strangetomato | Strangetown: What if?

Strangetown: What if?

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.

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That would be a very, very interesting concept. I'm not all that well versed in Sci Fi, but I've seen lots pof movies.

(Although, if Glarn DID get abducted, wouldn't ha have died giving birth to the Twins? And wouldn't that mean that the Curious Brothers wouldn't exist? Who's older? I'm very much into What If Scenarios, btw.)

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I love the picture. Very chilling, with the birth "waters" all over the floor. So sad. :(

I do agree it might not make sense in current-Strangetown, but a friend of mine (mutual LJ friend of ours) wrote a concept rather like this about a year and a half or so ago on TSR (Melody, was it that long, lol?)

If she comes on here she can correct me if I'm wrong, but in her version the female of our species assisted the males in some way with the pregnancies and birth, and the aliens tried to only abduct married males for this reason. Pascal was an accident, and if I remember, he was in dire straits and in danger of losing his life in her story because he was unmated.

I loved that idea. Sort of a reverse Couvade syndrome, but more than that too... since the females *gave* something to the males.

Melody can explain it better, lol... it was her idea after all. ;) But it seemed to make sense since Glarn was mated (we assume to Glabe) at the time of his abduction, etc.

Edited 2008-12-13 22:04 (UTC)

I think Octavia Butler had a concept similar to this in one of her stories. I can't quite remember it, but it seems like something she would do- her novels deal with a lot race, sexuality, gender, religion and social progress WITH ALIENS. I think you would like her.

Well, it would certainly kill the whole "aliens tend to abduct single people who wouldn't procreate anyway" thing - they wouldn't want to have the hybrid's only parent die right after they were born. Jayne wouldn't be around, so there wouldn't be any of the arranged marriage drama (or at least not with her). Ripp would probably be significantly less interested in alien parts.

I asked me the same from time to time. Would be interesting to work this out.
And poor Pascal! The pic almost made me cry!

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.

This "what if?" scenario makes a lot of sense to me. Awful, but definitely a possibility. It would of course make the story a LOT darker and the "alien plot" would have an even more prominent place in the story. I'd love to see what you'd make of it when/if you get the time/feel like it :)

Also, I have to look for a place in Norway that sells Bitch magazine :)

Whoa. Not my cup of tea.

Although it would be interesting if you were to take a more epic twist, where some of the fatherless half-aliens resent the methods of their creation, and eventually join with other anti-alien orgainizations against the abductors. Although I might be thinking on too grand a scale here.

Very interesting thought, nonetheless.

Yep, Cindy's right. I did look into the angle of fatal male births. It was the first thing I ever wrote really... and looking back at it, boy does it show.

The brothers had researched abductions and realised all those that were to single males resulted in death. Thought they couldn't figure out why the male/female couples survived. Vidcund and Lazlo nearly loss Pascal when he gave birth and this drove vid to attempting sucide rather then bleed to death in agony.

Now can someone explain to me why that one wasn't banned from the forum? *shrugs*

But it's an interesting concept and I'll be fascinated to see how it pans out in your realm.

What a dark idea. I love it and would be very interrested in seeing how you deal with it. It would mean a lot of sadness and anger too on the part of the survivors.

I feel sorry for Pascal in that picture. Poor guy.

I think I'd like to see "dark" Phi, this would seem really interesting to me. She's so good and well... good that I can't imagine her being evil or mean. That's why I'd like to see your interpretation of her being like that. :)

Very interesting idea. It made think about Mel's old story at first as well. That was great one! :)

I'm sure none of the bin-sims that come with Stown actually are on the beginning of their adult stage. All of them have different ages, including Loner.
Lola is much older than Chloe too, and if you check on their memories it looks like she has always been, therefore they couldn't be technically twins. lol

I've always think Glabe was Glarn's sister too. There's too many details that imo can say that, starting for the similarity of their names, but she doesn't show on the family tree :P

Long time ago i wrote a story (never finished) about all that. About many of the town's families in the past, including the Curious of course. For it i made a big effort to make the best of the storielines as shown on memories and such.
It was .... impossible! lol but a fun project to attempt.

I don't even remember the plot in full, but my take with Glarn was that Glabe was in fact his first wife, and had to endure a horrid period on Glran's life in which he was abducted several times, only to loose all the babies and way or another (either they died or were taken away few hour later or something).
Then over time they divorced and he married Kitty, but on the side he was still friends with Gable who was the one who always suffered the most with every lost.

Then while he was married with Kitty, got abducted a couple of more times, once after Jenny was born, then again at some point between Vidcund and Lazlo, (there was an explanation for that too), but every time the only one who knew about was Kitty, not his children, and as soon as the pregnancy started showing he would move out for a while (with work excuses or something) back with Gable who ended raising the alien offsprings <3

Anyways, i love scifi. It my first hobby, and what brought me to St in the first place. I love that concept you're working here, tho its kind of shocking to think about it! Just that picture with Pas is sad enough *sobs*

WOOT, Bitch shout out!

(my new issue just arrived, I'm saving it for my bus rides--and is it just me or is Bust getting kind of blah? The last issue wasn't so hot.)

And 0_o at the fatal alien baby thing. Very "Alien". That would tie in with Buzz's hatred toward PT, too. Perhaps he had a relative offed by aliens? Or just doens't take kindly to deadly m-preg.

Wow. That's a cool angle :) I like it. Definitely would love to read whatever you decide to do with it :)

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