Strangetown: What if?

[strangetomato]

Every now and then, I get to thinking about alternative ways of approaching the Strangetown story, like that version where Ophelia follows in Olive's black widow footsteps, and I've recently been thinking about a good one: what if alien pregnancies were fatal for the men who carried them to term? That would really change the story, wouldn't it? I think I'm going to toy with the idea, and maybe it will develop into a short stand-alone story at some point. I think it could play out into something interesting.








Pretty awful, right? It would raise questions of why the Curious Brothers were allowing themselves to get pregnant, and they probably wouldn't be willing participants in this breeding experiment (though with Glarn's involvement, you'd have to wonder... and why they'd be willing to do it despite the consequences). The whole connection with PT would be a lot more grim too, but that could also be interesting.

I'm really not sure how I would attempt to answer these questions, but I'm enjoying this darker "what if?" scenario.

I got to thinking about this after reading an article by Katura Reynolds called "Birthing the Monster: What if a Bug-Eyed Alien Was Your Baby Daddy?" in the Genesis Issue of Bitch magazine. It was a great read. The Sims 2 wasn't mentioned as a pop culture example of this alien birthing trend in science fiction, but it's definitely following in this tradition.

So, what do you think of the idea? I'll bet there are also plenty of other ways to approach it, if one was well-versed in sci-fi. 



 

Comments

[leskuh.livejournal.com]

I love when you twist things around. I wonder if Ripp would still be able to be friends with Johnny after knowing all that. And I imagine the Smiths would be a much darker family.

Would you put it in the same universe as the Phi's black widow one or a different one entirely? If you keep it in the same universe, you'd have a very dark Strangetown setup.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It's fun to twist, and I enjoy the opportunity to explore some darker angles, while I probably wouldn't go that far in my main story. I enjoy the drama of it, and a harsher approach to things does appeal to me, but I'm also too enamoured of the characters to be so cruel to them in my main story (though I suppose I have gone there, in a number of ways, with the death count as it is).

I see plenty of darkness in Strangetown as it is when you load the game, so I think these versions aren't really that out of place. I find it harder to imagine the neighbourhood as a completely happy place, quite frankly. There's a lot of animosity between neighbours and plenty of evil doings in that town.

I think Ripp would still be friends with Johnny. I imagine that Johnny would be less accepting of his heritage because of that, and the two of them would relate even more to being born into a situation that they resent being in. I think they'd be closer, if anything.