Endtown by Aaron Neathery for July 25, 2014

Politics, politics, politics, waffle, waffle, waffle, blah, blah, blah!

I hate politics. Now I know that I also hate lizard politics.

And I thought that politics was conducted by slimy, cold-blooded reptiles before this! :J

How’s Wally at kitty-karate?

So, what is Chic’s “background”? Something that could potentially destroy the colony? Maybe Chic was the Apex employee that allowed the mutagen to leak into the atmosphere..?

(FYI, the colony destroyed by the Topsiders was Albion West, not the one that the leader offered to send Chic to.)

So Chic is more complex than fist meets the eye..

I’m wondering if Epsilon Alpha is a colony for another species, maybe for bird people. Some of the mutant colonies might have decided to segregate themselves, one colony for reptiles, one for birds, one for mammals, etc.

Or maybe Chic was one of those eggs that hatched instead of making it to the dinner table? We still don’t know where the eggs come from.

Hey, what if Chic was – one of their offspring?!?

I am guessing Chic was born or hatched there. That would really throw a spanner in the works of the Master Reptilian Race paradigm. Caesar, I’ll call him that for a while because Procurator or Pilatus seems even more wrong, may be The Kid’s father, or somehow related to him. The firstborn child of any Reptilian Pair, would be a special child. Even if a selective breeding plan were in effect, “regression to norm” would produce another human, and whatever mechanism the mutations followed would determine what form the human offspring would assume. The norm would be human, but the form is still determined by factors as yet unknown to the audience(That’s us, Yay Us!). I’ll have to ponder, but here are the links. Please Vote and support Endtown any way you can. Thanks.

Vote ENDTOWN

Vote Doc Rat

Vote Hubris

Vote Kevin and Kell

Sincerely,

JusSayin

The question is “how old is Chic?” I assumed that he had to be old enough to have mutated just before the war, guessing 8-12 or so. In that case, he would have either been a resident of the colony before it became Lizardtown, or had arrived here and chosen to stay. I keep thinking of Piotr’s words to Chic to the effect that he needed to put sentiment aside and leave. To me that suggests that Chic is related to somebody here, that he is reluctant to leaving that somebody even though the locals treat him like crap and have offered him safe passage to a friendlier colony. That somebody would have to be important enough to a threat to the colony, possibly the leader or his wife.The idea that Chic coming from a lizard’s egg is fascinating in that it would answer some question I have about mutant’s babies. The suggestion would be that the mutagen would reshape the fetus in the womb (or in the egg in this case) so that it could come to be totally unlike its parents. If Chic could have lizard parents, then Holly and Wally could just as easily have a dog, a rabbit or a reptilian. The only problem is that if Chic was born of lizards in this colony, he would have to be 6-7 years at the oldest and that’s assuming the colony formed right after the apocalypse and that he was born right after the colony formed.

Could be that we’re going to understand Endtownian Universe reproduction better in the chapter.

The End was 7 years ago. Chic is older than that, so he couldn’t have been born in the colony afterward.Before the bombing that created the wastelands, the mutants may have been segregating themselves into phenotype communities, with Hillside having areas called Lizardtown, Birdtown, Dogtown, etc. After the bombs, the surviving communities became more focused on maintaining species identity, for the reasons Piotr gave, but racial purity campaigns don’t end well.

I will point out one thing.The lizard with the glasses…..our second female spotting.So far there are at least two females.Maybe she should talk to Sarah….you know…girl to girl…

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, that it would be possible Chic, or The Kid, could have been born less than seven years ago, during, or shortly after The War. The name Dondi almost took for The Kid. I believe the name Dondi resonated so well with some of us was because the original Dondi was about seven or eight years old, and yet was quite self-sufficient, even after Mrs. MaGowan took an interest in his welfare. Children can be somewhat self sufficient if conditions necessitate such actions at an early age. So it is my suspicion Chic, The Kid, was born here, and that is his connection to Reptilian World. Otherwise, why would he not leave a place he was unwelcome, and only had one friend? JusAskin

Phil talks about restoring his honour, but when Wally hands his tail back to him (again!) for everyone to see, who is to say that he’ll keep his mouth shut?

One more thought: The Reptilians may have been the first exposed to the mutagen, either as combatants or prisoners. So they could have been exposed early in the war. Their relative proximity would suggest under those stipulations, prisoners. Geneva Convention? Is that where people wear costumes and…

Well, we don’t really know how any of the mutants give birth—-we saw a number of kids running around Endtown that seem to be of post-apocalypse vintage, and we know Holly lost a baby she was carrying. (If the baby was Wally’s—-only a cad would suggest otherwise—-we know the mutated appearance doesn’t matter.)

I think the most reasonable explanation regarding Chic is that he’s the son of one of the most powerful women in the colony, the one at the very top running things. Having him around is an embarrassment, but he still feels attached to his mother which is why he doesn’t want to leave. As for Epsilon Alpha, it’s probably not really a dumping ground, just the colony’s closest neighbor. (As a comment, Epsilon seems to be a popular name in The End. Epsilon 2 was where Al and Hank went in a Fistful of Beans. When Al and Gustine thought they’d led the Topsiders to Endtown, Epsilon Beta was one of the two places Al was thinking of running to. New Persia was the other one.)As for Phil, he’s just an overbearing bully working in a kitchen. It’s unlikely he has any political aspirations.

We’re Off To See The Lizard. Song by JennerTo the tune of on We’re Off To See The Wizard by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harberg, from The Wizard of Oz.We’re off to see the lizardThe lumbering Lizard of Lump.We hear he’s fit to whackin’ a catFor givin’ his back a bump.He’ll hit-ty the kitty and thump a rumpThe little ol’ kitty cat’ll jumpAnd jump, and jump, and jump, and jump, and jump… Then quick-er-ly, lickety split he’ll run.We’re off to see the lizardThe lumbering Lizard of Lump.

Robert,Could be possible that Holly miscarried in the cell but wouldnt Doc Chase have recognized the aftermath of a miscarriage? (any thoughts Jenner?)That’s how I took the statement. An alternative explanation is that it happened only to children carried during the great mutation. Still, if they were still muting in the womb (or the egg) it would explain how mutants of different apparent species could have kids. We haven’t seen any apparent hybrids.

This has been one of the most fascinating threads yet! I love Endtown commenters! :o) I have no original thoughts of my own, but sure am loving the ones I am getting here. Lots to think about and am looking forward to learing more!

I’m still hoping to see a Holly and Wally baby. It could be a mouse, but because of infant survival it’s likely to look like the father.Mom is a certainty, but dad is a m ore likely to take good care of the kid if he can feel sure it’s his. So it needs dad’s eye’s or tail or build.My dad wasn’t that sure of me even though I looked extremely like him. and he wanted to hold the baby when a camara was on hand.

The mutations are random, so Holly and Wally are unlikely to have a mouse or cat child. Avian physiology would require another avian to conceive, I think, but anything could hatch out of the egg. Same with reptilians. An interesting difference would be if mammalians gave birth to an avian, they’d have a bird with a belly button, and if a mammalian hatched from an egg, it wouldn’t have a belly button.

Re: contralto2b: I can’t help speculating, it’s the science fiction writer in me. One thing leads to another. (Also the reply link seems to be busted this morning.)#I think, with the trauma of The Great Change still lingering over them, a mutant female something-or-other giving birth to a mutant baby something-or-other-completely-different could just be another trauma on top of it…