#galapagus

Considering that I have the Andromeda 5 in mind, opening up we have the one alien I nerfed within it; Ra’ad.

Ra’ad in the show is such a master of electricity and electrical systems that he can just outright read minds, and I had nerfed that to be that amperi can read the electrochemical systems of a nervous system to be biologically built to be empaths, perhaps using that as a form of communication as part of their language. This was mainly influenced by how Ra’ad somehow knows about events that are related to the Andromeda 5 that he nor any of the trio has been there for (unless you try to bullshit like i did here).

So what if Ra’ad is a poet psychic and didn’t know it? Think about it- however Tesslos handles formal education, Ra’ad has nonetheless been taught that reading someone’s emotions are a normal and very natural thing for amperi to do, it’s partly used throughout the planet’s languages after all; it’s not hard to miss. What might be hard to miss though, because amperi don’t technically have adolescents (maybe they have a two-stage lifecycle- zooplankton young then amphibious squid adults), no one has particularly taken the time to distinguish that reading emotions isn’t the same as reading thoughts, especially not memory nor whatever power Ra’ad has to see what only the audience knows.

So Ra’ad doesn’t understand why no one hasn’t been ‘listening’ to him like he listens to others; he’s got psychic magic, one more so used as a receiver rather than as a transmitter. And taking a pages from Saiki Kusuo, from hit anime series The Disastrous Life of Saiki K, having knowledge of things he otherwise shouldn’t know may be the result of psychometry- essentially knowing the history or ‘memories’ of an object with physical touch.

Wait, physical object? What would he have to grab to get a basic run down for the others’ situations?

Easy- Ra’ad had a hands on experience with the Omnitrix by the time team Tennyson interrogate him, and the Omnitrix - having sampled the DNA of the other Andromeda 5 - has more than enough history for Ra’ad to connect with. And since the Omnitrix deals in DNA directly from the sample, from Ra’ad’s brief encounter with the watch he got to watch a little sliver of how the Andromeda 5 are doing. That though is kind of a stretch, but it was the show’s fault for getting Ra’ad in the know for the death of P’andor’s Plumber escorts.

Now that I’m thinking of it, it’s kind of funny that in one situation or another, at least one of the Andromeda 5 is immune to being read. Reading electrochemcial systems doesn’t work for P’andor because he’s just radiation waves instead, and if Ra’ad’s mind reading is a result of ‘woops i have magic’ psychic powers, Galapagos would be immune because geochelene aerios are immune to mana (or at least rather resistant).

Also, if you’re unconsciously reading everyone’s thoughts and thinking that it’s entirely normal and not at all something to check in on, no the fuck wonder Ra’ad is anxious, that’s like if a crowd of people spouted off whatever’s on their mind incessantly; psychometry would be a right bitch for physical interaction. Having the inability to read Galapagus’ mind or access memory and history directly from him, Ra’ad probably gets to have like… a comparably quiet moment to relax from being so constantly overwhelmed, and Galapagus is more than willing to offer comfort where it’s needed.

When he gets the energy to think again he might have an entirely new concern that Galapagus is entirely thoughtless, which evolves into Galapagus stating that geochelene aerio have adapted to resist magic, where the dilemma devolves again into the whole ‘have i been using magic this whole time’ mental obstacle.

Oh SHIT- and like in the actual show he was unable to actually trust Galapagus like? Yo it fricking fits tho-!

imagine if aggregor got that mind reading ability too or if ra’ad’s magic is just inert/minor enough to kinda fizzle in the amalgam state

And because it’s been on my mind lately, necromancer Argit has been pestering me alongside resurrected Andreas thanks to @kariachi ‘s fic about it which totally wasn’t the reason why i asked how necromancy worked in such a context no no not at all, having premium subscription wards for anti-mind control could lead to some interesting realisations at reuniting.

Thinking along the lines of how Ra’ad - though probably the result of writers not fully knowing his powers - neither trusted Galapagus nor suspected his double lie against Aggregor whilst not having much issue with the others, psychic magic probably isn’t suppressed by that inhibitor device. However that device works (whether it be sapping out energy or being reactive to ‘hostility’) such a minor passive ability might not have been suppressed or perhaps isn’t affected by nature of being mana against tech or a spark versus innate species abilities.

Andreas is an open book in emotion, speech and no doubt through Ra’ad’s perspective his mind too. Having the thoughts of a simple man suddenly not only be bottled up but outright gone is terrifying for Ra’ad for unlike with Galapagus - who he met with no (readable) thoughts - the once open book left not even ashes behind in its disappearance.

Mind reading might not be mind control, but it would perhaps be the next most logical step, so protective wards that prevent ‘super mega bad’ manipulation would barely flinch at the ‘no good sticky nose’ that being a psychic who thinks he’s at most what humans would call an actual real genuine ‘i can hear your stank anti-empath thoughts’ empath brings. Psychometry works about as well as it did before, which honestly isn’t that well considering Andreas - much like all talpaedans - is techno-organic and is slightly less pure biological than Ra’ad is used to (though amperi empathy reads more info).

I suppose in a world where both resurrected Andreas exists AND the reunion of the Andromeda 5 happens, concern doesn’t even begin to describe the emotions Ra’ad is feeling.

Galapagus, with his significant lack of knowledge of the world outside of Aldabra, strikes me as someone who’s not had a whole lot of worldly experience. With my thoughts on geochelene aerio, alongside Aldabra itself, I believe that the older that you are the more taboo philosophies that the elder generation begin to circle within your discussions, the eldest generation going along with my ‘Aldabra is a post-nature-apocalypse’ headcanon being the same individuals born before the apocalypse in the late stages of what I’m dubbing as ‘The Age of Corruption’.

Yada yada, if Galapagus was a lot older - or even just slightly older - he probably would have been introduced to debates about ‘lying’ and ‘prisons’ and what have you. The eldest generation are breaching possibly a thousand years old or so - perhaps even more - and still heavily philosophise about the AoC and recall the saviour from evil/instigator of the apocalypse Addwaitya.

Galapagus is at least old enough to discuss the effects of whatever banishment ritual Addwaitya had performed to absorb much of the corruption, only that he doesn’t know what that corruption specifically is, and knows that a few spawning forests lead to splits in the veil of the prime reality and Legerdomain. He would say, if Annie later introduced him to DnD or some other fantasy media, that the spawn forests - working title for ‘forests that over ran the old cities’ - act akin to the Feywild, with an environment baring a sentence and a will to exist as it wants.

On the opposite end of the spectrum sits Ra’ad, already in the equivalent of his early 50s late 40s despite the numbers reading as 35 or 30. Outside of simply knowing that - of all the animals (and radiation for a special someone) that the Andromeda 5 are based on - squids live to only 6 years at the oldest, there’s not too much reason for me to make Ra’ad older than middle aged other than for some funny contrast.

I suppose another reason - even if I haven’t really fact checked it myself - is that somewhat in relation to Galapagus and Aldabra’s apocalypse, Ra’ad gives off the vibes of a doomsday prepper or as someone just too anxious to let the world take him that easy (considering what happens in the show, can you blame me). And the reason why I say something about fact checking is that I’m not sure if 40-50 year old dudes are the age demographic for doomsday preppers, but at the very least it’s a pessimistic ‘something will go wrong’ attitude mixed with the behaviour of ‘i will not let it leave me high and dry’ and thus this jelly has anxiety.

Bivalvan, based on an ocean creature or two with wildly different age ranges, has what I’m saying is giant clam based ageing averages and get him to a good 60-80 year number for a 40 year old equivalent. Again, no particular reason outside of ‘yeah that’s a whole ass middle age mum’ vibes especially if you take a look at him with Annie, but I’m mostly sitting here going based on vibes.

And also, I had sworn that there was some mention of a previous job that he held down, about being a salesman or something? Like? Am I just misremembering? Have I got a bad case of the mandala effect? I saw it on the wiki once where did it go?

That and, tinkering with mechanics and tech stuff just seems like a real middle aged activity, outside of Kevin doing that shit for his sick ass car I mean. I mean, might just be the middle aged folk that I know and the fact that I’ve never had a backyard without a homemade (ham?) radio tower somewhere by the roof or right in the middle. That could just be bias of course, but I am designated both mum AND dad vibes from Bivalvan and making him the equivalent of his 40s.

And turning attention to Andreas, armadillos don’t particularly live that long either, but living for 12 years is double that of a squid so numbers wise he’s probably just a little younger by number for younger by equivalent. Something maybe late 20s or early 30s for the numbers of maybe 20-25 years lived. Like, he’s the overall, even if technically Galapagus is the actual 25 year old of the 5.

Living long as a Talpaedan isn’t as overtly necessary considering the number of individuals that live in any one family colony, and numbers don’t particularly matter once they’ve reached a socially accepted maturity, so Andreas has a harder time working out what age range he is for sake of communication, but otherwise he knows he’s been an adult for a hot while there. Think, for those who’ve watched not only Critical Role but specifically Campaign 2, where Nott compares her relationship with Caleb as a parent and child relationship, where she herself is the parent and Caleb - very much an adult human - is the child.

Other than not having lived long by the numbers, Andreas not having lived long by equivalents also comes from the idea that he’s very receptive to someone (he likes) telling him what to do and where to go and what to try and etc, etc, etc. He’s naïve amongst being of low intellect, though the later is not indicative of youth, and is probably far too trusting to be someone older than he probably is. Of the Andromeda 5, Talpaedans have the closest lifespan to humans, even if they taper off at a younger age on average.

And finally, we have P’andor, the fucked up deer himself.

Look, I asked my discord boys how long radiation lasts or otherwise what the fuck a half-life is and would P’andor have one. The gist of it? The more radioactive a thing is the less it ‘lives’ for because it rapidly fissiles into different materials. Bismuth, the exact opposite of such, has such a low radiation that it’s half-life is older than what time left we have in the universe, and the fact that it was the universe that made the damn thing it’s bizarre to think about.

But considering P’andor is a hungry mother fucker stuck in a suit, the very real threat of death means that very fortunately he doesn’t get to witness the universe around him and the loved ones he had die around him at the age equivalent of 40 (for maybe a half-life dealio). Alternatively, seeing as though he’s not constantly having to chow down on some active uranium, it also means he’s not in his 60s at 20 years.

And even then, Prypiatosian-Bs don’t technically have a biological childhood to age from, nor so much as developmental stages to mature a mind to. A bone parent just chucks an ulna or a rib into a very radioactive area and - whether waiting around for a ‘kid’ to spawn or running off with the knowledge someone could happen - radiotrophic spores just eat away at the heated bone until the marrow is exposed, singes the spores before they take fungal root and begins to eat the radiation around it until it forms a little fucked up deer skeleton.

It’s like, P’andor has the knowledge of a 30-40 year old equivalent Prypiatosian-B, but by going ages without a bite of radiation, he could be even smaller than a new skeleton by proxy of having eaten all of his skeleton already and running out of energy. This man- he’s as old by number by how well he has eaten, which could be said generally for most creatures with the difference being that - by constantly consuming energy and radiation - P’andor can functionally live forever.

Not that he’d want to at a certain point but uh, P’andor’s situation is already not the happiest let’s not get into the hypothetical but kinda technically feasible outcome of outliving everyone he loves so shush up and appreciate the thoughts I’ve been putting off forever ever since I believe it was @sugarbutterfly432 ‘s one post about the Andromeda 5 outliving Annie.

At the very least, not all outlive Annie, but like 3 of them will and also outlive 2 husbands it’s probably not the best situation but they married in spite and perhaps because of that, if marriage is such a once in a lifetime opportunity they may as well just get that settled so that they’ve got it all sorted out.

Speaking of Annie, if P’andor doesn’t know what a child is, why did he pick her up off the streets? Well, lads laddies and lassos, he saw a small little starving createur (not entirely inaccurate) and thought ‘well, fucko, guess who’s getting adopted’. And now P’andor joins Ra’ad in - at least what I’ve thought in detail about and settled on - ‘what the fuck is a child’ club and has to speed read to get things right.

Maybe Bivalvan too doesn’t know but I can’t decide if he’s more clam or more crab in this instance.

And that’s what I got for a topic that has been haunting me ever since the outliving post; thank you by the way for that, whoever it may be since I cannot find the post. Ever since I found out squid live at most 6 years it’s just been ‘how the fuck do i write about this?’ and wondering ‘should i tag this as mortality???’ because damn-