#thunderlooper

CW - Pregnancy-Adjacent, Child-Birth Adjacent, and Miscarriage

-

So my dumb ass started setting up Project Horizon's lore in real time like a good little writer. Originally she was gonna be Oblivion's kid.

Coaster reproduction works very differently from human stuff. Coasters reproduce asexually (outside of a few very rare exceptions). Scientifically, this SHOULD make them an all female species, but whoops me having cis male Coasters was already set in stone sooo

Coasters don't get pregnant. I'm NOT Mpregging Oblivion, I'm NOT!! 😭😭

However, they do experience pregnancy like symptoms such as fatigue, morning sickness, nausea, being overly emotional/hormonal, nesting behaviour, etc etc. Y'know. For some added flare

"Conception" starts when a Coaster has its first mention, whether it be through planning permission, a public consultation, or what have you. A Coaster is officially born into its "child stage" (anywhere from 2-12 years old depending on the target demographic for the final product) once the first signs of construction start, however that may be defined.

The parent Coaster is notified that their child has spawned in by experiencing an intense, excruciating, full-body pain that lasts around 15-30 minutes. Y'know. Just so they know that they know.

HOWEVER! Project Horizon was concieved by this logic, but was never born! Therefore, Oblivion has officially had another miscarriage.

"Wait, another? Who were the first 2?"

Miscarriage 1 was The Smiler. If a Coaster is built in an area with another Coaster that's over 10 years old AND there's no other Coasters of the same manufacturer of the offspring at the park (IE, there was no other Gerstlaurers), then those rides become parent and child.

In 2012, Oblivion was 14, of Coaster reproducing age. However, in 2011, Oblivion was a canon alcoholic. In 2012, he also had other generally stressful life things going on. Therefore, literally less than 2 weeks aftet conception (and before he even really noticed), the parent-child connection was severed and thus marking Bliv's first miscarriage.

Smiler and Bliv are still close. This... Isn't something they really think about. Smiler was handraised by humans and kind of sees one random human as almost being like a parental figure, but absolutely does not see Bliv as like a dad. Probably for the best. Sometimes Bliv looks at Smiler and thinks "hmm. Wonder what life would have been like if things were slightly different," but the thought usually weirds him out pretty quick.

Miscarriage 2 was Oblivion: The Black Hole. Originally (in an out-of-text sense) I planned for Blackhole and Oblivion to have been Husband and Wife, (well... divorced now), and for O:BH to be their kid. I mean... No duh! Seems like a no brainer! But with BH being born in 1982-1984 and Oblivion being born in 1998 (14 years is a parent-child level age gap in Coaster Years) and BH leaving in 2005 and then RANDOMLY still having a kid with Oblivion 10 years later, the timeline didn't really pan out. So, this idea was scrapped. Instead, BH was Oblivion's Mum, and O:BH became Oblivion's sister.

"But wait! Oblivion is 17 years older than O:BH! Why are they siblings?"

If I was starting this lore from scratch, yes! You'd be correct! By my own logic, O:BH would in fact be Oblivion's daughter! Have a cookie, you clever clogs!

Unfortunately, writing is messy, and I already had a bunch of lore I was too attached to to throw away, so I made a compromise.

O:BH was ORIGINALLY going to be Bliv's kid. He conceived her, but before he even knew Gardaland was getting a new Coaster, he miscarried. Some doctors then explained to him that Gardaland was changing their lore and O:BH would be his sister instead.

Bliv's 3rd miscarriage was the aforementioned Project Horizon, obviously. Because Project Horizon was in development for 22 months before the announcement that it *might* be getting moved to Chessington, Oblivion had a lot of time to sit and ponder parenthood. He kind of figured he'd be a rubbish dad. Man can barely look after himself. BUT! He was also kind of excited. Maybe having a kid would be that nudge he needed to actually force himself to have structure and routine in his life, and cook dinner every day instead of just having pot noodle every day for 9 days straight.

However, with Bliv's fertility problems, it wasn't meant to be :(

Now, you may think it's a coincidence that Bliv seems to be a little bit infertile. Well actually, I found a reason! Blackhole also had a miscarriage before having Bliv! You see, there was a Schwarzkopf project planned to go near The Corkscrew that got planning permission in the early 90s, but as you probably know, it never happened. BH was the closest Schwarzkopf, and thus, she suffers the same fate as Bliv. In fact... A lot of Schwarzkopfs do.

Thunderlooper SPECIFICALLY was not expecting to have Nemesis and hated him because it gave him internal issues.

BH got internal issues after having Bliv, which nearly caused her death AND THEN caused Alton to sell her because they didn't wanna pay for her health problems.

Alton Beast (still unsure about the canonicity of this) got sold after having Galactica, perhaps due to reproductive health issues.

So basically, Schwarzkopfs suck at reproducing. This is because Schwarzkopfs were born in a mill, and it kind of screwed them up. Schwarzkopfs having reproductive issues may also explain why 1, Schwarzkopf was a mill in the first place, and 2. Why they're dying out.

But if BH had reproductive issues... and Oblivion has reproductive issues... Who's driving the ship? That's right, it's genetic babieee