I'm Kit?

Well, I suppose it's possible, though a couple of things go against it:

One, I remember everything about being Roxanne Richardson, and nothing about being a fox goddess, so going by most concepts of identity I would be considered Roxanne.

And two, I've got a normal M-R node - Kit, by contrast... her entire brain, basically, was one giant node.

How exactly do you go about finding out something like? Short of prying open the critter's skull?

Lots of ways, Cody - small, harmless tissue samples, EEG machines, CAT scans, MRIs, etc. Not quite as hands-on as prying the skull open and seeing for yourself, but these methods have the nice bonus effect of not killing the subject.

Essentially: the scans of the brain tissue did not turn up any of the evidence of a lump of tissue in the forebrain, the way it does for homo sapiens novus. However, there were highly anomalous brainwaves going on inside that were not consistent with anything a fox has ever been recorded to think, scattered throughout the whole brain. There were high and even levels of faracytes throughout the brain, and the patterns turned out to be very, very similar to what goes through the M-R node when a nova's using it. The nervous system, which we examined extensively (anything with a spine that splits into two is gonna have an interesting nervous system) had M-R coils.

Why didn't I find this out sooner - or rather, why all on one night? Because the idea of novahood didn't occur to me and I didn't know what signs to look for. I studied animals, not superpeople. Believe it or not, I just wasn't trained to look for weird stuff like that. But when I sent a search agent trawling the OpNet for anything similar to what I was getting off of Kit and I wound up with a lot of documents with 'Mazarin-Rashoud' in the title, that's when I made the connection.

Unfortunately, well... I didn't save my work, Kit vanished, and my hastily printed notes got burnt into ash. We had stuff on our off-site backup node in California, but it was weeks old, and without Kit there was no way to draw the conclusions without basically skipping over scientific method completly.

It pisses me off. The things we could have learnt. It nags me, even now. Having my reach exceed my grasp.

I have hear rumors about something like that. Not the node the size of the brain, but of a node infused throughout the cereberal tissue, instead of being in one lump. Not good.

There are novas that can change their shape you know. And couple where the node changes it for them. Look at the bright side though. You erupted.

You know, I noticed something strange lately...

I had dropped a couple items overboard, and jumped into the water to grab them. As I was coming back up, empty handed mind you, a couple of dolphins grabbed said items, and hung around my pod for about 20 minutes. When I discovered they had those items, I happily accepted those items back to my property, and paid them back with a couple of fish I caught.

You think they wanted the fish? Or just wanted to give something back to me? Or were they just being playful?

I din't think it's weird, but it did blow my mind how Human they behaved.

And no, I didn't pick up any nodes on them either. ~.^

I remember reading something about Dolphins being almost as smart as people. Maybe those Dolphins are used to being around people, like the ones at Sea World?

Could have been.

Although I didn't feel like checking for tags or anything. But it was still... well... interesting. In a good way.

Maybe you were something new and interesting to them. Dolphins are very curious creatures.

Well, why then would they return to me something I was looking for? It didn't interest them... Of course, I don't give dolphins much credit. They do have near human intellect... perhaps equal intellect.

Hmph, perhaps I'm reading too much into things.

Your going to think I'm picking on you here but did you ever think dolphins feel just the same about you and most of the rest of us? Not giving much credit I mean. From their point of view you can't speak, your shape is all wrong, you can't swim right and you sit on a metal rock most of the day doing nothing interesting or important.

Maybe dolphins help us because they feel sorry for us.

Cody,

Well said.

For everyones information dolphins are just as smart as humans, humans simply have brains that think in the right terms to allow them to exploit a tool using niche. From my experience everything with a brain size about that of a cat or bigger is capable of being as clever as a human in it's own way and at certain times.

You know, after thinking of this, I think they were trying to get some fish. Crafty. They must have been hanging around out of view, untill an opportunity arose. (Dropped fish, cleaning fish.) Somehow they were able to put together my dropping a couple spanner wrenches into a plan for fish.

Again... Impressive.

Ever think that they may have wanted that whole even to happen just to SEE who you were?

Did they bump your "pod"?

If that's the case, they were just saying; "Come out and play!"

The fish was just an added bonus for them.

I know Dolphins. They're smarter than they look.

I eat dolphins. They are tastier than they look, too!

Oh my god, you ate flipper! You BASTARD!

*ROFLMAO*

They gotta be pretty damn tasty then. Those are yummy looking creatures.

Right that's it, you have mocked me for the last time slaps face with glove Quantum Handbags at dawn ...

Seriously though you have much more respect for what you eat when you can talk to it. Unfortunately I do still need to eat as photosynthesis tends to have undesirable side effects for me.

You think so? I eat things I can talk to, I don't see how it makes a difference.

O.o; Remind me never to invite you to dinner then.

Yeah, but does your dinner talk back to you? Oh wait, forget I asked.

Okay, I made my bed, now I'm sleeping in it. This truely is WEIRD. O.o;

Were you talking about animals here or baselines?

I don't know whether you've got a touch of the DR Doolittles or not, but for me being able to talk with the animals (and plants) taught me to respect the fact that I had to kill to eat. It also taught me to respect the fact that my body is usually nourished by the death of other living things. I tend to stick to fruit and dairy products but I will eat fish and vegetables as well and therefore kill, or more likely pay some one else to kill on my behalf, in order to eat.

If you're talking baselines I can safely say that I've not eaten a single one and never would. However at the end of the day I see no difference between eating one of them and eating any other mammal. That may sound strange, but then again, I don't eat any mammals.

I take it then you came to a different conclusion?

Eat Humans? Ewww....

Isn't that a sort of cannabalisim on a tangent sort of way?

That all depends on how you see baslines now don't it Saki? Since those Teregen dudes don't see Novas and baselines as being the same, some might say that eating a baseline ain't no different than a baseline eating monkey brains. 'Course I ain't saying that all Terats are like that but you catch the drift, right?

The whole thing is, X, is that I see myself as a Human. A human with a gift. A Talent. One that seperates me from Humans, yet I do not feel any less Human.

Does that explain things?

By that logic, Brother X, they'd also be perfectly justified in partaking of soma, since the we're-not-the-same-species argument cuts both ways. Of course, that's not a path that'll end well for any of us humans.

I should throw my hat into the ring, however: I don't eat or use any animal products, although I also don't dump red paint on anyone wearing a motorcycle jacket. There is the sensitivity issue - I've always had a close empathy with animals - but there's issues of efficiency and health as well. It just makes more sense to me to grow the food and eat it, than to grow the food, feed it to the cow, and then eat the cow. And last time I checked, there was no mad carrot disease.

I communicate with reptiles. Some of them taste good, some of them don't. No, I don't eat baselines, the flavor isn't enjoyable.

Quite frankly, do some of you guys get guilt trips from eating something you had a conversation with earlier?

Reason I ask, is I'd bet, especially for the fishermen out there, you guys could have picked up on a fishes cries for help have you not? Or perhaps the cries for mercy of the deer you hunt?

Or perhaps the snakes Apep eat try to cut a deal for clemency?

Quite frankly, I'm glad I can eat something that once mooed. I don't understand cow.

Only with reptiles, that's interesting but, I guess, hardly surprising.

So how do you find communicating with reptiles? Is it any easier than communicating with baselines? Are they more on your level?

Forgive my impertinence but it's just that I find it more difficult to communicate with reptiles than mammals, it's not that I can't understand them, it's the mental concepts that are difficult to grasp properly. Just wondering what it was like for you.

And quite frankly I've never eaten anything that I've had a conversation with. If I'm going to eat something I make sure I don't have a conversation with it first. Apep might say this makes me a hypocrite, I cheerfully admit that if she was to say such a thing she might well be right. My only defence is that I live in a universe that makes hypocrites out of the best of us.

Too right, Walker. Too right...

If I counted the times I had back-tracked, I'd run out of fingers... and toes...

Walker,

I enjoy the company of reptiles far more than a baselines. Reptiles have such a beautiful simplicity in their being. I almost feel kindred with them. So in a sense, I suppose I am a little more on their level, but more like a shared wavelength or state of mind. What is it that makes us feel alien to you?

I'm not going to call you a hypocrite.

I'd imagine that a reptilian mind would be more instinctual and predatory. Never skirting around something. Prefering to just barrel on through and damn the consequences. That's what I gather from reptiles and their behavior. Mammals are more complex. I guess that's their curse. Especially Novas and Humans. We're so complex, and Humans are so complex, that we all change daily. They say that We're the pinnacle of evolution, well buddy, Hunams aren't done yet either. Neither are we. We evolve daily.

Now, as to what we'll become... Hmm...

Complex, or confused? Perhaps reptiles simply are capable of making decisions without complicating the issue with a lot of extraneous details.

That's what simple mammals do. Point A, Point B.

Novas, Humans, and complex thought capable Mammals (Apes, Dolphins, Some monkeys) tend to put more factors into their decisions.

Blame it on the big brains, I guess.

I think it's that very simplicity you mention that makes it more difficult to communicate. It's the 'sharpness' of the feelings and desires, nothing seems to be 'blunt' or 'soft'. I find this aplies even more amongst the large predators such as crocodiles, pythons etc.

I wouldn't say alien, 'specialy compared to plants but definitely a different perspective. Primal would probably be the best way of putting it.

What about insects, Walker? Ever plum their minds for thoughts? I can imagine their minds being machine like.

There are so, so many different species that I wouldn't know where to begin. I wouldn't call them machine like though. Simple in their own way yes, but they have evolved over hundreds of millions of years. To think them primitive is a mistake, remember they form the majority of the land animal biomass of the planet. In terms of number and diversity they are the dominant order not vertebrates.

As Duke Rollo might say, 'They may be shimple by my mothers staneerds but who calls the shots roun here?'

Well, other than Insect/Nova relations, I'll be getting into some weirness next weekend, the good old July 4th weekend. I'll be doing dirt with some storm chasers in the Minnesota area. I'm sorta helping them out because they've got a TKI sponsorship.

But anyways, I'll bring back pics, if I'm not shaking too much like a leaf... >.<

I'm sure I'll be safe, I have talked with the project leader. Pretty much, I have to listen to him, and when the order comes to clear out, do so...

*sighs*

Almost reminds me on my failed training as an elite...