humanity.

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